WAN

WAN stands for Wide Area Network.

A WAN is a network that extends over a large geographic area.

WANs are used to connect geographically separate LANs.

Although the Internet itself can be considered a WAN, the term WAN is typically used to refer to an enterprise's private connections that connect their offices, data centers, and other sites together.

Over public/shared networks like the Internet, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can be used to create private WAN connections.

There have been many different WAN technologies over the years. Depending on the location, some will be available and some will not be.

Technologies which are considered 'legacy' (old) in one country might still be used in other countries.

WAN over dedicated connections (Leased Line)