What types of Networks are there?
Networks can take many different physical forms. The main categories of networks in order of distance are:
| PAN | Personal Area Network | Used to connect wireless devices carried by a person (e.g. PDA, mobile, etc.). Bluetooth technology is currently the prime contender for this |
| LAN | Local Area Network | Used to connect computers in a building |
| wLAN | Wireless Local Area Network | Used to connect computers within a 100m (300ft) range without wires |
| MAN | Metropolitan Area Network | Used to connect computers in a town/city |
| WAN | Wide Area Network | Used to connect computers whatever their location |
If you are more interested in this, try looking up network topologies and technical terms in Webopedia and WhatIs and current and emerging standards in WWW Consortium.