Computer internet notes

Introduction to computer systems (Jomo Kenyatta University of

Agriculture and Technology)

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INTERNET AND EMAIL
OBJECTIVES
After going through this lesson you would be able to:
a. define Internet
b. explain various terminology used in Internet
c. use various services provided by Internet
d. search for information over Internet
e. enjoy Internet surfing
f. send E-mail and do FTP
g. Explain the process of downloading file.
INTERNET
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the
standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a
network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic,
business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a
broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies.
Uses of Internet
• Internet has been the most useful technology of the modern times which
helps us not only in our daily lives, but also our personal and professional
lives developments.
• The internet helps us achieve this in several different ways.
• For the students and educational purposes the internet is widely used to
gather information so as to do the research or add to the knowledge of
various subjects.
• Even the business professionals and the professionals like doctors, access
the internet to filter the necessary information for their use. The internet
is therefore the largest encyclopedia for everyone, in all age categories.
• The internet has served to be more useful in maintaining contacts with
friends and relatives who live abroad permanently.
Advantages of Internet:
 E-mail: Email is now an essential communication tools in business. With e- mail
you can send and receive instant electronic messages, which work like writing
letters. Your messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world,
unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time. Email is free, fast and very cheap
when compared to telephone, fax and postal services.
 24 hours a day - 7 days a week: Internet is available, 24x7 days for usage.
 Information: Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering.
There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every
subject, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences,
market information, new ideas and technical support. You can almost find any type

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of data on almost any kind of subject that you are looking for by using search
engines like google, yahoo, msn, etc.
 Online Chat: You can access many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be used to
meet new people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
You can chat in MSN and yahoo websites.
 Services: Many services are provided on the internet like net banking, job
searching, purchasing tickets, hotel reservations, guidance services on array of
topics engulfing every aspect of life.
 Communities: Communities of all types have sprung up on the internet. Its a
great way to meet up with people of similar interest and discuss common issues.
 E-commerce: Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop
online. There are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for
products as well as buy them using your credit card. You do not need to leave
your house and can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home. It
has got a real amazing and wide range of products from household needs,
electronics to entertainment.
 Entertainment: Internet provides facility to access wide range of Audio/Video
songs, plays films. Many of which can be downloaded. One such popular website
is YouTube.
 Software Downloads: You can freely download innumerable, softwares like
utilities, games, music, videos, movies, etc from the Internet.
Limitations of Internet
 Theft of Personal information: Electronic messages sent over the Internet can
be easily snooped and tracked, revealing who is talking to whom and what they are
talking about. If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your
name, address, credit card, bank details and other information can be accessed by
unauthorized persons. If you use a credit card or internet banking for online
shopping, then your details can also be ‘stolen’.
 Negative effects on family communication: It is generally observed that due to
more time spent on Internet, there is a decrease in communication and feeling of
togetherness among the family members.
 Internet addiction: There is some controversy over whether it is possible to
actually be addicted to the Internet or not. Some researchers, claim that it is simply
people trying to escape their problems in an online world.
 Children using the Internet has become a big concern.
Most parents do not realize the dangers involved when their children log onto the
Internet. When children talk to others online, they do not realize they could
actually be talking to a harmful person. Moreover, pornography is also a very
serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young children.

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There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found
and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet.
 Virus threat: Today, not only are humans getting viruses, but computers are
also. Computers are mainly getting these viruses from the Internet. Virus is is a
program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems.
Computers attached to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up
into crashing your whole hard disk.
 Spamming: It is often viewed as the act of sending unsolicited email. This
multiple or vast emailing is often compared to mass junk mailings. It needlessly
obstruct the entire system. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious
products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender
very little to send — most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers
rather than by the sender
SERVICES OF INTERNET –E-mail, FTP, Telnet, WWW
(a) E-Mail (Electronic Mail)
E-mail or Electronic mail is a paperless method of sending messages, notes or
letters from one person to another or even many people at the same time via
Internet. E-mail is very fast compared to the normal post. E-mail messages usually
take only few seconds to arrive at their destination. One can send messages
anytime of the day or night and it will get delivered immediately. You need not to
wait for the post office to open and you don’t have to get worried about holidays.
It works 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
What’s more, the copy of the message you have sent will be available whenever
you want to look at it even in the middle of the night. You have the privilege of
sending something extra such as a file, graphics, images etc. along with your e-
mail. The biggest advantage of using e-mail is that it is cheap, especially when
sending messages to other states or countries and at the same time it can be
delivered to a number of people around the world.
Although e-mail is faster and cheaper, it has many of the components of regular
mail. It allows you to compose note, get the address of the recipient and send it.
Once the mail is received and read, it can be forwarded, replied. One can even
store it for later use, or delete. In a-mail even the sender can request for delivery
receipt and read receipt from the recipient.
Features of E-mail:
i. One-to-one or one-to-many communications
ii. Instant communications
iii. Physical presence of recipient is not required
iv. Most inexpensive mail services, 24-hours a day and seven days a week
v. Encourages informal communications
Components of an E-mail Address

