Visualization of the various routes through a portion of the Internet.

The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics In Computer science, data is anything in a form suitable for use with a Computer. Packet switching is a network communications method that splits data traffic (digital representations of text sound or video data into chunks called packets, that are then The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW). Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving Online chat can refer to any kind of Communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or Text-based group File transfer is a generic term for the act of transmitting files over a Computer network or the Internet. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.

Terminology

The Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc. A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 An optical fiber (or fibre) is a Glass or Plastic fiber that carries Light along its length Wireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or " Wires quot In contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The concept of Resource is primitive in the Web architecture and is used in the definition of its fundamental elements In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it The World Wide Web is one of the services accessible via the Internet, along with various others including e-mail, file sharing, online gaming and others described below. Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a Online games are games played over some form of computer network. However, "the Internet" and "the Web" are commonly used interchangeably in non-technical settings.

History

Main article: History of the Internet

Creation

The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a technological lead. Prior to the widespread internetworking that led to the Internet most communication networks were limited by their nature to only allow communications between the stations on the network and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The year 1958 in Science and Technology involved some significant events listed below ^[1][2] ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE) was an automated control system for tracking and intercepting enemy Bomber aircraft used by NORAD from Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution. Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider ( March 11, 1915  &ndash June 26, 1990) known simply as J

Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. See also Other events of 1950 Information technology ( IT) as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA is "the study design development implementation support At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a Federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing. The year 1957 in Science and Technology involved some significant events listed below The PDP-1 ( P rogrammed D ata P rocessor- 1) was the first Computer in Digital Equipment Corporation 's Time-sharing refers to sharing a computing resource among many users by multitasking.

At the IPTO, Licklider recruited Lawrence Roberts to head a project to implement a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran, who had written an exhaustive study for the U.S. Air Force that recommended packet switching (as opposed to circuit switching) to make a network highly robust and survivable. Lawrence G Roberts (born 1937 in Connecticut) received the Draper Prize in 2001 Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf. Paul Baran (born April 29, 1926) was one of the three inventors of Packet-switched networks along with Donald Davies and Leonard Kleinrock Packet switching is a network communications method that splits data traffic (digital representations of text sound or video data into chunks called packets, that are then In Telecommunications a circuit switching network is one that establishes a fixed bandwidth circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense, was the world's first operational The University of California Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Westwood Los Angeles, California, United SRI International, based in the United States is one of the world's largest contract Research institutes. Events 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet. Following on from the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the British Post Office, Telenet, DATAPAC and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the International Packet Stream Service (IPSS), in 1978. The year 1978 in Science and Technology involved some significant events listed below The collection of X.25-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981. X25 is an ITU-T standard Network layer protocol for packet switched Wide area network (WAN communication Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The X. 25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ITU-T) around 1976. X. 25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of DARPA on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new Technology Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn developed the first description of the TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf His contributions have been recognized repeatedly with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, and Robert Kahn can refer to Robert Kahn (1865&ndash1951 a composer and music teacher Bob Kahn (b Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at Stanford University. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems.

The first TCP/IP-wide area network was made operational by January 1, 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols to TCP/IP. The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using computers called "fuzzballs" by their inventor, David L. Mills. The National Science Foundation (NSF is a United States Government agency that supports fundamental Research and Education in all the non-medical A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects A kilobit is a unit of information abbreviated kbit (or kb) The standard definition is 1 kilobit = 103 bit = 1000 Bit. Fuzzball routers were the first modern Routers on the Internet. David L Mills (born June 3, 1938) was the first chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force. The following year, NSF sponsored the development of a higher-speed 1. 5 megabit/second backbone that became the NSFNet. A megabit is a unit of Information or computer storage abbreviated Mbit (or Mb) The National Science Foundation Network ( NSFNET) was a major part of early 1990s Internet backbone. A key decision to use the DARPA TCP/IP protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new Technology The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks

The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial MCI Mail system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic e-mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet Service Providers were created: UUNET, PSINET and CERFNET. UUNET is one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks It is based in Northern Virginia and is the first commercial Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include Usenet and BITNET. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system BITNET was a cooperative US university network founded by IBM in 1979 under the aegis of Ira Fuchs at the City University of New York (CUNY Various other commercial and educational networks, such as Telenet, Tymnet, Compuserve and JANET were interconnected with the growing Internet. Telenet was a packet switched network which went into service in 1974 Tymnet was an international data communications network headquartered in San Jose, California that utilized virtual call packet switched technology and used X CompuServe, ( CompuServe Information Service, also known by its acronym CIS) was the first major commercial Online service in the United States JANET is a private British government-funded Computer network dedicated to education and research Telenet (later called Sprintnet) was a large privately funded national computer network with free dial-up access in cities throughout the U. Telenet was a packet switched network which went into service in 1974 Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over virtually any pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth, although the rapid growth of the Internet was due primarily to the availability of commercial routers from companies such as Cisco Systems, Proteon and Juniper, the availability of commercial Ethernet equipment for local-area networking and the widespread implementation of TCP/IP on the UNIX operating system.

Growth

Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost a decade, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On August 6, 1991, CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, publicized the new World Wide Web project. Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire known as CERN This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. The Web was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA (born 8 June 1955 is an English computer scientist who is credited

An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, based upon HyperCard. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a ViolaWWW, first developed in the early 1990s was the first popular Web browser (though to a limited audience which until Mosaic, was the most frequently used web HyperCard was an Application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer Inc It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. Mosaic is the browser which popularized the World Wide Web. It was also a browser for earlier concepts such as Ftp, Usenet, and Gopher In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications ( NCSA) is one of five original centers in the National Science Foundation 's Supercomputer Centers Program and a This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of 0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web. Synecdoche is taken from Greek sinekdohi (συνεκδοχή meaning "simultaneous understanding" (si-nek-duh-kee (pronounced /sɪˈnɛkdoˌki/

Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet, have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997. ^[3] This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.

University students' appreciation and contributions

New findings in the field of communications during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across North America.

Examples of early university Internet communities are Cleveland FreeNet, Blacksburg Electronic Village and NSTN in Nova Scotia. The Blacksburg Electronic Village or BEV was conceived as a project of Virginia Tech in 1991 and officially born in 1993 ^[4] Students took up the opportunity of free communications and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computers and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments (Nelson, Jennings, Stallman).

Graduate students played a huge part in the creation of ARPANET. The ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense, was the world's first operational In the 1960s, the network working group, which did most of the design for ARPANET's protocols, was composed mainly of graduate students.

Today's Internet

The My Opera Community server rack. My Opera Community is the support community for the Opera web browser From the top, user file storage (content of files. myopera. com), "bigma" (the master MySQL database server), and two IBM blade centers containing multi-purpose machines (Apache front ends, Apache back ends, slave MySQL database servers, load balancers, file servers, cache servers and sync masters). MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system In Computer networking, load balancing is a technique to spread work between two or more computers network links CPUs hard drives or other resources in order to get optimal In Computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for the shared storage of Computer files (such

Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e. g. , peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Peering is voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network In the field of Telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation signaling authentication and error detection required to Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's Indeed, the Internet is essentially defined by its interconnections and routing policies.

As of March 31, 2008, 1. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common 407 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.

Internet protocols

For more details on this topic, see Internet Protocols. This is an incomplete list of network protocols categorized by their nearest OSI model layers

In this context, there are three layers of protocols:

• At the lower level (OSI layer 3) is IP (Internet Protocol), which defines the datagrams or packets that carry blocks of data from one node to another. The Open Systems Interconnection Basic Reference Model (OSI Reference Model or OSI Model) is an abstract description for layered communications and computer Network protocol The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol In Information technology, a packet is a formatted unit of Data carried by a Packet mode Computer network. The vast majority of today's Internet uses version four of the IP protocol (i. e. IPv4), and, although IPv6 is standardized, it exists only as "islands" of connectivity, and there are many ISPs without any IPv6 connectivity. Internet Protocol version 4 ( IPv4) is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet Protocol (IP and it is the first version of the protocol to be widely Internet Protocol version 6 ( IPv6) is an Internet Layer protocol for packet -switched internetworks. ^[5] ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) also exists at this level. The Internet Control Message Protocol ( ICMP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. ICMP is connectionless; it is used for control, signaling, and error reporting purposes.

• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) exist at the next layer up (OSI layer 4); these are the protocols by which data is transmitted. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. User Datagram Protocol ( UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP makes a virtual "connection", which gives some level of guarantee of reliability. UDP is a best-effort, connectionless transport, in which data packets that are lost in transit will not be re-sent.

• The application protocols sit on top of TCP and UDP and occupy layers 5, 6, and 7 of the OSI model. The Application Layer is the seventh level of the seven-layer OSI model, and the top layer of the TCP/IP model These define the specific messages and data formats sent and understood by the applications running at each end of the communication. Examples of these protocols are HTTP, FTP, and SMTP.

Internet structure

There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks. A scale-free network is a network whose Degree distribution follows a Power law, at least asymptotically

Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as:

• GEANT
• GLORIAD
• The Internet2 Network (formally known as the Abilene Network)
• JANET (the UK's national research and education network)

These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. An Internet exchange point ( IX or IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows different Internet service providers (ISPs to exchange Internet GÉANT is the main European multi- Gigabit Computer network for Research and Education purposes GLORIAD ( Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development) is a high-speed Computer network used to connect scientific organizations in Russia, Internet2 or UCAID ( University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development) is a Non-profit Consortium which develops and deploys Abilene Network was the US high-performance Backbone network created by the Internet2 community JANET is a private British government-funded Computer network dedicated to education and research A National Research and Education Network (NREN is a specialised Internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the Research and Education See also the list of academic computer network organizations.

In network diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass. A network diagram is a general type of Diagram, which represents some kind of Network.

ICANN

ICANN headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California, United States

For more details on this topic, see ICANN. Marina del Rey is a seaside Unincorporated area of Los Angeles County California. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the ICANN (aɪkæn eye-can is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. In Computer networking, a domain name is a name given to a collection of network devices that belong to a domain which is an administrative space managed according A globally unified namespace (i. e. , a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. Marina del Rey is a seaside Unincorporated area of Los Angeles County California. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. A DNS root zone is the top level of the Domain Name System (DNS hierarchy for a given DNS system Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet, as such, has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, IP addresses, protocol ports and parameter numbers. An Internet Protocol ( IP) address is a numerical identification ( Logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a Computer network

On November 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues. Events 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS was a pair of United Nations -sponsored conferences about Information, Communication and in broad terms Tunis ( Arabic: تونس Tūnis) is the Capital of the Tunisian Republic and also the Tunis The Internet Governance Forum ( IGF) is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance.

Language

For more details on this topic, see English on the Internet. English is the Lingua franca in computing and on the Internet, and the computing vocabulary of many languages is borrowed from English

Further information: Unicode

The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States This may be a result of the Internet's origins, as well as English's role as a lingua franca. A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the Latin alphabet. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

After English (30% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (17%), Spanish (9%), Japanese (7%), French (5%) and German (5%). The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. ^[6]

By continent, 38% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 27% in Europe, 18% in North America, and 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting ^[7]

The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of Unicode, that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as kryakozyabry) still remain. Mojibake is the happenstance of incorrect unreadable characters (garbage characters shown when Computer software fails to render a text correctly according to its associated

Internet and the workplace

The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications. In Software engineering, a web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via Web browser over a network such as the Internet

The Internet viewed on mobile devices

The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology. Modem (from mo dulator- dem odulator is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode Digital information A mobile device (also known as cellphone device, handheld device, handheld computer, "Palmtop" or simply handheld) is a pocket-sized Cellular routers (sometimes known as 3G Routers) are routers that provide shared Internet access by incorporating a cellular data Modem as WAN interfaces

Common uses of the Internet

E-mail

For more details on this topic, see E-mail. Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving

The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other networks and machines out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. During this time it is quite possible for the content to be read and even tampered with by third parties, if anyone considers it important enough. Purely internal or intranet mail systems, where the information never leaves the corporate or organization's network, are much more secure, although in any organization there will be IT and other personnel whose job may involve monitoring, and occasionally accessing, the e-mail of other employees not addressed to them. Information technology ( IT) as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA is "the study design development implementation support

The World Wide Web

For more details on this topic, see World Wide Web. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.

Graphic representation of a minute fraction of the WWW, demonstrating hyperlinks

Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (or just the Web) interchangeably, but, as discussed above, the two terms are not synonymous. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym"

The World Wide Web is a huge set of interlinked documents, images and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. A document (noun is a bounded physical representation of body of Information designed with the capacity (and usually intent to Communicate. Computer graphics are Graphics created by Computers and more generally the Representation and Manipulation of Pictorial Data In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it These hyperlinks and URLs allow the web servers and other machines that store originals, and cached copies, of these resources to deliver them as required using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). The term web server can mean one of two things A Computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from web clients which are Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet.

Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data. A Web service (also Web Service) is defined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction

Software products that can access the resources of the Web are correctly termed user agents. A user agent is the client application used with a particular Network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those which access the World In normal use, web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical Web documents may contain almost any combination of computer data including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. In Computer science, data is anything in a form suitable for use with a Computer. In Computing, plain text is a term used for an ordinary "unformatted" sequential file readable as textual material without much processing This page is about the visual medium for the Thai film see Video Clip (2007 film. Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. Browser games are electronic Games that are played online via the Internet. In Computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a Software suite intended to be used by typical

Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, millions of people worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. An index term or descriptor in Information Retrieval is a term that captures the essence of the topic of a document This article is about using the Internet for research for the field of research about the Internet see Internet studies. Yahoo! Search is a web search engine, owned by Yahoo! Inc and is currently the second largest search engine on the web after its competitor Google Google search is a Web search engine owned by Google Inc, and it is the most used search engine on the Web. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data. An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution

Using the Web, it is also easier than ever before for individuals and organisations to publish ideas and information to an extremely large audience. Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view An idea is a form (such as a Thought) formed by Consciousness (including Mind) through the Process of ideation. Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings Brooklyn Book Festival crowd by David Shankbonejpg|thumb|An audience at the Brooklyn Book Festival in New York City. Anyone can find ways to publish a web page or build a website for very little initial cost. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however.

Many individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of Some commercial organisations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of

Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and MySpace currently have large followings. Angelfire is an Internet venture offering free space for web sites Yahoo! GeoCities is a Webhosting service founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet (BHI Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004 MySpace is a popular social networking Website offering an interactive user-submitted network of friends personal profiles blogs groups photos music and These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.

Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow. Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce' or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic

In the early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated HTML text files stored on a web server. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure More recently, websites are more often created using content management system (CMS) or wiki software with, initially, very little content. A content management system ( CMS) is a computer application used to create edit manage and publish content in a consistently organized fashion A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content using a simplified Markup language. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.

Remote access

Further information: Remote access

The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. In Telecommunication, the term remote access has the following meanings Pertaining to communication with a Data processing Facility from They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. This article describes how security can be achieved through design and engineering

This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. Accountancy or accounting is the measurement statement or provision of assurance about financial information primarily used by Lenders managers, The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice. A leased line is a symmetric Telecommunications line connecting two locations

An office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. Remote Desktop Protocol ( RDP) is a multi-channel protocol that allows a user to connect to a computer running Microsoft Terminal Services. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away from the office.

This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes; this has been the source of some notable security breaches, but also provides security for the workers.

