Chapter-4

Introduction to Internet
Objective: On completion of this module, students should be able to
 Understand computer networking
 Understand what internet mean
 Differentiate between different types of networks
 Explain terminology associated with network components
Introduction
When microcomputers first come in to existence, each person’s computer was stand-alone device. If you want to produce a
letter, draw picture or do a spread sheet, your computer would load from its disk drive(s) the software for each of the
applications you would use. If you wrote a document with your word processor and wanted to give it to someone else to edit
with their word processor, you would have used what was affectionately known as the “sneaker net.” That is, you put the
document on a diskette, and the sneakers on your feet walked over to the other person and delivered the diskette. Here people
ask the question why it is not possible to hook the stand-alone computers together and share the information, data, or
application software. The solution for this question becomes Networking.
Data communication is the exchange of information between two agents.
Fundamentals of communication
Communication is the process of exchanging messages or information between two or more parties. Organizations today are
heavily dependent on information to meet organizational needs and Effective communication plays a key role in fulfilling these
needs and contributes significantly to organizational success. The fundamental purpose of a communications system is the
exchange of data between two parties. Figure below presents one particular example, which is communication between a
workstation and a server over a public telephone network.

The key elements of the model are as follows:

Source: This device generates the data to be transmitted. Examples are telephones and personal computers.
Transmitter: Usually the data generated by a source system are not transmitted directly in the form in which they were
generated, rather, a transmitter transforms and encodes the information in such a way as to produce electromagnetic signals
that can be transmitted across some sort of transmission system.
 For example, a modem takes a digital bit stream from an attached device such as a personal computer and transforms
that bit stream into an analog signal that can be handled by the telephone network.
Transmission system: This can be a single transmission line or a complex network connecting source and destination.
Receiver: The receiver accepts the signal from the transmission system and converts it into a form that can be handled by the
destination device.
 For example, a modem will accept an analog signal coming from a network or transmission line and convert it into a
digital bit stream.
Destination: Takes the incoming data from the receiver.
Network protocol: Is the set of very detailed rules, sequences, message formats, and procedures that computer systems use
and understand when exchanging data with each other. A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It defines
what is communicated, how it is communicated, and when it is communicated.

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• The key elements of a protocol are syntax, semantics, and timing

– Syntax – concerns with structure or format of data blocks like data formats and signal levels
– Semantics – meaning of each field including control information for coordination and error handling
– Timing –when data should be sent and how fast they can be sent meaning Speed matching and Sequencing
Protocols are Standards which provide guidelines to manufacturers, vendors, government agencies, and other service providers
to ensure interconnectivity.
Computer Networking
By definition, a network refers to things that are hooked together. For example, we can take the following as examples of
networking: Networking of telephone line, networking of universities, networking of departments in an organization.
By the same reasoning a group of computers that are connected together are known as networking.
Computer networks can be classified by
I. Physical Topology
II. Size(geographical coverage)
III. Architecture (configuration)
Physical Topology
Refers to the way in which a network is laid out physically or to the arrangement or physical layout of computers, cables, and
other components on the network.
 The choice of one topology over another will have an impact on the
 Types of equipment that the network needs
 Growth of the network – scalability
 Way the network managed
Four basic topologies are possible: mesh, star, bus, and ring
Mesh Topology
Every device has a dedicated point-to-point link to every other device. Every device must have n-1 I/O ports.
Advantages:
 No traffic problem
 Robust; a failure of a link has no effect on others
 Privacy or security
 Fault identification and isolation are easy
Disadvantages:
 Amount of cabling and I/O ports needed (expensive)

Fig: Mesh Topology

Star Topology
Each device has a dedicated point-to-point link only to a central controller, usually called a Concentrator
Advantages:
 Robust; a failure of a link has no effect on others
 Fault identification and isolation are easy
 Less expensive than mesh (but more expensive than others)
Disadvantage:
 Single point of failure

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Fig: Star Topology

Bus Topology
Multipoint (one long cable acts as a backbone to link all the devices in the network)
Advantages:
 Ease of installation; less cabling than star or mesh
Disadvantages:
 Signal reflection at the taps can cause degradation in quality (solution: limit the number and spacing of
devices connected to a given length of cable)
 Difficult reconnection (adding new devices) and fault isolation
 A fault in the bus cable stops all transmission

Fig: Bus Topology

Ring Topology
Each device has a dedicated point-to-point connection only with the two devices on either side of it. A signal is passed along
the ring in one direction, from device to device, until it reaches its destination. Each device incorporates a repeater (to
regenerate bits received before passing it).

