Introduction
Invention of computers changed the working style of people in twentieth century.Its capability to tirelessly and sequentially do arithmetical and logical operations
made the human life simpler and faster. Offices, universities, banks, schools etc.
nothing remained unaffected by use of computers. This was not enough and before
the end of twentieth century we succeeded in creating a global network of computers
that provides ways to exchange information and to communicate among all computers
connected to the network. This global network of computers is what we now call Interne
(or simply net). Internet, in fact, is the short form of INTER-NETwork which is the
interconnected network of all worldwide servers.
Networking of computers: The way Internet works
Two or more than two computers are said to be networked when they are able to
exchange information between them. This sharing of information can be through wires
connecting these computers or some wireless means of communications like Wi-Fi.
Networking of computers at small scale (e.g. within an office, a building or a school)
called Local Area networking (LAN). One can also connect devices like printer,
scanner, etc. to a LAN as shown in the figure below.
scanner, etc. to a LAN as shown in the figure below.
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| A LOCAL AREA NETWORK |
One can built such a local area network of computers within an
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| FORMATION OF WLAN |
institution by connecting all or some of their computers. Every LAN has some main computers called server computers. These servers are used to connect LAN to other networks through telephone lines or satellites. In this way, by connecting various LAN, a Wide Area Network (WAN) is created as shown in the figure.
All information related to a local network is stored in server computers of LAN. The servers of every LAN act as
channel for information exchange between computers connected to LAN and also servers of other networks.Every computer that
extracts information from a server is called a client computer.
First network of computers called Advanced Research Projects Agency
NETwork (ARPANET) was developed by US Department of Defense in
1969. By 1990, many countries of the world came up with a common set of
rules for Internet communication among computers called protocols. Nowadays,
standard sets of protocols called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol(TCP/IP) are used for exchange of information through Internet.It is
important to note that the exchange of information on Internet is very fast
(at the speed of light) as electronic signals (messages) of computers are
communicated through electromagnetic waves.
(at the speed of light) as electronic signals (messages) of computers are
communicated through electromagnetic waves.
In India, Internet was started in November 1988 by VSNL (Videsh Sanchar
Nigam Limited) in Mumbai.
On Internet, information is provided / available through webpages that may
contain text, images, videos, etc. One can move from one webpage on Internet to
another through a system called interlinked hypertext documents. In this system, one
webpage is linked to another webpage by providing hyperlinking (a way of highlighting)
to any text, image or video. This way of accessing information on Internet through
interlinking of webpage is called www or World Wide Web. Anyone can provide
specific information on Internet by making a couple of webpages containing that information.
Such a set of webpages together constitute a website. One can design a website of own
organization containing information about its different aspects and its activities.Anyone
can connect its computer to the Internet network through various Internet Service Providers
(ISP) by paying a prescribed fee. Commonly, mobile network companies also acts as ISP.
(ISP) by paying a prescribed fee. Commonly, mobile network companies also acts as ISP.
Applications of Internet
People use Internet for many purposes like searching and viewing information on
any topic of interest, for sending electronic mails (e-mails), for e-banking, e-shopping
(e-commerce), e-booking (e-ticketing) etc. This list of uses of Internet is endless.
(i) Internet Surfing: Moving on Internet from one webpage/website to another is called
called Internet surfing. It is an interesting way of searching and viewing information
on any topic of interest.
(ii) E-mail: E-mail means “electronic mail”. This is the most used application of Internet.
Email is a way of sending texts written on computers through Internet. Along with text one
can send images and videos too. This is cheapest and fastest way of sending messages.
For using this facility of Internet one needs to create a personal email account with an
email-Id (identity) or email address. Email-Id is like an identity card (Name and address)
through which people can identify and communicate to you through Internet. A few
websites provides free email accounts and Ids to Internet users. These email-Ids are
password protected and thus no one other than whom it belongs can use them. Internet
Service Providers (ISP) also provide email-Ids.
Every email-Id has two parts separated by a sign @ called at the rate of. For example,
“prakrittyagi@gmail.com” is an email Id. Its two parts:
(i) Part before @ sign : prakrittyagi
It is personal information part. Here it denotes a name Prakrit Tyagi.
(ii) Part after @ sign : gmail.com
It is called a domain name. It provides information about the server that is
providing this email facility.
A message sent through email is instantly delivered to the addressee because
communication of messages is by means of electromagnetic waves through Internet.
Beauty of email lies in the fact that a message is stored in an email account even at a time
when its user is not connected to Internet, which can be viewed later.
Email’s use is increasing day by day. We can even send personalized greeting cards
through email. Today it has become an extremely popular communication tool.
(iii) E-banking: It is an electronic payment system allowing customers to proceed for
financial transactions on a website operated by that financial institution (usually a bank).
For this purpose, customer needs to be a member of that institution, needs to have internet
access and must register with the institution for the service. In turn, the financial
institution provides the login number and password to the customer for his/her unique
identification. With the help of this facility a customer can link his account with any other
facilities such as checking on line status of the balance, check book requisition, loan,
recurring, credit card, debit card etc.
(iv) E-shopping (E-commerce): Virtual Malls are available on Internet where one can
view and order to purchase various products. Buying products through product selling
websites is called e-shopping. These websites provide the buyer pay cash on delivery
or making online payments (using e-banking or credit cards) options. Similarly, there
are websites on which one can upload (put) photographs of products, which you want
to sell. This trading of products using Internet along with many other market related
activities is called ecommerce.
activities is called ecommerce.
(v) E-booking (e-ticketing): It is an application developed for ticket reservation through the
Internet to help the travel and tourism industry. It helps consumers to book flight tickets,
railway tickets, hotels, holiday packages, insurance and other services online.
To book an e-ticket, a customer needs to visit a home page of an Airline Company or
Indian Railways. Once he/she enters the travel preference, gets an opportunity to view the
available flights / trains through an appropriate interface. Once the choice is fixed, the
customer needs to select the mode for transfer of money. Once the payment is done
through an authentic mode (like e-banking), an online ticket is issued to the customer.
(vi) Social Networking: It is a service providing a platform to the people having same
interests to build a social network. It is a web-based service allows an individual to create
his/her own profile, list of users with whom they want to connect. The service allows the
user to share their ideas, pictures, events, activities etc. with their group. Facebook,
Twitter, Google+ etc. are some popular social networking sites.
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