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LAN, MAN, WAN - Local, Metropolitan, and Wide Area Networks can
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be made from any or many of the different physical network media,
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and run the different protocols. LAN's are typically confined to
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departments (less than a kilometre), MAN's to distances of order 10
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kilometres, and WAN's can extend worldwide.
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Metacomputer - This term describes a collection of heterogeneous
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computers networked by a high-speed wide area network. Such an
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environment would recognise the strengths of each machine in the
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Metacomputer, and use it accordingly to efficiently solve so-called
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Metaproblems. The World Wide Web has the potential to be a
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physical realisation of a Metacomputer.
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