UNIT 1 INTERNET: AN OVERVIEW

Structure Page Nos.

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Objectives 6
1.2 Evolution of Internet 6
1.2.1 Brief History 6
1.2.2 Growth 6
1.3 Advantages of Internet 7
1.3.1 Information Sharing 7
1.3.2 Internet Tools and Services 9
1.4 Internet Components 14
1.4.1 Software Components , 14
1.4.2 Hardware Components 15
1.4.3 Internet Authorities 16
1.4.4 Internet Service Provider 16
1.5 Internet Addresses 18
1.5.1 Web Address 18
1.5.2 JP Address 19
1.5.3 E-Mail Address 19
1.6 Lets Connect to Internet 20
1.6.1 Direct Connection 20
1.6.2 Dial-up Connection 20
1.6.3 Set-up Internet Connection 21
1.7 Summary 29
1.8 Solutions/Answers 29
1.9 Further Readings 31

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The earliest computers were machines built to make repetitive numerical calculations
that had previously been done by hand. While computers continued to improve, they
were used primarily for mathematical and scientific calculations, and for encoding and
decoding messages. Computer technology was finally applied to printed
communication in the 1970s when the first word processor was created. At the same
time, computers were becoming faster, more powerful and smaller, and computer-
networks were developed for interconnecting computers. In the year 1960 the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARP A) of the U.S. Department of Defence,
along with researchers working on military projects at research centres and
The Internet
universities across the country, developed a network called the ARPANET, for
sharing data and processing time of uniform computer connection over specially
equipped telephone lines and satellite links. Today, the Internet is the widely known
computer network. It uses interconnection of computer systems by both wired and
wireless. Internet can carry any digital signals, including video images, sounds,
graphics, animations and text. Therefore, it has become very popular communication
tool. Now, Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks which connects Remember in computer
schools, universities / institutions, hospitals, research institutes, government, science platform means
commercial, and other computers. There are thousands of networks and millions of computer hardware
users on the Internet, with the numbers expanding daily. Using the Internet, you can and/or operating system.
send electronic mail (E-mail), chat with colleagues around the world, obtain
information on a wide variety of subjects and lots more. The networks or computers
operating in different platform are connected to Internet by a common protocol known
as Transmission Control ProtocollInternet Protocol (TCPIIP).

5
Internet Concepts

1.1 OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

• identify how the Internet came into existence;

• explain different advantages and tools available through Internet;
• recognise different software and hardware components used to access Internet;
• elucidate the purpose of protocols used in Internet;
• recognize different type of addresses used in Internet;
• find different methods that can be used to connect with Internet; and
• set up the dialup connection for connecting to Internet.

1.2 EVOLUTION OF INTERNET

Internet is made up of thousand and thousands of interconnected networks. Although

it has become extremely popular in the last decade, it came into being only in 1967.
Internet has a very interesting history. The following section traces the evolution of
Internet.

1.2.1 Brief History

The history of Internet is from the era of cold war. The launch of Sputnik (the first
satellite) by USSR (Russia) incited the USA to form the Advanced Research Projects
Use Internet and Agency, known as ARP A in the US Department of Defence (000), in 1958 to recoup
try to find out how a technical lead. In the mid 1960s, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
theARPANET wanted to fmd a way to connect computers so that their funded researchers could
used to work? share their findings. In 1967, ARPA proposed its idea for ARPANET, a network for
rl connecting computers. Soon, scientists using the ARPANET realised that they could
'--C..6 send and receive messages as well as data and files over the network. The ARP A NET
became the first major electronic-mail network; soon thousands of researchers all over
the world used it. Later on, the National Science Foundation (NSF) of USA helped
Packet is a data in connect more universities and non-military research sites to the ARPANET, and
network in a particular renamed it to Internet, because it was a network of networks among many different
format. organisations.
In 1972, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who were part of core ARPANET group, started
Internetting Project with the aim to connect different networks together. Diverse
UNiX is an operating interfaces, different packet sizes, diverse transmission rates presented many
system, which first difficulties. Kahn Cerf proposed the idea of gateway as an intermediate hardware to
included the network transfer data from one network to another. In 1973, they presented the outlines and
capabilities. model of TCPIIP. At this time, responsibility of ARPANET was handed to Defence
Communication Agency (DCA). In 1978, noticing the popularity of BSD (Berkley
Software Distribution) UNIX, which included network capabilities, ARPA signed a
contract with Berkley under which TCP/lP software was incorporated in the operating
system itself. In 1983, original ARPANET protocols were aholished and TCPIIP was
made de facto standard for Internet. The first TCPIIP network was made operational
Internet has many by January 1,1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the
synonyms like WWW, older ARPANET protocols to TCPIIP.
Web, Net, and Cyber.
Do you know some 1.2.2 Growth
more?
Internet and WWW (World Wide Web) are often used as synonyms of each other,
which is technically wrong. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer
networks, in contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other

,
 Internet:
An Overview
resources. The World Wide Web is one of the services accessible via the Internet,
along with various others including e-mail, file sharing, etc. The World Wide Web is
an Internet-based distributed system of information sources and information Hypertext creates a
subscribers. The World Wide Web is often abbreviated as the Web or WWW. The creative linkage of
Web provides a point-and-click interface to text, images, sound and movies that has objects across the
proven to be powerfully intuitive and easy-to-use. After the invention of WWW in network or Internet.
1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at Physics Laboratory (CERN), the Internet scenario has Does help files use
changes drastically. In 1991, CERN publicized the World Wide Web project. Key of hypertext?
WWW was the use of hypertext, of a document that when selected, take the user to a
connected document. The initial purpose of the Web was to use networked hypertext
to facilitate communication among its members, who were located in several
countries. It was soon spread beyond CERN, and a rapid growth in the number of both
developers and users ensued. In addition to hypertext, the Web began to incorporate
graphics, video, and sound. An early popular web browser was Viola WWW. It was
eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaid web browser. Mosaic was a great
innovation for the Web, came in 1992 which displayed not only the text of a Web
page, but embedded graphic elements as well.

