What is the Internet? The Internet is latest in communications tools. Today, the Internet is a part of daily life.

Even if you don't use it regularly, you hear about it daily. Estimates tell us that in US alone, 40 million computers connect to the Internet, and the number is growing. In India also, the Internet connections are growing exponentially. The Internet has many features common with our telephone network. When we make a phone call a channel consisting of copper wires, fiber optic lines, and perhaps a satellite opens. Voice signals on both sides are converted into an analogue electrical signal, which the phone system manipulates and transmit. A telephone conversation establishes a direct channel between both the parties. The Internet is a world wide "network of networks". It is a loose collection of thousands of smaller networks in different countries around the globe enabling millions of people from diverse cultures to share information and resources. Internet pathways exchange digitized computer data that travel through complex networks. Even the parts of a single E-mail message travel through computers and lines owned by dozens of companies and government entities. Networking fundamentals To learn more about network, let's start with a LAN. A LAN or Local Area Network is a collection of computers, in a room or in a single building, directly linked together usually via cables. This type of connection enables users to share common hardware (like scanner, printer, modem) or software. Many companies use LANs so that their employees can access a common database or a printer. LAN is a means of communicating between PCs (personal computers). Each computer connected to a LAN can share information, communicate with other computers, and use peripherals connected to the LAN. When one or two LANs are connected, you create a WAN or Wide Area Network. The various LANs, which comprise the WAN, may be in different buildings or in different countries. Most WANs are connected via leased (that is, dedicated) telephone lines, or via satellites. WAN is a long distance network for the efficient transfer of voice signals and data between various LANs. In essence, the Internet is a massive wide area network, connecting many hundreds of computer networks worldwide. How are the computers connected? The job of connecting one or more LANs falls on the shoulders of a router (pronounced "r-oww-ter"). A router is a hardware device that makes sure that data sent over a network gets to its intended destination in one piece and as quickly as possible. The reason computers can get along with each other is that they share a common language. This Internet language is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). TCP/IP is a standard that regulates how all computers connected to the Internet must act when communicating with one another. It is usually referred to in the

context of "TCP/IP software", which is simply a reference to software that complies with the TCP/IP protocols. TCP/IP was a brainchild of the scientists employed by ARPA to design a new network model. Every computer on a network running TCP/IP software knows exactly where on the "network map" it is located. With this knowledge, a computer routes information to the intended recipient via the fastest route, without having to follow a predetermined path, which might otherwise have been blocked or congested. If it found that a computer is not responding, or was too busy to handle the information, then it consults the network map (referred to as the "network topology") to find another computer, which could pass on the information. This ability to find the best, fastest, most expedient means of sending information and to avoid known problems has been a major step in computer intercommunication. When the TCP/IP protocol was being designed, the scientists were using powerful Unix machines (the life line of the military, due to their raw power and flexibility). The designers expected that all the computers, which would be connected to ARPAnet, would be Unix machines. But as the years progressed, a new breed, the IBM PC, found itself being added to the network. To ensure that all computers connected to ARPAnet could communicate and exchange information, different versions of the TCP/IP software were written for each type of computer connected to it. Thus, if a computer on the network spoke TCP/IP, it did not matter if the machine was a massive Unix machine or a small PC. Any computer talking TCP/IP could join the club. But how does a Unix machine swap information with an IBM or Mac? Different types of computers store and manipulate data in different ways. As it was expected that eventually an amazing cross-section of computers would be accessing and using TCP/IP networks, the scientists came up with software program known as gateways. Information from, say an IBM network, would be passed through a gateway program, which would translate the data into Mac or Unix. That way, a person with an IBM PC could send e-mail to a colleague with a Mac and living in other part of the world. The translation process is invisible to both users and occurs almost instantaneously. Communication through the Internet The Internet is primarily a communications tool. Like telephones, fax machines and citizens band (CB) radios, the Internet is a system that lets people convey their messages across a distance. The main distinguishing feature of Internet communication is its low cost per transmission. For many people, electronic mail (or E-mail) is the primary reason to get on the Internet. With Internet we can instantly exchange electronic mail with friends and family anywhere in the world. E-mail is an excellent way to stay in touch even with people whom you regularly talk to on phone because it is quick, cheap and easy.

