Date Posted: 8/16/2012 7:45:12 AM
Posted By: Viona Membership Level: Silver Total Points: 879
1. Local area network (LAN) is contained within a single building or a group of neighboring buildings. In this type of network, there is a high degree of interconnection between computers, high data transmission rate and easy physical connection of computers in a network.Wide area network (WAN) is used to describe a computer network spanning a regional, national and global area. Major characteristics in this type of network include: remote data entry, communication facility and centralized information. 2.Local area network is restricted to limited geographical area of few kilometers. Wide area network covers great distance and operates worldwide.3. In local area network, the computer terminals and peripheral devices are connected with wires and coaxial cables. On the other hand, there is no physical connection in wide area network. Instead, communication is done through telephone lines and satellite links.4. Cost of data transmission in local area network is less because the transmission medium is owned by a single organization. In the case of wide area network, the cost of data transmission is very high because the transmission medium used are hired; either telephone lines or satellite links.5. The speed of data transmission is much higher in local area network than in wide area network.6. Few data transmission errors occur in local area network compared to wide area network. This is because in local area network, the distance covered is negligible.
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