The Internet, The Web,

Electronic Commerce
-Lecture 2-

Introduction
- The Internet is often referred to as the Information Superhighway because it
connects millions of people across the globe.
- Unlike a typical highway, the Internet moves ideas, data and information through
networks
- The Web provides an easy to use, intuitive multimedia interface to connect to the
Internet
- Competent end users need to be aware of the resources available on the Internet
and the Web

The Internet and the Web

- The Internet is the largest global network, connecting smaller networks
worldwide
- The Internet was launched in 1969
o National computer network
o US funded project called ARPANET – Advanced Research Projects Agency
NETwork
- WWW was introduced in 1991 at CERN

Internet Network Architecture

- TCP/IP model with 5 layers:
o Physical layer: Connect to the network
o Network Access: Interface with the physical network
o Internet layer: IP addressing and routing of network traffic
o Transport layer: Flow control, error control
o Application layer: Troubleshooting, file sharing, internet
- Applications: Google, email, Facebook…

LAN – Local Area Network

- Characteristics:
o Smaller scope: Building or small campus
o Usually owned by same organization as attached devices
o Data rates much higher
- Categories:
o Switched LANs:
▪ Ethernet
o Wireless LANs
o ATM LANs (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)

MAN – Metropolitan Area Network

- Characteristics:
o Middle ground between LAN and WAN
o Private or public
o High speed
o Large area

WAN – Wide-Area Network

- Characteristics:
o Span a large geographical area
o Cross public rights of way
- Technologies used include:
o Circuit switching
o Packet switching
o Frame relay
o Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Common Internet Uses

- Communication: Emails, Discussion Groups, Chats
o Email: Header (Address, Subject, Attachment), Message, Signature Line
 ▪ Spam: Junk, unwanted emails
▪ Computer viruses or destructive programs are often attached to
unsolicited email
▪ Spam blockers use a variety of approaches to identify and control
spam
▪ Spam blockers are also referred to as Junk mail filters or Anti-spam
programs
▪ Gmail, Yahoo Mail, iCloud Mail, Outlook, AOL Mail
o Instant messaging: Messenger, WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, Skype, Discord
▪ Extension of email that provides direct, live communication between
two or more people
▪ Instant messaging programs also include:
• Video conferencing features
• File sharing
• Remote assistance
o Social Networking: One of the fastest growing uses of the Internet. 3 basic
categories
▪ Reuniting sites
▪ Friend of a friend sites
▪ Common interest sites
▪ Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, Youtube
o Blogs, microblogs, wikis
▪ Web logs or blogs – posting that are date and time stamped and then
arranged with the most recent items shown first
▪ Microblogs – short status updates or sentences that answer the
question: What are you doing now?
▪ Wiki – a specially designed Web site that allows visitors to edit the
contents (fill in missing information)
• WikiHow, Wikipedia, Fandom, Wikitravel, Wiktionary,
Gamepedia
- Online Shopping
 o Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, eBay, Tiki
o E-Commerce Buying and selling goods over the Internet
▪ B2C Business to Consumer
• Fastest growing type of e-commerce
• Online banking, financial trading, shopping
▪ C2C Consumer to Consumer
• Similar to traditional auctions
• Auction house sites, person to person auction sites
▪ B2B Business to Business
• Involves the sale of a product or service from one business to
another
• Manufacturer supplier relationship
o Security: Payment must be fast, reliable, secure
▪ Three basic options: checks, credit card, digital cash
- Searching
o Specialized programs to assist in locating information
▪ Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu, YouTube
o Types of searches: Keyword search, directory search
o Metasearch engines
▪ Dogpile, MetaGer, Google Scholar, Skyscanner, MetaCrawler
o Specialized search engines
o Content evaluation:
▪ Not all information on the web is accurate.
▪ Ways to evaluate accuracy of Web information by authority, accuracy,
objectivity, currency
- Entertainment
- E-learning
- Cloud Computing
o Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, Digital
Ocean
 o Shifts computing activities from users’ desktop to computers on the
internet
o Frees end users from owning, maintaining and storing software programs
and data
o 3 basic components:
▪ Client
▪ Service provider
▪ Internet
- Web Utilities
o Plugins: Enhance browsing experience by enabling special file formats and
multimedia elements
o Filters: Block access to selected sites
o File Transfer Utilities: Upload/download files to/from the Internet. 3
popular types of programs
▪ File transfer protocol (FTP & SFTP)
▪ Web-based file transfer services
▪ BitTorrent
o Internet Security Suites: Maintain your security and privacy while on the
web
▪ Avast Antivirus, McAfee, Norton Antivirus, Kaspersky, ESET

Access
- Common way to access the Internet is through a Commercial Internet Service
Provider (ISP)
o National Service Providers
o Wireless Service Providers

Browsers
- Programs that provide access to Web resources
- Allow you to surf the Internet
- Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge, Opera, Safari, Brave, Arc, IE
- Address or location of the resource must be specified
URLs
- Uniform Resource Locators
- URLs have at least 2 parts:
o Protocol (http or https)
o Domain name (google.com, .com is top level domain)
o Top level domains (TLDs) provide further information about the website
- Browsers interpret HTML commands (Hypertext Markup Language, contained in
a document)
- Display document as a web page

Challenges
- Energy
- Smart
- Quality of Service
- Connectivity