Exploring Internet, WWW & Cyberspace (UPSA)

• The presentation explores the internet and the world wide web.
• It also delves into the idea of exploring the cyberspace.
• The presentation is from the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA)

Objectives

• Understand connecting to the internet through narrow band, broadband and access providers
• Grasp the functionalities of the internet
• Explore the World Wide Web
• Learn about emails, instant messaging and other ways of communication over the net
• Identify the online gold mine, telephony, multimedia, webcasting, blogs, e-commerce and social networking
• Recognize the intrusive internet through snooping, spamming, spoofing, phishing, pharming, cookies, spyware and malware

Historical Timeline of Telecommunications and Internet

• 1621: The slide rule was invented by Edmund Gunther
• 1642: The first mechanical adding machine was invented by Blaise Pascal
• 1843: Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer, publishes her notes
• 1844: Samuel Morse sends a telegraph message from Washington to Baltimore
• 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
• 1895: The first radio signal transmitted
• 1907: The first regular radio broadcast from New York
• 1927: The first demonstration of television in the USA
• 1944: The first electro-mechanical computer, Mark I
• 1946: The first programmable electronic computer in the United States was created (ENIAC)
• 1947: Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext; Mobile phones were first invented, but not sold commercially until 1983
• 1958: The Eisenhower administration creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) as part of the U.S. Department of Defense
• 1962: The first commercially available modem was developed in the 1950s
• 1984: 9.6 K modem
• 1989: Tim Berners-Lee establishes the World Wide Web while working at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland; The first home trials of the fiber communications network; The number of internet hosts breaks 100,000; The first commercial dial-up internet availability
• 1989-1991: 14.4 K modem
• 1990: ARPANET decommissioned; The first ISP comes online with dial-up access; Berners-Lee develops the first web browser, WorldWideWeb; There are 313,000 hosts on the internet across 9,300 domains
• 1992: The term "Surfing the Internet" coined by Jean Armour Polly; 1,136,000 hosts on the Internet across 18,100 domains
• 1993: Multimedia desktop computers; IXPs replace NSFNET; The first graphical web browser, Mosaic, developed by Marc Andreessen; The U.S. White House goes online; Internet talk radio begins broadcasting; 2,056,000 hosts on the Internet across 28,000 domains
• 1994: Apple and IBM introduce PCs with full-motion video built-in; Wireless data transmission for small portable computers; Netscape Navigator released; 28.8 K modem; The Japanese prime minister goes online; 3,864,000 hosts on internet across 56,000 domains

Connecting to Networks

• Three things are needed to connect to a network of networks
• An access device, such as a personal computer with a modem
• A means of connection, such as a telephone line, cable hookup, or wireless capability
• An Internet access provider, such as an Internet service provider (ISP), a commercial online service provider, or a wireless internet service provide

Wired and Wireless Networks

• Wired networks connect devices in the network using cables; most wired networks are ethernet networks
• Wireless networks use radio waves to connect devices; the most common are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Many networks include both wired and wireless connections

Connecting to the Internet

• Bandwidth, or channel capacity, is an expression of how much data, text, voice, video, and so on can be sent through a communications channel in a given amount of time
• Baseband transmission is the type of data transmission that allows only one signal at a time
• When several signals can be transmitted at once, it's called broadband transmission.
• Broadband: high-speed connections include various kinds of high-speed wired connections, such as coaxial and fiber-optic cable as well as DSL and wireless connections, such as satellite

Data Transmission Speeds

• Data is transmitted in characters or collections of bits
• A bit is the smallest unit of information used by computers
• Data transmission speeds are measured in bits, kilobits, megabits, and gigabits per second
• bps: A computer with an old modem might have a speed of 56,000 bps, which is the minimum speed for visiting websites with graphics
• Bps stands for bits per second, 8 bits equals 1 character
• Kbps: Kilobits per second, or Kbps, are 1 thousand bits per second; 56,000 bps is expressed as 56 Kbps
• Mbps: Faster means of connection measured in megabits per second, or Mbps-1 million bits per second
• Gbps: At the extreme are gigabits per second, or Gbps-1 billion bits per second

