Course: ICT & Computer for Business Mr.

TAWE Boris M

MODULE FIVE: THE INTERNET

Brief history
Many years ago, the military of the United States of America desired to interconnect or link their
computers to better understand and manage information and communication with respect to enemy
attacks in times of crisis.
- In the year 1969 the Department of Defense (DoD) then developed an experimental
network called the Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANet)
- In the year 1980, the National Science Foundation of the United States of America then
developed the technology of ARPANet to produce the National Science Foundation
Network (NSFNet) which now enabled universities and other school establishments in the
USA to be interconnected.
- After a great deal of work, a network which enabled the transfer of large amounts of
information at very high speed which is today called the Internet was developed.

The Internet can be defined as a worldwide/global system of interconnected computer networks.

It is the network of networks in which users can view information on the World Wide Web,
exchange electronic mail, participate in electronic discussion forums (newsgroups), send files from
any computer to any other and even use each other’s computers directly if they have appropriate
passwords. Another name for the Internet is information superhighway.

ISP and Internet Access

An Internet service provider (ISP), also sometimes referred to as an Internet access provider
(IAP), is a company that offers Internet access to individuals and organizations.
The ISP connects to its customers using a data transmission technology appropriate for delivering
Internet Protocol Paradigm, such as dial-up, digital subscriber line (DSL), cable modem, wireless
or dedicated high-speed interconnects.
ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate with one
another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISP's servers. ISPs may

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provide services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other
services unique to each ISP.
Different methods exist for connection to the Internet.

1. Dial-Up Connection
A dial-up connection is a connection that is established by dialing a telephone number through a
modem. A dial-up connection uses a dial-up modem to transmit digital information over the Plain
Old Telephone System (POTS). POTS refers to the standard telephone network designed for
analog transmission of voice over copper wire. This type of connection offers relatively slow
transfer rates and is established on demand. This method has long been the most widely used
method to connect to the Internet but it has been replaced by high-speed broadband and wireless
connections.

2. Digital Subscriber Line

DSL uses the standard copper telephone wires, often already installed in homes and offices to
provide a high-speed Internet connection. There are different types of DSL: asynchronous DSL
(ADSL), synchronous DSL (SDSL), High bit-rate DSL (HDSL), Rate Adaptive DSL (RADSL)
and ISDN DSL (IDSL).
- ADSL allows the telephone wires to be used for analog POTS system and digital data
transfer simultaneously. The download speed (downstream) for ADSL is faster than the
upload speed (upstream).
- SDSL cannot share the physical medium with standard telephone communications and has
a download speed equal to the upload speed.

A DSL connection requires a transceiver (DSL modem) which allows an Ethernet UTP or a USB
connection directly to a PC, or to a hub, router, or switch to provide Internet access to an entire
network. The transceiver can be integrated into a router or switch.

3. Broadband Cable
TV channels only take up 6 MHz of cable bandwidth each, which usually leaves several hundred
MHz available. This additional space on cable is used for high-speed Internet connection.

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Information from the Internet travels through the cable as a single TV channel. Just as with DSL,
cable Internet requires a special transceiver (cable modem) which allows information to be sent
and received on frequencies not used by TV channels. The cable modem provides one or more
LAN interfaces, usually Ethernet or USB which connect directly to a client or a device such as a
hub, switch, or wireless router to allow additional clients or entire networks to use the same
connection. The cable modem is also equipped with connections for TV and radio.

4. Wireless Internet Access

Wireless Internet access or wireless broadband is particularly useful for mobile users. With
handheld devices becoming more advanced and increasingly popular, wireless access is becoming
one of the major ways of connecting to the Internet. This method provides an “always-on
connection” which can be accessed from anywhere if you are geographically within network
coverage. Wireless Internet access includes deploying Wi-Fi hotspots for accessing the Internet.
Technologies such as GPRS and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) allow
Smart phones and other handhelds with Internet capabilities to access the Internet using existing
cell phone networks.

5. Internet over Satellite

Internet over satellite (IoS) allows a user to access the Internet via a satellite that orbits the earth.
A satellite placed at a static point above the earth's surface, communicates with the ISP’s dish
giving the user access to the internet.

