The difference between 'Internet' and 'Intranet'

[Biloko David]

I have read the concepts ''internet'' and ''intranet'',but I don't know what they mean.
Can anybody explain them to me please?

Biloko

[Diverhank]

My answer won't be absolutely technically accurate but I'll try anyway... internet refers to the world wide web and is open to anyone with internet access. Intranet refers to the internet within a firewall, accessible to people within a protected network.

[VSPrasad]

Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Internet

A worldwide system of interconnected computer networks. The origins of the Internet can be traced to the creation of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) as a network of computers under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969. Today, the Internet connects millions of computers around the world in a nonhierarchical manner unprecedented in the history of communications. The Internet is a product of the convergence of media, computers, and telecommunications. It is not merely a technological development but the product of social and political processes, involving both the academic world and the government (the Department of Defense). From its origins in a nonindustrial, noncorporate environment and in a purely scientific culture, it has quickly diffused into the world of commerce.

The Internet is a combination of several media technologies and an electronic version of newspapers, magazines, books, catalogs, bulletin boards, and much more. This versatility gives the Internet its power.

Columbia Encyclopedia: the Internet,

international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and commercial enterprises (called gateways or service providers) that enable individuals to access the network. The most popular features of the Internet include electronic mail (e-mail), blogs (web logs or journals), discussion groups (such newsgroups, bulletin boards, or forums where users can post messages and look for responses), on-line conversations (such as chats or instant messaging), wikis (websites that anyone on the Internet can edit), adventure and role-playing games, information retrieval, electronic commerce (e-commerce), Internet-based telephone service (voice over IP [VoIP]), and web mashups (in which third parties combine their web-based data and services with those of other companies).

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http://www.answers.com/internet

Intranet:

Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: intranet

An inhouse Web site that serves the employees of the enterprise. Although intranet pages may link to the Internet, an intranet is not a site accessed by the general public.

Using programming languages such as Java, client/server applications can be built on intranets. Since Web browsers that support Java run under Windows, Mac and Unix, such programs also provide cross-platform capability.

Small Business Encyclopedia: Intranet

An intranet often gets confused with the Internet. While there are a lot of similarities between them, they really are two different things. Simply put, the Internet is the global World Wide Web, while an intranet is a private Internet operating within a company. Both the Internet and an intranet use TCP/IP protocol as well as features like e-mail and typical World Wide Web standards. One main difference is that users of an intranet can get on the Internet, but thanks to protection measures like computer firewalls, global Internet users cannot get onto an intranet unless they have access to it. In fact, an intranet can be ran without an Internet connection. While Internet technologies like browsers, servers, and chat scripts are still used, an intranet can be a separate entity as long as its owners do not require that users have access to information found on the Internet.

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http://www.answers.com/topic/intranet