If you want to know what WAN is, or how WAN differs from LAN, then you've come to the address. Now we will try to figure out what these technologies, connectors, connections are, what they are for and what is the difference.
I think that in most cases, when someone is looking for information on the WAN, they mean the connector on the Wi-Fi router. Indeed, in almost every instruction for setting up a router, you can find this abbreviation. Everyone writes about connecting some cables to WAN connectors, or LAN. Let's go in order:
WAN (Wide Area Network) is a global computer network. Simply put, this is the Internet. If we talk about the WAN connector, then this is the connector on the router, into which the cable from the provider is connected. The network cable through which the router gains access to the Internet.
On almost all routers, this connector is blue, and it looks like this:
The photo above shows that the connector is even signed. Also, the router usually has an indicator of the connected WAN cable. During normal operation, it should flash actively. And near the indicator itself, they usually draw an icon in the form of a planet.
Now you know what WAN is. Let's see how it differs from LAN.
What's the difference between a WAN connector and a LAN connector?
Everything is very simple here. What is LAN?
LAN (Local Area Network) is a local area network. Simply put, these are computers that are not very far apart. For example, computers, televisions, mobile devices that are connected to each other through a router within the home or office. This is the local network.
On routers, you can usually find 4 LAN connectors. They are yellow and look like this:
They are used to connect devices to a local network via a network cable.
The difference between WAN and LAN is that WAN is access to the Internet, and LAN is a local area network into which devices that are close to each other can be connected.
I think that's all there is to know about these two notations. You can, of course, delve into technical issues, abstruse definitions, etc., but this is unlikely to be interesting to anyone.
