Chapter 3

The Internet and the World Wide Web

Introduction
A Brief History of the Internet

The Internet started in the 1960s as a way for government researchers to share information.
Computers in the '60s were large and immobile and in order to make use of information stored
in any one computer, one had to either travel to the site of the computer or have magnetic
computer tapes sent through the conventional postal system.

Another catalyst in the formation of the Internet was the heating up of the Cold War. The Soviet
Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite spurred the U.S. Defense Department to consider ways
information could still be disseminated even after a nuclear attack. This eventually led to the
formation of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the network that
ultimately evolved into what we now know as the Internet. ARPANET was a great success but
membership was limited to certain academic and research organizations who had contracts with
the Defense Department. In response to this, other networks were created to provide
information sharing.

January 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet. Prior to this, the various
computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new
communications protocol was established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork
Protocol (TCP/IP). This allowed different kinds of computers on different networks to "talk"
to each other. ARPANET and the Defense Data Network officially changed to the TCP/IP
standard on January 1, 1983, hence the birth of the Internet. All networks could now be
connected by a universal language.

The image above is a scale model of the UNIVAC I (the name stood for Universal Automatic
Computer) which was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951. It weighed some 16,000 pounds,
used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second. It was the
first American commercial computer, as well as the first computer designed for business use.
(Business computers like the UNIVAC processed data more slowly than the IAS-type
machines, but were designed for fast input and output.) The first few sales were to government
agencies, the A.C. Nielsen Company, and the Prudential Insurance Company. The first
UNIVAC for business applications was installed at the General Electric Appliance Division,
to do payroll, in 1954. By 1957 Remington-Rand (which had purchased the Eckert-Mauchly
Computer Corporation in 1950) had sold forty-six machines.

Specific Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

● Discuss the origins and evolution of internet, how internet works and its uses

Duration
(Specify the number of hours allotted for this chapter/lesson.)

Sample:

Chapter 3: The Internet and the World Wide Web = 9 hours

● Origin and Evolution of Internet (7 hours discussion; 2 hours
● How Internet works: Its component assessment)
and procedures
● Uses of the Internet
Lesson Proper

● Types of Internet Protocols

There's more to the Internet than the World Wide Web

When we think of the Internet we often think only of the World Wide Web. The Web
is one of several ways to retrieve information from the Internet. These different types
of Internet connections are known as protocols. You could use separate software
applications to access the Internet with each of these protocols, though you probably
wouldn't need to. Many Internet Web browsers allow users to access files using most
of the protocols. Following are three categories of Internet services and examples of
types of services in each category.

❖ File retrieval protocols

This type of service was one of the earliest ways of retrieving information from
computers connected to the Internet. You could view the names of the files stored on
the serving computer, but you didn't have any type of graphics and sometimes no
description of a file's content. You would need to have advanced knowledge of which
files contained the information you sought.

❖ FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This was one of the first Internet services developed and it allows users to move files
from one computer to another. Using the FTP program, a user can logon to a remote
computer, browse through its files, and either download or upload files (if the remote
computer allows). These can be any type of file, but the user is only allowed to see the
file name; no description of the file content is included. You might encounter the FTP
protocol if you try to download any software applications from the World Wide Web.
Many sites that offer downloadable applications use the FTP protocol.

An example of a FTP Protocol Window:

 ❖ Gopher

Gopher offers downloadable files with some content description to make it easier to
find the file you need. The files are arranged on the remote computer in a hierarchical
manner, much like the files on your computer's hard drive are arranged. This protocol
isn't widely used anymore, but you can still find some operational gopher sites.

An example of a Gopher Window:

❖ Telnet
 You can connect to and use a remote computer program by using the telnet protocol.
Generally you would telnet into a specific application housed on a serving computer
that would allow you to use that application as if it were on your own computer. Again,
using this protocol requires special software.

The following are external links and will open in pop-up windows:

FTP
Example of FTP Protocol: TUCOWS. Software, music, themes and games
download sites.

Gopher
Example of Gopher Protocol: University of Minnesota

telnet
Hytelnet — Archive of Telnet sites

● Communications Protocols

email, newsgroups and chat

These are the messaging protocols that allow users to communicate both
asynchronously (sender and receiver aren't required to both be connected to the Internet
at the same time; e.g. email) and synchronously (as with chatting in "real time").

