The
Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No
one knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet. It is
certain, however, that these number in the millions.
No
one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop
technical aspects of this network and set standards for creating applications
on it, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which
Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.
All
computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on
the Internet use client/server architecture. This means that the remote server
machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine.
Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest
access technology.
An
Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file
transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive
collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities,
breaking news, and much more.
The
Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these
protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material
made available by the protocol.
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COMPONENTS
OF THE INTERNET
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WORLD
WIDE WEB
The
World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers
that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single
interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible
on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to
these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or
HTTP. These protocols will be explained later in this document.
The
World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols.
This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer
necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level
environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system.
Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with
multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing
component of the Internet.
The
operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information
retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other
documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A
single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context
of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images,
video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each
connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the
Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of
documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.
Producing
hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language
called Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within
the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size,
italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia
may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language,
with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and
released. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim
Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls
the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language
standard.
The
World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links
to documents and resources throughout the Internet.
The
Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations,
real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts,
and the automatic "push" of information to a client computer.
Programming
languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are
extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the
Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is
therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of
development and flux.
More still coming your way: Email, Telnet, FTP, ….
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