What is Wide Area Network – WAN?

Indeed; this types of computer network has revolutionized the world immensely i.e. connecting people worldwide; Wide Area Network - WAN has promoted their business campaigns, modified their sources of livelihood and got them closer to their relatives who lived far away from them. In short; Wide Area Network - WAN connects the computers in different cities and buildings. It covers a large area and connects thousands and millions of computers worldwide. WAN can reach the parts of the world which is not possible with LAN.

Computers in WAN are either connected through telephone lines or satellites. Speed of a WAN Network is not as fast as that of a Local Area Network. The speed is typically 56 Kbps to 50 Mbps.

Example of WAN Network

Example 1: Internet is the popular most Wide Area Network example engaging millions of users all over the world. Users; connecting through the Internet; can share important information with other people across the country or even across the world, acquire online education, watch live video streaming, make free phone calls online and play free online racing games.

Example 2: Different ATMs of a bank that is located in different cities is connected through WAN. Wide Area Network connects them so that people can withdraw their cash amounts from anywhere they want.

Advantages of WAN Network

WAN; connecting numerous computers across the world has indeed transformed this world into a global village; where people from all over the world can interact and communicate with one another though living far away from each other. Wide Area Network is proving advantageous in the following ways:

WAN provides communication facility

A big company may exist at multiple locations in a country. Thus employees of different branches of that company need to communicate with one another. Wide Area Network - WAN helps them convey their messages steadily. People can attend important meetings through Internet video conferencing from faraway places. The members of meeting can listen to the voice and watch live video of the person by connecting over the Wide Area Network.

Remote Data Entry in WAN

Remote data entry is also possible in WAN. It means that a user can enter, update and process the data no matter where he is sitting or which computer he is using for entering the data.

Centralized Data

One of the advantages of WAN is centralized data storage. This means that data can be stored in single location even if the company is expanded over several cities. Thus critical data can be managed competently by storing it at a centralized server.

Internet for entertainment

Today Internet has become a gigantic source of entertainment providing lots of fun games to play online for free, online videos and other exciting stuff. Watch live sports online free, online movies, enjoying multiplayer games, hence connecting over Internet we can enjoy all sort of entertainment.

Disadvantages of Wide Area Network - WAN Network

Wide Area Network - WAN has some draw backs which must be known. Such as harmful effects of Internet. Though we have been facilitated immensely with the daily use of Internet, but excess of everything is bad. People have started using Internet for getting paid illegally which is considered a cyber crime as well.

WAN requires costly setup

Setting up a WAN connection requires heavy investment in hardware, software, planning, designing and implementing. Not every person can afford such an expensive network setup. Moreover; management of Wide Area Network is also complicated and intensive training is required for that.

Data Security Concerns in WAN

Wide Area Network – WAN with poor security can put your valuable documents at the risk of getting accessed illegally. Moreover, most of computers get infected by viruses through Internet i.e. when receiving emails, spam or opening any unknown link.

Failure of server in WAN

The major issue with a Wide Area Network - WAN is the failure of server computer. If somehow, server stops working, then in such case, all computers connected with the server would be affected.