❖ Email

This method of Internet communication has become the standard. A main computer
acts as a "post office" by sending and receiving mail for those who have accounts. This
mail can be retrieved through any number of email software applications (MS Outlook,
Eudora, etc.) or from Web based email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail). Email is an example
of asynchronous Internet communication.

Email also provides the ability to access email lists. You can subscribe to an email list
covering any number of topics or interests and will receive messages posted by other
subscribers. Email communities evolve from interaction between subscribers who have
similar interests or obsessions.

❖ Usenet

Usenet is something like a bulletin board or an email list without the subscription.
Anyone can post a message to or browse through a Usenet newsgroup. Usenet messages
are retained on the serving computer only for a predetermined length of time and then
are automatically deleted, whereas email list messages are retained on the serving
computer until the account holder downloads them. Many email applications, as well
as Web browsers, allow you to set up Usenet newsgroup accounts.
❖ IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
This protocol allows for synchronous communication: users on different
computers anywhere in the world can communicate in "real time" or simultaneously.
You can instantly see a response to a typed message by several people at the same time.
This protocol requires a special software application that can be downloaded from the
Web, generally for free.

The following are external links and will open in pop-up windows:

email
There are many free email services currently available including
Yahoomail
Gmail

Newsgroups
Yahoonewsgroups
Googlenewsgroups
Interbulletin newsgroups

Chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Help page
AIM
Google Talk
Meebo
 Multimedia Information Protocol

❖ Hypertext transfer protocol — a.k.a. "The Web"

The World Wide Web is the new kid on the block having only been developed in the
late 1980s by the European Lab for Particle Physics in Switzerland. This Internet
protocol was quickly embraced by the public and has become the most popular way to
provide and obtain information from the Internet. The Web offers not only access to
files to download, but offers a way to jump from site to site through a series of
connecting hyperlinks.

The most distinguishing feature of the Web is the way that text is formatted. A series
of "tags" is used to encode and format text, graphics, animation, sound, and other types
of files. These tags are called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). These HTML
files appear on your computer screen as determined by the tags used in its coding. You
can see the "source" HTML coding for any Web page by choosing to "View Source"
from your browser's menu bar.

Most browsers allow for access through FTP, Gopher, telnet, and email as well as
through the hypertext transfer protocol, although installation of helper applications may
be required. These are programs that work with the browser and allow access to a
variety of protocols and file types.
 ● Browsers and Navigation

Your transports around the World Wide Web

❖ A browser is an application you use to view files on the World Wide Web. There
are text or terminal-based browsers (such as Lynx) that allow you to view only
the text of a file on the Web. Most browsers now are graphical browsers that
can be used to view text, graphics, and other multimedia information.

❖ There are many types of Web browsers available, but the most widely used are
MS Internet Explorer and Netscape. Both claim to be better and faster than the
other, but the choice of which one to use usually becomes a personal one.
Because some Web pages are created for specific browsers, it can be important
which browser you use. Web pages may look different when accessed by
different browsers.

● Browsers

❖ Microsoft Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer holds the lion's share of the browser usage today, but it came
into the game later than its main competitor.

Microsoft has met with a good deal of criticism in recent years concerning
Internet Explorer because of its alleged intent to make IE an integral and
necessary element of the Windows operating system. Competitors complained
that Microsoft tries to lock them out of the market by making IE the only Web
browser effectively usable by the Windows system.

❖ Netscape
Netscape was one of the first commercial browsers on the scene and dominated
the browser market until Microsoft got serious about Internet Explorer. There
are some Internet users who are fiercely loyal to Netscape and there are sites on
the Web that are best viewed using Netscape.

In either of these browsers, if you want to save a Web site that you find useful and want to
return to, try using the Favorites (MS Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Netscape) function
found on the menu bars at the top of the browser screen.

The following are external links and will open in pop-up windows:

Internet Explorer Home Page

Firefox Home Page
Web Browsers at About.com
 ● Navigation

❖ Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

The Uniform Resource Locator or URL is the "address" of a computer

connected to the Internet. While surfing the Web, you'll notice that there is an
address or location box at the top of your browser. It's here that you'll see an
individual site's address displayed. This address allows you to find the site
again, should you forget to bookmark it. You can simply type the URL into
the address box, press the Enter key on your computer keyboard and you'll be
taken back to the site of the address.