Internet users around the world can read a document slipped into the Web, just like they read a book. Because the cost of electronic publishing is cheap, you can find almost any topic imaginable. But, not all of it is worthwhile. Still, with such a large pool to investigate, you are bound to find a few interesting nuggets. Current events, reams of computer-related information and software, sports scores, health tips, tutorials, plans, schemes, investment ideas, and entertaining real-time interviews are all there. A brief history of Internet The Internet was born about 30 years ago as an experiment by the US Department of Defense. In the early sixties, computer networks were very rigid affairs, with hierarchal structures. At the "top" of every computer network was a central computer, which would coordinate the activities of all other computers connected to it. If one computer wanted to talk to another computer, it first needed to get the approval from the central computer. The U.S. Department of Defense was afraid that its computer network could be 'blinded' by a few well-placed Russian nuclear bombs. The prospect of "being blinded" horrified military chiefs and so several brilliant computer engineers were drawn together by the Advance Research Projects Administration (ARPA) to design a new network model that could withstand such attacks. The result of their toils became known as ARPAnet. ARPAnet, a military network, was designed so that each computer on the network was charged with the responsibility of ensuring that its communications were successfully carried out. Each computer knew where every other computer linked to the network was. This was possible by the use of unique addresses stored on a distributed database, which painted an overall "map" of the network. Every computer was regarded as equal to every other computer, so it did not require the permission of any other computer to talk with the other computers. The system also presumed that every other computer was "unreliable", i.e., it could fail at any time and so the system probed each of them at regular intervals to ensure the lines of communications were still open. If it found that one or more computer were unreachable (because they had been nuked or the telephone lines were down), it would simply note that on its "map" and not use those computers when passing on information until the situation was remedied. To send a message on the ARPAnet, a computer only had to put its data in an envelope, called the Internet Protocol (IP) packet and "address" the packets correctly. The communicating computers itself (not the network) were given the responsibility to ensure that the communication was accomplished. The philosophy was that every computer on the network could talk, with any other computer on the network. The Organization for International Standardization (ISO) had spent years in designing the ultimate standard for computer networking. ISO was quite successful in designing a reliable protocol. Central to the design was the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) software, which regulated how the computers would interact with each other. In the beginning, the network was used to link the military's computers, as well as, a small number of academic sites (to allow further study of the networking

principles). The growth of Internet worried the Department of Defense, which separated its computers from the network and started MILNET a network purely for military use, but based on the same network model. The Internet took a leap forward in the 1980s, when the National Science Foundation (NSF) constructed a new, faster backbone network based upon Internet protocols to link colleges and research institutions to five new supercomputing centers located around the United States. As more computers joined the ranks, the value of the network increased, fueling an upward spiral that continues today on a worldwide level. Not every country is connected to the Internet, but the Internet community welcomes all new comers. In the early 1990s, the Internet took another step forward when the easy-to-use World Wide Web sent the number of computers and people accessing it on an exponential curve that keeps climbing higher. In 1995, recognizing the increasingly commercial nature of the Internet, the NSF sold the last parts of its backbone still financed by the government. The present Internet is a broad collection of large networks mostly run by big telecommunication companies. At several major access points, these top-level networks are connected to smaller and mid-level systems, and then to independent service providers. Who Governs the Internet? The Internet has grown quite rapidly from its origin as a small defense network and today spans the globe connecting hundreds of thousands of computers on many different computer networks. But no person or group or government owns or controls it. The owners of each individual network (whether it is a corporate network linking machines in one building to the Internet or a national network providing Internet access for computers across whole of a country) make their own decisions about whether to connect and what services they will allow their users to access. In so connecting, they are responsible for their own little part of the Internet, and the associated costs. There is no single authority figure for Internet as a whole. Accordingly, there is no centralized body that controls or regulates the Internet. Because of this fact, the Internet is considered to be somewhat anarchic. To a large extent that is true. It leads to a lot of duplication of services and means. But it also means that no one person, group or country has the ability to censor or restrict access to the Internet's resources. Who pays for the Internet? Who pays for the Internet? If no one pays for it, then Internet will not be there. Someone must pay for the computers and permanent telephone and satellite connections that allow the Internet to operate locally, nationally and internationally. Every one pays for his part. Every subscriber to the Internet has to pay money to the local Internet Service Provider generally on the hourly basis.

