You have already
visited the idea of Local Area
Networks (LANs) and sharing of resources if a series of computers
are being used in an office or within CMS.
Another words when resources could be considered "local"
with respect of each other.
Imagine if
these computers are geographically apart as in a number of buildings. You could still have a network of all your
resources. The way it usually works is
that you would still have a number of LANs.
Remember there are those resources that you may not want to share among
computers that are not so called "local". For example there is little point in sharing
a printer among disparate buildings. A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a network of
two or more LANs. This connection could
be through public telephone networks or a private leased line or even a
propriety connection between the sites. So larger networks such as telephone
network and Internet are types of WAN.