Introduction to the Internet and World Wide Web

Richard C. Van Sluyters

A family plans a ski vacation in Utah, and their 10-year-old bly. Thus, each of our computers uses TCP/IP software to
daughter browses the World Wide Web (WWW1 or Web1) to send and receive data packets over the Internet. These pack-

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find an inexpensive package tour. A college student plugs ets flow from their origin (such as a disk drive on a remote
into the Internet jack in his residence hall room to communi- computer) to their destination (such as the display screen of
cate daily with friends and family via electronic mail (e- your computer) by means of a series of computers (known as
mail1). A health professions student subscribes to an elec- routers) that are arranged along the path between the 2 sites.
tronic mail list and gains instant access to a lively dialog This entire breaking up of data into packets that are routed
among her future colleagues on hot topics in their field. A across the net (at up to 622 million bits/sec) and the reassem-
man, worried about a tick bite a friend got on a Sunday hike, bly into a meaningful format take place without the user's
connects to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to read involvement or prerequisite understanding!
the latest information about Lyme disease and to download
color images of its characteristic skin rash. These are just a
few examples that I know of the amazing ways the Internet CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET
and the WWW have changed our way of life.
The Internet originated in December 1969 as a primitive The first step in connecting your personal computer to the
link-up of 4 computers located at the Los Angeles and Santa Internet is to confirm that it is not yet connected. If your
Barbara campuses of the University of California, the computer at work is linked to the other machines at your
Stanford Research Institute, and the University of Utah. It is institution, your local network may already have access to
doubtful that anyone then could have imagined just how fast the Internet. This is almost always the case at colleges and
their tiny computer network would grow. At the time of this universities and other large employers. Such organizations
writing, approximately 1/4 million registered local computer pay sizable annual fees to rent lines that serve as the continu-
networks comprise more than 15 million host computers that ous, permanent connections between their internal computer
serve more than 50 million users worldwide. These local systems and the Internet. Your local computer system per-
networks are in turn joined into a single, vast, unified net- son can demonstrate the necessary steps to access the Internet
work, spanning more than 170 countries and linking comput- from your keyboard.
ers of all different sizes, types, and operating systems with If you cannot connect to the Internet through an institu-
people who speak many different languages. tion, you will need to contact a company that provides con-
One commonality among all these computers is their use nections to the Internet for a fee. Internet Service Providers
of the same procedures for transmitting and receiving infor- (ISPs1) allow you to connect on an as-needed basis to their
mation over the net. These standards are embodied in the computers, which have a full-time connection to the Internet.
Internet Protocol (IP1), which determines the conventions Typically charging a monthly fee, ISPs number in the thou-
for addressing and routing information, and the Transmis- sands and have grown at a rate similar to that of the Internet
sion Control Protocol (TCP1), which governs how electronic itself. Some ISPs offer only limited services, like e-mail,
messages are broken up into uniform-sized "packets" of data whereas others offer the full range of Internet facilities. Some
for transmission across the network and subsequent reassem- ISPs provide their services only to users in a limited region
of the country, whereas others operate nationwide. Col-
leagues and computer store employees are good sources of
information regarding regional ISPs.
Richard C. Van Sluyters, O.D., Ph.D., is IACUC Chair, Faculty Assistant to To utilize the services of an ISP, you will usually need a
the Vice Chancellor for Research, and Professor in the School of Optom- modem and a telephone line. The modem allows your com-
etry, University of California, Berkeley, California. puter to dial a number that is answered by a modem con-
'Abbreviations used in this article: e-mail, electronic mail; IACUC, institu-
nected to your ISP's computer. The simple communications
tional animal care and use committee; ILAR, Institute for Laboratory Ani- software that comes with your modem will then allow your
mal Research; IP, Internet Protocol; ISP, Internet Service Provider; TCP, computer to interact with theirs. A modem can also be used
Transmission Control Protocol; URL, Uniform Resource Locator; Web or to provide your personal computer at home with free dial-in
WWW, World Wide Web. access to a computer at your workplace that is connected to

