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B.C.

A Semester II

E- Commerce Concepts

Internet and Extranet

3.1 Internet 3.2 Intranet 3.3 Extranet 3.4 Difference between Intranet and Extranet

Introduction :
By the turn of the century, information, including access to the Internet will be the basis for personal, economic, and political advancement. The popular name for the Internet is the information superhighway. Whether people want to find the latest financial news, browse through library catalogs, exchange information with colleagues, or join in a lively political debate, the Internet, intranet and extranet are the tool that will take people beyond telephones, faxes, and isolated computers to a burgeoning networked information frontier.

3.1 Internet :
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve several billion users worldwide. It is a network ~ 3.1 ~

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of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services,

3.1.1 Meaning and Definition: A) Meaning: The Internet is a vast, electronic network connecting many millions of computers from every corner of the world. The Internet is a publicly accessible network that "consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks" A computer connected to the Internet is commonly referred to as a host. Connections are made to using telephone lines, cable data lines, fiber-optic, or even wireless signals. This connected-nest allows computers to send and receive information in the form of digitized data on demand. The data is passed back and forth between host computers using packets and protocols, such as electronic mail (e-mail) for messaging, file transfer protocol (FTP) for moving files, telnet for accessing information, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) for serving up web sites, custom protocols, etc. Other common services of the Internet include the World Wide Web (WWW), Voice over IP (VoIP), Instant Messaging (IM), streaming media, etc.

Fig: Internet ~ 3.2 ~

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B) Definition: 1) The Federation National Council (FNC): The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve several billion users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. 2) Internet Society (ISOC): As a global network of networks enabling computers of all kinds to directly and transparently communicate and share services throughout the world using a common communication protocol. 3.1.2 History of the Internet: 1) 1950 to 1980: The history of the Internet began with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. The public was first introduce to the concepts that would lead to the Internet when a message was sent over the ARPANet from computer science Professor Leonard Klein rocks laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), after the second piece of network equipment was installed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Packet switched networks such as ARPANET, Mark I at NPL in the UK, CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, and were develop in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of protocols. The ARPANET in particular led to the development of protocols for internetworking, in which multiple separate networks could joined into a network of networks. 2) Mid 1980 to 1990: In 1982, the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was standardized, and consequently, the concept of a worldwide network of interconnected TCP/IP networks, called ~ 3.3 ~

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the Internet, has introduced. Access to the ARPANET was expand in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the Computer Science Network (CSNET) and again in 1986 when NSFNET provided access to supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations. Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 3) After 1990 to 2000: The ARPANET was decommissioning in 1990. The Internet was commercialized in 1995 when NSFNET was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic. Since, the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) "phone calls", two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The research and education community continues to develop and use advanced networks such as NSF's very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS), Internet2, and National LambdaRail. Increasing amounts of data transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1-Gbit/s, 10-Gbit/s, or more. 4) 2000 to Current Days: The Internet's takeover over the global communication landscape was almost instant in historical terms. It only communicated 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks in the year 1993, already 51% by 2000, and more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007. Today the Internet continues to grow, driven by ever-greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment, and social networking.

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3.1.3

Features of Internet :

The Internet is unlike any previous human invention in both scale and effect, and is now a global resource important to all of the people in the world. This unprecedentedly rapid growth and impact is largely due to its incorporation of a number of deeply powerful features that continue to accelerate its success, described in the following sections. 1) Geographic Distribution : The geographic distribution of the internet continues to spread, around the world and even beyond. A key attribute of the Internet is that once you have connected to any part of it, you can communicate with all of it. All of the Internet's technologies web, newsgroups, email, mailing lists, IRC, MUDs enable geographically distributed groups of people to communicate who otherwise couldn't do so. Largely because the basic Architecture of the Internet is open -- fundamentally designed to connect new networks; this powerful communication medium has spread rapidly to interconnect our world and turned it into a true multi-way electronic Global village. 2) Robust Internet Architecture : The Internet is the most robust communications network ever designed, able to adapt itself almost instantaneously to damage or outages to individual sections. The Internet has no irreplaceable central control, administration, or authority. It can't be bought, hijacked, or monopolized. The loss of individual computers and networks does not affect its overall reliability. The Internet perfectly realizes its original intent -it is actively robust, and cannot be completely deactivated without bringing down every single connection. 3) Internet Near Light Speed : The Internet operates at near light speed, which on a planet the size of Earth often practically amounts to near real-time. Digital information such as Internet packets

