- E-mail thru Intranet
Q5.1 Would we be able to provide e-mail services to our employees by developing an
intranet?
In other words, would an intranet be able to, among its many advantages, provide our
company with e-mail capabilities, thus keeping us from needing to purchase a vendor e-mail
package such as cc:mail?
A. IntraNets can include mail servers based on low cost Internet technology. To
setup a IntraNet mail server first requires a server. For smaller groups this can be a PC
clone with Windows, Windows NT, or a Intel based UNIX like Linux. Larger groups will need
a RISC based server like a Sun, HP, or IBM Unix workstation. Two pieces of software
must run on the mail server. First, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server software
is required. The SMTP service communicates with other mail servers to transfer mail
between mail servers. Sendmail is the most common SMTP software as it is included with
most versions of Unix. Smail, and others, are available for download from the Internet for
free or little cost.
The second software is a Post Office Protocol (POP) server. The POP service
communicates with the end user computers for reading and sending mail. Eudora Lite is the
most popular of the free mail readers. However, both Netscape and Microsoft have added
mail readers into their web browsers.
If you desire your mail to have access to the Internet, a Internet connection is
required. The Internet connection can be a leased line or a dial up connection. If mail
will be your only use of a Internet connection, dial up is very attractive cost wise.
Currently, this SMTP/POP mail solution does have a drawback. There is are not any
directory services. It's hard to discover others addresses for mail. A web server with a
list of address eases this problem. Netscape and others are working on a new standard for
directory services to address this issue.
- ROI on Intranet
Q5.2 What experiences have you made about the costs of an intranet compared to the
cost saving effect of it? in other words what is the Return on Investment (ROI) on
Intranet solutions for your organization ?
A. To the best of our knowledge, we have not come across any solid figures on
Intranet ROI. A few articles (check out the articles section on the web site) and common
opinion suggests that the investment for a simple intranet startup is minimal. You can
probably build a simple Intranet with a spare pentium machine running Windows NT,
shareware web server software and a few other shareware components. Thus most projects do
not need to justify the return on investment to begin with. Hope this helps
- Hardware for Intranet
Q5.3 I am trying to come up with a proposal to get my company on an intranet
system. My question is what specific hardware components would I need to connect 20 or so
offices in the Southeast, all in different states. Also, what should I ask the phone
company to do in order to help accomplish this.
A. An Intranet is simply a standard Wide Area Network(WAN). The use of the term
Intranet recently to describe using software developed for the Internet on your company's
WAN. Web servers are an example. To setup a WAN, You will need to have some type of
communications between the different sites. National ISDN or a long distance Frame Relay
could be your best choice. You will have to install a router at each site. Each router
would connect back to a central site over dedicated phone lines.
If you are uncomfortable designing a WAN, you should seek a Network Design consultant.
Be careful of the phone companies, their primary business is selling you the phone lines,
not consulting.
Consultants typically charge $1,000 - $1,500 a day. And a good WAN design could cost
$20,000 - $40,000. I used to be a Network Design consultant at BellSouth Network Solutions
(until they closed down this spring).
- CD Rom on Intranet
Q5.4 My company recently completed its first CD-ROM. We used Folio VIEWS software.
Customers are asking if they can have it on their intranet. What do we need to do to
convert this CD into a format that can be used by a corporate intranet ? Are there off the
shelf tools to do this? A. Folio has a Web server product for Windows NT that
automatically converts Folio Views to HTML documents. Cost is about $7,000.
Your clients would buy and install this web server and then could read your CD-ROM with
Folio files on it. I've appended the info from Folio's web server (http://www.folio.com/)
Alternatively, you could create the information as Web documents originally and
distribute a free web browser for the disk.
ISYS , market a product which lets you put a 'search' button on your CD Intranet
without the need for a server or TCP/IP. It's called ISYS IntraDisk (http://www.isysdev.com/products/intradisk.htm).
- Intranet on paper
Q5.5 Where can I get a piece of software that will allow me to develop an intranet
on "paper"... It would have to be RFC compliant, and allow all those IP address
and domain names to be created, before one started configuring the actual software. A.
An IntraNet is a standard network with Internet software running on it. Any tools used to
design a standard TCP/IP network will work. I use Visio for drawing and Excel to track IP
addresses.
Web servers (the mainstay of the Intranet) requires a little marketing type planning.
Artwork and text must convey your message to your co-workers.
To address some specific issues in your email: Most all networking products are RFC
compliant. It's which RFC that matters. Unless you are wanting a ATM network, I wouldn't
worry about the TCP/IP RFC's.
You will have to register for a Domain name and IP addresses. Your Internet Service
Provider can help. If you are using a firewall (a necessity!), You can use RFC 1597
private addresses and not have to worry about getting registered IP addresses.
- Quantity of servers on Intranet
Q5.6 We have approximately 10,000 employees, most of whom have PCs on their desk,
in offices worldwide. How do we determine how many servers should be used when creating an
intranet?
A. Here are some of the factors you can use to determine the number of servers you
might need for your intranet. 1. The number of anticipated simultaneous accesses.
Chances are not all 10,000 employees will be accessing your intranet at the same time.
