The History of Internet and Colloquial Terms

The History of Internet and Colloquial Terms

"In terms of the Internet, it's like humanity acquiring a collective nervous system. With the advent of the Internet, it was suddenly like we got a nervous system. It's a hugely impactful thing."

~Elon Musk


Internet is a network of computers, which links many different types of computers all over the world. It is a network of networks sharing a common mechanism for addressing(identifying) computers, and a common set of communication protocols for communications between two computers on the network.

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

(ARPANET) is a predecessor to the modern Internet. It was conceptualized in the 1950s, when computer scientists needed something better than the then available but unreliable switching nodes and network links. ARPANET was the network that became the basis for the Internet. Based on a concept first published in 1967, ARPANET was developed under the direction of the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). In 1969, the idea became a modest reality with the interconnection of four university computers. The initial purpose was to communicate with and share computer resources among mainly scientific users at the connected institutions. ARPANET took advantage of the new idea of sending information in small units called packets that could be routed on different paths and reconstructed at their destination. The development of the TCP/IP protocols in the 1970s made it possible to expand the size of the network, which now had become a network of networks, in an orderly way. In the 1980s, ARPANET was handed over to a separate new military network, the Defense Data Network, and NSFNet, a network of scientific and academic computers funded by the National Science Foundation. In 1995, NSFNet in turn began a phased withdrawal to turn the backboneof the Internet (called vBNS) over to a consortium of commercial backbone providers (PSINet, UUNET, ANS/AOL, Sprint, MCI, and AGIS-Net99) The ARPANET was a project funded by the U.S. government during the Cold War, in order to build a robust and reliable communications network. This was done by connecting various computers that could simultaneously communicate in a network that would not go down and continue running when a single node was taken out.

ARCnet Network (Attached Resource Computer Network)

Topology is star and bus or a mixture. Cable type is RG-62 A/U coaxial (93 ohm), UTP or fiber-optic. A network can use any combination of this media. Connectors used include BNC, RJ-45, and others. It passes tokens passing for media access. Maximum segment length is 600 meters with RG-62 A/U, 121 meters with UTP, 3485 meters with fiber-optic, and 30 meters from a passive hub. The specification is ANSI 878.1. It can have up to 255 nodes per network. The speed is 2.5 Mbps. ARCnet Plus has operating speeds approaching 20Mbps. Signals are broadcast across the entire network with computers processing only signals addressed to them. ARCnet tokens travel based on a station identifier (SID) which each computer has. Each network card has a DIP switch used to set the SID with an address between 1 and 255. Signals are generally sent from the lowest numbered station to the next until they wrap around back to SID of 1. To determine non-existent stations, the station with the lowest ID indicates it has the token and begins querying IDs of higher value until it gets a response. Then the next computer does the same until the original station is queried. This procedure is done when a station is added or removed from the network or when the network is originally started. How does the network know when a station has been added or removed? How is the lowest numbered SID identified? Addresses assignment is based on proximity, which helps the network operate more efficiently. The acronym SID is used for a station identifier with regard to ARCnet, but as used in the Windows NT and Windows 95 operating systems, it refers to the security identification number of a user or group.

Transmission Control Protocol

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) supports the network at the transport layer. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides a reliable connection oriented service. Connection oriented means both the client and server must open the connection before data is sent. TCP is defined by RFC 793 and 1122. TCP provides:

⦁ End to end reliability.

⦁ Data packet re sequencing.

⦁ Flow control.

TCP relies on the IP service at the network layer to deliver data to the host. Since IP is not reliable with regard to message quality or delivery, TCP must make provisions to be sure messages are delivered on time and correctly (Federal Express?). Abbreviation of Transmission Control Protocol, and pronounced as separate letters. TCP is one of the main protocols in TCP/IP networks. Whereas the IP protocol deals only with packets, TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection and exchange streams of data. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent.

Internet Protocol

Internet Protocol (IP) provides support at the network layer of the OSI model. All transport protocol data packets such as UDP or TCP are encapsulated in IP data packets to be carried from one host to another. IP is a connection-less unreliable service meaning there is no guarantee that the data will reach the intended host. The datagrams may be damaged upon arrival, out of order, or not arrive at all (Sounds like some mail services, doesn't it?). Therefore, the layers above IP such as TCP are responsible for being sure correct data is delivered. IP provides for: ⦁ Addressing. ⦁ Type of service specification. ⦁ Fragmentation and re-assembly. ⦁ Security.

Modem

A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates signals to encode digital information and demodulates signals to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used with any means of transmitting analog signals, from light emitting diodes to radio. A common type of modem is one that turns the digital data of a computer into modulated electrical signal for transmission over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given unit of time, usually expressed in bits per second (symbol bit/s, sometimes abbreviated "bps"), or bytes per second (symbol B/s). Modems can also be classified by their symbol rate, measured in baud. The baud unit denotes symbols per second, or the number of times per second the modem sends a new signal.

