PAAET, College of Business Studies, Computer Department

Chapter 8: The Internet:

Section A: How the Internet Works:
Internet: Is a collection of local, regional, national, and international
computer networks linked to exchange data and distribute tasks.
• It started 46 years ago from four host computers and now it is a
large information network connecting millions of microcomputer,
minicomputers, mainframes and supercomputers.

The Internet Then and Now:

How did the Internet get started? (The Internet History)
In 1957 The Soviet Union launched "Sputnik", the 1 st artificial
satellite.
In response, the United States government organized an agency
called ARPA [Advanced Research Project Agency]. Its job was to
help scientists.
In 1969, they created a network called ARPANET; it connected
computers at four universities. It was used to communicate and
share valuable information.

The Internet technology

started here.

In 1985, NSF [National Science Foundation], Using ARPANET technology,

they connected entire LANs →WAN
"internetwork" or "internet"
!!! As this network grew, it became known as the Internet with a capital "I".

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But, finding information on the

Internet was not easy that time.
Users relied on word of mouth Also, difficult to use
and e-mail to locate information. Primitive command-line user interface
Exm. "the data you need is on the was used to:
Stanford computer in a file called Send e-mail
Chrome.txt" Transfer files
Run scientific calculations on Internet
supercomputers

In the 1990's, the Internet became popular.

Why?
&
Cheap availability Easy to use

User accounts (monthly  User-Friendly Internet Access tools

fee or cards) e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer,
Netscape Navigator.
 Search engines e.g. yahoo, google,
excite.

Internet Growth:

How big is the Internet?

To measure the size of the Internet, you could consider:
 how many computers are connected?
 how many people use it?
 how much data flows through it?
!!! Whatever measurement is used, the Internet is huge and continues to grow.
How much data is actually stored on Internet computers?
No one really knows!!!
Internet Traffic: is the # of bytes transmitted from one internet host
computer to another.
Internet Host Computer: is a computer on the Internet that provides services such
as Webpages, e-mailboxes, or data routing.

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Internet Technology:

How does data travel over the Internet?

 A network service provider (NSP) is responsible for maintaining
Internet communication links.
 These links interconnect at several network access points (NAPs)
 The communication links (wires, cables, satellites) that carry the
Internet data form an interlinked communication network.
 Data travels through the routes of the interlinked communication
network along the best possible path.
 Major internet communication links are called "the internet
backbone".
 NSPs are continually adding new communication links to the
backbone in order to have capacity for increased Internet use.

TCP/IP: Transport Control Protocol / Internet Protocol:

• A standard set of communication rules used by every computer
that is connected to the Internet.
• By following the TCP/IP rules, Internet computers can
efficiently control and route data between your PC and the other
Internet computers maintained by ISPs and NSPs.

Internet Service Provider: (ISP)

 ISPs are Internet Service Providers (they connect you to the
Internet).
 The ISP maintains a host computer that provides Internet access to
businesses, organizations, and individuals.
 The services are not free, you would need to pay a monthly or
annual fee.
 The ISP gives you a user account and an e-mailbox.

 Types of Internet connections:

 Dial-up or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection which uses a phone line.
 Cable television.
 Personal satellite dish.

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Where Does Your PC Fit in? ‫أين مكان جهاز الكمبيوتر الخاص بك؟‬

How does it work?

1. Your PC dials up the ISP computer and establishes a connection
over the phone line.
2. Once connected, the ISP routes data between your PC and the
Internet backbone.

Internet Addresses and Domains:

 Every computer that connects to the Internet has a unique IP address.
 An IP address consists of 4 sets of three numbers (0-255) separated by
periods.
Example: 204.146.144.255 is the IP address for the Coca-Cola Company.
 Internet host computers have permanent IP addresses, whereas
your PC would be given a temporary IP address when it establishes
a dial-up connection.
 This temporary IP address is taken from a pool of IP addresses
maintained by your ISP.
 Once you disconnect the temporary IP address goes back into the
pool so it can be available for other users.
 When data travels through the Internet it carries the IP address of
its destination.

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 At each intersection on the backbone, a device called the router

examines the data's IP address and then forwards the data to its
destination.

Host IP address FQDN(domain name) Website

Has unique may have referred to as

204.146.144.255 Easy to remember name Virtual location that

example for the for an IP address. you can visit to view
coca-cola company Example: cocacola.com information in the
form of web pages.

Top-level-domain
groups the
computers on the
internet into
Written in categories
lowercase

!!! The top-level domain is always written in small letters and is

not more than 3 letters which indicate the FQDN's (Fully Qualified
Domain Name) top-level domain.
‫نطاقات املستوى األعلى لإلنترنت‬
Internet Top-Level Domains
Domain Description
com Commercial business
edu Educational
gov Governmental
int International treaties
mil Military
net Internet administrative
org Professional & non-profit organization

A Web Site
A location in a computer on the Internet.
Can be one or more than one page.
Each page is stored as a separate file and referred to by a unique URL.

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URLs (Uniform Resource Locator):

What is the difference between a domain name and a URL?
 A Web site is composed of Web pages.
 Each Web page is stored as a separate file and referred to by a
unique URL.
 Like domain names, URLs are Internet addresses, but a URL is the
address of a document on a computer, whereas the domain name
represents the IP address of a computer.
 A URL always begins with http:// (which stands for Hypertext
Transfer Protocol). This protocol allows Web browsers to
communicate with Web servers.
 A Web server is a computer that uses special software to transmit
web pages over the Internet.
 Most Web server names are domain names that are preceded with
www.

Example:

http://www.foofoo.com.au/information/specials.html

Protocol Web Server name Document name and

Folder name
filename extension

URL

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