Internet Basics and the World Wide Web
Tomorrow is here today!
With more than 350 million pages, it is not a library.
Educational instruction courses from Art Appreciation to
Macroeconomics, though it is not a university.
It can take you around the globe in seconds, yet it is not a
rocket.
Its home to tens of millions of people, and it is not a country.
It - my friends, is the Internet.
So fasten your seatbelts, put up your tray tables, we are all
about to take off!
History of the Internet: 1950's - 1960's
During the Cold War days there existed a great tension between
the USA and USSR, many of you didn't grow up thinking the
"Russians were coming" - bomb shelters, air raid
sirens, civil air patrol - but it was a grim reality in the
1950's. President Eisenhower and the United States Government
knew when the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) put the
first orbiting satellite into space, that our country had to
react - and react we did. Assembling the greatest minds in our
country, the United States government and some of the finest
universities in our country created ARPA (Advanced Research
Projects Agency).
ARPA was perceived as a major weapon in the fight to prevent-
and if it couldn't prevent it, then it would help the US win
World War III.
J.C.R Licklider, the first director of ARPA's Information
Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) in 1962 began developing
ideas to link humans to computers and the idea of an
intergalactic computer network.
Robert Taylor the third ARPA IPTO director, possessed the
technical knowledge that Licklider didn't and joined together
with Larry Roberts from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) and by January of 1969, the two had devised a
prototype system that would be used to create the ARPA network.
The first connection came together in October 1969.
History of the Internet: ARPANet
It started slowly with major universities in the US coming online
with the ARPANet. An early benchmark was in the early 70's when
Ray Tomlinson, a BBN engineer, became the first person to send
electronic mail (E-mail). Mr. Tomlinson was first to use the
"@" symbol as a delimiter to separate the end-user and
the domain name in an E-mail address, one of the few things that
have remained the same for several decades. In 1973, the first
international connection was made and the original designers
began to understand that the limits of their current Network
Control Protocol (NCP) were soon to be met. A pair of early
engineers to the Internet came up with the solution to the NCP
limiting problem. In 1974, Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn developed the
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that
would allow the ARPANet to handle much greater capacity than
previously imaginable. Today, TCP/IP is the unchallenged standard
of all networks. By 1990, the Internet had grown to over 100,000
hosts.
History of Internet: World Wide Web
Basically, the World Wide Web (www or w3) is a conglomeration of
hyperconnected multimedia data - huh? Next to E-mail it is the
hottest thing on the Internet. It is responsible for bringing the
Internet into the homes and offices of millions of people who
wouldn't have otherwise ever bothered with cyberspace. The WWW
was created in 1991 by the English born scientist Tim Berners-Lee
while working at the Geneva, Switzerland based European Particle
Physics Laboratory (CERN). In the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic
Monthly, Vannevar Bush wrote an article named "As We May
Think". In it Mr. Bush predicted that the masses of
information that were being produced at that time would become
too much for people to access and use unless a device be created
that allow for the organized, efficient and flexible indexing of
this massive database - he at that time called the device a
"Memex", for memory extension. "It is an enlarged
intimate supplement to his memory" he wrote in his article,
with an insight way before its time. Inspired by Bush, Douglas
Engelbart and Ted Nelson theorized a system and called it
"CoDIAK" or Concurrent Development, Integration, and
Application of Knowledge. This system was based on the belief
that digital technology could be used to supplement the
collective human intelligence. The US Government dismissed the
idea, so Engelbart focused his talents elsewhere and invented the
computer mouse.
