Internet, Intranet,WWW,E-mail

SOBHA P.JOSEPH

S1 MBA-IB,
Roll No. 22,
School of Management Studies,
CUSAT Kochi- 22.
E-mail:sobhaanam@gmail.com

Abstract: In Internet is the global network of networks which neither use

the TCP/IP protocols or are able to interact with TCP/IP networks via
gateways, and provides users with electronic mail messaging, the WWW and
other related services and tools. The number of people who use the Internet
is growing exponentially and will continue to grow faster.

Keywords: Internet, www, intranet, E-mail.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The internet is the world’s largest computer network. The internet or the Net is a network
of networks, all freely exchanging information. It is also referred to as the information
Superhighway. It consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and
government networks of local to global scope.. The Internet carries a vast array of
information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of
the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail. In addition it
supports popular services such as online chat, file transfer and file sharing, gaming,
commerce, social networking, publishing, video on demand, and teleconferencing and
telecommunications. Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP) applications allow person-to-
person communication via voice and video.

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in everyday speech without
much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the
same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and
software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the
Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of
interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs .

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 2.0 INTERNET

2.1 History

The USSR's launch Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced
Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a
technological lead. After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the
ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International (SRI) in
California, on 1969. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet.

In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the
construction of the NSFNET, a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using
computers called "fuzzballs" The following year, NSF sponsored the conversion to a
higher-speed 1.5 megabit/second network.

The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The network did
not gain a public face until the 1990s. In 1991, CERN, a pan European organisation
for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was
invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW.
It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. By 1996 usage of
the word Internet had become commonplace. It is estimated that the population of
Internet users to be 1.5 billion as of January 2009.

2.2 Internet service provider (ISP)

An ISP or Internet Access Provider is a company that provides the Internet access,
customers can be businesses, individuals and organizations. Two common types of
Internet access are dial-up shell accounts and SIP/PPP accounts. In a shell account,
the user connects to a host computer at the ISP and can then access the Internet
through the host computer. All necessary software is on th host machine, not the
user’s machine. In a PPP account, the user has all necessary software installed on
his or her computer and connects directly to the Internet through ISP. Additional
services that can be offered by an ISP include web hosting, domain name service and
proprietary online services.

2.3 World Wide Web (WWW)

The World Wide Web is a system, based on hypertext and HTTP, for providing,
organizing and accessing a wide variety of resources (text, images, and sound) that
are available via the Internet.

2.4 Web Page:

A web page is a unit of information, often called a document that is available over the
World Wide Web. Web pages are created using HTML, which defines the contents of
a web page such as images, text, hypertext links, video and audio files, etc. web
pages are sent and received through HTTP, a method used to transfer hypertext files

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 across the Internet. Browser client software enables users to request web pages from
an HTTP server and to view the requested web pages on their computer screen.

2.5 Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML)

HTML is a set of standardized codes, or tags, that have been derived from the SGMP
(Standard Generalized Markup Language) standard. HTML defines and describes the
structure of a web page and is used to prepare documents for the World Wide Web.
In addition, HTML documents are portable- they can be viewed with any web browser
on any type of computer.

2.6 Web browser:

A browser is a software program that acts as an interface between the user and the
World Wide Web. The browser sends requests for information that is available on the
Internet and displays the information for the user. There are many different types of
browsers. A text-based browser shows a user text only. A graphical browser allows
the user to see more of what the WWW has to offer such as graphics, photo graphs
and multimedia.

2.7 Search engine:

A web search engine is an interactive tool that enables users to locate information
available via the World Wide Web. Search engines provide fill out forms and other
interfaces, so the user can type in a query, submit the request, and retrieve a list of
resources that match the search criteria. The hypertext environment makes it possible
to offer a link directly from the list of results to the resources themselves.

2.8 Web browsing/ Net surfing

Internet browsing or net surfing as it is often called is the process of visiting the
different web sites on the internet hosted by the various companies, organizations,
educational institutions, magazines, individuals.

2.9 IP address:

An IP address is a unique, numeric identifier used to specify a particular host

computer on a particular network, and is part of global, standardized scheme for
identifying machines that are connected to the Internet. IP addresses consist of four
numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods, which represent both the network
and the host machine.

2.10 Domain name:

A domain name is a way to identify and locate computers connected to the Internet. A
domain name must be unique; no two organizations on the Internet can have the
same domain name.

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 2.11 Uniform Resource Locator:

A URL provides a standard hierarchical way of identifying and location Internet

resources on the World Wide Web. URLs include letters, numbers and punctuation.

2.12 Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

IP is a suite or family of protocols that govern the way data is transmitted across
networks. TCP/IP protocols work together to break the data into small pieces that can
be efficiently handled by the network, communicate the destination of the data to the
network, verify the receipt of the data on the other end of the transmission and
reconstruct the data in its original form.

