What is the Internet?

The Internet links are computer networks all over the world so
that users can share resources and communicate with each other. Some computers , have
direct access to all the facilities on the Internet such as the universities. And other
computers, eg privately-owned ones, have indirect links through a commercial service
provider, who offers some or all of the Internet facilities. In order to be connected to
Internet, you must go through service suppliers. Many options are offered with monthly
rates. Depending on the option chosen, access time may vary.
The Internet is what we call a meta-network, that is, a network of networks that spans the
globe. It's impossible to give an exact count of the number of networks or users that
comprise the Internet, but it is easily in the thousands and millions respectively. The
Internet employs a set of standardized protocols which allow for the sharing of resources
among different kinds of computers that communicate with each other on the network.
These standards, sometimes referred to as the Internet Protocol Suite, are the rules that
developers adhere to when creating new functions for the Internet.
The Internet is also what we call a distributed system; there are no central archives.
Technically, no one runs the Internet. Rather, the Internet is made up of thousands of
smaller networks. The Internet thrives and develops as its many users find new ways to
create, display and retrieve the information that constitutes the Internet.

what makes the internet work? The unique thing about the Internet is that it allows
many different computers to connect and talk to each other. This is possible because of a
set of standards, known as protocols, that govern the transmission of data over the
network: TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Most people who
use the Internet aren't so interested in details related to these protocols. They do,
however, want to know what they can do on the Internet and how to do it effectively.

Internet Addresses
Because the Internet is a global network of computers each computer connected to
the Internet must have a unique address. Internet addresses are in the
form nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn where nnn must be a number from 0 - 255. This address is
known as an IP address. (IP stands for Internet Protocol; more on this later.)

The picture below illustrates two computers connected to the Internet; your
computer with IP address 1.2.3.4 and another computer with IP address 5.6.7.8. The
Internet is represented as an abstract object in-between.

If you connect to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you are
usually assigned a temporary IP address for the duration of your dial-in session. If
you connect to the Internet from a local area network (LAN) your computer might
have a permanent IP address or it might obtain a temporary one from a DHCP
(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. In any case, if you are connected to
the Internet, your computer has a unique IP address.

An example should serve here: Let's say your IP address is 1.2.3.4 and you want to
send a message to the computer 5.6.7.8. The message you want to send is "Hello
computer 5.6.7.8!

 The message would start at the top of the protocol stack on your computer and
work it's way downward.
 If the message to be sent is long, each stack layer that the message passes
through may break the message up into smaller chunks of data. This is because data
sent over the Internet (and most computer networks) are sent in manageable
chunks. On the Internet, these chunks of data are known as packets.
 The packets would go through the Application Layer and continue to the TCP
layer. Each packet is assigned a port number. Ports will be explained later, but
suffice to say that many programs may be using the TCP/IP stack and sending
messages. We need to know which program on the destination computer needs to
receive the message because it will be listening on a specific port.
 After going through the TCP layer, the packets proceed to the IP layer. This is
where each packet receives it's destination address, 5.6.7.8.
 Now that our message packets have a port number and an IP address, they are
ready to be sent over the Internet. The hardware layer takes care of turning our
packets containing the alphabetic text of our message into electronic signals and
transmitting them over the phone line.
 On the other end of the phone line your ISP has a direct connection to the
Internet. The ISPs router examines the destination address in each packet and
determines where to send it. Often, the packet's next stop is another router. More on
routers and Internet infrastructure later.
 Eventually, the packets reach computer 5.6.7.8. Here, the packets start at the
bottom of the destination computer's TCP/IP stack and work upwards.
 As the packets go upwards through the stack, all routing data that the sending
computer's stack added (such as IP address and port number) is stripped from the
packets.

 When the data reaches the top of the stack, the packets have been re-assembled
into their original form, "Hello computer 5.6.7.8!"
Networking Infrastructure
So now you know how packets travel from one computer to another over the
Internet. But what's in-between? What actually makes up the Internet? Let's look at
another diagram:

What Are Different Addressing Schemes Used On Internet?

