Introduction to Information

Technology
2nd Edition
Turban, Rainer & Potter
© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 7:
The Internet, Intranets, and
Extranets
Prepared by:
Roberta M. Roth, Ph.D.
University of Northern Iowa

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 Chapter Preview
In this chapter, we will study:
The evolution, operations, and
services of the Internet
The segment of the Internet called
the World Wide Web
Organizational applications of Internet
technology (intranets and extranets)
Specialized Internet applications

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 What is the Internet?
 The largest computer network in the
world (a network of networks)
 Information exchange is seamless using
open, non-proprietary standards and
protocols, within interconnected
networks
 A true democratic communications forum
producing a democratization of
information
 Spirit of information sharing and open
access underlies the Internet.
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 The Internet Today
 The Internet is international, with users
on all continents
 The cost of personal computers and
Internet connections are prohibitively
high for most of the world’s population
 Political, cultural, and regulatory barriers
have slowed the rate of Internet adoption
internationally
 The vast majority of sites are in English
 The vast majority of content is generated
in the United States
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The Infrastructure of the Internet
 Commercial communications companies
are primary providers of the physical
network backbone of the Internet
 The U.S. government contributes some
funds to essential administrative
processes
 The Internet infrastructure is supplied by
network service providers
 Connections between and flow of
information between backbone providers
has been open and free of charge
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 Future Internet Initiatives
 Internet2
 A collaboration among more than 180 U.S.
universities to develop leading-edge
networking and advanced applications for
learning and research.
 A group of very high bandwidth networks on
the Internet.
 Partnership between universities, industry,
and government.
 Next Generation Internet (NGI)
 Federal government led initiative to advance
Internet technology and applications.
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 The Operation of the Internet
 Packets of information flow between machines
governed by common rules (protocols):
 Internet protocol (IP)
 Transport control protocol (TCP)
 Internet is a packet-switching network
 Messages are decomposed into packets, containing
part of the message, plus information on the sending
and receiving machines and how the packet relates to
the other packets
 Packets travel independently and possibly on different
routes through the Internet
 Packets are reassembled into the message at the
receiving machine.

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 The Operation of the Internet
(continued)
 Each computer on the Internet is
identified by an IP address
 Most computers also have domain
names
 Network Solutions, Inc. had a monopoly
on domain name registration until 1999.
 Today, some 82 companies can register
domain names.
 Cybersquatting – purchase of domain
name with intent to resell it. Legislative
action resulted in Nov. 2000
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 The Operation of the Internet
(continued)
 New top-level domain zones: In
November 2000, the first addition of a
global top-level domains to the Internet
since the 1980s occurred.
 .aero (for the air-transport industry)
 .biz (for businesses)
 .coop (for cooperatives)
 .museum (for museums)
 .name (for individuals)
 .pro (for professions).

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 The Operation of the Internet
(continued)
Accessing the Internet
Connect via LAN Server
Connect via Serial Line Internet
Protocol/Point Protocol (SLIP/PPP)
Connect via an Online Service
(AOL, MSN)

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 Internet Services -
Communications
 E-mail – electronic  Instant messaging –
messaging instant text messaging
between Internet users
 USENET newsgroups
 Telnet – user on one
– forums that collect computer doing work on
groups of messages from another computer
users based on common  Internet telephony –
themes conducting voice
 LISTSERV – distributes conversations over the
email messages to all Internet
subscribers  Internet fax – real time
 Chatting – live, document transmittal
interactive, written  Streaming audio and
conversations based on video
topic groups
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 Internet Services – Information
Retrieval
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – electronic
transfer of files from one computer to another
 Archie – tools to enable searching for files at
FTP sites
 Gophers – menu-driven information search
tool
 Veronica – text search through Gopher sites
 Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) –
database search tool

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Internet Services – Web Services
Delivery of software components
via a web site rather than through
traditional means (disks, CDs)
.NET – Microsoft’s new platform for XML
Web services. Integrates web sites and
programs to deliver applications.