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As in the case of normal mail system, e-mail is also based upon the concept of a
recipient address. The email address provides all of the information required to get
a message to the recipient from anywhere in the world. Consider the e-mail ID
john@hotmail.com
In the example above, “john” is the local part, which is the name of a mailbox on
the destination computer, where finally the mail will be delivered. Hotmail is the
mail server where the mailbox “john” exist,
.com is the type of organization on net, which is hosting the mail server.
There are six main categories;
com Commercial institutions or organization
edu Educational institutions
gov Government site
mil Military site
net Gateways and administrative hosts
org Private organizations
(b) FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software used to upload and download
files. It gives access to directories or folders on remote computers and allows
software, data and text files to be transferred between different kinds of computers.
FTP works on the basis of same principle as that of Client/Server. FTP “Client” is a
program running on the your computer that enables you to talk to, and get stuff
from, remote computers. The FTP client takes FTP commands and sends them as
requests for information from the remote computer or known as FTP servers. To
access remote FTP server it is required but not necessary to have an account in the
FTP server.
When the FTP client gets connected, FTP server asks for the identification in-terms
of User Login name and password of the FTP client.
If one does not have an account in the remote FTP server, still he can connect to
the server using anonymous login.
Using anonymous login anyone can login in to a FTP server and can access public
file archives, anywhere in the world, without having an account. One can easily
Login to the FTP site with the username anonymous and e-mail address as
password.
The basic objectives of FTP are
i. to give flexibility and promote sharing of computer programs, files and data
ii. to transfer data reliably and more efficiently over network
iii. to encourage implicit or indirect use of remote computers using Internet
iv. To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among hosts.

The basic steps in an FTP session are:

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 • Start up your FTP client, by typing ftp on your system’s command
line/’C>’ prompt (or, if you are in a Windows, double click on the FTP
icon)
• Give the FTP client an address to connect to. This is the FTP server
address to which the FTP client will get connected
• Identify yourself to the FTP remote site by giving the Login Name
• Give the remote site a password
• Remote site will verify the Login Name/Password to allow the FTP client
to access its files
• Look directory for files in FTP server
• Change Directories if required
• Set the transfer mode (optional);
• Get the file(s) you want, and
• Quit.
(c) Telnet (Remote Computing)
Telnet or remote computing is telecommunication utility software, which uses
available telecommunication facility and allows you to become a user on a remote
computer. Once you gain access to the remote computer, you can use it for the
intended purpose. The TELNET works in a very step by step procedure. The
commands typed on the client computer are sent to the local Internet Service
Provider (ISP), and then from the ISP to the remote computer that you have gained
access. Most of the ISP provides facility to TELNET into your own account from
another city and check your e-mail while you are traveling or away on business.
The following steps are required for a TELNET session
• Start up the TELNET program,
• Give the TELNET program an address to connect to (some really nifty
TELNET packages allow you to combine steps 1 and 2 into one
simple step!),
• Make a note of what the “escape character” is;
• Log in to the remote computer,
• Set the “terminal emulation,”
• Play around on the remote computer, and
• Quit.
WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)
WWW is the acronym for the World Wide Web. It is also commonly known as
‘The Web’. The WWW is hypertext based information retrieval tool. One can
easily surf the Web by jumping from one document to another using the links in
those documents. These documents can be in many formats, such as text, graphics,
animation, sound and latest is video. They may also be a combination of all these.
All the information on Internet are presented to the user as a document or more