As internet is a network of networks, it basically also consists of network nodes like

computers. All these devices are interconnected to communicate with each other.
Each device in a network must have a unique address to be identified. This address makes
this device unique on that network and any other computer or device can communicate with
it by using this specific address. there are two major types of addressing schemes that are
used in the internet environment:
1.IP addressing
2. DNS addressing

IP address: is a 32 bit compound number assigned to each computer for its unique
identification. With the help of IP address, a computer can easily be identified among millions
of other computers in thousands of networks. This addressing method is used by the IP
protocol. The structure of IP address is like that it is 32 bit number but is expressed as single
byte number ranging from 0 to 255, period sign is used for separation. For example,
167.34.45.21 is an IP address that uniquely identifies a computer on the network. Part of this
address refers to the Host work and the rest represents the particular computer on
the network.

The IP addresses are subdivided into classes and a class code is defined in the left most bit
of the address.
Class A: In IP addresses of this class, first byte is used for Network Identification and the
rest of the three bytes are used for the identification of the computers on that network. Class
A network is for millions of connected machines. Class code is mentioned in the bit 0 of first
byte.
Class B: In IP addresses of this class, first two byte is used for Network Identification and
the rest of the bytes are used for the identification of the computers on that network. Class B
network can have 256 * 256 = 65536 machines. Class code is mentioned in the bits 0, 1 of
first byte.
Class C: In IP addresses of this class, first three byte is used for network identification and
the one byte is used for the identification of the computers on that network. Class C network
can have 256 machines. Class code is mentioned in the bits 0 -2 of first byte.Each section is
known as an octet. Each time a computer is connected to the internet, it is assigned a
specific IP address dynamically by the ISP.

DNS address: The DNS stand for domain name system. Unlike the IP addressing scheme in
this addressing scheme text is used instead of numbers. It is easier to remember than IP
address.

Its purpose is to translate domain names into IP addresses. Whenever we use a domain
name, then a service is used for translating domain names into IP addresses and is known
as DNS. For example, the domain name www.computer-games.com might translate to
192.111.221.2. So what DNS did in above example as it translated the Domain
name"computer-games"into corresponding IP address.

If one DNS server does not know how to translate the particular domain name it asks
another DNS server and this process continued until the correct IP address is returned. As in
above example, if one domain server does not know how to translate www.computer-
games.com then it will move to another DNS until the corresponding IP address
192.111.221.2 is returned. DNS scheme uses alphabets and it is easier to remember, but
actually each domain name has an address and DNS scheme is used to convert this domain
name into its corresponding address.

Internet Protocols
There are many protocols that are used on the Internet. This is true; there are many
communication protocols required for the Internet to function. These include the TCP
and IP protocols, routing protocols, medium access control protocols, application
level protocols, etc.

Application Protocols: HTTP and the World Wide Web

One of the most commonly used services on the Internet is the World Wide Web
(WWW). The application protocol that makes the web work is Hypertext Transfer
Protocol or HTTP. Do not confuse this with the Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML). HTML is the language used to write web pages. HTTP is the protocol that
web browsers and web servers use to communicate with each other over the
Internet. It is an application level protocol because it sits on top of the TCP layer in
the protocol stack and is used by specific applications to talk to one another. In this
case the applications are web browsers and web servers.

