1995 Internet presentation

 

1995 Presentation I put together. 

TDK Internet presentation

 

While researching the question “What is the Internet?” to provide a simple unbiased answer to the question., I came across many widely different explanations of what the Internet really is.

 

So what does the word internet really mean? The term “Internet” is abbreviated from “Inter-Networking”

 

As defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary

                Inter- prefix          1. between or among.  

                                                2. with or on each other [interact]

                Networking           1. the development of contacts or exchanging of information

                                                2. the interconnection of computer systems.

 

Networking or a network describes the interconnections between computers as opposed to the computers themselves and what could be accomplished by connecting them. There are two major terms use to describe computer networks, the LAN or local area network is what is commonly found in offices. It can tie an office of PC’s and MACs together to allow sharing a printer, disk space, maybe a CDROM drive, or e-mail.

Beyond this is a WAN or wide area network , this can be used to connect several mainframe locations or several office LANs together . This Internet is the ultimate a collection of interconnected WAN’s connecting over 10,000 LAN’s together, it is a global network of networks.

 

Buddha came up with a good definition approx. 2500 Years ago

"As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in this world is connected by a series of ties.  If anyone thinks that the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken.  It is called a net because it is made up of a series of interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibility in relation to other meshes."

 

Another definition given in "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog,"

The Internet can be thought about in relation to its common protocols, as a physical collection of routers and circuits, as a set of shared resources, or even as an attitude about interconnecting and intercommunication.

Some common definitions given in the past include:

                * a network of networks based on the TCP/IP protocols,

                * a community of people who use and develop those networks,

                * a collection of resources that can be reached from those

The Internet as a single network is incomprehensible hugh. The physical network itself  has 4 Million computers world wide with 32 Million people using it. It uses fiber optics, satellite links, packet radio , microwave, free space laser, modems over phone lines, leased lines T1, T3, ISDN, ATM Frame relay, SNA ethernet X.25 and many other types of communications. One of the biggest reasons for the internets success is it’s adaptability, anywhere two computers can communicate the internet can expand out to. The network it’s self has almost become a living creature taking on a life of it’s own, made up of many different organizations and companies and that have agreed to join networks, it is owned by everyone on it, and has become a public resource. But the physical part of this global network is only a small part of what it really represents.  The Internet has become a tightly nit global community in cyberspace, it offers just about everything you can find in a big city like New York and more. It has news papers, mail, billboards, malls, markets, libraries, friends, and a lot of gossip, and much more.

 

Understanding how this came to be will require looking how it has evolved. 

 

In the Early 1960’s in the RAND corporation ,  Americas' foremost Cold War think-tank was faced with a problem. How to make a communications network that could withstand a nuclear attack?  Any traditional network at that time was like the phone company with central command and control location, should a problem occur with the control center the entire systems would stop. In 1964 Paul Baran made public a plan for a network that would have no Central authority and was designed to operate with major parts of  it destroyed.   The principles are simple. The network is assumed to be unreliable at all times, and it is designed to work around section that are not working. Each machine (node) on the network has equal authority to every other node. The messages passed between nodes are broken smaller pieces called packets. Each packet contains the address of were it is going  and checksum to verify that it is still correct. The nodes on the network pass each packet along in the direction of it final destination until it get there. The path that these packet take may be different for each and it is possible that a packet may get lost, copied , or arrive in a different order than it was sent. It is the responsibility of  the destination node to collect and organize these packets back into the original message and ask for missing packets if any don't arrive after a certain period of time. 

 

 This concept was then funded  in 1969 by the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency(ARPA) to connect several supercomputers around the country, it was called the ARPANET.  Initially the NCP or Network Control Protocol was used. A protocol describes the way these computers on the network communicate with one another, make decisions and resolve problems together. NCP was then replaced with an improved protocol called TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. One of the major things about TCP/IP is it makes no assumption about what type of connection it’s being used over. TCP/IP is what allow the internet to go everywhere, It is one of the only .protocols that will work for both a LAN and a WAN.  

 

Over the years the number of computers joining this network grew rapidly. One of the most popular uses of this network became E-Mail, But this was limited to only those who could afford the expense of special leased lines to directly connect to the Elite of the ARPANET.  As a solution for those less fortunate to receive E-Mail a method was devised in 1976. Using the UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Program) to pass E-Mail along from UNIX machine to UNIX machine over standard phone lines using modems. This uses a store and forward method and was slow and complicated, but it did extend the reach of E-Mail. This became known as the USENET and although it is not a part of the Internet it has played a vital role in the Internets development.   Machines called Gateways have been established that allow Mail, News and  even file transfers to pass between the Internet and other networks like the USENET, but these external networks are not using TCP/IP and are not a part of the internet. The totality of these combined networks is called the Matrix.

