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>I would add to Arlen's definition that the intranet is more of a concept -
>you run an intranet over a LAN or WAN, using its servers. An intranet
>serves a group of users by centralizing access to information. Often the
>information is accessed like the Internet, by using a web browser. The
>information is provided in HTML format.
When you setup an internet server, you connect your telcom line to a router
(firewall) and then to the LAN/WAN. In an internet application, the router
allows everyone to access the server. In an intranet application, the
router only allows access to those packets originating from a restricted set
of IP addresses. The webmaster or network administrators take care of these
details.
At the user level an intranet is just like the internet. All the internet
protocols can be used: e-mail, http, ftp, .... The user may link to a page
containing a warning about the page being internal to the user's company,
otherwise intranet content looks just like internet content.
In a subsequent post you said
>A little while ago, there was some discussion of intranets on this list
>and I thought I understood the definition. However, on attempting to
>use the word in a document, I decided it still isn't clear to me. Is
>intranet just a new word for WAN? What's the diff?
LAN/WANs have not been until recently TCP/IP networks. They were Ethernets
usually T-base10 hardware with Novell software or Microsoft's peer-to-peer
software. Networks have a layered architecture. TCP/IP sits on top of other
software and is not capable of being a network all by itself.
Internets/Intranets are always TCP/IP networks. TCP/IP must be installed
before the LAN can be connected to the internet/intranet.
The internet/intranet is connected to you existing LAN. Your internet router
filters the internet/intranet packets addressed to those IP addresses in
your domain. The filtered packets are then routed to your LAN. Your
workstation filters those packets destined to your IP address from the cable
and delivers them to you.
Telco (Cable)-Router-Server-Cable-Workstation Internet/Intranet [TCP/IP]
Server-Cable-Workstation LAN [other]
In an intranet, your adminstrator established the access through the IP
addresses, and you provide the content.
David
Locke -at- sugar-land -dot- anadrill -dot- slb -dot- com
Engineering - Drilling Information Products
200 Gillingham Ln. Voice: 713 275 4722
Sugar Land, TX 77487 Fax: 713 275 8098