The nature of the Internet changed suddenly in 1992, when the U.S. government
began pulling out of network management, and commercial entities offered Internet
access to the public for the first time. This change in focus marked the beginning of
the Internet's amazing expansion. By late 1994, there was growing pnhlic interest in
the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had
become common plaee, and consequently, so had its misuse as a reference to the
World Wide Web. Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully
accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks. During
the i990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year. The use of the
Web has reached global proportions and has become a defining aspect of human
culture in an amazingly short period.

1.3 ADVANTAGES OF INTERNET

Before 1995, the term Internet was anonymous to most of the people in India.
However, today Internet has become the powerful tool for people. The Internet is a How Internet is
collection of various facilities, tools, applications and resources. Although, many useful for
people think e-mail, chatting and Web surfing as the main elements of Internet but Teachers and
there are lots more. Today, Internet has brought the world on your desktop. Right Students? Find
from news across the world, wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing the rail, Out.
movie or air tickets everything is at your mouse click. It also became the most
excellent business tool of modem scenario. Several activities can be performed if you
have access to the Internet; like you can use it for learning or teaching, you can use it
for publicity and advertisement, you can refer Internet for career or job consultation,
etc. Let us discuss about some of the facilities, tools, applications and resources
available on the Internet.

1.3.1 Information Sharing

Information sharing undoubtedly is the biggest advantage that Internet is offering. On

Internet, you can communicate with a person sitting in the other part of the world in a
fraction of second and in a more cost effective way. Today for better communication,
you can avail the facilities of e-mail; you can chat for hours with others. There are a
number of messenger services in offering. With the help of such services, it has
become very easy to establish a kind of global friendship where you can share your
thoughts, explore other cultures and ethnicity. People can post and publish their ideas,
thoughts, feeling, advertisement, knowledge, etc. on Internet through Websites, Blogs,

,
Internet Concepts
HTML is the basic
language for writing web
pages. However, now
many languages and
tools are available to
design web pages. Can
you find them?
Can you create your
own email account?
You may create your
email account for free
with a popular email
service provider. Try
creating one.
Are you member
of any discussion
group? It's very
helpful.
Cb
8
Discussion forums, Groups. You can almost find any type of data on almost any kind
of subject that you are looking for. There is a huge amount of information available on
the Internet for just about every subject known to human, ranging from government
law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and
technical support, the list is endless. We have used number of terms like discussion
Forums, Blogs, Chatting etc. in the above text, may be some of you are not familiar of
these, lets discuss them in more detail:
World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web (WWW or The Web) is the best Internet information sharing
system, with fresh resources being added daily. The Web browsers like Internet
Explorer, Mozilla or Netscape are used to access webpages. A Webpage can contain
text, graphics, audio and video added by authorised people which are generally
written in special language called as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). These
browsers can display information however because of the very large number of
WebPages on Internet people want a tool, which can find the relevant WebPages. By
just giving the simple requirements in simple language, hence the Search engines
(e.g., Google, Yahoo and Ask) were created to fulfill this need by indexing words on
web pages and storing the information in a search able database.
E-mail
Electronic mail is one of the most popular tools made available through the Internet
for Information sharing. It is an efficient and effective means of network
communication. You can call it as an electronic postal system. One of the most
valuable features of communicating via e-mail is that it is asynchronous, meaning the
recipient need not be at a computer to receive the message you send. The message will
be stored and available to be read when the recipient is ready to read it. In order to
send and receive e-mail, you must have access to an E-mail account. You may have
your email account with your institution or with the popular E-mail vendors like;
Hotrnail, Yahoo, MSN, Google (G-mail) or Rediffmail. However, an E-mail system
can do more than just sending messages back and forth. Applications that may be
built 011 the e-mail infrastructure include multimedia mail, database access, document
sharing, fax routing, scheduling etc.
Online-Chatting
Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over Internet, but is primarily
meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat (formally also known
as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messaging applications-
like; rediff, yahoo, and MSN chat applications. Presently most of the online chat and
messaging services are free on Internet; however, some service providers are having
paid services also. There are many Internet users replacing traditional conversation
with on line chat. Online chat is steadily replacing telephony as the means of office
and home communication. Nowadays, mobilelhandheld devices are also providing
the technology for online voicel video chat.
Electronic Discussion Groups
There are a variety of electronic discussion groups on the Internet like; yahoo, google
and MSN groups. These groups are generally used to share information, communicate
ideas, ask questions and solve problems on specific topics. Messages are
communicated by the email address and through the group home page. Some groups
are moderated and a human monitors the messages that are added to the list and
distributed to the group. Some groups are unmoderated and every message submitted
is included.
 Internet:
An Overview
Newsgroups

