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While there are many internets - with a small "i" - there's only one Internet. An "internet" is any network of networks of the type installed in many businesses and healthcare facilities. Small local networks are linked by high speed "backbones" to form a building-wide network. Buildings on a campus or throughout a region are linked in larger networks.
The Internet is unique in that no one owns it and it is not controlled in the classical sense by anyone. While committees of volunteers determine standards and private companies are involved in the construction and maintenance, the important part – the content – has been entirely unregulated. Recently enacted telecommunications legislation in the US seeks to control content of the Internet but significant challenges are expected.
It's probably no coincidence that the Internet is a mystery to most people and the thing that most defines it is the TCP/IP communications protocol. the Internet cannot be described in terms of who owns it, who operates it or what people do with it. It is defined as millions of computers that communicate with a common "language" - TCP/IP.
For over twenty years the Internet was virtually unknown to the general public. It began in 1969 as a set of four Defense Department computers linked to exchange research information. What made this linkage unique was DOD's requirement that the network not depend on any one site for its continued operation. It had to function even if one or more computers was disabled in a military attack. That "survivability" provided the basis years later for a network of many "uncontrolled" systems since computers on the network could be shutdown temporarily or permanently without disrupting the Internet.
The technical solution was the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - TCP/IP - suite of protocols that route messages through the network. These protocols do not send and receive from any central system. The IP component handles transmission - via specialized computers called routers - to the correct address and TCP packages messages in a "packet" structure for handling by IP. As a reminder, a protocol begins as an agreement between people about how something is supposed to work. A computer communications protocol is software that actually implements that agreement.
With this long history, why did the Internet suddenly appear as exciting "new technology"? It was not because Al Gore and Newt Gingrich began to promote it. It was due to three separate but related developments or "enabling technologies".
While in recent years, the Internet has contained millions of files from numerous sources, the information was essentially inaccessible by anyone but a dedicated researcher. It was like a very large library with no card catalog. "Surfing the Net" was the equivalent of walking up and down the stacks hoping to stumble across an interesting or valuable resource. The "Gopher" system developed at the University of Minnesota was an important step in organizing files on a given system and providing "links" to other systems but it did not go far enough.
The three developments that "made the difference" were the World Wide Web (The Web), the Web Browser and the concept of a Search Engine. These technologies combined to bring order out of chaos.
The Web was developed in 1991 to allow researchers to connect documents on the Internet through dynamic links. The reader of a Web document could jump to a "linked" document by selecting a highlighted word or phrase. The linked document might be on the same computer or on an entirely different system on the other side of the world.
The links were coded by the writer in the same way that footnotes and references are included in published material. A standardized system of addressing called Universal Resource Locators (URLs) facilitated this world-wide connection.
While this was an important first step, the Internet was still not a pretty sight since plain ASCII text was the primary type of file that could be transmitted. That's the reason e-mail over the Internet does not include formatting or graphics. The Internet browser - there are many available - changed all this.
A browser such as Netscape or Mosaic is a program installed on the users PC which converts plain text to a more attractive display. To make this possible, the writer must imbed special codes or instructions in the document describing how should be displayed. It is exactly how early word processors sent codes for "bold" and "italic" to printers when the computers could not understand or display such characters. This coding system is called Hypertext Markup Language - HTML. As an example a large headline would be coded
<H1>Large Headline</H1>
where the material in the special brackets < > are beginning and ending "tags" interpreted by the browser. A smaller headline would be indicated by <H2>, <H3>, etc.
A special graphics format - GIF - was developed by Unisys and incorporated first by CompuServe. This "Graphics Interchange Format" and an increasingly popular JPEG format allow graphics to be incorporated in Web pages. To summarize, a Web document might start out as plain text. HTML codes are added to make the appearance more attractive; additional "link" codes are added to connect the document to others; finally, graphics elements are included.
Unfortunately, Web standards are changing so rapidly that few browsers show identical images. While <H1> indicates a large headline, the size and type font are actually determined by the browser or the user of the browser. Also GIF graphics are recognized by all browsers but JPEG is not.
Next month's column will provide more information about the Web since it is a very complex but powerful system.
At this point information is accessible and attractive but it is still not organized. The "search engine" was the final key. A search engine is a program that scours the Internet and catalogs the millions of files it encounters. To find information on a particular subject, the user contacts the site that operates that search engine and enters appropriate key words. In a few seconds, the program will respond with a list of files that match the search.
Depending on how specific the key words are, the search might find no files or thousands of files. The biggest problem is that the material on the Internet has been prepared by millions of people with no uniform structure. Early search engines looked at only document titles, authors and key words so words in the text were not indexed. The most recent and most powerful search engines index every word in the document - quite a task considering they may catalog 30 million documents.
Searches are amazingly fast - generally less than 30 seconds. All searches result in a list of document titles that can be selected to jump directly to the file.
There are numerous ways to get on the Net. It is estimated that half of the 15 million Internet users in the US connect through one of the commercial services such as CompuServe and America Online. While these services are popular, using them to access the Internet is not as good as a direct connection through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They are also more expensive for anyone using more than about 15 hours a month.
Fortunately, the commercial services are linked to the Internet for e-mail transmission so you can correspond with virtually anyone online. File transfer is a different matter. It is easy to transfer formatted files to another user on the same service but it can be difficult or impossible to do that outside your own system.
Browsers incorporated in commercial packages are not as sophisticated and generally slower than Netscape and other high end browsers. This is changing though since commercial services will be giving users a choice of browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
ISPs are sprouting up all over . Many are local but a few are national. The coverage of an ISP depends on where they have local telephone access. To take advantage of graphical browsers, you must have a "PPP" account. Such accounts are now in the range of $20-40 per month for access of 150 hours or more. Many ISPs advertise lower rates for a "shell" or terminal emulation account which should be avoided.
The Internet Service Provider situation will change quickly this year since AT&T and MCI announced in March that they will give away a basic Internet connection to their telephone clients for one year (AT&T) and two months (MCI).
A modem running at 14.4 kbps (thousand bits per second) is the most common type in use today. Anyone purchasing a new modem should select the 28.8 version since the graphics orientation of the Internet puts a heavy load on communication devices. This speed is nearly the limit of a standard telephone line connection.
ISDN connections which can operate at 128 kbps are becoming more widely available through local telephone companies. Cable companies are contemplating Internet service via cable at significantly higher speeds.
Many people get initiated into online services through a commercial provider since it is easy to sign on. Setting up a Web Browser can be difficult. While the programs can be packaged in many ways, there are several important components: the browser, an e-mail program, a TCP/IP stack and a dialer. The software is free or very low cost. Bundled packages such as "Internet in a Box" - which cost $50-$150 - simplify the configuration of these programs.
One final note. Newsgroups - the Internet equivalent of bulletin boards - cover every conceivable topic. A browser of special "news reader" program can be used to access these ongoing conversations on thousands of subjects.
The best news about the Internet is that you learn about it by using it. Virtually any question you have is addressed somewhere - often in a FAQ - a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Current use of the Internet has only begun to scratch the surface of this technology. Dramatic changes will occur in all aspects of information processing and distribution in the next five years.