HTTP is a connectionless text based protocol. Clients (web browsers) send requests
to web servers for web elements such as web pages and images. After the request is
serviced by a server, the connection between client and server across the Internet is
disconnected. A new connection must be made for each request. Most protocols are
connection oriented. This means that the two computers communicating with each
other keep the connection open over the Internet. HTTP does not however. Before an
HTTP request can be made by a client, a new connection must be made to the
server. When you type a URL into a web browser, this is what happens:
 1. If the URL contains a domain name, the browser first connects to a domain
name server and retrieves the corresponding IP address for the web server.
2. The web browser connects to the web server and sends an HTTP request (via
the protocol stack) for the desired web page.
3. The web server receives the request and checks for the desired page. If the
page exists, the web server sends it. If the server cannot find the requested
page, it will send an HTTP 404 error message. (404 means 'Page Not Found'
as anyone who has surfed the web probably knows.)
4. The web browser receives the page back and the connection is closed.
5. The browser then parses through the page and looks for other page elements
it needs to complete the web page. These usually include images, applets,
etc.
6. For each element needed, the browser makes additional connections and
HTTP requests to the server for each element.
7. When the browser has finished loading all images, applets, etc. the page will
be completely loaded in the browser window.

Application Protocols: SMTP and Electronic Mail

Another commonly used Internet service is electronic mail. E-mail uses an
application level protocol calledSimple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP. SMTP is
also a text based protocol, but unlike HTTP, SMTP is connection oriented. SMTP is
also more complicated than HTTP. There are many more commands and
considerations in SMTP than there are in HTTP.

When you open your mail client to read your e-mail, this is what typically happens:

1. The mail client (Netscape Mail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, etc.) opens a
connection to it's default mail server. The mail server's IP address or domain
name is typically setup when the mail client is installed.
2. The mail server will always transmit the first message to identify itself.
3. The client will send an SMTP HELO command to which the server will respond
with a 250 OK message.
4. Depending on whether the client is checking mail, sending mail, etc. the
appropriate SMTP commands will be sent to the server, which will respond
accordingly.
5. This request/response transaction will continue until the client sends an SMTP
QUIT command. The server will then say goodbye and the connection will be
closed.

Transmission Control Protocol

Under the application layer in the protocol stack is the TCP layer. When applications
open a connection to another computer on the Internet, the messages they send
(using a specific application layer protocol) get passed down the stack to the TCP
layer. TCP is responsible for routing application protocols to the correct
application on the destination computer. To accomplish this, port numbers are
used. Ports can be thought of as separate channels on each computer. For example,
you can surf the web while reading e-mail. This is because these two applications
(the web browser and the mail client) used different port numbers. When a packet
arrives at a computer and makes its way up the protocol stack, the TCP layer decides
which application receives the packet based on a port number.
TCP works like this:

• When the TCP layer receives the application layer protocol data from above, it
segments it into manageable 'chunks' and then adds a TCP header with
specific TCP information to each 'chunk'. The information contained in the TCP
header includes the port number of the application the data needs to be sent
to.
• When the TCP layer receives a packet from the IP layer below it, the TCP layer
strips the TCP header data from the packet, does some data reconstruction if
necessary, and then sends the data to the correct application using the port number
taken from the TCP header.

Internet Protocol
Unlike TCP, IP is an unreliable, connectionless protocol. IP doesn't care
whether a packet gets to it's destination or not. Nor does IP know
about connections and port numbers. IP's job is too send and route
packets to other computers. IP packets are independent entities and
may arrive out of order or not at all. It is TCP's job to make sure
packets arrive and are in the correct order. About the only thing IP has
in common with TCP is the way it receives data and adds it's own IP
header information to the TCP data.

