Blog Reading Assignment - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Assignment

How the Internet is Used

The internet is used for a variety of purposes.   It is used to access information on the world wide web, communicate with others through email, video chat, social networking, instant messaging, and blogs.  It is also utilized for the creation and use of email lists and downloading and uploading files.  Businesses and individuals can use the internet for remote computing.   This means that data is stored in a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data versus storing this information on a local server.  This is referred to as cloud computing.  Google.docs is an example of cloud computing as is a service offered by Apple called iCloud which allows you to store music, photos, apps, calendars, and documents on their server.  Consumers and businesses can transact business on the Internet as well as performing online shopping.  

History of the Internet and World Wide Web

The framework for the internet originated in the 1960's as a collaboration among government, industry, and academia as a response to the launch of the first space satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. The United States became concerned that we had fallen behind in technological advancement and also worried that our government computer systems were vulnerable to nuclear attack.  Computer systems for the Pentagon, Census Bureau, and other government agencies were stand alone systems.  The government decided to connect computers to distribute computing power among multiple systems to diminish the impact of a nuclear attack.   If one computer system were attacked, there was redundancy in distributed computing.  The Department of Defense created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to push for scientific advances and amelioration of the current structure of critical government computer systems.   J.C.R. Licklider from MIT headed ARPA's research efforts.   Licklider wrote a series of documents outlining his vision of a network of interconnected computers and is credited with publishing the first references to the concept of the Internet.  The first step in the evolution of the Internet was the establishment of the ARPANET based on the packet switching technology developed by Leonard Kleinrock from UCLA in 1965.  Several key individuals created innovative technologies during the evolution of the ARPANET and the network continued to grow to include more research centers and universities.   In 1972, Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf developed two new protocols, TCP/IP, to standardize the communications protocol for all computers on ARPANET.  In 1983, the government mandated TCP/IP be used by all computers on ARPANET.   These protocols continue to be used by every computer and device connected to the Internet.   Ultimately the ARPANET was replaced by a system developed by the National Science Foundation, NSFNET.  Commercial activity was prohibited by law on NSFNET until 1992 when Congress changed the law and commercial activity was permitted.  The system grew exponentially.  In 1995, the NSF moved the NSFNET to a commercial Internet system supported by commercial network providers such as AT&T and MCI.   Also, the Internet became easier to use by people when numbers used to identify computer hosts were replaced with names.  Two events took place in the early 1990s that propelled the Internet to such wide use.   Paul Lindner and Mark McCahill created a new protocol to form a directory-based system to deliver information over the Internet.   This was the basis of the World Wide Web which is a subset of the Internet.  The World Wide Web is system of web pages that can be accessed by a web browser that may contain text, images, videos, or other multimedia.    The documents on the web are created using HTML and accessed through HTTP. 

How Individuals Connect to the Internet 

Individuals and businesses connect to the Internet directly through a Local Area Network (LAN) or an Internet Service Provider (ISP).  LAN connections are typically connected by high speed telephone or cable lines and are used by schools, businesses and libraries.  Businesses or large organizations generally access the Internet through high-speed business connections such as Business DSL or cable.  These are higher speed connections but are much more expensive.  A home computer is usually connected to an ISP through telephone or cable connections and connect to an ISP through dial-up access, DSL, cable, WI FI,  or mobile wireless.