In Internet, there exists another way to meet people and share information; one such
way is through USENET news groups. These are special groups set up by people who
want to share common interests ranging from current topics to cultural heritages.
There are currently thousands of USENET news groups. Newsgroups provide a free
exchange of ideas, opinions and comments usually confined to a specific interest.
Newsgroups are an invaluable source of information. You visit a newsgroup, read
messages which provoke a response, post new messages when you want to propose a
topic, and revisit when you want to see who responded. Unlike e-mail, there is no mail
involved with news groups. Most of the activity occurs while you are online, including
reading and responding to messages. For this reason, most people find that
news groups are more interactive and conversational than e-rnail. The USENET can be
considered as another network of computers and people, which are interwined with
the Internet. However, USENET does not operate interactively like the Internet,
instead USENET Machines store the messages sent by users. Unlike mail from
mailing lists, the news articles do not automatically fill your electronic mailbox. For
accessing the information on USENET, one needs a special type of program called a
newsreader. This program help in retrieving only the news you want from USENET
storage site and display it on your terminal. USENET is like a living thing: New
news groups gets added, the groups which have too much traffic get broken up into
smaller specialised groups, the groups even can dissolve themselves. However, all of
this occurs based on some commonly accepted rules and by voting. For USENET,
there is no enforcement body; it entirely depends on the cooperation of its computers'
owners and users.

Blogging
Blogging is emerging as
wonderful way to share
Blog is a website where entries are written as commentary or news on a particular
and publish your views.
subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online
diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and Most famous person
these days have their
other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an
own Blog.
interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily
textual, although some focus on art, photographs, videos and music and are part of a
wider network of social media.

Blogging is gaining popularity, as it removes the technical barriers of writing and

publishing online, which encourages students to keep a record of their ideas and
thinking over time. Blogging also facilitates readers to give critical feedback on any
topic, readers can add comments, where readers can be teachers, other students or
wider viewers. Teachers should investigate the potential of blogs, media-sharing
services and other social software, which can be used create new learning
opportunities. Students can also use the blogs as blog can provide a personal space
online, to ask questions, comment on other questions, publish work, and link to other
web sources. However, a blog need not be restricted to a single author, it can merge
different kinds of ideas, including fellow students, teachers, and subject specialists.
An example: http://edu.blogs.com/

1.3.2 Internet Tools and Services

To work with Internet and to utilise some of the points mentioned about you need to
use certain tools. For example, Telnet is a tool, which is utilised for logging on a
remote computer. This section briefly discusses about some of the important tools and
services.

9
Internet Concepts
File Transfer

Files and data are scattered all over the Internet in large and small archives. Some of
these may contain text, pictures, graphics or sounds. If you want to get some file
available on any other computer on Internet, you have number of ways like; file can
be e-mailed to you by someone from that side as an attachment or file can be uploaded
File Transfer Protocol to a web site or FTP server for easy download by others. The File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) was originally developed to allow Internet users to share files across the
Internet. If you want to copy the file from FTP server, there is a standard tool on.
Internet called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). However, for such transfer you need an
account name on a host and the password. The FTP program will make a connection
with the remote host, which will help you to browse its directories and mark files for
transfer. However, you cannot look at the contents of a file, while you are connected
via FTP. You have to transfer the copy and then look at it once it is on your own
account. "What will happen if you do not have an account on a remote Internet host?
For such cases FTP recognises a special account name called anonymous. Thus by
using anonymous FTP you can access a public archive on the Internet and copy a file
from there.

Remote Access
You Know TELNET is
The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information
derived from TErminal
stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. This is encouraging way of
NETwork. working from home, along with collaboration and information sharing. Imagine you
are sitting at home and working on the lab computer of study centre. TELNET was
developed for terminals to access hosts across the Internet. Telnet is a program that
allows an Internet host computer to become a terminal of another host on the Internet.
FTP opens a connection solely for transfer of files, however, Telnet allows you to
become a user on a remote machine. You can run the Internet computer programs
available on that machine. This tool is specially useful for accessing public services
such as library card catalogues, the kind of databases available on the machine etc.
You can also log into any catalogue service of a library and use it. Remote Access was
possible before the widespread use of the Internet with Telnet, but the cost and
reliability made many of them unpopular in practice. Nowadays one popular
alternative for remote access is VPN (Virtual Private Network) through which an
office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business
trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a
secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the
worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and
other applications, while away from the office.

Online Services

Many services are now provided on the Internet such as online banking, career
consultation, job seeking, online trading, purchasing tickets on Indian Railways or for
your favourite movie, guidance services on every aspect of life, and hotel reservations.
Often these services are available off-line and may cost you more. Broadly, the
concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering, or a business deal that
involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet is called E-
commerce. It has become a phenomenon associated with any kind of shopping, almost
anything. Many online stores and sites can be used to look for products as well as buy
them using credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your
shopping from the convenience of your home.

10
 Internet:
An Overview

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request you to fmd
Online Resources them and list on
your notebook.
Internet has become a treasure of Information, where many on line resources are freely
available. There are some websites those are providing a facility of online dictionaries
(Dictionary.com, Webster, oxford etc), which release us from carrying the bulky
dictionaries. These online dictionaries are not only providing the meaning of words,

11

M
 Internet:
An Overview
VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that lets you to make voice calls
using an Internet. One advantage of VoIP is that the calls over the Internet do not gain
a surcharge beyond what you are paying for Internet access, in the same way as we do
not pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet. Merging voice and data
networks opens up a world of opportunities for better interaction between teachers and
students. VoIP promotes online classes as it offers improved bandwidth utilisation.
Voice chat and video-conferencing are now viable and cost-effective option for
discussions between dispersed students and teachers.
An ipod is device
Podcasting capable of storing
and playing media
Podcasting is the latest in Internet technology. The term podcasting was inspired by files.
Apple's iPod but any software and hardware application onto which you can download
audio files will also work in the similar way. Podcasting is similar to a radio broadcast
but the files are available for downloading from a website. Podcasting has become a
popular technology in education because it provides a way of delivering educational
content to learners.

c:;? Check Your Progress 1

1) What are the different ways of sharing information through Internet?

2) Explain the advantages of Blogging .

....................................................................................................

3) How is File transfer handled by FTP?

4) How VPN is better than 'relnet explain?

13
Internet Concepts

1.4 INTERNET COMPONENTS

Remember your
computer must have an The Internet is a global collection of people computers, which are linked together by
operating system cables and telephone lines making communication possible among them in a common
preferably the latest one. language. For connecting to the Internet, you need to have certain equipments. In
brief, you must have a computer a modem and access to a telephone line or a local
area network (LAN) that is in turn connected to the Internet; and connection software
that will allow you to establish an account with a service provider and access the
Internet in case of dial up connection. A different device may be needed when
accessing the Internet through a direct line. These components of Internet are broadly
divided into two categories - software and hardware components.

1.4.1 Software Components

•
It is important for you to know about the basic software components involved in
accessing Internet facility. Obviously, it goes without saying that the first software for
internet access is the Operating system. An operating system must be installed
properly on your system (so that it can handle the driver requirements of the hardware
components). Further, Internet browsers, firewall, TCPIIP are the basic components
used during Internet access. Let us discuss briefly about them:

Internet Browser

Browser is software that allows the user to access and read information on the World
Wide Web. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape are the best-known browsers.
SpaceTime 3D is new three-dimensional browser. Only browser is sufficient for
working with the Internet viz., the browser software that should be loaded on all the
clients. In fact, the browser is one of the very intelligent software that contributed to
the growth of World Wide Web. A browser converts the standard Hyper Text Markup
Language (HTML) web pages to a very sophisticated display with colours and
Netscape Navigator pictures.

Firewall

As you have studied in CIT -01 course material, Internet has many security problems
like hacking, Trojan Horse, Virus, etc. There are various tools to provide protection
against unwanted access of your computer by anyone else, but the most popular
among all security measures is the firewall. Firewall is a software that works on some
set of rules and instructions given by you. A firewall belps to keep your computer
more secure. It restricts information that comes to your computer from other
computers, giving you more control over the data on your computer and providing a
line of defence against people or programs (including viruses and worms) that try to
connect to your computer without invitation.
Firewall

TCPIIP Stack

TCPIIP Stands for Transmission Control ProtocollInternet Protocol. This is the group
of protocols that define the Internet and communication method used by it. Originally
designed for the UNIX operating system, TCPIIP software is now available for every
major operating system. In order to be compatible to the Internet, the computer must
have TCPIIP compatible software. As stated earlier, the major advantage of Internet is
information sharing. Since in computers, bits and bytes are basic building blocks of
information. Thus, one of the key aspects in network of many computers is to move

14
 Internet:
An Overview
bits between two specific computers. For such a communication, we require the
address of the destination and a safe mean of moving data in the form of electronic
signals. As far as safe movement of data is concerned, there exists a set of rules,
which governs the sending, and receiving of data on the Internet. A stack of protocols
called TCPIIP (Transmission Control Protocol/lnternet Protocol) implements these
rules. Its name reflects names of only two protocols called TCP and IP. For sending
large block of text/data to another machine, TCP divides the data into little data
packets. It also adds special information e.g., the packet position, error correction code
etc. to make sure that packets at the destination can be reassembled correctly and
without any damage to data. The role of IP here is to put destination-addressing
information on such packets. On Internet, it is not necessary that all the packets will
follow the same path from source to destination. A special device called router tries to
load balance various paths that exist on networks. Other special devices called
gateways allows different electronic networks to talk to Internet that uses TCPIIP .
•

1.4.2 Hardware Components

Hardware components are used to connect with Internet. These components may vary
in case of standalone computer getting connected with internet, or a small network
getting connected with Internet. However, here we have discussed common hardware
devices used in both the cases, some of these topics we have already discussed ill
course crr -01, and hence here we are just defining them in context to Internet.

Network Interface Card

This card connects your computer to a network. The unique number is identified by
this card in a network. This device is sometimes also called as network adapter card.
Any computer connected to the network has a Network Interface Card (NIC), which
has the address (network id-host id), hard coded into it. We have two types of
network interface cards external and internal. External network adapters do not
require opening up your computer or installing special network cables in your home.
You can plug an external network adapter into a USB port on your computer. External
Network Interface Card
network adapters are the fastest and easiest way to set up your home network. Internal
network adapters are installed in an expansion slot inside your computer. Most
computers come with internal network interface card.

Modem

Modem is a device that lets computer information to be transmitted and received on a

telephone line. The sender modem translates digital computer data into analog signals
that can be carried over a telephone line. The receiver modem translates the analog
signals back to digital form (MOdulation and DEModulation). Modems are of two
types: Internal and External. Internal modems are PCI cards and External modems, are
kept outside of your computer, connected either by a USB or Serial Port. Internal
modems are good for general usage, as they take up less desk space, and do not Internal modem
require a power supply, and for most purposes, internal modems work fine. External
modems tend to be slightly more expensive than internal modems. Many experts
consider them superior because they contain lights which indicate how the modem is
functioning. In addition, they can easily be moved from one computer to another.
However, they do use up one COM port.

External modem

15
Internet Concepts
Communication Link

We have different type of communication links available to connect with Internet

some of these you have already discussed in the eIT-Ol. Mainly the twisted pair,
coaxial cable, optical fiber and wireless links used to be connected with Internet.

