Internet and World Wide Web - Quick Notes

The Internet

  • The Internet is a worldwide collection of networks that connects millions of businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals. It provides resources that add to the abundance of goods, services, and information accessible via the Internet.

Internet Services

  • Today, billions of home and business users worldwide access a variety of services on the Internet using computers and mobile devices that include:

    • Access to information

    • Web messaging

    • Video communications

    • Chat rooms

    • Discussion forums

    • File transfer

Evolution of the Internet

  • Origin: Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a U.S. Department of Defense agency. Goals:

    • Allow scientists at different physical locations to share information and work together on military and scientific projects

    • Ensure the network could function even if part of it were disabled or destroyed by a disaster such as a nuclear attack

  • The network, ARPANET, became functional in 19691969, linking scientific and academic researchers across the United States. The original ARPANET consisted of 44 main computers, each located at:

    • University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

    • University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

    • Stanford Research Institute

    • University of Utah

    • Each of these computers served as a host on the network

  • The host: any computer or device that provides services and connections to other computers or devices on a network. Example: a web server. Hosts often use high-speed communications to transfer data and messages over a network.

  • By 19841984, ARPANET had more than 10001000 individual computers linked to the hosts. Today, millions of hosts are connected to this network, which is now known as the Internet.