A wide area network spans a large geographic area such as a city, state, or country. It can be private to connect parts of a business, or it can be public to connect smaller networks. The easiest way to understand a WAN is to think of the internet, the world's largest WAN.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. A wide area network ( WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area for the primary purpose of computer networking. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits.