INTERNET

Internet is worldwide collection of interconnected

networks. The Internet includes commercial, educational,
governmental, and other networks, all of which use certain
communications protocols or rules which allow them to
connect with one another.

More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of

data, news and opinions. The internet links are computer
networks all over the world so that users can share resources
and communicate with each other.

BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERNET

Internet developed from the activities of Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network (ARPANET), a U.S. Defense Department program in 1969 with connections
between computers at the University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford Research
Institute, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah.

Internet is formerly designed to connect military research centers and the

distributed computer systems were able to survive nuclear attacks. The problem is
ARPANET could connect only networks of the same type.

In 1970, ARPA starts developing the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet

Protocol (TCP/IP), a technology for connecting networks of different types
(produced by different companies). Other networks appear, such as CSNET and
BITNET.

TYPES OF COMPUTER NETWORK

 LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)

A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A

networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though
sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and
occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings.
 METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN)

A MAN is a large computer network that usually spans a city or a large

campus, typically covering an area of between 5 km and 50 km diameter. A MAN
often acts as a high speed network to allow sharing of regional resources. A MAN
might be owned and operated by a single organization, but it usually will be used by
many individuals and organizations.

 WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)

WAN covers a large geographic area such as country, continent or even

whole of the world. It is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. Most WANs
(like the Internet) are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under
collective or distributed ownership and management.

INTERNET ACCESS
To gain access to the internet, the user has to register to any Internet Service
Provider (ISP). An internet service provider (or ISP) is a company that provides its
customers with access to the Internet. The largest internet service providers are
national companies and are referred to as national internet service providers.
National internet service providers provide internet access to smaller regional and
local ISPs, from whom homes and businesses can buy access to the Internet.

Types of Internet Connection:

 Dial-Up
- Slower than other types of
connection
- Connects through existing
phone lines using dial-up
modem
- Cheapest
- Must “dial-up” to connect to
Internet and disconnect when
done.
- Cannot use Internet and phone line at the same time.
 Digital Subscriber Line
- Broadband–faster than dial-up
connection
- Connects through phone lines,
but does not require phone
service
- Always on
- Internet and phone can be
used in the same time
- Unavailable in many location

 Cable
- Broadband – faster than dial-up and
DSL
- Use cable connection
- Always on
- Only available where cable is
available

 Internet over Satellite

- Broadband – faster than dial-up, but
data is delayed
- Connects via satellites
- Can be affected by rain and snow
- Does not require phone lines and
cables
- Can be used anywhere around the
world
 3G and 4G
- Available for mobile
phones, computers and
tablets
- Connects wirelessly
through 3G/4G provider
- Can access Internet
anywhere
- Slower than DSL and
Cable connection

Choosing Internet Service Provider

Below are some things to consider as you research ISPs:
• Speed
• Price
• Ease of Installation
• Service Record
• Technical Support
• Contract Terms

HOW INTERNET WORKS?

 Because the Internet is a global network of computers each computer
connected to the Internet must have a unique address. This address is known as an
IP address.
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is assigned to every computer on
the Internet and every device that communicates on a network. It is a number that
uniquely identifies each computer or device connected to Internet. IP addresses are
not easy for humans to remember , which is why domain names are used. Domain
names map to IP addresses , meaning they are essentially a human-friendly
representation of an IP address.

Internet Requirement
- Computer with modem/router/network card
- Internet account with ISP
- Application software:
Web browser (Firefox, Chrome)
Email client (MS Outlook)
- Plugins software (Adobe Reader, Flash Player)
- Optional: Speaker, Printer, Webcam

INTERNET USAGES
- Communication
- Send and receive emails
- Download files
- Post your opinion to a news group
- Chatting
- Surf the world wide web
- Business
- Shopping
- Entertainment

o WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

- The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed
via the Internet
- With a web browser, one can view webpages that may contain text, images,
videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks
- It uses a protocol called HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP defines how
messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and
browsers should take in response to various commands.
 A Uniform Resource Locator, or URL is the address of a document you'll find on
the WWW. It is an address assigned to files on the Internet.
Different protocols can be used in URLs to access different types of files in
different ways.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology/index.html

Part of URL Purpose

The protocol being used to access a file. HTTPS
https://
stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
Subdomain for world wide web. This will usually
point to the web server hosted at the following
www
domain. Other subdomains can be used to point to
specific directories, for example: news.bb.co.uk
Domain. BBC is the name of the organisation
bbc.co.uk .uk is a top-level domain (TLD) and .co is a second
level domain (2LD)
/news Directory of the file being requested
/technology Subdirectory of the file being requested
/index Name of the file being requested
The file’s extension. Hypertext markup language
.html
(HTML) is frequently used for creating web pages

There is a wide variety of top level domains (TLDs) available for use. While
.com is the most frequently used, TLDs like .org and .net are also common.

Domain Names
A domain name identifies an organisation or individual on the Internet. They
use alphanumeric characters which make them easy for humans to remember. A
fully qualified domain name (or FQDN) is a domain that specifies an exact resource
and can be interpreted in only one way. An FQDN will always include the server’s
host name .

