1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard
Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link several billion devices worldwide. It is an international
network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and
government packet switched networks, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and
optical networking technologies. The Internet
carries an extensive range of information
resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications
of the World Wide Web (WWW), the
infrastructure to support email, and peer-topeer networks for file sharing and telephony.
The origins of the Internet date back to
research commissioned in the 1960s to build
robust, fault-tolerant communication via
computer networks. While this work,
together with work in the United Kingdom
and France, led to important precursor
networks, they were not the Internet. There is no consensus on the exact date when the
modern Internet came into being, but sometime in the early to mid-1980s is considered
reasonable. From that point, the network experienced decades of sustained exponential growth
as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to it
In the present age of information Technology, use of Internet is becoming very popular for
accessing information like:
o Instant messaging
o Downloading Documents
o Audio and Video calling
o Listening and Downloading Music
o Internet Forums
o Online shopping etc.
The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of human communications through
instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both
for major retail outlets and small traders.
This freedom of Internet helped it to move out of its original base in military and research
institutions, into elementary and high schools, colleges, public libraries, commercial sectors
even into the shop of a vegetable vendor.
1.1 THE HISTORY
WWW was invented in 1990 by British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee to use ‘hypertext “to connect and access information of various kinds as a web of computers in which the user can browse. The first Internet search engine named as Archie was found in 1990. Three years later, in 1993, W3Catalog and Aliweb Search engines for the World Wide Web were launched. This was followed by WebCrawler, Aggregator,Go.com and Lycos in 1994 and AltaVista, Daum, Magellan, Excite, SAPO and Yahoo in 1995. 1998 saw the birth of Google and MSN search. From 1997 to 2007 several social networking websites were launched including Orkut, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and windows live etc. The major social network to be launched is Google Plus which was launched in 2011. Tip: Many People think that email is one of the best Internet applications. But in reality email was invented before the Internet.
1.2 HOW INTERNET IS MANAGED
The Internet is managed is managed in below categories:
a) Naming and Addressing: Computers talk to one another using an ‘Internet Protocol’. It is divided into IP address & Generic top level domains. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are single
numeric identifiers that are required by every device that connects to the global Internet. The numeric identifier is assigned to a device that enables data to be perfectly transported between start and end points within a network or networks. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for The global organization of the Internet Protocol addressing systems The global organization of the Autonomous System Numbers used for routing Internet traffic and Other practical parameters connected with Internet ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is responsible for IP Address space allocation, its operation, Evolution of Domain Name System and coordination of the policy related to technical parameters to work. ASO – ICANN Address Supporting Organization ASO reviews and develops recommendations on Internet number resource policy and advises the ICANN board.
RIRs – Regional Internet Registries Within their assigned regions, RIRs are responsible for allocating Internet number resources such as globally unique IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6)
and autonomous system numbers. These resources are required by Internet service providers and users to identify elements of the basic Internet infrastructure such as interfaces on routers, switches and computers. APNIC: Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) is the not-for-profit regional Internet registry for the Asia Pacific region. APNIC provides number
resource allocation and registration services that support the global operation of the Internet.
1.3 ARCHITECTURE OF THE INTERNET
The basic idea behind the architecture of the Internet is in the specification of the standard
TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP is designed to connect any two networks which may be different in
hardware, software, and technical design. Once two networks are interconnected, communication with TCP/IP is enabled end-to-end. This means that any node on the Internet
can communicate with other nodes In practice, the Internet architecture looks a small fragment of water like a multi-dimensional river system, with small tributaries feeding medium-sized streams feeding large rivers. For example, an individual’s access to the Internet is often from home over a modem to a local Internet service provider who connects to a regional network connected to a national network. At the office, a desktop computer might be connected to a local area network with a company connection to a corporate Intranet connected to several national Internet service providers.