Collaboration

See also: Collaborative software

The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Collaborative software (also referred to as groupware or workgroup support systems) is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — for example an intellectual Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, even among niche interests. An example of this is the free software movement in software development, which produced GNU and Linux from scratch and has taken over development of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org (formerly known as Netscape Communicator and StarOffice). The free software movement (also known as open source movement, free and open source software movement and abbreviated FSM OSM or FOSSM) is a relatively GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Mozilla was the official public original name of Mozilla Application Suite by the Mozilla Foundation, currently known as SeaMonkey suite. OpenOfficeorg ( OOo or OOo) is a free Cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer Netscape Communicator is an Internet suite that was produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. StarOffice is Sun Microsystems ' proprietary Office suite software package. Films such as Zeitgeist, Loose Change and Endgame have had extensive coverage on the Internet, while being virtually ignored in the mainstream media. Loose Change (2005 2006 2007 is a series of documentary films written and directed by Dylan Avery and produced by Korey Rowe and Jason Bermas and is distributed

Internet "chat", whether in the form of IRC "chat rooms" or channels, or via instant messaging systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extension to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared as well as voice and video contact between team members.

Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to add their thoughts and changes. Revision control (also known as version control (system (VCS, source control or (source code management (SCM) is the management of multiple revisions

File sharing

For more details on this topic, see File sharing. See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a

A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. A computer file is a block of Arbitrary Information, or resource for storing information which is available to a Computer program and is usually Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving An e-mail attachment (or email attachment) is a Computer file which is sent along with an e-mail It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. In Computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for the shared storage of Computer files (such The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks. In Computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a Data set On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site For other uses of the term see Peer-to-peer (disambiguation For peer-to-peer networks used for file sharing see File sharing

In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication; the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. Authentication (from Greek αυθεντικός real or genuine from authentes author is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone as The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests. A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a type of asymmetric cryptography used to simulate the security properties of a handwritten Signature In Cryptography, MD5 ( Message-Digest algorithm 5) is a widely used partially insecure Cryptographic hash function with a 128- Bit hash value

These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.

Internet collaboration technology enables business and project teams to share documents, calendars and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing.

Streaming media

Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized, technical webcasts. Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of Sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer A webcast is a media file distributed over the Internet using Streaming media technology Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is first downloaded in full and then may be played back on a computer or shifted to a digital audio player to be listened to on the move. A podcast is a series of audio or Video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated Download A digital audio player, more commonly referred to as an MP3 player, is a Consumer electronics device that stores organizes and plays audio files Some These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.

Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. Webcams ( web cameras) are small cameras (usually though not always Video cameras, whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, the traffic at a local roundabout or their own premises, live and in real time. The Panama Canal is a man-made Canal in Panama which joins the Video chat rooms, video conferencing, and remote controllable webcams are also popular. The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by Mass media to describe any form of Synchronous conferencing, occasionally even Asynchronous conferencing A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive Telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact Many uses can be found for personal webcams in and around the home, with and without two-way sound.

YouTube, sometimes described as an Internet phenomenon because of the vast amount of users and how rapidly the site's popularity has grown, was founded on February 15, 2005. YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload view and share Video clips YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees Events 590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia 1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It is now the leading website for free streaming video. It uses a flash-based web player which streams video files in the format FLV. Users are able to watch videos without signing up; however, if users do sign up they are able to upload an unlimited amount of videos and they are given their own personal profile. It is currently estimated that there are 64,000,000 videos on YouTube, and it is also currently estimated that 825,000 new videos are uploaded every day.

Voice telephony (VoIP)

For more details on this topic, see VoIP. Voice-over-Internet protocol ( VoIP, vɔɪp is a protocol optimized for the transmission of voice through the Internet

VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the instant messaging systems that took off around the year 2000. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the actual voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as cable or ADSL. A cable modem is a type of Modem that provides access to a data signal sent over the Cable television infrastructure Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ( ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper Telephone

Thus, VoIP is maturing into a viable alternative to traditional telephones. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP modems are now available that eliminate the need for a PC.

Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls.

Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialing and reliability. Many countries' public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or occasionally the Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the electronics. An uninterruptible power supply ( UPS) also known as a continuous power supply ( CPS) or a battery backup is a device which maintains a continuous

Most VoIP providers offer unlimited national calling, but the direction in VoIP is clearly toward global coverage with unlimited minutes for a low monthly fee.

