intranet

networking Any network which provides similar services

within an organisation to those provided by the Internet

outside it but which is not necessarily connected to the

Internet. The commonest example is the use by a company of

one or more World-Wide Web servers on an internal TCP/IP

network for distribution of information within the company.

Since about 1995, intranets have become a major growth area in

corporate computing due to the availability of cheap or free

commercial browser and web server software which allows

them to provide a simple, uniform hypertext interface to

many kinds of information and application programs.

Some companies give limited access to their intranets to other

companies or the general public. This is known as an

"extranet".

(1997-07-14)