Meanwhile, in late 1990 Berners-Lee named his project World Wide
Web, created the first web browser and launched the WWW on a NeXT
computer at CERN. Originally it was just the CERN phone book and
could only be accessed via the CERN computer system, in August
1991 it hit the Internet. At the start, slow, stagnant growth and
many very elitist limiting factors kept most people away from the
WWW, but the system was ignited by a handful of college kids with
a lot of free time.. Marc Andreessen (an-dree-sen), an
undergraduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and the head of a team of software developers at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) was one of the
first pioneers in bringing the world to the web. In 1993, this
group of nerds created the first graphical (pretty pictures)Web
browser, Mosaic. Mosaic was freeware and it turned the text based
Internet into a world of pretty colors, sounds, pictures and
interactivity. That same year the White House went online and
traffic on the Internet grew 341,634% - you think they were ready
for the rush?
Andreessen went on to found Netscape (the original popular
browser) and the text based sites while still functioning are
left only to those text driven "webbers" that have a
need for speed and like the text driven sites for their
simplicity.
History of the Internet: Today
The Internet today for most of us is still mostly a toy, a
deviation from our TV sets and/or a timekill. But, for a large
percentage of us it is a very important tool that not only
increases our productivity but saves us tremendous amounts of
time. E-mail, World Wide Web, phone over Internet,
teleconferencing and efficient data-interchange currently make
the Internet an incomparable tool for today's businesses. Secure
financial transactions over the "net", electronic
ticketing and so many other features of today's Internet save
businesses billions of dollars a year, making this fairly new
technology an absolute necessity of businesses, big and small.
History of Internet: Tomorrow
There is only one way to describe the known future of the
Internet and it is called "convergence." Convergence
will be the meshing our all communications into one pipeline,
fiber optics right into your house - allowing every home to be a
communications sub-network. TV, radio, newspaper, telephone, fax,
intercom, all to make our lives simpler - while raising the
education and intelligence levels of all who will grow and live
in tomorrows world-wide virtual neighborhood. The paths that are
being taken today are forging the roads of tomorrow that will
make the Internet a necessary tool in our personal lives, while
bringing us closer together as a world wide community.
The combination of faster computer architecture, artificial
intelligence and the Internet in the future will make our
computers do things that are beyond our current comprehension.
Hopefully, instead of saving us from World War III, the Internet
may help save us from ourselves.
ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency. Started in 1958,when ARPANet first went on-line it consisted of four sites: University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute.
Broadcast E-mail: Delivering mail from one source to many addresses at one time. This is done with large mailing lists, distributing mail to a corporate "All Hands" list would be an example of broadcast mail.
Browser: A web browser lets the user access Web data on the Internet.
Cable Modems: Until satelites take over residential-direct communications, cable modems will soon rule the telecom industry. Allowing constant access without dial-up and providing cost-efficient speeds and reliabilty beyond what local phone lines can allow.
Chat Room: An online forum where users gather to hold real-time text based conversations. The many chat rooms on the web are normally geared to specific common interests of users.
Communication Links: The many connections that make up a communication system.
Cookie: A string of programming code that host computers will store on your computer as an electronic ID tag. They use input from their site visitors(you) and create profiles for marketing certain products geared to your interests. Passwords and other user specific items are stored as cookies also, so that the user does not have to enter the same information each time they log onto a site.
Cyberspace: An X generation term to describe the ability to travel with your computer to the places on the Internet.
DSL - Digital Subscriber Lines, the next step in speeding the Internet to more functional speeds. Allow digital transmission over the copper phone lines that carry your calls to the local phone office. It eliminates the analog to digital and back processes that slow residential access.
E-mail: Electronic Mail, sent via Internet - very reliable and ultra fast. You can attach files to send to your recipient (addressee). Send pictures, movies, SoundBits, or documents along with your E-mail. It is ultimately important to business and the paperless society of tomorrow. One of the most useful current features of the Internet, it is a standard with all ISP and Portal services.
Encryption: A security method that converts data into code that can not be easily captured by unwanted or unauthorized persons. Originally a concern at the start of the development of online shopping and purchasing - today encryption is very sophisticated and secure.