The general format of a Web address is as follows:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The http in the address stands for "hypertext transfer protocol", the protocol for the World Wide
Web, and it tells your browser to look for a site on the Web. A URL could also appear as:

ftp://12.456.789

or
gopher://gopher.uzxy.edu.

The first part of the URL before the colon tells the browser what type of protocol to use. The
colon and two forward slashes are standard to all URLs. Commonly, the letters WWW (World
Wide Web) appear after the two forward slashes in many Web addresses, but other letters are
also used.

After the first dot, or period, in the URL, is the name of the particular computer followed by
another dot and what is known as the domain (.com, .edu, .gov, etc.). The domain indicates the
type of group or organization using the address. For instance, all educational institutions have
a URL that ends with the domain of .edu.
Internet Search Services

Loosely organizing the ’net

The vast amount of information available on the Internet can be dizzying. Some
authorities estimate the number of documents on the Internet to be in the range
of 800 million. Others say the number is unknowable. Fortunately, there are
tools available that will sort through the mass of information: search engines or
search directories.

Search engines collect information from Web sites and then, more or less, just
dump that information into a database. There's more information to choose from
in a search engine, but it's more difficult to retrieve relevant information.

Search directories try to impose some sense of order on the information they
collect and you're more likely to find information relevant to your research
topic, but they don't offer the massive amounts of information that you would
find with a search engine. The sites collected are viewed by humans who make
decisions about what subject categories the sites might fit into.

❖ Search engines

Search engines are really just massive databases in which information

from Internet documents are stored. The information in these databases
is collected using a computer program (called a "spider" or a "robot")
that scans the Internet and gathers information about individual
documents. These special programs work automatically to find
documents or they are asked by a creator of a Web site to visit the site
to be included in a database.

When you do a search in a search engine, the order in which the results
are listed also varies between search engines. Many search engines list
the results using relevance ranking. Factors such as:

▪ how often your search terms are on the Web page;

▪ where they are located on the page; and,
▪ how many other Web pages link to the page
...influence how high on the list of hits a page is listed. Many search
engines allow Web sites to pay to have their pages listed higher in the
results.

There are hundreds of these search engines available on the Web, but
they all work in unique ways to collect and organize the information
found. The information from Web sites might be gathered from all the
words in a site, just the first few sentences in the body of a site, or only
from the title or metatags (hidden descriptors of a site's content).
Different search engines collect different information, that's why you'll
get different results from the same search from different search engines.
 ❖ Search directories

Directories are best used when you are looking for information that is
easily classified, such as "Universities and Colleges in Georgia." You
can find the information you need without even typing in a search, but
by browsing the directory, starting with a very broad subject category
(Education) and working your way through the directory until you come
to individual listings for schools in Georgia. You can do the usual search
as well, but directories don't collect the same range of sites that a search
engine would so you wouldn't be tapping into the wealth of information
that you can get from a search engine.

GALILEO also has a database of useful Web sites that are evaluated by
educators. These sites are not submitted by the developer nor are they
harvested by spiders. They are chosen deliberately for their usefulness
for research in the curriculum of the University System of Georgia.

❖ Metasearch engines

These type of search services offer sort of a "one-stop shopping" to the

Internet. You can form one search and a metasearch service will send
the search to several other search engines and directories simultaneously
so that you get the results from all of them in one place. The only
problem with this is that you only get the first few results from each
listing. If the site you're looking for happens to be listed in the 10th
position in a search services results list and the metasearch engine only
provides the first 5 results from that list, then you won't find the site you
need. If you're only trying to get a general idea of what information is
available on the Web, then a metasearch engine would be a good place
to start.

The following are external links and will open in pop-up windows:

Search engines
Search Engine Showdown
Google search engine
AltaVista search engine

Search Directories
Yahoo! Search Directory
World Wide Web Virtual Library
Open Directory

Metasearch engines
Metacrawler for searching the search engines
Ixquick: the world's most powerful meta search engine
Dogpile, metasearch engine
 Evaluating Internet Information

"dot com" "dot gov" — suffixes and country codes explained

Any information that you use to support ideas and arguments in a research paper should be
given some scrutiny. Printed materials that are collected in a library go through an
evaluative process as librarians select them to include in their collections. There is also an
evaluation of Web sites that are included in search directories, such as Yahoo!, at least to
the extent of classifying and placing sites into a categorization scheme. However, sites
harvested by "spiders" or "robots" for search engines don't go through any evaluative
process.

