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I understand that a Intranet is setup within a LAN so that web pages and data alike can be accessed in limited areas such as in a Home or School. I also understand that an Intranet typically contains data that should not be publicly accessible such as contact details for personnel, internal job adverts and such.

I then know that the Extranet is an extension of the Intranet. And if a company or business allows some access from outside to its Intranet then it becomes an Extranet.

What's confusing me is if people can publicly access an Intranet via the Internet isn't it a WAN? And doesn't that defeat the point of a Intranet, to be more secure and private?

I'd really appreciate an explanation with examples thanks in advance!

Late apologize if this is in the incorrect section; my first post and I failed to see a more appropriate section.

Question is deemed fine,

A Intranet is a type of network that is WAN/LAN based only, if a server allow's remote access to it, it's no longer
a "Intranet" based network (Technologically speaking). It would also depend on the type of connection between the
server (Intranet) and the person who's accessing it, if its a secure-tunneled base connection, then it still might be
considered a intranet, but if its just a open-webpage anybody can look through, its the internet.

The point of an Intranet is not only security and privacy. Intranets are aslo established to share your resources to a limited public, not for privacy reasons, but for better efficiency. Only a limited amount of people access the intranet resources thereby increasing productivity. Also, I don't know about people outside the intranet accessing it, but the inner guys & resources sometimes access the outside internet. The reason is that many web applications & resources which are available on the internet are not available in a private network like an intranet. The intranet, no matter its size & implementation, has its own limitations regarding the facilities it can offer.
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