In January of 1984 I started my first electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) in Dallas, Texas and thus began my entry into network telecommunications. Little did I know the extent to which my modem would take me. It didn't take me long to discover that there was a little known worldwide organization which was crisscrossing the globe. I am of course referring to the InterNet. You would think, based on the hype heard on Television, that the InterNet has only recently come into existance. Far from it. The InterNet was originally called ARPANet and it evolved from a U.S. Military project which attempted to eliminate the risk to our nations military computer systems. The theory was that by spreading the information contained in each system to other systems throughout the network over a diverse area, that it would be impossible for an enemy to target any one location (or even any set of locations) and totally destroy our country's military computer capability. The InterNet extended beyond the military to academia, primarily since it was academia which actually developed the specifics of the system for the military. Colleges statewide, then countrywide and finally worldwide began connecting to each other. Various organizations, initially computer companies such as Digital, IBM and others began connecting to the InterNet. Finally, individuals began connecting to the internet. The initial intent of the InterNet was to share data, specifically files and so the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was created. This allows files from one system to be transferred to another system. These days there are entire systems which are known as FTP sites which are dedicated to maintaining wide selections of FTPable software for all kinds of systems. Some people wanted to send messages person to person from one system to another system. They created a way to do it and thus eMail was born. But that wasn't enough. They wanted to create a place where many people could send messages that other people could access and share the information as a group. Thus was born the NewsGroup. Today there are over 11,000 different newsgroups carried on the InterNet backbone comprising a multitude of different topics. Even with this abundance of information there was still a problem. Each system on the network was still pretty much isolated. There was no real interlinking of the information between systems. If you wanted information that wasn't on your current system, you had to physically go to another system and become a user on that system. Many systems became overloaded and the flow of information was bottlenecked. A better way of sharing and distributing information was needed. In the early 1980's, Hypertext was invented. Hypertext is a method for embedding links into text which points to other information. This information could be another data file, executable program, graphics, etc. At about this time a fellow by the name of Tim Berners-Lee who was working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Institute in Geneva, Switzerland conceived a way to use Hypertext to allow various computer systems to share information. (Surprisingly, in 1945 Vannevar Bush proposed a design for a machine which he called a Memex. He envisioned the Memex as a device which would contain a database which would allow the users to follow information `trails' from one point to another. ) In March 1989 Berners-Lee proposed a Hypertext based project to accomplish the goal of linking computer systems via Hypertext. In November of 1990 the initial WorldWide Web (WWW) Prototype was developed. In September of 1993 the Mosaic Web browser was released with working versions of software for X, PC/Windows and MacIntosh. Today, just a few years later, there are literally tens of thousands of WWW server sites, millions of Web users and hundreds of software programs for almost every single computer that can use a modem. Many people are confused about the differences between the InterNet and the WWW. The basic difference between the InterNet and the Web is that the Web is a collection of tools, protocols and standards which provide access to the information on the InterNet. The InterNet is the transport mechanism for this information. The Web is comprised of 3 principal standards (or protocols): URL, HTTP and HTML. These standards allow the Web servers and clients to communicate with each other and allow for users to locate, access, display and transfer data on the InterNet. The Web also supports several additional protocols such as FTP, Gopher and Telnet. A URL is a Uniform Resource Locator. It provides the mechanism for locating InterNet documents. The URL is based upon a simple addressing scheme: protocol://server-name{:port}/path. The protocol determines the kind of operation which is going to be performed, ie: HTTP, FTP, Gopher, etc. The server-name is either the host name or IP address of the system which contains the data. For example, TRC's server-name is www.trcinc.com. The port number is optional and is usually not specified as the default port for each protocol is usually used. The path is the directory path to the desired filename. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the primary protocol used to distribute information throughout the Web. Most organizations have what is called a `Home Page'. When you specify the HTTP protocol to connect to a server, you are presented with this home page which is some sort of Hypertext document. This document will usually have links to additional documents. By clicking on these links you can access the additional documents. These additional documents themselves may also contain links to other documents, and so on. To connect to my home page you type: http://www.skscci.com/ which will connect you to my home page. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. This is a standard which describes the various links in a hypertext document. These links provide the capability to transfer to another document, download a document, enter information, view another document, etc. The TRC home page and the other pages linked to it is written in HTML. In order for you to access the information on the InterNet via the Web, you must have a user account on a system which is connected to the InterNet. These days there are InterNet providers everywhere. There are many local providers as well as national providers which have local dialup numbers. Many companies are also connected to the InterNet and so you may be able to access the InterNet through your existing user account. Most companies provide InterNet access to their people through direct access within the organization and you access it via your computer at your desk. Most independent InterNet providers support dialup connection access using a protocol known at PPP (Point to Point Protocol). There are currently hundreds if not thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISP's) across the country. Some are large national providers who maintain local phone numbers across the country as well as a toll free number for those areas for which they do not have a local number. Most are small local providers who maintain local numbers within a city, county or even a state. These days the rates for basic personal services cost about $20 / month which includes unlimited access time and sometimes even the ability to maintain your own web page. Once you get an account with a provider, you need to get online. This requires that you have a computer with a modem. The faster the better. These days 28,800 bps is the standard for high speed communications and most providers support this speed. The new 33k modems are becoming more popular and many ISP's are upgrading. Some ISP's even support ISDN which is an even faster protocol, but this requires specialized equipment for your computer as well as a special ISDN phone line to your house and support from the ISP. You also need software. You will need software which will allow your PC to connect to the provider, software which provides Web Browsing, software which supports eMail, software which provides access to NewsGroups, software which provides FTP file transfers and miscellaneous utility software. There are several commercial products and even more shareware and freeware products. Some provide only a single function while others are integrated and perform several of these functions. Commercial products such as Chameleon Internet and InterNet in a Box provide pretty much everything you need. They come with the software neccessary to establish your connection to your service provider as well as software for Web Browsing, eMail, NewGroups, FTP and more. There are also several shareware and freeware products. Products such as the Chameleon Sampler, Trumpet Winsock and EWAN allow you to connect to your service provider and perform some minimal network functions. An excellent list of tools resides at: http://www.tucows.com/ Which is The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software site. This site provides links to a large selection of downloadable InterNet and Web software as well as a variety of other tools. All of the software to which I will refer can be obtained from this site, both for Windows 3.1x and Windows 95. Web Browsing Web browsers perform many functions, but the most basic is that of "Cruisin' the `Net" or "Surfin' the Web". They allow you to go to any one of a variety of locations at sites throughout the world either explicitly or via Hypertext links. All browsers come pre-configured so that when you run them, they first connect to the home page of the author company. This gives you an excellent starting point since most home pages will contain enough links to get you started, and it takes only your curiosity to go from there. There are several Web Browsers which include: Netscape (integrated with a News Reader), NCSA Mosaic, Internet Works and Air Mosaic. Personally, I prefer Netscape. Electronic Mail An eMail tool allows you to compose, send, receive, read and respond to eMail via the InterNet. The format for mail addresses is: username@server-name. For example, to send eMail to me you would address your mail to: sks@skscci.com There are several eMail programs which include: Pegasus, Trumpet (integrated with a News Reader), Mail-It, Pronto and Eudora. Personally, I use Pegasus which is freeware. News Readers A News Reader allows you to participate in newsgroup discussions. It allows you to read messages in the newsgroup, post messages into the newsgroup, reply by eMail to newsgroup messages, followup to newsgroup messages, save newsgroup messages and decode newsgroup messages. Some News Readers allow you to forward messages to your eMail account so that you can keep a CC: copy for yourself. There are several News Readers which include: News Express, Trumpet (integrated with a mailer) and Free Agent. Personally, I use News Express. There are many more programs which perform these functions and more and you can find them by Surfin' the Web yourself. Practical Uses Of The Net The InterNet is an incredible source of information, if you know how to find it. However, the best thing about it is that you don't neccessarily have to know where to find anything in particular. There are several methods which you can use to find the information you want. Newsgroups are an excellent starting point. With over 10,000 newsgroups on the net, chances are that there is one which specializes in the information which you want. If you can't find a newsgroup which seems appropriate for your needs, the news.newusers.questions group is for you. It is a starting point for people who don't know where to go, to go. You would start by posting a message in this group asking which newsgroup would be useful for the information you need. When you find an appropriate newsgroup, you would post a message asking your specific question. Chances are it won't take more than a day or so before you start receiving responses to your question. In one case, I had an eMail waiting for me within minutes of having posted my message. If you don't feel like waiting for someone to answer your question, you can try your luck at Surfin' the Web. Surfin' is not as difficult as it may seem. There are several programs which have been created to make it a lot easier. These programs are referred to as search engines. A search engine is a tool which will traverse the Web looking for information (documents, servers, people, etc.) based upon your search criteria. They allow you to type in keywords based on your search criteria and they will go out and get a list of links to sites which may contain the information you need. When the search engine finds a link to your information, all you need to do is click on the Hypertext link and the information is at your fingertips. Netscape comes with a built-in search engine which is accessible via the 'Net Search' button. Other search engines are available via the web and you can use Net Search to find them. We are an information driven society and those of us who don't have the ability to access information will quickly find ourselves at a disadvantage. The Information Superhighway is upon us in the form of the InterNet. On-ramps abound across the country as more and more service providers create access ramps available to the general public. A wide selection of software products are the vehicles which allow us to access and navigate this highway. It is a new technology about which most people are unfamiliar. Like any technology it requires knowledge to be able to use it and experience to make it useful. You have just been provided with the knowledge neccessary to get yourself onto the highway. It is now up to you to get the experience neccessary to make it useful for your needs. Click here to return to my HOME page