There are no real restrictions or editorial processes for publishing information on the Web,
beyond some basic knowledge of Web page creation and access to a hosting computer.
Anyone can publish opinion, satire, a hoax, or plainly false information. To insure that the
Web sites you use as information sources are acceptable for research purposes, you should
ask questions about those sites. The following are some elements you should look at before
deciding to use a Web site as a research resource:

❖ Domain suffix

The term "dot.com" has become a ubiquitous phrase in the English language.
The "dot.com" really refers to the domain of a Web site. Sites on the Web are
grouped by their URLs according to the type of organization providing the
information on the site. For example, any commercial enterprise or corporation
that has a Web site will have a domain suffix of .com, which means it is a
commercial entity.

The domain suffix provides you with a clue about the purpose or audience of a
Web site. The domain suffix might also give you a clue about the geographic
origin of a Web site. Many sites from the United Kingdom will have a domain
suffix of .uk.

Here follows a list of the most common domain suffixes and the types of
organizations that would use them.

❖ .com
Commercial site. The information provided by commercial interests is generally
going to shed a positive light on the product it promotes. While this information
might not necessarily be false, you might be getting only part of the picture.
Remember, there's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site in
providing you with information, whether it is for good public relations or to sell
you a product outright.

❖ .edu
Educational institution. Sites using this domain name are schools ranging from
kindergarten to higher education. If you take a look at your school's URL you'll
 notice that it ends with the domain .edu. Information from sites within this
domain must be examined very carefully. If it is from a department or research
center at a educational institution, it can generally be taken as credible.
However, students' personal Web sites are not usually monitored by the school
even though they are on the school's server and use the .edu domain.

❖ .gov
Government. If you come across a site with this domain, then you're viewing a
federal government site. All branches of the United States federal government
use this domain. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings,
and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. The
information is considered to be from a credible source.

❖ .org
Traditionally a non-profit organization. Organizations such as the American
Red Cross or PBS (Public Broadcasting System) use this domain suffix.
Generally, the information in these types of sites is credible and unbiased, but
there are examples of organizations that strongly advocate specific points of
view over others, such as the National Right to Life Committee and Planned
Parenthood. You probably want to give this domain a closer scrutiny these days.
Some commercial interests might be the ultimate sponsors of a site with this
suffix.

❖ .mil
Military. This domain suffix is used by the various branches of the Armed
Forces of the United States.

❖ .net
Network. You might find any kind of site under this domain suffix. It acts as a
catch-all for sites that don't fit into any of the preceding domain suffixes.
Information from these sites should be given careful scrutiny.

Country domain suffixes

.au Australia
.in India
.br Brazil
.it Italy
.ca Canada
.mx Mexico
.fr France
.tw Taiwan
.il Israel
.uk United Kingdom
❖ Authority

Does the site you're evaluating give credit to an author? If no responsible author is listed, is
there an indication of any sponsorship? When trying to determine reliability of information
given in any medium, you want to have some idea of what the author's credentials are. Are they
experts on the topic they are writing about? What is their educational background? Remember,
anyone can publish on the Web. They don't have to know what they're talking about.

You also want to check and see if there's a list of sources given for the information on a site,
like a bibliography that you would have to provide for a paper you're writing.

❖ Currency

Information that is outdated may be incorrect or incomplete. A well maintained Web site will
generally tell you at the bottom of the initial screen when it was last updated and maybe even
when it was originally created and made available on the Web.

❖ Links

An informational Web site in which all the hyperlinks are broken might not be a very reliable
resource. Broken hyperlinks are not uncommon, due to the ever changing nature of the Web,
but when there are many broken links on a Web site, it might be an indication that the site isn't
maintained on a regular basis.

❖ URL

The site address can give you clues as to ultimate sponsorship of a site. If you can't determine
who wrote the site or who or what is sponsoring the site, try truncating the URL to its root
address. This will tell you where the site is being hosted. For example, this site provides
information on nutritional RDAs:

http://www.mikeschoice.com/reports/rda.htm.

