What is the Internet
For a Technical Description of the Internet, click here
For a explaination of Internet terminology, click here
The Internet is bringing people around the world together in one big "cyberspace." You can communicate with another Internet User around the world in seconds and at a cost of a local phone call. In the beginning it was text communications, but that has given way to voice communications, video communications and even virtual relaity communcations. It is an exciting time for the exchange of information, and ideas the likes of which have never been possible.
This "cyberspace revolution" will change the way that people look at the world. Instead of having to wait weeks for a letter to get Moscow, London, or Paris, or making a Long Distance Phone call at prohibitive prices, you can e-mail, or even chat, with your friend, collegue, or acquaintance online, immediately avoiding the delay and the expense completely.
News is up to the second, and more complete than you've ever imagined. Instead of having to listen to news reports about a major news event such as an earthquake, riot, or other disaster, you can talk, live, to people who are actually there, and ask them questions that interest you about the situation.
No more ordering Christmas gifts through catalogs, now you can do it online. Imagine not more waiting on hold, no more mistakes in giving an item number to an order representative, now you can pick the item from an online catalog, containing pictures, descriptions of the item, and beyond that you can check out your gift with consumer reports, through newsgroups where others may have comments on that product, email the company from where the gift is made or sold. It's a whole new method and means for information exchange no matter what the subject or interest.
If you want to skip this section, because it bores you, click here
The Internet was born about 20 years ago, out of an effort to connect a U.S. Defense Department network called the ARPAnet and various other radio and satellite networks. The ARPAnet was an experimental network designed to support military resea rch -- in particular, research about how to build networks that could withstand partial outages (like bomb attacks) and still function. The network itself is always assumed to be unreliable, any portion of the network could disappear at any moment. It w as designed to require the minimum of information from the computer clients. To send a message on the network, a computer only had to puts is data in an envelope, called an IP packet, and addressthe packets correctly. The communicating computers -- Not the network itself -- were also given the responsibility to ensure that the communication was accomplished. The philosophy was that every computer on the network could talk, as a peer, with any other computer. (Taken, in part from The Whole Intern et User's Guide, Special Edition, by Ed Krol)
The result is that the Internet is really a "network of networks" that all speak a common language, called TCP/IP.
Currently, the "big three" commercial services provide vast databases, catalogs, and other information to their users. They maintain everything thats available to their users on their own systems. The information is extremely structured, and easy to find (relatively speaking) if you use their user manuals, and other methods of support.
The Internet, on the other hand, is not "maintained" by any one company or organzation. On the Internet, everyone is responsible for their own sections on "the net." The result is good and sometimes a little confusing. The good part is that there is much, much more in formation available on the Internet than on any one service provider. The confusing part is that the information available is not structured in one given format, or even in a series of formats. Each domain on the Internet has a different "look and feel" compared to different areas on the Internet. To some people, finding information in this chaos of formats can be quite confusing, to others, they love to explore and find new and interesting resources on the net. If you click here you can explore on your own, by going to a "random" home page. (Thanks to KUCIA for the URoluette)
There are many different tools on the internet, and they are growing day, by day. Each of these tools lets you get to different information on the Internet. Below I discuss each of these tools, and provide demonstrations for each.
Electronic Mail, or E-mail for short, allows a user to send letters, notes, documents, or in some cases files, to any other user on the internet. Every E-mail address on the Internet has three parts, a user name, an "at sign" (@), and the addres s of the user's mail server. The result is that a user address will look like this: user@location.
The "user" section of the e-mail address is used so that each person at that "location" has their own mail box. It also provides a variety of other functions that won't be discussed here.
Locations generally end with an "extension" such as .com, .edu, .org, or .mil. If a user has a .com at the end, they are a user on a "commercial" (for profit) service, or with a for profit company, .edu stands for eduational institutions , .org stands for non-profit organizations, and .mil stands for military. There are many, many extensions with different meanings. Below are a list of a few different types of extensions:
You can e-mail [email protected] (Cyberbubba) clicking here
If you want to avoid the technical discussion of the web, click here.
The Web was originally developed in Switzerland, at the CERN research center. The web was originally designed so physicist could share information between themselves, and to the community. This idea caught on, and has been embraced by the Internet commu nity as a general mechanism for accessing information and services. NCSA, at the University of Illinois, has be instrumental in advancing the acceptance of the Web as a tool on the Internet.
