Unit V: Data Communications and Networks: - Introduction - Data Communication

Using Modem - Computer Network - Network Topologies - Network - Protocols

and Software - Applications of Network. The Internet and World Wide Web: -
Introduction - History of Internet - Internet Applications - Understanding the World
Wide Web - Web Browsers - Browsing the internet - Using a Search Engine - Email
Service - Protocols Used for the Internet

INTRODUCTION
Computers were originally developed as stand-alone, single-user systems. Stand-alone computers can receive
user’s data, manipulate them and provide useful information for making decisions. Here, the user uses his own
data for his own decision-making purposes. When the use of computers spread across government offices and
business organizations, a number of issues wereraised.
• What if a user wants to share his computer-generated information with other colleagues?
• What if a user wants to explore the possibility of using certain information storedelsewhere?
These issues were addressed by the subsequent developments in software, hardware and
communication technologies which have enabled the computers to communicate between each other and
exchange information quickly and accurately and at any time.
The process of electronic transfer of information between two locations is known as data communication.
The five basic elements of data communication are:
• Message It is the information to be communicated. It may be in the form of text, pictures, audio,
video, or any combination of these.
• Sender It is the device that creates and transmits the information.
• Receiver It is the device that receives the information.
• Medium It is the communication channel through which the information travels from sender to
receiver. It could be a physical wire or radio waves.
• Protocol It represents a set of rules that governs the communication process between the sender
and the receiver.
Figure 5.1 illustrates these five elements of data communication.

Fig. 5.1 Basic elements of data communication

Data communication may occur in a simple point-to-point mode as shown in Fig. 5.1 or in a multipoint
mode where more than two computers are connected together in the form of a network. A network is a system
of interconnected computers that can communicate with one another to share applications and data.
We shall discuss in this chapter the various forms of networks, their topologies, protocols used and
network applications.

In data communication, data from one computer is transferred to another computer using various channels
such as analog transmission channel and satellites. One of the analog transmission channels, which is
most commonly used in data communication is the telephone lines. A computer that sends data to another
computer is called the source terminal and the computer which receives the data from a sender computer is
called the destination terminal.
The sender computer provides the data for transmission in the form of digital signals. These digital signals
have to be first converted into analog signals for transmission through an analog transmission channel such
 as telephone lines. The process of converting digital signals into analog signals is called modulation. The
analog signals have to be again converted into digital signals when they reach the
destination so that the receiver computer can understand the signals. The process of converting the analog
signals again into digital signals is called demodulation. The modulation and demodulation processes are
performed by a device called modem during data transfer between computers. A modem is basically an
electronic device that converts the digital signals into analog signals. It also helps to convert analog signals into
digital signals.
A modem must be present both at the source and destination for data transmission. This means a sender
computer as well as a receiver computer must have a modem for data transmission. If a sender computer does
not have a modem then it will not be able to send data to the receiver computer through an analog transmission
channel. Similarly, if a receiver computer does not have a modem then it will not be able to receive the data
sent by a sender computer through analog transmission channel. Figure 5.2 shows the use of modem in data
communication.

Fig. 5.2 Data Communication through Modem

Figure 5.2 shows that data in the form of digital signals are passed from the sender computer to
the modem. Modem then converts the digital signals into analog signals. The converted analog signals
are transferred from source to destination using analog transmission channel such as telephone lines.
At the destination, a modem again converts the analog signal to digital signals. The converted digital signals
are then passed to the receiver computer.
When using a modem in data communication, there are two factors that are of importance, modem speed
and modem type. Modem speed refers to the time period that a modem takes to convert digital signals into
analog signals or analog signals into digital signals. The speed of the modem is very important for data
transmission between the sender computer and receiver computer. If a modem is able to convert digital
signals into analog signals or analogs signals into digital signals at a high speed then data will also be
transmitted at high speed. A modem’s speed is measured in bits per second (bps). Modem type refers to the
type of a modem. There are basically two types of modems: internal modem and external modem. Internal
modem is the modem that is present on the expansion board, which is contained in a computer. An external
modem on the other hand is a modem that is connected externally to the COM port of the computer through
a cable. Normally internal modems are considered better than external modems because these types of
modems are present inside a computer and save desktop space.
Windows operating system provides built-in mechanism for setting up a connection using modem. We
can either set up a direct connection or a dial-up connection using a modem. In Windows operating system,
a new connection through a modem is established using the New Connection Wizard. Figure 5.3 shows
the welcome screen of the New Connection Wizard.
 Fig. 5.3 The New Connection Wizard

The New Connection Wizard provides explicit information in each of its screen to guide the end user on
setting up the desired connection using modem.

COMPUTER NETWORK
Computer network is a system of interconnected computers that enable the computers to communicate
with each other and share their resources, data and applications. The physical location of each computer is
tailored to personal and organisational needs. A network may include only personal computers or a mix of
PCs, minis and mainframes spanning a particular geographical area. Computer networks that are commonly
used today may be classified as follows:
• Based on geographical area:
o Local Area Networks (LANs)
o Wide Area Networks (WANs)
 o Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
o International Network (Internet)
o Intranet
• Based on how computer nodes are used:
o Client Server Networks (CSNs)
o Peer-to-peer Networks (PPNs)
o Value-added Networks (VANs)

Local Area Network (LAN)

LAN is a group of computers, as shown in Fig. 5.4, that are connected in a small area such as building, home,
etc. Through this type of network, users can easily communicate with each other by sending and receiving
messages. LAN is generally used for connecting two or more personal computers through some medium such
as twisted pair, coaxial cable etc. Though the number of computers connected in a LAN is limited, the data
is transferred at an extremely faster rate.

Fig. 5.4 A LAN

Wide Area Network (WAN)

WAN is a group of computers that are connected in a large area such as continent, country, etc. WAN
is generally used for connecting two or more LANs through some medium such as leased telephone
lines, microwaves, etc. In WAN, data is transferred at slow rate. A typical WAN network is shown in
Fig. 5.5.
 Fig. 5.5 A WAN system

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

MAN is a network of computers that covers a large area like a city. The size of the MAN generally lies
between that of LAN and WAN, typically covering a distance of 5 Km to 50 Km. The geographical area
covered by MAN is comparatively larger than LAN but smaller than WAN. MAN is generally owned by
private organisations. MAN is generally connected with the help of optical fibres, copper wires etc. One
of the most common example of MAN is cable television network within a city as shown in Fig. 5.6. A
network device known as router is used to connect the LANs together. The router directs the information
packets to the desired destination.

