Internet Technology

Assignment1

INTERNET, INTRANET AND EXTRANET

Student

aisha abobaker ahmad masmaly

201608942
Internet
Introduction
By the turn of the century, information, including access to the Internet, will be the basis for
personal, economic, and political advancement. The popular name for the Internet is the
information superhighway. Whether you want to find the latest financial news, browse through
library catalogs, exchange information with colleagues, or join in a lively political debate, the
Internet is the tool that will take you beyond telephones, faxes, and isolated computers to a
burgeoning networked information frontier. 
The Internet supplements the traditional tools you use to gather information, Data Graphics,
News and correspond with other people. Used skillfully, the Internet shrinks the world and
brings information, expertise, and knowledge on nearly every subject imaginable straight to your
computer. 

What is the Internet? 

The Internet links are computer networks all over the world so that users can share resources and
communicate with each other. Some computers, have direct access to all the facilities on the
Internet such as the universities. And other computers, eg privately-owned ones, have indirect
links through a commercial service provider, who offers some or all of the Internet facilities. In
order to be connected to Internet, you must go through service suppliers. Many options are
offered with monthly rates. Depending on the option chosen, access time may vary. 
The Internet is what we call a metanetwork, that is, a network of networks that spans the globe.
It's impossible to give an exact count of the number of networks or users that comprise the
Internet, but it is easily in the thousands and millions respectively. The Internet employs a set of
standardized protocols which allow for the sharing of resources among different kinds of
computers that communicate with each other on the network. These standards, sometimes
referred to as the Internet Protocol Suite, are the rules that developers adhere to when creating
new functions for the Internet. 
The Internet is also what we call a distributed system; there is no central archives. Technically,
no one runs the Internet. Rather, the Internet is made up of thousands of smaller networks. The
Internet thrives and develops as its many users find new ways to create, display and retrieve the
information that constitutes the Internet. 
Internet is comprises of :

- A community of people :who use and develop the network.

- A collection of resources : that can be reached from those networks.
- A setup to facilitate collaboration : Among the members of the research and educational
communities worldwide.
- The connected networks use the TCP/IP protocols:

Important Internet applications:

- world wide web(WWW)
- File Transfer Protocol(FTP)
- Electronic Mail
- Internet Relay Chat

Advantage

There are many advantages of internet.

1. We can make donations online.

2. We can send and receive information across large matrix of computer systems.
Through email service, we can send messages for both business and personal purposes.
3. Internet has opened doors for virtual online offices.
 4. During the festive season, we don’t need to visit crowed stores to buy our stuff. We can
make online purchases at a bargain price.
5. We can send birthday greeting cards through the internet.
6. Before making any purchases, we can check online for user reviews of the products that
we intend to buy.
7. We can use social media applications on our personal computer and mobile devices. In
this way, we can reconnect to our old school friends.
8. We can gather information for new job openings. We can also apply online for jobs.
9. We can earn online by doing freelancing jobs, selling online, completing surveys,
affiliate marketing, etc.
10. We can also sell old items that are of no use for us.
11. During idle time, we can listen to music or watch a video.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of internet are:

1. We often tend to purchase those extra items that we rarely need. Such purchases are a
wastage of money.
2. The internet is not free. Sometimes, it hurts while paying bills.
3. There are hundreds of vendors selling products of various brands. We get confused with
too many choices.
4. The transaction cost levied by the payment gateway providers decreases the margin of
the online sellers.
5. Too many contradictory review leads us nowhere.
6. The physical distance among loved ones is increasing.
7. Somewhere the emotional connect between people are missing.
8. We feel helpless when the internet connection is down.
9. We always remain engaged with many online activities such as checking emails,
socializing, chatting, online shopping, business-deals, etc. We don’t get time to rest.
10. Our life is moving at the pace of internet. We seldom spare few moments of peace for
us.

Intranet:
A private TCP/IP internetwork within an organization that uses Internet technologies such as
Web servers and Web browsers for sharing information and collaborating. Intranets can be used
to publish company policies and
newsletters, provide sales and marketing staff with product information, provide technical
support and tutorials, and just about anything else you can think of that fits within the standard
Web server/Web browser environment.
Intranet Web servers differ from public Web servers in that the public must have the proper
permissions and passwords to access the intranet of an organization. Intranets are designed to
permit users who have access
privileges to the internal LAN of the organization. Within an intranet, Web servers are installed
in the network.
Browser technology is used as the common front end to access information on servers such as
financial, graphical, or text-based data.