The World Wide Web, or more simply, the Web, is an ambitious project whose goal is to offer a simple, consistent interface to the vast resources of the Internet. When you use the Web you follow your nose: that is, you start a nywhere you want, and you jump from one place to another pursuing whatever strikes your fancy. The amazing thing is that with only a few simple commands, you can jump your way around the Internet like a hyperactive flea at a dog convention. (Taken from The Internet Complete Reference by Hahn and Stout)
The Web is based upon the idea of Hypertext. Hypertext is data that contains links to other data. Encyclopedias are a simple form of hypertext. When you look up the U.S. Civil War in the encyclopedia, it may have a section that says "For additio nal information see Lincoln." The Web is based on complex hypertext, links may be contained anywhere within the document, and not just the end.
In addition to the concept of Hypertext, the Web is based upon the idea that the Internet is not just text. On the Web, you may also find pictures, audio clips, computer programs you can download, and even full motion video. This idea is called hyper media. The use of hypermedia on the Web is growing by leaps and bounds, even as you read this document.
Ultimately what makes the Web such an exciting tools is that the link might go to any internet resource, files, gophers, news, and any other type of resource on the Internet. The Web ties all the other tools of the Internet together.
Literally thousands (if not millions) of files are available for download on the Internet. Some of them are textual information, other are binaries to be used for various computers. Transferring Files (called FTP) is one of the oldest tools on the Inter net, and while it is not as easy, or attractive, as some of the other tools, it is still one of the most popular.
There are two types of FTP, anonymous, and non-anonymous. Here we are going to discuss anonymous FTP, since it's the most common, and everyone can use it.
If you want to avoid the technical discussion, click here
The term FTP stands for File transfer protocol. FTP is a set of specification that everyone computer on the internet "understands." It allows us to copy a file from any Internet Host to any other Internet host. FTP, in a large part, holds the Internet together.
FTP is a client/server system, like gopher, and many other internet tools. The user runs the client program (named ftp, or something similar) to connect to a server. It is common to use the word "FTP" as a verb.
Being able to transfer a file from one machine to another doesn't sound all that exciting to normal users. However there are literally thousands of FTP "servers" and countless files that you can download for free. Vritually every type of inform ation and every type of computer program is available somewhere on the Internet. Until you start using FTP this may not sound like much, but it is. If you click here you can select from a few internet FTP sites.
PROG filename
where filename is the name of the file you are looking for.
The results of your search will be e-mailed to you, where you can pick them up when it is convenient.
You can do an e-mail archie by clicking here.
Internet Relay Chat (or IRC) allows users throughout the world to talk to each other "live." Internet Relay Chat is organized into servers, and channels. While the concept of servers is not important, the concept of channels is. When you are in IRC you can select from a variety of subject areas called channels. Each channel has a group of users, that are generally talking about one subject area. IRC is a common place to find people socializing, playing games, and involved in other v arious activities. The use of IRC as a method of conferencing in business is becoming more frequent, but it still isn't as popular as the social aspects of IRC.
From some sites you can try out IRC by connecting to a public site by clicking here.
If not, contact your service provider and ask them about IRC.
WAIS (Or Wide Area Information Service) is a tool that allows you to search large amounts of information quickly and thoroughly. Wais can search any of several hundred information sources on a large variety of toics. Wais is far from perfect, and has li mitations. Regardless Wais is an amazing tool. Once you have learned how to use it, Wais is like having a team of simple-minded efficient librarians ready to search for whatever you need, whenever you need it. (Taken from The Internet Complete Ref erence by Hahn and Stout)
If you want to avoid the technical details, click here.
Wais is an Internet service that can search any of hundres of collections of data. Each such collection is called a source. You tell Wais which sources to use and what you would like to find. To do so, you specify one ore more keywo rds. Wais will search the entire text of each item in the sources you specify, and find the ones that meet your criteria.
Using WAIS Wais is one of the oldest tools on the Internet, but it has lost favor with many users because of its difficult to use. Wais has been described as slow, uncooperative, and unreliable. However there is a lot of useful information that is accessable throu gh wais.
Most service providers have a wais client available that you can access by typing swais at the prompt. However there are public Wais sites available. You can access one of these sites by telnetting to them and logging in as user wais. To do this, click here
Usenet News (or News) is one of the most popular items on the Internet. Every day users on the internet post messages and information equivalent to volumes A-G of the Encyclopedia Britannica in Usenet "newsgroups."
Usenet News, like many other Internet Resources, is divided into subject areas called "newsgroups." Each newsgroup has a name that can be divided into two parts, a category, and an newsgroup name. There are several categories of Usenet news including:
Some examples of specific newsgroups:
Newsgroups come and go every day. There is no one list of all the newsgroups available on the Internet.
Each service provider restricts access to their newsgroups to their users. Check with your service provider on how to access Usenet news for your account.
The Internet allows users from around the world to communicate with each other:
than what has ever seen before. It is creating an information revolution unseen in our lifetime.
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