Consider the geographical factors like time zones etc and you will come up with a
reasonable number of simultaneous "hits" for ex. 1500. Find out if your server
can handle these hits without getting bogged down.
2. Bandwidth
How much data will you be pumping through your intranet ? for bandwidth intensive data you
will want to add mirror "sites" and split your load by allocating different
servers to different groupes of users. Remember that if all this data is still flowing
through the same network (LAN) your network might now be the bottleneck.
3. Distance
How far are your users from the server ? It might be a good idea to maintain a server in
ex. Asia for your employees in the area, one in Europe and one in the USA. Try and find
out if employees that are farther from your server are having problems with a slow WAN
link. If so, consider placing a server in that location. You will have to mirror all these
servers at an off-peak time to be consistent.
In summary, it is a trade off between ease of maintenance and performance. The more
servers you have the more difficult it will be to maintain them but you might be able to
get a better overall performance increase.
Hope this helps.
- Oracle & Lotus by using intranets
Q5.7 Is it possible to use a relational database (Oracle or Progress) from a HTML
browser and if its possible how can I do this?
- Once the information is on the Web, how do you modify the HTML document.
Is there a converter that allow you to use a conventional word processor?
- Which software can I use to develop an Intranet?
- What Lotus Notes provides that Intranet doesn't.
A. Yes, there are many HTML front ends to SQL databases like Oracle. There are
many commercial products available. Look at Oracle's web server for info. If you can write
a CGI script, then you can write your own front end. All you need is for the CGI script to
access the SQL database for info.
Once the document is uploaded to a web server, you must either edit the file from that
computer or download it to your PC. If you are using a Netscape server, Netscape Gold will
allow you to edit the web page while it is still on the server. Microsoft has an assistant
for MS Word that allows HTML editing.
Intranet is the application of Internet technology to a private network. Any software
you would use on the Internet can be used on a Intranet. The difference is who can access
the data.
Lotus Notes is a more robust solution. It automated the replication of data from server
to server allowing each permitted site to have a local copy of the data, while keeping
updates distributed. A typical Notes installation costs $20,000 US compared to $6,000 for
commercial web server. A search at PC Magazine's web server should turn up a few articles.
- Retailing & intranets
Q5.8 I am looking for some case studies of Intranets being used in the retailing
business.
e.g., by Sears, Walmart, etc.. Any ideas this info can be found? A. I haven't
heard of any studies or reports on retailers using Web servers on their local networks.
However, check the network magazine web sites (www.cmp.com www.nwfusion.com www.zdnet.com)
or the New York or Wall Street papers sites.
- Designing intranets & ready-made software
Q5.9 We are in the business of designing and implementing Intranets for
corporations in India. Recently launched products such as Netscape's Navigator Gold and
Frontier's Intranet Genie are posing a major threat to businesses like ours.
Do you think our perception is right or do you believe companies like ours still have a
role to play? A. Agreed newer products will ease the process of transition
conventional systems to corporate intranets. This trend is not unlike say RAD (Rapid
Application Development) tools.
The idea is to remain current with these tools and use these to your benefit. Also,
this is an area where newer technology is evolving daily. I would suggest moving away from
solutions that are better handled by the new tools and adapt to upcoming technologies. For
ex. Java based solutions or integrating with corporate databases (DataWebs)
The advent of better tools is usually a matter of major concern if your these tools are
doing what your consultants are doing right now. A good idea would be to explore new
possibilities and retrain.
- Windows thru Intranet
Q5.10 I work for Xerox Corporation in the Corporate Business Forms Design and
Control Department. We will soon install a Windows application that our users can run from
our server over the Novell Netware network that allows them to search for and download
electronic forms using titles and keywords rather that the file name which is our control
number. This application is vital to our operation in that it allows our customers to
easily access forms and enables us to keep track of which forms are being uses and which
we can obsolete.
Specifically, my question is this:
Xerox has a very efficient intranet up and running, and we already have a homepage on that
network.
Is it possible for our customers to run the above Windows application from our PC server
through a URL on our homepage without having to install the Windows software? A.
Here are some of the options we can suggest
1. Use CGI to act as a "pipe" between your users and your application.
2. Consider a set of Java Applets (kinda tedious process)
3. if you are dealing with files that users are looking for I would suggest putting these
files on your corporate web server and use a web server search service like
"Excite" . This will let your users search for files based on a set of keywords
and download files as needed.
Based on the limited knowledge of your needs, #3 seems like the best way to go.
- Security on intranets
Q5.11 Other than server authentication, what methods are there for restricting
access to pages on an intranet? A. You can setup a CGI script to do
authentication before the same CGI script serves the page to a user. Other than the CGI
script and the server itself, a firewall can do authentication before allowing a user to
get to the web server. The firewall method can't restrict which pages, just which servers.
- Setting up Intranet documents
Q5.12 I work for a hotel chain (Sol Melia). The company has a complete set of
manuals (more than 10000 pages of text and images), that describe the different procedures
and ways to operate. I am thinking about introducing these manuals into our intranet.