Fig. 5.6 A typical MAN system

The Internet
The Internet is a global area network that allows computers connected over the network to share resources
and information using different protocols. It is basically a network of networks across the globe. Users
at different locations can very easily communicate with each other via the Internet. They can access data and
information from other computers if they are permitted to do so. The Internet basically uses a set of protocols
such as Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for transferring the data over the network.
The following are the different types of services provided by the Internet to the users:
• E-mail E-mail is the widely used service of the Internet through which users can send and receive
messages in an efficient way. It allows an individual to send the message even if the other individual is
offline. The e-mail messages are sent to and from a unique e-mail address. The series of the
characters usually in the form username@hostname for sending the messages to a person is known as
the e-mail address.
• Online chat The online chat generally allows one-to-one communication between the individuals over
the Internet. Users can communicate directly by sending and receiving messages to there fellow friends
easily. Online chat is possible only when the sender and receiver both are online.
• Online shopping The Internet has become popular by providing shopping of different products online.
Now, it is very easy and simple to buy the products from the other parts of the country or fromanywhere
across the world. A user can purchase an item with the use of personal computer, Internet
and special softwares such as shopping cart and e-cash. The shopping cart is used for selecting the
items online whereas e-cash is used for making the online payment of the items purchased.
• Usenet Usenet is the Internet based newsgroup that allows individuals to share their views regarding
a specific topic or subject over the network. People accessing the usenet can receive these views through
private or public e-mail.
There are various advantages of using the Internet:
• Information The Internet allows users to access large amount of information efficiently. The
information could be related to any topic, such as law, marketing, finance, science, technology etc.
• Availabilty The Internet is available continuously to the users all the time without any delay. Users can
access the information from the Internet at any time.
• Cost The Internet provides different facilities to the users at a low cost. Users can access any website
over the Internet absolutely free. The cost of sending messages through e-mail is also cheaperas
compared to postal messages.
The following are some of the disadvantages of using the Internet:
• Hacking The process of illegally accessing the personal information stored over the Internet is called
hacking. The person who is involved in this activity is called a hacker.
• Virus The software program that itself gets activated in our computer system and destroys the stored
information is called virus. Virus usually corrupts the resourses that are connected over the Internet.
• Bulk e-mail It is the most common problem of the Internet where the unwanted bulk messages
such as subscription mails, advertisement mails, job alert mails etc. are received on the users account.
These messages are sometimes frustrating and irritating for the users because the user simply does not
require these mails.
The Intranet
Intranet is a private network, which is confined to a single organisation only. This type of computer network
allows only the internal users of the organisation to share the resources. However, the users outside the
organisation can also access the Intranet but they can do so only if they are authorised. The concept of Intranet
was used for sharing the company’s information amongst the employees. Certain protocols suchas TCP/IP,
HTTP, etc. are used by Intranet for enabling the communication between the computer systems.
Organisations that use Intranet for transferring the messages generally make use of tunneling, which is
a technique used for sending private messages. The website of the Intranet is provided with the firewall,
which is a layer that helps in ensuring the security of the information and resources. The only disadvantage
of Intranet is that it is relatively insecure as compared to the other networks. The various advantages of using
Intranet are as follows:
• It allows the employees of an organisation to access the organisation’s information easily and quickly.
• Intranet users can easily communicate with each other within the organisation.
• It is relatively easier to maintain and implement Intranet than the Internet.

Client Server Network (CSN)

CSN basically consists of two computers, client computer and server computer. The client computers are
dummy computers, which simply send requests to the server computer, whereas the server computers receive
and execute the requests sent by the client computer. CSN is also known as the client server architecture.
This architecture is a two-tier architecture, which is divided into two layers. The first layer comprises
of the user interface that is located on the client’s desktop. On the other hand, the second layer is the
database management layer, which is located on the server machine so as to provide services to the clients.
In CSN, a client computer sends a request related to processing of data to the server. The server receives the
request from the client computer and processes the data. It then sends the output obtained after the processing
of data to the client computer as a response to its request. The following are the advantages of the CSN:
• There is a proper distribution of computing tasks. The task of the client computer is to send request
to the server for processing of data. The server receives the request of the client computer, processes
the data and sends the result back to the client
computer.
• All the important data is stored on the server
and only authorised persons are allowed to
access the data from the server. As a result,
there is greater security of data in a CSN.
• It is easy to manage the data updates as data is
stored in a centralised manner on a server.
• Multiple client computers having varying
hardware configuration are able to interact
with a server.
The following are the disadvantages of the CSN:
• If the server crashes, the complete network
breaks down.
• The load on the server increases in a CSN
because there are multiple clients sending
some request to a server. As a result, the
network traffic increases and network
congestion occurs. Fig. 5.7 A CSN
Figure 5.7 shows a typical CSN.
Peer-to-peer Network (PPN)
In PPN, there is no separate division as clients and servers. Every computer in the PPN is treated equally and
can send as well as receive the messages directly. PPN architecture cannot work under heavy load.This
type of architecture is commonly used for file sharing and chatting in real time. Computers connected in this
network can easily share their resources with the other computers. PPN is used in a variety of fields such as
business, education, telecommunications, military etc. The advantages of PPN are as follows:
• PPN is relatively cheaper than the CSN, as the centralised server is not required.
• PPN is simpler than the CSN because computers connected in the network can communicate
efficiently with each other.
The following are the disadvantages of the PPN:
• PPN is less secure because message flows freely between the computers.
• PPN is decentralised as there is no specific space for the storage of files.
• PPN is less expandable as performance and speed of network degrades when more computers
are added.
Figure 5.8 shows the PPN.

Fig. 5.8 The PPN

Value-added Network (VAN)

VAN is a network that is generally used by the companies privately for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI),
which is a standard used for interchanging the business data. In other words, VAN is a network that usually
adds the value to the transmitted information by providing value-added services. An example of value
added service could be the conversion of data in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to EDI provided
through VAN to specific companies.
 Apart from providing value-added services, VAN also provides the auto error detection and correction
and protocol conversion services for data modification. Error detection and correction is a technique used for
detecting the errors in the transmitted data and then rectifying it. On the other hand, protocol conversionis
basically used for converting a message, which has been transferred using a specific protocol to another
protocol with the help of protocol converter.

NETWORK TOPOLOGIES
Network topology refers to the arrangement of computers connected in a network through some physical
medium such as cable, optical fibre etc. Topology generally determines the shape of the network and the
communication path between the various computers (nodes) of the network. The various types of network
topologies are as follows:
• Hierarchical topology
• Bus topology
• Star topology
• Ring topology
• Mesh topology
• Hybrid topology

Hierarchical Topology
The hierarchical topology is also known as tree topology, which is divided into different levels connected
with the help of twisted pair,
coaxial cable or fibre optics. This
type of topology is arranged in the
form of a tree structure in which
top level contains parent node
(root node), which is connected
with the child nodes in the second
level of hierarchy with the point-
to-point link. The second level
nodes are connected to the third
level nodes, which in turn are
connected to the fourth level
nodes and so on. Except the top-
level node, each level node has a
parent node.
The number of point-to-point Fig. 5.9 The hierarchical topology
links in the hierarchical type of

topology is generally one less than the total number of nodes in the structure. The hierarchical topology
is symmetrical, having a fixed branching factor, f, associated with each node. The branching factor is the
number of point-to-point links between the levels of hierarchy. Figure.5.9 shows the arrangement of
computers in hierarchical topology.
Advantages of hierarchical topology are:
• The hierarchical topology is generally supported by most hardware and software.
 • In the hierarchical topology, data is received by all the nodes efficiently because of point-to-point
link.
The following are the disadvantages of hierarchical topology:
• In the hierarchical topology, when the root node fails, the whole network crashes.
• The hierarchical topology is difficult to configure.

