Types of network

Three types of networks:

1) Local Area Network or LAN

2) Metropolitan Area Network or MAN

3) Wide Area Network or WAN

Here:

LAN - the email system within the school lab in SMK KL

- A LAN covers a small region of space, typically a single building.

MAN - the email system within KL city

- A MAN is a collection of LANs with the same geographical area, for instance a city.

WAN - the email system between KL and London

- A WAN can be a collection of LANs or MANs or the mix of two with a very large geographical area, for instance a country or even beyond the border.

LAN

1) Local Area Network (LAN) is the smallest network compared to the other two networks. The simplest form of LAN is to connect two computers together.

2) LAN is operated within a limited physical area, such as at home, school, a single building or several buildings.

3) A network which consists of less than 500 interconnected devices across several buildings, is still recognised as a LAN.

4) Inexpensive hardware used in LAN previously include twisted pair, coaxial cables and the higher end is fiber optic or wireless.

MAN

1) MAN is a network of computers located at different sites within a large physical area, such as a city. Companies that have several branches within the Kuala Lumpur city such as banks, might find a MAN useful to them.

2) In this case, setting up a MAN across long distances can be best connected using fiber optics. Sometimes, a MAN can be a collection of several LANs within the same city.

3) MAN often acts as a high speed network (although not as fast as a LAN) to allow sharing of regional resources. MAN can be defined as a group of computers and network devices connected together within a large physical area.

WAN

1) Wide Area Network (WAN) is the largest network of all network types. The Internet is the largest WAN in the world. WAN generally covers large distances such as states, countries or continents.

2) An example in the society using WAN is the banking organisation. Local banks have always maintained their business online by connecting all computers of their branches in the countries. International banks also use WAN to connect their computers all over the world.

3) Actually, WAN is a group of MANs or LANs or the mixture of both networks.

COMPARISON BETWEEN NETWORKS

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