Internet, Intranet & Extranet

The Internet

The Internet is a vast worldwide network that joins a huge number of smaller networks together. The World Wide Web is a small network within the Internet. This public subset of the Internet is the portion of the Internet that we think of when we visit web sites. Most businesses and schools have their own networks that are connected to the Internet.

Intranet

An Intranet is a network that is utilized within a business or organization. It is private and protected from the Internet by something called a firewall. Only authorized traffic is allowed to flow in and out through this firewall. An intranet usually is only accessible from computers within the organization. The TISD Intranet consists of shared network resources that can be utilized by students and staff via district computers. Most Intranet resources are secure and cannot be accessed from home computers.

Extranet

Sometimes a business or school district needs to share information with employees or staff who are outside the network. This can be done through something called an Extranet. An Extranet makes Intranet resources available to authorized individuals via the Internet. Individuals must authenticate or identify themselves with passwords to prove who they are before gaining access. In this way the general public is restricted from using these resources. TISD provides an Extranet so that employees may check their email and log into Staff web pages from outside the district via the Internet. Both of these resources are available from the home page of the TISD web site at http://www.tisd.org.