If you truncate the URL to its root address http://www.mikeschoice.com, you will discover that
this is a site selling a mineral supplement. Given the obvious bias, this is probably not the best
source of nutritional information.

Another clue to what type of site you're looking at is whether there is a ~ (tilde) symbol in the
URL. This symbol usually indicates that the site is a personal Web page and the information
should be given careful scrutiny.

❖ Comparison

Always compare the information that you find on a Web site with other information sources.
Generally, you wouldn't want to use only Web sites as support for a research paper, so you
would be looking at other types of sources such as books, magazine articles, etc. as well. How
does the information found in the various formats compare?
 GALILEO vs. the Web

GALILEO is found on the Web, but it’s not the same as a Web page

GALILEO is a Web site that is a collective of information databases. This information is

mostly from previously published printed sources, specifically periodical literature
(magazines, newspapers, professional journals). Because this previously published
information has undergone a certain amount of editorial scrutiny, you can rely on
information from GALILEO to be more credible. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t apply
some evaluative questions to the information in GALILEO, but that you can trust that the
writers of the information are generally professional journalists or experts in a field of
knowledge. GALILEO also includes a collection of Internet Resources selected by
libraries.

The Web is truly a democratic medium. You don’t have to have any qualifications to
publish on the Web; you don’t have to undergo an editorial process to have your site
published by a host computer; you don’t even have to give factual, verifiable, useful
information. You can publish pictures of your cats, if you want to. Anything goes, and often
does, on the Web. It’s the wild frontier of information.

GALILEO is a fortress in the wilds of the Internet. Personal Web sites and commercial
interest sites aren’t allowed into the fortress. So, you can have some peace of mind when
using the information gathered from the GALILEO databases. You still have to question
the information provided, but at least you know that it has been questioned already.

Your professor may require that you use no more than one or two Internet resources for
your research. This confuses some students when they are using GALILEO articles as
resources. Although GALILEO is indeed an Internet resource, the information provided
there has a printed paper counterpart that was published first. GALILEO articles are hard
copy printed words that have been digitized and made available on the Internet
through GALILEO.
  How Does the Internet Work: A Step-by-Step Pictorial
May 24, 2019

Check out our infographic depicting how the internet works and how it came to be

The internet plays a significant role in our daily lives

● In the year 2000, only 52% of US adults used the internet

● In 2018, that number jumped to 89%
● In 2013, US adults who didn’t use broadband internet at home but owned
smartphones was just 8%
● In 2018, that number increased to 20%

As you’re reading this article, you’re contributing to history. Over the last fifty years,
technology and the functionality of the internet have transformed to become the convenient
systems we use in our daily lives.
But as you might have guessed, the internet didn’t always look this way, nor was it so popular.
In fact, in the year 2000, only 52% of US adults said they used the internet; but in 2018, that
number jumped to 82% [1].
From the query that got you here in the first place: “how does the internet work?” to shopping
online and communicating with family and friends, the internet has completely changed the
way we live, collaborate, and learn. But where did this all get started? And how did the internet
evolve into the ubiquitous system we know it as today?
To fully understand how the internet works and how we got here, we’ll need to start from the
beginning.

● A Brief History of the Internet

❖ On October 29, 1969, an organization called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects

Agency) launched the first iteration of the internet (also known as ARPANET)
connecting four major computers at The University of Utah, UCSB, UCLA, and
Stanford Research Institute.
❖ When this network of computers was connected, universities were able to access files
and transmit information from one organization to the other, as well as internally.
❖ As researchers developed the system, they continued to connect computers from other
universities, including MIT, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon. Eventually, ARPANET
was renamed “internet.”

● Who used the internet in this stage?

❖ In its earliest days, the internet was only used by computer experts, scientists, engineers,
and librarians who had to learn a complicated system in order to use it, but as the
technology improved and consumers adapted, it became an essential tool for people
around the globe.
 ❖ How and when did the functionality of the internet change?

❖ The 1970s was a serious time of transition for the internet. Email was introduced in
1972, libraries across the country were linked, and above all, information exchange
became more seamless thanks to Transport Control Protocol and Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) architecture.
❖ The invention of these protocols helped to standardize how information was sent and
received over the web, making the delivery more consistent, regardless of where or how
you’re accessing the internet.

● When did the internet become user-friendly?