The Internet, by its very nature, requires all computers linked to it to have a permanent connection. These computers are connected by thousands of kilometers of telephone lines and optical fibers, all of which require modems, routers and computers to coordinate the flow of information. Networks get together and decide how to connect themselves and fund these interconnections. Connecting to the Internet It is very simple. Pay monthly or hour fees to an Internet Service Provider. If you are using an educational institution or organization network with access to the Internet, you should not need anything else. The same card that plugs your machine into the LAN will act as your passport to the Internet. From out PC we generally we connect to the Internet by telephone lines. For connecting computers through telephone lines, we require the use of MODEMS. Modem stands for MOdulate-DEModulate. Modem is a hardware device that is connected to your computer (either as a card inside the computer or as an external device that sits on your desk or on top of your computer). Modulation is the process of turning electronic information (in digital form) into analogue tones that can be transmitted over the common telephone lines, and demodulation is the act of reconverting analogue tone into digital data that our computer understands. The speed of telephone lines and modem is always a bottleneck to dial-up users. The Internet actually moves much faster than a modem connection can accommodate. The standard 32.6 KB modem is fine for general use, although sites with a lot of graphics take time. Do I need Internet Connection? If you have any thing to do with computers, then you need Internet. Internal have various uses for individuals and for business. In U.S.A. almost all the universities and schools provide free Internet access to the students, so that they can explore the vast amount of knowledge and information offered through it. The basic services that form the foundation of the Internet are E-mail, telnet, FTP and World Wide Web. With Internet we can instantly exchange electronic mail with friends and family any where in the world. Telnet allows you to connect to and log into a remote computer. You use remote computer over the Internet just as if you are sitting next to it. You can access any of the public services or tools and library databases at the remote site. FTP provides for transferring files across the Internet from one computer to another. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Thousands of machines on the Internet make archives or collections of files available for you through anonymous FTP. Internet has many uses. For Individuals the most important uses of Internet are E-mail and "surfing the Web". You can read about topics that interest you (like sports, or a hobby) and explore about any country, or place of interest that you may never see.

Besides this you can participate in discussions on topics that interest you, through public news groups or bulletin boards. Internet has given us a new forum for discussing that favourite hobby that no one in our neighbourhood is interested in. You can find information about universities and libraries. Universities around the world, schools, college and popular libraries share on-line information. Students applying for admission in various foreign universities can ask for clarification by sending e-mail. Universities usually give prompt replies to e-mail queries as it is an easy job. How Do I Connect to the Internet? For any individual or a small business organization to join the Internet, he needs the services of an Internet Service Provider (ISP). You have to begin by visiting an office of an ISP of your choice in your city or contacting them on telephone. Even the computer dealer/seller in your area will be willing to help you. When you get an Internet account, you will be asked to provide your login and password. You will be given e-mail address and password. You will also get phone number to be dialed to connect to the ISP and helpdesk phone numbers. An e-mail address from VSNL's Bombay office can be as: rajan@giasbm02.vsnl.net.in. But before you get your own Internet account, it is better to go through this article. Because, before you sign up you will need to know, the type of modem you require and where to get the necessary software and other things. Many educational institutions and organizations are already linked to the Internet. It may be that the computer on your desk in your office has all you need to gain access. Otherwise, you will probably have to get individual access for yourself. What is an Internet Service Provider? An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a company or group that provides access to users on a pay-per-use basis. ISPs already have a dedicated connection to the Internet and allow users to connect to their computers via modem to obtain access to the Internet. Providing access to the Internet costs money. ISPs have already invested a lot of money in the necessary hardware computers, modems, routers, telephone connections and so on. Then they have necessary software to help their users access their systems. They need staff to keep their machines running and to answer any queries users may have. Therefore, an ISP has to charge you for the access provided through its facilities. For a common person, the Internet access is not cheap. However, it does not cost as much as you might think. The ISPs normally charge for a fixed number of hours. Then for the duration, you connect to Internet; you are using your telephone line (local call) and have to pay Telephone Company for the charges. For local telephone rates, we can send email to a friend or relative in any part of the world. Of course, the friend/relative also must have Internet access. A large number of Indians go to U.S.A. for higher studies. In U.S.A. almost every university provides free Internet access to students. For parents of such students, Internet access has become very useful.

