Class Notes Pt 1

Brief History of the Internet The birth of the Internet comes from an experiment started by the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the 1960s. ARPA established a network (ARPANET) with the goal of creating a network that could withstand a disaster the magnitude of a nuclear war. In the mid-1980s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) used the protocols created by ARPANET to connect five super-computing centers across the United States. The NSFNET backbone was restricted to scientific and academic use until 1991, when it was opened to commercial entities. In 1993, the NSF created InterNIC to provide the following services: 1. Directory and database services to provide a directory of online pages and publicly available databases 2. Registration services for domain name and IP address assignment 3. Support services such as outreach, education, and information services for the Internet community Internet Committees - committees that play important roles within the Internet community. Internet Architecture Board - ... a technical advisory group of the Internet Society, whose responsibilities include: overseeing the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), overseeing the Internet standards process.... Internet Society (ISOC) - the international organization for global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and its internetworking technologies and applications. purpose: ... maintain and extend the development and availability of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)- The W3C, created in 1994, was designed to help bring the WWW to its full potential "by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability". Common Internet Protocols (a standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers) TCP/IP - (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) handle network communications between computers connected to the network or Internet. HTTP - (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application protocol used for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) over the World Wide Web. FTP - (File Transfer Protocol) is an application protocol that allows for the transfer of files from one computer to another. Telnet - is a way to access and control a remote computer. SMTP - (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used to send and receive e-mail. It is typically used with other protocols such as POP3 (Post Office Protocol). NNTP - (Network News Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to manage posts to Usenet newsgroups.

********************************************* The World Wide Web and Browsers the World Wide Web (WWW) as a subset of the Internet. Internet includes several components, including the WWW, e-mail, chat, gopher, ftp, and telnet. Links and Files The WWW uses the HTTP protocol referred to previously and utilizes hyperlinks to "jump" from one place to another on the Web. The Web also allows for the downloading of various files and file types to a local computer. The Growth of the World Wide Web Browsers A Web browser is a software program used to view Web pages Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla FireFox Netscape Communicator Opera Lynx - Text-only browser people will be accessing the Web with smaller devices (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, etc.) Helper applications - programs that can understand and interpret files which the browser itself cannot handle: .PDF .MPEG QuickTime, Shockwave, Flash Player, and RealPlayer ******************************************** Acceptable Use Policies govern the use of the Internet by users. These policies can be quite comprehensive, covering wide-ranging issues.