The TCP/IP Model

NB: The Internet uses a collection of protocols known as the TCP/IP protocol suite. It is called
TCP/IP after two of its most prominent protocols; Transmission Control Protocol and Internet
Protocol respectively. There are other protocols as well.
The TCP/IP model is based on a four-layer model for networking. The layers from top to bottom
are application layer, transport layer, Internet layer and network access layer.

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Application Layer

Transport Layer
(Host-to-host)

Internet Layer

Network Access Layer

TCP/IP Model

i. Network Access Layer

This layer is responsible for sending and receiving TCP/IP packets on the network medium
(Physical/Data Link).

ii. Internet Layer

This layer is responsible for packaging, addressing, and routing of packets.

a. Internet Protocol
Internet Protocol (IP) specifies the format of packets and the addressing scheme. All computer
devices (desktops, laptops, PDAs, phones, tablets) connected to the Internet, have IP addresses by
which they are identified.

Definition: An IP address is a unique identifying number given to every single computer on a

TCP/IP network.

Two versions of IP addresses are available: IPv4 that uses 32 bits and IPv6 that uses 128 bits.
• An IPv4 is made up of four sets of numbers separated by dots such as 123.23.168.22.
This notation is known as dotted decimal notation. Each of the four numbers separated by
dots can be any number from 0 to 255, making for a total of 4.3 billion potential IPv4
addresses (i.e., 255×255×255×255).
• An IPv6 has eight sets of numbers separated by colons such as
3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.
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IP addresses are assigned manually (by an administrator) or automatically. An IP address is also

known as a logical address.

iii. Transport Layer

The transport layer is responsible for sequencing and transmission of packets, acknowledgment of
receipts, recovery of packets and flow control.
It engages in host-to-host transportation of data packets and the delivery of them to the application
layer.

a. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

TCP is a connection-oriented reliable protocol used in the accurate transmission of large amounts
of data. Data packets are verified using checksums and retransmitted if they are missing or
corrupted. The application plays no part in validating the transfer.

iv. Application Layer

The application layer provides user applications with the ability to access the services of the other
layers. Some protocols of this layer are HTTP, FTP

a. Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTP is a standard method of publishing information as hypertext in HTML format on the

Internet. It provides the ability to supply web pages between a browser and the server. HTTPS is
a secure version of HTTP used for accessing secure web servers, whereby all data transferred are
encrypted.

b. File Transfer Protocol

FTP is a standard for transferring files between a server and a client on a TCP/IP network. It
provides the ability to upload and download files between hosts on the network.

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Internet Services
A. The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system on the Internet which allows documents to be
connected to other documents by hypertext links, enabling the user to search for information by
moving from one document to another. It consists of many web servers that host websites. A
website consists of several web pages connected by hypertext links. A web page is a text file that
contains information stored using a structured language called HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language).

A website can be accessed by typing its address or URL (Uniform/Universal Resource Locator)
into the address bar of a web browser.

An example of a URL is http://www.crtv.cm

- [http] is the protocol used

- [www.crtv.cm] is the domain name (address) of the site.

Example 2: www.minsup.gov.cm

• [gov] is the top-level domain which specifies that the URL is for a government institution.
• [cm] specifies the country in which the URL is hosted or the country in which the
institution is found.

Assignment: What is a home page?

Answer: A web page that links a user to the other areas of the website.

i. Domain Name System

A domain name system (DNS) is a service which performs the function of turning human-
understandable domain names into IP addresses.

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ii. Web Browser

A web browser (or simply browser) is a computer program that enables a user to read hypertext in
files or on the World Wide Web.

Popular browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera Mini and Netscape.

iii. Search Engine

A search engine is a computer program that searches for specific words on the World Wide Web
and returns a list of documents in which they were found.

Examples of search engines include Google and yahoo.

B. Electronic Mail
Electronic mail or e-mail (email) is a means of sending messages, text, and computer files between
computers via the Internet. To send and receive e-mails, you need an Internet connection and an
e-mail account which can be created within a webmail service such as iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail or
Gmail.

When you create an e-mail account, you are given a unique email address that gives you access to
your mail box. An email address is made up of two parts separated by the symbol @ pronounced
“at”. For example, [email protected].

In the above address,

• user555 is the user ID, user name or login

• yahoo.com is the domain name. The domain specifies the mail server (computer) on which
the mail box is located.

