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The Internet: How it Works and How it Effects the World
Many people do not understand what the Internet is the power that it has
over the world. The Internet is an extraordinary learning and
entertainment tool that, when used properly, can significantly enhance a
user's ability to gather information.
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) started the Internet.
It was a project under taken by the Department Of Defense (DOD) in 1969.
It started as an experiment to link together DOD and military research
including Universities doing military-funded research.
"The reliable networking part involved dynamic rerouting." (Levine 12) If
one of the computers was under enemy attack, the information could be
automatically transferred to other links. Fortunately, the Net is not
usually under enemy attack.
The ARPANET was very successful, and every university in the country wanted
to sign up. Because so many people wanted to use the Net, ARPANET started
getting hard to manage, especially with many university sites on it.
Therefore, it was broken into two parts: MILNET, which had all the military
sites, and ARPANET, which had all the nonmilitary sites. "The two
networks remained connected, however, thanks to a
technical scheme called IP (Internet Protocol), which enabled traffic to be
routed from one net to another as needed. All the networks connected by IP
in the Internet speak IP, so they can all exchange messages." (Levine 12)
Even though there were only two networks at that time, IP was made to allow
thousands of networks. The IP is designed so that every computer on an IP
network is compatible. That means any machine can communicate with any
other machine.
The Internet, also called the Net, is the world's largest computer network.
The Internet is the "network of all networks." (Levine 7) The networks are
connected to big companies like AT&T, as well as to home computers.
About 1,000 networks join each month.
Every computer that is attached to the Internet is called a host. Hosts
can be super computers with thousands of users, regular PC's with only a
couple of users, or specialized computers, like routers that connect
networks together or to terminal servers that let terminals dial in and
connect to other hosts.
Each computer has its own host number. "Being computers, the kind of
numbers hosts like are 32-bit binary numbers." (Hayden 32) Here is an
example of a binary number:
1011010010010100100100101000
Binary numbers are easier to remember by breaking them up into eight 4-bit
groups. "Then each group is translated into it's Hexadecimal equivalent."
(Levine 18) So the number above would translate into this:
B.49.49.28
This number is easier to use and remember.
Every four digits in the binary number stands for one hexadecimal number.
Below is a list of each four binary numbers and its hexadecimal equivalent.
To figure out the binary number in the example into its Hex equivalent is
in this way:
1011 is the first four digits of the binary number. Looking at the table,
it can be determined that its hexadecimal equivalent is a "B". The second
set of four binary numbers is 0100. That changes into 4 and so on.
The first four numbers of a host number tells you what class the network is.
The chart bellow states classes and sizes:
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� � � � �
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� Class � First Number � Length of First No � Max No of Hosts �
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� A � 1-126 � 1 � 16,387,064 �
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� � � � �
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� B � 128-191 � 2 � 64,516 �
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� � � � �
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� C � 192-223 � 3 � 254 �
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Big companies like IBM and Apple usually have class A networks. "For
example, IBM has network 9, and AT&T has network 12, so a host number
9.12.34.56 would be
at IBM, and 12.98.76.54 would be at AT&T." (Levine 19) Medium sized
companies and universities have class B networks. "Rutgers University has
network 128.6 and Goldman Sachs has network 138.8" (Levine 19) Small
organizations use class C networks. Network 192.65.175, for example, is
used by a single IBM research lab.
To make it easier the Internet uses names, not numbers. "For example, the
machine we have heretofore referred to as 140.186.81.1 is named chico."
(Levine 21)
When ARPANET first came out, they had simple names; the machine at Harvard
was called HARVARD. But since there are millions of names on the Net they
had trouble coming up with different names.
To avoid this problem they created the Domain Name System (DNS). Host
names are strings of words separated with dots. For example,
MILTON.IECC.COM.
The part at the right of an Internet name is called a zone. In this
example the part at the right is com. Com means it is a commercial site,
rather than educational, military, or some other kind of zone.
The next part of the name is iecc. IECC is the name of the company. The
part to the left of the company name is the name of the host machine inside
the company. So a computer inside of IBM could be milton: milton.iecc.com.
Name zones are divided into two categories: the three-letter kind, and the
four-letter kind. The three letter zones are made by organizations. Below
is a table stating all the zones:
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�
� �
�
� Zone � Meaning
�
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� Com � Commercial organizations
�
� edu � Educational institutions
�
� gov � Government bodies and departments
�
� int � International organizations
�
� mil � Military sites
�
� net � Networking organizations
�
� org � Anything else that doesn't fit into any of the other categories
�
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� There are also two letter zones. These zones are for national countries.
