Thursday 19 January 2012

2.1 Describe the introduction of Internet


2.1.1 Define Internet

The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers). It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANet. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster.
Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication networks. Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Two recent adaptations of Internet technology, the intranet and the extranet, also make use of the TCP/IP protocol.

2.1.2 Explain ethics in using Internet

Hide personal information
We should teach children not to give personal details like home address, phone numbers, interests, passwords. No photographs should be sent to strangers and they should be asked to hide their personal details from strangers because it might be misused and shared with others without their knowledge.


Avoid Bad language
We must not use rude or bad language while using e-Mail, chatting, blogging and social networking, We need to respect their views and should not criticize anyone on the internet and the same should be taught to children. 


Pretending to be someone else
We must not use internet to fool others by pretending to be someone else. Hiding our own identity to fool others in the Internet world is a crime and may also be a risk to others. It’s our responsibility to teach children the same. 


2.1.3 Identify Internet services

An Internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides access to the InternetAccess ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections.[1] Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and other people (colocation). Transit ISPs provide large amounts of bandwidth for connecting hosting ISPs to access ISPs

2.1.4 List Social Networking Sizes


* Blogster

* Friendster

* Twitter

* Facebook

* LinkedIn

* Italki.com

2.1.5 Explain the purpose of using Internet


1)Communication

-The foremost target of internet has always been the communication.


2)Information

-Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering



3)Services

-Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking,job seeking and others.

4)E-Commere

E-Commere is the concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering,or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via internet.

2.2 Discover Internet Components


2.2.1Discover various types of browser

Internet Explorer

This is the most widely-used web browser by people around the world. It was developed by Microsoft in 1994 and released in 1995 as a supportive package to Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It is presently known as Windows Internet Explorer, was formerly called Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), and more is commonly known as IE. People have a misconception that browsing the Internet is possible only through Internet Explorer. They are unaware of various web browsers that are available. This simply proves that Internet Explorer is used by the majority. According to statistics, its usage share from 1999 to 2003-04 was around 95%. Since then, there has been a lot of competition in the market, with many software companies coming up with web browsers that challenge IE in their features and usage. Microsoft occasionally releases updates to their previous versions of IE, which have some enhanced capabilities. The latest version is Internet Explorer 8 which is a free update. The 'favicon', which is the favorites icon was introduced first in IE, and was later adopted by many other web browsers. Initially, IE did not support tabbed browsing, but today, it can be used even in the older versions, by installing toolbars.



Mozilla Firefox

It is owned by Mozilla Corporation and was the result of an experimentation. This browser has gone through many name changes due to name clashes with other products. 'Mozilla Firefox' was officially announced in February 2004. It was earlier named Phoenix, Firebird, and eventually Firefox. It is the second-most famous browser after Internet Explorer, as there were around 100 million downloads within a year of its release. Until November 2008, 700 million downloads were recorded. Since the release of Firefox, the sale of Internet Explorer has gone down drastically. It has around 22% of the market share at present. It has undergone many updates and version changes that were made to improve usability to the universal users. It can be used on most operating systems, but was found to be more prone to vulnerabilities. However, the problems were fixed in the newer versions. As it is an open source software, its source code is available,thus allowing everyone to access the code. It supports tabbed browsing that allows the user to open multiple sites in a single window. Session storage is also an important feature of Firefox, which allows the user to regain access to the open tabs after he has closed the browser window. Apart from these, there are many user-friendly features that Firefox offers.



Google Chrome

This web browser was developed by Google. Its beta and commercial versions were released in September 2008 for Microsoft Windows. It has soon become the fourth-most widely used web browser with a market share of 1.23%. The browser versions for Mac OS X are under development. The browser options are very similar to that of Safari, the settings locations are similar to Internet Explorer 7, and the window design is based on Windows Vista.


2.2.2 Show Various Email Clients


  • IncrediMail is a an email client for people who like to personalize their email.
  • eM Client is a Windows based Communication Client for managing e-mails, multiple calendars, contacts and tasks.
  • PocoMail is a powerful email client developed with user security in mind.
  • Pegasus Mail has been around since 1991 which makes it one of the oldest surviving email clients today.

