An in-house website for employees only. Although intranet pages may have links to websites on the Internet, the intranet is not exposed to or accessed by the general public. It provides a standard way to publish company policy, news and schedules, forms and training manuals. The intranet may also have its own social medium component.
An Internal Website
Intranets use the same HTTP Web server technology, protocols and hypertext links as the public Web. It either resides in a server on the local network (LAN) behind the firewall or in a cloud computing datacenter. A well-protected cloud-based intranet is more secure than a poorly configured local intranet. See
HTTP,
firewall,
LAN,
private cloud and
cloud computing.
A Tongue Twister
When discussing or explaining the services of an intranet, the terms in-tra-net and In-ter-net must be pronounced carefully to avoid confusion. Popular in the mid-1990s, the term has thankfully fallen away because it is a verbal disaster. Today, an intranet is generally just the "company website" or "company portal." Contrast with
extranet. See
LAN,
website,
Web server and
Internet.