162 ILAR Journal

the Internet. The computer systems manager at your institu- mail message, which automatically prompts the LISTSERV
tion can advise you regarding whether this service is avail- program to extract the initiator's e-mail address, add it to the
able. list, and send the initiator an e-mail message of confirmation
Even with, a relatively basic personal computer, you will and information regarding use of the list.
be able to send and receive text-based e-mail messages. Your
computer can serve simply as a "terminal" attached to the
remote computer at your institution or your ISP. The soft- USNET/Newsgroups
ware needed to interact with the Internet will be on the re-
mote computer, and you will be able to use only what they Internet newsgroup servers generally provide access to
have installed. Those with more fully equipped personal groups that are much less selective than those provided by
computers can alternatively install Internet software on their list servers. Free and unrestricted access to thousands of
own machines and then use a modem connection only to topic-based newsgroups can be obtained by using specific
provide the necessary access to the Internet. Internet soft- newsreader software to contact a local computer that acts as

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ware packages are inexpensive, if not free; and they are avail- a news server. This software allows users to post messages
able from a variety of sources, including ISPs, software com- or articles to any newsgroup for other users to read and pos-
panies, retail computer stores, and possibly your own sibly attach their comments.
institution.

File Transfer Protocol

INTERNET FACILITIES
Using the File Transfer Protocol facility, Internet users can
The Internet is similar in some ways to the global telephone transfer software programs, product upgrades, and other
system: Each allows the establishment almost instantly of 2- types of computer files between computer systems connected
way connections between sites anywhere in the world. How- to the Internet.
ever, unlike a telephone conversation, the Internet allows us
to communicate in a variety of ways. Most importantly, we
are not limited to verbal interactions with other people—in Internet Relay Chat
many cases, it is possible to gain access to information stored
in their computers. The basic facilities available over the With Internet Relay Chat, small numbers of users meet in
Internet are described below and include e-mail, list servers, on-line chat groups and "talk" to each other by typing mes-
USNET/newsgroups, File Transfer Protocol, Internet Relay sages on their keyboards.
Chat, Gopher facility, and the WWW.

Gopher
E-mail
The Gopher facility, created at the University of Minnesota
E-mail, the Internet equivalent of postal mail, is the most and named after its golden gopher mascot, is one of the first
widely used facility on the Internet. E-mail messages routed "user-friendly" Internet facilities for obtaining information
across the Internet can reach an overseas destination in sec- over the network. Using Gopher, users can connect to thou-
onds. You never receive a busy signal and you never play sands of different computers, known as information servers
"telephone tag." A variety of e-mail programs offer features or "gopher holes," via a menu-driven "point and click" pro-
allowing you to print, forward, save, and/or reply to another's gram. Hierarchically organized information is stored at each
message. Some include advanced features allowing you to gopher hole. Users click on a descending list of individual
attach a word processing document, spreadsheet, software topics to retrieve information, which might include text,
program, video, or image file. sound, or images.

List Servers World Wide Web

The list server facility allows for the creation of discussion The WWW is such an immensely popular Internet facility
groups to share information about common interests. that for many users, it has become synonymous with the
LISTSERV, the most common list server program, copies Internet. Developed in 1992 at the European Laboratory for
incoming messages sent to the list and forwards them to Particle Physics at Cern, Switzerland, the WWW links users
everyone whose e-mail address is on the list (the subscrib- to Internet sites. The basic unit of WWW communication is
ers). Only subscribers can submit messages to the group, the page, similar to this printed page. Within a Web page are
which is monitored by the list manager. A user (the initiator) "links" on which users can click and be automatically con-
typically joins a list by sending it an appropriately worded e- nected to related pages at the same or other Internet Websites.

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With its ease of use and its multimedia ability to transmit links embedded in the Web pages found by the search engine
text, graphics, audio, and video and to retrieve detailed infor- to jump from page to page across the Web.
mation from anywhere in the world in seconds, the WWW
has quickly become the interface of choice for Internet users.
EXAMPLES OF WEB PAGES
If you type the URL http://www2.nas.edu/ilarhome into your
COMPONENTS OF THE WWW
Web browser and direct it to open a connection to that loca-
tion, the document shown in Figure 1 will appear on your
Key to the success of the WWW is its powerful system of computer screen. This Home Page of the Institute for Labo-
links, allowing users to explore related sets of data stored in ratory Animal Research (ILAR1) appears at the top of the
different computers on the Internet. This system of embed- hierarchically organized set of hypertext-linked pages and
ding links in the text of a Web page, called "hypertext," data files that ILAR provides for your use. As you move
your cursor across this page, it will change from an arrow to