2.13 File Transfer Protocol

FTP is the protocol or set of rules that enables files to be transferred from one
computer to another. It is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. Files that are available
from FTP are stored on computers called FTP servers. An FTP client program is an
interface that allows the user to locate the files to be transferred and initiate the
transfer process.

2.14 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

HTTP is the set of rules or protocol that enables hypertext data to be transferred from
one computer to another. HTTP enables users to retrieve a wide variety of resources,
such as text, graphics, sound, animation and other hypertext documents, and allows
hypertext access to other Internet protocols.

2.15 Internet Protocol: IP Addresses

Every machine on the Internet has a unique identifying number, called an IP Address.
The IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the language that computers use to
communicate over the Internet. A protocol is the pre-defined way that someone who
wants to use a service talks with that service. The "someone" could be a person, but
more often it is a computer program like a Web browser.

A typical IP address looks like this:

216.27.61.137

To make it easier for us humans to remember, IP addresses are normally expressed

in decimal format as a dotted decimal number like the one above. But computers
communicate in binary form. Look at the same IP address in binary:

11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001

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 2.16 Internet Servers and Clients

Internet servers make the Internet possible. All of the machines on the Internet are
either servers or clients. The machines that provide services to other machines are
servers. And the machines that are used to connect to those services are clients.
There are Web servers, e-mail servers, FTP servers and so on serving the needs of
Internet users all over the world.

2.17 Telnet

Telnet is the protocol that enables one computer to establish a connection to another
computer. The computer establishing the connection is referred to as the local
computer, the computer the connection is referred to as the remote, a host computer.
Telnet can provide access to many resources around the world, such as library
catalogs, databases, and other Internet tools and applications.

2.18 Gopher

Gopher is a protocol designed to search, retrieve, and display documents from remote
sites on the Interne. In addition to document display and document retrieval, it is
possible initiate on-line connections with other systems via Gopher.

2.19 Wide Area Information Service

WAIS is an Internet search tool that has the capability of searching many databases
at one time. WAIS can be accessed via Telnet, Gopher or a WAIS client program and
increasingly, WAIS indexed databases are accessible through the World Wide Web.

2.20 The Function of an Internet Router

The routers determine where to send information from one computer to another.
Routers are specialized computers that send your messages and those of every other
Internet user.

• It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. This is crucial for
keeping large volumes of data from clogging the connections of "innocent
bystanders."

• It makes sure that information does make it to the intended destination.

. It joins the two networks, passing information from one to the other. It also protects
the networks from one another, preventing the traffic on one from unnecessarily
spilling over to the other.

2.21 Internet Backbone

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 The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the first high-speed backbone in
1987. Called NSFNET, it was a T1 line that connected 170 smaller networks together
and operated at 1.544 Mbps (million bits per second). IBM, MCI and Merit worked with
NSF to create the backbone and developed a T3 (45 Mbps) backbone the following
year.

Backbones are typically fiber optic trunk lines. The trunk line has multiple fiber optic
cables combined together to increase the capacity. Fiber optic cables are designated
OC for optical carrier, such as OC-3, OC-12 or OC-48. An OC-3 line is capable of
transmitting 155 Mbps while an OC-48 can transmit 2,488 Mbps (2.488 Gbps)

2.22 Computer Network Hierarchy

Most large communications companies have their own dedicated backbones

connecting various regions. In each region, the company has a Point of Presence
(POP). The POP is a place for local users to access the company's network, often
through a local phone number or dedicated line. The amazing thing here is that there
is no overall controlling network. Instead, there are several high-level networks
connecting to each other through Network Access Points or NAPs.

Governance

The Internet is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily

interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body.
However, to maintain interoperability, all technical and policy aspects of the
underlying core infrastructure and the principal name spaces are administered by the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), headquartered in

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 California. ICANN is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers
for use on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses,
application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters.
Globally unified name spaces, in which names and numbers are uniquely assigned,
are essential for the global reach of the Internet. ICANN is governed by an
international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business,
academic, and other non-commercial communities.

3.0 INTRANET

A network based on TCP/IP protocols (an internet) belonging to an organization,

usually a corporation, accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or
others with authorization. An intranet's Web sites look and act just like any other Web
sites, but the firewall surrounding an intranet fends off unauthorized access.

Like the Internet itself, intranets are used to share information. Secure intranets are
now the fastest-growing segment of the Internet because they are much less
expensive to build and manage than private networks based on proprietary protocols.

3.1 Characteristics

An intranet is built from the same concepts and technologies used for the Internet,
such as client-server computing and the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Any of the
well known Internet protocols may be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web
services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer). An intranet can be understood as a
private version of the Internet, or as a private extension of the Internet confined to an
organization. The first intranet websites and home pages began to appear in
organizations in 1990 - 1991. Intranets are generally restricted to employees of the
organization.