The part of the domain name after the dot is called top-level domain, and specifies the type of
organization or the country the host server is located. Some common top-level domains are:

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• .com – for commercial enterprises

• .edu – f or educational institutions and universities
• .gov – for United States government agencies
• .net – for organizations such as Internet Service Providers
• .org – for non-commercial organizations

C. Instant Messaging
Instant messaging is a live (or real time) communication which occurs when brief text messages
are exchanged instantly over the Internet. Instant Messaging requires that both users be on-line at
the same time.

Common IM applications are AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft MSN
messaging.

D. Internet Telephony
Internet telephony or voice over IP (VoIP) is the transmission of voice telephone conversations
through the Internet or IP networks. It allows users to have voice-talk with others. The telephone
calls are digitized and transmitted through the Internet.

Internet telephone services can be mainly categorized into net-to-net and net-to-phone telephony.

• In net-to-net telephony, both caller and receiver must be online. When both are online, one
dials the other person’s phone number. If they accept the call, then voice communication
is established.

• In net-to-phone, only one person has to be online. This person dials the other person’s
phone number and the latter receives a ring on their phone. Yahoo messenger and Skype
provide services for both types.

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E. Interpersonal Computing
Interpersonal computing refers to person-to-person interactions facilitated by websites that enable
collaborative content creation, sharing and manipulation.

Interpersonal computing involves: blogs, social networks, wikis, and viral video sites.

a. Blogs

A blog (web log) is a chronological, journal-style website which its author (or "blogger") maintains
like an online diary, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material
such as graphics or video.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal
online diaries.

They also provide the readers with the ability to leave comments in an interactive format.

b. Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are websites that allow user to build personalized communities to socialize
with. Common features include a customizable profile, the ability to add other users as friends, the
ease of sharing pictures, music, text, and links, and built-in chat and mail features.

Examples of social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram.

c. Wikis

Wikis are websites that allow visitors to easily add, remove and edit content, hence enabling the
collaborative authorship of comprehensive documents.

The best example of a wiki is the multi-lingual, web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia, and which
currently includes over two million articles.

d. Viral Video Sites

A viral video is a video that is distributed by sharing. Viral video sites are websites that allow
anybody to post videos online. Whilst it is now not difficult to put a video on any website, the
significance of viral video sites is that they provide somewhere to put videos where it is likely that
at least some other people will find them. Examples are YouTube and Kaltura.

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F. Electronic Commerce
E-commerce refers to the buying and selling on the Internet. Different models of e-commerce
exist: business-to-business, business-to-consumer, business-to-government, and m-commerce

a. Business-to-Consumer

B2C model sells goods or services to the consumer, generally using online catalog and shopping
cart transaction systems.

For example, an online pharmacy giving free medical consultation and selling medicines to
patients is following B2C model. Amazon is an example of one of the first and still one of the
most successful B2C e-commerce companies.

b. Business-to-Business

B2B describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a
wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. In this form, the buyers and sellers are both
business entities and do not involve an individual consumer.

c. Business-to-Government

B2G is a derivative of B2B marketing. B2G sites provide a platform for businesses to bid on
government opportunities which are presented as solicitations requests for proposal (RFPs) to
tender.

d. M-Commerce

M-commerce refers to the use of mobile devices for conducting transactions. The mobile device
holders can contact each other and can conduct the business. Even the web design and development
companies optimize the websites to be viewed correctly on mobile devices.

Some e-commerce websites are:

- www.bruneiair.com for airline ticket bookings,

- www.amazon.com for sales of books and magazines,
- www.brumedia.com/shop for sales of computers, shirts, and cameras
- www.kikuu.com for sales of electronics, home accessories etc.
- www.sparkafrik.cm for sales of electronics and services

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Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce websites

Some advantages of setting up an e-commerce website are:

- Products can be sold to local customers and those from abroad.

- It is accessible 24 hours each day.
- It needs a small number of staff to run.
- It does not need huge office space.
- Products can be sold at cheap prices

Some disadvantages of e-commerce are:

- Credit card fraud - hackers are able to steal credit card numbers on computers.
- Certain websites spy or track the buying habits of their customers.
- Some goods do not arrive after they are paid for.
- It lacks human interaction as one only sees pictures and some text descriptions.

