What is Internet? Definition, History, Applications

 

What is Internet? Definition, History, Applications

Definition:
Internet is a popular buzzword among many people today. Almost everyone working in government offices and business organisations is using the Internet for exchange of information in one form or the other.
World Wide Web is another popular phrase among the computer users. It is commonly referred to as the Web. Most people consider the
Internet and the World Wide Web to be synonymous, but they are not. Although these two terms are used interchangeably, they actually describe two different but related things.
The Internet is a massive network of networks that links together thousands of independent networks thus bringing millions of computers on a single network to provide a global communication system. It acts as a facilitator for exchange of information between computers that are connected to the Internet. It is like a network of roads in a country that facilitates the movement of vehicles around the country.
We can create special documents known as hypertext documents containing text, graphics, sounds and video on a computer. The storage location of these documents is known as website. The World Wide Web is the network of all such websites all around the world. It is popularly known as WWW or Web. The websites are spread across the Internet and therefore, the information contained in the websites can be transmitted through the Internet. It is like transporting the goods stored in the warehouses using the road network. So the Web is just a portion on the Internet and not same as the Internet.
In this chapter, we shall discuss the evolution of the Internet, the basics of World Wide Web, use of Web browsers and search engines and the various Internet applications. We shall also discuss briefly various protocols that are necessary for using the Web and the Internet.

HISTORY OF INTERNET

The Internet was not a worldwide network initially. It was a small network called ARPAnet, which was developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of United States in 1969. ARPAnet was developed to help the researchers at one university to communicate with the researchers at other universities. The computers, which were connected through the ARPAnet, were the computers present at the University of California, Stanford Research Institute (California) and the University of Utah (Nevada).

To transfer data between these computers, the ARPAnet used the concept of packet switching in which the data was divided into small modules known as packets before transmitting. These packets were transmitted individually over the network and were reassembled at the receiver's end. During the process of transmission of packets on the network, some rules and methods known as protocols were followed. The ARPAnet initially used Network Control Protocol (NCP), which allowed the transmission of files, directories and messages. between two computers on the network. The use of NCP provided end-to-end networking as the user could only trust the ends, i.e., the sender and the receiver but could not trust the means of transmission, i.e., the network. In 1972, the access to ARPANET was extended and made available to common people and business organisations.

In the year 1974, the scientists developed a new host-to-host protocol, which not only allowed the sharing of files, directories and messages but also helped the users to share software and applications on the network. This protocol was known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). It was a combination of two protocols, TCP and IP, which worked collectively. The IP was the protocol that guided the packets on the different routes on the network. The IP routed each packet on a different route and the selection of a route for a packet was made in such a manner that the packets should take minimum time to reach their destination. The selection of different routes for different packets also facilitated the transmission of packets even when one of the parts of the network was not working properly. The TCP was the network protocol that was responsible for the reassembling of the packets at the destination.
the network protocol that was responsible for the reassembling of the packets at the destination.

The congestion on ARPAnet was increasing continuously because of its extensive use by the military. In 1975, the Defence Communications Agency (DCA) took control of the ARPAnet and changed its mame to Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA allowed all the defence related organisations to connect to it but at the same time it denied the connection to all the non-government organisations. This led to the development of other commercial networks such as Telnet. In 1976, the telephone companies from all over the world broadcasted a new protocol called X 25 with the support of Consultative Committee for International Telegraphy and Telephony (CCITT). The X 25 protocol was similar to the packet switching technique but its implementation was different. The X.25 protocol reduced the packet size and provided a more reliable means of transmission of packets. It used the concept of hop-to-hop networking in which the receiving of packet was acknowledged by the hop at every step. In the X.25 protocol, the information of the path was contained only in the first packet, which helped create a virtual path. The rest of the packets just followed the virtual path created by the first packet. Though this protocol was used for a very short period of time but was crucial for the development of enterprise networks.

In 1979, a research computer network known as Usenet was developed by a group of computer scientists from all over the world. This network allowed computers to connect through a dial-up connection. In the Usenet network, the UNIX-to-UNIX copy protocol was used to transfer data Usenet provided two main services, Usenet News and mail servers. The Usenet News still continues to be used as NetNews but the mail servers did not prove to be a success. The failure of mail servers was due to the fact that to send a mail through mail servers a user was required to provide the complete path to the destination computer with the help of the UUCP bang addressing format. The UUCP bang addressing format was the format in which the names of different machines were separated using a bang, i.e., an exclamation mark

In 1982, a new network known as Eunet was developed in Europe to connect the networks of European countries such as UK, Scandinavia and Netherlands. By the year 1983, a number of networks were added to ARPAnct to connect around 300 computers. In the same year, TCP/IP was made the standard protocol for ARPAnet. The TCP/IP protocol allowed communication between computers of different networks and the ARPAnet became capable of internetworking. This was the time when ARPAnet was renamed as the Internet. In 1983, the military part of ARPAnet was split and named as MILNET.