FQDN ✗ https://bbc.co.uk/news/index.html
FQDN ✓ https://www. bbc.co.uk/news/index.html
Types of Website:
Static
- A static website is one that has webpages stored on the server in the format that
is sent to a client web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML)
Dynamic
- A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and
automatically, based on certain criteria.

o ELECTRONIC MAIL (EMAIL)

- The transmission of messages over communications networks.
- It is a fast and efficient way to communicate with friends or colleagues.
- You can communicate with one person at a time or thousands; you can
receive and send files and other information.
Basic email functions:
 Send and receive mail messages
 Save your messages in a file
 Print mail messages
 Reply to mail messages
 Attach a file to a mail message

 Email Address
The email address has three parts:
– a user name
– an "at" sign (@)
– the address of the user's mail server
Example: [email protected]

 Email Client
An email client is a computer program used to manage a user's email. Popular
email clients include Microsoft Outlook, Pegasus Mail, Mozilla's Thunderbird, and
Apple Inc.'s Mail.

 Web-Based Mail
Is an e-mail service intended to be primarily accessed via a web browser. Some
very popular web mail providers:
– Gmail
– Yahoo!Mail
– Hotmail
o FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)
- The protocol for exchanging files over the Internet.
- Used for moving files between two hosts on a TCP/IP network.
- FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the
Internet or to upload a file to a server.
- To do FTP, a user invokes one of two commands:
get - the command for transferring a file from another server to your
own computer.
put – the command for moving a file from your computer to another
one.

o SEARCH ENGINE
- A search engine is designed to search for
information on the internet.
- Search engine presents the search results in the
form of a search results list.
- The search results can be webpages, images,
videos, and other type of files.
Example:
Google
Bing

o CHATTING
- Chatting is the other method for Internet
conversation.
- It enables people connected anywhere on the
Internet to join in live discussions.
- Chat sessions allow many users to join in the
same free-form conversation, usually centered
around a discussion topic.
Examples:
MSNMessenger
YahooMessenger
IRC
Pidgin
o VIDEO CONFERENCING
- A video conference is a set of
interactive telecommunication
technologies which allow two or more
locations to interact via two-way video
and audio transmissions
simultaneously.
- The other components required for a
videoconferencing system include:
Video Input and Output
Audio input and output
Data transfer
Computer

o E-COMMERCE
- Electronic commerce or E-Commerce consists of the buying and selling of
products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other
computer networks.
- It includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling,
delivering, servicing and paying for products and services
- Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:
Domestic and international payment systems
Group buying
Automated online assistants
Online shopping and order tracking
Online banking
Shopping cart software
Electronic tickets
INTERNET SECURITY
 Firewalls
A firewall sits between a device and the Internet and regulates the
packets that pass through it. Firewalls can be either software or hardware and
work as a proxy server which can perform both packet filtering and stateful
inspection.

 Packet Filtering
Firewalls use packet filtering to accept and block packets based on
their source IP address or the protocol that they are using (determined by
their port number). A network’s administrator can specify particular IP
addresses or protocols to block or use automatic filtering software that can
block suspicious packets.

 Stateful Inspection
Stateful inspection actually examines the contents of a packet before
deciding whether to allow it through the firewall. Some firewalls keep a
record of current connections in a network, allowing them to filter out packets
that aren’t related to activity on the network.

 Proxy Server
A server that sits between a public network and a private network is
called a proxy server. These devices manage every packet that passes
between the two networks. Firewalls can be said to act as proxy servers when
they control the movement of packets between public and private networks.

WORMS, TROJANS AND VIRUSES

Worms, trojans and viruses are all types of malware that can infect computers.
WORMS
Worms are pieces of malicious software that can self-replicate between
computers, either within a network or by users downloading and running a
malicious file.
TROJANS
A Trojan is a type of malware that is disguised as a benign file that users can
be tricked into opening. These are often spread as email attachments or
downloaded from malicious websites.
VIRUSES
If you’ve studied viruses in Biology, you may know that viruses require a host
cell. This is the same with computer viruses, which require a host file in which to
reside. These files are typically executable files, meaning that viruses can lie
dormant in a computer until their host file is opened or run.
Viruses can spread between computers over a private network, the Internet
or even through the use of physical media like hard drives, flash drives and optical
disks.

PREVENTING MALWARE
Although it is difficult to avoid malware completely, there are a number of
precautions that can be taken in order to protect computers from malicious software.
Malware often exploit bugs in code that enable them to take hold of a
computer system. Good code quality is an important factor in preventing malware
and small oversights by developers can have devastating consequences. Other
vulnerabilities that malware exploit include a lack of antivirus software, out-of-date
software and poor security.
One general rule for preventing malware is to install antivirus software.
Antivirus programs are specialist pieces of software that scan the files on a computer
and remove any suspicious files . Many modern operating systems come with some
level of antivirus installed as a default.
In organisations, employees can be trained about the risks of opening
suspicious email attachments in order to reduce the risk posed by malware.