Intranet vs Internet vs LAN

It is certainly possible that both Intranets and the Internet can coexist. As spelt theoretically, the entire Intranet could be located at a remote site and users who are spread over a number of geographical locations can be permitted to access the data using secure links. Though cutting off the Intranet from outside world physically would make it function like a local network, it has its own advantages. The main advantage being a higher level of security. The immediate disadvantage is that if the organisation has remote locations it will have to evolve methods for permitting the employees or users to log on to the Intranet.

When it comes to comparison between the Intranet and LAN, it can be clearly observed that an Intranet is a network within the organisation whereas LAN is a campus wide network; geography plays a vital role. Intranet maybe considered as a group of LAN's of an organisation connected together as shown in Figure 2. They could be connected through a WAN architecture. Naturally, all the facilities that are available in client/server architecture are also applicable here.

    Figure: Intranet is a group of LANs interconnected (may be at different locations)