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popularly known as Web Page. All these Web Pages are link to each other or even
to section within a Web Page. And these links are known as Hyper Links.
The tool used to view these Web Pages on Internet is known as Internet browser or
simply browser. It is a software program specifically developed to extract
information on user request from the Internet and present them as a Web Page to
the viewer. There are several browsers available in the market. However the most
popular are Internet Explorer from Microsoft and Netscape from Netscape
The process of using browser to view information on Internet is known as
Browsing or Surfing.
(a) Internet Address
Just like every house, every office, every location has an address, every page on
the Internet has a unique address. This address is used to get the web page for user
from Internet.
Just as the address of a house or office is known as its postal address, the
address on the Internet is known as URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A typical
Internet address or URL would look like;
http//www.nos.org/computers/internet/url.htm
The URL locates a particular web Page, among all the computers connected to the
Internet. The URL contains the components that specify the protocol, server, and
pathname of an item. Let us examine the URL given above
(http://www.nos.org/computers/internet/ url.htm).
The protocol is followed by a colon (http:), the server is preceded by two slashes
(//www.nios.ac.cn.org), and each segment of the pathname is preceded by a single
slash (/computers/internet/url.html). A protocol is set of rules that tells the
computer know how to interpret the information at that address.
The first component, the protocol, defines the manner for interpreting computer
information. Many Internet pages use HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). Other
common Internet protocols that one might come across are FTP (File Transfer
Protocol), NEWS (Usenet news groups protocol), and GOPHER (an alternative
transfer protocol).
Gopher protocol is mostly out of date now. Some examples are:
• http://-Used to access HTML documents, or web pages.
• gopher://-Used to connect to a gopher menu of access gopher documents.
• ftp://-Used to connect to an FTP site or download a particular file via FTP.
• telnet://-Used to connect to a remote Internet site using Telnet.
The second component, the server (www.nios.ac.cnedu), identifies the computer
system that stores the information you seek and is always preceded by two slashes.
A server is a computer that has information stored on it and sends it to the client,
when a request is made. Each server on the Internet has a unique address name
whose text refers to the organization maintaining the server.

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The last component (/computers/internet/), defines the path within the Server
where the requested item (url.html) will be found. Most of the Web page
will have.htm or .html as their secondary or extension name.
TYPES OF INTERNET CONNECTIONS
There are five types of internet connections which are as follows:
(i) Dial up Connection
(ii) Leased Connection
(iii) DSL connection
(iv)Cable Modem Connection
(v) VSAT
i) Dial up connection
Dial-up refers to an Internet connection that is established using a modem. The
modem connects the computer to standard phone lines, which serve as the data
transfer medium. When a user initiates a dial-up connection, the modem dials a
phone number of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is designated to receive
dial-up calls. The ISP then establishes the connection, which usually takes
about ten seconds and is accompanied by several beeping and a buzzing sound.
After the dial-up connection has been established, it is active until the user
disconnects from the ISP. Typically, this is done by selecting the “Disconnect”
option using the ISP’s software or a modem utility program. However, if a dial-up
connection is interrupted by an incoming phone call or someone picking up a
phone in the house, the service may also be disconnected.
Advantages
• Low Price
• Secure connection – your IP address continually changes
• Offered in rural areas – you need a phone line
Disadvantages
• Slow speed.
• Phone line is required.
• Busy signals for friends and family members.
ii) Leased Connection
Leased connection is a permanent telephone connection between two points set up
by a telecommunications common carrier. Typically, leased lines are used by
businesses to connect geographically distant offices. Unlike normal dial-up
connections, a leased line is always active. The fee for the connection is a fixed
monthly rate. The primary factors affecting the monthly fee are distance between
end points and the speed of the circuit. Because the connection doesn’t carry
anybody else’s communications, the carrier can assure a given level of quality.
For example, a T-1 channel is a type of leased line that provides a maximum
transmission speed of 1.544 Mbps. You can divide the connection into different

