• Internet, Intranets & Extranets
• Internet
- Internets :- Is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols. The internet is made up of millions upon millions of small computer networks all brought together to form the vast inter-network
•Benefits & Drawbacks of Internet
•Benefits :-
- Always available:- The Internet is aways available for you to use, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You don't have to wait for it to open or wait for someone to make it available. It is just there, when you need it and for whatever you need.
- Vast range of information:- Think of any search term and type it into a search engine. We can pretty much guarantee that you will find web sites with information on that term.
- Easy to contact people:- The Internet provides many ways to enable you to keep in contact with people at all hours of the day and night. From email, forums, chatrooms, telephone calls and video conferencing. You are almost spoilt for choice.
- Access to other cultures:- The Internet enables you to look at sites about or written by people in other countries. You can look at photographs of where they live and read about their way of life.
- Up-to-date:- One of the main advantages of the Internet is how fast things can be updated. When a news story breaks, the BBC website can have that news on its pages within a couple of minutes. They can keep adding more information as it becomes available.
• Drawbacks :-
-Information overload:- There is almost too much information on the Internet. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that is out there.
- Information can be biased:- No one owns the Internet and there is nothing to stop people posting their opinions and points of view on web pages, forums, blogs.
- Information can be inaccurate:- With a book or encyclopedia, you can be pretty confident that what you are reading has been checked, cross referenced and is correct. But with the Internet, no one checks what has been written.
- Cyberbullying:- With the growth of the Internet and new technology, bullying has been moving from the traditional playground to emails, chatrooms, texts and social websites.
- Offensive material - fraudulent sites:- No matter how careful you are when using the Internet, there is always the possibility that you will come across some sites that contain offensive or even illegal material. Use the 'safe search' option in your favourite search engine.
- Addiction:- There has been a worrying increase in the number of people who are becoming 'addicted' to the internet. Every spare moment they have is spent online, some even go without proper sleep so that they don't have to log off. There have been reports of families breaking up and people losing their jobs because of this problem.
• Intranets & Extranets
- Intranets :- Is a local or restricted communications network, especially a private network created using World Wide Web software.
- Extranets :- An Extranet is one where people from outside the organisation can connect to the internal Intranet. For example, external suppliers may have been set up to allow them to communicate via the company Intranet.