The Internet

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Technology Guide 5

• The Internet the Web

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What is the Internet?

• The Internet (the Net) is a network that
  connects hundreds of thousands of internal
  organizational computer networks worldwide.
• Participating computer systems, called nodes,
  include PCs, local area networks, database(s),
  and mainframes.
• A node may include several networks of an
  organization, possibly connected by a wide area
  network.
• The Internet connects to hundreds of thousands of
  computer networks in more than 200 countries.

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The History of the Internet

• The Internet grew out of an experimental project
  of the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) of
  the U.S. Department of Defense.
• The project was initiated in 1969 to test the
  feasibility of a wide area computer network.
• The main network that links the nodes is referred
  to as the backbone, a fiber-optic network
  currently operated mainly by telecommunication
  companies such as MCI.
• No central agency manages the Internet. The cost
  of its operation is shared among hundreds of
  thousands of nodes.

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Next Generation Internet Services

• Very High-Speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS)
  is a high-speed network designed to support the
  academic Internet2 and the government-sponsored
  Next-Generation Internet (NGI) initiative
• Internet2 is a collaborative effort by large U.S.
  research universities, working with industry and
  government, to develop advanced Internet
  technologies.
• The Next-Generation Internet (NGI) initiative is
  a multiagency, U.S. federal government research
  and development program that is developing
  advanced networking technologies and
  revolutionary applications.

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Accessing the Internet

• PC and modem
• From home
• From work or school, via the organizations LAN
• Television set, a special connection device, and
  a telephone connection.
• Combined PC and TV

• Internet kiosks are terminals placed in public
  places like libraries and coffee houses.
• Cell phones and pagers are becoming another
  popular way of accessing the Internet.

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The TCP/IP Protocol

• Procedures and rules for transferring data across
  the Internet are called telecommunication
  protocols.
• The information that passes through the Internet
  is divided into small portions, called packets.
• One member of the TCP/IP family of protocols is
  Telnet, a service that allows users to connect to
  computers other than their own.

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Internet Resources

• An online service sells access to large (usually
  nationwide) databases.
• Several magazines deal exclusively or mainly with
  the Internet.
• Internet Business Advantage, Internet World ,
  NetGuide, Wired
• There are also many organizations involved in
  Internet activities.
• Internet Society (isoc.org), Electronic Frontier
  Foundation (eff.org)
• Wide area information servers (WAIS) is an
  Internet directory designed to help end-users
  find and retrieve information over the networks
  by providing efficient search methods.

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The World Wide Web

• The World Wide Web (or the Web) is a vast
  collection of interconnected pages of information
  that are stored on computers around the world
  that are connected to the Internet.
• A Web site is a computer network, such as the one
  in your university, that has a connection to the
  Internet.
• The Web is based upon a set of standards for
  storing, retrieving, and manipulating
  information, using a special tool called a Web
  browser.
• Documents accessible on the Web contain
  hyperlinks to other documents.
• The home page is the starting point for your
  search.

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Web Programming Languages

• The most common web programming language is
  HyperText Markup Language (HTML).
• Another programming language, Java, makes it is
  easy to develop special applications in finance,
  manufacturing, marketing, and education.
• A technology that has evolved from Java is called
  Jini, a network protocol that sends messages to
  other parts of the network.
• e.g, If a new printer is added to a network, it
  can tell the PCs on the network that it is there
  via the Jini protocol.

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Search Engines

• A search engine is a tool that enables you to
  locate information by using key words in the same
  way that you would search online library
  resources.
• Google, Yahoo, Lycos, HotBot, WebCrawler, Alta
  Vista, and Excite.
• To get better even results, metasearch engines
  integrate the findings of the various search
  engines to answer queries posted by the users.
• Spider, Savvy Search, Metacrawler, All-in-One,
  and Web Compass

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Using the Internet

• A uniform resource locator (URL) indicates the
  location (or address) of a Web site you want to
  visit.
• A predecessor to the Web, Gopher, is a burrowing
  tool that provides access to a wide range of
  textual information available on the Internet.
• Many software packages can be downloaded on the
  WWW.
• Some are free as public domain (cheapware).
• Others are called shareware, meaning you can use
  them on a trial basis.
• Many of the documents are transferable from the
  Internet using a member of the TCP/IP family
  called file transfer protocol (FTP).

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Electronic mail

• Electronic mail (e-mail) allows multiple-access
  communication delivered exclusively on a computer
  network.
• Several vendors produce e-mail software.
• e.g., Microsoft Outlook, LotusNotes, QuickMail
• E-mail is also becoming connected to voice mail,
  and sometimes the two are integrated.
• Many Web-based e-mail providers offer e-mail
  accounts for free.
• e.g., Hotmail, Coolmail, and Yahoo! Mail

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Chat Rooms Newsgroups

• Chat programs allow you to send messages to
  people who are connected to the same channel of
  communication at the same time. There are two
  main types
• Webchat allows you to send messages to Net users
  using a Web browser and visiting a Webchat site.
• Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an e-mail-based
  (text only) program often used in business.
• Newsgroups communicate via messages posted in a
  different time/different place mode. The groups
  are organized in a directory according to
  categories and subcategories.

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Mailing Lists Electronic Bulletin Boards

• Mailing Lists are a useful way of communicating
  to large groups.
• To add your e-mail name and address to a mailing
  list, you subscribe to remove your name, you
  unsubscribe from the mailing list.
• Electronic bulletin boards (EBBs) are mailing
  lists on which users can leave messages for other
  people and receive massive amounts of
  information.
• A portal is a Web site designed to offer a
  variety of Internet services from a single
  convenient location.
• e.g., Altavista, Excite, Lycos, Yahoo!

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Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) provides a
  universal open standard that enables users to
  access Web-based interactive information services
  and applications from the screens of mobile
  phones.
• The communication language being used between the
  Internet and the mobile phone is Wireless Markup
  Language (WML).
• It is expected that in 2002, more than half of
  the e-commerce transactions will be conducted
  with mobile phones.