Advantages:
Communication: :The foremost target of internet has always been the communication. And
internet has excelled beyond the expectations .Still; innovations are going on to make it faster,
more reliable. By the advent of computer’s Internet, our earth has reduced and has attained the
form of a global village.Now we can communicate in a fraction of second with a person who is
sitting in the other part of the world. Today for better communication, we can avail the facilities of
e-mail; we can chat for hours with our loved ones. There are plenty messenger services in
offering. With help of such services, it has become very easy to establish a kind of global
friendship where you can share your thoughts, can explore other cultures of different ethnicity.
Information:Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. The Internet is a
virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is
available on the Internet. The search engines like Google, yahoo is at your service on the
Internet. 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 man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market
information, new ideas and technical support, the list is end less.
Students and children are among the top users who surf the Internet for research. Today, it is
almost required that students should use the Internet for research for the purpose of gathering
resources. Teachers have started giving assignments that require research on the Internet.
Almost every coming day, researches on medical issues become much easier to locate.
Numerous web sites available on the net are offering loads of information for people to research
diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. During 1998 over 20
million people reported going online to retrieve health information.
Entertainment:Entertainment is another popular raison d'être why many people prefer to surf the
Internet. In fact, media of internet has become quite successful in trapping multifaceted
entertainment factor. Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of
the uses people have discovered. There are numerous games that may be downloaded from the
Internet for free. The industry of online gaming has tasted dramatic and phenomenal attention by
game lovers. Chat rooms are popular because users can meet new and interesting people. In
fact, the Internet has been successfully used by people to find life long partners. When people
surf the Web, there are numerous things that can be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can
be found and shared on the Internet.
Services:Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking,
purchasing tickets for your favorite movies, guidance services on array of topics engulfing the
every aspect of life, and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line and can
cost you more.
E-Commerce:Ecommerce is the concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering, or
business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet. It has
become a phenomenon associated with any kind of shopping, almost anything. You name it and
Ecommerce with its giant tentacles engulfing every single product and service will make you
available at your door steps. It has got a real amazing and wide range of products from
household needs, technology to entertainment.
Disadvantages
Theft of Personal informationIf you use the Internet, you may be facing grave danger as your
personal information such as name, address, credit card number etc. can be accessed by other
culprits to make your problems worse.
Spamming: Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails in bulk, which provide no purpose
and needlessly obstruct the entire system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating for you,
and so instead of just ignoring it, you should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that
using the Internet can become that much safer.
Virus threat
Virus is nothing but a program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems.
Computers attached to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing
your whole hard disk, causing you considerable headache.
Pornography:
This is perhaps the biggest threat related to your children’s healthy mental life. A very serious
issue concerning the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can
be easily found and can be a detrimental factor to letting children use the Internet.

Section B

What is The Web (World Wide Web)?

The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the
Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the
HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web
services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business
logic, use the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet
Explorer or Firefox , to access Web documents called Web pages that are linked to each other
via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video.
The Web is just one of the ways that information can be disseminated over the Internet. The
Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-mail, which relies on SMTP , Usenet news
groups, instant messaging and FTP. So the Web is just a portion of the Internet, albeit a large
portion, but the two terms are not synonymous and should not be confused.
What is web server?A web server can be referred to as either the hardware, the
computer or the software, the computer application that helps to deliver content that can
be accessed through the internet. Most people think a web server is just the hardware
computer, but a web server is also referred to as the software computer application that is
installed in the hardware computer. A web server is what makes it possible to be able to
access content like web pages, or other data from anywhere as long as it is connected to
the internet. The hardware part is what houses the content, while the software part is what
makes the content accessible through the internet.
The most common use of web servers are to host websites but there are other uses like
data storage or for running enterprise applications. There are also different ways to
request content from a web server. The most common request is the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), but there are also other requests like the Internet Message Access
Protocol (IMAP) or the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
What is proxy server?
In an enterprise that uses the Internet, a proxy server is a server that acts as an
intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet so that the enterprise can
ensure security, administrative control, and caching service. A proxy server is
associated with or part of a gateway server that separates the enterprise network
from the outside network and a firewall server that protects the enterprise network
from outside intrusion.

A proxy server receives a request for an Internet service (such as a Web page
request) from a user. If it passes filtering requirements, the proxy server, assuming
it is also a cache server , looks in its local cache of previously downloaded Web
pages. If it finds the page, it returns it to the user without needing to forward the
request to the Internet. If the page is not in the cache, the proxy server, acting as a
client on behalf of the user, uses one of its own IP addresses to request the page
from the server out on the Internet. When the page is returned, the proxy server
relates it to the original request and forwards it on to the user.