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 Internet Services – World Wide
Web
 An application that uses the Internet
transport functions
 A system with universally accepted
standards for storing, retrieving,
formatting, and displaying information
via a client/server architecture
 Based on HTML - standard hypertext
language used in Web
 Handles text, hypermedia, graphics,
and sound

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 The World Wide Web (continued)
 Home Page - a text and graphical screen
display; first, introductory page in a web site
 Web Site - all the pages of a company or
individual
 Hyperlinks - ways to link and navigate
around the pages on a web site
 Webmaster - the person in charge of a Web
site
 Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - points
to the address of a specific resource on the
Web
 Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) -
communications standard used to transfer
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pages across the WWW portion of the Internet
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 The World Wide Web (continued)
 Browsers – graphical software that enables WWW
users to request and view web documents
 Offline Browsers – software that retrieves pages
from Web sites automatically at predetermined times
 Search Engines - programs that return a list of Web
sites or pages that match some user-selected criteria
 Metasearch Engines - automatically enter search
queries into a number of other search engines and
return the results
 To be included in a search engine’s database
 Web Crawlers
 Registration

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 The World Wide Web (continued)
 Pull Technology - requires web user to
actively request information; traditional web
mechanism
 Push Technology - automatically supplies
desirable information to users
 provides timely, prioritized distribution of
information over a corporate network in the
workplace
 enhances traditional Web advertising in the
consumer market
 used for software delivery and updates

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 The World Wide Web (continued)
 Information Filters – automated methods of
sorting/screening WWW content
 Clipping Services – automated retrieval of
articles and news items from publications
 Personalized Web Services – ability to
generate personalized Web content
 Web Authoring (for page and site design)
 Standard HTML is the common denominator
 CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is the
common format of graphics files
 Browsers can be extended through software plug-ins

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 Internet Challenges
 New Technologies
 Adopted by vendors more rapidly than users
and customers can implement them
 Web developers cannot assume that users
can run their innovations successfully
 Internet Regulation
 Technical organizations (e.g., World Wide
Web Consortium) develop standards
governing the Internet’s functionality
 These organizations are not formally
charged in any legal or operational sense
with responsibility for the Internet
 How to control controversial content on the
Web?
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 Internet Challenges (continued)
 Internet Expansion
 Tremendous Internet traffic growth has
strained some elements of the network
• Slower retrieval times
• Unreliable data transmission
• Denial of service by overloaded servers
 Approaches to overcoming this congestion
include
• Improved hardware technology
• Improved Web management software

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 Internet Challenges (continued)
 Internet Privacy - Web sites collect information
with and without consumers’ knowledge
 Cookie - small data file placed on users’ hard
drives when a site is first visited. Collects data on
pages visited and content viewed.
 Three potential approaches to the privacy issue
• Government lets groups develop voluntary privacy
standards; does not take any action now unless
real problems arise
• Government recommends privacy standards for
the Internet; does not pass laws at this time
• Government passes laws now for how personal
information can be collected and used on the
Internet
 Financial transaction security also a concern
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 Intranets
A private network that uses
Internet software and TCP/IP
protocols
Provide employees with easy access
to corporate information
Used to deploy corporate applications
• Examples – policies and procedures
manuals; human resource forms; product
catalogs
Security is a concern
• Security measures include – public key
security, encryption, digital certificates,
firewalls
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 Extranets
 An extension of an intranet to selected
outside business partners, such as
suppliers, distributors, and key
customers
 Provide business partners with easy access
to corporate information and easy
collaboration
 Security
 Critical to prevent unwanted entry into
internal systems
 Virtual private networks (VPNs) are often
used to add security to Internet
communication
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 Extranets (continued)
 Extranet configurations
 One company sets up a Extranet for its
dealers, customers, or suppliers
 Companies within an industry set up a
collaborative Extranet for mutual benefit
 Several companies collaborate over an
Extranet for joint venture
 Benefits include –
 Lower communication costs; better
communication; improved order entry and
customer service; improvement in business
effectiveness
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 Other Web-based Applications
 Enterprise Information Portals
 Users have single point of access to internal
and external stored information
 Mobile Internet
 Use of wireless communication
telecommunication devices to access Web-
based applications

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 Chapter Summary
 Internet is a network of network
 Internet provides communication and
information retrieval services, as well as
the World Wide Web
 The World Wide Web enables a huge
variety of applications for businesses,
including intranets and extranets
 Many challenges exist when using the
WWW, including congestion, privacy, and
security

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.