THE INTERNET

Introduction:
What is the Internet? While it may seem like a simple question, defining the Internet is
not easy. Because, unlike any other technology, the Internet can be whatever
individuals make it. It can be shaped. It can be moulded. But most importantly, it can
be used to connect people, communities, and countries around the world. This paper
shall purpose to shed light on the Internet, its uses and workings as well as the
disadvantages of this majestic tool.

Definition of terms:
Internet - The Macmillan dictionary (2011) defines the internet as a global computer
network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of
interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.

Use - to employ for some purpose; put into service; make use of. The Cambridge
dictionary (2008)

Surfing - www.reference.com defines surfing the internet as a term typically used to

describe an undirected type of web of browsing where users whimsically follow one
interesting link to another without a planned search strategy or definite
objective. Surfing the net has become a popular pastime, for many Internet users.

1. What is the internet and how does it work?

The Webwise team at www.bbc.co.uk offers a simplified explanation of what the

internet is. This simple explanation shall be the start of trying to understand this
complex phenomenon. According to www.bbc.co.uk, the internet is a global network
of computers that works much like the postal system, only at sub-second speeds. Just
as the postal service enables people to send one another envelopes containing
messages, the internet enables computers to send one another small packets of digital
data. For that to work, they use a common ’language’ called TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). If one is on the net, they have an IP address.
According to www.bbc.co.uk, it works in the following way:

How it works

When one sends a letter, they don’t need to know about the vans, trains and planes
that carry it to its destination, or how many post offices it passes through on the way.
Nor do they need to know how the packets of internet data are transmitted through a
variety of cables, routers and host computers on the way to their destination.
However, different packets can take different routes, which makes the internet
relatively resilient. The failure of a particular node or host generally makes little or no
difference to the rest of the system.
When one puts an envelope in the post, it can contain many different types of data: a
love letter, an invoice, a photograph, and so on. The internet’s data packets also carry
different types of data for different applications. Common types include web pages,
email messages, and large files that might be digital videos, music files or computer
programs.
Today, the web is often used to provide an easy-to-use interface for numerous
applications, including email, file transfer, Usenet newsgroups, and messages
(Internet Relay Chat). This makes the web and the internet appear to be the same
thing. However, these applications existed before the web was invented, and can still
run without it.

The simple explanation above, was a good start to understanding the internet. But
more information will be helpful to garner a better understanding.

According to Federal networking Council (1995), "Internet" refers to the global

information system that:
• is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet
Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons ;
• is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-
compatible protocols; and
• provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services
layered on the communications and related infrastructure.

www.teachit.com provides a very interesting outlook on what the internet is. According
to that website, the internet is made up of millions upon millions of small computer
networks all brought together to form the vast “Inter-Network”. That word never caught
on, so it was shortened to the much easier to say “Internet”. A large part of the internet
is the World Wide Web (www). This is made up of websites that have one or more
webpages. This is the part of the internet that people use most of the time. But the
internet is not just webpages. It also includes other services such as: instant
messages, chatrooms, emails, file transfers, news groups, peer to peer networks and
forums.
It is important to note that no one owns the internet. This is because each part of it is
made up of individual networks that someone has put together and then linked to the
internet. However each network has to obey internet standards in order to connect.
For example IANA is an international group responsible for organising web addresses,
every web address has to be unique.

2. Uses of the internet

The internet is a great tool which has numerous uses. Some of the uses that shall be
examined are the World Wide Web, emailing, video conferencing, online gaming and
streaming.

The World Wide Web (WWW or Web for short) is the part of the Internet that one can
access using a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. It consists of a large
number of web servers that host websites. Each website will normally consist of a
number of web pages. A web page can contain text, images, video, animation and
sound. One can access a website or web page by typing its URL (Uniform Resource
Locator) into the address bar of their browser. An example of a URL
is http://www.bbc.co.uk.

Electronic mail, or email, is a method of exchanging digital messages between people

using digital devices such as computers and mobile phones. Email first entered
substantial use in the 1960s and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized
as email. Email operates across computer networks, which today is primarily
the Internet. Some early email systems required the author and the recipient to both
be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems
are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and
store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online
simultaneously; they need to connect only briefly, typically to a mail server or
a webmail interface, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.
According to Marxwell (2005), email is short for 'electronic mail'. Similar to a letter, it
is sent via the internet to a recipient. An email address is required to receive email,
and that address is unique to the user. Some people use internet-based applications
and some use programs on their computer to access and store emails. Some key
benefits and features of using email are that it is quick. The recipient receives the email
as soon as they go online and collect their mail. It is also secure and low cost. Also,
photos, documents and other files can be attached to an email, so that more
information can be shared. Moreover, one email can be sent to more than one recipient
at a time.

Videoconferencing (or video conference) means to conduct a conference between two

or more participants at different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio
and video data. For example, a point-to-point (two-person) video
conferencing system works much like a video telephone. Each participant has a video
camera, microphone, and speakers mounted on his or her computer. As the two
participants speak to one another, their voices are carried over the network and
delivered to the other's speakers, and whatever images appear in front of the video
camera appear in a window on the other participant's monitor.

