This is one of two terms that had left many folks confused and bewildered as to what it truly means. In this article I will describe at a very broad level what an Internet Application is. The next article installment will cover the counterpart to this term which is Intranet Application. The goal of these two installments is to help dispel the confusion about what each term means and to show the difference between them allowing you to have a better understanding of each term.
The term Internet has been so widely used that it can easily be misunderstood when attached to another word like Application. The first piece of advice I give anyone who is trying to sort all of this out is to not look at the mode of connection or transport, but instead to look at the destination they are connecting to. This will go a long way in helping distinguish what this term means.
Generally speaking an Internet Application begins with one or more web pages displayed within your web browser when you connect to the web site that is hosting the application. The web page can be something as basic and void of details as a login page with nothing more than a login and password prompt, a submit and clear button, and a logo or other image to identify what web site you have connected to over the Internet. Tossed into the mix could be some basic content that anyone who connects to the web site is permitted to see with the login and password prompts taking up less space and blending in as just another function available on the web page.
The web site that you are connected to resides on a web server that is available to the general public at large by using the same Internet web address that you used. If you do not know what a web server is, see my blog entry entitled What Is a Web Server to find out the details. The web server will either contain the data and programs that comprise the application being connected to or have access to servers that contain the data and programs that that comprise the application being connected to. If a database is used as part of the application, the database can reside on the same server the web server does, an adjoining server that the web server connects to, or a server that sits behind a firewall where the web server is in front of the firewall facing the general public at large.
What is important to note is that the web server is accessible by the general public at large where they can surf to the web site it contains without having to first connect to and go through another network layer. From home, work, or anywhere that your computer can connect to the Internet, you simply point your web browser to the address which contains the Internet Application, you connect to it, and away you go.
Ira Richard Smith