What are the various zones in SharePoint?

Zones represent different logical paths (URLs) of gaining access to the same Web application. You can use zones to enforce different access and policy conditions for group of users. Each Web application can have a maximum of 5 zones. The 5 possible zones are: · Default: · Intranet · Internet · Custom · Extranet When you create a Web application, the Default zone is created. You can then extend the Web application to create other zones. Each zone can only be selected once per Web application. For example, you can only have one Default zone in a Web application. Each zone is represented by a different Web site in IIS.

A zone is a way to map multiple Web application configuration settings to a single set of content databases. For example, you can create a Web application, create a content database, and then configure the database to use Windows authentication. All of these settings are configured for the Default zone for the Web application. You can then extend the Web application and map it to a new zone. When you do that, you select a zone to map to, such as Intranet, Internet, Custom, or Extranet. When you configure the second zone, you select an existing or new Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual server and a new load-balanced URL, and determine whether to use NTLM or Kerberos authentication. You can change the authentication provider, for example, to forms authentication, after the new zone is created.

Awesome explanation

- Zones provide the separate logical paths of authentication for the same web application. - 5 zones can be created for each web application : a. Default b. Intranet c. Extranet d. Internet and e. Custom