Many ISPs provide two types of accounts on Internet Shell Account and TCP/IP Account. The Internet access charges depend upon many factors: (a) the type of account, (b) whether a student or an individual or organization and (c) type of access dial-up or leased line. What are Shell and TCP/IP Accounts? Shell account is a primary level menu based access to the Internet services, such as email; ftp, telnet and text based browsing (Lynx). The access is limited primarily to textbased services. The shell account provides a user with the facility to login to the Internet using a simple VT100 terminal (or equivalent software running on a PC, e.g., ProComm Plus, Telix, Hyper Terminal, etc.). The user does not require any special software on his computer and all the required software is installed on the ISP's machines. For example, for e-mail through Shell access, VSNL has Pine software on its machine. For connecting to the ISP's computer, mostly the software provided along with modem serves the purpose. The TCP/IP account provides full Internet access. With TCP/IP account the subscriber can access text, as well as, graphics. The user requires TCP/IP software to connect on a dial-up or leased line access to the Internet Services. For all Internet services the user has to install a few required software on his machine. An important software required is a Web browser. Two popular Web browsers are Internet Explorer and NetScape Navigator/Communicator. What do I need to get connected? Of course, you will need an Internet access account from your favourite ISP. But before that make sure that you have the necessary hardware and software. Also find out what software are provided free of cost by your ISP. For example, when you get a TCP/IP account from VSNL, they provide you a CD that has software to make the telephone connection for the Internet access. When you get Internet account for the first time, in many cases, it is better idea to get account for a minimum number of hours. Only about a year back VSNL was providing TCP/IP account for only 500-hours/one year. Previously this account was available for Rs. 15,000 plus registration fee of Rs. 1000. A large number of small companies and individuals paid Rs. 16,000 to VSNL to get this account. Many of these individuals used the account for even less than 100 hours in a year. Some never used the account at all, may be, they could not find out how to use it or did not have required hardware or software. Computer: You will need a fairly new computer. A computer with Pentium processor or 486 processor should be suitable for both the shell account and the TCP/IP account. You can access shell account with a 386 or 286 processor also. For TCP/IP account, you will require some hard disk space in which to store the software you will be using to connect to the ISP and navigate the Internet and to store any information you might download.

TCP/IP account requires that you load some additional software in your computer for various services. A software that is a must is a Web browser (either Internet Explorer or NetScape Navigator/communicator). Both these software are suited for surfing the World Wide Web and for e-mail. Modem: A modem is a hardware device, which is connected to your computer (either as a card inside your computer or as an external device that sits on the top of your computer). Basically, a modem is a device, which lets your computer talk to other computers over a telephone line. Generally we connect to the Internet by telephone lines. The word modem stands for "modulate demodulate". Modulation is the process of turning electronic information (in digital form) into analogue tones that can be transmitted over the common telephone lines and demodulation is the act of reconverting analogue tone into digital data that our computer understands. The modem sits between your computer and the telephone line. At the other end, there is another modem, which sits between your ISP's computer and the telephone line. Any data to be sent by your computer over the telephone line is converted to analogue signal by your modem. Your ISP's modem reconverts this analogue signal to digital data that is accepted by the ISP's computer. Similarly, any data coming form ISP's computer to your computer is first converting to analogue signal by the ISP's modem and then this analogue signal is converted to digital signal by your own modem. If you do not already have a modem, you should spend a bit of time shopping. There are a number of different brands of modems on the market, but in essence they all do the same thing. The first thing to look in a modem is the speed expressed in bits per second (bps). For TCP/IP account, a modem should preferably have a speed of at least 28.8 kbps (bits per second). Faster modems are also available in the market. Faster modems are costlier, but they are better and worth its cost if your ISP provides access at that speed. For example, downloading a document at 14,400 bps may take three minutes, but downloading the same document at 2400 bps will take 25 minutes. If your ISP provides TCP/IP access at a maximum speed of 33.6 kbps, then at present you may not require modem faster than 33.6 kbps. VSNL does have a limited access numbers providing TCP/IP access at 33.6 kbps. But for shell account, a 14.4 kbps error correcting modem is good enough. Thus if you plan to buy a high-speed modem, then ask your ISP whether they support this access speed. Of course, a high-speed modem will always accept access at lower speed. It is recommended that for shell account you get a modem with 14.4 kbps and for TCP/IP account you get a modem with 33.6 kbps or 28.8 kbps. It is not a good idea to buy the fastest modem available as in future the prices of modems will fall still further. Telephone Line: A modem needs a telephone line before it can do its work. It can use an ordinary telephone line. Simply unplug your telephone and connect the modem. In fact, a modem requires three connections: 1. Connection with telephone line; 2. Connection with your computer; and 3. Supply lead connected to mains supply through an adapter (or