Linear Bus Topology

In the linear bus topology, all the nodes are connected to the single
backbone or bus with some medium such as twisted pair, coaxial
cable etc. When a node wants to communicate with the other nodes
in the network, it simply sends a message to the common bus. All
the nodes in the network then receive the message but thenode for
which it was actually sent only processes it. The other nodes
discard the message. Figure 5.10 shows the arrangement of
computers in the linear bus topology.
Advantages of linear bus topology are:
• The linear bus topology usually requires less cabling.
• The linear bus topology is relatively simple to configure and
install.
• In the linear bus topology, the failure of one computer does
not affect the other computers in the network.
The following are the disadvantages of linear bus topology:
• In the linear bus topology, the failure of the backbone cable
results in the breakdown of entire network.
• Addition of computers in the linear bus topology results in
the performance degradation of the network.
• The bus topology is difficult to reconstruct in case of faults. Fig. 5.10 A l inear bu s topology

Star Topology

In the star topology, all the nodes are connected to a common device known as hub. Nodes are connected
with the help of twisted pair, coaxial cable or optical
fibre. When a node wants to send a message to the other
nodes, it first sends the message to the hub, which in turn
forwards the message to the intended node. Each node in the
network is connected with a point-to-point link to the
centralised hub. The task of hub is to detect the faulty node
present in the network. On the other hand, it also manages
the overall data transmission in the network. Figure 5.11
shows the arrangement of computers in star topology.
Advantages of star topology are:
• This topology allows easy error detection and
correction.
• In the star topology, the failure of one computer does
not affect the other computers in the network.
• Star topology is easy to install. Fig. 5.11 A star topology
 The following are the disadvantages of star topology:
• In the star topology, the hub failure leads to the overall network crash.
• The star topology requires more amount of cable for connecting the nodes.
• It is expensive due to the cast of hub.

Ring Topology
In the ring topology, the nodes are connected in the form of a ring with the help of twisted pair. Each
node is connected directly to the other two
nodes in the network. The node, which wantsto
send a message, first passes the message toits
consecutive node in the network. Data is
transmitted in the clockwise direction fromone
node to another. Figure 5.12 shows the
arrangement of computers in the ring topology.
Each node incorporates a repeater, which passes
the message to next node when the message is
intended for another node.
Advantages of ring topology are:
• Each node has an equal access to other
nodes in the network.
• Addition of new nodes does not degrade
the performance of the network.
• Ring topology is easy to configure and
install. Fig. 5.12 A ring topology
The following are the disadvantages of ring
topology:
• It is relatively expensive to construct the ring topology.

• The failure of one node in the ring topology affects the other nodes in the ring.

Mesh Topology
In mesh topology, each computer is connected to
every other computer in point-to-point mode as
shown in Fig. 5.13. For example, if we havefour
computers, we must have six links. If we have n
computers, we must have n(n – 1)/2 links. A
message can take several possible paths to reach
a destination.
Advantages of mesh topology are:
• Message delivery is more reliable.
• Network congestion is minimum due to
large number of links.
The following are the disadvantages:
• It is very expensive to implement.
• It is very difficult to configure and install.
Fig. 5.13 Mesh topology
Hybrid Topology
The hybrid topology is the combination of multiple topologies, used for constructing a single large topology.
The hybrid topology is created when two different network topologies are interconnected. If two ring
topologies are connected then the resultant topology is not the hybrid topology. On the other hand, if the ring
topology is connected to the bus topology then the resulting topology is called the hybrid topology. This
topology generally combines the features of the two topologies and is therefore more effective and efficient
than the individual topologies. Figure 5.5 shows a typical arrangement of computers in hybrid topology.
Fig. 5.5 A hybrid topology

Advantages of hybrid topology are:

• The hybrid topology is more effective as it uses multiple topologies.
• The hybrid topology contains the best and efficient features of the combined topologies from which it
is constructed.
The following are the disadvantages of hybrid topology:
• The hybrid topology is relatively more complex than the other topologies.
• The hybrid topology is difficult to install and configure.

Network Media
Network media refers to the physical media used to connect the computer nodes together. There are many
types of transmission media, the most popular being cables, optical fibre, microwave and satellite.
• Cables Cable is one of the easiest methods of transferring messages from one place to another.
Some of the commonly used cables are telephone lines, twisted-pair cables and coaxial cables.
 Twisted-pair cables are insulated and twisted around each other in order to reduce noise (unwanted
signal). They are generally used to connect hubs to nodes in star topology. Coaxial cables have single
copper conductor with a shield around it. They are very robust and used for crossing large distances
such as the ocean.
• Optical fibre An optical fibre is a thin strand of glass that transmits pulsating beams of light
rather than electric current. These light pulses carry information. Fibre-optic cables can thus carry
information in digital form. They can carry enormous amount of messages at extremely fast speed.
These are used for long distance communications. It is a highly secured transmission medium.
• Microwave Communication through microwave can be used when the transmitting and receiving ends
are located at a large distance from one another. Microwaves are used to transmit analog signals.WANs
often use microwave links to connect LANs together. This mode of transmission is greatly
affected by the weather conditions.
• Satellite Satellites are used for receiving and transmitting analog signals globally. We can send
data from one country to another with the help of satellites. WANs that cover long distances often use
satellites for linking LANs.

NETWORK PROTOCOLS AND SOFTWARE

In order to share data between computers, it is essential to have appropriate network protocols and software.
With the help of network protocol, computers can easily communicate with each other and can share data,
resources etc.

Network Protocol
Network protocols are the set of rules and regulations that are generally used for communication between
two networks. Any two networks communicate with each other by sending and receiving messages in the
form of packets. The technique that is used separating a message into packets is called packet switching.
Each packet contains the address of the computer from which the message was sent and also of the computer,
which will receive the message. In order to send the packet, routers and switches are connected over the
network path that forwards the packet to the intended receiver. Using network protocol, the following tasks
can be performed:
• Identification of the type of the physical connection used
• Error detection and correction of the improper message
• Initiation and termination of the communication session
• Message formatting
Some of the commonly used network protocols are Hyper Text Transfer protocol (HTTP), Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP), Telecommunications Network (Telnet), Domain Name System (DNS) etc.

Network Software
Network software refers to the set of instructions that are given to the computers connected in a network to
perform different tasks. These instructions are given in the form of a program, which is usually written in
some programming language such as C++, Java, C etc. The network software generally provides support
to the computers connected in a network so that they can communicate with each other by exchanging
 information. Network operating system software is the type of network software that basically controls the
network traffic, access to the network resources such as printers, files, etc. This type of software generally
provides multiuser, multitasking facilities so as to ensure effective communication between the computers
over the network. It also establishes the communication between multiple computers that are performing a
single task.