Router

To handle and route the data to the destination an important networking device is used
called as router. Routers are essential for computers on different physical networks to
communicate with each other. Routers maintain a map of the physical networks on a
Router Internet (network) and forward data received from one physical network to other
physical networks. However, you need not to worry about this device, as it is
maintained by Internet providers.
I

Hub

You may need to install and con figure this device, if you are making a small network
either at home or at the office. Hub is a common connection point for devices in a
network. Typically used to connect segments of a local area network (LAN), a hub
contains multiple ports. When data arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so
Hub that all segments of the LAN can see the data.

1.4.3 Internet Authorities

The Internet is a cooperative endeavour much like the worldwide telephone network.
No single organization is responsible for all aspects of the Internet. In addition,
Internet has no president or chief operating officer and is governed by a number of
authorities. The ultimate authority of Internet rests with Internet Society (ISOC) a
voluntary membership organisation. The purpose of this organisation is to promote
global interchange of information. To uniquely identify any Internet device, a unique
number is assigned, to ensure this, a central authority issues the IP address (It is a
32-bit address used to identify an electronic device like computer on Internet. IP
address is made up of the network ID+unique host ID). An organisation or individual
wanting to connect to the Internet needs to contact local ISP (Internet Service
Provider- for details see below) for obtaining a unique IP address at the global level,
Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) allocates a Network-ID (Network ID is
a number used for generating a range of IP addresses) to the ISP. Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) discusses the technical and operational problems on Internet.
Internet Service Providers cooperate with each other, the NSF and ARP A and
equipment vendors to provide ubiquitous connectivity. The sum of these cooperative
efforts is the worldwide Internet, which appears to each user as a seamless universal
access network to global Internet resources.

1.4.4 Internet Service Provider

Whether you are part of a LAN or you are trying to connect to the Internet as a single
user, you will likely gain access to the Internet via an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
ISPs are companies which allow you to connect to their computers, which in turn are
connected to the Internet. ISPs are usually local companies that provide individuals
and small companies with all the requirements to allow user to connect to the Internet.
This may include software, domain names, user names and connectivity. Internet is
organised to form a hierarchy. At the top, there is a very high-speed backbone and at

16
 Internet:
An Overview
the other end, there are users. There are Network Access Providers (NAP) and Internet
Service Providers (ISP) at the intermediate level as shown in the Figure 5.

End User End U er End U er End scr End User

Figure 5: Architecture of Internet

A home user dials into the ISP (for example: BSNL, MTNL, Airtel and Reliance
(wireless ISP using Netconnect device), may be using a twisted pair telephone
connection using a modem. The ISP connects to one of the Network Access Providers,
which in turn, connects to the high-speed backbone at a Network Access Point.
Network Access Point serves the purpose of connecting backbone networks to provide
connectivity between end users.

r::;r Check Your Progress 2

1) Explain how firewall prevents a computer from different security problems.

2) How data communication is handled by TCPIIP?

3) What is the purpose of MODEM?

17
Internet Concepts
4) Explain how Hubs are used for making a small network.

1.5 INTERNET ADDRESSES

We can classify the computers connected with Internet in two categories, servers and
clients. A server is a computer with the capacity to provide connectivity and sharing to
multiple personal computers or clients (any computing device you use to access the
Internet), which is specifically set up to serve its files to client computers. The files
that a server makes available to your computer can be web pages, videos, sounds,
images, etc. For your home computer tobe able to receive files or any data from a
server, your computer must request this information. This happens when you enter an
URL in your browser or when you receive e-mail. When we work on Internet we
come across different types of addresses used for different purposes, like; web
address, IP address, email address. Each one has a special syntax, and meaning. It is
important for you to know about these addresses, before you start working on Internet.

= Reply
01001 1010001001001 IO<H 1001

11001 1010001001001100) 1001

•~ . Request

Client
Server
Figure 6: Client Server Model

1.5.1 Web Address

An Internet or Web address (sometimes called a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator)

typically is composed of four parts as shown in Table 1:

• A protocol name (a protocol is a set of rules and standards that enable computers
to exchange information)
• The location of the site
• The name of the organization that maintains the site
• A suffix that identifies the kind of organization it is (such as .com for a
commercial organization)

For example, the address http://www.ignou.ac.in describes the following information:.

Table 1: Components of an Internet Address

http: Web server uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

www site is on the World Wide Web.
ignou Web server is at IGNOU.
ac Web site belongs to an academic institution.
in It belongs to India

18
 Internet:
An Overview
When you are viewing a Web page, the page's address appears in the Address bar in
Internet Explorer. Hosts (user) and local networks are grouped together into domains,
which are grouped into one or more larger domains. For an analogy, a host computer
is considered as an apartment building in a housing complex and your account is just
an apartment in it. Domain may be an apartment complex, a town, or even a country.
Sub-domains may correspond to organizations such as NASA or CompuServe.
Domains are classified as non-geographic and geographic lists various common
domain names (Table 2). The domain names in India come under a larger domain
".in".
Table 2: Some Non-Geographic and Geographic Domains

Non-Geographic Domains Geographic Domains

Country Domain
Code Applicable for
6 Name
.com commercial organisations
.au
.net network organisations
.cn
.zov parts of governments
.de
.ac organisations of higher education .in .
.mil non-classified military networks
.org organisations that do not fit the
.uk
commercial or educational
.us
designations