Internet Access Providers

• Internet service provider (ISP): a local, regional, or national organization that provides access to the Internet for a fee (e.g., Vodafone, Mtn)
• A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) enables users with computers containing wireless modems, mostly laptops, tablets, and smartphones, to gain access to the Internet
• A WISP offers public wireless network services and Internet access; WISPs typically install Wi-Fi wireless hotspots in airports, hotels, cafés, and other public business places

How the Internet Works

• The international network known as the Internet consists of hundreds of thousands of smaller networks linking educational, commercial, nonprofit, and military organizations, as well as individuals.
• Central to this arrangement is the client-server network
• The client computer's request for information on various airline flights and prices gets to a server computer, that computer sends the information back to the client computer

Internet Communications: Protocols, Packets, & IP Addresses

• Protocols: the key lies in the protocol, or set of rules, that computers must follow to transmit data electronically
• The protocol that enables all computers to use data transmitted on the Internet is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP
• TCP/IP determines how the sending device indicates that it has finished sending a message and how the receiving device indicates that it has received the message
• Packets: a network packet is a basic unit of data that's grouped together and transferred over a computer network, typically, the internet
• Each packet or chunk of data forms part of a complete message and carries pertinent address information that helps identify the sending computer and intended recipient of the message
• IP Addresses: An Internet Protocol (IP) address uniquely identifies each computer and device connected to the Internet
• IP address consists of four sets of numbers between 0 and 255 separated by decimals (called a dotted quad) for example, 1.160.10.240 (IPv4)
• Dynamic IP addresses
• Static IP addresses

Internet Governance

• The Internet has standards overseen by the Internet Society and follows naming rules set by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, but no one owns it

World Wide Web vs. Internet

• The Internet and the World Wide Web, are not the same
• The Internet is the global interconnection of networks, connecting millions of computers via protocols, hardware, and communications channels
• The part of the Internet called the web is a multimedia-based technology that enables access to more than text

Web Browsers and Websites

• A web browser, or browser, is software that enables finding and accessing the various parts of the web
• A website, or simply site, is a location on a particular computer on the web that has a unique address
• A website is composed of a web page or collection of related web pages; a web page is a document on the World Wide Web that can include text, pictures, sound, and video
• The first page is like the title page of a book; this is the?

URLs - Addresses for Web Pages

• The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a string of characters that points to a specific piece of information anywhere on the web

The Nuts & Bolts of the Web

• The communications protocol used to access that part of the Internet called the World Wide Web is called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
• Hypertext markup language (HTML): the set of special instructions (called "tags" or "markups") that are used to specify document structure, formatting, and links to other multimedia documents on the web
• Hypertext links are also called hyperlinks, hotlinks, or just links are HTML connections to other documents or web pages that contain related information: a word or phrase in one document becomes a connection to a document in a different place

Search Services and Search Engines

• Search services are organizations that maintain databases accessible through websites to help you find information on the Internet (e.g., Google, Ask.com, Yahoo, Bing)
• Search engines are programs that enable you to ask questions or use keywords to help locate information on the web

Electronic Communication

• Email can be used via software on a computer or via web-based services, with a browser
• Instant messaging (IM) lets users communicate instantly, in real-time, over an email system with one or more persons who are logged onto that system at the same time.
• A mailing list is an email discussion group on a special-interest topic, in which all subscribers receive email messages sent to the group's email address.
• Newsgroup is a giant electronic bulletin board on which users conduct written discussions about a specific subject
• Message board is a web-based discussion group that does not require a newsreader, also called a web forum
• A collection of messages on a particular subject is called a thread or threaded discussion
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is an Internet standard for uploading and downloading files between computers, including those with different operating systems

Telephony

• Telephony – The Internet Telephone: Whereas conventional telephone voice lines carry a conversation over a single path
• The Internet can move a lot more traffic over a network than the traditional telephone link can
• Internet telephony, or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), uses the Internet to make phone calls, either one-to-one or for audioconferencing
• The benefit of VoIP (such as Skype) is that long-distance phone calls are inexpensive or free