VoIP has also become increasingly popular within the gaming world, as a form of communication between players. Popular gaming VoIP clients include Ventrilo and Teamspeak, and there are others available also. Ventrilo is a proprietary Voice over Internet Protocol program with clients for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. TeamSpeak is proprietary Voice over IP software that allows users to speak on a chat channel with other users much like a telephone Conference call The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 also offer VoIP chat features. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS.

Internet by region

Main article: Internet access worldwide

Main article: List of countries by number of Internet users

Internet access

For more details on this topic, see Internet access. For more information about the development of Internet connections in individual countries click on the links below This is a list of countries by number of Internet users. Internet access refers to the means by which users connect to the Internet.

Common methods of home access include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and 3G technology cell phones. Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just Broadband, is high-speed Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over a Modem An optical fiber (or fibre) is a Glass or Plastic fiber that carries Light along its length Wi-Fi (ˈwaɪfaɪ is the trade name for the popular wireless technology used Satellite Internet services are used in locations where terrestrial Internet access is not available and in locations which move frequently 3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and Technology, superseding 2

Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. An Interactive kiosk is a Computer terminal that provides information access via electronic methods Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". A payphone or pay phone is a public Telephone, with payment made by inserting money (usually coins or a Debit card (a special Telephone card Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee-based. These terminals are widely accessed for various usage like ticket booking, bank deposit, online payment etc. Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi cafes, where would-be users need to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. A hotspot is a venue that offers Wi-Fi access to the Internet Wi-Fi (ˈwaɪfaɪ is the trade name for the popular wireless technology used A laptop computer, also known as a notebook computer, is a small Personal computer designed for mobile use. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. A whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. For other meanings see Grass roots (disambiguation. A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a Political movement Wireless community networks or wireless community projects are the organizations that attempt to take a grassroots approach to providing a viable alternative to Municipal Commercial Wi-Fi services covering large city areas are in place in London, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench. ^[8]

Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet, various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services. Ricochet Networks was one of the pioneering wireless Internet service providers in the United States, before the advent of widespread Wi-Fi, 3G

High-end mobile phones such as smartphones generally come with Internet access through the phone network. A smartphone is a Mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone often with PC -like functionality Web browsers such as Opera are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. Opera is a Web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used. An Internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online.

Social impact

The Internet has made possible entirely new forms of social interaction, activities and organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access.

Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have created a new form of socialization and interaction. Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004 MySpace is a popular social networking Website offering an interactive user-submitted network of friends personal profiles blogs groups photos music and Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people.

Sites like meetup.com exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their group's site at meetup. Meetupcom (also called Meetup) is an online Social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world org, or other similar sites.

Political organization and censorship

For more details on this topic, see Internet censorship. Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet.

In democratic societies, the Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States became famous for its ability to generate donations via the Internet. Howard Brush Dean III, (born November 17 1948 is an American The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a whole new method of organizing, in order to carry out Internet activism. Internet activism (also known as e-activism, electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, e-campaigning and online organizing) is the use of

Some governments, such as those of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, the People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia, restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content. The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention.

In Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily (possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law) agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. While this list of forbidden URLs is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret.

Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering software. Child pornography refers to material depicting Children being in a state of undress engaged in erotic poses or sexual activity

There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a child's access to pornography or violence. See Content-control software. Content-control software, also known as censorware or web filtering software, is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content

Leisure activities

The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. In computer gaming, a MUD ( Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of MOO programming language Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system Today, many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated Film which is created using Adobe Flash animation software and often distributed in the Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas.

The pornography and gambling industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites. Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of Sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer Although many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity.

One main area of leisure on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. A multiplayer game is a Game which is played by several players. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing games to online gambling. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War A computer role-playing game ( CRPG) is a broad Video game genre originally developed for personal computers and other home computers Online gambling is a general term for Gambling using the Internet This has revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet.

While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with services such as GameSpy and MPlayer, to which players of games would typically subscribe. GameSpy Arcade is a Shareware Multiplayer game server browsing utility MPlayer, referred to as MPlayercom by 1998 was a free online PC gaming service and community that operated from late 1996 until early 2001 Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of gameplay or certain games.

Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Discretion is needed as some of these sources take more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others.

Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests.

