What is internet

Internet

What is the Internet? While it may seem like a simple question, defining the Internet isn’t easy.

Because unlike any other technology, the Internet can be whatever we make it. We can shape it.

We can mold it. But most importantly, we can use it to connect people, communities, and countries around the world.

Hows Does it Work?

The Internet works because open standards allow every network to connect to every other network.

This is what makes it possible for anyone to create content, offer services, and sell products without requiring permission from a central authority.

It levels the playing field for everyone and it’s the reason why we have a rich diversity of applications and services that many of us enjoy today.

Who is in charge of the Internet?

No one is, but everyone is.

Unlike the telephone network, which for years in most countries, was run by a single company, the global Internet consists of tens of thousands of interconnected networks run by service providers, individual companies, universities, governments, and others.

How do these networks talk to one another?

The secret of the Net is a network protocol called TCP/IP--that is, a kind of coding system that lets computers electronically describe and interpret (send and receive) data over the network.

The term actually refers to two separate parts: the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the Internet protocol (IP). Together they form the language of the Internet.

Every computer that hooks to the Internet understands these two protocols and uses them to send and receive data from the next computer along the network.

Uses of Internet:

The uses of internet are discussed below:

§  With Internet, we can connect to people in just a moment.

§  We can mail anywhere in the world in a moment with the fastest mailing service of the world called "email".

§  We can get alert of worldwide headlines in just a moment.

§  We can promote our product by giving advertisement on websites.

§  We can view live maps of anywhere of the world.

§  We can find any information about any (recognized) people,product,institution,country etc.

§  We can Play online games

§  We can pay the bills by E-commerce sites.

§  Net Banking is also popular now days with internet.

Features of Internet:

The features of internet are discussed below:

§  Commuters have the capabilities to communicate with each other. If connectivity is given, information can be exchanged between the computers.

§  A group of computers in a net system are connected with the help of wires, or cables or wireless.

§  The communication function between the computers facilitate to access information residing in one computer from another computer.

§  It is the software and hardware which constitute the network.

§  A network may be a simple network of two computers, an office network of more than two computers, network of networks, larger network, and network for network of networks around the world.

§  Information can also be obtained through commercial network packages like bulletin board packages.

Components of Internet:

The various components of internet is discussed below:

§  World Wide Web: The World Wide Web (abbreviated as W3 or WWW) as a system to access thousands of servers that supports different Internet protocols on a single Interface. To access various services of Internet, different protocols are required at different periods of time on the web. These services include E-mail, FTP, Telnet and Usenet news. WWW has its own protocol also called HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).

§  E-mail: E-mail is the ability to send and receive messages with people throughout the world sitting at different locations. It has been one of the greatest strengths of the Internet. Electronic mail allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Messages sent through e-mail arrive within few seconds, the senders and receivers must have their e-mail addresses.

§  Telnet: Telnet stands for Terminal Network. It enables an internet user to log on to a remote computer or network throughout the world. And use them if they were sitting at that terminal locally. Telnet is a member of TCP/IP family of internet protocols and allows communications with any computer linked over the internet.

§  FTP: The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g. uploading a Web page file to a server).

Advantages of Internet:

The Internet is so far one of the greatest inventions of all time. The Internet has made it possible for us to do lots of things. The Internet has proven to be very useful and has come with lots of advantages. Here are some advantages:

§  Unlimited Communication

§  Abundant Information and Resources

§  Easy Sharing

§  Online Services and E-commerce

§  Entertainment

Disadvantages of Internet:

Although advantages are un- limited of internet but disadvantages of internet are also. The disadvantages are discussed below:

§  Spam Mail

§  Virus, Trojan & Other Malware

§  Leakage of Private Information

§  Addiction to Internet

History of Internet:

Which came first, the personal computer or the Internet? If you say personal computer guess again. The Internet as we know it may not have taken shape until the 1990s, well after Bill Gates revealed his first PC.

So who invented the Internet? The timeline of the Internet actually traces all the way back to the Vietnam War era: 1969, to be exact.

In that year, a team of defence engineers at the University of Los Angeles-California (UCLA) sent the first-ever instant message via computer to another team thousands of miles away at Stanford University.

From their work station in 3420 Boelter Hall, on the UCLA campus, the defence engineers had just set up the first node of Arpanet, a system funded by the Department of Defense’s Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Vision of ARPA was for a system that would connect large computers at the Department of various facilities of Defence so that they could share software, information, and storage space.

UCLA would be one of its four main hubs - the University of Utah, SRI International, and UC-Santa Barbara would be the others. 

In its short history the Internet has rapidly evolved from this simple, four-hub, military-only data grid to a planet-wide, universally accessed and accessible informational universe that we know and love today.

In history of information technology, a lot can happen in 44 years. The History of Internet is as mentioned below:

§  1974: The word Internet first appeared in print-in a DARPA-published Request for Comments document on TCP/IP, a new set of communications and networking protocols for managing data transmissions on the new system. TCP/IP is still integral to the present-day Internet. In the meantime, Arpanet was growing fast as more universities, science centers, and army installations got connected.

§  1976: Queen Elizabeth of England became the first head of state to send an email. Jimmy Carter followed suit and used email several times while campaigning.

§  1983: The Domain Name System (DNS) was invented. Whereas names of site had been obtuse sequences of letters and numbers, they would now be easy-to-remember names with endings such as .gov, .edu, or .mil.

§  1985: The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded construction of biggest of Arpanet upgrade yet: the NSFNET, a command hub of five supercomputers to serve as highways for all data traffic. NSFNET could transmit data at 56 kilobits per second - slower than some present-day modems.

§  1990: Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML and a text browser, as well as a hypertext graphical user interface (GUI) browser. Then he established the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol client and a server via the Internet. These inventions, put together, were the makings of Web pages as we know them today. Lee also made up the term World Wide Web. The synonym Information Superhighway would follow in a few more years.

§  1991: The NSF allowed commercial enterprises to use the Internet for the first time.

§  1994: Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. A whole new world of e-commerce was born.

§  1995: The NSF ceased funding the Internet altogether, leaving it a completely self-sustaining industry. Also noteworthy, Sun Microsystems first released Java, still an immensely popular Internet programming language to this day.

§  1998: Google opened its first office.

§  2004-2005: Facebook was launched in December 2004. YouTube debuted the next year. The social-media revolution had begun.

§  2006: Google CEO Eric Schmidt introduced the term “cloud computing” at an industry conference. The Cloud would become another synonym for the Internet soon thereafter.

§  2007: Mobile and smart phones technologies going commercial and growing rapidly. Consumers would no longer need a personal computer to go online. The Internet would be reachable wherever they could find a wireless signal.

From Arpanet and Information Superhighway to becoming a globalization enabler and a major driver behind the outsourcing industry, the Internet has seen one transformation and expansion after another.

Where it will head next is anyone’s guess. But you can be sure that great minds everywhere are hard at work on it.