3.2 Benefits of intranets

• Workforce productivity: Intranets can also help users to locate and view
information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities,
increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with
confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services
provided to the users.
• Time: With intranets, organizations can make more information available to
employees.
• Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within
an organization, vertically and horizontally.
• Business operations and management: Intranets are also being used as a
platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and
decisions across the internetworked enterprise.
• Cost-effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than
maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and
requisition forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing,

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 duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance
overhead.
• Promote common corporate culture: Every user is viewing the same information
within the Intranet.
• Enhance Collaboration: With information easily accessible by all authorized
users, teamwork is enabled.
• Cross-platform Capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are available for
Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
• Built for One Audience: Many companies dictate computer specifications Which,
in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on
one browser (no cross-browser compatibility issues).
• Knowledge of your Audience: Being able to specifically address your "viewer" is a
great advantage. Since Intranets are user specific (requiring database/network
authentication prior to access), you know exactly who you are interfacing with. So,
you can personalize your Intranet based on role (job title, department) or individual
("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our company!").
• Immediate Updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity,
laws/specifications/parameters can change. With an Intranet and providing your
audience with "live" changes, they are never out of date, which can limit a company's
liability.
• Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also be linked to
a company’s management information system, for example a time keeping system.

4.0 WORLD WIDE WEB

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the
Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images,
videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks.

4.1 HTML

HTML defines several aspects of a web page including heading levels, bold, italics,
images, paragraph breaks and hypertext links to other resources. HTML can be
compared to word processing. The text in a word processed file can be formatted in
various ways. For example, a heading can be bold and in larger font size than the rest
of the document. Also specific words can be italicized for emphasis.

Thus HTML is a way to define the formats of text in a web page. However, it goes
further by also being able to define placement of graphics and hypertext links. HTML
is a sub-language of SGML, or Standard Generalised Markup Language. SGML is a
system that defines and standardizes the structure of documents. Both SGML and
HTML utilize descriptive markup to define the structure of an area of text. In general
terms, descriptive markup does not specify a particular font or point size for an area of
text. Therefore, in HTML, text is marked as a heading, subheading, numbered list,
bold, italic etc.

HTML is standardized and portable. A document that has been prepared using HTML
markup “tags” can be viewed using a variety of web browsers, such as Netscape and

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 Linux. A browser interprets the tags in an HTML file and presents the file as a
formatted, readable web page. In addition, HTML documents can be viewed on all
types of systems, such as Macintosh, PC and UNIX machines.

HTML Tags HTML tags are used to define areas of a in document as having certain
characteristics. The tags used in HTML usually consist of a code in between two
“wickets”. These codes are called container tags because the formatting described by
the tag affects only the text contained between the tags. For example, (B) and (/B) are
the starting and ending tags used to indicate an area as bold. HTML tags are used to
define heading levels, such as (H1) and (/H1). Heading levels can go to (H6), with
each successive number indicating a smaller heading size.

4.2Caching

If a user revisits a Web page after only a short interval, the page data may not need to
be re-obtained from the source Web server. Almost all web browsers cache recently
obtained data, usually on the local hard drive. HTTP requests sent by a browser will
usually only ask for data that has changed since the last download. If the locally
cached data are still current, it will be reused. Caching helps reduce the amount of
Web traffic on the Internet. The decision about expiration is made independently for
each downloaded file, whether image, style sheet, JavaScript, HTML, or whatever
other content the site may provide. Thus even on sites with highly dynamic content,
many of the basic resources only need to be refreshed occasionally. Web site
designers find it worthwhile to collate resources such as CSS data and JavaScript into
a few site-wide files so that they can be cached efficiently. This helps reduce page
download times and lowers demands on the Web server.

5.0 E- MAIL

In its simplest form E mail is and electronic message sent from one computer to
another. Just as letter or document stops at thedifferent postal stations along its way,
email is passed from one computerto another as it travels along the network. Each
computer reads the email address and routes it to another computer until it eventually
reaches its destination. It is then stored in an electronic mail box. With the Internet,
this whole process usually takes just a few minutes, allowing you to communicate
quickly and easily with millions of people around the world anytime of the day or night.

5.1 Email messages

e-mail messages are a lot like letters. There are two main parts: header and body.
The header contains your name and address, the name and address of the person it
is being sent to, the name and address of anyone who is being copied, the date of the
message and what the message is about. You need a correct address.Body is the
content of the message.

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6. http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/events.php?id=95

7.http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_the_Internet_and_an_i
ntranet

8. http://www.iorg.com/papers/amdahl/infra.html

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet

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