APPLICATIONS OF NETWORK
Network is the system of computers generally linked together to enable the flow of data between the
interconnected computers. With the help of network, we can access the data remotely. Some of the
applications of a network are:
• Data sharing It is the capability of sharing data with multiple users over the network. In orderto
share the data among multiple users, it is generally stored on the servers. Different applicationscan
therefore access the data from these servers easily. A special software locking mechanism is
maintained over the network, so as to prevent multiple users from modifying the data. The sharing of
data among the multiple users in an interactive way is known as data conferencing.
• Remote data access Remote data access is the process of accessing the data from remote location in
an efficient way. Different software programs are used to provide an interface to the end users for
accessing the data remotely.
• Resource sharing Resource sharing is the process of sharing the resources such as storage devices,
input/output devices, etc. over the network. For example, printer can be shared among the computers
connected in a network by attaching it to the server computer. When the users want their
documents to be printed they can simply give the print command from there computers and get their
document printed. The sharing of a printer on a network is relatively cheaper than attaching separate
printers to the individual computers connected in the network.
• Personal communication The far-reaching applications of networks are electronic mail and
teleconferencing. These applications allow individuals as well as organisations to use networks for
exchanging messages (written, voice and video) extensively. Electronic mail enables a person to send
and receive instant messages over a computer network with the help of Internet. On the other hand,
teleconferencing enables real-time communication over a distance by allowing people at different
locations to communicate with each other by seeing the video picture of people at other sites. This is
also referred to as virtual meeting.

Network INTRODUCTION
The Internet is a popular buzzword among many people today. Almost everyone working in
government offices and business organisations is using the Internet for exchange of information in
one form orthe other.
World Wide Web is another popular phrase among the computer users. It is commonly referred to as the
Web. Most people consider the Internet and the World Wide Web to be synonymous, but they are not.
Although these two terms are used interchangeably, they actually describe two different but related things.
The Internet is a massive network of networks that links together thousands of independent networks thus
bringing millions of computers on a single network to provide a global communication system. It acts as a
facilitator for exchange of information between computers that are connected to the Internet. It is like a
network of roads in a country that facilitates the movement of vehicles around the country.
We can create special documents known as hypertext documents containing text, graphics, sounds and
video on a computer. The storage location of these documents is known as website. The World Wide Web is
the network of all such websites all around the world. It is popularly known as WWW or Web. The websites
are spread across the Internet and therefore, the information contained in the websites can be transmitted
through the Internet. It is like transporting the goods stored in the warehouses using the road network. So the
Web is just a portion on the Internet and not same as the Internet.
In this chapter, we shall discuss the evolution of the Internet, the basics of World Wide Web, use of Web
browsers and search engines and the various Internet applications. We shall also discuss briefly various
protocols that are necessary for using the Web and the Internet.

HISTORY OF INTERNET
The Internet was not a worldwide network initially. It was a small network called ARPAnet, which was
developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of United States in 1969. ARPAnet was
developed to help the researchers at one university to communicate with the researchers at other universities.
The computers, which were connected through the ARPAnet, were the computers present atthe University
of California, Stanford Research Institute (California) and the University of Utah (Nevada).
To transfer data between these computers, the ARPAnet used the concept of packet switching in which
the data was divided into small modules known as packets before transmitting. These packets were
transmitted individually over the network and were reassembled at the receiver’s end. During the process
of transmission of packets on the network, some rules and methods known as protocols were followed.
The ARPAnet initially used Network Control Protocol (NCP), which allowed the transmission of files,
directories and messages between two computers on the network. The use of NCP provided end-to-end
networking as the user could only trust the ends, i.e., the sender and the receiver but could not trust the means
of transmission, i.e., the network. In 1972, the access to ARPANET was extended and made availableto
common people and business organisations.
In the year 1974, the scientists developed a new host-to-host protocol, which not only allowed the sharing
of files, directories and messages but also helped the users to share software and applications onthe
network. This protocol was known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Itwas
a combination of two protocols, TCP and IP, which worked collectively. The IP was the protocol that guided
the packets on the different routes on the network. The IP routed each packet on a different routeand the
selection of a route for a packet was made in such a manner that the packets should take minimum time to
reach their destination. The selection of different routes for different packets also facilitated the transmission
of packets even when one of the parts of the network was not working properly. The TCP was the network
protocol that was responsible for the reassembling of the packets at the destination.
The congestion on ARPAnet was increasing continuously because of its extensive use by the military.
In 1975, the Defence Communications Agency (DCA) took control of the ARPAnet and changed itsname
to Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA allowed all the defence related
organisations to connect to it but at the same time it denied the connection to all the non-government
organisations. This led to the development of other commercial networks such as Telnet.
In 1976, the telephone companies from all over the world broadcasted a new protocol called X.25 with
the support of Consultative Committee for International Telegraphy and Telephony (CCITT). The X.25
protocol was similar to the packet switching technique but its implementation was different. The X.25
protocol reduced the packet size and provided a more reliable means of transmission of packets. It used
the concept of hop-to-hop networking in which the receiving of packet was acknowledged by the hop at every
step. In the X.25 protocol, the information of the path was contained only in the first packet, which helped
create a virtual path. The rest of the packets just followed the virtual path created by the first packet. Though
this protocol was used for a very short period of time but was crucial for the development of enterprise
networks.
In 1979, a research computer network known as Usenet was developed by a group of computer scientists
from all over the world. This network allowed computers to connect through a dial-up connection. In the
Usenet network, the UNIX-to-UNIX copy protocol was used to transfer data. Usenet provided two main
services, Usenet News and mail servers. The Usenet News still continues to be used as NetNews but the mail
servers did not prove to be a success. The failure of mail servers was due to the fact that to send a mailthrough
mail servers a user was required to provide the complete path to the destination computer with the help of
the UUCP bang addressing format. The UUCP bang addressing format was the format in which the names
of different machines were separated using a bang, i.e., an exclamation mark.
In 1982, a new network known as Eunet was developed in Europe to connect the networks of European
countries such as UK, Scandinavia and Netherlands. By the year 1983, a number of networks were added
to ARPAnet to connect around 300 computers. In the same year, TCP/IP was made the standard protocol
for ARPAnet. The TCP/IP protocol allowed communication between computers of different networks and
the ARPAnet became capable of internetworking. This was the time when ARPAnet was renamed as the
Internet. In 1983, the military part of ARPAnet was split and named as MILNET.
The number of computers connected to ARPAnet increased day-by-day because of which a new problem
arose. The mapping of host names to the IP addresses became difficult. The IP addresses were the addresses
provided to each host computer on the network. Earlier, the Network Information Center (NIC) maintained
a record of the IP addresses and the corresponding host names in a file and every computer downloaded
this file whenever required. But with the increase in the number of computers connected to the ARPAnet, it
became difficult for the NIC to do so.
In 1984, Domain Name Server (DNS) was developed that helped in the mapping of host names to the
IP addresses. The domain names such as .edu for educational, .com for commercial, .gov for governmental
and .org for international organisational hosts, were introduced along with a specific code for each country.
The DNS converted these domain names into the corresponding IP addresses. The domain names also made
it easier for the users to remember the addresses.
In 1987, the National Science Foundation established a network known as NSFNET that linked the
computers through a high speed of 56Kbps. NSFNET allowed many organisations to connect to the Internet
without following the ARPAnet’s policies. By 1990 almost all the organisations, which were connected to
ARPAnet shifted to NFSNET and ARPAnet came to an end. The use of the Internet was limited to email,
Telnet and FTP till 1990. In 1990, the McGill University introduced an FTP search tool known as Archie,
which helped the users search for the information on the Internet. In the next year, i.e., 1991, another
application known as Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota. This service helped the users
arrange the documents on the Internet; and to locate these documents a Gopher search tool known as Veronica
was used.
 In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist from Geneva, introduced the World Wide Web, which was
a network of websites that could be accessed with the help of a protocol known as HyperText Transfer
Protocol (HTTP). HTTP searched the required address from where the web pages had to be accessed and
retrieved the web pages for the user. The web page on the WWW had links in the form of text known as
hypertext. These links were helpful in accessing other web pages when a user clicked the hypertext with the
help of a mouse. In 1995, the commercial Internet providers started controlling the Internet by providing
connections to different people for accessing the Internet. Today the Internet is used in almost every field,
such as education, entertainment, business, defence and medicine. In all these fields, the Internet is used to
share data, gather information and communicate with the other users. According to the Internet world usage
statistics, more than 1.4 billion people use the Internet today.

