The Internet And World Wide Web

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Internet

In simple terms the internet is a network of the interlinked computer networking worldwide, which is accessible to the general public. These interconnected computers work by transmitting data through a special type of packet switching which is known as the IP or the internet protocol.

Internet is such a huge network of several different interlinked networks relating to the business, government, academic, and even smaller domestic networks, therefore internet is known as the network of all the other networks. These networks enable the internet to be used for various important functions which include the several means of communications like the file transfer, the online chat and even the sharing of the documents and web site on the WWW, or the World Wide Web.

It is always mistaken said that the internet and the World Wide Web are both the same terms, or are synonymous. Actually there is a very significant difference between the two which has to be clear to understand both the terms. The internet and World Wide Web are both the networks yet; the internet is the network of the several different computers which is connected through the linkage of the accessories like the copper wires, the fiber optics and even the latest wireless connections. However, the World Wide Web consists of the interlinked collection of the information and documents which are taken as the resource by the general public. These are then linked by the website URLs and the hyperlinks. Therefore World Wide Web is one of the services offered by the whole complicated and huge network of the internet.

The use of IP in the Internet is the integral part of the network, as they provide the services of the internet, through different layers organization through the IP data packets. There are other protocols that are the sub-classes of the IP itself, like the TCP, and the HTTP.

Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film and television are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets and small artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the internet affect supply chains across entire industries.

History of the Internet

The history of the Internet began with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. The public was first introduced to the Internet when a message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock’s laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), after the second piece of network equipment was installed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). This connection not only enabled the first transmission to be made, but is also considered to be the first Internet backbone.

The Internet started in the 1960's under the original name "ARPANET" which is a short form of "Advanced Research Project Agency". ARPANET was originally an experiment in how the US military could maintain communications in case of a possible nuclear strike. With time, ARPANET became a civilian experiment, connecting university mainframe computers for academic purposes. As personal computers became more mainstream in the 1980's and 1990's, the Internet grew exponentially as more users plugged their computers into the massive network. Today, the Internet has grown into a public spider web of millions of personal, government, and commercial computers, all connected by cables and by wireless signals. 

Some important facts and figures which indicate when and how internet network started and growing are:

1957 – USSR launches Sputnik into space. In response, the USA creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA ) with the mission of becoming the leading force in science and new technologies.

1962 – J.C.R. Licklider of MIT proposes the concept of a "Galactic Network." For the first time ideas about a global network of computers are introduced. J.C.R. Licklider is later chosen to head ARPA's research efforts.

1962 - Paul Baran, a member of the RAND Corporation, determines a way for the Air Force to control bombers and missiles in case of a nuclear event. His results call for a decentralized network comprised of packet switches.

1968 - ARPA contracts out work to BBN. BBN is called upon to build the first switch.

1969 – ARPANET created - BBN creates the first switched network by linking four different nodes in California and Utah; one at the University of Utah, one at the University of California at Santa Barbara, one at Stanford and one at the University of California at Los Angeles.

1972 - Ray Tomlinson working for BBN creates the first program devoted to email.

1972 - ARPA officially changes its name to DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

1972 - Network Control Protocol is introduced to allow computers running on the same network to communicate with each other.

1973 - Vinton Cerf working from Stanford and Bob Kahn from DARPA begin work developing TCP/IP to allow computers on different networks to communicate with each other.

1974 - Kahn and Cerf refer to the system as the Internet for the first time.

1976 - Ethernet is developed by Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe.

1976 – SATNET, a satellite program is developed to link the United States and Europe. Satellites are owned by a consortium of nations, thereby expanding the reach of the Internet beyond the USA.

1976 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, sends out an email on 26 March from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern.

1976 - AT& T Bell Labs develops UUCP and UNIX.

1979 - USENET, the first news group network is developed by Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis and Steve Bellovin.

1979 - IBM introduces BITNET to work on emails and listserv systems.

1981 - The National Science Foundation releases CSNET 56 to allow computers to network without being connected to the government networks.

1983 - Internet Activities Board released.

1983 - TCP/IP becomes the standard for internet protocol.

1983 - Domain Name System introduced to allow domain names to automatically be assigned an IP number.

1984 - MCI creates T1 lines to allow for faster transportation of information over the internet.

1984- The number of Hosts breaks 1,000

1985- 100 years to the day of the last spike being driven on the Canadian Pacific Railway, the last Canadian university was connected to Net North in a one year effort to have coast-to-coast connectivity

1987 - The new network CREN forms.

