INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS

The Internet is a network of networks that links computers called servers that contain Web pages and computers called clients that request to see Web pages. The entrance point to the Internet is typically through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which is an organization that sells access to the Internet for a small monthly charge.

INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS

Intranet

 An internal corporate network built using Internet and World Wide Web standards and products that allow employees of an organization to gain access to corporate information. Extranet A network based on Web technologies that links selected resources of the intranet of a company with its customers, suppliers, or other business partners (e.g. Schwab).Businesses are finding other uses for Internet technology besides communicating with anyone in the world. Two of those new uses are to use this technology to communicate within an organization and among business partners.

The term Intranet is used to describe Internet technology used on a local area network to provide e-mail, Web pages, and other communication methods to employees. Employees use the same browser used to access the Internet to access the company’s Intranet. However, anyone who is not connected to the organization’s local area network is unable to access the Intranet.

Web site owners may not have all the relative information they think they have about visitors to their Web site. Clever Web surfers create virtual identities that conceal their true identity. For example, they create a ficticious name, then open a free e-mail account using that name. Instead of providing a Web site with their personal information, they provide a fake profile.

This enables the surfer to join free Web sites and participate in discussions without fearing that the site owner will learn any real information about them. This sounds dubious, but so are Web site owners who collect information about you and sell it to advertisers without your permission.

There’s nothing illegal about creating a virtual identity as long as you don’t attempt to defraud the Web site owner. For example, you must give legitimate information when making a purchase, but by then you should be comfortable dealing with that Web site.

Intranets are used to distribute employee information, provide Web page-based forms that are completed online, and give authorized employees access to data stored in the organization’s databases.

 An Extranet is frequently used to link business partners, such as suppliers, vendors, and trading partners, who conduct frequent business transactions with an organization. Let’s say you provide office supplies to 100 businesses. Instead of the office staff quoting prices, checking availability, and tracking orders, every customer can do this by logging on your Extranet.

An Extranet connects business partners. (Redrawn with permission from Prentice Hall. Dodd, Annabel Z. The Essential Guide to Telecommunications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000, p. 306.) ch06.fm Page 216 Tuesday, August 15, 2000 11:23 AM

Typically, a customer uses the Internet address to visit your site, then uses an ID and a password to gain access to the Extranet Web pages. From that point, it is as if the customer is viewing a normal Web page. An Extranet automates many of the normal business transactions that require human interaction but can easily be automated. Many inquiries require a sales assistant to look up the information in the company’s computer system.

The Extranet gives customers controlled access to that computer system. Security is a critical concern to owners of Extranets since the owner is relying on the skills of the IS department to write a program that addresses all the facets dealing with a customer. The owner does not want incorrect information to be sent to the customer, nor does the owner want to frustrate the customer before he or she is able to talk to a person.

Extranets satisfy security concerns by using encryption, authorization, and integrity checks. Encryption mixes up data so it isn’t easily read, as discussed previously in this chapter. Authorization requires the customer to use a unique ID and password to access the Extranet. Integrity checks consist of logic written into a program to ensure that the interaction with the customer makes sense. For example, a small business that buys 10 reams of paper every month is unlikely to order 100 reams one month, so the Extranet ordering program would flag the order and bring it to the sales rep’s attention.

The Internet is a network of networks that links computers called servers that contain Web pages and computers called clients that request to see Web pages. The entrance point to the Internet is typically through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which is an organization that sells access to the Internet for a small monthly charge.

An ISP leases one or more T carrier-lines from the telephone company, which enables the ISP to transmit and receive information on the Internet. Depending on the type of T carrier-line, the ISP will have a minimum of 24 communications channels over which data can be communicated 24 hours, 7 days a week. Every telephone company has its own telecommunication network that links ISPs and organizations that directly link their servers to the Internet without going through an ISP. Telephone companies exchange Internet data at regional centers called peering centers. There are four public peering centers and many private peering centers

operated by telecommunications carriers. Every device on the Internet has a unique Internet address, which is a set of numbers. An Internet address, also known as an IP address, is often identified by a Web site name that is associated with the IP address, such as www.keogh.org.

You and I can visit a Web site by dialing our ISP, then using software called a browser to request and display Web pages. After entering the Web site name, the browser sends the request to the ISP, which searches the Internet telephone book to locate the IP address associated with the Web site name. Once the IP address is found, the ISP contacts the Web site and requests a page. The first page that is requested is the site’s home page, unless your request specifies another page. The Web page is sent to your ISP from the Web site and is passed to your computer, where the browser reads and displays the page.A Web page is written using HTML or an enhanced version of that language called XML. Programmers who build the Web page insert HTML and XML tags into the page that tell the browser how to display the page.

In addition to tags that specify the text format, there are tags that tell the browser what graphics to display and how to link to other Web pages. These tags are called hyperlinks. A hyperlink is typically highlighted text or a graphic that, when clicked on, tells the browser to request either another block of text on that Web page or to display another Web page.

Information travels over the Internet in small electronic envelopes called datagrams. The TCP/IP protocol suite controls datagram traffic on the Internet. The Internet Protocol (IP) describes how datagrams are constructed and transmitted. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is used to manage the transmission. TCP, for example, requires a timer to be activated when a datagram is transmitted. If an acknowledgement has not been received when time has expired, then the datagram is resent because TCP assumes the first one was lost or discarded during transmission.

The Internet groups the different ways to transfer information over the Internet into Internet services. Four popular services are Telnet, e-mail, FTP, and HTTP (World Wide Web). The Telnet service enables a person to directly interact with a remote computer. The e-mail service enables people linked to the Internet to exchange electronic mail. The FTP service is used to copy files to and from a remote computer.

HTTP is the service used to exchange Web pages. Security and privacy concerns are a serious threat to the viability of the Internet as a tool for electronic commerce. Cyber crooks can use a variety of methods to gain access to a server or prevent legitimate visitors from accessing a server. Organizations whose servers are connected to the Internet use various techniques to thwart such attacks by password-protecting sites and using firewalls and proxy servers.

Anyone who visits a Web site must be on alert that the owner of the site might be creating a visitor’s profile, which identifies you and your interests, and might sell your profile to a third party. Internet technology is also used within an organization and its business partners by creating an Intranet and Extranet.

An Intranet is an organization’s private Internet that enables employees to share information and access corporate data. An Extranet is also a private Internet, but it is used to link business partners, such as key vendors, and to track orders, sales, and other information typically exchanged by business partners.

MKESSA Patricia
BAPRM 42618