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travel at 2/3 of the speed of light on copper wire and on fiber optic cables. Internet routers are getting faster and faster with switching speeds nearing instantaneous, while fiber optics and wireless technologies are enabling networks to send much larger numbers of bits at once. The Internet is getting even faster. 4) Universal Internet Access : The Internet provides universal access, giving the same powerful capabilities to everyone who has access to the network no matter where they are. The Internet is based on a common standard, the TCP/IP network protocol, which provides all computers with access to the network with the same technical interface and capabilities. This common foundation makes the entire internet technologies equally available to anyone connected to the Internet. 5) Internet Growth Rates : The growth rate of the Internet exceeds that of any previous technology. Measured by users and bandwidth, Internet has been growing at a rapid rate since its conception, on a curve geometric and sometimes exponential. Today, the Internet is growing exponentially in three different directions -- size, processing power, and software sophistication -- making it the fastest growing technology humankind has ever created. 6) The Internet's Digital Advantage : The Internet is a digital medium based on data made up of discrete 1's and 0's. A bit of computer data is not infinitely adjustable, and only has one of two unambiguous states -- it is either a 1, or a 0. This limitation has a very important compensating advantage as there is no "drift" that can introduce error. 7) Internet Freedom of Speech : Information wants to be free, and the Internet fosters freedom of speech on a global scale. The Internet is a common area, a public space like any village square, except ~ 3.6 ~

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that it is the largest common area that has ever existed. Anything that anybody wishes to say can be heard by anyone else with access to the Internet, and this world-wide community is as large and diverse as humanity itself. Therefore, from a practical point of view, no one community's standards can govern the type of speech permissible on the Internet. 3.1.4 Services of Internet: Internet provides many services. The four traditionally most widely used Internet services are: remote login, file transfer, electronic mail, and Network News. 1) Remote Login : The remote login tool Telnet is a client-server application used to log into another computer on the Internet. It provides a basic, terminal-style interface to the remote machine. Remote login are considered useful for simple logins, that don't require a lot of control over the client/host interaction. However, it thought to be less useful than Telnet where a lot of customization is desire, for multiple sessions, for connections between very distant terminals or to terminals that are not running for that matter, since rlogin can only connect to hosts. A benefit of remote login is the ability to use a file called remote hosts that resides on the host machine and maintains a list of terminals allowed to login without a password. 2) File Transfer Tool : The file transfer tool is another internet service application, used to retrieve files from a remote machine. File transfer is a generic term for the act of transmitting files over a computer network like the Internet. There are numerous ways and protocols to transfer files over a network. Computers, which provide a file transfer service, called file servers. Depending on the client's perspective, the data transfer called uploading or downloading. File transfer for the enterprise now increasingly is done with Managed file transfer.