INTERNET APPLICATIONS
Nowadays the Internet is used in almost all the fields for different purposes. Each and every field uses one
or the other services provided by the Internet. The Internet is extensively used in the following fields:
• Business
• Education
• Communication
• Entertainment
• Government

The Internet in Business

In business, the Internet can be used for many purposes. An organisation can provide details about its products
on the Internet that can be either used by the other organisations interested in developing business links with
it or by the prospective customers. Business transactions such as sale and purchase of products and online
payment can also be performed using the Internet. This service of the Internet is called e- business, which
can be further classified into the following categories:
• Business-to-business (B2B) B2B e-business refers to the business transactions that take place
between two business organisations. In B2B, a large website acts as a market place and helps the
buyers and suppliers interact at the organisational level. The website acting as a market place helps
the buyers to find new suppliers and the suppliers to search for new buyers. It also saves the time
and cost of interaction between the organisations. For example, a supplier business organisation can
provide certain raw materials to a manufacturing business organisation through its website.
• Business-to-consumer (B2C) B2C e-business refers to the business transactions that take place
between an organisation and a consumer directly. In B2C, a consumer can shop online for the
products offered by a business organisation. It provides all the information regarding the available
products through a website and allows the consumers to order and pay for the products online,
thus facilitating fast and convenient shopping. For example, the Asian Sky Shop sells the various
products offered by different business organisations online and any user who wants to purchase a
product can buy it online.
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) C2C refers to the business transactions that take place between
two consumers but with the help of a third party. In C2C, a consumer provides informationabout a
product, which is to be sold, on the website of the third party. Another consumer can buy the
 same item through bidding on the website of the third party. The consumer, who provides an item for
sale on the website, is known as seller; whereas the consumer, who bids for the item, is knownas
buyer. For example, e-bay is a website on which a consumer can provide information about the
products, which s/he needs to sell. The best bidder gets to buy the listed product.
• Consumer-to-business (C2B) C2B is a business model that allows individual consumersto
offer their products and services to companies in return of which they get payment from the
companies. One of the popular examples of C2B model is the online advertising site Google
Adsense. It allows individuals to display advertising content or promotional materials on their
personal websites. The administration and payment of these ads are done by Google itself. Also,
platforms like Google Video and Fotolia are good examples of C2B, where individuals can sell digital
content including images, animations, videos, etc. to companies.

The Internet in Education

In the field of education, the Internet is widely used for learning and teaching. The Internet not only helps the
students search information on various topics of their interest but also proves useful for the students pursuing
distance education. The distance education institutes provide notes, lectures and syllabus tostudents through
their respective websites. The students just have to access the website of the institute toget all the required
information from it. If the website of an educational institution supports e-learning, thenthe students can
participate in online lectures through simulations, Web Based Training (WBT), etc.
The Internet also provides the Usenet service, which contains a large number of Newsgroups through
which a user can submit as well as obtain the articles on different topics. The members of a newsgroup
connect to each other and have discussions through the Usenet network. Usenet contains a number of message
boards on which the articles are placed and the software known as newsreader is used to read the articles
published on message board. Most of the newsgroups allow the users to submit their articles on the selected
topics such as scientific research, social issues, religion and politics. Moreover, some newsgroups also allow
the users to submit their articles on a topic of their own choice. Newsgroup not only helps the users in gaining
knowledge but also allows them to make online friends.
The Internet also provides an application similar to Newsgroups known as Discussion forum. The
discussion forum also allows a large number of people to hold discussions or place their articles on
a particular topic similar to Newsgroups. But the only difference between the Discussion forums and
Newsgroups is that the Discussion forums display articles according to the time or the thread of receiving the
article. The thread refers to the grouping together of all the messages received on a particular topic. Some
discussion forums allow the users to place their articles even without having a membership of the Discussion
forum, while the other Discussion forums require the users to have membership along with validusername
and password. The members of such Discussion forums have special facilities such as to make alterations in
their previous articles, to initiate a new topic and to delete the previous articles submittedby them.
Both Newsgroup and Discussion forums are used by students and other users of the Internet to share
their knowledge with each other by participating in a discussion on a specific topic. The extensive use of the
Internet in education has led to the creation of what are known as Virtual Universities in many countries.

15.1.2 The Internet in Communication

The Internet is mostly used by the people as a fast and cheap means of communication. Many services
provided by the Internet such as e-mail and instant messaging help the users to communicate quickly and
cheaply over long distances. E-mail is an application of Internet that allows a user to send and receive text
 messages electronically. To use the email services, a user requires an account on a mail server. The account
is created by the user by providing a username; a password and other personal information such as address
and contact number. Each time the user wants to access the email service, she/he has to log on to the server
using the username and the password provided during account creation. If the username or the password
provided by a user is invalid, then that user is considered as an unauthorised user and is prohibited from using
the service.
The Internet also provides another easy way of communication, i.e., communication through instant
messaging. Instant messaging is a service of the Internet through which it is possible for a user to perform
real-time communication with one or more users on the Internet. The real-time communication refers to
the communication in which there is an immediate response to a message. In case of instant messaging,
the communication between two users takes place by instant sending and receiving of message. To use this
service, the users have to log on to the instant messaging server. After a user has successfully logged on
to the server, a chat room with a list of online users is made available to the user. An online user is a user
who is available for chatting at a specific period of time. The user can then select an online user from the
list and then send a message to that online user. If a response is received from the online user to whom a
message was sent, then instant sending and receiving of message takes place. Chat rooms not only provide
the sharing of text messages but also allow the users to share images and graphics online.
Apart from e-mail and instant messaging, Internet telephony and web conferencing are the other
application areas of the Internet that facilitate, quick, cheap and efficient communication over long distances.
Through these mediums, the users can talk to the other uses in real-time through an audio-visual interface.

