Chapter 3
NOW A DAY TECHNOLOGY AND CURRENT PROJECT
COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
A communications medium is the hardware that connects computers and other digital equipment together. The most important measure for a communications medium is its bandwidth, which indicates how much data can be transferred through the medium in a fixed amount of time. High bandwidth communications medium allows more data to flow through in one second than a low bandwidth communications medium. Bandwidth is measured in bits per second, kilobits per second or megabits per second. A medium that can transmit data at a rate of 1.5 Mbps is able to transfer approximately 1,500,000 bits of data per second.
Copper wire has been the primary communications medium for communications for many years. Telephone lines were built with copper wire. Despite the many advantages of using copper wire, copper wire is inadequate for handling high speed data transmission between computers.
Fiber optic cable, which is composed of flexible glass fiber, has much wider
bandwidth than copper wire. It uses short bursts of light to represent bits.
Fiber optic cable is very expensive and must be carefully cut to ensure proper
signal transmission.
Recently, an advanced optical technology called the opto-chip was developed.
It is able to convert the most basic particle of light, the photon, into an
electric current which allows tremendous amounts of data to be sent over fiber-optic
networks.
To connect to the internet you need to have various communication devices. These devices /hardware are capable of transmitting data, instructions, and information between a sending device and a receiving device. The basic hardwares you must have in order to connect to the internet are a PC with a modem and a telephone line connected to the local Internet Service Provider. For Local Area Network or home networking you need to have a NIC (network Interface Card). The speed of your connection to the network depends on the type of modem that you used.
WORLD WIDE WEB
The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee's creation of the World Wide Web has forever changed the shape of modern life, altering the way people do business, entertain and inform themselves, build communities, and exchange ideas. The special feature of the World Wide Web is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which is the markup language used to create Web pages. Hypertext is a method of instant cross-referencing. In most Web sites, certain words or phrases appear in underlined text of a different color than the rest. When you select one of these words or phrases, you will be transferred to the site or page that is relevant to this word or phrase. Sometimes there are buttons and images that are clickable. If you move the pointer over a spot on a Web site and the pointer changes into a hand, this indicates that you can click and be transferred to another page or another site. Using the Web, you have access to billion of pages of information. You need a Web browser to browse the Web.
SERVERS
A server is a host on the Internet that manages resources and fulfills requests from clients. There are many types of servers, e.g. Web servers, e-mail servers, database servers, news servers, and file servers. A single server can provide multiple services by acting as a Web Server and a file server. Web servers store Web pages and deliver those pages to clients' computers upon request. Most requests to a Web server from a browser are requests for HTML files.
A Web hosting service provides the hardware, software and communications required
for a Web server. There are free web hosting services that allow you to create
web pages for free. The first web hosting company to offer this free service
is Geocities which is now belongs to Yahoo! These free web hosting companies
like Geocities, Tripod and Fortune City earn their revenue from advertising
by putting ads at the web pages created by users.
Paid web hosting services offer shared web hosting/virtual hosting, dedicated
server and managed hosting. The fees paid monthly or annually, vary depending
on the level of service offered. Well known web hosting companies are Verizon
and Hostway.
WEB BROWSER
To surf the World Wide Web you need to use a web browser. Web browsers are
the software that makes it possible for you to access information on Web pages.
When a surfer type in a URL, such as http://dan.ultimasurf.com, the browser
queries the Domain Name System server to get the numerical IP address associated
with the address and once it has the correct address, the browser sends a request
to that computer for the Web page.
Many years ago you needed separate program to access Web pages, read Usenet
postings, download files from FTP servers and send e-mail. Today the most popular
browsers like IE6.0 have all those functions.
Before Microsoft released Internet Explorer version 5, the most popular web browser was Netscape Communicator. Other popular web browser today is Opera 6.0 which is very fast but not that popular as not many people know about it. There is no doubt that web browsers are one of the most important communication tool today. Other browser that you can download for free is Copernicus and Star Office browser.
FTP PROGRAMS
Communications software program that support File Transfer Protocol are WS_FTP, CuteFTP and web editors like Dreamweaver 4 and Frontpage 2002. FTP is an Internet protocol that allows you to upload and download files to and from a Web server. Dan's favorites are CuteFTP and WS_FTP.
ELECTRONIC MAIL
Electronic mail or e-mail is the electronic transmission of messages, letters, and documents. In its broadest sense electronic mail includes point-to-point services such as telegraph and facsimile (fax) systems. It is commonly thought of, however, in terms of computer-based message systems where the electronic text file that is received can be edited, replied to, excerpted, or even pasted into another electronic document that can be used or manipulated by a word processor, desktop publishing system, or other computer program. Users of such systems, called store-and-forward or mailbox systems, can broadcast messages to multiple recipients, read and discard messages, file and retrieve messages, or forward messages to other users. Extensions to e-mail allow the user to add graphics and sound to messages.
E-mail has been a significant factor in all areas of the Internet. For many Internet users, e-mail has practically replaced the Postal Service for short written transactions. Electronic mail is the most widely used application on the Internet. Today e-mail has become one of the most important communication tools as according to industry analyst IDC, more than 10 billion e-mails are being sent daily.