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3) Electronic mail (Email): Electronic mail (Email) is arguably the most popular of all network services, and is not restricted to just the Internet but can be exchanged via gateways with other networks like BITNET and UUCP. Email is not an end to end' service like the previous applications, but a store and forward' service. Mail is passed from one machine to another until it reaches its destination. There are many mail programs; most of them use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). On the Internet, SMTP implemented atop TCP. Commonly supported features include aliases, forwarding, carbon copies and automatic reply. Mailing lists allow mail to automatically direct to particular user groups. The MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions) specification defines how to include multimedia objects in pieces of Email, and FTPto-Email gateways allow files to retrieve from FTP servers by Email. 4) Network News: Network News is the Internet equivalent of a discussion group or bulletin board. News is organized hierarchically into broad topics called newsgroups dealing with particular themes, for example computer language .c++ for the C++ programming language. The USENET comprises a set of voluntary rules for passing and maintaining newsgroups in one of seven categories (comp being computer science). In addition, many `alternative', commercial, and local newsgroup hierarchies also exist. News passed from news server to news server according to bilateral agreements between server administrators using the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). The main problem with news is the overwhelming amount of material; a typical news server might carry several thousand newsgroups and receive hundreds of megabytes of news per day.

3.1.5 Advantages of Internet: The advantages of internet are as follows.

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1) Faster Communication : The Internet has been humankinds greatest means of communication yet. Innovations are only making it faster and more reliable. Today, peoples can initiate real-time communication with someone who is in another part of the world. For more personal and interactive communication, it is possible to avail the facilities of internet services. The Internet has given us a common platform and medium through which peoples are able to explore other cultures and ideologies. 2) Resource of Information : The Internet is a treasure or resource of information; which offers knowledge on everythings. Internet search engines make information accessible on various subject matters such as, government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, innovations and technical support, etc. It has become common practice to seek assistance from the web in order to research and gather resources for homework, office presentations, and supplement ones own research. The web also updates news about the latest breakthroughs in the field of medicine, technology, and other domains of science. 3) Inexhaustible Education : The Internet has become an essential propagator of knowledge, both through free as well as paid services. The credibility of this form of education is safe and secure. The internet has become a remarkable avenue for the academically unprivileged, to amass greater knowledge and knowledge on subjects. The entire scope of homeschooling has expanded because of increased accessibility to videos of teachers giving lectures, showing diagrams and explaining concepts, much like a real classroom. Nonprofit organisations too have opened websites that seek volunteers and donations in order to help the ones in need.

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4) Entertainment for Everyone :


Entertainment is one of the foremost reasons why people prefer surfing the Web. In fact, the Internet has gained much success by marketing for several multifaceted entertainment industries. 5) Social Networking and Staying Connected : One cannot imagine a social life without internet. These portals have become our means to stay connected with world, and stay in touch with the latest happenings in the world. Social networking has also evolved as a great medium to connect with like-minded individuals and become a part of interesting groups and communities. 6) E-commerce : With the numerous monetary internet services, peoples can perform all financial transactions online. Tickets reservations, transfer funds, pay utility bills and taxes without having to leave our homes or offices. E-commerce is used for all type of business dealing that involves the transfer of money through the Internet. Online transaction of money has become the norm with almost all kinds of business. Ecommerce, with its vast reach over a variety of products and services, makes it possible to have the client's orders delivered at their doorsteps. 3.1.6 Disadvantages of Internet: Although there are many advantages, researchers argue some disadvantages of an internet based society. Most of these drawbacks are a result of decreased face-to-face communication and the ability to escape identity. The major disadvantages of Internet are as follows: 1) No Security of Personal Information :

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The use of Internet for banking, social networking, or other services, often makes our personal information vulnerable to disclose. There are no fail-proof ways to securing names, account numbers, addresses, photos, and credit card numbers from being stolen or misused by thieving websites and individuals. Unscrupulous hackers can access sensitive information through unsecured connections by planting phishing software. The damage caused by having our identities misused and our accounts broken into, is often irreparable and most of all, embarrassing. 2) Spamming : Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails, which serve no purpose and needlessly obstruct the computer system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating as it makes it slower to access our email accounts and makes the entire service unreliable for consumers. Spammers usually use bots that bombard the receiver with an endless line of advertisements. This can prove to be increasingly perplexing, as it keeps getting mixed with our more important emails. Fortunately, email service providers often have security systems in place to guard against spamming. Fortunately, it is possible to report an email as spam, so that all emails from the same email id or IP address are blocked. 3) Viruses( Malware Threats): One of the most annoying problems with the Internet is the ease with which any malware can infect internet. Internet users plagued by virus attacks that harm their computers and important files. Virus programs are inconspicuous and may get activated simply by clicking a seemingly harmless link. Computers connected to the Internet are extremely prone to IP targeted virus attacks that may end up crashing the system completely. 4) Age-Inappropriate Content : Pornography and age-inappropriate content is perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Internet. It is the lack of control over the distribution and unrestricted access of ~ 3.11 ~

