2 Intranet Basics

• Q2.1 What is an Intranet ?
  An Intranet is the use of Internet technologies within an organization (or company) to achieve better results than the conventional means of data access and transfer. Intranet helps in cutting costs, easy and fast accessibility of day to day information.

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• Q2.2 How is it different from "the" Internet ?
  Generally speaking an Intranet is different from an Internet in the following ways:
  i. Intranet is a network within the organization whereas Internet is a world wide network .
  ii. Intranet has access to Internet but not vice- versa.

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• Q2.3 How is an intranet solution better than a groupware solution ?
  • cheaper ?
  • versatile ?
  • flexible ?

  The bottom line difference between a WWW server and "collaborative" computing solutions such as Lotus Notes is design philosophy. Designed as a proprietary system in an area lacking widespread connectivity, Lotus Notes uses a proprietary database structure, which replicates data and does not provide quick access to remote databases.
  Cheaper? .
  The use of client browsers with one standard Window interface, offers the easy integration with other applications, such as electronic mail, faxes, calendaring, videoconferencing, and hot links within messages. As a single interface to a variety of information sources, the browser is cost-effective, highly efficient, and very easy to use.
  Versatile?
  An Intranet server, eliminates the need to replicate database by providing users with easy access to source data. A single WWW server platform can support Internal and External applications for both internal information - sharing and external marketing on the Internet. Notes, on the other hand, is purely an internal application.
  Flexible?
  The Intranet enables users to centralize their information resources in a single point-and-click environment - the browser - which is available on a variety of client platforms (PC, Mac, Unix,etc) Content can be easily accessed by browsers on any platform, in any location. With Notes, data distribution is in realtime, on an as-requested basis, over a public (or private) network.

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• Q2.4 Is an intranet faster than getting data over the internet ?
  • If the network is totally contained within a LAN, then you do get LAN speeds. i.e. the web server is connected via LAN to the client PC's.
  • If you are connecting remote locations, and use the Internet as your backbone / transport, then your speed becomes dependent on the Internet itself, and the speeds by which you connect to it.
  • If performance is really the issue, you could also run your Intranet over private lines, such as frame relay. Then you can actually contract with the phone company for actual performance levels of speed. i.e. 56K, 256K, etc
  • Approximately Intranet operates at 10mbs - 100mbs internal and 28.8k for remote access employees.
  • After working for hours on the Intranet, the Internet is painfully slow at 28.8k or 14.4k from home. You WILL be surprised at the difference client machine speed makes on Intranet LAN-based access.

    It is not network bandwidth always, client speed very important!

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• Q2.5 Do I have to know CGI, Perl, Java to get started on my Intranet project ?
  No. But knowing some or all of the above will certainly help you down the road.