Host: A computer/server that is on the Internet and home to an Internet site. Many hosts will have E-mail servers, Newsgroup Servers, Domain Name Servers (DNS) and others. The smooth transition on the surface as you browse around the world masks a dynamic sophisticated network of computers and technical support interacting 24/7 .
Html: Hypertext Markup Language: A user-friendly programming language that is the standard for web page development, today.
Http: Hypertext Transfer Protocol: The predominant transfer protocol for the Internet, lets your browser know how the web site URL file should be processed and formatted.
Hyperlinks: Any graphic, icon or text that is embedded in e-mail or web pages that automatically sends you to a desired URL link when the hyperlink is "clicked on."
Internet: A giant network of computers connected via communication links (cables, modems, phone connections, routers, bridges, translation devices, servers, phone offices, fiber optic trunks all play a part). It is the infrastructure that supports the transmission of electronic data.
IRC : Internet Relay Chat - If you use an ISP, you probably already know about this. For the Portal user like AOL, there is a whole 'nother world out there. Check out www.irchelp.org or //varweb.virtualave.net/mirc.html.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network - Can provide the residential customer with greater flexibilty with the number of phone lines it can provide simultaneously, but expensive and limited.
ISP: Internet Service Provider - standard providers like Erol's, Mindspring, etc.
Server: Any computer containing data or applications that can be accessed by a remote computer. A Domain Name Server (DNS) directs the flow of data on the Internet by translating domain names into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses such as 192.124.100.10.
Sputnik: First man-made satellite to orbit the Earth. Launched by Russia in October 1957. It was the mark of the beginning of the Internet, though satellites didn't play a part for a long time.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol - the standard transfer protocol of the Internet.
URL: Universal Resource Locator, its an
Internet address.
Example 1: www.selbyonthebay.org/intro.html. Where
"selbyonthebay" is domain name, "org" is the
site type (organization) and "intro.html" is the file
that will be accessed from that domain server, where our site
files reside.
Example 2: www.domain name.site type/file on site
WYSIWYG: What you see is what you get, a term referring to the design of various software development tools.
World Wide Web: The conglomeration of interconnected data that is accessible by the Internet. It has an estimated 97 million users, and has rightfully been created with popularizing the Internet world-wide.
W3C: World Wide Web Consortium, group of geeks that develop standards and protocols for Web. Check out their site "www.w3c.org"
References: Internet a beginners Guide-PC Novice Learning Series, Internet and Networking - 3Comm
Corporate Network: Always a Secure Network,
allows for needed corporate intercommunication and sharing of
devices.
Local Area Network: LAN - Two or more computers
interconnected by Ethernet. Allowing all users to access all
information on all systems. Developed by Xerox in the 1960's.
Protected Network: A web of interconnecting
equipment that controls failures by having multiple paths.
Secure Network: One that is limited to certain
users that use passwords to access system. It improves system
reliability and keeps unwanted access by outsiders.
Wide Area Network: WAN - Running at a much
higher transfer rate that LAN, used by LAN's to connect to larger
networks. Various other uses in telecommunications.
.edu - Educational institution such as a university.
.com- Commercial organization, such as an online service provider.
.gov - US Government Agency.
.mil - US Military Organization.
.org - A Non-profit Organization.
.net - A network, such as an Internet service provider.
co.uk- United Kingdom.
.ca - Canada.
.fr - France.
.jp - Japan.
Sending E-Mail- The Electronic Process
1. Message is composed on users computer using whichever software
provided and you press "Send".
2. The e-mail application breaks down the message into pieces,
bundles each piece with the routing information that will guide
it to the recipient, and sends these packets of info to your
computers modem. The E-mail app will track the transmission and
verify that they were received properly, if not it will re-send
it.
3. The modem translates the digital packets into analog signal so
that it can be transmitted to the local phone system.
4. Local phone office converts the analog signal back into
digital packets to travel over optical connections.