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pornographic material that is detrimental to children. All that parents can do, is lock harmful sites and monitor the sites viewed by their children. Pornography are not just frowned upon by most societies it is also banned by some. The Internet makes uploading shocking content so easy, that we end up coming across inappropriate words and images, despite not wanting to. 5) Social Isolation, Obesity, and Depression : The biggest problem with having the Internet is, its ability to create rifts between the real and virtual world. The virtual world can often seem so alluring that once hooked, going back to real life seems daunting. There is an addiction for everything that pertains to the web and that includes excessive surfing, online gambling, social networking, and gaming addiction. These addictions create both physical as well as mental issues that can lead to health complications if left unattended. It is ironic that, while it is easy to find plenty of online support for agoraphobia, the Internet itself can be a big cause or trigger for it. The link between obesity and the Internet is rather easy to understand. The more one sits in front of the computer, the lesser one exercises. Thus, even though the Internet has the potential to make our lives simple and convenient, it also holds the power to wreak havoc.

3.2 Intranet : Intranet is a network that is not available to the world outside of the Intranet. If the Intranet networks are connects to the Internet, the Intranet will reside behind a firewall and, if it allows access from the Internet, will be an Extranet. An intranet can understood as a private analog of the Internet, or as a private extension of the Internet confined to an organization. The first intranet websites and home pages were publish in 1991 and began to appear in non-educational organizations in 1994. Intranet can be set up on a networked PC without any PC on the network having access via the Intranet network to the Internet.

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3.2.1 Meaning and Definition: A) Meaning: An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to share information, operational systems, or computing services within an organization. Intranet term used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network within an organization. Sometimes, the intranet refers only to the organization's internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the organization's information technology infrastructure, and may be composed of multiple local area networks. The objective of intranet is to organize each individual's desktop with minimal cost, time and effort to be more productive, cost efficient, timely, and competitive. An intranet may host multiple private websites and constitute an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration. Any of the well-known Internet protocols may be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer protocol). Internet technologies are deploying to provide modern interfaces to legacy information systems hosting corporate data.

Fig: Intranet B) Definition: 1) The Federation National Council (FNC) Defines Intranet:

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An intranet is network based on TCP/IP protocols (an internet) belonging to an organization, usually a corporation, accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or others with authorization. 2) Internet Society (ISOC) defines Intranet: An Intranet is privately maintained computer network that can access only by authorized persons, especially members or employees of the organization that owns it. 3.2.2 Components of Intranet IT Structure: Every intranet contains some basic components. Companies choose to supply some or all of these internally while others go to outside consultants. The basic components of an intranet below: 1) Network: A company must generally have TCP/IP as the protocol of the network to run an intranet. The network must have enough bandwidth. An intranet can handle all types of multimedia. 2) Security: Firewalls must be installed to keep hackers on the Internet from accessing company information. If users are to be allowed access to the intranet from a remote location security rights must be set up through the firewall. Note that the intranet does not have to be hooked up to the Internet. 3) Hardware and Software: The intranet runs off a Web HTTP server. The server can be running various operating systems from UNIX, MAC or Windows NT. The server software that delivers the HTML files to the browsers is offered from many vendors. Some are even giving it away with an operating system such as Microsoft's Internet Information Server. The employee will need a Web browser at the desktop level. Content publishers will want authoring tools and web development tools such as ~ 3.14 ~

