| Revision as of 20:17, 3 February 2009 view sourceJmundo (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers12,808 editsm Reverted edits by 206.209.103.34 (talk) to last version by Cenarium← Previous edit | Revision as of 21:00, 3 February 2009 view source 86.162.231.79 (talk) ←Replaced content with 'yeah boring! if you want excitement then visit www.stupidassonline.piczo.com!!! blow your bloody minds!'Next edit → | ||
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| <!-- The Internet and the WWW are different concepts—please do not muddle them in this article --> | |||
| ] | |||
| {{Portal|Internet|Crystal_Clear_app_browser.png}} | |||
| The '''Internet''' is a global system of interconnected ]s that interchange ] by ] using the standardized ] (TCP/IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by ] wires, ] cables, ] connections, and other technologies. | |||
| The Internet carries various ] resources and services, such as ], ], ] and ], ], and the inter-linked ] documents and other resources of the ] (WWW). | |||
| ==Terminology== | |||
| The terms ''Internet'' and ''World Wide Web'' are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the ] are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between ]. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other ], linked by ]s and ].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#h-12.1|title= Links |accessdate=2008-08-13 |work=HTML 4.01 Specification |publisher=World Wide Web Consortium |date=HTML 4.01 Specification | quote = he link (or hyperlink, or Web link) the basic hypertext construct. A link is a connection from one Web resource to another. Although a simple concept, the link has been one of the primary forces driving the success of the Web. }}</ref> | |||
| ==History== | |||
| {{main|History of the Internet}} | |||
| ===Creation=== | |||
| The ]'s launch of ] spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February ] to regain a technological lead.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.darpa.mil/body/arpa_darpa.html | title=ARPA/DARPA | accessdate=2007-05-21 | publisher=Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.darpa.mil/body/overtheyears.html | title=DARPA Over the Years | accessdate=2007-05-21 | publisher=Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency}}</ref> ARPA created the ] (IPTO) to further the research of the ] (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide ] systems together for the first time. ] was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution. | |||
| Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at ] to ] in ], after becoming interested in ]. At MIT, he served on a committee that established ] and worked on the SAGE project. In ] he became a Vice President at ], where he bought the first production ] computer and conducted the first public demonstration of ]. | |||
| At the IPTO, Licklider got ] to start a project to make a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of ],<ref>{{cite book | last = Baran | first = Paul | title = On Distributed Communications | date = 1964 | url = http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM3767}}</ref> who had written an exhaustive study for the ] that recommended ] (as opposed to ]) to make a network highly robust and survivable. After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ] were interconnected between ] and ] (later SRI International) in ], California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet. | |||
| Following on from the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the ], ], ] and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the ] (IPSS), in ]. The collection of ]-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, ] and Australia by 1981. The X.25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ]) around 1976. | |||
| X.25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of ] on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period. ] and ] developed the first description of the TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at Stanford University. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems. | |||
| The first ]-based wide-area network was operational by January 1, 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols. In 1985, the United States' ] (NSF) commissioned the construction of the ], a ] 56 ]/second network backbone using computers called "]" by their inventor, ]. The following year, NSF sponsored the conversion to a higher-speed 1.5 ]/second network. A key decision to use the ] ] protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF. | |||
| The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial ] system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic e-mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet service providers (ISP) were created: ], ] and CERFNET. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include ] and ]. Various other commercial and educational networks, such as ], ], ] and ] were interconnected with the growing Internet. ] (later called Sprintnet) was a large privately funded national computer network with free ] in cities throughout the U.S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over virtually any pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth, although the rapid growth of the Internet was due primarily to the availability of commercial routers from companies such as ], Proteon and ], the availability of commercial ] equipment for local-area networking, and the widespread implementation of TCP/IP on the ] operating system. | |||
| ===Growth=== | |||
| Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On 6 August 1991, ], a pan european organisation for particle research, publicized the new ] project. The Web was invented by ] scientist ] in 1989. | |||
| An early popular ] was ], patterned after ] and built using the ]. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the ] web browser. In 1993, the ] at the ] released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word ''Internet'' had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a ] in reference to the World Wide Web. | |||
| Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as ], have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997.<ref>{{cite paper | url=http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/internet.size.pdf |format=PDF| title=The size and growth rate of the Internet | accessdate=2007-05-21 | author=Coffman, K. G; ], A. M. | publisher=AT&T Labs | date=1998-10-02}}</ref> This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network. <ref>{{cite book | last = Comer | first = Douglas | title = The Internet book | publisher = Prentice Hall | pages = 64 | isbn = 0132335530}}</ref> | |||
| ], a global Internet information provider, reported that the number of unique users reached the 1 billion mark in December 2008.<ref name="Global internet users cross 1 bn-mark in Dec: comScore">{{cite news|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Internet_/Global_internet_users_cross_1_bn-mark_in_Dec_comScore/articleshow/4023376.cms|title=Global internet users cross 1 bn-mark in Dec: comScore|date=23 Jan 2009|publisher=Economic Times|accessdate=2009-01-24}}</ref> Based on the research figures, ] countries had the most internet users accounting for 41 percent, followed by ] (28 percent), ] (18 percent), ] (7 percent) and last was ] & ] (together 5 percent). ] topped the country-wise list with 17.8 percent of the global internet audience.<ref name="Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors, According to comScore">{{cite web|url=http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2696|title=Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors, According to comScore|date=January 23, 2008|publisher=comScore.com|accessdate=2009-01-24}}</ref> Of the various group of websites, ] websites were visited by 778 million unique visitors topping the list. They were followed by ], ], ] websites along with Misplaced Pages and sister project sites.<ref name="More than 1 billion internet users now online">{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/4325987/More-than-1-billion-internet-users-now-online.html|title=More than 1 billion internet users now online|first=Harry Wallop|date=23 Jan 2009|publisher=The Telegraph|accessdate=2009-01-24}}</ref> | |||
| However, the actual number of internet users might have reached 1 billion mark earlier as comScore study did not include users aged below 15. Also, the internet data from public computers such as ]s or accessing internet via ]s or other personal ]s were not included. The study was based on users accessing internet from home or work computers.<ref name="Internet users worldwide surpass 1 billion in December">{{cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10149534-93.html|title=Internet users worldwide surpass 1 billion in December|first=Dawn Kawamoto|date=January 23, 2009|publisher=CNET|accessdate=2009-01-24}}</ref> | |||
| ===University students' appreciation and contributions=== | |||
| New findings in the field of communications during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across North America. | |||
| Examples of early university Internet communities are Cleveland FreeNet, ] and NSTN in Nova Scotia.<ref></ref> Students took up the opportunity of free communications and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computers and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments (Nelson, Jennings, Stallman). | |||
| Graduate students played a huge part in the creation of ].{{Fact|date=January 2009}} In the 1960s, the network working group, which did most of the design for ARPANET's protocols, was composed mainly of graduate students. | |||
| ==Today's Internet== | |||
| ] server rack. From the top, user file storage (content of files.myopera.com), "bigma" (the master ] ] server), and two IBM blade centers containing multi-purpose machines (] front ends, Apache back ends, slave MySQL database servers, ]s, ]s, cache servers and sync masters).]] | |||
| Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., ]s), and by technical specifications or ]s that describe how to exchange ] over the network. Indeed, the Internet is defined by its interconnections and routing policies. | |||
| As of June 30, 2008, 1.463 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.<ref name=inetstats /> | |||
| === Internet protocols === | |||
| {{details|Internet Protocol Suite}} | |||
| The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. While the hardware can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the rigorous standardization process of the software architecture that characterizes the Internet. | |||
| The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been delegated to the ] (IETF).<ref>http://www.ietf.org/</ref> The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. Resulting discussions and final standards are published in ]s (RFCs), freely available on the IETF web site. | |||
| The principal methods of networking that enable the Internet are contained in a series of RFCs that constitute the ]s. These standards describe a system known as the ]. This is a model architecture that divides methods into a layered system of protocols (RFC 1122, RFC 1123). The layers correspond to the environment or scope in which their services operate. At the top is the space (]) of the software application, e.g., a web browser application, and just below it is the ] which connects applications on different hosts via the network (e.g., ] model). The underlying network consists of two layers: the ] which enables computers to connect to one-another via intermediate (transit) networks and thus is the layer that establishes ] and the Internet, and lastly, at the bottom, is a software layer that provides connectivity between hosts on the same local link (therefor called ]), e.g., a local area network (]) or a ]. This model is also known as the ] model of networking. While other models have been developed, such as the ] (OSI) model, they are not compatible in the details of description, nor implementation. | |||
| The most prominent component of the Internet model is the ] (IP) which provides addressing systems for computers on the Internet and facilitates the ] of networks. IP Version 4 (]) is the initial version used on the first generation of the today's Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed to address up to ~4.3 billion (10<sup>9</sup>) Internet hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to ]. A new protocol version, ], was developed which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of data traffic. ] is currently in commercial ] phase around the world. | |||