battery eliminator). Most of the modems require 9V d.c. supply. Thus the adapter converts mains supply of 220V, 50 Hz into 9V d.c. supply. When modem connects to the telephone jack and computer and modems power switch is on (for external modem), you can connect to your ISP. This is exactly the same as if you are going to make a telephone call. If someone rings you while you are using your modem, he gets a busy signal. So it is not a good idea to use a modem on an important business line. You should know if your phone has pulse dialing or tone dialing. Telephone with pulse dialing should be preferred. If your telephone has tone dialing, it will still work, but it is better idea to write an application to your telephone company to change your telephone to pulse dialing. In some cities of India, telephone companies are making this change. If you have a call waiting facility on your telephone line, it can disrupt your modem communications, whenever, someone rings you. The modem cannot put one caller on hold. The ring sound will interfere with the data being transferred by your computer. Thus if you are using modem on a telephone connection with call waiting facility, it is good idea to disable it. Software: The type of software you need depends very much on the type of computer you are using, the type of Internet access account and what you intend doing on the Internet. For instance, if you only intend connecting to Internet to send and receive the occasional e-mail message (which is basically a text-based service), then for shell access, you do not need any other software except that comes with your modem. Through TCP/IP account for the Internet services, you need your own software. Also if you want to explore the whole gamut of Internet resources, then you need a few special software. You certainly need a Web browser. Dial-up or SLIP/PPP Access? It is useful to know the difference between ordinary dial-up access and SLIP/PPP access. The shell account of VSNL provides you with only the dial-up access, while the TCP/IP account of VSNL provides you with SLIP/PPP access. In Delhi and some other cities, VSNL has completely stopped shell account access. Dial-up access: With dial-up access you connect to your ISP without any special software, except the software, which came with your modem or is already with you (any Widows software, has this facility). It is just like connecting your computer with any other computer via modem and telephone line. For example, it is like connecting computer from home to your office for accessing some documents. The other computer is known as a "remote" host. When you are connected with dial-up access, you can only access programs, which are available on the remote host to manipulate its data. You are a guest of your ISP (remote

host) and use its facilities. When you connect to the Internet, the other remote hosts that you connect to would not actually know which machine is requesting the information. The other computers on the Internet cannot directly send information to it, as you do not speak TCP/IP. But your ISP's computer speaks TCP/IP. For normal Internet user, if your ISP provides access to all the Internet facilities, there is nothing wrong with this type of connection. In fact, dial-up connections (shell account by VSNL) are cheaper than SLIP/PPP access. In some cities VSNL does not provide shell account any more. SLIP/PPP access: SLIP/PPP accounts require special software for connecting to your ISP. SLIP stands of "Serial Line Internet Protocol" and PPP stands for "Point-to-Point Protocol". With this type of software you connect to your ISP using either SLIP or PPP software and for the duration of that connection, you are assigned your very own Internet Address (or IP address). Your computer will also be talking TCP/IP, the universal Internet language. Those computers connected to the Internet which share a common language TCP/IP, are able to "see" and communicate with one another. This means is that for the duration of your connection, your computer becomes an "Internet host" and is recognizable by all other hosts, so that they can talk directly to your computer. This type of connection has a number of benefits. Primarily, as your computer is able to interact directly with other computers on the Internet and talk their native language, it means that you can install any number of SLIP/PPP-compatible software programs on your computer and use those programs to access Internet services, regardless of whether those service are offered by you ISP. Essentially, your ISP becomes your springboard to the Internet and you can run any SLIP/PPP compatible software on your computer to access the many resources available via the Internet. ISPs charge you more for these types of accounts. For the added benefits provided by SLIP/PPP access (TCP/IP account of VSNL), many users consider the additional costs well worthwhile. Also if your ISP were really loaded, this would not affect your connection. Shareware & Freeware There is a great deal of shareware or freeware software available for Windows and Mac computers, which you can use to access the Internet (including SLIP/PPP software). Freeware software available on the Internet can be downloaded, used and redistributed at no cost to the user, whereas, shareware are programs that require a registration fee to be paid after a certain period of time. If you are looking for software, then a few good sites to find freeware or shareware software are: http://www.shareware.com http://www.download.com http://www.hotfiles.com