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Java and Microsoft Active Server Pages. Users will want search engines such as the Google Search Engine or the AltaVista Search Tool to find information quickly. 4) WebBased System: A web-based system consists of the following elements: presentation, client browser, network communications services, web server, server application interface, application, service interface, service, operating system services, and hardware. The presentation layer appears as the application from the user's perspective. The client's browser is the container for the presentation, through which the user manipulates the components. The network communications services layer contains all of the hardware, software, and underlying services that enable the browser to communicate with the web- server. A web server is a server that supports HTTP for the exchange of information with a client. 5) Programming Languages : Programming languages form the bridge that links all of the Intranet technologies and platforms. Programming languages can be used to design software or tools to support various Intranet applications. There are some commonly used

programming languages: C#, PHP, Java, scripting languages, JavaScript, VBScript (Visual Basic Scripting Addition). 3.2.3 Features of Effective Intranet: Intranet can be understood as a private network within the organization that is based on the Internet and that utilizes TCP/IP protocols for effective communication. An effective Intranet application must have the following features. 1) Usability: The intranets content management system should be simple with easy-tounderstand GUI (Graphical User Interface). The CMS should have an associated document, which can easily guide the user to add, edit and share the data. It must be easy to navigate through the applications within the intranet. ~ 3.15 ~

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2) User-friendliness: As discussed earlier, the intranet must be able to indulge the user in the participative development on any project. The features must be simple to understand and the users should easily operate them. 3) Flexibility: The intranet must have the space and flexibility for addition of new features (depending on the requirements of the business). For example, if the requirement arises for assimilating a relatively complicated business management tool then the Intranet should easily accommodate the updates. 4) Administration: Providing multiple options in administering the correct usage of Intranet is quite essential. There must be a feature from which a central authority can manage groups, users and other authentication procedures. 5) Task Management: One of the major applications of Intranet lies in its ability of providing a platform of collaborative working on a project or any other task. So, the intranet must have features through which the senior members can propagate the important messages and notifications regarding the project. 6) Security: Intranet is the strategic application through which collaborative work and social culture in offices are promoted. Hence, if somebody penetrates through the Intranet it can mean leakage of important information and that would be quite catastrophic for the business. This is why the intranet must be comprehensively secured against any malicious attempts to breach the security.

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core of many IT strategies, Further; the organisations, which have resisted the gravitational pull of the technology, are adopting internet strategies. A well-designed intranet can improve internal business processes, facilitate new levels of collaboration among employees, and improve morale across the entire company. However, a poorly conceived and executed intranet can stifle the flow of information and damage the reputation of management and the IT department. There are four phases to develop intranet, these are: 1) Phase 1: Discover Intranet Requirements: This phase guides the development team through designing a prototype and setting goals. At the end of this phase, everyone involved in the project should have a clear picture of which applications are being developed and why. 2) Phase 2: Design the Intranet: This phase guides the development team through the visual, structural and technical design of the site. At times, this phase runs concurrently with both the Discover and Implement stages. At the end of this phase, all of the tools needed for information access, security, site monitoring, content management and issue tracking will have be designed. 3) Phase 3: Implement the Intranet: This phase guides the development team through the implementation of the systems designed in the last stage. At times, this phase runs concurrently with both discover and design stages. At the end of this phase, all systems should be in place and the site should be ready for launch. 4) Phase 4: Launch the Intranet: This phase guides the development team through many of the follow through activities that can make a huge impact on the success of the site. These activities include:

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i)

Site promotion

ii) Gathering feedback iii) Software distribution iv) Post mortem Earlier, intranet location was at data centre or out in the departments. Recently the number of intranet within the organisation have grown up, a necessity has arisen for, a) Creation is a need to integrate content. b) Maintaining the performance Sharing information and Controlling access and to deal with other intranets are located at different places. Multiples intranets servers, connected by LAN & WAN provide the foundation for distributed intranets. Internet provides the network infrastructure upon which electronic business are built. It is not an exclusive option and there are many other networks that can be used such as : i) Private Intranets ii) Closed Community extranets and iii) Community Internet Network (COIN)