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allows any sort of data to be accessed from a Web page by
clicking on highlighted and/or underlined links that point to a "pointing hand" whenever it crosses over an "active" spot
other pages. Users are automatically routed to the selected that designates a link to a related page.
Web page even if it resides in a distant computer. This web Clicking on the word "Personnel" reveals a page that
of interconnected pages gives the WWW its name. contains links to 5 successive pages of groups of people
Every Web page has its own unique title, known as the involved in the work of ILAR (Figure 2).
Uniform Resource Locator (URL1). A URL contains both If you click on the link entitled "ILAR Council," you will
the Internet address of the computer on which a Web page is see a list of the names and e-mail addresses of those of us
stored and the name of the computer file that actually con- serving on the Council at the time of this writing. I invite
tains the page. More than 1/2 million WWW sites exist on you to send me a message!
the Internet, and each may contain numerous URLs. The Return to the Home Page (either by clicking on the small
result is tens of millions of Web pages! box labeled "ILAR" at the bottom of the ILAR Council page
So that users may view and retrieve Web pages without or by using your browser's "Back" command); then click on
having to know and type the URL each time, a special type of the word "Publications." This takes you to a page that lists
program, known as a "browser," was developed. A browser the following 4 publication groups (Figure 3): (1) ILAR
program operates on a personal computer, interfacing it with Journal (Figure 4), which contains links to successive pages
the Internet and allowing users to "surf the WWW. Brows- about the journal, its Editorial Board, and information about
ers are inexpensive and typically available without cost to the Associates program of membership that includes a sub-
educators. All browsers allow Internet users to (1) retrieve scription to ILAR Journal; (2) titles for which full texts are
Web pages from other computers; (2) display these pages on available online; (3) titles for sale at the National Academy
the user's screen, using formatting commands that were Press; and (4) free publications available from ILAR.
specified by the author of the page; and (3) make the Web Clicking on the word "Links" on the Home Page reveals
pages active, progressing to the referenced file or URL by a categorical list of many pages. Each page provides you
pointing and clicking on a hypertext link embedded in a with more links for direct access to ILAR-compiled informa-
page. Browsers are very easy to use, and even a computer tion across the Internet. Here in 1 location are hundreds of
novice can become accustomed to navigating the Internet continually updated links to topics of interest for readers of
within minutes. The new user will soon realize, however, ILAR Journal (Figure 5).
that navigating effectively through millions of Web pages Taking the time to browse through the ILAR Web pages
requires skill in searching. To deal with this abundance of will confirm how easy it is to first navigate across the WWW
information, Internet users take advantage of WWW soft- from a personal computer to ILAR's computer in Washing-
ware tools known as "search engines." ton, DC, and to then gain access to detailed information on a
A search engine is a powerful program for finding wide variety of very specific topics from computers scattered
Websites that contain information about key words. Search across the Web. The subsequent articles in this issue of the
engines scan Web pages, Gopher sites, File Transfer Proto- Journal focus on ways that researchers, institutional animal
col sites, newsgroup articles, and so forth. Many of these care and use committee (IACUC) members, attending veteri-
programs are currently available, and their designs differ in narians, and other laboratory animal medicine specialists can
subtle ways. Readers can select among the popular search obtain and exchange information electronically. The Internet
engines offered by their Web browser simply by clicking on and the WWW afford access to an amazing array of topics
the relevant button of the browser's opening page. Users related to the use of animals in teaching and research. Fur-
generally try several until they find those that seem easier to thermore, in addition to professional use, you may even find
use and more productive. Skilled Web surfers typically use a that affordable ski trip mentioned at the beginning of this
search engine to launch a search and then use the hypertext article.

164 ILAR Journal

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165
ILAR's Personnel Web page.
FIGURE 1 ILAR's home page.

FIGURE 2

1997
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ILAR Journal
FIGURE 3 ILAR's Publications Web page.

FIGURE 4 ILAR Journal's Web page.

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FIGURE 5 Top section of ILAR's Links Web page.

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Basic Training Sites. 1996. Toronto, Canada: Brand X Internet Services, The Size of the Internet. 1996. Totonto, Canada: Brand X Internet Ser-
Inc. Available at http://www.interlog.com/~bxi/training.htm vices, Inc. Available at http://www.interlog.com/~bxi/size.htm
Howe W. 1996. Walt's Webbing. Available at http://people.delphi.com/ The trends Guide to the Internet. 1997. Walsh L, editor. Cambridge UK:
walthowe/index. html Elsevier Trends Journals. Available at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/
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people/mkgray/net/index. html Yahoo's Guide to Internet Resources. 1997. Santa Clara CA: Yahoo!
Hughes K. 1993. Entering the World-Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace. Corporation. Available at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_
Available at http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/guide/www.guide.htmWt5 Internet/Internet/Resources/

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