The Internet is a global network that provides access to vast amounts of information using specific data transfer modes over telephone lines. The backbone of the web consists of powerful T3 lines that connect metropolitan cities, while branch lines provide local support. Every computer on the web has a unique IP address, and data packets are redirected to the computer via routers. The Internet was initially developed by the US Department of Defense in 1969 as a redundant, non-centralized communications system.
Also known as the worldwide web, or simply the web, the Internet gives people all over the world access to vast amounts of information. The web is a worldwide network that adheres to specific data transfer modes in order to establish a standardized communication highway. Information is transferred over telephone lines which read and transfer data back and forth between a computer and a website. Anyone with access can send and receive information over the Web using Internet-enabled software, which understands the online protocols or language of the Internet.
Telephone lines
The backbone of the world wide web is made up of a powerful set of telephone lines including T3 lines, capable of transferring data at a very high rate of around 45 megabytes per second. The lines connect metropolitan cities and include access points or national feeds. These feeds are equivalent to major highways on a road map, which explains why the Internet is often referred to as the information superhighway.
Telephone lines are operated and maintained by various companies and organizations working cooperatively, with no centralized ownership. Redundancy is built into the web’s data routes so that if one or more trunk lines go down, traffic can be diverted, much like a traffic diversion when a highway is temporarily under construction. While this may slow down Internet traffic, it will not “disrupt” the world wide web.
While T3 lines provide the backbone for the Web, branch lines provide local support by establishing leased lines that connect to Web data routes at national access points. Revisiting the map analogy, these smaller lines can be equated to avenues and major roads leading to highways. These alternate lines are leased and operated by various Internet Service Provider (ISP) cooperatives that use routers to direct traffic.
Internet Protocol Address
Every computer connected to the web is assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. When using a computer, you can point and click on a website link, at which point your browser sends a request directed to the website hosting the desired content. Routers along the way read the address of the data packet and forward it along the best available path.
When the data packet arrives at the website, the server reads the request and sends the requested page to the computer via a return address in the data packet – this is the computer’s IP address. The data packet is redirected to the computer in several data packets and the browser interprets the content and displays the page on the screen. In essence, the world wide web is like a freeway filled with data packets racing against cars.
Development
The first whispers of an Internet-like network go back to Leonard Kleinrock, “Information Flow in Large Communication Nets”, 1961, and JCR Licklider / W. Clark, “On-Line Man Computer Communication”, 1962. Licklider then directed the United States Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to develop these projects into what would become the Internet, initially dubbed ARPANET. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) funded the project in 1969, interested in developing a redundant, non-centralized communications system that could survive a nuclear attack. The rest, as they say, is history.
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