Difference between VPN and Extranet? (1 Viewer)

[Sefi]

Hey. For our IPT assignment one of our short stories that we have to do (yes, short stories) is based on the internet, intranet, and extranets.
The internet and intranets bit is fine.
My question is: What is the diference between an extranet and a VPN?

From what i can find its that a VPN is only accessible by a companies employees (such as accessing folders on a company server from home)
Whereas an extranet is open to other companies (e.g. suppliers etc)
Is that right?

Thanks in advance

EDIT:

On further reading, i'v managed to confuse myself more, i seem to be able to find 2 dfinitions of an intranet, one sounds a lot like my above idea of a VPN, and the other makes it sound like its the internet (as in a network of networks) but within a single company or organisation (for example, a school in which in a number of rooms there are number of computers all connected by LAN, these LANs are then connected to the server) but this indicates no inbound access from the web/internet. Which is right? :S:S

 

[shinji]

I have an idea, but referred to wikipedia first to confirm.

Extranet

An extranet is a private network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity, and possibly the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers or other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's Intranet that is extended to users outside the company (eg: normally over the Internet). It has also been described as a "state of mind" in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with other companies as well as to sell products to customers.

Briefly, an extranet can be understood as "a private internet over the Internet".

An argument has been made that "extranet" is just a buzzword for describing what institutions have been doing for decades, that is, interconnecting to each other to create private networks for sharing information. Although, even if this argument is valid, the term "extranet" is still applies and can be used in order to elimate the use of the above description.

VPN

A virtual private network (VPN) is a private communications network often used within a company, or by several companies or organizations, to communicate confidentially over a public network. VPN traffic can be carried over a public networking infrastructure (e.g. the Internet) on top of standard protocols, or over a service provider's private network with a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider.

 

[Sefi]

So in other words they are essentially the same (that is, they are a private network operated over the internet), except that a VPN is only accessible by employees of the company, whereas an Extranet can be accessed by other companies as well?

 

[ianc]

yes that's right - while it may not necessarily be true in today's world, the IPT syllabus is a little outdated and what they want you to say is something along these lines:

A VPN acts just like an intranet because it is not restricted to a single location. Unlike an intranet it uses the public internet infrastructure and uses a special "tunneling" protocol and security procedures such as passwords to restrict access to permitted users. It saves costs because it uses existing infrastructure.

An extranet is any network (could be a VPN, LAN or intranet) in which those outside the organisation such as suppliers/vendors can gain access (usually restricted)

Hope this made sense!!

 

[Sefi]

So then what about an intranet?
It's similar to an extranet except only open to, say, employees of a business, right?

 

[ianc]

yes - an intranet is only for people within the organisation, but uses its own private network infrastructure rather than the internet like a VPN

 

[Forbidden.]

Hamachi is a popular VPN used by gamers.
It uses protocols which are very identical to a LAN and simulate it.
Players with Hamachi can simply join a game via LAN instead of the internet taking advantage of LAN-only benefits, although the data is physically traveling across the internet.

VPNs use a set of protocols so only members of that VPN can communicate with other members of that VPN.