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lines for data and voice communication or use the channel for one high speed data
circuit. Dividing the connection is called multiplexing. Increasingly, leased lines
are being used by companies, and even individuals, for Internet access because
they afford faster data transfer rates and are cost-effective if the Internet is used
heavily.
Advantages
• Secure and private: dedicated exclusively to the customer
• Speed: symmetrical and direct
• Reliable: minimum down time
• Wide choice of speeds: bandwidth on demand, easily upgradeable
• Leased lines are suitable for in-house office web hosting
Disadvantages
• Leased lines can be expensive to install and rent.
• Not suitable for single or home workers
• Lead times can be as long as 65 working days
• Distance dependent to nearest Point.
• Leased lines have traditionally been the more expensive access option.
iii) DSL connection
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a family of technologies that provides digital
data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally
stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL
is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the
most commonly installed DSL technology. DSL service is delivered
simultaneously with wired telephone service on the same telephone line. This is
possible because DSL uses higher frequency bands for data separated by filtering.
On the customer premises, a DSL filter on each outlet removes the high frequency
interference, to enable simultaneous use of the telephone and data.
Advantages:
• Security: Unlike cable modems, each subscriber can be configured so that it
will not be on the same network. In some cable modem networks, other
computers on the cable modem network are left visibly vulnerable and are
easily susceptible to break in as well as data destruction.
• Integration: DSL will easily interface with ATM and WAN technology.
• High bandwidth
• Cheap line charges from the phone company.
• Good for “bursty” traffic patterns
Disadvantages
• No current standardization: A person moving from one area to
another might find that their DSL modem is just another paperweight.
Customers may have to buy new equipment to simply change ISPs.

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 • Expensive: Most customers are not willing to spend more than $20 to $25
per month for Internet access. Current installation costs, including the
modem, can be as high as $750. Prices should come down within 1-3 years.
As with all computer technology, being first usually means an emptier
wallet.
• Distance Dependence: The farther you live from the DSLAM (DSL
Access Multiplexer), the lower the data rate.The longest run lengths are
18,000 feet, or a little over 3 miles.
iv) Cable Modem Connection
A cable modem is a type of Network Bridge and modem that provides bi-
directional data communication via radio frequency channels Cable modems are
primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access in the form of cable Internet,
Advantages
• Always Connected: A cable modem connection is always connected to the
Internet. This is advantageous because you do not have to wait for your
computer to “log on” to the Internet; however, this also has the
disadvantage of making your computer more vulnerable to hackers.
• Broadband: Cable modems transmit and receive data as digital packets,
meaning they provide high-speed Internet access. This makes cable
modem connections much faster than traditional dial-up connections.
• Bandwidth: Cable modems have the potential to receive data from their
cable provider at speeds greater than 30 megabits per second;
unfortunately, this speed is rarely ever realized. Cable lines are shared by
all of the cable modem users in a given area; thus, the connection speed
varies depending upon the number of other people using the Internet and
the amount of data they are receiving or transmitting.
• File Transfer Capabilities: Downloads may be faster, but uploads are
typically slower. Since the same lines are used to transmit data to and
from the modem, priority is often given to data traveling in one direction.
• Signal Integrity: Cable Internet can be transmitted long distances with
little signal degradation. This means the quality of the Internet signal is not
significantly decreased by the distance of the modem from the cable
provider.
• Routing: Cable routers allow multiple computers to be hooked up to one
cable modem, allowing several devices to be directly connected through a
single modem. Wireless routers can also be attached to your cable
modem.
• Rely on Existing Connections: Cable modems connect directly to
preinstalled cable lines. This is advantageous because you do not need to
have other services, such as telephone or Internet, in order to receive
Internet