Multimedia

• Multimedia is the computer-controlled integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving images (video), animation, audio, and any other media where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally
• Multimedia on the web is handled by plug-ins and small, special programs (software)
• A plug-in (add-on) adds a specific feature or function to a browser, allowing it to play or view certain files; examples are Flash, QuickTime, and RealPlayer

Webcasting

• Push technology, software that automatically downloads information to personal computers
• Webcasting ("web broadcasting"), custom text, video, and audio are sent automatically on a regular basis or live on demand
• Webcasting companies, called subscription services, offer you choices of website categories to automatically send updated information, saving you from having to search it out

Blogs and RSS

• RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) was built to be simpler than push technology
• RSS newsreaders, or RSS aggregators, scour the web, sometimes hourly or more frequently, and pull together "feeds" from several websites in one place
• RSS is based on XML, extensible markup language, a web document tagging and formatting language that is an advance over HTML and that two computers can use to exchange information
• RSS has morphed into the blogosphere, the total universe of blogs

Podcasting

• Podcasting delivers Internet music, radio, or video from the Internet to a computer
• Unlike webcasting, podcasts do not use streaming technology; the music or media files must first be downloaded and saved
• Delivers a program in compressed digital format via the Internet to a subscriber for playing back on computers or portable digital audio player

E-Commerce

• E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet
• Business-to-business commerce, or B2B commerce
• Business-to-consumer commerce, or B2C commerce with online shopping and online banking
• Consumer-to-consumer commerce, or C2C commerce with person-to-person auctions such as Tonaton
• Many brick-and-mortar retailers have lost business to online "e-tailers" like Amazon

Intrusive Actions

• Snooping is unauthorized access to another person's or company's data in a security context
• Spam refers to unsolicited email, or junk mail, in the form of advertising or chain letters
• Spoofing is the forgery of an email sender name so that the message appears to have originated from somewhere other than the actual source
• Phishing is sending a forged email to direct recipients to a replica of an existing webpage, both of which pretend to belong to a legitimate company, in order to entice people to share personal, financial, or password data
• Pharming involves thieves implanting malicious software on a victim's computer that redirects the user to an impostor webpage even when the individual types the correct address into his or her browser
• Protect yourself on secure webpages, which begin with https rather than standard http and use encryption to protect data transfer
• Cookies may be little text files such as username, password, and preferences left on a hard disk by websites when visited and are then retrieved during subsequent visits
• A website that welcomes one by name uses cookies
• Drawbacks of cookies: some websites sell the information associated with an ID number on their servers to marketers, who might use it to target customers for their products, which can lead to spyware
• Spyware is deceptive software surreptitiously installed on a computer via the web to allow outsiders to gather confidential information without knowledge
• Adware or pop-up generator, is a kind of spyware that tracks web surfing or online buying so marketers can send targeted and unsolicited pop-up ads

Other Security Concerns

• More damaging kinds of spyware
• Browser hijackers change browser settings, often homepages without knowledge
• Search hijackers intercept legitimate search requests and return results from phony search services that send you to sites they run
• Signs of a hijacked browser:
• the home page or other settings change, links are added that point to websites that you'd usually avoid, and a barrage of ads pops up on the screen
• Key loggers record each character you type and transmit the information, making it possible to learn passwords
• Key strokes can be used to log into bank accounts and then send the information off
• Malware is "malicious software" that attacks computer systems/devices.
• A virus is a rogue program that migrates through the internet/operating systems and attaches itself, spreading infections
• Antivirus software scans/destroys viruses.

Web Safety

• Tips for avoiding Spyware
• Be careful about free and illegal downloads
• Don't just say "I agree"; read the fine print
• Beware of unsolicited downloads
• Don't open/download/execute files/email messages/attachments if the source is unknown/subject line is questionable
• Don't start the computer with a flash drive/USB thumb drive
• Back up data regularly and keep a backup device separate from the computer or use an online service
• Password is a combination of letters/numbers that limits access to information.
• The best password is easy to remember but can’t be guessed by anyone
• Don’t use passwords that can be easily guessed, such as common words; instead, mix letters/numbers/punctuation marks in an oddball sequence of no fewer than eight characters
• Don't use the same password for multiple sites and don't write them on sticky notes
• Examples of good passwords: @Kqdj#A197, Aa%12#NPk