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Chapter 13: The Internet

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The Internet
The web is a big place, and tens of thousands of
people have put hundreds of thousands of hours
into making it enjoyable. The vast majority of them
havent made any money from their work yet, and
many did it for the joy of starting something new.
(Hoffman, 1995)

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The Internet
The Internet is a strange phenomenon:
It had its origins as a military project in 1969;
It was adopted by the research and academic
community;
Became the tool (or toy) of computer nerds
around the world;
and then:
it became the engine that, it is claimed, is to
propel the world into the information age and the
twenty-first century.

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The Internet
The Internet is an interesting phenomenon:
Nobody owns it.
Technically it is defined by its communications
protocol:
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP).
At another level it is defined by:
The people who use it individuals,
institutions and companies that make
information available, send messages,
access web sites and, in the case of eCommerce, buy and sell.
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The development of the Internet (1)

The origins of the Internet are commonly traced
back to a US military project, the ARPAnet:
Commissioned in 1969.
Explored packet switching technology (to ensure
resilience in the case of attack).
Further early developments:
CSNet (Computer Science Network) 1981.
Military split from the ARPAnet 1983.
JANET, Joint Academic Network (UK 1984).
NSFNet, National Science Foundation (USA
1986).
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The development of the Internet (2)

The TCP/IP protocol was established in 1982:
Introduced on the ARPAnet in 1983.
Application protocols used in TCP/IP include:
File transfer system (FTP),
e-mail protocol (SMTP),
Remote login facility (Telnet).
Nodes on network identified by IP Address.
The World Wide Web can be traced back to 1989:
Initially developed CERN.
Later Mosaic was developed by NCSA (1993).
Netscape was started in 1994.
Microsoft Internet Explorer was issues some
time later.
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The development of the Internet (3)

Other developments:
Server software e.g. Apache.
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
e.g. Perl programs.
Web Programming, e.g. using JAVA, PHP, .NET
Size of the web:
1994 aprox 500 web sites.
1995 nearly 10,000 sites
and it grows and grows.

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TCP/IP (1)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TCP/IP.
packet switching protocol:
Messages are split up into segments
(packets) with:
Source and destination addresses
A package sequence number
Other header and trailer information
The route a packet takes through the network is
determined within the network

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TCP/IP (2)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TCP/IP.
TCP provides the transport protocol.
IP provides the routing mechanism.
IP addresses have this form 192.9.1.20.
Used for the sending network (netid)
and the destination computer (hostid)
Port number for the application, e.g. 80 for the WWW.
The TCP/IP protocol stack has five layers:
Application Layer
Transport Layer
Network Layer
Data Link Layer
Physical Layer
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TCP/IP Application Layer

The application is the program that initiates the
transfer (users own program, application package
or TCP/IP applications)
FTP
SMTP
Telnet

File Transfer Protocol:

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol:
Remote login facility.

The message, IP address and port number, are

passed to the transport layer.
IP Address can be retrieved from the DNS (Domain
Name System)/WINS (Windows Internet Name
System).
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TCP/IP Transport Layer

TCP establishes a logical connection with the
receiving computer and determines the size of the
segments to be sent.
TCP then divides up the message into segments and
attaches a header specifying:
The source port
The destination port
Segment sequence number
UDP is an alternative to TCP that is used for real-time
audio or video.
The segments and IP addresses are passed to the
network layer.
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TCP/IP Network Layer

Responsible for routing the packet from source
station to its final destination station, specified by the
MAC address.
If the MAC address is not already available then:
An ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) request is
broadcast to the network
The machine with that IP address responds with
its MAC address.
The Network Layer may fragment the segments
from the Transport Layer into smaller packets.
Output packets (referred to as datagrams) are
passed to the datalink layer.
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TCP/IP Data Link Layer

Interface with the network to be used, e.g. Ethernet,
or X25.
The network protocol will typically add its own
header (Nh) and trailer (Nt) that incorporate the
MAC address.
The packet is then passed onto the medium, the
physical network layer.

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TCP/IP Physical Layer

The cables used for transmission.

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TCP/IP Protocol
Application Layer

FTP, SMTP, Telnet

or application,

DNS / WINS
server

IP address
port number
data message

Transport Layer

(TCP or UDP)

IP address
TCP head data packet

Network Layer

Target
ARPd

IP

MAC Addr
IP head

TCP head datagram

Data Link Layer

Nh IP head

Ethernet, etc.

TCP head datagram

Nt

Physical Layer

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Internet Components
Client
World Wide Web
e-Mail
Internet Service Provider
Server
Web Server
Mail Server
Intranets
Extranets
Webmaster
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Governance of the Internet

Co-ordination and development of the Internet is
provided by a number of voluntary committees.
These include:
Internet Society
Internet Engineering Task Force
Internet Research Task Force
The whole arrangement works well.

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Uses of the Internet

Personal Messaging (e-Mail)
Data Interchange (EDI)
Teleworking
Distance Education
Entertainment

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Internet Age Systems

Seddon (1997) suggested that the evolution of information
systems can be divided into periods of 20 years as follows:
19551974 The Electronic Data Processing (EDP) era.
19751994 The Management Information Systems (MIS) era.
1995
The Internet era.
EDP essentially batch controlled by the DP professionals
used at the organisational level.
MIS utilises transaction processing (TP) and databases
enabled access to business data throughout the organisation.

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Internet Age Systems

Electronic Data
Processing (EDP)

Management Information
Systems (MIS)

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Internet Era
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Chapter 13 Exercise 1

Explain packet switching how does packet

switching differ from a switched network
(i.e. a dialled call)?

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Chapter 13 Exercise 2

Draw a simple diagram of the hardware, network

and software facilities utilised when an e-Shop is
accessed from a home PC.

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Chapter 13 Exercise 3

Consider your college, university or place of work

and suggest what uses/information would be
appropriate to an intranet, an extranet and the
Internet.

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Chapter 13 Exercise 4

The chapter lists some of the facilities available on

the web (eCommerce, e-Mail, etc).
Add to the list and suggest business (as opposed to
personal) uses for each of the facilities listed.

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