2.2.3 Explain various file transfer protocol (FTP) client(for example)


  • ftp://name.of.site/ will give you a listing of all the directories of the FTP server;
  • ftp://name.of.site/directory/ which will give you a listing of all the files available in that directory; and
  • ftp://name.of.site/directory/filename will download the actual file to your computer.

Monday 16 January 2012

2.2.4 Identify Various Really Simple Syndication

Ø     The RDF (or RSS 1.*) branch includes the following versions:
  • RSS 0.90 was the original Netscape RSS version. This RSS was called RDF Site Summary, but was based on an early working draft of the RDF standard, and was not compatible with the final RDF Recommendation.
  • RSS 1.0 is an open format by the RSS-DEV Working Group, again standing for RDF Site Summary. RSS 1.0 is an RDF format like RSS 0.90, but not fully compatible with it, since 1.0 is based on the final RDF 1.0 Recommendation.
  • RSS 1.1 is also an open format and is intended to update and replace RSS 1.0. The specification is an independent draft not supported or endorsed in any way by the RSS-Dev Working Group or any other organization.
The RSS 2.* branch (initially UserLand, now Harvard) includes the following versions:
  • RSS 0.91 is the simplified RSS version released by Netscape, and also the version number of the simplified version originally championed by Dave Winer from Userland Software. The Netscape version was now called Rich Site Summary; this was no longer an RDF format, but was relatively easy to use.
  • RSS 0.92 through 0.94 are expansions of the RSS 0.91 format, which are mostly compatible with each other and with Winer's version of RSS 0.91, but are not compatible with RSS 0.90.
  • RSS 2.0.1 has the internal version number 2.0. RSS 2.0.1 was proclaimed to be "frozen", but still updated shortly after release without changing the version number. RSS now stood for Really Simple Syndication. The major change in this version is an explicit extension mechanism using XML namespaces.[21]
Later versions in each branch are backward-compatible with earlier versions (aside from non-conformant RDF syntax in 0.90), and both versions include properly documented extension mechanisms using XML Namespaces, either directly (in the 2.* branch) or through RDF (in the 1.* branch). Most syndication software supports both branches. "The Myth of RSS Compatibility", an article written in 2004 by RSS critic and Atom advocate Mark Pilgrim, discusses RSS version compatibility issues in more detail.
The extension mechanisms make it possible for each branch to track innovations in the other. For example, the RSS 2.* branch was the first to support enclosures, making it the current leading choice for podcasting, and as of 2005 is the format supported for that use by iTunes and other podcasting software; however, an enclosure extension is now available for the RSS 1.* branch, mod_enclosure. Likewise, the RSS 2.* core specification does not support providing full-text in addition to a synopsis, but the RSS 1.* markup can be (and often is) used as an extension. There are also several common outside extension packages available, including a new proposal from Microsoft for use in Internet Explorer 7.
The most serious compatibility problem is with HTML markup. Userland's RSS reader—generally considered as the reference implementation—did not originally filter out HTML markup from feeds. As a result, publishers began placing HTML markup into the titles and descriptions of items in their RSS feeds. This behavior has become expected of readers, to the point of becoming a de factostandard,[citation needed] though there is still some inconsistency in how software handles this markup, particularly in titles. The RSS 2.0 specification was later updated to include examples of entity-encoded HTML; however, all prior plain text usages remain valid.
As of January 2007, tracking data from www.syndic8.com indicates that the three main versions of RSS in current use are 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0. Of these, RSS 0.91 accounts for 13 percent of worldwide RSS usage and RSS 2.0 for 67 percent, while RSS 1.0 has a 17 percent share.[22] These figures, however, do not include usage of the rival web feed format Atom. As of August 2008, the syndic8.com website is indexing 546,069 total feeds, of which 86,496 were some dialect of Atom and 438,102 were some dialect of RSS.[23]