Some of these zones are AU for Australia and AT for Austria.
There are a few other zones. Even though the ARPANET is not in use any
more, a few sites are still there for historical reasons. They have names
ending in arpa. Names for some computers on the UUCP and BITNET networks,
have names ending in UUCP and BITNET. These names are not real zones, but
a lot of systems still route mail to them anyway. Any BITNET or UUCP site
can get itself a real host name.
Some parts of the Internet have rules of conduct. The strictest rules are
for the NSFNET, which does not allow any commercial use. In late 1993,
most educational places in the United States were attached directly to the
NSFNET, but then they moved to commercial networks.
What the Internet does, is transmit data from one computer to another.
Each time a host wants to send a message to another host, either the
receiver is on a network where the first host is directly connected (then
the message will be sent directly). Otherwise the sender would send the
message to a host that can forward it. The forwarding host delivers the
message directly or they can pass it to another host. Usually messages are
sent to more than a dozen forwarders on its way from one part of the Net to
another.
To transfer a file from one computer to another the file transfer is
enabled. There are two different kinds of programs available for this
feature. They are: FTP and RCP. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) originated
in 1971. The Internet designers decided on a protocol to copy files from
one place to another on the net. Many people wrote programs that fulfilled
the protocol and called them FTP. Another way is via Remote Copy Protocol
(RCP)
It is very easy to copy a file from one computer to another. It is done in
the following way: Log onto another computer from FTP and tell it what you
want to copy and where to copy it to.
The Internet has spread to many businesses and family rooms throughout the
world. Since computers mainly operate using the English language, the
Internet usually does as well. For example, if you browse through a site
located in the Netherlands, there will most likely be an option to change
between English and Dutch. This is usually the case throughout the world.
An example of one of these sites is at http://www.dhp.nl/. This link will
take you to the Dutch Home Page.
Current events have showed that there are certain governments in Europe
that wish to have the language of the Internet changed to their own
respective vernacular. The ISP's, Internet Service Provider which is a
company that gives you access to the Internet for a nominal fee, in these
countries are willing to alter the language of the Internet to meet the
governments desires. This however would cost each user ten dollars more
per month, therefore many Internet consumers are weary of this plan.
One of the many great aspects of the Internet is that each user has the
option of remaining anonymous. Doing so would diminish the amount of
prejudiced remarks said to one another. Therefore there could be no
prejudices against a person who is using the Internet. The Internet is a
way for many different religions, societies, and races to meld together and
share views, experiences, and new inventions across thousands of miles.
Once you enter the Cyber-world, everybody is equal, deserves the same
respect, and the same rules apply to all users.
In my opinion the Internet is very resourceful. You can be entertained or
it can be used as a teaching aid. I use the Internet all the time to
either talk to people, transfer files, or to look up information for school
reports or projects. There are many different ways that you can log onto
the Internet. The most commonly used is through an ISP. Some of which are
AT&T WorldNet, Spectra.Net, and IBMNet. You can also access the Internet
through on-line programs such as America On-line, Prodigy, or CompuServe.
These three programs are the most popular and widely used. The Internet can
be used by anyone who has a computer, modem and an Internet program. The
Internet is a necessary tool for any student who needs to do papers and
reports that need the information that Internet can provide. Many schools
have the Internet in class to learn from and have fun at the same time.
Work Cited
1) Levine, John R. and Carol Baroudi. The Internet For Dummies. A.: IDG
Books Worldwide, 1993.
2) Hayden, Neil L. Surfing The Internet. NY: Putnam, 1992.
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
Internet Censorship
Intro: Censorship is when a third party makes decisions about what can be communicated between two people; even if the t
Internet Censorship
Intro: Censorship is when a third party makes decisions about what can be communicated between two people; even if the t
Against Federal Censorship Of The Internet
I am computer network system. I believe Internet censorship is absurd and unconstitutional. First, Federal censorship of
Internet Access
It would be helpful to provide a brief historical summary of the Internet before jumping into the different means of acc
INTERNET USERS TURN ADDICTS
On June 14, ABC news reported that an "internet-crazed" Cincinnati woman was arrested for neglecting her three young chi
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