People use chat, messaging and e-mail to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had pen pals. Pen pals (or penpals or pen friends) are People who regularly write to each other particularly via Postal mail. Social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment. MySpace is a popular social networking Website offering an interactive user-submitted network of friends personal profiles blogs groups photos music and Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004

The Internet has seen a growing number of Web desktops, where users can access their files, folders, and settings via the Internet. A web desktop or webtop is a Desktop environment embedded in a Web browser or similar client application.

Cyberslacking has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57 minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services. Goldbricking, in today's terms generally refers to staff who use their work internet access for personal reasons while maintaining the appearance of working ^[9]

Complex architecture

Many computer scientists see the Internet as a "prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system". ^[10] The Internet is extremely heterogeneous. (For instance, data transfer rates and physical characteristics of connections vary widely. ) The Internet exhibits "emergent phenomena" that depend on its large-scale organization. For other uses see Emergence (disambiguation, Emergent, and Emergency. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal self-similarity. In Mathematics, a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself (i Further adding to the complexity of the Internet is the ability of more than one computer to use the Internet through only one node, thus creating the possibility for a very deep and hierarchal sub-network that can theoretically be extended infinitely (disregarding the programmatic limitations of the IPv4 protocol). However, since principles of this architecture date back to the 1960s, it might not be a solution best suited to modern needs, and thus the possibility of developing alternative structures is currently being looked into. ^[11]

According to a June 2007 article in Discover magazine, the combined weight of all the electrons moved within the Internet in a day is 0. Discover is a Science magazine that publishes articles about Science for a general audience 2 millionths of an ounce. ^[12] Others have estimated this at nearer 2 ounces (50 grams). ^[13]

Marketing

The Internet has also become a large market for companies; some of the biggest companies today have grown by taking advantage of the efficient nature of low-cost advertising and commerce through the Internet, also known as e-commerce. Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce' or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic It is the fastest way to spread information to a vast number of people simultaneously. The Internet has also subsequently revolutionized shopping—for example; a person can order a CD online and receive it in the mail within a couple of days, or download it directly in some cases. Shopping is the examining of Goods or services from Retailers with intent to purchase at that time A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also To download is to receive data from a remote or central system such as a Webserver, FTP server, mail server or other similar systems The Internet has also greatly facilitated personalized marketing which allows a company to market a product to a specific person or a specific group of people more so than any other advertising medium. Personalized marketing (also called Personalization, and sometimes called One-to-one marketing) is an extreme form of Product differentiation.

Examples of personalized marketing include online communities such as MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, Facebook and others which thousands of Internet users join to advertise themselves and make friends online. MySpace is a popular social networking Website offering an interactive user-submitted network of friends personal profiles blogs groups photos music and Friendster is an Internet Social network service. The Friendster site was founded in Mountain View California, United States by Jonathan Abrams in March 2002 and orkut is a Social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. Facebook is a social networking Website launched on February 4 2004 Many of these users are young teens and adolescents ranging from 13 to 25 years old. In turn, when they advertise themselves they advertise interests and hobbies, which online marketing companies can use as information as to what those users will purchase online, and advertise their own companies' products to those users.

Further information: Disintermediation#Impact of Internet-related disintermediation upon various industries and Travel agency#The Internet threat

The terms “internet” and “Internet”

For more details on this topic, see Internet capitalization conventions. In Economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a Supply chain: "cutting out the middleman" Internet capitalization conventions are the standards supported by the various sides involved in the long-standing debate on whether to write "Internet" or "internet"

Like any noun in English, Internet is written with a capital first letter when it is a proper noun and without capitalization when it is a common noun. Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, The Internet Society, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and several other Internet-related organizations use this convention in their publications. The Internet Society or ISOC is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards education and policy ICANN (aɪkæn eye-can is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Originally, Internet was used without placement of the word the before Internet, as with the acronym ARPANET. Eventually, use of the term "the Internet" won out in the popular lexicon, perhaps due to confusion with "the Word Wide Web". Ironically, this change was not a subject of wide debate, though it led to subsequent debates over the continued capitalization of Internet.

