Networking and Communication

LAN and WAN

Scope of business networks

While the Internet was evolving and creating a way for organizations to connect to each other and the world, another revolution was taking place inside organizations. The proliferation of personal computers led to the need to share resources such as printers, scanners, and data. Organizations solved this problem through the creation of local area networks (LANs), which allowed computers to connect to each other and to peripherals.

A LAN is a local network, usually operating in the same building or on the same campus. A Wide Area Network (WAN) provides connectivity over a wider area such as an organization's locations in different cities or states.

Client-Server

Client-server computing provides stand-alone devices such as personal computers, printers, and file servers to work together. The personal computer originally was used as a stand-alone computing device. A program was installed on the computer and then used to do word processing or calculations. With the advent of networking and local area networks, computers could work together to solve problems. Higher-end computers were installed as servers, and users on the local network could run applications and share information among departments and organizations.

Intranet

An intranet, as the name implies, provides web-based resources for the users within an organization. These web pages are not accessible to those outside the company. The pages typically contain information useful to employees such as policies and procedures. In an academic setting the intranet provides an interface to learning resources for students.

Extranet

Sometimes an organization wants to be able to collaborate with its customers or suppliers while at the same time maintaining the security of being inside its own network. In cases like this a company may want to create an extranet, which is a part of a company's network that can be made available securely to those outside of the company. Extranets can be used to allow customers to log in and place orders, or for suppliers to check their customers' inventory levels.

Sometimes an organization will need to allow someone who is not located physically within its internal network to gain secure access to the intranet. This access can be provided by a virtual private network (VPN).

Sidebar: Microsoft's SharePoint Powers the Intranet

As organizations begin to see the power of collaboration between their employees, they often look for solutions that will allow them to leverage their intranet to enable more collaboration. Since most companies use Microsoft products for much of their computing, some are using Microsoft's SharePoint to support employee collaboration.

SharePoint provides a communication and collaboration platform that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft's Office suite of applications. Using SharePoint, employees can share a document and edit it together, avoiding the need to email the document for others to review. Projects and documents can be managed collaboratively across the organization. Corporate documents are indexed and made available for search.