1. CIBM- BUSINESS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Chapter Eight- From the Internet to the
information super highway

2. 8.1 THE INTERNET: A NETWORK
OF NETWORKS
 The Internet is an interconnected network of thousands of
networks linking academic, research, government, and
commercial institutions, other organizations, and
individuals. The Internet is a technology, a tool, and a
culture. It was originally designed by computer scientists
for computer scientists, but today it’s used by people in all
walks of life all over the world.
 The Internet provides scientists, engineers, researchers,
educators, students, business people, consumers, and
others with a variety of services, including:
 Electronic mail (e-mail)
 Web publishing
 Instant messaging
 Network newsgroups
 Banking
 Research

3. 8.1.2 INTERNET PROTOCOLS
 The protocols at the heart of the Internet are
called TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol). They were developed
as an experiment in internetworking—connecting
different types of networks and computer
systems. The TCP/IP specifications were
published as open standards, not owned by any
company. They define how information can be
transferred between machines and how machines
on the network can be identified with unique
addresses.

4. 8.1.3 INTERNET ACCESS OPTIONS
 There are three common ways users can connect their
computers to the Internet to take advantage of some
or all Internet services:
 Direct (dedicated) connection, which provides
the fastest, most reliable service.
 Dial-up connections use a modem and standard
phone line. A full-access dial-up connection
offers most of the advantages of direct
connection, but is limited by modem speed.
 Broadband connections include DSL, cable
modem connections, and satellite connections.

5. INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
(ISPS)
 Offer several connection options at different
prices. In some cities inexpensive or free access
to the Internet is available through a free net—
a local bulletin board system designed to provide
community access to on-line forums,
announcements, and services. Many computer
networks, bulletin board systems, and on-line
services provide varying degrees of Internet
access through gateways. A gateway is a
computer connected to two networks—in this
case, the Internet and an outside network—that
translates communication protocols and transfers
information between the two.

6. 8.1.4 INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS
 For many organizations, Internet protocols and
software are more important than the Net itself.
Members of these organizations communicate
through intranets—self-contained
intraorganizational networks that are
designed using the same technology as the
Internet. Some private TCP/IP networks are
designed for outside use by customers,
clients, and business partners of the
organization. These networks, often called
extranets, are typically for electronic
commerce—business transactions through
electronic networks.

7. 8.2 INTERNET APPLICATIONS:
COMMUNICATION AND CONNECTION
 Working with Internet applications is different
from working with word processors or
spreadsheets because of the distributed nature of
the Internet and the client/server model used
by most Internet applications. In the
client/server model, a client program asks
for information and a server program fields
the request and provides the requested
information from databases and documents.
Two different users might access the same
server using completely different client
applications with different user interfaces.

8. 8.2.1 INTERNET ADDRESSES
 The most popular reason for connecting to the
Internet is electronic mail. You can send messages to
anyone with an Internet link, provided you know his
or her Internet address.
 A person’s e-mail address is made up of two parts
separated by an “at” sign (@)—the person’s user name
(login name), and the host name—the name of the
host computer or network where the user receives
mail. Here’s the basic form: study@Regent.ac.za.
 The host is named using what’s called the domain
name system (DNS)—a system that translates the
computer’s numerical IP address into something
that’s easier for humans to read and remember. The
DNS uses a string of names separated by dots to
specify the exact Internet location of the host
computer. The words in the domain name are
arranged hierarchically from little to big.

9. 8.2.2 E-MAIL ON THE INTERNET
 Basic e-mail can be handled by a character-based
program like PINE or (if you have a full Internet
connection) a graphical client program like
Netscape, Microsoft Outlook Express, or Eudora.
Standard Internet mail messages are plain
ASCII text. Formatted word processor
documents, pictures, and other multimedia files
usually need to be temporarily converted to
ASCII using some kind of encoding scheme before
they can be sent through Internet mail; these
encoded documents are sent as attachments to
text messages.

10. 8.2.4 NETWORK NEWS
 You can participate in special-interest
discussions and debates without overloading your
mailbox by taking advantage of the hundreds of
Usenet newsgroups. These are public
discussions that you can check into and out
of whenever you want; all messages are
posted on virtual bulletin boards for anyone
to read. Newsgroups are organized
hierarchically, with dot names like
rec.music.makers.percussion and
soc.culture.french. To explore network
newsgroups, you need a client program that
can serve as a news reader.

11. 8.2.5 REAL-TIME
COMMUNICATION
 Mailing lists and news groups are delayed, or
asynchronous communication, because the
sender and the recipient don’t have to be logged
in at the same time. The Internet offers
programs for real-time communication, too.
Text-based options include Talk and Internet
Relay Chat (IRC). Newer, easier to use instant
message systems such as AOL’s allow users to
create “buddy lists” and chat with “buddies”
who are logged in. Many new programs allow
you to use a computer’s microphone and
speaker to turn the Internet into a toll-free long
distance telephone service. Some even allow
two-way video teleconferences.

12. 8.2.6 TELNET AND FTP
 To find and retrieve information located on
remote Internet sites, Net explorers have
traditionally used two software tools:
remote login and file transfer. Remote login
allows users to connect to hosts all over the
world from just about anywhere. The
protocol that makes remote login possible is
called telnet, which is also the name of the
UNIX command that’s used for remote login
and the name of a program that executes
the Telnet command from directly
connected Macintosh and Windows PCs.

13. FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL
 The Internet’s file transfer protocol,
commonly called just FTP, can transfer files
from remote sites to users’ host computers.
Many sites allow anonymous FTP so you
can collect files without officially logging
in. Most files in net archives are
compressed—made smaller using special
encoding schemes. Compression saves
storage space on disks and saves
transmission time when files are
transferred through networks.

14. END CHAPTER EIGHT