Many newspapers, newswires, periodicals, and technical journals capitalize the term (Internet). Examples include The New York Times, the Associated Press, Time, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, and Communications of the ACM. The Associated Press ( AP) is an American News agency. The AP is a Cooperative owned by its contributing Newspapers radio Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and The Times of India ( TOI) is a leading English-language Broadsheet Daily newspaper in India. Hindustan Times ( HT) is a leading newspaper in India, published since 1924 with roots in the independence movement Communications of the ACM ( CACM) is the flagship monthly Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM

Others assert that the first letter should be in lower case (internet), and that the specific article the is sufficient to distinguish "the internet" from other internets; in other words, that the word internet is always a common noun. This requires that the reader depend on context to understand whether "the internet" refers to an internet the writer has previously mentioned or to the well-known world-wide network. A significant number of publications use this form, including The Economist, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sydney Morning Herald. The Economist is an English-language weekly news and International affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London The Financial Times ( FT) is a British international business Newspaper. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. The Sydney Morning Herald ( SMH) is a daily Broadsheet Newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia As of 2005, many publications using internet for this meaning appear to be located outside of North America—although one U. S. news source, Wired News, has adopted the lower-case spelling. Wired News is an online technology news Website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the

Historically, Internet and internet have had different meanings, with internet meaning "an interconnected set of distinct networks", i. Internetworking involves connecting two or more distinct Computer networks or network segments via a common routing technology e. a network of networks, and Internet referring to the largest internet, the worldwide, publicly-available IP internet. The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol In this usage, the Internet is the familiar network on which public Web sites exist; however, an internet is any network of smaller networks. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages ^[14] Any group of networks connected together is an internet; each of these networks may or may not be part of the Internet. The distinction is evident in many RFCs, books, and articles from the 1980s and early 1990s (some of which, such as RFC 1918, refer to "internets" in the plural). In Computer network Engineering, a Request for Comments (RFC is a Memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF describing Some argue that the usage apparently agreed on by the IETF, ICANN, the W3C, and the Internet Society is by definition the correct usage.

See also

Main articles: List of basic Internet topics and List of Internet topics

Major aspects and issues

• Internet democracy
• History of the Internet
• Net neutrality
• Privacy on the Internet
• Internet phenomenon
• Internet bias
• Demographics of the Internet/Internet users

Functions

• E-mail
• File-sharing
• Instant messaging
• Internet fax
• World Wide Web
• Voice over IP
• Mobile VoIP

Underlying infrastructure

• Internet Protocol (IP)
• Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Regulatory bodies

• Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Notes

References

• Media Freedom Internet Cookbook by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Vienna, 2004
• Living Internet—Internet history and related information, including information from many creators of the Internet
• First Monday peer-reviewed journal on the Internet
• How Much Does The Internet Weigh? by Stephen Cass, Discover 2007
• Rehmeyer, Julie J. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media functions as a watchdog on media developments in all 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation Discover is a Science magazine that publishes articles about Science for a general audience 2007. Mapping a medusa: The Internet spreads its tentacles. Science News 171(June 23):387-388. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070623/fob2.asp .
• Castells, M. 1996. Rise of the Network Society. 3 vols. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
• Castells, M. (2001), “Lessons from the History of Internet”, in “The Internet Galaxy”, Ch. 1, pp 9-35. Oxford Univ. Press.

External links

• "10 Years that changed the world" — Wired looks back at the evolution of the Internet over last 10 years
• Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard
• A comprehensive history with people, concepts and quotations
• CBC Digital Archives—Inventing the Internet Age
• How the Internet Came to Be
• Internet Explained
• Global Internet Traffic Report
• The Internet Society History Page
• RFC 801, planning the TCP/IP switchover
• Archive CBC Video Circa 1990 about the Internet
• "The beginners guide to the internet."
• "Warriors of the net - A movie about the internet."
• "History of Nova Scotia-First on the Net"
• European Future Internet Portal
• Preparing Europe’s digital future - i2010 Mid-Term Review
• Ringmar, Erik. A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet (London: Anthem Press, 2007).