What Is An Intranet?

Date First Published: 8th February 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Setups

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn more about what an intranet is in this article.

An intranet is a private internal network used within an organisation, school, company, or government, and restricted to the people in that enterprise. IP addresses in the reserved address space are often used by computers occupying an intranet. The main difference between the internet and an intranet is that the internet is open to the entire world and an intranet is a private space. A lot of intranets exist around the world, but there is only one internet. Intranet connections are also much faster than internet connections as the electronic signals travel a shorter distance.

Some intranets are restricted to a specific LAN, whilst others may be accessible from remote locations over the internet. Accessing an intranet over a WAN will often require login credentials.

Note:

Intranet is sometimes mistaken for a misspelling of internet, but it is not a misspelling. The prefix ‘intra-’ is Latin for within, in accordance with the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Intranets are used within a company, which makes use of the Latin prefix 'intra-'. The word intranet has been around since 1994.

What Is The Difference Between Internet and Intranet Sites?

Internet websites are accessible to anyone that has internet access. Popular websites, such as Facebook and YouTtube are hosted on web servers where anyone in the world that has internet access can visit them to write posts, keep in touch with their family and friends, watch and upload videos, etc. An intranet site is a private site that is password protected and only accessible to people within the organisation, school, company, or government. Secure servers as well as firewalls and data encryption offer additional security. Intranets are usually hosted on a web server that is located in the offices of the company and connected to the company’s LAN.

In terms of programming languages and communications standards, the internet and an intranet work in exactly the same way. The communications standard, known as the TCP/IP protocol suite is what both the internet and an intranet communicate with and use to transmit information. Webpages are both used to delivere content and display information in user’s web browsers and they both use the common markup, stylesheet, and programming languages, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP for webpages. Extended intranet sites that are accessible to locations outside of the LAN of the company are known as extranets. Extranets can be accessed by people outside of the company, such as customers, suppliers, or other approved clients.

What Are The Benefits Of Using An Intranet?

An intranet can be beneficial for a business. Intranets improve information sharing and collaboration as employees have the opportunity to collaborate on projects regardless of their location because of features such as document sharing, commenting, and editing. In addition, they can increase productivity in the workplace because information about the company is stored on a single digital platform and is all in one place. Intranet networks result in increased security since most of them have software in place that protects the computers that people use from malware and other security threats. However, there are some disadvantages of the use of intranets. They can be costly and time-consuming to implement and maintain and also complex to use for inexperienced users.