The number of computers connected to ARPAnet increased day-by-day because of which a new problem arose. The mapping of host names to the IP addresses became difficult. The IP addresses were the addresses provided to each host computer on the network. Earlier, the Network Information Center (NIC) maintained a record of the IP addresses and the corresponding host names in a file and every computer downloaded this file whenever required. But with the increase in the number of computers connected to the ARPAnet, it became difficult for the NIC to do so.

In 1984, Domain Name Server (DNS) was developed that helped in the mapping of host names to the IP addresses. The domain names such as edu for educational, com for commercial, gov for governmental and .org for international organisational hosts, were introduced along with a specific code for each country. The DNS converted these domain names into the corresponding IP addresses. The domain names also made it easier for the users to remember the addresses.
In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist from Geneva, introduced the World Wide Web, which was a network of websites that could be accessed with the help of a protocol known as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP searched the required address from where the web pages had to be accessed and retrieved the web pages for the user. The web page on the WWW had links in the form of text known as hypertext. These links were helpful in accessing other web pages when a user clicked the hypertext with the help of a mouse. In 1995, the commercial Internet providers started controlling the Internet by providing connections to different people for accessing the Internet. Today the Internet is used in almost every field, such as education, entertainment, business, defence and medicine. In all these fields, the Internet is used to share data, gather information and communicate with the other users. According to the Internet world usage statistics, more than 1.4 billion people use the Internet today.

INTERNET APPLICATIONS

Nowadays the Internet is used in almost all the fields for different purposes. Each and every field uses one or the other services provided by the Internet. The Internet is extensively used in the following fields:

• Business
• Education
• Communication
.Entertainment
.Government

The Internet in Business
In business, the Internet can be used for many purposes. An organisation can provide details about its products on the Internet that can be either used by the other organisations interested in developing business links with it or by the prospective customers. Business transactions such as sale and purchase of products and online payment can also be performed using the Internet. This service of the Internet is called e- business, which can be further classified into the following categories:

• Business-to-business (B2B):
B2B e-business refers to the business transactions that take place between two business organisations. In B2B, a large website acts as a market place and helps the buyers and suppliers interact at the organisational level. The website acting as a market place helps the buyers to find new suppliers and the suppliers to search for new buyers. It also saves the time and cost of interaction between the organisations. For example, a supplier business organisation can provide certain raw materials to a manufacturing business organisation through its website.

• Business-to-consumer (B2C):
B2C e-business refers to the business transactions that take place between an organisation and a consumer directly. In B2C, a consumer can shop online for the products offered by a business organisation. It provides all the information regarding the available products through a website and allows the consumers to order and pay for the products online, thus facilitating fast and convenient shopping. For example, the Asian Sky Shop sells the various products offered by different business organisations online and any user who wants to purchase a product can buy it online.

• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) :
C2C refers to the business transactions that take place between two consumers but with the help of a third party. In C2C, a consumer provides information about a product, which is to be sold, on the website of the third party. Another consumer can buy the same item through bidding on the website of the third party. The consumer, who provides an item for sale on the website, is known as seller, whereas the consumer, who bids for the item, is known as buyer. For example, e-bay is a website on which a consumer can provide information about the products, which she needs to sell. The best bidder gets to buy the listed product.

Consumer-to-business (C2B):
C2B is a business model that allows individual consumers to offer their products and services to companies in return of which they get payment from the companies. One of the popular examples of C2B model is the online advertising site Google Adsense. It allows individuals to display advertising content or promotional materials on their personal websites. The administration and payment of these ads are done by Google itself. Also. platforms like Google Video and Fotolia are good examples of C2B, where individuals can sell digital content including images, animations, videos, etc. to companies.

The Internet in Education
In the field of education, the Internet is widely used for learning and teaching. The Internet not only helps the students search information on various topics of their interest but also proves useful for the students pursuing distance education. The distance education institutes provide notes, lectures and syllabus to students through their respective websites. The students just have to access the website of the institute to get all the required information from it. If the website of an educational institution supports e-learning, then the students can participate in online lectures through simulations. Web Based Training (WBT), etc.