1.5.2 IP Address ""

The Internet layer is an important layer in the protocol suite. At this layer, TCP/IP
supports Internet Protocol (IP). This layer is responsible for the format of datagrams
as defined by IP and routing and forwarding a datagram or packet to the next hop (you
know hop is a term that can be used to represent any computing device on Internet
like; router, gateway, computer etc). The primary goal of the Internet is to provide an
abstract view of the complexities involved in it. Internet must appear as single
network of computers. At the same time network administrators or users must be free
to choose hardware or various internetworking technologies like Ethernet, Token ring
etc. Different networking technologies have different physical addressing
mechanisms. Therefore, identifying a computer on Internet is a challenge. To have
uniform addressing for computers over the Internet, IP defines an IP address, which is
a logical address. IP address is a 32 bits number, can be represented in decimal e.g.,
192.168.32.10. Now, when a computer wants to communicate to another computer on
the Internet, it can use logical address and is not bothered with the physical address of
the destination and hence the format and size of data packet. IP address is a basic
address used by the lower architecture of Internet. It is important for you to know that,
any address you type as web address or email address actually gets converted into the
equivalent IP address of a machine or computer where the server or resource is
available. Web address or email addresses are used for easiness of human beings
otherwise; it is just a burden for network.

1.5.3 E-mail Address

As you have studied earlier that e-mail is one of the popular services used by people
in their daily life. The following can be a typical email address format on Internet for
any e-mail service provider like, Gmail, Rediff, Yahoo, MSN, or any network
(domain) name etc. .
Ir-----u-se-m-a-m--e-@-s-u-b-d-om--a-in-.d-o-m--a-in----~I

19
Internet Concepts
The username in general is the name assigned or chosen during creation of an email
account. Sub-domain are domain we have already discussed in above section, in case
of private service provider it is generally its own name like abc@yahoo.com,
abc@yahoo.co.in, abc@gmail.com, etc. In domain names, it is essential to have non-
Geographic domain name, however, sometime you can see both kind of domains non-
Geographic and geographic domains. Lets take an example to better understand an
e-mail address: In an e-mail address ••naveen@ignou.ac.in •••naveen indicates the
username, the sub-domain named IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University)
which is an academic organisation (.ac) and is situated in country India (.in).

1.6 LETS CONNECT TO INTERNET

You need access to the Internet. Tliis may either be from a dial-up, direct-line (over
coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and cell phones. Until
recently, the two primary methods of accessing the Internet were through a direct
connection, allowing users of local area networks (LANs) to go online through their
school or workplace systems, and dial-up connections through a modem and phone
line. Let's discuss these methods in detail:

1.6.1 Direct Connection

This is a permanent connection, which can be set up over a high-speed

communication link. This is normally used in organisations and corporate, using cable
modem (used for cable Internet) and DSL connect to the Internet. This kind of
connection is established between your LAN server and the Internet host/server. You
may request for a connection as and when desired from your LAN server. It may have
a direct line or may dial the number of the Internet server to establish a link. In
current years, high-speed connections have gained in popularity. These include cable,
Digital Subscriber Lines, usually know as DSL, and Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN). This dedicated high-speed connection is best suited for larger
organisations, which have to serve many internal and external customers. This kind of
link allows you to become information provider round the clock. This connection
allows full connectivity to Internet, however, because of organisations own security,
privacy or policy reasons you may choose not to use all the connectivity features.

1.6.2 Dial-up Connection

Dial-up connection is the most common form of connectivity because all they require
is that the users have a phone line which almost everyone does. However, because
they rely on phone lines which have limited transmission capacity, dial-up modems
are very slow. In addition, for dial up connection to the Internet, you need to have a
computer account on an ISP. For using the account, you must provide the host
machine with the username and password. Recently some broadband services are
started by BSNL and MTNL in India. The broadband connection offers more exciting
multi-media applications through Internet, such as audio, video, dynamic animation,
etc. The difference between these high-speed connections and dial-up modems does
not lie only in the amount of information that is transportable via the connection but
unlike dial-up connections, these methods of connectivity do not tie up phone lines, or
other vital services. As a result, users are able to keep them connected at all times,
without tying up their phone.

20
 Internet:
An Overview

1.6.3 Set-up Internet Connection

This section will show you how to set up your computer so that you can connect to
Internet using dial up Internet connection. We are using Windows XP for explaining
you about the Internet connection; however, other Windows operating systems are
having similar Internet Connection Wizard. We are assuming an example of home
user who wishes to use a dial up connection through telephone line. You can follow
the given steps if you want to connect to Internet with us.

Step 1: Open your "Start menu" and select "Control Panel".

Step 2: When Control Panel window is opened, choose the "Network and Internet
Connection" icon.

21
Internet Concepts

Step 3: Now open "Network Connection".

Step 4: Click on a link "Create a New Connection", which is shown in the boundary
in the given figure.

Starch :- .
Network ConnectIOn. Go
. .

"~twork J a~ks ~ .
Loe. Atu ConnectIOn
l
1-._ '

Se •• Also

22
 Internet:
An Overview
Step 5: You will see the New Connection Wizard, after click on "Create a New
Connection". To continue, click the next button.

Welcome to the New Connection

Wizard
rlit wizard heIpayou
• Connect to the Intemet
• Connect to a private network. such • ycu wakplace
netwak.
• Set I.4l a home 01 SIIl!II o/Iice network.

I 0 CCII'Qu, cick Nel4.