| IPv6 is not interoperable with IPv4. It essentially establishes a "parallel" version of the Internet not accessible with IPv4 software. This means software upgrades are necessary for every networking device that needs to communicate on the IPv6 Internet. Most modern computer operating systems are already converted to operate with both versions of the Internet Protocol. Network infrastructures, however, are still lagging in this development. | |||
| ===Internet structure=== | |||
| There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of ]s. | |||
| Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via ]s, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as the following: | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *The ] Network (formally known as the ]) | |||
| *] (the UK's ]) | |||
| These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of ]. | |||
| In ]s, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass. | |||
| ===ICANN=== | |||
| ], ], United States]] | |||
| {{details|ICANN}} | |||
| The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including ]s, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in ], but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the ] file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, ]es, protocol ports and parameter numbers. | |||
| On November 16, 2005, the ], held in ], established the ] (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues. | |||
| ===Language=== | |||
| {{details|English on the Internet}} | |||
| {{details|Global Internet usage}} | |||
| {{further|]}} | |||
| The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is ]. This may be a result of the Internet's origins, as well as English's role as a ]. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the ]. | |||
| After English (29% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the ] are ] (19%), ] (9%), ] (6%), ] (5%) and ] (4%).<ref>, updated June 30, 2008</ref> | |||
| <!-- Note that the use of these copyright statistics is dependent on "giving due credit and establishing an active link back to www.internetworldstats.com", so please do not remove the citation above --> | |||
| By region, 40% of the world's Internet users are based in ], 26% in ], 17% in ], 10% in ] and the ], 4% in ], 3% in the ] and 1% in Australia.<ref name=inetstats> updated June 30, 2008</ref> | |||
| <!-- Note that the use of these copyright statistics is dependent on "giving due credit and establishing an active link back to www.internetworldstats.com", so please do not remove the citation above --> | |||
| The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of ], that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as '']'' (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as ''kryakozyabry'') still remain. | |||
| ===Internet and the workplace=== | |||
| The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and ]s. | |||
| ===The Internet viewed on mobile devices=== | |||
| The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. ]s, ]s, ] ]s and ]s allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology. | |||
| Within the limitations imposed by the small screen and other limited facilities of such a pocket-sized device, all the services of the Internet, including email and web browsing, may be available in this way. Service providers may restrict the range of these services and charges for data access may be significant, compared to home usage. | |||
| ==Common uses== | |||
| ===E-mail=== | |||
| {{details|E-mail}} | |||
| The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other networks and machines out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. During this time it is quite possible for the content to be read and even tampered with by third parties, if anyone considers it important enough. Purely internal or intranet mail systems, where the information never leaves the corporate or organization's network, are much more secure, although in any organization there will be ] and other personnel whose job may involve monitoring, and occasionally accessing, the e-mail of other employees not addressed to them. Today you can send pictures and attach files on e-mail. Most e-mail servers today also feature the ability to send e-mail to multiple ]. | |||
| E-mail is a means or system of transmitting messages electronically. It is any method of creating, transmitting, or storing. E-mails are what allow people to keep in touch with other people in an easy and fast way because of the invention of the Internet. It is a quick way to send a message or document or eve a file or just anything to someone or the other. Not only can the email be sent to one person but it can also be sent to as many people as it is needed to be sent to. If one receives an email that they need to send to others they are able to forward the message to anyone they chose to There are many different types of websites such as Google, yahoo, msn, etc. to create email accounts on. Creating an account in any of these still allows for one to communicate with anyone from any of the different types of accounts. All email accounts created are free and anyone is allowed to create one. E-mails are very secure and private between the sender and recipient and allow for information to be very easily sent and replied to. | |||
| ===The World Wide Web=== | |||
| {{details|World Wide Web}} | |||
| ], demonstrating ]s]] | |||
| Many people use the terms ''Internet'' and ''World Wide Web'' (or just the ''Web'') interchangeably, but, as discussed above, the two terms are not ]. | |||
| The World Wide Web is a huge set of interlinked ], ] and other resources, linked by ]s and ]. These hyperlinks and URLs allow the ] and other machines that store originals, and cached copies of, these resources to deliver them as required using ] (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet. | |||
| ]s also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data. | |||
