If you take a look at your wireless router , you may see the abbreviations LAN and WAN, which are often next to some of the ports on the device. LAN stands for local area network, and WAN stands for wide area network.
Note:
Use the LAN ports on your wireless router to connect devices on your home network, such as computers or printers. Connect the WAN port to your modem or another device hooked up to the public internet.
WAN Vs LAN
A computer network simply means any set of computers and other devices like smartphones, smart TVs, video game systems and routers that are able to communicate back and forth with each other. Different protocols, or rule systems, exist that let computers understand each other and transmit data.
A LAN, or local area network, is a small network, often within a home or business or perhaps within a larger environment like a corporate office park or a college campus. Devices on a LAN often use the LAN’s infrastructure to connect to the public internet, but they can often communicate with each other directly through the LAN more quickly. For instance, it’s not usually necessary to send a file to the public internet in order to get it to a printer on the same LAN. A LAN can use wireless communication, wired connections or both.
A wide area network usually traverses multiple geographical areas. The internet is the most prominent example of the WAN network type, though other wide area networks exist for scientific purposes, military and government work and to connect far flung offices and data centers within some big corporations.
Router WAN and LAN Ports
While modern routers are designed to connect computers and other devices wirelessly, they often have some physical ports on them as well where computers can connect directly, often using Ethernet cables. These wired connections can be faster since they’re not prone to interference.
Routers also must be connected to the public internet if they’re going to help send traffic between your computer and the outside world. They usually use an Ethernet cable to connect to a modem you receive from your internet service provider. In some cases, a router may also be a modem, in which case it may connect to a cable line or phone jack instead.
Either way, the ports used to connect computers within your network are typically labeled LAN, since they are for devices on your home or business network. The port that connects the router to the outside world is usually labeled WAN, since it connects to a wider network, almost always the internet.
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