1987- The number of hosts breaks 10,000

1988 - Traffic rises and plans are to find a new replacement for the T1 lines.

1989- The Number of hosts breaks 100 000

1989- Arpanet ceases to exist

1990 - Advanced Network & Services (ANS) forms to research new ways to make internet speeds even faster. The group develops the T3 line and installs in on a number of networks.

1990 - A hypertext system is created and implemented by Tim Berners-Lee while working for CERN.

1990- The first search engine is created by McGill University, called the Archie Search Engine

1991- U.S green light for commercial enterprise to take place on the Internet

1991 - The National Science Foundation (NSF) creates the National Research and Education Network (NREN).

1991 - CERN releases the World Wide Web publicly on August 6th, 1991

1992 – The Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered

1992- Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000

1993 - InterNIC released to provide general services, a database and internet directory.

1993- The first web browser, Mosaic (created by NCSA), is released. Mosaic later becomes the Netscape browser which was the most popular browser in the mid 1990's.

1994 - New networks added frequently.

1994 - First internet ordering system created by Pizza Hut.

1994 - First internet bank opened: First Virtual.

1995 - NSF contracts out their access to four internet providers.

1995 - NSF sells domains for a $50 annual fee.

1995 – Netscape goes public with 3rd largest ever Nasdaq ipo share value

1995- Registration of domains is no longer free.

1996- The WWW browser wars are waged mainly between Microsoft and Netscape. New versions are released quarterly with the aid of internet users eager to test new (beta) versions.

1996 – Internet2 project is initiated by 34 universities

1996 - Internet Service Providers begin appearing such as Sprint and MCI.

1996 - Nokia releases first cell phone with internet access.

1997- (Arin) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers, now handled by Network Solutions (IinterNic)

1998- Netscape releases source code for Navigator.

1998-Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) created to be able to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks

1999 - A wireless technology called 802.11b, more commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, is standardized.

2000- The dot com bubble bursts, numerically, on March 10, 2000, when the technology heavy NASDAQ composite index peaked at 5,048.62

2001 - Blackberry releases first internet cell phone in the United States.

2001 – The spread of P2P file sharing across the Internet

2002 -Internet2 now has 200 universities, 60 corporate and 40 affiliate members

2003- The French Ministry of Culture bans the use of the word "e-mail" by government ministries, and adopts the use of the more French sounding "courriel"

2004 – The Term Web 2.0 rises in popularity when O'Reilly and MediaLive host the first Web 2.0 conference.

2004- Mydoom, the fastest ever spreading email computer worm is released. Estimated 1 in 12 emails are infected.

2005- Estonia offers Internet Voting nationally for local elections

2005-Youtube launches

2006- There are an estimated 92 million websites online

2006 – Zimbabwe's internet access is almost completely cut off after international satellite communications provider Intelsat cuts service for non-payment

2006- Internet2 announced a partnership with Level 3 Communications to launch a brand new nationwide network, boosting its capacity from 10Gbps to 100Gbps

2007- Internet2 officially retires Abilene and now refers to its new, higher capacity network as the Internet2 Network

2008- Google index reaches 1 Trillion URLs

2008 – NASA successfully tests the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Using software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, dozens of space images are transmitted to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about more than 32 million kilometers from Earth

2009 – ICANN gains autonomy from the U.S government

2010- Facebook announces in February that it has 400 million active users.

2010 – The U.S House of Representatives passes the Cyber security Enhancement Act (H.R. 4061)

How the Internet Works

When two or more electronic devices (e.g. computers) are connected so that they can communicate, they become part of a network. The Internet consists of a world-wide interconnection of such networks, belonging to companies, governments and individuals, allowing all of the devices connected to these networks to communicate with each other.

In order to communicate, computers need to be able to understand each other. On the Internet, communication is possible because all devices use the same "language" or protocol, namely the Internet Protocol (IP), a "single market" with no physical, technical or national barriers. It forms the basis for all other systems of communication on the Internet.

Sending any communication over the Internet using the Internet Protocol is quite like sending the pages of a book by post in lots of different envelopes. All of the envelopes use the same sender address and the same destination address. Even if some envelopes are transported by ship and others by air, the envelopes all eventually arrive at their intended destination and the book can be reassembled.

On the Internet, the contents of the envelope are also based on conventions/protocols (agreed formats), one for each type of communication. Examples of such conventions on top of IP are: SMTP for sending emails, HTTP for accessing web sites and BitTorrent for peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing (a way to exchange data files with large groups of people).