Step 6: Connection wizard will ask you the Network connection Types which you
want to choose. As we are assuming an example of home user who wishes to
use a dial up connection through telephone line, we will choose "Connect to
the Internet" Option.

c-.ct to the InIemet

Connect to lhe Immet tO)IOU can bIoWIe the Web and read emel
o c-.ct to the '*-It at ., ~
Connect to. bumeta I'III¥IOIk (umg cieI-up 01 VPN) tO)IOU can WOIk from home.
a fieldcftice. 01 anoIhef location.
Set up • '- CII •••• oIfice Mlwark
Connect to en tIiIti1g home 01 .nail aIfice nItwOIk 01 NI up • ,.. one.
o Set up •• advanced _1eCtiDn
Connect chcIIy to III1DINf ~ wing YCU aerial parallll 01 inII.1d port. 01
aet up !hit ~ to thaI aIhIt ~. can CCIr"IrIed to l

23

r.
Internet Concepts Step 7: We assume that we know the ISP provider and we do not have any CD for
installing automatically. Hence, we select "Set up my connection manually"
option.

New Connection Wizard . .. . ."....

Gelling Ready
The wizard is pleparing to set up }'OU! Internet comection.

How do you wan! to connect to the Internet?

o Choose IrOIll a fist 01 Internet service ptOVidelS (IS Pe]

o Set up my connection manually

For a dialw connectioo. you willneed }'OU! accO\rl name. password and a
phone runber fOl}'OU! ISP. FOIa blOadband accO\rl. you won' need a phone
, number

o Use the CO I got Irom an ISP

< Back Ii Next> I[ Cancel

Step 8: We are using a dial up modem hence we win select the first option as given
below in the Figure.

(. Connect using a dial-up modem

This type of connection uses a modem and a regUar 01 ISDN phone ine
Connect using a broadband connection that lequires a user nallle and
panwold
This is a high-speed connectron usonge~her a DSL 01 cable modem. YOlIISP may
refer to this type of connectron as PPPoE.
Connect using a broadband connection that is always on
This is a high·speed connectron usrng erther a cable modem, DSL OIlAN
connection It rs always acnve. and doesn' reqlire you to $91 in.

< Back ]I Next > ~ I Cancel

24
 Internet:
Step 9: Enter "BSNL (Bharat Sanchal Nigam Limited)" into the Internet Service An Overview
Provider (ISP) box then click the "Next" button to continue.

Connection "_
What is the name 01 the SeMce that prOYidMyour Internet connection?

Type the name 01 your ISP in the folowing box.

ISPN_

BSNU
The name you type hete wit be the name 01 the connection you ale CI~

< Back It Ne.I > II Ca-oce!

Step 10: Enter the telephone number with STD code given by ISP for dial up
connection to Internet in the text box "Phone Number". For example, we
have typed a phone number 01202445218.

You rhght need to irdJde e '1" 01 the alee code. 01 boIhlf you arenol s•.•e
you need the elCIrerunbers. IiaI the phone runber on your telephone Ifyou
~ a modem &lUId. the runber ciaIed 1$ 1XlIIect.

< Back 11 Ne.I > I [ Ci!lI'lCeI

25 '
Internet Concepts
Step 11: Enter your usemame and password into the provided boxes and then click
the "Next" button to continue. You must confirm your password in the
Confirm password box .

•••••••• Aa:aunll ••••••••

You'" need an aa:<JIri name and pacswon:Ilo •••• n1o)lOlMInternet acco.ri.

Twe an ISP aa:<JIri name and passwonl ~ WIte do¥In \tli$ irioonaIion lII'ldstore ~ n a
_ J8:e PI you have fOlgDllen an eoisIng aa:<JIri name OfpIIS$WOIdc:ontacl)lOlM ISP.)

User name:

••••••••••
CooIim piISSWOfd ;;;;;;;'; •• -1 -----;.
--l

El Use !ha acc:oori name and pacswon:I when."...,.,ne connect. to the Internet "om
\tli$~
El Make !ha the deld Internet connection

< Back 11 Neo<t> I I Cancel

Step 12: Click the checkbox to "Add.a shortcut to this connection to the desktop".
Click the Finish button.

Completing the New.Connection

Wizard
You have wccessfUIy completed the step$ needed to
aeate the 'oIowi1g comecIion:

BSNL
• Make this the del •••.•connection
• Share wtil allJSeIS cllha compute!
• Use the same tJSef name & pa$SWOfd'or evet}'OIle

o Add a shortcU: to this connection to ~ desktop

To aeate the connection and close this wizard click Finish.

< Back 11 Frish I I Cancel

26
 Internet:
An Overview
Step 13: After completing the New Connection Wizard you can check the dial up
connection icon has appeared in Network Connection Window.

Fddecs .::.

(relJ(ea
connecttOn
~ set up • home or small
offoce netwod
CMn\le w.-.bw<
"" ••••• sel:tnQs
Local Area ComectiOn
Dis 'c<j
Pe pT., If> f'

Step 14: To open the properties of dialup connection that you named BSNL, Right
Click the icon of BSNL.

Fdders .' •

.., Go

Cr~d:"'a new
.omection
set \JP • home Of ~..,..
IifftCe".tWOf
CN<1Qe wrodows
F•••••• ~
PeMfrte this COC"'II"'Ie(tJQO

Step 15: You can check and make the setting of this dial up connection according to
your need, like you can adjust security parameters according to your needs.
In addition, there are some networking and advance option available which
you can try.

27
Internet Concepts

General Options Sect.rity Networkilg Advanced

Olaing opOOO$
o Display prC9lm whie comecting
o Plompt name and pamyOfd, ceftificate, etc.
10/

o IncWe W'ndows Iogon domai1

o Prompt phone runber
10/

RedaIr.gopt
RedaI a«~s: 3
Time between redal att~: 1 rTlirUe

lde time betO/e hanging up: 20 minutes

I

X25

OK U Cancel I

G"" Check Your Progress 3

1) Explain different components of a web address .

...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................

2) Explain differences between direct and dialup connection of Internet.

