COMMUNICATIONS-TECHNOLOGY: Decoding the Internet — an Online Primer

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

SEATTLE, Apr 23 1996 (IPS) - National boundaries have little meaning on the Internet, which allows individuals on any kind of computer anywhere to share information cheaply and rapidly.

But for the uninitiated, crossing the border into virtual territory can seem like entering an enigmatic foreign country. Here are a few signposts.

The Internet:

A global network of computer networks. A January survey counts 9.5 million computers in 169 countries, up from 6.6 million in 106 countries last July. The overwhelming majority of the computers are in industrialised countries. No one company or government owns more than a small fraction.

The equipment needed to get on the Internet is available in the United States for some 1,000 dollars. U.S. firms offer Internet connections for unlimited hours at 20 dollars a month, and analysts expect prices to stabilise at 10 dollars to 12 dollars.

Modem:

From MOdulator/DEModulator; a small electronic device that allows a computer to communicate over telephone lines. Getting on the Internet requires a computer with communications software, a modem, and an account with a firm that serves as an Internet service provider (ISP). The provider uses more powerful computers and high-speed, high-volume communications channels to connect to other providers.

When you tell your computer to connect to the Internet, the computer activates the modem, which dials the Internet service provider over the phone line. The provider’s computer answers and you log on (verify your identity) by sending your code name and a password. The provider then connects you directly to the Internet.

Telephone companies, cable television providers and other communications firms are competing to develop much faster technologies than telephone lines for homes and businesses to connect to the Internet.

Online:

In this context, this elastic word means “connected to the Internet or another network.” If you become addicted and spend too many hours online, your friends are supposed to tell you to “get a life”, and your spouse is entitled to divorce you.

Online services:

Companies such as America Online and Compuserve that provide online information banks and discussion groups on a wide variety of topics, along with other amenities for their subscribers. While these services began as networks separate from the Internet, most now offer Internet connections and some are merging with the Internet.

E-mail:

Electronic mail lets you send messages easily and quickly over the Internet or other networks. Users are assigned a unique address, which might look like: wshakespeare@globe.com

The first part is the user’s alias or user name. After the @ symbol comes the name of the server or host computer that receives mail for them (often the name of their Internet service provider).

Encryption:

The encoding of information so that it can be sent secretly. Sensitive messages and financial information are often encrypted for secure transmission over the Internet.

The U.S. government classifies some kinds of encryption software as “munitions” and controls its export because it can be used to conceal military communications. But similar software is available around the world.

The World Wide Web:

Most people who go online now connect to the World Wide Web, the incarnation of the Internet adorned with graphics, sound, and video. In the Paleolithic period before 1989, the Internet displayed only text files, but the Web has since eclipsed other ways of viewing information.

The Web is easier to use because it lets users navigate through its pages (files you can view) and sites (connected groups of pages) with hypertext. Hypertext includes words and images, usually underlined and in a different colour, that represent links to other pages on computers anywhere on the Internet. Software called a browser allows you to use a mouse or other pointing device to click or select a link, sending a message to the other computer, which then displays the requested page on your screen.

Moving around the world on your computer this way is called surfing the Web. When you see information you would like to keep, you can download it from the Web to your computer. On other areas of the Web called newsgroups or conferences, you can also upload your contributions to ongoing discussions.

Along with businesses and other organisations, multitudes of individuals have created home pages with self-descriptions, ruminations, jokes, photos, music and home videos to expose their passions and foibles to fellow Web denizens. These pages can provide a range of experiences — from stimulating political conversation to voyeurism.

The addresses contained in hypertext links are called URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Each is a unique address which allows the browser to find that page among the millions on the Internet.

A typical URL might be: http://www.un.org/pathname/filename.htm

The ‘http:’ — HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the communications standard used on the Web. Other acroynyms (such as “ftp:”, for File Transfer Protocol) indicate older services on the Internet. The string of characters following ‘http’ represents the domain or host and usually the organisation that runs it. It often begins with “www” for World Wide Web. The three characters after the last period indicates the kind of organisation, such as ‘org’ for a non-governmental organisation or ‘com’ for a business, or the country where the host is located.

‘Pathname’ is the location within the directory structure of the computer or Web site, and ‘filename.htm’ is the name and kind of file you are viewing. Pages designed to be viewed on the Web are written in a language called HTML (for HyperText Markup Language), and usually end in “.htm” or “.html”.