When the computing era took a big leap forward in the 1980s, everything revolved around operating systems and programming languages. People were going crazy with the heavy technological revolution, thinking this was the only thing the world needed to push the limits of time and space, and as always, they were wrong. Not long after the computer revolution, a tide arrived, a communications blizzard. This technology now makes computers seem lifeless if they don't have it. Connecting the corners of the spider web world, even from its most remote corner, is the ' Internet '.
Figure 1: Pictorial presentation of the Internet
Internet: What is the Internet?
Not limited to any specific definition, Internet can be defined as the mode of wired or wireless communication through which information can be received and transmitted that can be used for single or multiple operations.
Internet history
This wonderful tool has a lot of history that has its roots in the Cold War scenario. The need was realized to connect the best universities in the United States so that they can share all the research data without much delay. This attempt was a result of the Advanced Research Projects Agency ( ARPA ) which was formed in the late 1950s, shortly after the Russians had ascended into the space age with the launch of Sputnik. After ARPA found success in 1969, it didn't take long for experts to understand the potential this interconnection tool could have. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson created a system for sending electronic mail. This was a big step as it opened up gateways for remote access to computers, i.e. telnet.
During all this time, rigorous bureaucratic work was carried out in all elite research institutions. From giving each computer an address to establishing the rules, everything was being written down. 1973 saw preparations for the vital event TCP/IP and Ethernet services. In the late 1970s, Usenet groups emerged. In the early 1980s, IBM launched its PC based on the Intel 8088 processor, which was widely used by students and universities for solving the purpose of easy computing. In 1982, Defense Agencies made TCP/IP mandatory and the term “internet” was coined. Domain name services arrived in the year 1984, a time when several Internet-based services marked their debut. As the Internet emerged from its incubation period, which lasted nearly two and a half decades, the world saw the first failure that was not part of the planned strategy. A worm, or computer rust, struck in 1988 and disabled more than 10% of computer systems worldwide. Although most researchers considered this an opportunity to improve computing as it was still in its juvenile phase, a large number of computer companies became interested in dissecting the cores of the malware which resulted in the formation of the Computer Emergency Rescue Team (CERT). . Soon after the world ended with the computer worm, the World Wide Web came into existence. Discovered by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web was seen as a service for connecting documents on websites through hyperlinks.
When the 90s arrived, the larvae began to appear, as more than 40 million computers were exhausted, an antivirus had already been released and the graphical user interface was in full evolution. “Archie”, the first Internet search marked the beginning of a new era in Internet computing. Website categorization was in its most dynamic phase as commercialized email sites grew day by day. It was at this time that the term “spam” was coined, which referred to fake emails or hoaxes. Read more about email and how email works. In 1992, an internet browser called “Mosaico” appeared. One of the most popular internet browsers, Netscape Navigator made its debut in 1994 and ended up competing with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. At this point, domain name registration started to become exponential and became commercial. In short, the Internet explosion began to occur.
The next few years saw the launch of giants like Google, Yahoo as well as the strengthening of the creators of the ultimate revolution i.e. Microsoft, Google, IBM, etc.
The gift
The gift
Just like dynamic history, the present of the internet is also quite vigorous. Wherever the electronic world has progressed, the Internet has followed suit. In fact, the main trends in the electronic world are to support the latest demands of the Internet. From large computers to ultra-light laptops and now almost tablets and cellphones to paper weighing, all inventions are credited to the Internet as it has certainly created a database as well as a service. The concept of hard disk drives is about to change as cloud computing is on the cards. Taking the internet as a base, it is now possible to control various devices such as the television or the refrigerator. High-speed Internet services are available on cell phones that fit in the palm of an average human's hand. For efficient global communication, high-speed information highways are being created by several governments and private information technology companies. Through video calls and conferences, the need to travel has greatly reduced and people from all walks of life are making the best of Internet services.
Operating systems , which were once considered the soul of the computer, are losing their vitality as Internet browsers are entering the advancement period to do all the important work regardless of the operating system they are actually installed on. Also, cloud computing , another important concept in the technological era of data exchange is to be completely based on the internet. When someone has access to the internet, they can access all their data stored on the cloud server and save a considerable amount on finances and storage.
No device is manufactured without keeping the need for the Internet in mind. Technologies like GPRS EDGE, HSPDA, HSUPA, GPS were made keeping Internet as a base.
