Chapter 7

The Internet, Intranets, and

Extranets access methods
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Information and Organizations

The Internet
The internet

A network of networks
The internet transmits data from one computer
(called a host) to another

Internet networks

Linked networks that work much the same way

-- they pass data around in packets, each of
which carries the addresses of its sender and
Schematic
receiver

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Internet Discussion (1)

A global network connecting millions of computers. As of 1999, the
Internet has more than 200 million users worldwide, and that number
is growing rapidly. More than 100 countries are linked into
exchanges of data, news and opinions.
Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is
decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is
independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to
use and which local services to make available to the global Internet
community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly
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Internet Discussion (2)

well.
There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online
services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet
services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial
Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Note: York Universitys CCS (Computer and Communications
Services) is an ISP.
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How the Internet Works

Transport control protocol (TCP)
A protocol that operates at the transport layer and is

used in combination with IP by most Internet

applications
Backbone
An Internet high-speed, long distance communications
links (like a bus; wire that connects nodes)
Uniform resource locator (URL)
An assigned address on the Internet for each computer
E.g., http://www.yorku.ca/

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Domain Affiliations

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Domain

Affiliations

arts

cultural and entertainment activities

com

business organizations

edu

educational sites

firm

businesses and firms

gov

government sites

info

information service providers

mil

military sites

nom

individuals

net

networking organizations

org

organizations

rec

recreational activities

store

businesses offering goods for purchase

web

entities
related toand
World
Wide Web activities
Information
Organizations

net

networking organizations

Access to the Internet

LAN servers
Local servers can provide access to the Internet through
normal connections (e.g., Ethernet)

Serial line internet protocol (SLIP) and

Point-to-point protocol (PPP)
Communications protocol software that transmits packets over
telephone lines, allowing dial-up access to the Internet

Connection via an on-line service

Examples are America Online and Microsoft Network. These
services usually require sign-up procedures
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Three Ways to Access the

Internet

Schematic
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Internet Service Providers

Internet service provider (ISP)

Any company that provides individuals or

companies with access to the Internet
Thousands of providers including large
communications companies
Need an account with the ISP and software that
links with TCP/IP
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ISP Examples
Internet Service Provider

Web Address

AT&T WorldNet Service

www.att.com

Digex, Inc.

www.digex.net

GTE Internetworking

www.gte.net

IBM Internet Connection

www.ibm.net

MCI Internet

www.mci2000.com

NetCom On-Line Communication www.netcom.com

Services
PSINet, Inc.

www.psinet.com

Sprint Internet Services

www.sprint.net

Uunet Technologies, Inc.

www.us.uu.net

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Internet Services
E-mail
Telnet
FTP(File Transfer Protocol)
Usenet and newsgroups
Chat rooms
Internet phone
Internet videoconferencing
Content streaming
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Selected Usenet Groups

alt.fan.addams.family
alt.pets
alt.autos.camaro
alt.cloning
alt.fan.u2
alt.sports.baseball.cinci-red
alt.politics.socialism
alt.sports.soccer.european.uk

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alt.life.itself
alt.fan.bevis-n-butthead
alt.fan.leonardo-dicaprio
alt.history
alt.music.blues
alt.music.zz-top
alt.sports.college.sec

Information and Organizations

Internet Services
Internet telephony

Also called voice-over-IP (VOIP)

Technology that enables network managers to route
phone calls and fax transmissions over the same
network they use for data

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VOIP Discussion
Internet telephony is a category of hardware and software that
enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for
telephone calls. For users who have free, or fixed-price, Internet
access, Internet telephony software essentially provides free
telephone calls anywhere in the world. To date, however, Internet
telephony does not offer the same quality of telephone service as
direct telephone connections.
There are many Internet telephony applications available. Some,
like CoolTalk and NetMeeting, come bundled with popular Web
browsers. Others are stand-alone products. Internet telephony
products are sometimes called IP telephony, Voice over the Internet
(VOI) or Voice over IP (VOIP) products.
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Content Streaming
Content streaming
A method for transferring multimedia files over the

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Internet so that the data stream of voice and pictures

plays continuously, without a break, or very few of
them
It also enables users to browse large files in real
time

Information and Organizations

The World Wide Web

World Wide Web
A collection of tens of thousands of independentlyowned computers that work together as one in an
Internet service

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WWW Terminology
Home page
The cover page for a Web site that has graphics,
titles, coloured text, etc.

Hypermedia
Tools that connect the data on Web pages, allowing
users to access topics in whatever order they wish

Hypertext markup language (HTML)

The standard page description language for Web
pages

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Some Interesting Web Sites

Library of Congress
PointCast
In-Box Direct
Online Career Center
New York Times
Project Gutenberg
Sportsline USA
White House
MIT Lab for Computer Science
The Wall Street Journal
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http://lcweb.loc.gov
http://www.pointcast.com
http://www.netscape.com
http://occ.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.gutenberg.org
http://www.sportsline.com
http://www.whitehouse.gov
http://www.lcs.mit.edu
http://www.wsj.com

Information and Organizations

WWW Terminology
Web browser
Software that creates a unique hypermedia-based
menu on your computer screen and provides a
graphical interface to the Web

Web page
A screen of information sent to a requesting user
and presented through a browser

Applet
A small program embedded in Web pages
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HTML
The language of WWW pages

Need we say more!!!

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Search Engines
Search engines

A search tool for the Web (like card catalogs in

libraries)
E.g., Altavista

Excite
Galaxy
Hotbot
Infoseek
Lycos
Webcrawler
Yahoo!