 

In 1982 - 1983 the ARPANET officially switch to TCP/IP from NCP. The TCP/IP protocols are public-domain and with the released of BSD UNIX version 4.2  from Berkeley a cheap reliable operating systems became available with full TCP/IP support. BSD UNIX came will full source code allowing people to port this operating systems and networking tools to almost every type of computer made at the time. All the networking software was free and it was almost impossible to stop people from just connecting up to the internet.

 

Universities around the country were linking together and installed Ethernet across there campuses. Ethernet is a LAN networking standard that originally used a 1/2 round bright orange cable run through ceilings. It was very simple to plug into this cable get instant high speed access to almost every computer in every university around the world.  The demand for this was enormous. After a point most college and universities offered free shell account to it student and faculty.  A shell account is an account on a UNIX machine that allow you run TCP/IP program on that machine and see the results over a terminal. Soon people were able to call from home and check there E-Mail, move large files or use a computer on the other side of the country that they had moved away from just like they were sitting in front of it. With access to such a powerful system, students started developing more software for the internet most of it public-domain.  As these student left the demand to use these services from home and business brought about many private companies that did nothing else but offer University like shell account onto UNIX machines. Netcom is one of the biggest of these. As the price  of modems dropped and the speeds became higher new things became possible. One of these is SLIP

The MATRIX - Real Time (Internet) VS Store and Forward (UUCP)

 

On the global network there are two major types of connections that make up the MATRIX,real time and store and forward.  A real time connection is also known as a direct internet connection. All Internet services are fully available and instantaneous.  Store and forward connection on the other hand are much slower and only support a small number of services, E-Mail, Netnews, and File transfer. E-mail on a store and forward network, can take between 2 hours to 2 days to get through.

 

There are many store and forward networks the biggest being UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Program) based, most commonly called the USENET  The way these networks operate is mail or news is in the form of files saved on a hard disk. At regular intervals each machine on the network (that are not really connected) calls it’s neighboring machines using a modem and exchanges files. Mail on a network like this might have to pass along half a dozen machines (NODES) before reaching it’s destination. This network also connects into the Internet and often mail might start on the USENET be passed along to the Internet and then end up back on the USENET.

 

One of the main driving forces for store and forward networks is it’s cheap. It is only recently that inexpensive high speed modems are available for $200 allowing speeds almost as fast as $1000 a month.  Only a few years ago the top speed available over a phone line was 2400 Baud and shortly before that only 300 Baud. And here where a store and forward network really makes sense. A letter might take 2 Minutes to send at such slow data rates and the cost of sending it long distance would add up. But on a UUCP network most nodes are a local phone call and after hopping several nodes would be able to reach the Internet back bone and rocket across the world to it’s destination.  So this provides a cheap method for extending the internets reach, But it’s not really the Internet.

 

With todays high speed modems, real time internet has become practical and inexpensive over a standard phone line. Using SLIP (Serial line internet protocol) or PPP (point to point protocol) all internet services are available.

It’s only recently have high speed modem become available

Most online providers are in the Matrix, Compuserve, prodigy etc, But there are NOT on the Internet and can only move E-Mail and maybe NetNews. 

                                USENET

                                Xerox Park  - Ethernet

                                BSD UNIX- TCP/IP

                                E-MAIL & NEWS

                                SRI-NIC

                               

                                Security

                Future

                                NII - National Information Infrastructure - Info Super highway

                                SSL - Secure socket layer- Electronic Cash & Electronic commerce.

                                Wireless and Cable TV

                How to get in on it

                                Slip - PPP - ISDN - T1 - T3

                                Service providers.

 

DEMO & TALK

                What's available?

                                Applications - Matrix  (ON REAL-TIME)

                                                E-MAIL, NEWS

                                Applications - Internet  (REAL-TIME)

                                                FTP, TELNET, FINGER, WHOIS

                                                GOPHER, ARCHIE, Veronica, Jughead, WAIS

                                                MU, IRC

                                                WWW - Mosaic - Netscape.

 

                Why would TDK be interested

                      Outbound

                                Public relations

                                Advertising

                                Customer Support

                                Direct Sales

                                Technical literature.

                                Professionalism

                      Inbound

                                Research (business , marketing, technical, academic)

                                Public Domain software - utilities

                                Job recruitment

                                Customer feedback

                                FREE Technical Advice and assistance

                INTERNAL

                                Employee handbook

                                memo's - saving paper

                                improved internal communications and workflow

                                improved corporate organization

 

.      hierarchy