3.2.5 Role of Intranet in B2B Applications: The Modern Intranet is changing the way that organisations conduct business, providing them with operational support, employee profiling, transparency and collaboration abilities that we have not seen before. As an integral part of how an organisation operates day-to-day, the Intranet should essentially serve five purposes:
1) Decision Support 2) Risk Mitigation 3) Innovation 4) Learning 5) Employee Engagement

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1) Decision Support: Organisational flux, rising competitive pressures and the expanding global reach of many organisations place a premium on information that helps executives to make the decisions required to manage a company. New demands for transparency from stakeholders and regulators magnify the need for better and timelier information. Knowledge Management is also an important part of decision-making. All often companies deploy knowledge management tools without thinking about the kinds of decisions it may support. The Intranet needs to provide two kinds of decision support; a) Pull support when executives actually go out and look for the information they need in order to make decisions; b) Push support where the information is pushed to the executive by way of creating awareness, or educating or as an early warning status, which requires action. 2) Push Support: Push support is generally in the forms of RSS feeds, which are set up in order to ensure that the latest relevant information from outside the organisation is reaching the right executive. This may be economic data, technology development, trends analysis etc. Push support also includes aggregated information about the company in the form of regularly updated news portals or progress reports etc. 3) Risk Mitigation: In order to be fully equipped to make any decision it is clear that the executives and employees need to have the correct information at the correct time. Care must take with version control and other document management activities to ensure that this is the case. Company Policies are also incredibly important when it comes to risk mitigation and of course, the documentation pertaining to governance must be easily findable and accessible on the Intranet. It is also important to build corporate governance into the operational processes on the Intranet.

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4) Innovation: As it is known know that the pace of change is rapidly increasing and the Intranet is a fabulous collaboration tool for different employees from different parts of the organisation to become aware of Innovation projects and participating in innovating into the future. Well designed Intranets let the employees attach all the related documentation to the Innovation project as well as the profiles of the individual participants, so that in future, this data can interrogated to understand the innovation process or to identify people will great innovation skills. This is a great knowledge management tool. 5) Learning: The Intranet can incorporate workflow, which enables the employees to identify gaps in their knowledge and to book themselves on courses. It can provide on-line material and the succession plan can be built into the individuals profile as they learn and progress through the organisation. 6) Employee Engagement: The Intranet is a fantastic tool for connecting and communicating with employees, whether it is providing them with interesting content, rewarding them for contributions or enabling them to see how they are performing or just letting them network and up-skill each other within professional communities of interest. The ability to profile employees leads to all kinds of opportunities from improving their search experience, enabling people to find certain skills within the organisation. The modern Intranet is a critical strategic and operational tool, which no medium Intranets can help users to locate and to corporate business or public sector organisation should be without it.

3.2.6 Advantages of Intranet: The main advantages of intranet are as follows: ~ 3.20 ~

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1) Workforce Productivity: View information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and subject to security provisions from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users. 2) Network Distribution: Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than distracted indiscriminately by email. 3) Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and who to speak to for more information. 4) Web Publishing: Intranet allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies. For examples, employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and even training, can accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI applications). Because each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.

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5) Business Operations and Management: An intranet used as a platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the internetworked enterprise. 6) Cost-Effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance overhead. 7) Built for One Audience: Many companies dictate computer specifications, which, in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no crossbrowser compatibility issues). Being able specifically address user "viewer" is a great advantage. Since Intranets are user-specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), user know exactly who user are interfacing with and can personalize your Intranet based on role (job title, department). 8) Promote Common Corporate Culture and Immediate updates: Every user has the ability to view the same information within the Intranet. When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide your audience with "live" changes so they kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability. 9) Supports Distributed Computing Architecture: The intranet can also link to a companys management information system, for example a time keeping system.