To the user, the proxy server is invisible; all Internet requests and returned
responses appear to be directly with the addressed Internet server.

An advantage of a proxy server is that its cache can serve all users. If one or more
Internet sites are frequently requested, these are likely to be in the proxy's cache,
which will improve user response time. In fact, there are special servers called cache
servers. A proxy can also do logging.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

1. Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance

for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a
certain amount of time.
2. Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For
example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from
accessing a specific set of Web sites.
Web site development phases:

PHASE 1 – Analysis: This first phase is probably undertaken twice, first by you when
you decide to develop a website for your business. You need to justify that there is a role
for a site within your business. Secondly, by us, we will need to know such things as the
target audience, primary and secondary. We need to understand the aims of the site, what
it is to achieve for your business. We need to understand the purpose of the site, what is it
going to do for your customers – current and potential. An audit of your competitor’s
websites will allow us to understand your market and how they market the customers.
This knowledge will help us develop the requirements for your site.

PHASE 2 – Design: This phase is when we make the design decisions of how your site
will look, and how it will work. From our analysis we should have a good idea on your
target audience. Now we are able to decide which technologies are best suited for your
company. Then we develop the user interface and navigation system. Also, the site will
be optimized for the average customer connectivity to the WEB and well as the
configuration of their computer system.The personality, the look and feel of the website
will also be established at this phase. This might be the ideal time to think over your
identity, logo and branding of your company. If you need to, we could bring in Graphic
Designers that would assist with a new image. The bottom line is your primary
requirements and we will focus on that issue.

PHASE 3 – Construction: Construction is often considered to be the project in its

entirety his is not the case. Construction is the phase where ideas and design come
together and grow into your image. Pages are created, effects are built in, images are
produced, gateway scripts written and any other programming requirements are
produced. Obviously this is a time intensive part of the project; hence this must be done
carefully because it’s the backbone to the site. Documentation is an important
requirement, and the area no one enjoys to do, but without it the project could no reflect
the image to the customer you wish. This information you want to convey to your
customers must be the best, easiest to understand and concise so the customer gets the
information in a fashion they understand.

PHASE 4 – Testing: Testing phase of the project that is sometimes overlooked or

considered expensive and therefore reduced to the barest minimum. In any project there
will be faults and bugs and they need to be eliminated prior to production. We all want to
make the best possible presentation to the customer; therefore testing should be a must. In
order to control expenses just the obvious errors will be correct and the balance if any
will be done as time goes by.Testing has 2 primary phases, off-line and on-line.

Off-line requires the developer to exercise each of the elements of the site, links, images
etc. while they are on the local computer, i.e. not connect to the Internet.
On-line requires that a series of test are carried out to ensure that during the transfer
nothing was corrupted. Some elements can only be test while on-line. These test are
conducted on a separate system so the consumer doesn’t see it until the site has been
completed. Another test source could be using an outsource company to run tests prior to
being on-line. These are an additional expense and only recommend for extensive
websites and have multi databases and unique services.

PHASE 5 – Finalize: After our testing evaluation and most to the rough edges have been
smoothed over as well as the elements that allow the customers to interact with the site
has been reviewed we’re ready for feed back. The final process needs to be looked upon
as a small project cycle in its’ own right. During this process we then refine, implement
and retest the changes and presto a new web presence will emerge.

Registration with the numerous search engines needs to be completed and tested as well.
Keep in mind that each search engine is different. Each search engine varies on its
registration requirements and on how long it takes to list a site so the consumer can locate
it.

URL
Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and
other resources on the World Wide Web.
The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what
protocol to use, and the second part is called a resource name and it specifies
the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located. The protocol
identifier and the resource name are separated by a colon and two forward
slashes.
For example, the two URLs below point to two different files at the domain
pcwebopedia.com. The first specifies an executable file that should be fetched
using the FTP protocol; the second specifies a Web page that should be fetched
using the HTTP protocol:

ftp://www.pcwebopedia.com/stuff.exe
 http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html