Introduction to the Internet and

Web
Internet

• It is the largest network in the world that connects

hundreds of thousands of individual networks all
over the world.
• The popular term for the Internet is the
“information highway”.
• Rather than moving through geographical space, it
moves your ideas and information through
cyberspace – the space of electronic movement of
ideas and information.
 The uses of the Internet
• Send e-mail messages.
• Send (upload) or receive (download) files between computers.
• Participate in discussion groups, such as mailing lists and newsgroups.
• Surfing the web.
 The Evolution of the Internet
• Internet
• Interconnected network of computer networks
• 1950 - ARPAnet
• Advanced Research Project Agency - US defense organization
• Packet switching method
• 1969 – four U.S. universities computers connected
• 1972 - first electronic mail messaging service.
• 1973 - first TCP/IP protocol and Ethernet was invented that interconnects
various computer networks for communicating with each other
• 1983 - MILnet (military network)
• 1985 - NSFnet
• National Science Foundation – connect university computer science
departments across the US.
• Use of the Internet was originally limited to government, research and academic
use.
• 1991 Commercial ban lifted

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Figure 1 Timeline of the Internet
https://sciencenode.org/feature/a-brief-history-of-the-internet-2018.php
Growth of the Internet

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 Reasons for
Internet Growth in the 1990s
 Removal of the ban on commercial activity

 Development of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN-

(European Organization for Nuclear Research) (1989)

 Development of Mosaic, the first graphics-based web browser at NCSA

(1993)

 Convergence of technologies:
 Affordable personal computers with GUI Operating Systems
 Affordable Internet service providers

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How to access the Internet?
• Many schools and businesses have direct access to
the Internet using special high-speed
communication lines and equipment.
• Students and employees can access through the
organization’s local area networks (LAN) or
through their own personal computers.
• Each organization pays for its own networks and its
own telephone bills, but those costs usually exist
independent of the internet.
How to access the Internet?
• To access the Internet, an existing network need to
pay a small registration fee and agree to certain
standards based on the TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) reference
model.
• The regional Internet companies route and forward
all traffic, and the cost is still only that of a local
telephone call.
• Another way to access the Internet is through
Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• A commercial organization with permanent connection to
the Internet that sells temporary connections to subscribers.
• Examples:
• BSNL, Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, etc..
•Early ISPs provided Internet access through dial-
up modems
• Limited upto – 56 kbps
•1990s, - ISPs began offering faster broadband
• Recently - high-speed fiber connections through fiber
optic cables.
 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol
• TCP/IP has been adopted as the official communication protocol of(TCP/IP)
the Internet.
• TCP and IP have different functions that work together to ensure reliable
communication over the Internet.
• IP (Internet Protocol) routes a packet to the correct destination address.
• The packet gets successively forwarded to the next closest router (a hardware
device designed to move network traffic) until it reaches its destination
• Purpose is to ensure the integrity of communication.
• Breaks files and messages into individual units called packets.
 Internet Protocols
 Protocols
› Rules that describe the methods used for clients and servers to
communicate with each other over a network.

 There is no single protocol that makes the Internet and Web work.

 A number of protocols with specific functions are needed.

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 Common Internet Protocols
• Official Communication Protocol: TCP/IP
• Specialized Protocols:
• File Transfer: FTP
• E-mail: SMTP, POP3, IMAP
• Sending E-mail
• SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• Receiving E-mail
• POP (POP3) Post Office Protocol
• IMAP Internet Mail Access Protocol
• Websites: HTTP

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HTTP
• Stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol (request and response protocol)
• Allows computers on the WWW to communicate with one another.
• Handles the “request” sent to the Web server and the “response”
received from the Web server.
• The transfer protocol is the set of rules that the computers use to
move files from one computer to another on the Internet.
• The most common transfer protocol used on the Internet is the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
• Two other protocols that you can use on the Internet are the File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) and the Telnet Protocol
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 Hypertext Transfer Protocol
A set of rules for exchanging files such as text, graphic images, sound, video,
and other multimedia files on the Web.

Web browsers send HTTP requests for web pages and their associated files.

Web servers send HTTP responses back to the web browsers. 19

Protocol Full Form Use Case Description

HTTP HyperText Transfer Web browsing (loading Transfers web pages from servers to browsers.
Protocol web pages)

Secure HyperText Transfer

HTTPS Protocol Secure web browsing Encrypts web page data for security.

FTP File Transfer Protocol File transfers Transfers files between systems over a network.
Simple Mail Transfer
SMTP Protocol Sending emails Used by mail servers to send outgoing emails.

POP3 Post Office Protocol Receiving emails Downloads emails from the server to a local
version 3 (download to device) client.

Internet Message Access Email management Allows email access and management directly
IMAP Protocol (cloud-based access) on the server.

Transmission Control
TCP/IP Protocol / Internet Internet data transmission Manages data transfer between devices on the
Protocol internet.

Telecommunications Remote system access Allows text-based remote device control (not
Telnet Network (obsolete) secure).

SNMP Simple Network Network device Manages and monitors network devices like
Management Protocol management routers.