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3.2.7 Disadvantages of Intranet: An intranet is an organization's internal computer network that allows people within a company or institution to share files and communicate via email. Although there are many organizational advantages to intranets, there are also some disadvantages, centering on security, use and cost. 1) Cost : Setting up an intranet incurs a cost. Some of this is the direct hardware and software cost which is fairly easy to budget for. Indirect costs are more difficult to estimate. These include time spent defining the intranet's purpose and choosing which intranet capabilities are essential for the organization. Management also needs to gather facts and figures about the organization and estimate savings made by introducing an intranet. The cost of maintaining the intranet is a major consideration and budgets for upgrading hardware is another element. 2) Security : Unauthorized access to the intranet is a security issue. An organizational intranet relies on privacy and confidentiality to prevent outsiders accessing sensitive information. An intranet structure shouldn't allow universal access to all information, and people should only have access appropriate to their role. Connections between an intranet and the Internet potentially compromises security, by allowing virus infections or system hacking. Staff members should change their passwords regularly and security audits should check the firewall. Other points to watch for are wireless access to the intranet, and access by staff members when at home or traveling as these are other intranet security weaknesses. 3) Productivity : Information overload is another disadvantage because it reduces productivity. Staff members may end up having to read so much that work decreases. Also, departmental heads may rely on emails rather than direct contact with staff to circulate information. Distributing information about new initiatives via email is an ~ 3.23 ~

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advantage of an intranet, but if managers use it indiscriminately, then staff members may stop reading mail and treat it like junk mail. Organizations need to establish standards that ensure the intranet increases productivity rather than decrease it. 4) Training : An intranet is a new budget item in itself for any organization. However, added to this cost, management needs to consider two additional ones. First, the staff needs training to ensure workers know how to use the system effectively. In some organizations, a few staff members may resist learning how to share information via the intranet, or try to continue using older methods of disseminating information. Members of management will need to budget for staff members to administer the intranet. They will need to weigh up the costs of employing staff in-house against outsourcing the work

3.3 Extranet: An Extranet, or extended Intranet, is a private network of linking branch offices or several cooperating organisations located outside the walls of any organisation. An Extranet is actually an Intranet that is partially accessible to authorised outsiders. An Extranet service uses existing Intranet interactive infrastructure, including standard servers, e-mail clients and Web browsers. This makes Extranet far more economical than the creation and maintenance of a proprietary network. It enables trading partners, suppliers and customers with common interests to form a tight business relationship and a strong communication bond. 3.3.1 Meaning and Definitions: A) Meaning: An Extranet is a private network that uses the Internet protocol and the public telecommunication system to share secure part of an organisation's information or

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operations with its branches (located within the same city or outside), partners, users, customers, suppliers or contacts. An extranet can viewed as part of an organisation's intranet that extended to users outside the organisation.

An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. In a business-to-business context, an extranet can viewed as an extension of an organization's intranet that is extend to users outside the organization, usually partners, vendors and suppliers, in isolation from all other Internet users. In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) models involve known servers of one or more companies, communicating with previously unknown consumer users. An extranet is similar to a DMZ in that it provides access to needed services for channel partners, without granting access to an organization's entire network.

