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From Wikipedia:

In the Internet addressing architecture, a private network is a network that uses private IP address space, following the standards set by RFC 1918 and RFC 4193. These addresses are commonly used for home, office, and enterprise local area networks (LANs), when globally routable addresses are not mandatory, or are not available for the intended network applications.

  1. I wonder if private network and LAN are the same concept? If not, what relations do they have?
  2. If I am correct, the opposite concept of LAN is wide area network (WAN). What is the opposite concept of private network? "Public network"?
  3. Is virtual private network virtualization of private network?

Thanks and regards!

Tim
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1 Answers1

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1) No. A LAN is typically refers to the physical network in a premises. A private network is an abstraction that may coincide with the LAN, but may also include other physical networks. Or it may be a subset of a given physical network.

2) A public network?

3) It tends to refer to separate physical networks that are logically connected across the public Internet, in a way that prevents unauthorized access from the public network.

It's sort of off-topic because you can consult Wikipedia first for basic concepts like LAN and VPN. Please do some research first.

cjc
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    +1 Thanks! Even after consulting Wiki, I am not sure if I understand and have doubts still. So should I not ask my questions? – Tim Mar 17 '12 at 16:05
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    You should ask over at SuperUser, probably. Also, you can do more reading. This forum tends to focus on the issues faced by professional systems/network administrators, not answering questions about basic concepts. – cjc Mar 17 '12 at 16:08