| Software products that can access the resources of the Web are correctly termed '']s''. In normal use, ], such as ], ] and ], access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. Web documents may contain almost any combination of ] including graphics, sounds, ], ], ] and interactive content including ], ] and scientific demonstrations. | |||
| Through ]-driven ] using ]s like ] and ], millions of people worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to ]s and traditional ], the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data. | |||
| Using the Web, it is also easier than ever before for individuals and organisations to ] ideas and information to an extremely large ]. Anyone can find ways to publish a web page, a ] or build a website for very little initial ]. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. | |||
| Many individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or ]s, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organisations encourage ] to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is ], whose ] publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. | |||
| Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as ] and ] have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, ] and ] currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as ]s rather than simply as web page hosts. | |||
| ] on popular web pages can be lucrative, and ] or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow. | |||
| In the early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated ] text files stored on a web server. More recently, websites are more often created using ] or ] software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors. | |||
| ===Remote access=== | |||
| {{see|Remote access}} | |||
| The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of ], authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. | |||
| This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An ] sitting at home can ] the books of a company based in another country, on a ] situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private ]s would have made many of them infeasible in practice. | |||
| An office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a ] session into his normal office PC using a secure ] (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away from the office. | |||
| This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes. | |||
| ===Collaboration=== | |||
| {{seealso|Collaborative software}} | |||
| The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made ] work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and share ideas, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place. An example of this is the ], which has produced ], ], ] etc. | |||
| Internet "chat", whether in the form of ] chat rooms or channels, or via ] systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be exchanged even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extensions to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared or voice and video contact between team members. | |||
| ] systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to make their contributions. | |||
| Business and project teams can share calendars as well as documents and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing. | |||
| ===File sharing=== | |||
| {{details|File sharing}} | |||
| A ] can be ] to customers, colleagues and friends as an ]. It can be uploaded to a ] or ] server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a ] for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "]" servers or ] networks. | |||
| In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user ], the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by ], and money may change hands for access to the file. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by ]s or by ] or other message digests. | |||
| These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products. | |||
| ===Streaming media=== | |||
| Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the ]). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a ] or ] receiver. The range of material is much wider, from ] to highly specialized, technical ]s. ]ing is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is downloaded and played back on a computer or shifted to a ] to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis. | |||
| ]s can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the ], traffic at a local roundabout or monitor their own premises, live and in real time. Video ] and ] are also popular with many uses being found for personal webcams, with and without two-way sound. | |||
| ] was founded on 15 February 2005 and is now the leading website for free streaming video with a vast number of users. It uses a ]-based web player to stream and show the video files. Users are able to watch videos without signing up; however, if they do sign up, they are able to upload an unlimited amount of videos and build their own personal profile. YouTube claims that its users watch hundreds of millions, and upload hundreds of thousands, of videos daily.<ref>{{cite web | |||
| |url=http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet | |||
| |title=YouTube Fact Sheet | |||
| |publisher=YouTube, LLC | |||
| |accessdate=2009-01-20}}</ref> | |||
| ===Internet Telephony (VoIP)=== | |||
| {{details|VoIP}} | |||
| VoIP stands for Voice-over-], referring to the protocol that underlies all Internet communication. The idea began in the early 1990s with ]-like voice applications for personal computers. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a traditional telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as ] or ]. | |||
| VoIP is maturing into a competitive alternative to traditional telephone service. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP network adapters are available that eliminate the need for a personal computer. | |||
| Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls. | |||
| Remaining problems for VoIP include ] dialling and reliability. Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a ] for the phone equipment and the Internet access devices. | |||
| VoIP has also become increasingly popular for gaming applications, as a form of communication between players. Popular VoIP clients for gaming include ] and ], and others. ] and ] also offer VoIP chat features. | |||