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http://www.altavista.digital.com
http://www.excite.com
http://www.einet.net
http://www.hotbot.com
http://www.infoseek.com
http://www.lycos.com
http://www.webcrawler.com
http://www.yahoo.com

Information and Organizations

Java
Java

An object-oriented programming language

Developed by Sun Microsystems
Based on C++
Allows small programs -- applets -- to be
embedded within an HTML document

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Applets
Applets are small java programs that are
downloaded from the server to the local
machine

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Push Technology
Push technology
Technology that enables users to automatically
receive information over the Internet rather than
searching for it using a browser
Also called Webcasting

E.g.,
PointCast
InterMind
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Webcasting Discussion
Using the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, to
broadcast information. Unlike typical surfing, which relies on a pull
method of transferring Web pages, webcasting uses push
technologies.

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Push Discussion (1)

In client/server applications, to send data to a client without
the client requesting it. The World Wide Web is based on a pull
technology where the client browser must request a Web page
before it is sent. Broadcast media, on the other hand, are push
technologies because they send information out regardless of
whether anyone is tuned in.
Increasingly, companies are using the Internet to deliver information
push-style. One of the most successful examples of this is
PointCast, which delivers customized news to users' desktops.
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Push Discussion (2)

Probably the oldest and most widely used push technology is e-mail.
This is a push technology because you receive mail whether you ask
for it or not -- that is, the sender pushes the message to the
receiver.

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Business Use of the Web

Uses:
Applications, E-mail, Product Display, Catalogs, Order
placement

Products people are likely to buy on the Web

Software
77%
Books 67%
CDs 64%
Computer hardware
63%
Airline tickets 61%
Magazine subscriptions 53%
Concert/theater tickets 48%
Flowers
45%
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Intranets and Extranets

Intranet
An internal corporate network built using Internet
and World Wide Web standards and products that
allows employees of an organization to gain access
to corporate information

Extranet
A network based on Web technologies that links
selected resources of the intranet of a company with
its customers, suppliers, or other business partners
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Intranet Discussion
A network based on TCP/IP protocols (an internet) belonging to an
organization, usually a corporation, accessible only by the
organization's members, employees, or others with authorization. An
intranet's Web sites look and act just like any other Web sites, but
the firewall surrounding an intranet fends off unauthorized access.
Like the Internet itself, intranets are used to share information.
Secure intranets are now the fastest-growing segment of the
Internet because they are much less expensive to build and manage
than private networks based on proprietary protocols.
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Extranet Discussion
A new buzzword that refers to an intranet that is partially
accessible to authorized outsiders. Whereas an intranet resides
behind a firewall and is accessible only to people who are members
of the same company or organization, an extranet provides various
levels of accessibility to outsiders. You can access an extranet only
if you have a valid username and password, and your identity
determines which parts of the extranet you can view.
Extranets are becoming a very popular means for business partners
to exchange information.
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Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A secure connection between two points across the
Internet

Tunneling
The process by which VPNs transfer information by
encapsulating traffic in IP packets and sending the
packets over the Internet
Schematic
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VPN Discussion
Short for virtual private network, a network that is constructed by
using public wires to connect nodes. For example, there are a
number of systems that enable you to create networks using the
Internet as the medium for transporting data. These systems use
encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only
authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot
be intercepted.

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Tunneling Discussion
A technology that enables one network to send its data via another
network's connections. Tunneling works by encapsulating a network
protocol within packets carried by the second network. For example,
Microsoft's PPTP technology enables organizations to use the
Internet to transmit data across a virtual private network (VPN). It
does this by embedding its own network protocol within the TCP/IP
packets carried by the Internet. (Note: PPTP = point-to-point tunneling
protocol)
Tunneling is also called encapsulation.
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Internet Issues
Management issues

No centralized governing body for the Internet

Service bottlenecks
Phenomenal growth has left a service void
Providers underestimating computing power
needed
Reconciling router addresses needed to
transverse the network
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Privacy & Security

Cryptography
The process of converting a message into a secret code and
changing the encoded message back to regular text

Encryption
The original conversion of a message into a secret code

Digital Signature
An encryption technique used for online financial transactions

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Have a
nice day

Encryption
software
running on
sending
computer
E%$&:}{|

Decryption
software
running on
Receiving
computer

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Have a
nice day

Firewalls
Firewalls
A method of preventing unauthorized access
between a companys computers and the Internet
(looks at the header of a packet)

Assured pipeline
An Internet security method that looks at the entire
request for data and then determines whether the
request is valid

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Firewall Discussion (1)

A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a
private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and
software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to
prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private
networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All
messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall,
which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet
the specified security criteria.
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Firewall Discussion (2)

There are several types of firewall techniques:
Packet filter: Looks at each packet entering or leaving the network and

accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Packet filtering is fairly

effective and transparent to users, but it is difficult to configure. In addition, it
is susceptible to IP spoofing.
Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to specific applications,
such as FTP and Telnet servers. This is very effective, but can impose a
performance degradation.
Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP
connection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can
flow between the hosts without further checking.
Proxy server: Intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network. The
proxy server effectively hides the true network addresses.

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Firewall Discussion (3)

In practice, many firewalls use two or more of these techniques in
concert.
A firewall is considered a first line of defense in protecting private
information. For greater security, data can be encrypted.

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End of Chapter 7
Chapter 8
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