Fig: Extranet

B) Definitions: 1) The Federation National Council (FNC) Defines Extranet:

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An extranet is a private network that uses Internet technology and the public telecommunication system to share securely part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses. 2) Internet Society (ISOC) defines Extranet: An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside for specific business or educational purposes. Extranets are extensions to or segments of, private intranet networks that have built in many corporations for information sharing and ecommerce. 3.3.2 Advantages of Extranet: The functions of extranet are basically the same as those of the Intranet, although an extranet can cover more than one intranet. The major function of the extranet is that the geographically dispersed networks or intranets can be connected through the Internet. Apart from this the extranet benefits may be divided into five main categories : 1) Enhanced Communications : Extranet help in improved communications between geographically dispersed branches of an organisation. Extranets serve as improved business partnership channels between businesses and their suppliers, collaborators and customers. Extranets help to improve the collaboration activities between business partners towards a common goal. For example, virtual organisations depend on extranets for their marketing, sales, order fulfillment and customer support. 2) Productivity Enhancements : Just-in-time information delivery helps to enhance the productivity of businesses as availability of information when needed is more useful than information that is late or never. Also just-in-time information delivery helps to reduce information overload and makes available only the required information. Extranet help to build

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collaborations between work groups and teams for sharing information and increasing productivity. Training on demand to geographically dispersed employees helps to enhance the productivity of the organisation. 3) Business Enhancements : Extranet enable sharing of designs and techniques and simultaneous engineering efforts among geographically dispersed locations helps to lower, design and production costs. Collaborations and communications with the networks of clients help to improve relationships with the clients. Communications with remote suppliers and customers give rise to new business opportunities. 4) Cost Reduction : ' Errors are reduced due to automation. Administrative and operational costs are reduced due to the sharing of information over extranets between various parties involved. The costs associated with travel and meetings are reduced due to sharing and exchange of information and through tools as chatting, video conferencing etc. Paper publishing costs are reduced and sometimes even eliminated. 5) Information Delivery : Paper publishing costs are reduced and quality of information delivery is enhanced due to extranet. Standard formats for information exchange can be maintained easily and mailing costs are reduced.

3.3.3

Disadvantages of Extranet :

An extranet works like the Internet in that it is a method of communication for remote business associates using their computers and other electronic devices. While the Internet is public, an extranet is private, and the extranet owner decides who receives an invitation to access it. An extranet involves extensive identification routines and is accessible by clearly defined affiliate groups in the organization. Following are the disadvantages: ~ 3.27 ~

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1) Expensive : Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g.: hardware, software, employee training costs) if hosted internally instead of via an ASP. 2) Security : Security of extranets can be a big concern when dealing with valuable information. System access needs to be carefully controlled to avoid sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. 3) Reduce Personal Contact : Extranets can reduce personal contact (face-to-face meetings) with customers and business partners. This could cause a lack of connections made between people and a company, which hurts the business when it comes to loyalty of its business partners and customers.

3.3.4 Difference between Intranet and Extranet: The difference between intranet and extranet are shows in below: Basis Meaning Intranet Extranet

It is Private network used It permits individuals from for sharing information in distinct organisation. organisation to

access resources available on an Intranet.

Communication

It increases the efficiency It is a business business and communication in the tool, allowing various areas of an communication between

organisation such, as sales, clients, partners and finance resources. and human distributors.

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Uses

It

provides

secure, It not only provides data access to but also conducts

customized

relevant information. Sharing

electronic commerce.

It is restricted to the internal It facilitates internal as well data sharing as external data. only by the It can be used by the corporate suppliers users and

Accessibility

Can

used

corporate Users.

Security level

It has internal risks.

It

has

risk

from

the

suppliers. Accessibility Intranet is totally internal to and the Extranet is a way an organisation. to connect businesses and suppliers to each other securely Protected Through The intranet is protected Extranet communications

from the global internet by can be encrypted over a firewalls and by the need to VPN; it should also be log on with a secure more secure than sending data over the public

password.

internet.

Review Questions

Q. 1) What is internet? Explain its advantages and disadvantages. Q. 2) What is intranet? Explain the development of intranet.

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Q. 3) Explain the role of intranet in B2B application. Q. 4) What is extranet? Explain its advantages and disadvantages. Q. 5) Explain the difference between intranet and extranet. Q. 6) Write a short notes on: a) History of internet b) Services of internet c) Components of intranet e) E-mail

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