The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet, although estimates are ongoing. It is certain, however, that these number in the millions and are increasing at a rapid rate.
No one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.
All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology.
Participation in and access to the Internet is primarily offered by these groups: research and educational institutions; governmental and military entities; businesses; private organizations; and commercial providers.
An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities, and more.
The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material made available by the protocol.
The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the World Wide Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.
The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the WWW contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.
Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. The World Wide Web Consortium, led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML.
The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet. The University Libraries Home Page is located at http://www.albany.edu/library/.
The Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the automatic "push" of information to a client computer. Newer programming languages such as Java and JavaScript are extending the capabilities of the Web.
On the University at Albany network, access to the Web is available on the IBM, UNIX, and VAX host computers through a text-only software program called Lynx. The graphical browser Netscape Navigator is available on public terminals in the University Libraries.
For more complete information about the World Wide Web, see Understanding The World Wide Web.
A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address. Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are referred to as MIME attachments. MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program such as Pine. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora and Netscape Messenger, offer the ability to read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type. E-mail is available at the University at Albany on the IBM, UNIX, and VAX.
Telnet is available on the World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet are library catalogs. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to work.
If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.
FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. You can retrieve TP files via search engines such as Snoopie, located at http://www.snoopie.com/. This option is easiest because you do not need to know FTP program commands.
As noted above, Archie search engines are also available on the Web. A collection of these services is available at http://www.nexor.com/archie.html.
A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group. A master list of listservs is available on the University Libraries home page on the World Wide Web. A good one to try is Liszt at http://www.liszt.com/.
Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.
To view a tutorial on using the listserver software, see Internet from the VAX Prompt.
Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.
There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.
The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. Newsreader software gives you access to the newsgroup messages which are stored on a central computer at the University. Standard newsreader software at Albany includes RN on UNIX. For example, to reach the RN newsreader on Unix from your VAX account, simply type rn. Subscribing to and unsubscribing from newsgroups is a simple process that takes effect immediately. For information on using the RN newsreader, see Using the RN Newsreader from the VAX.
Newsreader programs are also available as standalone products, or are bundled with Web browsers. For example, the Collabra newsreader program is available in the Netscape Communicator suite.
A list of available Usenet newsgroups can be accessed from within a newsreader program. Using the RN reader on Unix, for example, you can type dir/group/all and receive a list of every newsgroup to which the University subscribes.
Gopherspace worldwide is searchable by a program called Veronica, which stands for Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives. This service allows users to search for titles of Gopher documents by keywords. Jughead software searches the contents of the Gopher site you are currently visiting.
Over the past few years, Gopher has nearly disappeared from the Internet as the Web has become the interface of choice. If you visit a Gopher site, be sure to check that it is still being maintained.
RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define the nuts and bolts of the Internet. They contain both technical specifications and general information.
FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new Internet users.
Links to indexes of all three of these information resources are available on the University Libraries Home Page at http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/net_info/faqs.html.
Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial Understanding the World Wide Web.
Laura Cohen
lcohen@cnsvax.albany.edu