| ==Internet by region== | |||
| {{main|Internet access worldwide}} | |||
| {{main|List of countries by number of Internet users}} | |||
| ==Internet access==<!-- This section is linked from ] --> | |||
| {{details|Internet access}} | |||
| {{wikibooks|Online linux connect}} | |||
| Common methods of home access include ], landline ] (over coaxial cable, ] or copper wires), ], ] and ] technology ]. | |||
| Public places to use the Internet include libraries and ]s, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also ] in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web ]". Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee-based. | |||
| These terminals are widely accessed for various usage like ticket booking, bank deposit, online payment etc. Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. ] providing such access include ], where would-be users need to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a ] or ]. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. A whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. ] efforts have led to ]s. Commercial Wi-Fi services covering large city areas are in place in ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench.<ref>. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 19-Mar-2006.</ref> | |||
| Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like ], various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services. | |||
| High-end mobile phones such as ]s generally come with Internet access through the phone network. Web browsers such as ] are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used. An Internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online. | |||
| ==Social impact== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=November 2008}} | |||
| :''See also: ]'' | |||
| ] was voted into the ] on the internet via the ].]] | |||
| The Internet has made possible entirely new forms of social interaction, activities and organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access. | |||
| ] websites such as ] and ] have created a new form of socialization and interaction. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people. | |||
| Sites like ] exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their group's site at meetup.org, or other similar sites. | |||
| ===Political organization and censorship=== | |||
| {{details|Internet censorship}} | |||
| In democratic societies, the Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of ] in 2004 in the United States became famous for its ability to generate donations via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a whole new method of organizing, in order to carry out ]. | |||
| Some governments, such as those of ], the ] (]), ], the ], and ], restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content. This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention. | |||
| In ], ], ]<ref name="The Register">{{cite web | title=Finland censors anti-censorship site | work=] | url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/18/finnish_policy_censor_activist/ | date=2008-02-18 | accessdate=2008-02-19}}</ref> and ], major Internet service providers have voluntarily (possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law) agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police. While this list of forbidden URLs is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret. | |||
| Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as ], illegal, but do not use filtering software. | |||
| There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a child's access to pornography or violence. See '']''. | |||
| ===Leisure activities=== | |||
| The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining social experiments such as ]s and ]s being conducted on university servers, and humor-related ] groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many ]s have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of ] are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas. | |||
| The ] and ] industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites. Although many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity. | |||
| One main area of leisure on the Internet is ]. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from ] to ]s, from ] to ]. This has revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet. | |||
| While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with services such as ] and ], to which players of games would typically subscribe. Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of gameplay or certain games. | |||
| Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Some of these sources take more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others. | |||
| Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests. | |||
| People use ], ] and e-mail to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had ]s. ] websites like ], ] and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment. | |||
| The Internet has seen a growing number of ]s, where users can access their files, folders, and settings via the Internet. | |||
| ] has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57 minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services.<ref></ref> | |||
| ==Complex architecture == | |||
| Many computer scientists see the Internet as a "prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system".<ref>Walter Willinger, Ramesh Govindan, Sugih Jamin, Vern Paxson, and Scott Shenker (2002). . In ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99'', suppl. 1, 2573–2580.</ref> The Internet is extremely heterogeneous. (For instance, ]s and physical characteristics of connections vary widely.) The Internet exhibits "]" that depend on its large-scale organization. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal ]. Further adding to the complexity of the Internet is the ability of more than one computer to use the Internet through only one node, thus creating the possibility for a very deep and hierarchal sub-network that can theoretically be extended infinitely (disregarding the programmatic limitations of the IPv4 protocol). However, since principles of this architecture date back to the 1960s, it might not be a solution best suited to modern needs, and thus the possibility of developing alternative structures is currently being looked into.<ref>. The Seattle Times, April 16, 2007.</ref> | |||