5. Packets arrive at your ISP's central computers. The packets
are compiled and directed to a router. The router determines
where the E-mail message needs to go and the fastest way to get
there. The router then breaks the message into packets and
transmits the packets across the Internet.
6. The packets are transmitted across the Internet, hopping from
router to router as they approach their destination. In addition
to steering the packets toward the recipient, the routers also
refresh the data to ensure the message is readable once it
arrives.
7. The packets are received, compiled and read by the recipient's
ISP's central computers to determine where they need to go. The
ISP's computers recognize the recipient as a subscriber and
prepare data for transmission.
8. When the recipient uses his E-mail app to check for new
messages, the E-mail app communicates with the mail server and
realizes that an E-mail message has arrived. The message is
broken into packets and transmitted to the recipient's computer.
9. Local phone system converts digital packets into analog
signal.
10. The recipient's modem receives the analog signal and converts
it to digital data.
11. The E-mail app compiles the packets and presents info on
screen so that the recipient can read the message.
12. Wow!
Viewing a web page: The Electronic Process
1. You enter a URL in your web browser address or location field.
This initiates a request for data.
2. The browser breaks down the request into pieces, bundles each
piece with the routing information that will guide it to the
requested data, and sends these packets to your modem. The
browser will track the transmission and verify that the packets
were received properly, if not it will retransmit packets.
3. The modem translates the digital packets into analog signal so
that it can be transmitted to the local phone system.
4. Local phone office converts the analog signal back into
digital packets to travel over optical connections.
5. Packets arrive at your ISP's central computers. The packets
are compiled and directed to a router. The router determines
where the E-mail message needs to go and the fastest way to get
there. The router then breaks the message into packets and
transmits the packets across the Internet.
6. The packets are transmitted across the Internet, hopping from
router to router as they approach their destination. In addition
to steering the packets toward the recipient, the routers also
refresh the data to ensure the message is readable once it
arrives.
7. The packets are received, compiled and read by the recipient's
ISP's central computers to determine where they need to go. The
ISP's computers recognize the recipient as a subscriber and
prepare data for transmission.
8. The requested data is forwarded to the router. The router
determines where the data needs to go and the fastest way to get
there. The router then breaks the message into packets and
transmits the packets across the Internet.
9. The packets are transmitted across the Internet, hopping from
router to router as they approach your computer.
10. Packets arrive at your ISP's central computers. These
computers compile the packets and determine that the data should
be sent to you. The message is broken again into packets and
transmitted to your computer.
11. Local phone office converts the analog signal back into
digital packets to travel over optical connections.
12. Modem receives the analog signal and converts it into digital
data.
13. The browser compiles the packets and presents the Web page
on-screen.
14. It's very simple, you see?
Portals vs. Internet Service Providers (ISP)
Portals are collections of links to other sites that includes specialized news content, special offers - an advertising forum if you would. Companies like AOL have made a somewhat reaching task -interfacing with the Internet - a much more pleasant feat for most of us. Many experienced IP users frown on the use of Portals, because it is not as technically superior as using an ISP connection. Personally, I feel that beyond the technocrats that have to use this medium constantly, I think the web is better used to allow the average Joe to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris or allow people in depressed areas to visit universities of higher learning from their living rooms. Both types of service have their advantages and disadvantages. Portals and ISP both allow ease of use of the Internet, while in many cases each can be restrictive to a Internet user. ISP's allow the user to access everything in the same manner as Portals, but they also allow the user to have a freedom to escape all of the advertising that exist on Portals. One downside to using an ISP rather than a Portal is that many ISP's are regional or are don't provide local access in many cities across the US. Most of the big name Portal Services (AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy) have loal access to most major cities, which is very important to a busy traveling businessman.
Most used features of the Internet:
E-mail Browsing Banking Stock Trading E-commerce Reservations
Data Transfer Telecommuting Cyber Chatting
How do you use the Internet?
If you have interesting uses, let us know and we will start a
bulletin board.
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Last updated 8/26/99.