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Reverted edits by Grawp (Talk); changed back to last version by Aziraphale
A '''wide area network''' or '''WAN''' is an incredibly large [[computer network]] covering a wide geographical area. This is different from [[personal area network]]s (PANs), [[metropolitan area network]]s (MANs) or [[local area network]]s (LANs).
The best example of a WAN is the [[Internet]].
WANs are used to connect [[local area network]]s together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations.
Many WANs are built for one particular organisation and are private, others, built by [[Internet service provider]]s provide connections from an organisation's LAN to the Internet.
WANs are most often built of [[leased line]]s. At each end of the leased line, a [[router]] connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other.
A number of network [[communications protocol|protocols]] may use the basic physical transport mechanism including [[TCP/IP]]. Other protocols including [[X.25]], [[Asynchronous Transfer Mode|ATM]] and [[Frame relay]] can also be used for WANs.
Now that the Internet provides a high speed WAN, the need for a private network made up of leased lines owned by the organisation who wants to connect the sites has reduced, and a [[virtual private network]] is often used, which uses [[encryption]] and other techniques to make it appear that the organisation has a dedicated network while making use of the shared infrastructure of the WAN.
[[category:networking]]