The "Hands-On Internet for Business" Workshop

The common set of Internet protocols is ideal for establishing a Wide Area Network (WAN). If the organization has computing resources distributed throughout a city or even throughout the world, the Internet protocols is ideal for connecting these resources together.

The organization can use telephone lines, leased T-1 lines, and even satellite links for physical interconnections. The common set of Internet protocols accomodates any of these physical interconnections.

WANs offer geographically distributed offices all the functions of Local Area Networks (LANs) like Novel Netware, Lantastic, Apple Talk, etc. With WANs, offices, in different parts of a city or different parts of the world, can exchange electronic mail, establish data depositories, and generate parts of documents simultaneously.

Internet protocol not only allows the access of distributed data, it allows distribution of computer resources. If an office has insufficient computing power to accomplish a task, workers at that office can access a more powerful computer at another location to accomplish the task.