❖ Then in 1986, the National Science Foundation took the development of the internet to
the next echelon by funding NSFNET, a network of supercomputers throughout the
country.
❖ These supercomputers laid the groundwork for personal computing, bridging the gap
between computers being used exclusively for academic purposes and computers used
to perform daily tasks.
❖ In 1991, The University of Minnesota developed the first user-friendly internet
interface, making it easier to access campus files and information. The University of
Nevada at Reno continued to develop this usable interface, introducing searchable
functions and indexing.

● When did consumers begin using the internet?

❖ As the internet’s development continued to evolve and shift focus, the National Science
Foundation discontinued its sponsorship of the internet’s backbone (NSFNET) in May
of 1995.
❖ This change lifted all commercial use limitations on the internet and ultimately, allowed
the internet to diversify and grow rapidly. Shortly after, AOL, CompuServe, and
Prodigy joined Delphi to offer commercial internet service to consumers.
The debut of WiFi and Windows 98 in the late nineties marked the tech industry’s commitment
to developing the commercial element of the internet. This next step gave companies like
Microsoft access to a new audience, consumers (like yourself).

What does internet usage look like today?

Flash-forward to today. It’s estimated that three billion people now use the internet, many of
whom use it on a daily basis to help them get from Point A to Point B, catch up with loved
ones, collaborate at work, or to learn more about important questions like how does the internet
work?
As technology changes and the internet weaves its way into just about every aspect of our lives,
even more people are expected to use it. In 2030, researchers project there will be 7.5 billion
internet users and 500 billion devices connected to the internet .
How does the internet work?

Now that you have some background on the evolution of the internet, let’s tackle the question
at hand: “how does the internet work?”
The internet is a worldwide computer network that transmits a variety of data and media across
interconnected devices. It works by using a packet routing network that follows Internet
Protocol (IP) and Transport Control Protocol (TCP) [5].
TCP and IP work together to ensure that data transmission across the internet is consistent and
reliable, no matter which device you’re using or where you’re using it.
When data is transferred over the internet, it’s delivered in messages and packets. Data sent
over the internet is called a message, but before messages get sent, they’re broken up into tinier
parts called packets.
These messages and packets travel from one source to the next using Internet Protocol (IP) and
Transport Control Protocol (TCP). IP is a system of rules that govern how information is sent
from one computer to another computer over an internet connection.
Using a numerical address (IP Address) the IP system receives further instructions on how the
data should be transferred.
❖ The Transport Control Protocol (TCP) works with IP to ensure transfer of data is
dependable and reliable. This helps to make sure that no packets are lost, packets are
reassembled in proper sequence, and there’s no delay negatively affecting the data
quality.
❖ Wondering how the internet works from browser launch to search results? Let’s go over
the process step-by-step.

● When you type in a web address into your browser...

Step 1: Your PC or device is connected to the web through a modem or router. Together, these
devices allow you to connect to other networks around the globe.
Your router enables multiple computers to join the same network while a modem connects to
your ISP (Internet Service Provider) which provides you with either cable or DSL internet.
Step 2: Type in a web address, known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Each website
has its own unique URL that signals to your ISP where you want to go.
Step 3: Your query is pushed to your ISP which connects to several servers which store and
send data like a NAP Server (Network Access Protection) and a DNS (Domain Name Server).
Next, your browser looks up the IP address for the domain name you typed into your search
engine through DNS. DNS then translates the text-based domain name you type into the
browser into the number-based IP address.
● Example: Google.com becomes 64.233.191.255
Step 4: Your browser sends a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to the target server
to send a copy of the website to the client using TCP/IP.
Step 5: The server then approves request and sends a “200 OK” message to your computer.
Then, the server sends website files to the browser in the form of data packets.
Step 6: As your browser reassembles the data packets, the website loads allowing you to learn,
shop, browse, and engage.
Step 7: Enjoy your search results!
 ● The future of the internet

❖ Whether you’re searching for information on how the internet works, streaming your
favorite movie, or browsing the internet for travel deals, it’s undeniable that the
internet takes us places, and it’s going to continue to do so!
❖ While it might not seem like the internet is changing now, chances are, we’ll look back
and see how far we’ve come, the differences in how we use this technology, and
ultimately, we’ll find that we, too, are a part of the internet’s history.
Pew Internet; Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet
[2] Walt Howe; A Brief History of the Internet
[3] Money; Here's How Many Internet Users There Are
[4] Cisco; Internet of Things
[5] Lifewire; TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) Explained
[6] Mozilla; How the Web works
[7] How Stuff Works; How does the Internet work?
[8] How to Geek; How Does the Internet Work?
[9] Medium, How Does The Internet Work

A brief history of the internet

Philosophers and authors have conceptualized a shared repository of world knowledge for
centuries. How did we get to the internet we know today?

