Chapter 2: Key Concept

Chapter 2: Technology Infrastructure: The Internet and The World Wide Web

Key Concept:
This chapter focuses on how the internet has changed over the past few years, including networks, protocols, and other important elements that have improved the speed, quality and depth of what is involved today. This chapter focuses on the history of the internet and the web, along with languages, software, technologies and connectivity that is involved or used when accesses the web and the internet.

Supporting Points:
History of the Internet:
- 1960’s: US Department of Defense: networks were built that could operate independently
- 1969: ARPA used network to connect 4 computers: ARPANET
- 1972: email was born: Ray Tomlinson
- 1979: Usenet: user’s news network: newsgroups
- 1989: NSF: commercial network traffic
- 1990: more than 300,000 computers connected to networks
- 1995: internet was privatized and no longer operated by the US gov’t
History of the Web:
- 1945: Memex: memory extension device
- 1960’s: hypertext: one page links to another; 1987: Xanadu: global system for online hypertext publishing and commerce
- 1989: WWW, system of hyperlinked HTML documents
- 1993: Mosaic: first program that could read HTML and use the hyperlinks to navigate
- 1994: Netscape was designed: web browser: became fastest-growing software company
Network Technologies:
- local area network: LAN or wide area networks: WANs
- packet-switched networks: files and email broken down into packets, labeled electronically with origin, sequences, destinations address: travel from computer to destination
- routing computers, router computers, routers, gateway computes, border routers: decide best way to get packet to destination
- hubs, switches and bridges move packets from network to network
- internet backbone: handle packet traffic along internets main connecting points
Internet Protocols:
- collection of rules for formatting, ordering, error-checking data sent across networks
- TCP/IP: rules that govern how data moves through the internet and how network connections are established and terminated
- TCP: breaks down info into packets: and reassembles at the other end
- IP: specifies addressing details for each packet, labeling packets with destination addresses
- Domain names: sets of words assigned to specific IP addresses
o Top-level: .edu, .com, .org
- Web client software: sends requests for web page files to other computers (web servers)
- Web server: receives and responds by sending files back to those web client computers: purpose of web server is to respond to requests for web pages from web clients
- URL (uniform resource locator): combo of protocol name and domain name: lets user locate a resource on another computer
Markup Languages
- SGML: standard generalized markup language: was used to create documents that needed to be printed in various formats and revised frequently
- XML: extensible markup language: used to mark up info that companies share
- XHTML: extensible hypertext markup language:
- HTML: tags that define format, style of text
- XML: templates that can be used with the same info input by HTML
Intranets and Extranets:
- intranet: interconnected network, uses TCP/IP, does not extend beyond the organization that created it: easiest low-cost way to distribute internal corporate info
- extranet: intranet that has been extended to include outside boundaries of the org (customers, suppliers)
- public network: any computer network available to the public (the internet)
- private network: leased-line connection between 2 companies that physically connects their intranets to one another
- virtual private network: extranet that uses public networks and protocols to send sensitive data to partners, customers, suppliers, employees using system IP tunneling
- Bandwidth: amount of data that can travel through a communication line per unit of time
- DSL, ISDN: through local telephone service provider
- Broadband services: DSL, high speed
- Wireless: blue tooth, ultra wideband, Wi-Fi
Internet2
- make the web quicker and more efficient
- no more waiting to download videos or music
Semantic Web
- all words on a website will be links

Application:
It is pretty hard to apply this chapter to a specific company, but one can say that most all companies use the internet in some way or another. Valhalla Pure Outfitters uses the internet and has created an online store that links all 16 privately-owned stores to the one site. If a customer orders a product online, they can see what store has that product and where it is going to be shipped from. That store then gets an email as to what product is needed and where it has to be sent. Most products in every store are linked to the online store and available for sale. The company uses many networks to connected the head office to one another, along with linking all the stores to the online store.