The Internet

Technological Background
Topic Objectives
At the end of this topic, you should be able to do the following:
 Able to define the Internet
 Able to explain the difference between packet switching and
circuit switching communications methods
 Able to define a protocol and list examples of Internet
protocols
 Able to describe the functions of TCP and IP
 Able to explain the purpose of IP addresses, domain names
and URL (universal resource locators)
 Able to explain the advantages of the client / server
architecture
 Able to explain the difference between intranet and extranet
The Internet
 Definition
 An interconnected network of thousands of
networks and millions of computers
linking businesses, educational institutions,
government agencies, and individuals
together
 Internet comes from the word
internetwork or the connecting together of
two or more computer networks
The Internet
Key Technology Concepts
 Prior to the Internet and the use of packet-switching,
early computers networks used leased, dedicated
telephone circuits to communicate with each other
 Circuit switching
 A dedicated, complete point-to-point circuit is put together
for communications to take place
 Dedicated circuit-switching techniques were expensive and
wasted available communications capacity (circuit
maintained even when there is no data sent at a given time)
The Internet
Key Technology Concepts
 The Internet uses packet switching as a
method of communicating between computer
networks
 Packet Switching
 Method of slicing digital messages into parcels
called “packets,” sending the packets along
different communication paths as they become
available, and then reassembling the packets once
they arrive at their destination
Key Technology Concepts
 Protocol
 A set of rules for formatting, ordering,
compressing, and error-checking
messages
Key Technology Concepts
 TCP/IP
 Solution for handling packets on the Internet
 TCP/IP is implemented in Web software called server software
 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
 The protocol that does the following
 establishes the connections among sending and receiving Web
computers
 Handles the assembly of packets at the point of transmission, and
their re-assembly at the receiving end
 IP (Internet Protocol) IP Address
 The protocol that provides the addressing scheme for the
Internet
Key Technology Concepts
 Domain Names
 IP addresses can be represented using natural language
because difficult to remember a 32-bit number
 DNS or Domain Name System allows expressions such as
“cnet.com” as substitute for a 32-bit number
 URL or Universal resource locators
 Addresses used by Web browsers to identify the location of
content on the Web
 Contains the protocol to be used when accessing the
address, followed by the location
 Example
 http://www.unitar.edu.my/voiss
Key Technology Concepts
 Client / Server Computing
 Model of computing where personal computers
called clients are connected together in a network
with one or more server computers
 The Internet contains over 70 million host server
computers that stores Web pages and other
contents that are accessed by a million local area
networks and hundreds of millions of client
machines worldwide
 Internet Protocols and Utility Programs
Internet Protocols Usage

HTTP Protocol used for transferring Web pages. Runs on the Application
Layer of the TCP/IP model. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.

SMTP Protocol used to sending e-mail to a server. SMTP (Simple Mail

Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to send mail to a server. POP
(Post Office Protocol) is used by the client to retrieve mail from an
Internet server.

FTP Permits users to transfer files from the server to their client machine,
and visa versa. File Transfer Protocol.

Secure Socket Layer Secures communications between the client and the server
Internet Service Providers
 Two types of ISP services
 Narrowband (traditional telephone modem connection
operating at 56.6 Kbps)
 Broadband (communications technology that permits clients
to play streaming audio and video files at accepted speed of
above 100 Kbps)
 In Malaysia
 Jaring
 Maxis net
 TMnet
Intranets and Extranets
 Intranet
 a TCP/IP network located within a single
organization for purposes of communications and
information processing
 Internet technology privately used within an
organization
 Extranet
 Intranet that gives limited access to users outside
the organization
 When firms permit outsiders to access their internal
TCP/IP networks
The World Wide Web
 Web client
 Any computing device attached to the Internet that is
capable of making HTTP requests and displaying HTML
pages
 Web servers
 Software that enables a computer to deliver Web pages
written in HTML to client machines on a network that
request this server by sending an HTTP request
 The leading brands of Web server software are Apache and
Microsoft NT Server software
The World Wide Web
 Specialised web servers
 Database servers
 Server designed to access specific information with a
database
 Ad servers
 Server designed to deliver targeted banner ads
 Mail servers
 Server to provide mail messages
 Video servers
 Server that serves video clips
The Internet and the Web
Features
 E-mail
 Enables messages containing text, images, sound and video clips to
be transferred from one Internet user to another
 Search engines
 Identifies Web pages that appear to match keywords, also called
queries, typed by the user and provides a list of the best matches
 Intelligent agents (Bots)
 Software programs that gather and/or filter information on a
specific topic and then provide a list of results for the user
 Chat
 Enables users to communicate via computer in real time, that is,
simultaneously among several users
The Internet and the Web
Features
 Instant messaging
 Displays words (from the sender) typed on a computer almost
instantaneously. Recipients can then respond immediately to the
sender the same way, making communication more like a live
conversation than is possible through e-mail
 Streaming media
 Enables music, video, and other large files to be sent to users in
chunks so that when received and played, the file comes through
uninterrupted
 Cookies
 A tool used by Web sites to store information about a user by
sending a small text file to the user’s computer so that information
from the site can be loaded more quickly on future visits
Internet and E-Commerce
Emerging Features and Services
 Internet telephony
 A general term for the technologies that use Voice
Over IP and the Internet’s packet-switched
network to transmit voice and other forms of
audio communications over the Internet
Internet and E-Commerce
Emerging Features and Services
 Distance learning
 Educational institutions are now able to make courses and whole
degree programs available online
 Digital video
 Future digital video networks will be able to deliver quality video
over the Internet to computers and other devices
 Video teleconferencing
 Using the Internet will make this less costly than the present
technology
Internet and E-Commerce
Emerging Features and Services

 M-commerce applications
 Combining voice, data, images, audio and video on one wireless
device using high bandwidth wireless and fiber-optic based
Internet2