Internet vs Intranet ? What's the difference ?

[Akolyte]

An intranet isn't the same as a LAN, but normally an intranet is in a LAN.  The internet is a global network of networks, a giant WAN of WANs.  But a LAN is a local area network that is used inside an organisation facility. The intranet is like an internal internet businesses and organisations use to communicate, host applications etc. 

 

Now, I don't work for HP.  But for example purposes, let's say I do. Inside of HPs internal network they host a website that has a forum for staff, an application used to submit support tickets and so on so on.  This is only accessible from HPs internal network.  This is an intranet.  A school might have a portal only accessible from the internal network that lets students email staff, an application to upload essays, and an internal application to view exam scores.  This is also an example of an intranet.  

 

Normally these are hosted on internal domains, an administrator will setup an internal forum, and put it on an internal domain like intranet.myorganisation.org, this is not a public internet domain but is used to make accessing the intranet mainstream and simple.  A user would access the forum internally (because it is not accessible externally) and log onto the forum using their company login and are able to communicate with other employees.  If it's a large company like HP there might be separate intranets per premise or one large intranet used for the global country.  Normally it's a combination of both, so every intranet has it's own internal news board, and forum, and then a global newsboard and forum.

 

I'm not a pro in this stuff, I'm a student. But I hope this helps, sometimes things are hard to understand first but when you understand then you can understand heaps more without hassle.