The big idea: A network is two or more devices connected so they can exchange data.
That one ability buys three things: sharing files and printers, communicating between people, and reaching central services from anywhere.
The types differ by one thing: How far they reach.
A room, a building, a country, the world — and who owns the connection in between. That is what separates the four names below.
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LAN — local area network
One site: a home, an office floor, a school.
The organisation owns the cabling, so it is fast and cheap to run. A school's computers, printers and file server are one LAN.
WAN — wide area network
Several sites, far apart, joined over connections the organisation does not own — it rents them or uses the internet.
Slower and more expensive per unit of data. A bank linking its branches runs a WAN.
PAN — personal area network
A few metres around one person: a phone, its earbuds, a smartwatch.
Usually Bluetooth. Very short range and very low power, because the devices are small and battery-driven.
VPN — virtual private network
Not a place but a method. It creates an encrypted tunnel across a public network, so a device far away behaves as though it were on the organisation's own LAN.
This is how someone works from home on the office network.
The one that is not about distance: LAN, WAN and PAN are defined by how far they reach.
A VPN is defined by how it protects the connection. That is why it can run over any of the others.
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What you gain
- Sharing — one printer or file server serves everyone
- Communication — email, messaging, calls
- Central data — one copy everyone works from, always current
- Central management — update or back up from one place
What it costs
- Hardware, cabling and someone to run it
- A failure can stop everyone, not one person
- One break-in can reach every connected machine
- Security has to be designed in, not added later
Why this appears in the exam: Nearly every network question begins with a scenario — a school, a shop, a company with three branches.
Naming the right type and saying why it fits the distance and the ownership is where the first marks are.
How this is tested — you must match the network type to the scenario's distance and ownership. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 Section A
- Describe or distinguish LAN, WAN, PAN and VPN, 2-4 marks
- Name the type a described organisation needs
- State one benefit and one drawback of networking
Paper 1 Section B — case study
- Identify the networks in the case study
- Explain why that organisation needs each one
The classic trap: Calling anything large a WAN. The deciding question is who owns the connection between the sites: own cabling on one site is a LAN, rented or public links between sites make it a WAN.
A company has offices in two cities, each with its own computers and printers. Staff also work from home. Describe the network types involved.
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