The difference between lan and a wan is a lan is a local area network. A wan is a wide are network. In modern day a lot of people you a lan line for home computers. People that run groups, organizations or business would run off of a wan because everyone can share the same internet connection. Usually with a wan the internet is shared from one main computer, allowing other users to operate from
. the same internet source. At home a lan is used operating from once computer, however another computer can be set up to utilize the same internet resource. In different parts of your home you can still operate on several computers from one computer that contains the internet.