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 through your cable modem. The disadvantage is that you cannot have cable
internet in areas where there are no cable lines.
Disadvantages
• Cable internet technology excels at maintaining signal strength over
distance. Once it is delivered to a region, however, such as a
neighborhood, it is split among that regions subscribers. While increased
capacity has diminished the effect somewhat, it is still possible that users
will see significantly lower speeds at peak times when more people are
using the shared connection.
• Bandwidth equals money, so cable’s advantage in throughput comes with a
price. Even in plans of similar speeds compared with DSL, customers
spend more per Mb with cable than they do with DSL.
• It’s hard to imagine, but there are still pockets of the United States without
adequate cable television service. There are far fewer such pockets
without residential land-line service meaning cable internet is on balance
less accessible in remote areas.
DOWNLOADING FILES
Downloading is the process of copying a file (such as a game or utility) from one
computer to another across the internet. When you download a game from our web
site, it means you are copying it from the author or publisher’s web server to your
own computer. This allows you to install and use the program on your own
machine.
Here’s how to download a file using Internet Explorer and Windows XP. (This
example shows a download of the file “dweepsetup.exe” from Dexterity Games.)
If you’re using a different browser such as Netscape Navigator or a different
version of Windows, your screen may look a little different, but the same basic
steps should work.
1. Click on the download link for the program you want to download. Many sites
offer multiple download links to the same program, and you only need to choose
one of these links.
2. You may be asked if you want to save the file or run it from its current location.
If you are asked this question, select “Save.” If not, don’t worry — some
browsers will automatically choose “Save” for you. (Fig. 3.3(a))
3. You will then be asked to select the folder where you want to save the
program or file, using a standard “Save As” dialog box. Pay attention to which
folder you select before clicking the “Save” button. It may help you to create a
folder like “C:\Download” for all of your downloads, but you can use any folder
you’d like.
4. The download will now begin. Your web browser will keep you updated on the
progress of the download by showing a progress bar that fills up as you download.

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You will also be reminded where you’re saving the file. The file will be saved as
“C:\Download\dweepsetup.exe” in the picture below. (Fig. 3.3(b))
Note: You may also see a check box labeled “Close this dialog box when
download completes.” If you see this check box, it helps to uncheck this box. You
don’t have to, but if you do, it will be easier to find the file after you download it.
5. Depending on which file you’re downloading and how fast your connection is, it
may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to download. When your
download is finished, if you left the “Close this dialog box when download
completes” option unchecked, you’ll see a dialog box as shown in fig. 3.3(c) :

Fig 3.3.(a) Downloading Window Fig 3.3.( b) Downloading

Window

Fig 3.3.(c) Downloading Window

6. Now click the “Open” button to run the file you just downloaded. If you don’t
see the “Download complete” dialog box, open the folder where you saved the file
and double-click on the icon for the file there.
What happens next will depend on the type of file you downloaded. The files
you’ll download most often will end in one of two extensions. (An extension is the
last few letters of the filename, after the period.) They are:
o .EXE files: The file you downloaded is a program.

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Follow the on-screen instructions from there to install the program to
your computer and to learn how to run the program after it’s installed.
o .ZIP files: ZIP is a common file format used to compress and combine
files to make them download more quickly. Some versions of Windows
(XP and sometimes ME) can read ZIP files without extra software.
Otherwise, you will need an unzipping program to read these ZIP files. Common
unzipping programs are WinZip, PKZIP, and Bit Zipper, but there are also many
others. Many unzipping programs are shareware, which means you will need to
purchase them if you use them beyond their specified trial period.
SEARCHING ON THE WEB
There are more than 2,500 search services presently on the Web.
Search services on the Internet come in two main flavours:
1) ‘search engine’ that index words or terms in Internet documents; and
2) ‘directories’ that classify Web documents or locations into an arbitrary
subject classification scheme or taxonomy.
Most search engines take one or more words entered by the user, search the
contents of every Web page stored in their databases and display the result. Search
engines tend to “index” (record by word) all of the terms on a given Web
document. Or they may index all of the terms within the first few sentences, the
Web site title, or the document’s metatags.
Internet directories are on-line Web sites that place Web page into one or more
categories. Web pages are usually listed with a brief description and their URL.
Depending on the Internet directory you are using, a search engine may also be
available, as well as a Random URL link. Directories operate on a different
principle. They require people to view the individual Web site and determine its
placement into a subject classification scheme or taxonomy. Once done, certain
keywords associated with those sites can be used for searching the directory’s data
banks to find Web sites of interest some popular search engineers are:-
• Google- http://www.google.com
• Infoseek- http://guide.infoseek.com
• Alta Vista – http://www.altavista.digital.com
• Lycos – http://www.lycos.com
• Yahoo! – http://www.yahoo.com
Your ability to find the information you seek on the Internet is a function of how
precise your queries are and how effectively you use search services. Poor queries
return poor results; good queries return great results.

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