These way we would save all the money spent in paper a deliveries. For this to be
operative, people would need to be able to do yahoo like search on the manuals. Another
problem is that the actual files are in word format so I have to find the best way to
translate them into html files My question is:
which products will solve that problem (netscape suitspot, )? A. Check out the
microsoft web site www.microcosft.com for a Word - HTML converter.
Run all your documents through this converter, save them as HTML files. To perform
searches on these documents, I would suggest using the Excite Netsearch software. I
believe its free for web sites. http://corp.excite.com/ews.html
Livelink Intranet from OpenText provides out of the box functionality for a Yahoo style
intranet web site (including netscape server) that can deal with Word documents, both in
native and html format (user chooses which at *viewing* time). This should get you
started.
- Setting up Intranet server capacity
Q5.13 I am trying to come up with a proposal to get my company on an intranet
system. My question is : what INTRANET server configuration would I need to establish
connection for our users through LAN or WAN. What figure or information I need to
determine the server capacity? A19.There are many questions to consider for web servers:
Do you have a preference for, or experience with, Unix, Windows NT, or Mac servers?
How many users? How many sites? How are the sites connected (54/64K, T-1/E-1, etc..)?
What data will be presented?
NetScape's, MicroSoft's, Other Vendor's, or free servers?
A.My preference is for a Pentuim with 2GB scsi running Linux and the Apatchee Web
server. Should only cost about $5,000 US. You can then grow or migrate to bigger servers
from there.
- Installing TCP/IP
Q5.14 I am new to PC networking. I have an intranet server running Windows NT (
TCP/IP) and am connecting to our token ring Novell PC network thru Netware. Would you
please tell me the best way to install(?) TCP/IP on the PC's running windows 3.1 on the
Novell side so that they can access my "Intranet Server" ? A. Check
out Lan Workplace for Windows. Installing this will give your Windows PC TCP/IP
connectivity. The package also comes with a few nice tools like ftp server, telnet, ping,
talk and other tcp utilities. You will need to assign IP addresses for each machine.
- Running remote applications
Q5.15 I would like to know if it is possible to run an application (for instance
MSword) through a web site on the intranet even though you don't have the software on your
machine. If possible how do i make the link to execute the .exe file to start up the
application. A. Check the CGI documentation for your web server. Depending on
your server software it may be possible to serve MS Word or other documents to compatible
browsers. You may also be able to execute a binary file through the CGI gateway and pipe
the results back to the browser. Microsofts ActiveX technology claims to allow Internet
Explorer users to view and modify documents created by Microsoft Word, Excel and few other
applications.
- Intranet & Internet
Q5.16 Can an Intranet be designed entirely within the Internet with only password
protected pages, or firewalls, separating the intranet from the internet? Or is a simple
intranet network better? A. Yes, intranets and the internet can certainly
coexist. In fact theoretically your entire intranet could be located at a remote site and
your users can access the data using secure links. Cutting off your intranet from the
outside world physically has its own advantages. The main advantage being a higher level
of security. The down side is that if your organization has remote locations you will have
to figure out some way of letting them in.
- Server Capability
Q5.17 If 100 computers are on the network, what should be the capabilities of the
"server"? A. This is certainly a FAQ. Unfortunately the number of
users of computers on an intranet is not enough to judge the requirements. Consider the
network traffic and type of applications required. You can start small. Maybe with a fast
pentium or UNIX box. Make sure you have enough RAM (32 MB min) and plenty of disk space. I
would prefer a system that is easily upgradable as the load increases. You should be able
to add extra RAM or a hard drive or maybe even pop in an extra CPU as your needs grow.
- Files to HTML conversion
Q5.18 what do you recommend as the best software on the market to convert files to
web based design (HTML)? Is it better to convert it manually? Run it through specialized
software (i.e. MS) or have generic design software? A. HTMLtransit is an
excellent convertor for html documents. You can also use Microsofts Web
publishing wizard or Office 97 to convert office documents to html.
- Intranet - Is it really necessary?
Q5.19 I have heard and read about the Intranet and am aware of some of the
advantages of the Intranet. My question is that can the Intranet be of any use to my
organization and how so? I would be glad if you could give me any information regarding
this. A.To find out if an intranet solution would benefit your organization over
your current setup try asking yourself these questions.
1. Can all my users get to all the data and services using a web browser ?
2. Is access to data restricted to certain types of workstations or operating systems ?
ex. only Windows or Macintosh machines ?
3. Can remote locations access this information easily using an internet connection and a
web browser ?
4. Are you tied down to a proprietary solution for conferencing, email, document sharing
etc ?
5. What are the costs to deploy client-server applications and train users ?
Hope this helps to get you started.
- Intranet - leveling of cultural differences
Q5.20 I am looking for a company with an experience that would pertain to an
intranet's leveling of cultural differences within an organization. Would you have run
across any examples of this ? Cultures: in relation to this topic could mean nationalities
or any other corporate subgroups. A. We haven't come across any such report or a
company with such experience. WE would be happy to post this to the web site and keep you
posted on the responses.
- AS400 db
Q5.21 I'm wondering if there is a solution to tie an AS400 db into an Intranet. A.
Yes. We found a few links to AS400 solution providers at http://www.mbauman.com/inter.htm.