COMP03 INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB

CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW OF THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

Objectives:
 Discuss how the Internet works
 Understand ways to access the Internet
 Understand the Historical background of the Internet and World Wide Web
 Understand the tools and services over the Internet
 Understand the Internet Addresses and the Domain Names

What is Internet?

Internet – is a worldwide collection of networks that links millions of businesses, government

agencies, educational institutions, and individuals.
 It consists of local, regional, national, and international networks that allows
o Public access to information
o Send message and files
o Obtain products and services
o Exchange data and distribute processing tasks
o Entertainment
o Download/upload files over the web
o Shop for goods and services
 It is a global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet Protocol
Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of worldwide users.

INTERNET PROTOCOL SUITE OVERVIEW

Internet Protocol Suite – is a technology that manages the transmission of data by breaking
it up into packets.
 It commonly known as TCP/IP, named from two (2) of the most common important
protocol in it.
o Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) – is one of the core of the Internet
Protocol Suite, which can operates at a higher level, concerned with the two end
systems, such as Web browser and the Web server.
o Internet Protocol (IP) – is a protocol used for communicating data across a
packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite.

Birth of the Internet

 Was formed in 1960s by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
 Major research project authorized as a part of national security.
 Explored ways to connect large mainframe computers and weapons installations
distributed all over the world.
 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) charged with the task
 DARPA researchers connected first computer switches in 1969
 ARPANET grew over next three years to include over 20 computers.
• Established in 1969, ARPANET served as a testbed for new networking technologies,
linking many universities and research centers.
• The first two nodes that formed the ARPANET were UCLA and the Stanford Research
Institute, followed shortly thereafter by the University of Utah.
 In 1986, National Science Foundation (NSF) connected its huge network of five
supercomputer center, called NSFNet, to ARPANET.

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o NSFNet used the technology developed by ARPANET to allow universities and schools to
connect to each other, NSFNet could no longer handle the amount of information that
was being transferred.
o The National Science Foundation improved the network to allow more information to
transfer. This configuration of complex networks came to be known as the Internet.

Global Internet Connectivity

1. Dial-up line – is a temporary connection that uses one or more analog telephone lines for
communications.
2. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) – is a high-speed connection to the Internet using a regular
copper telephone line.
3. Dedicated line – is a type of connection that always is established between two
communication devices.
4. Cable providers – is a type of connection that provides high-speed internet connectivity
through the cable television network.
5. T-carrier lines – is any several types of digital lines that carry multiple signals over a single
communication line.
6. Communication satellites – is a space station that receives microwave signals from an
earth-based station, amplifies (strengthens) the signals, and broadcasts the signals back over
a wide area to any number of earth-based station.
7. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – is a business that has a permanent Internet connection
and provides temporary connections to individuals and companies for free of for a fee.
• Regional ISPs
• National ISPs
8. Wireless Service Providers (WSPs) – is a company that provides wireless Internet access
to users with wireless modems or Web-enabled handheld computers or devices.

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD WIDE WEB

What is World Wide Web?

World Wide Web (WWW) – is the part of the Internet which is a system of interlinked hypertext
documents accessed via the Internet that supports multimedia.
 It was developed at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva from a
proposal by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.
 It was created to share information on nuclear physics.
 Each of this electronic documents on the web is called webpage, which contains text,
graphics, sound, and video, as well as built in connections to other documents.

INTERNET TOOLS AND SERVICES

1. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – is an Internet standard that allows users to upload and
download files with the other computers on the Internet.
2. Electronic Mail (E-mail) – is the transmission of digital messages and files to and from other
computers via Internet.
3. Gopher – is a TCP/IP application layer protocol designed for distributing, searching, and
retrieving documents over the Internet.
4. Usenet – is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system.
5. Telnet – is the way that users can access someone else’s computer, assuming they have
given permission.
6. Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) – is an Internet system in which specialized
subject databases are created at multiple server locations, kept track of by a directory of
servers at one location, and made accessible for searching by users with WAIS client
programs.

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7. Instant Messaging (IM) – is a real-time Internet communications services that notifies users
when one or more people are online, and then allows users to exchange messages or files or
join a private chat room.
8. Mailing List – is a group of e-mail names and addresses given by a single name.
9. Newsgroup – is an online area in which users conduct written discussion about a particular
subject.
10. Electronic Commerce (Ecommerce) – is a financial business transaction that occurs over an
electronic network such as the Internet.
11. Webcasting – uses pull technology, push technology, and/or streaming media to deliver
information at regular intervals, without you having to request it, or to deliver live or pre-
recorded sound and video broadcast to your computer.
 Webcast – is a media file distributed over the Internet using streaming
media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous
listeners/viewers.
12. Intranet – is a private computer network that uses Internet Protocol technologies to securely
share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that
organization.

INTERNET ADDRESSES

 IP Address – is a number that uniquely identifies each computer or device connected to the
Internet, which consists of four group of numbers, each separated by a “.” or a period.
o Example: 192.168.2.3
 Domain Name System (DNS) – is the system on the Internet that stores the domain names
and their corresponding IP addresses.
o It was introduced in 1984.
o Domain name – is the text version of an IP address.

TOP LEVEL DOMAINS (TLD)

.com Commercial organizations, businesses, companies
.edu Educational institutions
.gov Government agencies
.mil Military organization
.net Network providers
.org Non-profit organizations

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