If you would be using the Internet for the first time, you may not know any thing about downloading, but soon you would find everything very easy. Other Places for Help

Most ISPs have a helpdesk, whom you can call or e-mail to discuss problems you might have with their service. Helpdesk is there to help you, but they may not be able to answer many of such questions. No one can have knowledge of every piece of communications software ever written and about every modem ever sold. When you get Internet account, make sure to get helpdesk telephone numbers and e-mail address. There are many books and magazines about Internet. Some of these are quite detailed and technical. One of the best magazines available is "Computers and Internet" by TFY Technical Publications, Delhi. Also, you can always refer to the FAQs. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. You can get FAQs from: www.vsnl.net.in. There are a number of these files around covering swag of problems encountered by new users. These can be obtained via Usenet (in the new users newsgroups) or via FTP. Domain Name System & Server The Domain Name System (DNS) is a method by which all the separate and diverse computers and networks linked to the Internet are "addressed". Every time you connect to a computer over the Internet or send e-mail to a colleague, you will be making use of the DNS. A few examples are: giasdl01.vsnl.net.in, vsnl.com, stanford.edu and microsoft.com. A computer does not understand the address in English. Each server connected to the Internet has a numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address. For the server giasbm01.vsnl.net.in the IP address is 202.54.1.18 and for computersandinternet.com the IP address is 209.239.54.62. The domain name system makes it possible for us to think in terms of names in English, whereas, computers think in terms of numeric IP addresses. A computer that keeps track of all the English names and their numeric IP addresses, is called the domain name server. Whenever, we send an e-mail to a computer at other end of the globe, the domain name server translates the address in English into the numeric IP address necessary to make the connection. IP Addresses Computers on the Internet are able to communicate with each other because they use a standard protocol known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). A fundamental component of this protocol is a 32-bit numerical IP address that is assigned to every host when it connects to the Internet. The 32-bit address is represented by four eight-bit numbers, which are expressed as decimal numbers in the range of 0-255 (inclusive), separated by periods ("."). Each eight-bit component of the 32-bit address is referred to as an octet. An IP address looks some thing like this: 202.54.1.18 Every host computer connected to the Internet has an address similar to the one above. No other computer has the same address. How does this address get assigned? The