Review
Review
As the internet is the gateway to all types of information and there are no restrictions on access, it has been heavily criticized for leaking sensitive information to the masses across the world. Although there are Internet regulatory committees in every country, banning specific types of information is almost impossible, as the dynamicity of the Internet is quite high than the scanning rate.
There are often various disagreements between Internet service providers and the governments of various countries. The most talked about is the conflict between internet giant Google inc. and the Government of the People's Republic of China. The government wanted to impose strict implications on the search engine, while the company did not want to keep its users deprived of any service offered in any way. Thus, a few months after its creation, Google ended its work in China and divested its Chinese project.
Furthermore, it has been alleged that the Internet has been used as a weapon by intelligence agencies of several countries to investigate and spy on sensitive matters of their enemy nations. Cyber warfare has always been in an on and off phase between various countries.
A linear increase in cyber crimes has been reported since the last decade where illegal monetary transactions have been reported from various online bank accounts. Acquiring sensitive data from various online services and modifying it without any permission is what we call hacking that has created blunders. Sony's PSN and FBI websites suffered losses worth millions due to these malicious activities.
A major concern that has arisen with the internet is the psychological health of adolescents and adolescents. Due to the highly mature and easily available content on the Internet, they are exposed countless times to inappropriate content, which can result in unstable behaviors and reactions. Recent research reports that teenagers who are regularly exposed to this type of content show greater violence and physical attraction than those who do not regularly browse the Internet.
Internet operation
How does the Internet work?
Although how the Internet works can be as complex as expected, making it similar to other everyday activities makes the process of understanding much easier. Let's suppose that each house in our locality is equivalent to a device that uses the internet, such as a smartphone or a tablet. The addresses that houses have are similar to the IP address, which is unique and unavailable to any other device in the world. The messages and phone calls that reach the house are sources through which the world connects to the house and through the same medium people in the houses communicate with the outside world. Writing down emails or choosing which telephone instrument to do is quite similar to connecting to the Internet or opening a web browser.
Figure 2: Block diagram explaining the basic operation of the Internet
To send and receive posts or calls, there are exchange offices and post offices that are similar to servers that store all the data and make it dynamically available. The calls we make are first directed to the telephone exchange which checks whether the number we dial is valid or not. It is quite similar to the protocols applied when the user requests data exchange. Just as the number of houses decides a place to be called town, village, city or state; number of devices connected to the Internet defines an area to be categorized into LAN, MAN, WAN etc.
Figure 3: Image of the Google search engine home page
Interaction with various Internet-based services consists of very graphic interfaces that nowadays entertain surfers with quality interactive multimedia content. The web pages are programmed in such a way that from the highest quality videos to multilingual texts, everything is available to users.
Technical details and future
The technical way
Every device that connects to the Internet needs an Internet Protocol address that is dynamically assigned by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). Each country has its own Internet regulatory authority that synchronizes the allocation of IP addresses with the IANA. For any Internet device, the moment it connects to the Internet, the Internet Service Provider or ISP assigns an IP address which becomes the identity of the device and facilitates the unrestricted transfer of data from across the world. You get the same IP address every time you connect through the same port. In addition to devices, websites also have IP addresses that are decoded into meaningful words using the Domain Name System or DNS. In fact, websites are opened by the IP address of the server where they are hosted. Through DNS, a website that has any random IP assigned can get the desired name according to its business. Also, domain extensions like .biz, .org, .me etc. are only possible due to advanced DNS.
Whenever a web page is opened, along with IP, other crucial protocols like HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) are also added. HTTP classifies the type of content while TCP ensures that the information received is in the same state as it was sent. Therefore, when opening a web page to access any information, you must know that adding to the internet are these two protocols that guarantee that the data sent is of the expected type and is sent without any errors.
Future
The Internet is one of those tools or services that suddenly appears in the newspapers and surprises everyone. It is the flow that drives various stock markets so that they can respond quickly; It is the technology responsible for generating trillions of dollars every year, with ever-increasing revenues. Websites, which are mere software applications, are generating livelihoods for many people; It is the feature that makes companies establish a wide market in a completely new area by investing just enough to establish an office and connect some high-speed communication devices and an Internet connection.
It will soon be witnessed by the world that using LED lighting, high-speed wireless Internet services can be made available to various devices that access the Internet wirelessly. The conversion from usual LED to wireless LAN will use visible light communication technology, enabling high-speed data transmission, which will make it possible to transfer HD movies in a more robust and efficient way.
With all these super technological developments that the Internet can provide, it is basically some human thoughts of self-awareness, belief and commitment that will shape the Internet's resources and their use.