Benefits
 Workforce productivity: Intranets can help users to locate and view information faster and
use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser
interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available,
anytime and — subject to security provisions — from anywhere within the company
workstations, increasing the employees ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and
with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services
provided to the users.

 Time: Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed

basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being
distracted indiscriminately by email.

 Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an

organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization.
The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the
initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and who to
speak to for more information. By providing this information on the intranet, staff have the
opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization. Some examples of
communication would be chat, email, and/or blogs. A great real-world example of where an
intranet helped a company communicate is when Nestle had a number of food processing plants
in Scandinavia. Their central support system had to deal with a number of queries every day.[7]
When Nestle decided to invest in an intranet, they quickly realized the savings. McGovern says
the savings from the reduction in query calls was substantially greater than the investment in the
intranet.

 Web publishing allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily

accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies.[8] Examples include:
employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and
even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI
applications). Because each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most
recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.

 Business operations and management: Intranets are also being used as a platform for
developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the
internetworked enterprise.[8]

 Cost-effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than
maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition
forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the
environment as well as document maintenance overhead. For example, the HRM company
PeopleSoft "derived significant cost savings by shifting HR processes to the intranet".[7]
McGovern goes on to say the manual cost of enrolling in benefits was found to be USD109.48
per enrollment. "Shifting this process to the intranet reduced the cost per enrollment to $21.79; a
saving of 80 percent". Another company that saved money on expense reports was Cisco. "In
1996, Cisco processed 54,000 reports and the amount of dollars processed was USD19 million".
[7]

 Enhance collaboration: Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which

enables teamwork.[8]

 Cross-platform capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows,

Mac, and UNIX.

 Built for one audience: Many companies dictate computer specifications which, in turn,
may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no
cross-browser compatibility issues). Being able to specifically address your "viewer" is a great
advantage. Since Intranets are user-specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to
access), you know exactly who you are interfacing with and can personalize your Intranet based
on role (job title, department) or individual ("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our
company!").

 Promote common corporate culture: Every user has the ability to view the same
information within the Intranet.

 Immediate updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and
parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide your audience with "live" changes
so they are kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.[8]

 Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also be linked to a

company’s management information system, for example a time keeping system.

 Employee Engagement: Since "involvement in decision making" is one of the main drivers
of employee engagement[9], offering tools (like forums or surveys) that foster peer-to-peer
collaboration and employee participation can make employees feel more valued and involved.

Extranet:
Extranets refer to applications and services that are Intranet based, and use extended, secure
access to external users or enterprises. This access is usually accomplished through
passwords, user IDs, and other application-level security. An extranet is the extension of two
or more intranet strategies with a secure interaction between participant enterprises and their
respective intranets.

Part of a Company's Intranet that is extended to users outside the company(eg. Normally over
the Internet). In its simplest form, a private TCP/IP network that securely shares information
using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and other Internet protocols with business
partners such as vendors, suppliers, and wholesale customers.

An extranet is thus a corporate intranet that is exposed over the Internet to certain specific
groups that need access to it. Extranets built in this fashion follow the client/server paradigm,
with Web servers such as Apache.

Extranets are a powerful tool because they let businesses share resources on their own private
networks over the Internet with suppliers, vendors, business partners, or customers. Extranets
are typically used for supporting real-time supply chains, for enabling business partners to
work together, or to share information such as catalogs with customers.

The power of the extranet is that it leverages the existing technology of the Internet to
increase the power, flexibility, and competitiveness of businesses utilizing well-known and
easily used tools such as Web servers and Web browsers. Extranets also save companies
money by allowing them to establish business-to-business connectivity over the Internet
instead of using expensive, dedicated leased lines. Extranets can also save money by
reducing phone and fax costs.
Advantages

 Exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

 Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners
 Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts
 Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies
 Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such
as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks

Disadvantages

 Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g.,

hardware, software, employee training costs), if hosted internally rather than by an
application service provider.
 Security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information.
Summary
The Internet, extranets, and intranets all rely on the same TCP/IP technologies. However, they
are different in terms of the levels of
access they allow to various users inside and outside the organization and the size of the
network. An intranet allows for restricted access to only members of an organization; an extranet
expands that access by allowing non-members such as suppliers and customers to use company
resources. The difference between the Internet and extranets is that while the extranet allows
limited access to non-members of an organization, the Internet generally allows everyone to
access all network resources.