The Internet also provides the Usenet service, which contains a large number of Newsgroups through which a user can submit as well as obtain the articles on differem topics. The members of a newsgroup connect to each other and have discussions through the Usenet network. Usenet contains a number of message boards on which the articles are placed and the software known as newsreader is used to read the articles published on message board. Most of the newsgroups allow the users to submit their articles on the selected topics such as scientific research, social issues, religion and politics. Moreover, some newsgroups also allow the users to submit their articles on a topic of their own choice Newsgroup not only helps the users in gaining knowledge but also allows them to make online friends.

The Internet also provides an application similar to Newsgroups known as Discussion forum. The discussion forum also allows a large number of people to hold discussions or place their articles on a particular topic similar to Newsgroups. But the only difference between the Discussion forums and Newsgroups is that the Discussion foruins display articles according to the time or the thread of receiving the article. The thread refers to the grouping together of all the messages received on a particular topic Some discussion forums allow the users to place their articles even without having a membership of the Discussion forum, while the other Discussion forums require the users to have membership along with valid username and password. The members of such Discussion forums have special facilities such as to make alterations in their previous articles, to initiate a new topic and to delete the previous articles submitted by them.

Both Newsgroup and Discussion forums are used by students and other users of the Internet to share their knowledge with each other by participating in a discussion on a specific topic. The extensive use of the Internet in education has led to the creation of what are known as Virtual Universities in many countries.

The Internet in Communication

The Internet is mostly used by the people as a fast and cheap means of communication. Many services provided by the Internet such as e-mail and instant messaging help the users to communicate quickly and cheaply over long distances. E-mail is an application of Internet that allows a user to send and receive text messages electronically. To use the email services, a user requires an account on a mail server. The acc is created by the user by providing a username; a password and other personal information such as add and contact number. Each time the user wants to access the email service, she/he has to log on to the server using the username and the password provided during account creation. If the username or the ped provided by a user is invalid, then that user is considered as an unauthorised user and is prohibited f using the service.

The Internet also provides another easy way of communication, ie, communication through in messaging. Instant messaging is a service of the Internet through which it is possible for a user to perform real-time communication with one or more users on the Internet. The real-time communication refers the communication in which there is an immediate response to a message. In case of instant messaging the communication between two users takes place by instant sending and receiving of message. To use service, the users have to log on to the instant messaging server. After a user has successfully logged to the server, a chat room with a list of online users is made available to the user. An online user is a who is available for chatting at a specific period of time. The user can then select an online user from de list and then send a message to that online user. If a response is received from the online user to whom message was sent, then instant sending and receiving of message takes place. Chat rooms not only provide the sharing of text messages but also allow the users to share images and graphics online Apart from e-mail and instant messaging, Internet telephony and web conferencing are the oc application areas of the Internet that facilitate, quick, cheap and efficient communication over long distances. Through these mediums, the users can talk to the other uses in real-time through an audio-interface.
The Internet in Entertainment

The Internet over the period of time has evolved as a great source of entertainment. It provides many entertainment resources to the users such as games, music and movies. The most popular entertainmen resources on the Internet are the games, which are either free of cost or can be bought through the paymen of a small price. Multi User Dungeon (MUD) is a virtual environment in which fantasy characters such as warriors, priests and thieves are adopted by end users for playing games. Each user represents a specific character and interacts with other characters with the help of text messages. The information regarding the game and the virtual environment is also provided to the users through commands displayed screen, MUD is also available with graphics that enhance the background of the game by providing it a 3-dimensional look. This feature is known as virtual reality because the background and the characters in the game resemble the real world entities.
Apart from games, the Internet also provides many other entertainment resources. Several websites provide easy access to any type of music and videos, which can be freely downloaded on the computen The Internet also enables the users to share videos and photos with other users. Many websites on the Internet also provide information regarding the sports events taking place at specific period of time. These websites allow the users to access continuous score updates.
The Internet in Government
These days, the Internet is playing a crucial role in the functioning of the govemment organisations Almost all the government organisations have set up their websites that provide information related to organisation as well as help them in performing their operations.

FAQS:

What is the Internet definition?
Internet is a massive network of networks that links together thousands of independent networks thus bringing millions of computers on a single network to provide a global communication system.

What are the different sources on the Internet?
Internet access can be provided using a variety of broadband technologies, including satellite,telephone wire, cable,wireless or mobile connections.So the different sources on the Internet is satelite, telephone wire, cable, wireless or mobile connection.
Tags:
#whatisinternet#internethistory#internetapplication