Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
TECHNOLOGY GUIDE FIVE
Basics of the Internet and the
World Wide Web
Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Technology Guide Outline
• TG5.1 The Internet
• TG5.2 The World Wide Web
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate among the Internet, the World Wide
Web, intranets, and extranets.
• Describe how the Internet operates.
• Discuss the various ways to connect to the Internet.
• Describe the parts of an Internet address.
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
The Internet
• The Internet is a global WAN that connects
approximately one million organizational computer
networks in more than 200 countries.
• Grew out of an experimental project of the Dept of
Defense, Advanced Research Project Agency
(DARPA) in the late 1960’s.
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
The Internet
• Today, Internet technologies are being used both
within and among companies and organizations.
– Intranet
• Network designed to serve the internal informational
needs of a single organization.
– Extranet
• Network that connects parts of the intranets of different
organizations and allows secure communications among
business partners over the Internet using virtual private
networks.
– Darknet
• Private network that runs on the Internet but is only open
to users who belong to the network.
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Accessing the Internet
• Connecting via an online service
• Internet kiosks
• Dial-up
• ISDN
• DSL
• Cable Modem
• Satellite
• Wireless
• Fiber to the home
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Internet Kiosk
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
An Image of the Internet in the U.S.
• The white lines are Internet backbone links.
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Addresses on the Internet
• Domain names consist of multiple parts, separated by
dots, which are read from right to left.
– Top-level domain
• Rightmost part of an Internet name; common top-level
domains are .com, .edu, .gov
– Name of the company
• Next section of the Internet name
– Name of the specific computer
• Next section of the Internet name
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
Internet Address example
www.business.auburn.edu
Name of the specific Name of the organization:
computer: business Auburn University
Top level domain:
edu
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Information Technology Foundations-BIT 112
The World Wide Web
• The World Wide Web is a system of universally
accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting,
and displaying information via a client/server
architecture.
– Not the same thing as the Internet
• Internet functions as the Transport mechanism.
• WWW is an application that uses the Internet, email is
another example of an app that runs on the Internet.
– Home page: a text and graphical screen display that usually
welcomes the user and explains the organization that has
established the page.
– Uniform resource locator: the set of letters that points to the
address of a specific resource on the Web.
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