CHAT ROOM
The internet revolutionized the way the connected people communicate. Internet chat is faster than e-mail and often more convenient and cheaper than picking up the telephone. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is developed by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Chat room lets you to reach out across a continent to make friends. There are many interesting topics that you can talk about in the chat room. All it takes is two people who are passionate about the same topic to start a chat room.
Chatters use the client programs downloaded as part of a web page and reside on each user's computer to send and receive messages from web site's chat server. After logging into a chat room, chatters can type what they want to say. All users are able to see what everyone else is typing. On popular chat sites like Yahoo Chat, chat rooms can quickly fill up with 50 chatters. Thousands of people are chatting daily in Yahoo Chat alone.
The majority of text chat sites today are on the web. In the past you have to download a client program such as mIRC at http://www.mirc.com in order to chat. IRC requires chatters to each have an IRC software installed on his computer. Today's technology allows voice-based chatting which is better than text-based chatting. Instead of typing out what they want to say voice chatters speak into their PC's microphone and listen to other chatters through their PC's speakers.
The ultimate chatting software today is video chat. You need to have a fast broadband connection and Web cams in order to use this new feature. Rather than just speaking to the microphones and listening to the speakers, video chat technology allows people to communicate face to face.
USENET/NEWSGROUP
Usenet newsgroups are communities of people discussing everything under the
sun from soccer to scientific research. Usenet newsgroups function via decentralized
network of thousands computer servers. Usenet newsgroups is a valuable communication
tools as researchers can exchange ideas easily while those who are having problem
with their PCs can ask for help. The major eight newsgroup categories are
" comp. - Newsgroups associated with anything about computers, software,
hardware, technical support and many more.
" Humanities. - Newsgroups for discussions about arts, literature, and
the like.
" Misc. - Miscellaneous topics such as job searching, and writing can be
discussed here.
" News. - Various information and announcements can be made here.
" Rec. - Recreational topics from cycling to back country hiking.
" Sci. - Normally for scientists and non scientists to discuss everything
about science and scientific research.
" Soc. - Social issues like religion and religious debates can be posted
here.
" Talk. - Controversial issues can be debated here.
Deja News used to archive the whole Usenet newsgroups before being bought over by Google more than a year ago and being renamed as Google Groups. For the past twenty years, newsgroups have remained an important communication medium. Millions of messages are being posted to the newsgroup daily.
SEARCH ENGINES & SEARCH DIRECTORY
Search engines and Web directories are the most important tools used for finding
information on the World Wide Web. The most popular search engine today is Google.
While the most popular portal or directories are Yahoo! and Open Directory.
Search engines consist of three elements. They are:
(i) Robot (also called bot, crawler or spider)
(ii) The index of data
(iii) The software that breaks it all down and presents the search to the user.
We should not confuse Web directory with search engine. Web directories do
not use robot to gather data automatically. Instead, human beings compile the
lists of URLs and page data. Robots visit the servers to sift through billions
of Web pages to collect data. Search engine's robot performs their crawls differently.
Some robots like Googlebot search daily, some weekly, and some monthly. The
data collected by these robots is then indexed on the servers so surfers can
access the information through keyword searches. Two new good search engines
that are challenging Google now are Teoma and Wisenut. For a comprehensive list
of search engines available on the Internet, please visit http://www.ultimasurf.com
Search engine is the most important tools for researchers doing research on
the Internet today. There are about 150 million searches done through Google
alone in one day. That shows how the Internet is one of the most important tools
in finding information.
INSTANT MESSAGING
Instant messengers are downloadable software that allows internet surfers to conduct a text or voice conversation over the internet with family, friends and customers. It can deliver messages from one computer to another in an instant. All of the text based communications take place using the software which has a window with customizable list of the names of your family or friends. To communicate with the people on your list, you need to click the program's icon to open it and once you are connected the Instant Messenger will send whatever messages you typed.
Popular Instant Messengers are Yahoo! Messenger, Microsoft Network (MSN) Messenger and AOL (America Online) Messenger. Internet surfers who use the same Instant Messenger can also chat with each other. Currently, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger have teamed up together to encourage standard protocol so that those who use different Instant Messengers are able to communicate.
GREETING CARDS
Online electronic greetings card service let you send cards to your family and friends. The appeal of this type of communication is obvious as you can send convenient, quick, and easy messages of love and friendship without going to the store to buy the cards or to go to the post office to mail them. Best of all is that many electronic greetings card service are free and can be delivered within seconds. You can also send cards with streaming video, animation and music as well as your photos and voice messages. Examples of online greeting cards sites are Blue Mountain and 123Greetings.com.
MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME
Today's multiplayer games make it easy for your PC to find other player's PCs through the Internet. Most also let you send and type messages to each other for a more social air. In online games players assume the roles of various characters. These online avatars (personas) vary from game to game. Most games let you tailor your character's appearance somewhat. The most unusual method currently requires you to visit certain online computer stores in America. Each has a Q-Clone Generator machine from 3Q, which can turn a 3-D photo of your face into a skin you can apply to your character in games such as Quake III Arena.
nVidia Corporation is working with Sony Online Entertainment to optimize upcoming online games developed by Sony by introducing GeForce4 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Games designed to take advantage of the GeForce4 feature set are able to deliver unprecedented levels of real time character animation.
Anyway, these games online are mostly for those who have unlimited broadband connection at home. Those who are using very slow 56k modem can also play game online like chess and tic tac toe.
TRANSLATION SERVICES
Internet does not only allow people to communicate instantly but it also allows
people of different languages to communicate better through web translators
that are available on the net. About 70% of the content of the web are in English.
But only a small percentage of the people in this world actually speak English.
What do you do when you find a web site that is not in your native language?
The answer is very simple. Use web translators that are available for free on
the internet. If you know the URLs of the web translators, translating a web
site from one language to another language is a simple task.
Translation services that are available on the internet allow us to translate
web sites in languages that we do not understand into the language that we understand.
This service is very useful for scholars doing research on the internet. For
example, Bible scholars who need to read articles written in German in scholarly
journals available on the net can translate the articles into English by just
simply entering the address of the webpage at AltaVista Babel Fish (http://babelfish.altavista.com)
and click on the Translate button. Within a few seconds, the page will open
and the whole text of the article will be translated into the language of his/her
choice.
Other web translators that are available on the net are:
" FreeTranslation.com (http://www.freetranslation.com)
" InterTran (http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran)
The translation service at these web sites is not perfect because it is done by computer. Computer at this point of time cannot read the context of words as well as human can. This means the translation will be literal and sometimes inaccurate. However, developers are trying to improve the translators by using artificial intelligence technology and in the near future we can translate web pages into any languages accurately.
This will allow people from different languages who do not speak English to
communicate. In fact we can see some E-commerce sites have their web sites linked
to these web translators so that visitors to their site can translate the web
site into the language that they can understand.
INTERNET RADIO AND INTERNET TV
The Internet is the perfect device for sending information. With radio, there is interference from hills, from weather. With a network, you have global addressing space. Those who have broadband connection can watch TV programs on the Internet and Internet TV will be the future of television broadcasting. Internet also makes listening to overseas radio programs possible
E-COMMERCE & E-BUSINESS
Internet revolutionizes how companies do their business. There are many benefits
of bringing your business to the Web. An e-business can offer personalized service,
high quality customer service, and improve supply of chain management 24 hours
a day. There are many e-commerce business models and they depend on two fundamental
building blocks: business (B) and consumers (C). From this foundation, there
are four basic models: B2B, B2C, C2B, and C2C. Most business online fall into
one or more of these categories, even though they use a variety of ways to link
buyers, sellers, and manufacturers. A business might sell goods it has manufactured
itself; resell those made by other company, or simply act as a middleman, connecting
the buyer and seller.
Business-To-Consumer (B2C)
This is the most common e-commerce model. Vendors sell goods and services over
the web to connected consumers. Amazon.com is an example of this business model.
Business-To-Business (B2B)
This business model is less in the public eye than B2C but is a rapidly growing
segment of internet economy because business offer goods and services to other
business over the internet. Example, Safetylogic.com provides corporations with
an easy way to distribute safety materials to satellite plants and fill out
OSHA reports online.
Consumer-To-Business (C2B)
This is a system where consumers use an online agent to look for product for
service that suits their needs. The example of this business model is Priceline.com
Consumer-To-Consumer (C2C)
C2C businesses act as agents between consumers with goods and services to sell.
Online auction site eBay.com is the biggest C2C site.
VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL
The Internet enables you to make free and low cost telephone calls through the technology called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). VoIP is also known as Internet telephony and the basic concept of Internet telephony is to take a voice call and place it on an IP packet network.
Because a VoIP phone call is handled just like any transmission over the Internet, you can take advantage of Internet telephony with a PC equipped with Internet access.
FIREWALLS
Firewall is the most important tool in network security. The purpose of a firewall is to protect a local area network (LAN) from intruders (hackers) outside the network. Most companies have internal networks that allow employees to share files and access company information. Each LAN is connected to the Internet through a gateway which usually includes a firewall. Since business rely heavily on access to the internet, an increasing number of security threats are originating from the hundred of millions of people connected to the company network by the Internet. A firewall acts as a safety barrier for data flowing into and out of the LAN.
Using a firewall is the most effective and easiest way to add security to a small network. Home users especially those who are connected to the Internet through permanent connections such as Cable modem need to install firewall in their PC.
Don't surf the net without a firewall! You can download a free firewall called Zone Alarm at Zonelabs.com or Download.com or buy Zone Alarm Pro for better security. The leader of this group project is using Zone Alarm Pro and had received many attempts to hack his PC while he was in Singapore. Thanks to Zone Alarm Pro and software that allows you to trace the hacker's IP's address, the author of this article managed to trace the ISP of the hackers and almost filed complaints with the ISP's of the hackers.