The Internet in Entertainment

The Internet over the period of time has evolved as a great source of entertainment. It provides many
entertainment resources to the users such as games, music and movies. The most popular entertainment
resources on the Internet are the games, which are either free of cost or can be bought through the payment
of a small price. Multi User Dungeon (MUD) is a virtual environment in which fantasy characters such as
warriors, priests and thieves are adopted by end users for playing games. Each user represents a specific
character and interacts with other characters with the help of text messages. The information regarding
the game and the virtual environment is also provided to the users through commands displayed on the screen.
MUD is also available with graphics that enhance the background of the game by providing it a 3-dimensional
look. This feature is known as virtual reality because the background and the characters in the game resemble
the real world entities.
Apart from games, the Internet also provides many other entertainment resources. Several websites
provide easy access to any type of music and videos, which can be freely downloaded on the computers. The
Internet also enables the users to share videos and photos with other users. Many websites on the Internet
also provide information regarding the sports events taking place at specific period of time. These websites
allow the users to access continuous score updates.

The Internet in Government

These days, the Internet is playing a crucial role in the functioning of the government organisations.
Almost all the government organisations have set up their websites that provide information related to the
organisation as well as help them in performing their operations. For example, nowadays people can submit
the passport application form and file the income tax returns through the use of Internet. Moreover, Internet
also enables the government agencies to share the data with each other.
 The vast use of IT and Internet has paved the way for e-governance. More and more government agencies
are adopting the concept of e-governance to improve their service delivery capabilities.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD WIDE WEB

World Wide Web is a collection of web servers, which contain several web pages pertaining to different
websites. The web pages contain hypertext, simple text, images, videos and graphics. The web pages are
designed with the help of HyperText Markup Language (HTML). To view the web pages provided by a
web server, the software known as web browser is required. To display the web pages, a web browser runs
the HTML code segment written for a particular web page. Each web page on the Internet is provided its own
address known as Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) or URL. This URL helps the web browser in locating
a web page on the Internet. A URL string begins with the name of a protocol such as http or ftpthat
represents the protocol through which a web page is accessed. The rest of the URL string containsthe
domain server name of the web page being accessed and the location of the web page on the localweb
server.

WEB BROWSERS
Web browser is the software, which is used to access the Internet and the WWW. It is basically used to access
and view the web pages of the various websites available on the Internet. A web browser provides many
advanced features that help achieve easy access to the Internet and WWW. When we open a web browser,
the first page, which appears in the web browser window, is the home page set for that particular web browser.
The web browsers are categorised into two categories, text based and Graphical User Interface (GUI)
based. The text based browsers are the browsers that display unformatted text contained in the HTML files.
These types of browsers do not display images, which are inline with the text contained in the HTML files.
However, the text based browsers have the ability of displaying the images that are not inline with the
text contained in the HTML files. The text based browsers are simple to use and do not require computers
with expensive hardware. They allow the downloading of graphic and sound files but only if the computer
contains the software and the hardware required for such files. The GUI based browsers, on the other hand,
display formatted text along with images, sounds and videos, which are contained in the HTML files.
The user has to just click the mouse button to view or download image, sound and video files. The most
commonly used web browsers are Internet Explorer (IE), Netscape Navigator and Mozilla Firefox.
The IE is the most widely used web browser that was developed in 1995 by Microsoft. The first version
of IE, i.e., IE 2.0 could be installed and run on the computers with Macintosh and the 32-bit Windows
operating systems. IE 2.0 was specially designed to access secure websites, and hence had the capabilities
of tracing any kind of errors. To trace the errors and provide secure access to websites, IE 2.0 included a new
protocol known as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. In 1996, the next version, i.e., IE 3.0 was developed,
which had many advanced features, such as Internet Mail, Windows Address Book and WindowMedia
Player. This version was basically developed for Windows 95 operating system. In 1997, the next version,
IE 4.0 was developed that included Microsoft Outlook Express 4.0, which is e-mail software used for sending
and receiving e-mail messages. Microsoft Outlook Express was included with IE 4.0 to provide enhanced
Internet mail and news features. The latest version of IE is IE 8.0. It is the most secure web
browser as it contains many privacy and safety features as compared to any of the previous versions of IE.
The IE 8.0 version supports the latest Windows operating system, i.e., Windows Vista.
To access Internet Explorer on a computer, we need to select Start Programs Internet Explorer. The
Microsoft Internet Explorer window appears with the home page as shown in Fig. 5.1.

Fig. 5.1 Microsoft Internet Explorer window

Figure 5.1 shows that the home page for the Internet Explorer has been set to the google.com website,
which is a search engine that helps in searching information on the Internet. A user can change the home
page according to the requirements using the Internet Options option of the Tools menu.
Another commonly used web browser is Netscape Navigator, which was also known as Mozilla during
its development phase. This web browser was widely in use in the 1990’s. The only advantage of Netscape
Navigator over IE is that when a web page is being downloaded, unlike IE in which a blank screen appears
some of the text and graphics contained in the web page appears in the case of Netscape Navigator. This
prevents the wastage of time as the user can start reading the page even before it is completely downloaded.
Initially, Netscape Navigator became very popular because of its advanced features and free availability
to all the users. However, its usage declined later in 1995 when it was declared that the web browser
was freely available only to the non-profit and educational organisations. Another reason for the decline
in the usage of Netscape Navigator is that it was not capable of fixing the errors automatically. On the
other hand, IE 4.0 had the feature of automatically fixing errors. As a result, many people suddenly stopped
using Netscape Navigator. In order to increase the usage of Netscape Navigator many new features such
as mail and news reader were added to its older version. However, these new features affected the speed
of the Web browser and increased its size. As a result, Netscape Navigato is rarely being used nowadays.
To access Netscape Navigator, we need to select Start Programs Netscape Communicator Professional
Edition Netscape Navigator. The Netscape window appears with the home page as shown in Fig. 5.2.

Fig. 5.2 The Netscape window with home page

The third most commonly used web browser is the Mozilla Firefox, which was developed by Dave
Hyatt and Blake Ross. Many versions of Mozilla Firefox web browser were developed before it was officially
released in November 2004. The latest version of Mozilla Firefox that is currently being usedis 2.0.0.5
This version includes many new features such as mail, news and HTML editing. The Firefox web browser
uses XML User Interface (XUL), which supports features such as Cascade Spread Sheets (CSS) and
JavaScript. XUL provides extensions and themes, which enable a user to increasethe capabilities of the
Mozilla Firefox web browser. Initially, the Firefox was named as m/b (Mozilla/ Browser) but later its name
was changed to Phoenix. The name Phoenix already existed for some BIOS software so the web browser was
renamed as Firebird but again the same problem persisted. This was already a name of a popular database
server. So, in February 2004 another name, i.e., Mozilla Firefoxwas given to the web browser that persists
till today. To access Mozilla Firefox, we need to selectStart Programs Mozilla Firefox Mozilla
Firefox. The Mozilla Firefox window appears with the home page as shown in Fig. 5.3.
 Fig. 5.3 Mozilla Firefox window with home page

