The Local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network in which the computers are connected in a small geographic area like a school, small office home office, or a group of buildings, whereas Wide Area Network (WAN) are networks for large geographical areas, and are made up of multiple LANs connected in different ways through the use of routers (Mansfield, Antonakos, 2009). For example, Internet. Even though the speed of LANs (1000mbps) is higher than the WANs (150mbps), the WANs are costlier than LANs. LAN is cost-effective as it covers a small geographic area. A WAN is built when there is a large area to be covered that spreads across boundaries and requires leased telecommunication lines. When there is no requirement for leased telecommunication lines, then LAN can be considered.
As server-based network is used in large organizations and business units, security of the data is an important concern. The resources are centrally managed in server-based network for security. The access rights for users are managed well by the network administrator, and thousands of users are supported in this network. In peer-to-peer network the computers are the members of a workgroup that do not have any security boundary. By providing correct credentials the resources can be accessed from one computer to. This limitation is in contrast to a server based network, in which security of all resources are administered centrally (Tomsho, 2011).
In a network of any size or complexity, it would be extremely unusual to find a single device that, if it failed, would break the entire network. (Dooley, 2007). In a bus topology, the complete network goes down when there is a break anywhere in the cable. In Star topology as the whole system is controlled by a central computer the network can fail if the cable link between the central computer and the switch breaks or if the central computer breaks down.
If a cable breaks only the computer connected to that cable is affected. As there can be multiple connections in a Mesh topology, the data can be routed through a different cable if there is a break in the cable. In Ring topology the computers are connected with wire without any beginning of end. If one computer fails, or if the cable link breaks then the whole network fails.
References
Mansfield, Kenneth C. Antonakos, Jr, James L. (2009). Computer Networking From LANs to WANs: Hardware, Software and Security. (Illustrated). Cengage Learning.
Tomsho, Greg. (2011). Guide to Networking Essentials. (6th Edition, Illustrated), Cengage Learning.
Dooley, Kevin. (2007). Designing Large Scale Lans, (Illustrated). O’Reilly Media, Inc.
