WANS that are not the Internet?

[JoshGarmonCiscoCCNA]

Do they exist and what kind of traffic would be occuring in such Networks?

[Jon Marshall]

Not sure what you mean ?

Any company that has multiples sites spread across a geographic area and wants to connect those sites together typically uses a WAN to do that.

Normally the WAN is provided by an SP (Service Provider) and nowadays MPLS is a common solution although not the only one.

Alternatively the company could choose to use the internet to connect their sites together using something like DMVPN with IPSEC or plain IPSEC tunnels the key thing being the traffic is encrypted.

The main difference though is that a company WAN does not have servers etc on the WAN itself ie. it used purely to connect up multiple sites even if the internet is used as the transit network.

Whatever technology is used the actual WAN connectivity is usually purchased ie. it is not that common for a company to provision and maintain it's own WAN.

Is that what you were asking or was it something else ?

Jon

[JoshGarmonCiscoCCNA]

yeah that's getting there

take Target for example...

from its Headquarters, to every individual store location, to evey Warehouse, and every Data Center is all connected via a WAN?

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Assuming Target is a company then yes all their sites will be connected to some sort of WAN so that all their sites can reach each other and more importantly for a lot of companies so the sites can reach the DC where most of the servers are.

Bear in mind a company may be using multiple different WAN technologies from different SPs because it depends on cost and also what connectivity is available where their sites are ie. in remote locations the connectivity options can be limited.

Jon

[JoshGarmonCiscoCCNA]

in Packet Tracer

there's a view mode that allows you to see the "Virtual Wiring Closet" and if you have the INTERNET CLOUD out, it's displayed as an actual physical Hardware device...on the rack.

it's NOT a Modem, it's NOT a Router, so what exactly is it?

[Jon Marshall]

I don't use PT so it's difficult to say.

However if you are asking what devices are used on a WAN by an SP then pretty much the same as you would have come across already ie. switches (L2 and L3), routers etc. although the actual platforms can vary ie. large SPs tend to use high end equipment in the core of their network that you wouldn't necessarily use in a company.

I suspect what PT is simply showing you is how it emulates a WAN but remember it is just an emulator so in effect it could be anything really as long as it emulates connectivity between sites.

Jon