...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
3) Which authority is used for assigning IP address?
...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
4) What is VoIP? Explain its advantages .

...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................
...................................................................................................

28
 Internet:
An Overview

1.7 SUMMARY

This unit is an effort towards answering some of the fundamental queries about an
Internet, a network of networks where lot of Information exists and is meant to be
utilised by you. We have tried to give an overview of how to connect to Internet and
what you can do on Internet. With number of advantages of Internet, it has some
disadvantages and problems. As, if you use the Internet, your personal details like
name, address, phone number, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit
on Internet, then your credit card details can also be stolen which could be similar to
giving someone a blank cheque. Further, spamming is emerging as severe trouble,
which refers to sending unsolicited emails in bulk, which serves no purpose and
needlessly block up the complete system. In addition, pornography is a serious matter
concerning the Internet, particularly when it comes to immature children. It is
expected that the brief overview of the Internet )Vhich this unit has attempted to
provide will introduce Internet without a lot of technical background. The next unit of
this block will help you to understand the web browser in detail because ultimately
browser is the only aperture through which you can see the Internet.

1.8 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1

1) Today you can avail the facilities of e-mail; messenger services, Chatting etc., to
share your ideas, knowledge, and feeling. You can join different groups,
discussion forums or create your own blogs. You can use web sites to broadcast
huge amount of information on Internet.

2) Blog is a website where entries are written as commentary or news on a particular

subject such as food, politics, or local news. Blogging is gaining popularity, as it
removes the technical barriers of writing and publishing online, which encourages
students to keep a record of their ideas and thinking over time. Blogging also
facilitate readers to give critical feedback on any topic, readers can add comments,
where readers can be teachers, other students or wider viewers.

3) If you want to copy a file from FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server, there is a
standard tool on Internet called FTP (for client machine). However, for such
transfer you need an account name on a host and the password. The FTP program
will make a connection with the remote host, which will help you to browse its
directories and mark files for transfer. However, you cannot look at the contents
of a file, while you are connected via FTP. You have to transfer the copy of the
file on your own account to see its contents. If you do not have an account on a
remote Internet host, FTP recognises a special account name called anonymous.
Thus, by using anonymous ftp you can access a public archive on the Internet and
copy a file from there.

4) One popular alternative for remote access is VPN (Virtual Private Network)
through which an office worker works away from his desk, perhaps on the other
side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop
session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN)
connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or
her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away
from the office. Virtual private networks (VPNs) allows you to access your

29
Internet Concepts
corporate LAN using devices like mobile phones for a fraction of the cost of
traditional remote access solutions. Virtual private network provides enhanced
security for remote users and also an JP address security.

Check Your Progress 2

I) FirewaIl is software that works on some set of rules and instructions given by you.
A firewaIl helps to keep your computer more secure and protect from many
security problems like; hacking, Trojan Horse, Virus, etc. It restricts information
that comes to your computer from other computers, giving you more control over
the data on your computer and providing a line of defense against people or
programs (including viruses and worms) that try to connect to your computer
without invitation.

2) A stack of protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol) implements different rules to handle the data communication from
source machine to destination machine. For sending a message from source
machine to destination machine, TCP divides the message data into little data
packets. It also adds special information e.g., the packet position, error correction
code etc., to make sure that packets at the destination can be reassembled
correctly and without any damage to data. The role of IP here is to put destination-
addressing information on such packets. On Internet it is not necessary that all the
packets will follow the same path from source to destination A special machine
called routers tries to, load balance various paths that exist on networks. Other
special machine called gateways allows different electronic networks to talk to
Internet that uses TCP/IP.

3) Modem (MOdulation and DEModulation) is a device that lets computer

information to be transmitted and received on a telephone line. The sender modem
translates digital computer data into analog signals that can be carried over a
telephone line. The receiver modem translates the analog signals back to digital
form.

4) To make a small network, hub is a common connection point for devices in a

network. Typically used to connect segments of a local area network (LAN), a
hub contains multiple ports. When data arrives at one port, it is copied to the other
ports so that all segments of the LAN can see the data.

Check Your Progress 3

I) Web address typically is composed of four parts:

I. A protocol name (a protocol is a set of rules and standards that enable

computers to exchange information)
2. The location of the site
3. The name of the organization that maintains the site
4. A suffix that identifies the kind of organization it is (such as .com for a
commercial organization)

2) Direct connection is a permanent connection, which can be set up over a high-

speed communication link. This is normally used in organisations and corporate,
using cable modem and DSL. This kind of connection is established between your
LAN server and the Internet host/server. You may request for a connection as and
when desired from your LAN server. It may have a direct line or may dial the
number of the Internet server to establish a link. However, Dial-up connection is
the most common form of connectivity because all they require is that the user

30
 Internet:
An Overview
have a phone line. Because they rely on phone lines, which have limited
transmission capacity, dial-up modems are very slow. For using the dial up
account, you must provide the host machine with the username and password.

3) Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA)

4) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that lets you to make voice
calls using an Internet. One advantage of VoIP is that the calls over the Internet do
not gain a surcharge beyond what you are paying for Internet access. Merging
voice and data networks opens up a world of opportunities for better interaction
between teachers and students.

1.9 FURTHER READINGS

»

• Alexis Leon and Mathews Leon (1999); Fundamentals of Information

Technology, Leon TechWorld publication.
• Dr. Larry Leng (2004), Computer Fundamental, Wiley Dreamtech Publication.
• Suresh.K.Basandra (2003), Computer Today, Galgotia publication.
• http://www .eiu.edu
• http://www.neiu.edu
• http://public.pacbell.netlfaq/general_faq.htrnl

31