BROWSING THE INTERNET

Browsing the Internet is the process of accessing different websites available on the Internet using a web
browser. To browse the Internet, we need to first connect our computer to the Internet through a connection
provided by an ISP. To connect to the Internet, a modem is also required. Modem is a device that converts
analog signals into digital signals and vice versa. In addition, a telephone line is required for connecting the
computer to the server of the ISP. After connecting to the Internet, we can perform the following steps to
browse the Internet using IE web browser:
1. Select Start Programs Internet Explorer to display the Microsoft Internet Explorer window.
2. Type the URL of the website, which you want to access such as java.sun.com in the address bar
thatappears at the top in the Microsoft Internet Explorer window.
3. Press the Enter key to display the home page of the java.sun.com website as shown in Fig. 5.4.
 Fig. 5.4 Accessing an Internet website

When browsing the Internet, we can use one of the

important features, favourites, of the IE web browser. This
feature allows us to easily and quickly access the frequently
visited websites. In other words, the favourites features allows
the users who are browsing the Internet to keep a record of all
the websites that are their favourites and are required to be
accessed on a frequent basis. This feature also proves to be
handy when a user wants to avoid the tedious task of
remembering the URL of the websites, which arefrequently
accessed by that user. Users can simply add the websites,
which are frequently accessed by them in the list of
favourites so that they can be easily accessed in the future
without remembering their URLs. To access a website, which
has been added to the favourites, we can use the Favourites
menu or the Favourites button, which appears in the Standard
toolbar. When we click the Favourites button in the toolbar, the
Favourites pane appears as shown in Fig. 5.5.
The Favourites pane contains a list of names of the
websites, which have been added to favourites. We can now
click a specific name in the Favourites pane to access the
corresponding website quickly. Fig. 5.5 The Favourites pane
 We can also use another important feature, i.e., ‘search’ available
in IE web browser when browsing the Internet. The search feature allows
us to search for information on a specific topic. If a user is not aware of
any website, which contains the desired information, thenthe user can
use the search feature of the IE web browser. When a user searches for
information through the search feature of IE, then a listof websites
containing the related information is displayed. To search for
information using the search feature of IE, we can click the Search button,
which appears in the Standard toolbar. The Search pane appears as shown
in Fig. 5.6.
In the Search pane, you can type a word in the Find a Web page
containing text box related to the topic on which you want to search the
information. After typing the word, click the Search button to search the
information related to the topic.
Note: Apart from Favourites and Search features, the Standard toolbar
of the IE web browser contains other options like Home, Next,
Previous etc, which are used for performing different functions.

Fig. 5.6 The Search pane

USING A SEARCH ENGINE

Search engines are the websites that provide the users the facility of searching for information related
to some topic. The search engines maintain an index of websites available on the Internet along with a
summary of the content contained in these websites. The summary of the content is displayed when a
user searches for information on some topic. We can use a number of techniques to make the process of
searching the information using search engines efficient and useful. These techniques are as follows:
• Use of double quotes (“ ”) Double quotes are used to search for a phrase collectively. Generally,
a search engine provides a list of websites that contains any of the words contained in the text
specified for searching of information. However, if a user wants the search engine to consider the
entire text specified for searching as a single phrase, then that user should provide the text in double
quotes. For example, suppose a user wants to search the information related to the topic, types of
computers. In this case, if the user specifies the text, types of computers, without double quotes for
searching the information, then the search engine will display all websites, which either contain the
word, types or the word, computers. However, if a user wants that a search engine should regard the
text, history of the Internet as a single phrase, then the user must provide the text in double quotes as
“types of computers”. This will make the search more efficient.
• Use of Boolean operators Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT can also be used inthe
text specified for searching information in order to make the search process more efficient. The
Boolean AND operators can be used to search for websites, which contain the information related
to two words such as computer and hard disk. The Boolean OR can be used to search for websites,
which contain either of the two words. The Boolean NOT can be used to search for the websites, which
contain the information other than the information related to the word specified after the NOT operator.
For example, if a user is searching for some information regarding track ball present in the mouse, then
the user can specify the text “track ball OR touch ball” for searching the information as
 both of the words mean the same. So, now the search engine will search and display all the websites
containing either of the words.
• Use of plus (+) and minus (-) sign Plus (+) sign is used to search the websites in which allthe
words included in the text specified for searching are present. Minus (–) sign is used to searchall
the websites in which the words included in the text specified for searching are not present. For
example, suppose a user wants to search the features of a mouse, then the user has to specify the text
“features + mouse” for searching the information related to the features of the mouse. The Internet
search engine will list all the web pages containing the words, features and mouse.
Some of the search engines that are commonly used by the users are www.google.com, www.altavista.
com, www.askjeeves.com, www.search.yahoo.com and www.ask.com. Among these search engines,
www.google.com is the most popular search engine, which is used worldwide. To use the google.com search
engine for searching information, the user has to perform certain steps, which are as follows:
1. Open IE web browser. The Microsoft Internet Explorer window appears.
2. Type the URL, google.com in the address bar, which appears at the top in the Microsoft
InternetExplorer window.
3. Press Enter to open the home page of the google.com search engine as shown in Fig. 5.7.

Fig. 5.7 The home page of google.com search engine

 Figure 5.7 shows that the home page of the google.com search engine contains a text box in which
we can specify the text for searching information. It also contains two buttons, Google Search and I’m feeling
Lucky. The Google Search button is used to initiate the searching process using the google.com search
engine. I’m Feeling Lucky button is used to display the first website returned as a search result corresponding
to the specified text. The home page of the Google.com search engine also contains the following options:
• The web This option allows us to search the WWW for getting the information on a specific topic.
• Pages from India This option allows us to search the pages submitted from India for information
on specific topic.
• Advanced search This option allows us to specify certain advanced settings for making thesearch
more specific and efficient.
1. Type some text such as mouse + computers in the search text box to specify the text on the basis of
which information will be searched.
2. Click the Google Search button or press the Enter key to initiate the process of searching the
information related to mouse. A list of websites containing information related to the specified text such as
mouse gets displayed as shown in Fig. 5.8.

Fig. 5.8 The search results from google.com search engine

In Fig. 5.8, the blue text in the search result is the hypertext through which the web page containing the
required information can be accessed and the green text represents the URL of the website to which the web
page belongs. The user has to click the hypertext to view the web page containing the required information.
EMAIL SERVICE
Email service provided by the Internet is a very effective means of communication as it allows two persons
in remote places to communicate with each other. To use the e-mail service, a user must have a valid email
account. There are two ways in which a user can obtain an email account. The first way is to obtain an
email account from an ISP. A user can obtain an email account from an ISP when that user registers with the
ISP. To register, a user has to firstly purchase an Internet connection package offered by an ISP.
After purchasing the Internet connection package, the user registers with the ISP by providing information
such as name, address, username and password in the registration form available on the websiteof the ISP.
The user is then provided an email account and an email address by the ISP. The email address consists of
two parts separated by @ sign such as shruti_garg@yahoo.com. The first part written before@ symbol in
the email address is the unique identity of the user who uses the email service on the Internet. The other part
written after @ symbol is the name of the website, which provides the email service. In case a user is using
the email account of an ISP, the part after the @ sign will consist of the name of the website owned by the
ISP. No two users can have the same email addresses.
The second way to obtain an email account is to get registered on one of the websites such as hotmail.
com and yahoo.com, which provide free e-mail facility to their users. To register, a user must first access one
of these websites using a web browser. After accessing the website, the user must provide information such
as username, password, name and address in the registration form and finally the user must submit the form
to register on to the website. When the user has successfully registered, an email account is opened forthe
user and an e-mail address is also provided. The user can now access the email account by providinga
valid username and password in the home page of the website such as hotmail.com and yahoo.com for using
the email service of the Internet.
The email service can be used by a user to send and receive email messages. An email message has two
sections, a header section and a body section. The header section contains the information about the sender,
the receiver and the subject of the email message. It consists of the fields such as to, cc and subject. The
to field contains the email address of the person to whom the e-mail message is to be sent. The cc field or the
carbon copy field contains the email addresses of other persons to whom a copy of the e-mail message has to
be sent. The body section contains the actual text message, which has to be sent. This section also contains a
signature block at the end where the sender places his/her signature.