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Fig: Ring Topology

Advantages:
 Relatively easy to install and configure - adding or deleting a device requires changing only two connections
 Fault isolation is simplified (if one device does not receive a signal within a specified period, it can issue an
alarm)
Disadvantages:
 A break in the ring (such as a disabled station) can disable the entire network

Size (Geographical coverage)

Based on size, ownership, and the distance it covers network categorized as:
 Local Area Network (LAN)
 Wide Area Network (WAN) &
 Metropolitan Network (MAN)
Local Area Network (LAN): Usually privately owned and links devices in a single office, building or campus

Fig: LAN
Wide Area Network (WAN): Covering large geographic area; may utilize public, leased, or private communications
equipment

Fig: WAN

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): Designed to extend over an entire city; it may be a single network or interconnected
LANs

Network Architecture
 Includes the type of computers on the network and determines how network resources are handled. There are two
common models of network architecture.
 Peer-to-peer
 Client/Server
Peer-to-peer Model
Each node considered as equal in terms of resource sharing and responsibilities
Pros
 Easy to set up
 Less expensive
 Demands moderate level of skill to administer

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 User is able to control their own resources

Cons
 Only < 10 nodes
 Very low level of security
 Performance suffers when a computer is accessed
Peer-to-peer networks are good choices for environments where:
 There are 10 users or fewer
 Users share resources, such as printers, but no specialised servers exist
 Security is not an issue
Client Server Model
 Consists of a group clients connected to a server
 Server – with more RAM, larger hard disk, more processing power…
Pros
 High level of security
 No limit on number of nodes
Cons
 Difficult to set up
 Expensive

Fig: Client Server Model

Introduction to the Internet

 The Internet can be defined as worldwide interconnection scheme for accessing various computer networks from other
computers. It is a network of networks. There were 38 million computers networked to the Internet in 1996.
Service of the Internet
 E-mail transfer
 USENET
 World Wide Web (WWW, Web, W3)
 File transfer/access (FTP)
 Remote login/ execution (Telnet)
 Video Conferencing
Electronic mail service
 A user belongs to the Internet, if and only if he/she is subscribed to the Internet server. (i.e., he/she has account name
and user’s key work or password). Every user, which belongs to the network, has his/her account and computer system
that provides the account. To send a message to someone you need an address, which comprises of the user
name/account and the domain name.

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 The user name identifies the sender or the recipients. The domain name identifies the computer system on which the
user has an account. For Example [email protected]. This address is the address of the user(s) with user name
maths.aau and has account name at the computer system at telecom.net.et. In general, the text before @ is called user
name; the text after @ is the domain name. Usually the domain name has extensions like .com, .org, .gov.
 By specifying the appropriate address you can send a message to the user of that address; and you can receive your
message from abroad by searching in your mailbox by logging in to the Internet. Once you belong to the Internet you
can access your mail or other service from any computer.
USENET
 Is a worldwide distributed discussion group consists of a set of newsgroups. News group are named hierarchically by
subject.
 Articles or messages are posted to news groups and the articles are then broadcasted to other interconnected computer
systems. Anyone with the appropriate software can post and read news message.
 Example alt.beer rec.guns rec.aviation.aerobatics
World Wide Web (WWW, Web, W3)
 It the process of sharing common information of the world by the help of the Internet services. It includes education,
health, games, chat, sport, news and others.
 Document on the web contains multimedia formats: text, image, figures, animation, video, and sound and also contains
hyperlinks (which appear as highlighted or underlined images or texts, or icons, or hotspots in images) to other
documents stored anywhere on the web.
 It requires special software programs like Netscape, Internet Explorer, or others. They are called Web Browsers.
 To access information by browsing, you have to know the address (URL Uniform Resource Locator) of the page that
you want to browse. It gives the exact path to the page. In most case it will have the following format.
http://www.cnn.com
File transfer (FTP)
 It helps to transfer files and programs from one system to another. Uses the file transfer protocol. Using FTP programs
we can upload or download files. But to do this there should be an admission from the remote computer.
Remote Login (Telnet)
 It is a program that lets you log into a remote computer directly through the Internet and you can work on that computer.
Video Conferencing:
 Video conferencing means making a conference on the Internet by individuals who live in different locations. This takes
place at the same time in different location. It is similar to conference in a hall except they are at distant.

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