- What Is a Network? What Is Networking?
- Why Build a Network?
- How Networks Are Put Together
- The Network Architecture: Combining the Physical and Logical Components
- Two Varieties of Networks: Local and Wide Area
- How the Internet Relates to Your Network
- Connecting to the Internet
- Why the Internet Matters
- Intranets, Extranets, and internets
- Summary
- Q&A
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Intranets, Extranets, and internets
The Internet (uppercase I) is the public network we use to send email and browse the Web. If we use the Internet protocols (such as TCP/IP) in a private network, we have created an internet (notice the lowercase i). Some vendors and associated literature use the term intranet to describe a private network that uses the Internet protocols. (Another term is extranet.)
Today, many businesses use the Internet to connect their internets with their customers, suppliers, and business partners. When implemented with proper security measures, Internet-internet associations provide a tremendous value to an organization. They dramatically reduce the costs of “doing” networking. The open, noncopyrighted standards of the Internet have been an extraordinary technical and financial blessing to the data communications industry and to our wired world. The virtual private network, introduced earlier, owes its existence to the Internet.