A modem is a device or program that enables a computer to transmit data over, for example, telephone or cable lines. Computer information is stored digitally, whereas information transmitted over telephone lines is transmitted in the form of analog waves. A modem converts between these two forms. Modern modems work at 56 thousand bits per second (Kbps) or higher data transfer speeds, perform automatic error correction, and allow voice and fax communications. Cable modems offer 2 million bits per second (Mbps) or higher speeds, whereas advanced types of telephone services, allow very high speed data transfer without any modem.

File Transfer Protocol.

A protocol by which clients can transfer files to a server. Commonly used to transfer files to a webserver for websites or to download files from the web to install. Short for File Transfer Protocol, the protocol for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP works in the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user's browser and SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that, like these technologies, FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server).

E-Mail

Short for electronic mail, the transmission of messages over communications networks. The messages can be notes entered from the keyboard or electronic files stored on disk. Most mainframes, minicomputers, and computer networks have an e-mail system. Some electronic-mail systems are confined to a single computer system or network, but others have gateways to other computer systems, enabling users to send electronic mail anywhere in the world. Companies that are fully computerized make extensive use of e-mail because it is fast, flexible, and reliable. Most e-mail systems include a rudimentary text editor for composing messages, but many allow you to edit your messages using any editor you want. You then send the message to the recipient by specifying the recipient's address. You can also send the same message to several users at once. This is called broadcasting. Sent messages are stored in electronic mailboxes until the recipient fetches them. To see if you have any mail, you may have to check your electronic mailbox periodically, although many systems alert you when mail is received. After reading your mail, you can store it in a text file, forward it to other users, or delete it. Copies of memos can be printed out on a printer if you want a paper copy. All online services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer e-mail, and most also support gateways so that you can exchange mail with users of other systems. Usually, it takes only a few seconds or minutes for mail to arrive at its destination. This is a particularly effective way to communicate with a group because you can broadcast a message or document to everyone in the group at once. Although different e-mail systems use different formats, there are some emerging standards that are making it possible for users on all systems to exchange messages. In the PC world, an important e-mail standard is MAPI. The CCITT standards organization has developed the X.400 standard, which attempts to provide a universal way of addressing messages. To date, though, the de facto addressing standard is the one used by the Internet system because almost all e-mail systems have an Internet gateway.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. Many but not all ISPs are telephone companies or other telecommunication providers. They provide services such as Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, dial-up access, leased line access. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned. For a monthly fee, the service provider usually provides a software package, username, password and access phone number. Equipped with a modem, you can then log on to the Internet and browse the World Wide Web and USENET, and send and receive e-mail. For broadband access you typically receive the broadband modem hardware or pay a monthly fee for this equipment that is added to your ISP account billing. In addition to serving individuals, ISPs also serve large companies, providing a direct connection from the company's networks to the Internet. The role of an internet service provider (ISP) is to provide its users access to the internet in companies or at home. The providers can be for profit and privately owned or for non-profit and community-owned. In today's interconnected world, the Internet is no longer a tool. Rather, it is a service that helps generate income and employment, provides access to business and information, enables e-learning, and facilitates government activities. It is an essential service that has been integrated into every part of our society. Our experience begins when an Internet Service Provider (ISP) uses fixed telephony (plain old telephone service), mobile-cellular telephony, or fixed fiber-optic or broadband service to connect us to the global network.1 From that moment on, the ISP shoulders the responsibility for the instantaneous, reliable, and secure movement of our data over the Internet. ISPs come in many forms and sizes and go by many names: the phone company, the cable company, the wireless company, etc. They are the Internet stewards: planning and managing resources, providing reliable connectivity, and ensuring delivery for traffic and services. And while the communications infrastructure security as a whole is generally believed to be robust, recent events suggest that the networks and the platforms on which Internet users rely are becoming increasingly susceptible to operator error and malicious cyber-attack. We should therefore ask whether ISPs have additional duties to ensure the reliable delivery of an essential service. In this article, we expose the gap between ISPs' written responsibilities and the unwritten, yet expected ones. Specifically, we define eight ISP duties:

⦁ Duty to provide a reliable and accessible conduit for traffic and services

⦁ Duty to provide authentic and authoritative routing information

⦁ Duty to provide authentic and authoritative naming information

⦁ Duty to report anonymized security incident statistics to the public

⦁ Duty to educate customers about threats

⦁ Duty to inform customers of apparent infections in their infrastructure

⦁ Duty to warn other ISPs of imminent danger and help in emergencies

⦁ Duty to avoid aiding criminal activity

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