PROTOCOLS USED FOR THE INTERNET

The Internet is a collection of computers, which are connected to each other for the purpose of sharing of
information. To share information, data has to be transferred from one computer to another. When data is
transferred between computers, certain rules called protocols have to be followed. The protocols perform
different tasks, which are arranged in a vertical stack and each task is performed at a different layer. The
computer, which sends the data to another computer, is called source computer. On the other hand, the
computer, which receives the data from another computer, is called destination computer. At the time of
transferring of data from the source to the destination computer, a protocol is responsible for determining the
network to which the destination computer belongs. It is also responsible for defining the procedure, which
must be followed for dividing the data into packets. The protocols are also responsible for detection of errors
in the data packets and the correction of these errors or loss of data packets. In addition, it is the responsibility
of the protocols to identify loss of connection between the computers in a network and help the users to
establish the connection again.
 Each computer on a network has a unique address, which is known as the Internet Protocol (IP) address.
An IP address is a group of four numbers and the numbers are separated from each other by a dot. When any
data is sent from one computer to another computer over the network, it is divided into small modules known
as packets or datagrams. These packets are transmitted on the network by the Internet Protocol.Each
packet transmitted on the network contains the addresses of both source and destination computer.A
gateway present on the network reads the address of the destination computer and sends the data to the
specified address. Gateway is a computer, which contains the software required for the transmission of
data over different networks. Each packet on the network is an independent entity, so they are transferred
through different routes to reach the destination computer. The packets received at the destination are not
in the same sequence in which they were transmitted. As a result, these packets are arranged in a right
sequence by a protocol known as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and then are merged at the destination
to form the complete data. TCP and IP work in coordination with other protocols such as Telnetand User
Datagram Protocol (UDP) but are considered as the most fundamental of all protocols. All these protocols
are collectively known as TCP/IP suite. A model known as TCP/IP model determines how the protocols of
the TCP/IP suite will work together for the transfer of data between computers in a network

TCP/IP Model
The TCP/IP model was initially developed by US Defence Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This model is also known as the
Internet Reference model or DoD model. It consists of four layers,
namely, application layer, transport layer, network layer, and physical
layer. Figure 5.9 shows the four layers of TCP/IP model.
The physical layer in the TCP/IP model is responsible for interacting
with the medium of transmission of data, whereas the application layer
helps in interacting with the users. The four layers of TCP/IP and the
functions performed by these layers are as follows:
• Application layer The application layer is responsible for
managing all the user interface requirements. Many of the
protocols, such as telnet, FTP, SMTP, DNS, NFS, LPD, SNMP
and DHCP work on this layers.
• Transport layer The transport layer is responsible for the
delivery of packets or datagrams. It also hides the packet Fig. 5.9 Layers of TCP/IP model
routing

details from the upper layer, i.e., the application layer. In addition, the transport layer allows detection
and correction of errors and helps to achieve end-to-end communication between devices. The transport
layer connects the application layer to the network layer through two protocols, namely, TCP and UDP.
• Network layer The network layer is also known as Internetworking layer or IP layer. It contains
three protocols that perform different functions. The three protocols of Network layer are as follows:
a. Internet Protocol (IP) IP is a connectionless protocol that is responsible for the delivery of
packets. The IP protocol contains all the address and control information for each transmitted packet.
b. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) The ICMP protocol is responsible for reporting
errors, sending error messages and controlling the flow of packets. It is more reliable than the IP
as it is capable of determining errors during data transmission.
 c. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) It is responsible for determining the Media Access Control
(MAC) address corresponding to an IP address. It sends an ARP request on the network for a
particular IP address and the device, which identifies the IP address as its own, returns an ARP
reply along with its MAC address.
• Physical layer The physical layer is responsible for collecting packets so that the frames, whichare
transmitted on the network, can be formed. It performs all the functions required to transmit the data
on the network and determines the ways for accessing the medium through which data will
be transmitted. This layer does not contain any protocols but instead of protocols, it contains some
standards such as RS-232C, V.35 and IEEE 802.3.

OSI Model
Open System Interconnection (OSI) is a layered design that defines the
functions of the protocols used in a computer network. It consists of seven
layers where each layer provides some services to the next layer. Figure 5.10
shows the seven layers of OSI model.
The seven layers of the OSI model and the functions performed by them
are as follows:
• Application layer The application layer provides an interface through
which users can communicate and transfer data on the network.
• Presentation layer The presentation layer determines the way in
which the data is presented to different computers. It converts the
datainto a particular format, which is supported by a specific
computer.
It is also responsible for encrypting, decrypting, compressing and
decompressing of data.
• Session layer The session layer manages the communication
between the computers on the network. This layer is responsible for
notifying the errors, which may have occurred in the layers above it. It
is also responsible for setting up and breaking the connection between
the computers or devices.
• Transport layer The transport layer is responsible for the delivery
of packets in a proper sequence. It also provides proper rectification of
errors and manages the flow of packets over the network. This layer
Fig. 5.10 OSI model
ensures that data is properly delivered at the destination. It also keeps

track of all the packets, which fail to reach the destination, and transmits them again.
• Network layer The network layer is responsible for identifying the ways in which the data is
transmitted over the network from one device to another. It prevents the overloading of packets on
thenetwork and maintains the proper flow so that all the resources on the network can be used
efficiently
by all. The network layer directs the packets to the destination device on the basis of the IP address
of the device. It detects the errors, which occur during the transmission of packets. This layer is also
responsible for breaking the large size packets into smaller packets when the device is unable to accept
the packets due to their large size.
• Data link layer The data link layer specifies the actions, which must be performed to maintain the
network communication. It collects the packets to form frames, which are then transmitted over the
network. It also finds out and then corrects the errors, which occur during the transmission of packets.
• Physical layer The physical layer describes all the physical requirements for the transmission of data
between devices on a network. For example, the physical layer can specify the layout of pins, hubs and
cables. This layer defines the relation between a single device and the transmission medium.
It specifies the way in which a device must transmit data and also the way in which another device must
receive data. This layer is responsible for the setting up and ending up of a network connection.