What is The internet........???

This section has been taken from materials authored by the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) training team. For further information see:

• The Internet comprises both a physical infrastructure and a collection of standards for communication. It was developed over 20 years ago, primarily for use by the US Defense Department. Its potential was quickly seen and developed by academic communities around the world. The Internet is:
  A global network of networks
  An agreement on standards
  The repository of a vast mass of information
  A means of communicating with people and with computers and services
  Groups of computers are connected to other groups of computers in networks throughout the world allowing global communication. Within the UK, academic institutions are connected via JANET, the Joint Academic Network
• Internet Protocol (IP)
  To enable computers connected to the Internet to communicate and understand information exchanged between them, they all use the same standard (protocol), known as the Internet Protocol (IP). Each computer on the Internet can be uniquely identified by its Internet Protocol (IP) address (for example, 120.218.38.8). Because identifying and remembering numbers can be difficult, a system for assigning names to computers on the Internet, the Domain Name System (DNS), was introduced, creating names such as, lib.bris.ac.uk. This is the domain name of the library computer at the University of Bristol. This is much easier to remember and to pass on than a series of numbers. All addresses on the Internet are based on the Domain Name System (DNS).
• Email and Mailing Lists
  Electronic mail (email) is the most basic and widely used facility available on the Internet. It allows you to mail one or more people anywhere on the Internet, provided that you know their email address. There are a number of electronic media which allow people with similar interests to discuss topics in a similar way to electronic mail. These include mailing lists (also called discussion lists), newsgroups and scholarly electronic conferences. You do not need to know the email addresses of all mailing list members. You simply mail the list address and the message is sent automatically to all the subscribers. Such services are very useful ways of disseminating information, keeping up to date with what is going on in a subject area and keeping in touch with colleagues.
  The mailing list service for the UK higher education community is JISCmail at:
  http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
  Another important mail service is called Listserv. Newsgroups, like mailing lists, are grouped into subject and interest categories but you need to read postings (messages) via software called "newsreaders"; messages are not delivered to an email "box". A comprehensive and searchable directory of mailing lists, discussion groups and newsgroups covering all subject areas and disciplines is maintained by Tile.Net. Details can be found at:
  http://tile.net/lists/
  Relevant social science lists and groups may be located via the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG), under the various subject headings on the home page at:
  http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
  FTP is used as the basis for programs which allow you to transfer files between your own computer and another remote computer connected to the Internet. Files can include word-processed documents, spreadsheets, databases, software, etc. Transfer of files can be in either direction (from your computer to another, or vice versa). Many public repositories of files exist (called anonymous FTP sites) which allow you to select files and download them for your own local use without the need to supply a unique username and password.
• World Wide Web
  The World Wide Web (also called simply the Web or WWW) is a system which allows text, graphics, sounds and moving images to be shared between and displayed on computers on the Internet. The Web gives a unified interface to all kinds of networked information: you do not need to know how to use different systems or computer languages to access this information.
  The Web is based on a protocol (standard or agreement) called HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This is the mechanism which allows Web information to be transferred over the Internet. It uses software called a client or browser to retrieve and display information on your screen. The browser is called "client" software because it is installed on your local computer. It connects to and retrieves information on other computers (called "servers" because they "serve up" the information requested). Using a browser, you are able to select a hypertext link - usually text or an image which is highlighted or coloured differently to the surrounding text - to connect to another piece of information on the Internet: its address is "coded" in the link.
  Web pages are written using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML is a series of codes called "tags" used in a plain text file which tell the browser how to display the information.
  There are times when you will need to enter the address of the information you want. On the WWW, addresses are known as Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).
  
  Understanding URLs
  The Web allows you to access data held on the many different kinds of systems available on the Internet, not just the Web. URLs are case-sensitive, which that means that you must make sure you type them exactly with upper and lower case letters, dots and slashes in the right place. The URL will often help you identify where the information is located and at what type of organisation. These are examples of different types of URL:
  This link will connect you to a Web server (using HyperText Transfer Protocol) at a service called SOSIG in an academic institution within the UK:
  http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
  This link will prompt you to send an email message to a mailing list called sosig-info based at the University of Bristol:
  mailto:sosig-info@bris.ac.uk
  The above URLs all show the country identifier for the UK. Other countries have similar two-character identifiers. Note that the USA does not normally use its identifier, '.us'. URLs also show the kind of organisation which hosts the information.