What is "intranet"

n. (context computing English) A private computer network that uses the protocols of the Internet.

n. a restricted computer network; a private network created using World Wide Web software

An intranet is a private network accessible only to an organization's staff. Generally a wide range of information and services from the organization's internal IT systems are available that would not be available to the public from the Internet. A company-wide intranet can constitute an important focal point of internal communication and collaboration, and provide a single starting point to access internal and external resources. In its simplest form an intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs).

Intranets began to appear in a range of larger organizations from 1994.