G. Online Banking
Online banking (Internet banking) is simply the use of the Internet to perform banking operations
like opening an account, accessing account information, transferring funds, getting a bank
statement etc. In an Internet banking system, the bank has a centralized database that is web-
enabled. All the services that the bank has permitted on the Internet are displayed in a menu. Any
service can be selected and further interaction is dictated by the nature of service.

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Web Design with HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the authoring language that describes how a
Web page should be displayed by a Web browser.

- Hypertext means that it provides ways of representing information with links or

connections to other information. These links are called hypertext links.
- Markup means that it provides ways to indicate underlining, italics, paragraph breaks,
section headings, and so on, in text.

HTML Documents
An HTML document is simply a text file that is saved with the extension .html or .htm.

It can be created by a simple text editor like Microsoft Notepad, Notepad++ as well as a
sophisticated web authoring tool like FrontPage or Dreamweaver.

HTML documents are made up of markup tags (or simply tags).

A tag is a code enclosed within angle brackets that indicates how something is to be interpreted
by a web browser.

Some examples of tags are <html>, <br> and <em>.

Most tags come in pairs: an open tag and a closing tag which is written with a slash (/) after the
first < (e.g., </html>). A closing tag tells the browser where to stop applying the effect of a given
tag.

An HTML document is contained within the <HTML> and </HTML> tags and comprises of two
sections: head and body.

• The Head contains the page title and meta-tags within the <HEAD></HEAD> tags. Any
JavaScript code that is used, as well as Cascading Style Sheet information is also contained
within the Head. This section will not be displayed on the web page.
• The Body holds the actual content of the page (text, graphics, lists, etc.) contained within
the <BODY></BODY> tags.

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The <HTML>, <HEAD>, <TITLE>, and <BODY> tags are referred to as document tags while
the tags that are used within the body part of the document are known as markup tags.

A basic HTML document would look something like this:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Page title here</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

Page content here.

</BODY>

</HTML>

▪ <HTML> marks the beginning of an HTML document

▪ <HEAD> begins the heading section of the document
▪ <TITLE> ... </TITLE> gives a title that will appear on the browser’s menu bar. This
section must appear between the <HEAD> ... </HEAD> tags and should be straight text,
no tags.
▪ </HEAD> defines the end of the heading
▪ <BODY> … </BODY> defines the body of the document (text contained within the
<BODY> … </BODY> tags appear in the main browser window). It can be used with the
attribute BGCOLOR.
▪ </HTML> defines the end of the document

Remark: Once an HTML document has been saved, it can now be opened as a web page using a
web browser.

To edit the page, go back to the text document. Make the changes and save the document. In the
web page, click “reload” or “refresh” to apply the changes.

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Text Tags
Text tags are used to format text within the document. Some tags are used with attributes.

An attribute is a special code that can enhance or modify a tag. They are generally located in the
starting tag after the tag name.

The basic syntax for html tags and attributes is: <tag attribute=“value”> … </tag>

Tags Description

<b> … </b> or <strong> … Bolds the text between the opening and closing
</strong> tags

<i>...</i> or <em>...</em> Puts text in italics

<u> … </u> Underlines text

<font> … </font>
Sets the appearance of the text in your page. Can
<font size=? color=#0000FF> …
be used with "size", "color" and "face" attributes.
</font>

<blink> … </blink> Causes text to blink

Centers text or any item or group of items place

<center> … </center>
between its open and closing tags

<marquee> … </marquee> Causes text to navigate

<p> … </p> Sets a paragraph apart from other text and adds a
<p align=“center”> … </p> line break after. </p> is optional
Used to insert comments. Comments are not
<!--...--> displayed by the browser. They are footnotes for
you.
Used to insert a line break. It does not have a
<br>
closing tag.

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Example 1:

<html>
<head>
<title>My First Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<strong>This text is bold</strong><br>
<b>This text is bold too</b><br>
<em>This text is in italics</em><br>
<i>This text is in italics too</i><br>
<u>This text is underlined</u><br>
<b><i>This text is bold and in italics</i></b><br>
<strong><em><u>This text is bold, underlined and in italics</u></em></strong>
</body>
</html>

Example 2:

<html>
<head>
<title>MyPage</title>
</head>
<bodybgcolor=“cyan”>
<font type=“Monotype corsiva” size= “12” color=“blue”
</body>
</html>

Remark! Tags are case insensitive but it is advisable to write them in lower case.

All attribute values must be written within double quotes.

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