Multipoint videoconferencing allows three or more participants to sit in

a virtual conference room and communicate as if they were sitting right next to each
other. Until the mid90s, the hardware costs made videoconferencing prohibitively
expensive for most organizations, but that situation has now changed. Consumer
services, like Apple's FaceTime, Google's Hangouts, Microsoft's Skype , and
Whatsapp have made video conferencing ubiquitous on desktops and mobile devices
that have an embedded camera.

Rating (2008), suggests that video conferencing can be used for meetings and
teaching. Using video conferencing for meetings is probably the most popular
application. The cost savings can be appreciable especially for international
conferences where not only the travel costs are saved but also the significant time
spent travelling to destinations. A company with branches in Europe, the United States
and the Far East can use videoconferencing to effectively communicate and run its
business. Geographical distance is no longer a barrier.

Similarly, videoconferencing can open up new dimensions to teaching. With

videoconferencing, the teacher no longer has to be in the same room as the students.
A national or even an international subject specialist can be linked to any number of
sites in his country or even the world. The lack of a local expert need not prevent
students following a particular course. The ability to introduce illustrative material
either as still images or moving sequences to both the local and remote audiences
enhances the presentation.
A multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which can be played via
a game server over the internet, with other players around the world. According to
Marxwell (2005), an online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily
played through the Internet or another computer network. Online games are universal
on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span
many genres.

Streaming means listening to music or watching video in ‘real time’, instead of

downloading a file to your computer and watching it later. With internet videos and
webcasts of live events, there is no file to download, just a continuous stream of data.
Some broadcasters prefer streaming because it’s hard for most users to save the
content and distribute it illegally. According to Rating (2008), in the early days of
streaming media, the mid-to-late 1990s, watching videos and listening to music online
was not always fun. It was a little like driving in stop-and-go traffic during a heavy rain.
If one had a slow computer or a dial-up Internet connection, they could spend more
time staring at the word "buffering" on a status bar than watching videos or listening
to songs. On top of that, everything was choppy, pixilated and hard to see. Streaming
video and audio has come a long way since then. Rating (2008) contends that, 57
million people listen to Internet radio every week. In 2006, people watched more than
a million streaming videos a day on YouTube. The same year, television network ABC
started streaming its most popular television shows over the Web. People who missed
an episode of shows like "Lost" or "Grey's Anatomy" could catch up on the entire thing
online, legally and for free.

File Transfer
Internet users often find it useful to transfer computer files to their own computers. The
files can be computer programmes, documents or even pictures and images. File
transfer through Internet is efficient and speedy. The large number of Internet tools
available for downloading to users’ computers also provide cheap and effective tools
for users to browse and retrieve information on the Internet. Some software publishers
make use of the file transfer function of the Internet to send software to their customers
This section of the analysis shall now look at some of the weaknesses of the internet.

3. Problems associated with the Internet.

From the above discussion, it has become obvious that the internet is a wonderful and
useful tool. However certain demerits have emerged associated with its use. They
shall be discussed in the following segment.

Addiction
Over the past years, the concept of Internet addiction has grown in terms of
acceptance as a legitimate clinical disorder often requiring treatment. Kwiatkowska et
al. (2007) contend that there are no doubts that the Internet may be a particularly
dangerous and addictive medium. Hours spent in the network is time taken from work,
study or family life. Internet addiction is a growing social problem. It affects mainly
people living alone and not having a steady job. Importantly, the fascination with the
Internet comes to all new participants in the network, regardless of age or gender. It
is difficult, however, to delve into the details of addiction, to determine what on the
Internet can be the most dangerous and how to guard against this.
Loose Content Controls
Tsai et al. (2010) contend that since there is no censorship over information on the
Internet, undesirable and offensive materials may be found on the network. One can
obtain pornographic articles, nude pictures, and information on hacking, making
bombs, manufacturing drugs or committing suicide from the system. There are also
concerns that the Internet would be abused by people who use it to spread rumours
or false information to cause alarm to the public.

Copyright infringement
Copying and reproducing data available on-line, on CD-ROM or in other electronic
forms including the Internet is much easier than copying from books. This has created
problems for copyright enforcement. The difficulty is compounded on the Internet since
it is a global network containing vast amount of articles from many sources, Echeburua
& Corral (2010).

Data security
Communication on the Internet very often spans across different countries. In such
cases, data are transmitted over communications lines and routed from one network
to another before they reach their destinations. Security of personal or private
commercial data transmitted over the network is therefore a matter of concern.

Conclusion
Internet use has become a staple of everyday life as the Internet is a useful source of
information and an important means of communication with the world. Its importance
continues to grow as more governments use it to disseminate official information to
the public and as more companies use it to conduct their business. While the Internet
may give rise to some problems and concerns, any attempt to protect privacy,
copyright or to clamp down obscene or harassing utilisation of the network should be
carefully balanced against the freedom of access to information.