Anyone is free to invent their own convention/protocol and use it on the Internet, as long as it works on top of the Internet Protocol. In other words: the only limit is the limit of the human imagination, the only rule is that the address on the envelope is in a standard format. The openness of the system is what makes the Internet the global phenomenon it is. Every restriction on the openness of the Internet reduces its potential for future development. The universal use of a single protocol for all communications has a number of important advantages. The devices that are responsible for transporting Internet data (called routers) do not need to be programmed differently to deal with different types of data – they don’t even need any information about the data they are transporting as long as it is all using the Internet Protocol. Like the postman delivering traditional mail, they only have to look at the outside of the envelopes to be able to deliver the message. It doesn’t matter if the envelope contains a bill or a love letter (except to the recipient of course).

This leads to:

Unlimited innovation possibilities in terms of new protocols and applications;

Privacy by design": there is no need to know anything about the contents of any communication;

Flexible, fast data flow;

At its core, the Internet offers only one flexible service: getting data from one device to another regardless of the nature of the devices, regardless of how and where the devices are connected to the Internet and regardless of the nature or content of the data.

It is this openness and flexibility that is the primary reason for the innovation and democratic and economic successes of the Internet.

There are some important ways to access the internet:

ISP: - The ISP, short for 'Internet Service Provider', is the company that connects your personal computer, notebook, netbook, PDA, mobile device, game station, etc. to the Internet. Another name for ISP is IAP, or Internet Access Provider. This internet service provider maintains large runs of cabling and maintains network services in order to transfer and deliver web content to those paying the subscription fee. Typically, these internet service providers focus on DSL, Cable modem, wireless, and more recently, dedicated high-speed interconnects such as T1 or fiber optic service.

OSP: - The OSP refers to ‘Online Service Provider’. The term has had some currency in distinguishing Internet access providers that have their own online independent content, such as America Online (AOL), from Internet service providers (ISPs) that simply connect the user directly with the Internet. In general, the companies sometimes identified as OSPs (in this usage) offer an extensive online array of services of their own apart from the rest of the Internet and sometimes their own version of a Web browser. Connecting to the Internet through an OSP is an alternative to connecting through one of the national Internet service providers, such as AT&T or MCI, or a regional or local ISP.

Wireless Internet Service Provider: A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider (ISP) that allows subscribers to connect to a server at designated hot spots (access points) using a wireless connection such as Wi-Fi. This type of ISP offers broadband service and allows subscriber computers, called stations, to access the Internet and the Web from anywhere within the zone of coverage provided by the server antenna. This is usually a region with a radius of several kilometers.

The simplest WISP is a basic service set (BSS) consisting of one server and numerous stations all linked to that server by wireless. More sophisticated WISP networks employ the extended service set (ESS) topology, consisting of two or more BSSs linked together at access points (APs). Both BSS and ESS are supported by the IEEE 802.11b specification.

The World Wide Web

The short form of World Wide Web is ‘WWW’. It consists of all the public websites connected to the Internet worldwide, including the client devices (such as computers and cell phones) that access Web content. It is also a collection of electronic documents also called the web. Each electronic document is called a web page. It can contain text, graphics, sound, video and built-in connections.

The World Wide Web is based on these technologies:

HTML – Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Web servers and Web browsers

Researcher Tim Berners-Lee led the development of the original World Wide Web in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He helped build prototypes of the above Web technologies and coined the term "WWW." Web sites and Web browsing exploded in popularity during the mid-1990s.

Some basic components related to WWW which is need to know are:

Web browser: - A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It is also designed to read HTML or PHP code, presenting it as web pages we are all used to. The web browsers are based on different browser engines, which read HMTL and PHP code and present it as an end result. Web browsers exist since the 1980s and are being constantly developed and upgraded to provide the user with faster loading times, more stable web pages and better looking websites. The most popular web browsers today are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome.

Home page: - For a Web user, the home page is the first Web page that is displayed after starting a Web browser like Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The browser is usually preset so that the home page is the first page of the browser manufacturer. Or,

For a Web site developer, a home page is the first page presented when a user selects a site or presence on the World Wide Web. The usual address for a Web site is the home page address, although you can enter the address (Uniform Resource Locator) of any page and have that page sent to you.

