Introduction to the Internet
The following is a brief description of the basic concepts of the
Internet, and definitions of certain basic terms. Some applications may
not be widely used today, but each item gives a background of the
Internet and how it began.
Table of Contents
- What is the INTERNET?
- Why would I want to use the INTERNET?
- What is the World Wide Web?
- What is E-mail?
- What is Pine?
- What is Telnet?
- What is Gopher?
- What is the finger service?
- What are Newsgroups?
- What is Tin?
- What is FTP?
- What is Archie?
- What is IRC?
A computer network is a group of computers that have been connected
together so that they can communicate with each other. By definition, the
Internet is a network of networks. In actuality, the Internet is a
collection of worldwide resources belonging to institutions such as
government bodies, universities, businesses, library systems, hospitals,
schools and communities. It is about communication, resources and sharing.
The computers are simply the tools that allow us to communicate
with ease. It can be compared to the phone system. You must know the phone
number of the person you are calling, but you are not concerned about how
you call arrives at it's destination.
The Internet originated in the late 1960s with a network, Arpanet,
sponsored by the US Department of Defense that was designed to survive
military attack. The National Science Foundation joined to create a
network of universities and the Internet has been expanding ever since.
Read How the Internet Came to Be.
You might want to correspond electronically with a friend, relative,
or business associate who is either in the next office or on the other
side of the world. You might want to read a few articles in some of the
worldwide discussion groups. Perhaps you are in the mood for some
jokes. Maybe you need some ideas for a dinner party you are hosting.
Do you need information on Tibet before you make vacation plans? You might
have to
check the latest stock market quotes before you get those SST tickets!
What is the latest Supreme Court decision? Will it rain tomorrow? Are you
looking for someone who maybe interested in a game of chess. There is such
a vast amount of information available, that not one person can claim
to know everything about the Internet.
The World Wide Web is a hypertext system that allows users to move
thru linked documents. Hypertext is a system in which documents contain
data that contain links to other data, allowing readers to move between
areas following subjects in a variety of different paths. For example, if
someone is using the Web to read about dogs, every time a new breed is
mentioned, the name is marked in some way. It may be highlighted or
underlined. By following that link the user will jump to an article about
that breed of dog. Linking can move forwards or backwards. The Web can be
used to access any Internet resource.
The World Wide Web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee while working at the
European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). He is now the director of the
Internet Consortium headquartered at MIT. For all you ever wanted to know about the Web
and were afraid to ask, link to the W3C.
Electronic mail, or e-mail, is simply a way to send messages across an
electronic network and is probably the most used Internet resource.
Messages are written, addressed and posted. Incoming mail is placed in an
"in-box" where it remains until it is removed. E-mail is faster than
regular mail and is certainly cheaper than a phone call.
In addition to personal notes, mail can be used to transmit all sorts
of information: documents, publications, programs and so on.
For more information, check out our E-Mail Help
Page.
PINE is the University of Washington's "Program for Internet News and
E-mail" which is used to read, manage and send messages. It utilizes a
simple menu that is especially suited to beginners as well as more
experienced users. The options include:
COMPOSE MESSAGE - permits you to create and send messages
FOLDER INDEX - displays summary for each item in the currently open
folder
FOLDER LIST - displays new mail, sent mail, and received mail folders
ADDRESS BOOK - Maintains a list of frequently used e-mail addresses to be
retrieved when a message is to be sent
Telnet is the method of "getting on" a remote computer system which
allows public access in order to view files and search data bases. It is a
method of logging into a computer other than the one you normally use.
Allowing the public onto a particular computer is done strictly on a
voluntary basis and is dependent on the good will of the operators of the
remote computer.
To Telnet, you must know the full address of the remote computer.
Once a connection is made, most hosts display some informative message
indicating login procedures. If telnet is unable to make the connection, a
message "host is unknown" will appear. This could mean that the name of
the remote computer was spelled incorrectly, the remote computer is
temporarily unavailable, or the computer is not on the Internet.
gopher n. 1 . Any of various short tailed, burrowing mammals of
the family Geomyidae, of North America. 2. (Amer. Colloq.) One who runs
errands, does odd jobs, fetches of delivers documents for office staff. 3.
(computer tech.) Software following a simple protocol for tunneling
through the internet.
Gopher is a menu system which provides a simple consistent method
to navigate around the Internet. Some menu items represent text files and
some represent other menus. Each time a selection is made, Gopher does
what is necessary to process the request, making its way from menu to
menu. There are several thousand Gopher servers around the Internet each
of which carries information of interest to local users. Since most of the
Gophers are public, you can move from one to another to find what is of
most interest to you.
Finger is used to find public information about a user who is logged in
either locally or on a host computer. The information varies from host to
host. Some hosts will not display any information either for security
reasons or to cut down on network traffic. Most hosts, however, will
provide basic information. To finger someone, you must know their user id
or name and the address of the computer. Some of the information provided
includes:
user id (login name)
full name
if user is currently logged in
last time user was logged in
last time mail was read
specific information, such as office hours, etc.
If a remote host is fingered without a user name, a summary of all the
users who are logged in at the time will be returned.
WestNet offers a finger service to its users in Subscriber Info.
The newsgroups are the Internet equivalent of discussion groups
involving millions of people from all over the world. Each discussion
group is centered around a particular topic: jokes, recipes, mathematics,
philosophy, computers, science fiction. Just about any topic imaginable
has its own newsgroup. Since the Internet has no central control anyone
can start a new newsgroup if they feel one is needed. There are now over
20,000 groups. Check out our page on Usenet.
Tin is a newsreader which is a program to read any newsgroup articles
carried by the local site. One of the functions of a newsreader is to keep
track of newsgroups a user may be interested in reading. A newsgroup can
be subscribed to (add) or unsubscribed (delete) from a personnel list.
Tin also keeps track of the articles which have already been read. As news
is read, the articles can be saved to a file, a copy can be mailed to
someone, or deleted along with all articles about the same subject.
A user starting Tin for the first time will usually be
automatically subscribed to a list of newsgroups chosen by the
administrator.
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, allows transfer of data from one
computer to another. Uploading means copying files from the user's (local)
computer to a remote one. Downloading means copying files from a remote
computer to the local computer. There is one basic restriction. A computer
can not be accessed unless the user has an
account name and a password on that computer. An anonymous FTP host has
certain directories open to public access. There is a special user id,
anonymous, which can be used by anyone
on the internet. The password is usually the user's mail address or name.
For more information on FTP, see our FTP Help Page.
Archie is a system that indexes FTP sites, listing the files that
are available at each site. To find a anonymous FTP file or directory,
Archie will search its database based on the information it is given and
will return where that file or directory can
be found.
The Internet Relay Chat is a method by which a number of users can "talk
to each other" by typing and the information appears almost instantly on
the screen.
The IRC is a CB-style simulator that Internet users can connect
to, to chat with one, ten, or a hundred people at the same time. Users are
from all over the world, and are interested in a variety of subjects, so
there is a great spectrum of experiences a
user can have when using the IRC.
A word of caution: Since the IRC is accessed by computer users all
over the world, and there is no way to "police" the speech on the IRC,
some discussions may take on adult tones. Parents might want to be aware
of this, if their children want to use IRC.
In addition, several female users have reported unwanted attention when
using the IRC. Using a gender-neutral nickname (like "Dinosaur" or
"klingon") will help reduce this unwanted attention.
For more information, see our IRC Help Page.
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