Internet Architecture Board (IAB) worries about this problem. It does not actually assign the addresses, but it makes the rules about how to assign addresses. The Internet Architecture Board decides the various standards and rules for allocation of the resources, like IP addresses. This allows different types of computers from different vendors to communicate with each other. Humans remember names better than numbers. So, besides the numeric IP addresses, the computers are also given "English" names (known as domain names), such as: giasbm01.vsnl.net.in. English names are significantly easier to remember than numeric addresses. But computers can only communicate with each other using numerical IP addresses. So that humans can use English addresses that they can understand and the computers can use IP addresses, the two names must be linked or cross-referenced. The DNS takes care of this cross-referencing. When you specify an e-mail or IP address using the "English" domain name, your ISP's computer will first access a database, known as a DNS nameserver which contains both the English and numerical addresses of all computers connected to the Internet. If it finds the domain name you specify, it will lookup the corresponding numerical address and use that to carry out the requested function. As a result, you do not need to memorize the numerical IP addresses. The DNS also imposes a uniform naming system on to an otherwise chaotic network of networks. To allow the diverse computer networks that make up the Internet to act cohesively, they must all recognize each other's existence and be able to pass information between each other without any confusion as to where the information is going. For this reason, every machine on the Internet must have a unique address. Domain Name System (DNS) is like a very tall tree with innumerable roots and branches. At the very top of that tree is the InterNIC the Internet Network Information Centre. InterNIC is an organization in USA. Internet was conceived and developed in USA and it was not anticipated that the Internet would spread to other countries. The function of InterNIC is to maintain a list of every computer connected to the Internet. The list contains both their domain name and IP address. Without this central compilation of addresses, every computer would need to keep track of all new additions to the Internet. With estimates that thousands of people connect to the Internet daily, this would be a difficult and time-consuming task. For this reason InterNIC is assigned that duty. It makes the list available to other Internet users. Every new computer connecting to the Internet must register with InterNIC to receive a unique address, so that other Internet computers can find it. IP address and domain names are not assigned arbitrarily that would lead to unbelievable confusion. An application must be filed with InterNIC either electronically (to hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil) or via regular mail. Thus InterNIC is like a central regulating body for the Internet. To avoid every computer on the Internet having to connect to interNIC's computers each time it wants to locate another computer, a number of other hosts have "mirrored" the

information stored on interNIC's databases. These mirror sites are referred to as nameservers. Each nameserver supports (or serves) several immediate computers in the hierarchical DNS tree, each of which is referred to as a top-level domain. More about domain name Domain name tell you the name of the organization that runs a given e-mail site and what kind of site it is and the country it's located in. Large organizations may have more than one computer or gateway tied to the Internet, so you will often see a two-part domain names; and sometimes even three- or four-part domain names. For example, a domain name is giasdl01.vsnl.net.in. In this name, each portion of the domain name is called a domain. The domains are giasdl01, vsnl, net and in. Top level domains: In a domain name vsnl.net.in, the top-level domains are net and in. The two letter top-level domain is a country code, e.g., in is for India. If an Internet address does not have a two-letter country code, then the site is in U.S.A. In the domain name rice.edu, the top-level domain name is edu and the site is located in U.S.A. There are several top-level domains currently supported by InterNIC: Name com/co edu/ac Description Usually companies or other commercial organization Education institutions (universities etc.), e.g., New York University is named nyu.edu org Usually nonprofit private organizations that do not fit in other classes of domains. Net gov mil int Networks (usually connected to the Internet via a gateway), e.g., vsnl.net Non-military government organizations, e.g., NASA is nasa.gov Military government organizations, e.g., U.S. Air Force is af.mil International organizations

As the Internet grew across the globe, new top-level domains are reserved for every country. A two-letter abbreviation became a standard for every country in the world. The two-letter ISC codes for some countries are: in fr India France au su Australia ca Canada ch Switzerland

Soviet Union (still on the Internet)

uk

United Kingdom

za

South Africa

The top-level domains in India are maintained by National Center for Software Technology (NCST), as they were the first Internet nodes in India. The domains under in are net, ernet and co. Subdomains or second-level domains: Top-level domains in turn have subdomains. Subdomains are referred to as second-level domains, because they are beneath the toplevel domains on the DNS tree. Second-level domain names are usually assigned to entire organizations. For example, vsnl.net.in or rice.edu is a second-level domain. We can easily make out that vsnl.net.in is a computer in the India; it is a network connected to Internet via a gateway and it belongs to an organization called vsnl (VSNL). Similarly, rice.edu is a computer in U.S.A. and it belongs to an educational institution called rice (Rice University, Houston, Texas). Most Internet addresses can be interpreted in this fashion. You might find that a domain name has more than three domains in it, such as giasdl01.vsnl.net.in. This is because that particular site might have several computers connected to the Internet, each of which is given a distinctive name (such as giasdl01). But they are all part of the one site, whose domain name is vsnl.net.in. Some computers connected to vsnl.net.in are: giasbm01.vsnl.net.in; giasdl01.vsnl.net.in; giasmd01.vsnl.net.in; giasbn01.vsnl.net.in and giaspn01.vsnl.net.in. An Internet user will never deal with a DNS nameserver or worry about how domain names and IP addresses are assigned, but it is very useful to know that the naming conventions exist for a reason. Interpreting e-mail addresses Your house address contains house number, street, city, state and pin code. This is the information; the post office needs to deliver mail in a reasonable time. Likewise, an email address has some information about the country, organization, etc. Internet e-mail addresses usually look like this: userid@domain.name.country Notice that above address is all in lower case. There are few exceptions. The best way to read e-mail addresses is from right to left. As with IP addresses, the segments of the domain name are separated by periods ("."). The part of the e-mail address to the right of the @ is called the domain name. This is simply the name of the machine on which the user has an account. These details (owlnet.rice.edu) are sufficient to let any computer connected to the Internet find a particular computer. The part to the left is called the userid. This is the user's account name. Normally it is derived from their actual name. In the example, userid is mikekh. At times, users are