Downloading: - Downloading is the transmission of a file from one computer system to another, usually smaller computer system. From the Internet user's point-of-view, to download a file is to request it from another computer (or from a Web page on another computer) and to receive it. It is simply says that, when you downloading a file or a software program, you are just copying it from the Internet to your own computer. Downloading is totally depends upon connection speed, downloading can take from a few seconds to several minutes.

URL: - Each file available on the World Wide Web can be identified and accessed through its corresponding URL. Standing for Uniform Resource Locator, a URL represents the global web address of documents, including web pages or image files, and programs such as CGI applications or Java applets. Its main mission is to identify the location of a document or a program available on the web and specify the mechanism for accessing it through a web browser. 

Link: - A link is a selectable connection from one word, picture, or information object to another. In a multimedia environment such as the World Wide Web, such objects can include sound and motion video sequences. The most common form of link is the highlighted word or picture that can be selected by the user (with a mouse or in some other fashion), resulting in the immediate delivery and view of another file. The highlighted object is referred to as an anchor. The anchor reference and the object referred to constitute a hypertext link.

Search Engine: - A search engine is a web based tool that enables users to locate information on the World Wide Web. Popular examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search. Search engines utilize automated software applications (refers to as robots, bots, or spiders) that travel along the web, following links from page to page, site to site. The information gathered by the spiders is used to create a searchable index of the web.

There are three aspects to a search engine: crawling, indexing, and searching. When a search engine crawls, it looks for new content which was not present during the last crawl, including updates to files and web pages. Then, the programs index the information, pulling out specific keywords to categorize it. On the Internet, for example, indexing relies heavily on keywords in web pages, and meta tags which provide information about the page.

Once the information has been indexed, information about how to access it is stored in a database. Some search engines also store or "cache" information to make it easier to retrieve. When someone searches the database, it spits out results ranked by relevance. On wiseGEEK, for example, a search for "giraffe" will turn up articles related to giraffes, including, of course, "What is a Giraffe?" for the convenience of the user.

Lastly some popular types of websites are portal, news, informational, business/marketing, educational, entertainment, advocacy, blog, wiki, content aggregator, personal etc…

Web Publishing

Web Publishing provides custom web design, web development, hosting, e-commerce, and e-business solutions.  It work closely with the users to produce website structure, design, and content that are affordable, functional, attractive, and reflects the spirit of their business.  A presence on the Web promotes a company's image and products, improves customer service, encourages new customer acquisition, and provides a vehicle for sales and information.

The world of Web publishing includes literally hundreds of technologies of varying impact and necessity; navigating these entangled technologies can be challenging regardless of your project's size and scope. To help mitigate this complexity, the Web Publishing is divided into three cumulative sections: Web Site Planning, Web Publishing Technologies and Web Programming.

Web publishing have some predefined and best steps, which are shown below with the help of this image.

E-Commerce

E-Commerce is short for ‘Electronic Commerce’. It is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet to emerge.

Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate. In the near future the boundaries between "conventional" and "electronic" commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet.

Other Internet Services

Apart from these internet services there are lots of useful services are available, from which some of most important services are:

E-Mail: - E-Mail is short for ‘Electronic Mail’. It is a system for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. It has gained nearly universal popularity around the world with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred method for both personal and business communication.

E-Mail Addresses: - It is a unique name that consists of a user name and domain name that identifies the user. And it also helps to send message to the right destination and to receive messages from the others.

FTP: - FTP stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol’. It is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. It allows you to upload and download files with other computers on the Internet. FTP supports two modes of data transfer: plain text (ASCII), and binary.

Mailing List: - A mailing list is a list of people who subscribe to a periodic mailing distribution on a particular topic. On the Internet, mailing lists include each person's e-mail address rather than a postal address. Mailing lists have become a popular way for Internet users to keep up with topics they're interested in. Many software producers and other vendors are now using them as a way to keep in touch with customers.

Chat: - Real-time communication between two users via computer. Once a chat has been initiated, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the other user's monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature.

Netiquette

Quite simply, "netiquette" is Internet etiquette - the informal rules of behavior to be followed when using the Internet. These Internet customs have evolved over time, and help make the Internet a pleasant place.

While many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have the own set of rules for using the Internet or Acceptable Use Policies, these are formal rules. Netiquette is different, having evolved over time, to help make the Internet a more pleasant place to visit.

There are netiquette guidelines for most Internet resources, including e-mail, mailing lists and newsgroups. Some Internet resources share netiquette rules, for example the accepted guidelines for e-mail and mailing lists are also used in newsgroups.