| According to a June 2007 article in ], the combined weight of all the electrons moved within the Internet in a day is 0.2 millionths of an ounce.<ref>. Discover Magazine, June 2007.</ref> Others have estimated this at nearer 2 ounces (50 grams).<ref name="">{{cite web|url= http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/06/the_sincerest_f.html|title= ''Weighing The Web''|accessdate= 2008-05-26|date= 2007-06-01}}</ref> | |||
| ==Marketing== | |||
| The Internet has also become a large market for companies; some of the biggest companies today have grown by taking advantage of the efficient nature of low-cost ] and ] through the Internet, also known as ]. It is the fastest way to spread information to a vast number of people simultaneously. The Internet has also subsequently revolutionized ]—for example; a person can order a ] online and receive it in the ] within a couple of days, or ] it directly in some cases. The Internet has also greatly facilitated ] which allows a company to market a product to a specific person or a specific group of people more so than any other advertising medium. | |||
| Examples of personalized marketing include online communities such as ], ], ], ] and others which thousands of Internet users join to advertise themselves and make friends online. Many of these users are young teens and adolescents ranging from 13 to 25 years old. In turn, when they advertise themselves they advertise interests and hobbies, which online marketing companies can use as information as to what those users will purchase online, and advertise their own companies' products to those users. | |||
| {{further|] and ]}} | |||
| ==The terms “internet” and “Internet”== | |||
| {{details|Internet capitalization conventions}} | |||
| {{Wiktionarypar2|Internet|internet}} | |||
| The term ''internet'' is written both with capital and without ], and is used both with and without article. This can be explained from the various ways in which the term has come to be used over time. | |||
| The term originated as a ], a shorthand for ], and is mostly used in this way in RFCs, the documentation for the evolving ] (IP) standards for internetworking between ARPANET and other computer networks in the 1970s. As the impetus behind IP grew, it became more common to regard the results of internetworking as entities of their own, and ''internet'' became a noun, used both in a generic sense (any collection of computer networks connected through internetworking) and in a specific sense (the collection of computer networks that internetworked with ARPANET, and later NSFNET, using the IP standards, and that grew into the connectivity service we know today). | |||
| In its generic sense, ''internet'' is a ], a synonym for ]; therefore, it has a plural form (first appearing in RFC 870 and RFC 872),{{Fact|date=July 2008}} and is not to be capitalized. | |||
| In its specific sense, it is a ], and therefore, with article, without a plural form, and with capitalization.<ref></ref> | |||
| A sentence that uses both meanings: | |||
| ::"The Internet is an internet based on the Internet Protocol suite." | |||
| The proper noun can again be used as a determiner, which will then carry a capital (e.g. "Internet mail"). | |||
| The ], the ] (IETF), the ] (ICANN), the ] (W3C), and several other Internet-related organizations use this convention in their publications, including the RFCs. | |||
| As Internet connectivity grew more popular, it became known as a service, similar to TV, radio, and telephone, and the word came to be used in this way (e.g. "I have Internet at home" and "I saw it on (the) Internet"). For this type of use, English spelling and grammar do not prescribe whether the article or capitalization are to be used, which explains the inconsistency that exists in practice. | |||
| Many newspapers, newswires, periodicals, and technical journals capitalize the term (''Internet''). Examples include ''The Dhaka Daily Star'', '']'', the '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. | |||
| Other publications do not capitalize the term, including '']'', the ], the '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''; this appears to be more popular outside ]. {{Fact|date=July 2008}} | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| {{sisterlinks|Internet}} | |||
| {{Main|List of basic Internet topics|List of Internet topics}} | |||
| ===Major aspects and issues=== | |||
| *]/] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] (NSFNET) | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ===Functions=== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ===Underlying infrastructure=== | |||
| *] (IP) | |||
| *] (TCP/IP) | |||
| *] (ISP) | |||
| ===Regulatory bodies=== | |||
| *] (IANA) | |||
| *] (]) | |||
| *] (]) | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{refbegin|2}} | |||
| * by the ] Vienna, 2004 | |||
| *—Internet history and related information, including information from many creators of the Internet | |||
| * peer-reviewed journal on the Internet | |||
| * by Stephen Cass, ] 2007 | |||
| *Rehmeyer, Julie J. 2007. Mapping a medusa: The Internet spreads its tentacles. Science News 171(June 23):387-388. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070623/fob2.asp . | |||
| *Castells, M. 1996. Rise of the Network Society. 3 vols. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. | |||
| *Castells, M. (2001), “Lessons from the History of Internet”, in “The Internet Galaxy”, Ch. 1, pp 9-35. Oxford Univ. Press. | |||
| *RFC 1122, Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Communication Layers, IETF, R. Braden (Ed.), October 1989 | |||
| *RFC 1123, Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support, IETF, R. Braden (Ed.), October 1989 | |||
| {{refend}} | |||
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| * Ringmar, Erik. (London: Anthem Press, 2007). | |||
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Revision as of 21:00, 3 February 2009
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