allowed to select their own userids, so you might find colourful ones that do not always correlate to that actual user.

Understanding the World Wide Web

We read and hear daily about the Internet or the "Net". And associated with the Internet, everyone talks about "surfing the Web" and "cruising through cyberspace", which refer to "exploring the World Wide Web." The term World Wide Web, or WWW, or Web is a computer application that is bringing masses to the Internet. This application has made it possible for any computer user to find information on anything the mind can imagine. Before you begin to explore the Web, it is helpful to know some basics about the Web. The Web and the Internet The Web and the Internet are two separate entities that work together. The Internet is a global system of connected computers. The Web is a collection of electronic documents stored on computers worldwide, which means on the Internet. The Internet was born in 1960s as an experiment by the U.S. Department of Defense. The Department developed a network of computers in which the individual computers of the network did not depend wholly of the main or central computer and could communicate with each other without the help of the central computer. The aim was to achieve a network in which if the central computer was blinded by enemy attack, the communication between remaining computers could still be carried out. The networking model developed by U.S. defense became popular. Since then, the "Net" grew into a vast global network linking thousands of smaller computer networks, which connected over 100 million computers. The "Net" became the "Internet". These computers, scattered throughout the world, connect the Internet via a system of telephone lines, satellite links, and other transmission methods. The Internet technology makes it possible for these computers to understand each other's electronic language and thus exchange information on a worldwide scale. The World Wide Web is a collection of information available through the Internet. Its a collection of electronic documents stored on the computers worldwide. At the click of a mouse button or the touch of a key, the users can crisscross the global information maze without requiring any technical understanding of how, where, why, or by whom. The computers connected to the Internet can send and receive these Web documents easily.

A vast amount of information is added daily on the World Wide Web. The Web is exciting because computer users have access to millions and millions of Web pages from all over the globe containing all kinds of information. The Web accepts text (with all different fonts, sizes and styles), graphics, animation, sound, and movies. Graphics are photos, colors, and other design elements that make the Web interesting. The term graphics include animation and even sound and movies. The text, the graphics, the animation, the sound and the movies are all interconnected with hyperlinks. The hyperlinks make it easy to navigate by allowing users to jump from one document to another with a simple mouse-click. The Web browser The Web began its rise in 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee, a consultant at the Swiss research laboratory CERN, used it to share research data with other physicists. Berners-Lee and CERN developers wrote a program that ran on many types of computer systems, enabling scientists everywhere to access research documents via the Internet. This program became known as a Web browser. In fact, the popularity of Web rose only after the creation of Mosaicthe first wellknown graphical Web browser. It was developed by the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and was distributed freely over the Internet. A Web browser is software that lets users gain access to and navigate the Web. A Web browser can interpret the links embedded in the documents and access the related documents on demand. Mosaic has become a model for new versions of all graphical Web browsers. In 1994, some of the Mosaic team, led by Marc Andreessen, left NCSA to create their own for-profit ventureNetscape Communications Corp. From this new company the Netscape Navigator Web browser was born. Netscape includes some more advanced features not incorporated in Mosaic. One special feature is its ability to begin navigating within a Web page even before its contents are completely downloaded to the client. Noticing Netscapes success, Microsoft Corporation got into the act with its own Microsoft Internet Explorer.