Internet: Internet is the worldwide interconnection of computers.
Requirement for connecting to Internet
· A modem (Modulator and Demodulator) installed in computer.
· A Telephone line connection (in case of dial up connection).
· Connection to the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
· A suitable software that can browse the internet (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
ISP: The companies or organizations that provide Internet facilities are known as Internet service providers.
Services provided by Internet
Email: The pocess of sending and receiving messages electronically is called Email. Using email programs like Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger and Eudora, email can be sent and received. Features of E-mail:
· Fast communication
· Recipient not required
· Cheapest
· Always available
Telnet (Remote Login): It allows an Internet user to log into another computer on the Internet from his or her local computer. To work in Telnet, Telnet command is used. To versions of MS that support Telnet are Windows 2000 and XP.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): It is an application level protocol that allows a user to move a file from one computer to another computer in a network environment. Transferring a file from a remote computer to a user's computer is known as downloading where as transferring a file from a user's computer to a server is known as uploading.
USENET- Views and News: Sharing and interacting of information among users.
WWW: Most popular service available in the Internet. It is a subset of internet and it presents text, images, animation, video, sound and other multimedia elements in a single interface.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC): It allows people to communicate in real time and carry on conversation via the computer with one or more people. For example Wee Chat, X Chat, Ice Chat, etc.
Video Conferencing: Video conferencing uses the same technology as IRC but also provides sound and video pictures.
Information sharing: Allows sharing of informations. In order to search these information, we need to take help of search engines like Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and so on.
Advertising: Newspapers, magazines, radio, TV are used for advertisement, like wise Internet is the main medium of advertisement today.
Online shopping: Shopping through Internet.
Chatting: It is a method of sharing our ideas and views through Internet. For doing so, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger like software are needed.
Entertainment: Downloading games, playing online, watching movies and videos are some of the examples of entertainment through Internet.
Terms Related to Internet
Web Browser: A Web browser is the software that enables us to see websites or webpages. The process of viewing and moving between webpages and websites is called browsing.
Web Page: Single page of a website is known as Web page. The first page or index page of any web site is known as Home page.
Web Site: Collection of web pages is known as web site.
Web Server: A web server is the main computer in Internet where web sites or web pages are stored.
Search Engines: The process through which we search and navigate the useful information in Internet is called surfing. Search Engines helps us to find these information related to any subject requested by us. Examples: Altavista, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, HOTBOT and Info seek.
Proxy server: Proxy server improves the access speed dramatically.
Email: Email (Electronic mail) is the method of sending and receiving letters through Internet. Email was practically used for the first time by Reymond Samuel Tomlinson in 1971. At that time, it was named as ARPANET. Comparison of Email with Postal mail.
· Faster
· Cheaper
· Reliable
· Secure
· Time saving
Email Address: Email address is the location of different people in Internet. Email address is divided into two parts: user name and domain name, separated by @sign. The part before the @ sign is User name and the part after @ sign is Domain name. Some of the country level domains are: .np-Nepal, .in-India, .jp-Japan. Some of the Top Level Domain are: .com-Commercial, .org-Organization, .edu-Education.
E-Fax: It stands for Electronic facsimile, it is also sent through Internet.
Differences between E-fax and Email:
Email
-Email requires an email address.
-It reaches the local file server first.
-It gets stored in the hard disk of the destination computer first.
-It is less expensive in comparison to E-fax.
E-fax
-E-fax requires fax number.
-It first goes to Internet server and then to the destination place.
-It is directly printed through the printer of the destination computer.
-It is costlier in comparison to email.
