Intranets/Extranets

Intranets/Extranets

By: Alexander Phillips

What are Intranets and what is needed to establish an intranet?
Intranets are new kinds of internal networks that are used for more private communications, connectivity among work groups and larger organizations. They tend to resemble the architecture of a closed-circuit video network as opposed to the Internet which is more like broadcasting in terms of its reach. Moreover, Intranets enable information sharing that empowers employees who might otherwise be left "out of the loop". Also, Because of their limited geographic range, Intranets offer more bandwidth, frequently Ethernet's 10Kbps or better. As a result of this bandwidth and the "closed loop" structure, more advanced networking features such as video and multimedia, as well as more technological control, are possible. Here are a few examples of how intranets work, some companies use Intranets to offer corporate services such as benefits programs and other kinds of corporate communications. Also, a company can specify that a specific web browser and even a specific version of that browser (licensed by the company) be used on its network. This enables a consistent and more dependable user experience than is possible on the Internet. Even Internet related services such as Pointcast can be customized for a particular company and its Intranet.
If the intranet is to be created and managed by the school, expertise in networking, web publishing, browser and client server technology are all required. However, an external service provider can host your intranet, enabling the school to have an intranet without having to set it up and manage it. Examples of hosted intranet services include Schoolmaster.net and CommunityZero.com. Web-browsing software must be available on every computer that is to access the intranet and a web server is needed to serve intranet pages and resources to machines on the network.
Pre-packaged intranet 'thin' servers (also referred to as...