Major breakthroughs [2]

● October 29, 1969: ARPANET (later renamed internet) created a successful

connection between University of California Los Angeles and the Stanford Research
Institute.
● Late 1960s: Libraries automate and network catalogs independent of ARPANET.
● 1970s: Transport Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is established,
allowing for internet technology to mature. The invention of these protocols helped
to standardize how information was sent and received over the web.
● 1986: National Science Foundation funded NSFNET, which is the 56 Kbps
backbone of the internet. There were commercial restrictions in place at this time
because federal funds were being used to run and maintain it.
● 1991: User-friendly internet interface was created.
● July 1992: Delphi became the first national commercial online service to offer
internet access.
● May 1995: All commercial use limitations on the internet disappear. This allowed
the internet to diversify and grow rapidly.
● 1997: WiFi was invented.
● 1998: Windows 98 hit the market.
● 2007: Widespread smartphone adoption.
● 2009: 4G network is introduced.
● Today: 3 billion people use the internet. [3]
● 2030: 7.5 billion projected internet users and 500 billion devices connected to the
internet. [4]
How does the internet work?

The internet is a worldwide computer network that transmits a variety of data and media across
interconnected devices. It works by using a packet routing network that follows Internet
Protocol (IP) and Transport Control Protocol (TCP). [5]

● Messages + Packets

● Data sent over the internet is called a message

● Before messages get sent, they’re broken up into tiny parts called packets

● Internet Protocol (IP)

● Rules that govern how information is sent from one computer to another computer
over an internet connection
● Specifies how computers should send information to other computers by sending
data with an attached numerical address (IP Address)
o Public IP Address: Accessible over the internet
o Private IP Address: Assigned to a device on a closed network such as a
home or business network that’s not accessible over the internet

● Transport Control Protocol (TCP)

● Works with IP to ensure transfer of data is dependable and reliable

● No packets lost, no delay negatively affecting data quality, packets reassembled in
proper sequence

● What happens when you surf the internet...

Step 1: Your PC or device is connected to the web through a modem or router, which allows
it to connect to other networks around the globe. [6]
A router allows for multiple computers to join the same network while a modem connects to
your Internet Service Provider (ISP) which provides either cable or DSL internet.
Your personal PC is called a client as opposed to a server.
● Client computers connect to the internet through an ISP.
o Example: Your phone connected to a mobile network or your laptop
connected to WiFi.
● Servers are computers directly connected to the internet.
o Example: Computers that store web pages, sites, or applications.
Step 2: Type in a web address, known as a URL. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.
Step 3: Your query is processed and pushed to your ISP. Your ISP has multiple servers which
store and send data like a NAP Server (Network Access Protection) and a DNS (Domain Name
Server).
Your browser looks up the IP address for the domain name you typed into your browser through
DNS.
 ● DNS translates the text-based domain name you type into the browser into the
number-based IP address.
o Example: Google.com becomes 64.233.191.255
Step 4: Browser sends a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to the target server to
send a copy of the website to the client using TCP/IP.
● HTTP: Language used for internet communication.
● HTTPS: Secure version of HTTP, all communications between your browser and
website are encrypted.
Step 5: Server approves request and sends a “200 OK” message to client computer. Then, the
server sends web page files to browser in the form of data packets.
Step 6: Web page loads as your browser reassembles packets.
Step 7: Enjoy browsing the internet!

Infographic sources:

[1] Pew Internet; Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet

[2] Walt Howe; A Brief History of the Internet
[3] Money; Here's How Many Internet Users There Are
[4] Cisco; Internet of Things
[5] Lifewire; TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) Explained
[6] Mozilla; How the Web works
[7] How Stuff Works; How Does the Internet Work?
[8] How to Geek; How Does the Internet Work?
[9] Medium; How Does the Internet Work?