I recently discovered, through the Wayback Machine, a couple of articles about the Internet that I wrote for a printed boating magazine in Mallorca, Spain, which I later published on my website around 1996 or 1997. I hope you enjoy reading them.
Article #1
If you have not heard of it by now, you have probably been living on another planet. If you have not yet surfed the net, you are considered an alien and if you do not have an Email address, you are labeled – old fashioned. Make no mistake, the Internet is not a boom, it’s here to stay and will be the most common and easiest way to communicate in the future. As for businesses, people now expect to find companies on the Internet.
So what is the Internet ? The Internet is a global computer network made up of smaller networks hooked together. What is a network ? Two or more computers linked together, allowing information on one computer to be shared and/or accessed by another remote computer using the same protocol. What is a protocol ? A well-defined set of procedures for interacting, sort of a common computer language.
There are two main types of protocol used by computers on the Internet, Transmission Command Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), commonly referred to as (TCP/IP). The TCP protocol breaks the information from the originating computer into smaller pieces called packets. The reason for this is so that the data can be transferred electronically and once the packets reach their destination, the TCP puts them back together again. The IP protocol’s job is to transmit the packets, finding the fastest and easiest route for them to get from one computer to the other. Between various networks on the Internet, there are individual super computers called routers or IP gateways – they receive packets from one network and send them to another in the right direction. This is repeated until the packets reach their final destination – for www surfers, your Internet web browser.
The Internet grew out of a long-distance communication network developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) back in the late 60s – early 70s, in order to connect military organisations with defense contractors and military research institutions. They developed a wide area packet-switched network called ARPAnet, which formed the basis of the technology that has become the Internet.
Due to the reliability, efficiency of ARPAnet and technological maturity, universities, research and private organisations became involved with government research and were added to the network. Many more commercial orientated establishments and educational institutions hooked up to the network because it was cheaper and faster to use than conventional methods of exchanging information. The military then decided to hand over the responsibility of the network to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSFnet became the backbone of the Internet as we know it today, which is now controlled by SprintNet – a group of commercial organisations.
No single person or company owns or controls the Internet, nor can the Internet be shutdown, since individual computer networks that make up the Internet are controlled by the owners of such networks, although there is an Internet Society (voluntary body) that co-ordinates and sets standards for its use.
Next month we will be taking a look at the services available on the Internet today and hardware for the mobile Internet surfers. Last note, the Internet is of benefit to everybody. If you already happen to have a link to cyberspace, check out these sites;
http://www.yachtguide.gi – boating in the baleares
http://www.cnn.com – http://www.news.com http://www.msnbc.com – news and weather
http://www.mapquest.com – interactive map
http://www.nationalgeographic.com – very good online version
CyberSpeech – URL (Uniform Resource Locators); HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol); HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); FTP (File Transfer Protocol); WWW (World Wide Web).
Article #2
Last month I wrote about the root of the Internet, how it works, where and when it all began. This month we will look at the services available on the net, their uses and hardware tips for the mobile net gurus. First lets look at the two most common facilities used on the Internet today, the World Wide Web (WWW) and Electronic Mail (Email).
World Wide Web (WWW), a graphical front-end to view the net, is the newest and most exciting aspect of the Internet. It is made up of billions of pages of information on different host computers worldwide. These pages commonly referred to as web pages contain text, graphics, sound and video clips, multimedia programs, games and hyperlinks (a link from one document to another document or facility using a technology known as hypertext). Hypertext technology enables you to jump from one page to another by simply clicking your mouse on a word or graphic that has been set up as a link (normally indicated by a blue underlined text). With the birth of JAVA (a platform independent computer programming language used mainly to write applications for the net), the www has been made more and more interactive and user friendly. The www is the starting point for most newbies (new net users).
Electronic Mail (email), it is hard to find anyone that isn’t at least familiar with the ideal of email. This is a way of sending and receiving messages over the Internet. Email is a fast and easy way to send everything that can be stored on a computer to another computer user. Sound and video clips, pictures, files, documents can be sent as an attachment to an email over a network. After the www, email is probably the most popular service on the Internet. An email address might look something like jdoe@home.com.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is simply a way of downloading or uploading (transferring) files on the net. Most networks have FTP to enable users to have access to files stored in a file directory on their network. There is no graphical interface on offer, only text-base directory structure. This will look similar to your own directory tree on your hard disk. Most FTP access requires you to have a password before gaining access to such network but anonymous FTP access require no passwords. Anonymous FTP access is normally granted by computer companies for software upgrades/patches or hardware drivers, which is normally incorporated in the company’s web site.
Gopher, an academic orientated menu-base resource locator, was the most popular service on the Internet before the birth of the WWW. It was designed a few years back at the University of Minnesota, to make it easier to find information on the net. Once you logon to a Gopher server, you are presented with a menu of resources which are not necessarily related, so that you can be accessed from the Gopher server you are logged on to, or another Gopher server. To be able to use some of these resources which contain text, graphic, sound and video you might need other programs such as Hgopher. The collection of massive information on Gopher servers is commonly referred to as Gopherspace. If you don’t like the idea of tracking through the menu system for a particular information try Veronica and Jughead, Gopher search programs. The WWW is Gopher in a Designer suit.
Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) is basically the same as Gopher, the difference being WAIS is the protocol used by the US government to standardise on for its massive database.
Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP, Usenet, and Newsgroups). This is used to post public articles on a particular subject in a particular area. Think of these as a bulletin board in your local shop or in a school. There are over 20,000 areas currently on the Internet and uncountable articles. Caution! Posting an article in a newsgroup leaves you open to junk mail in a big way.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an interactive real-time text-base person to person form of communication over the Internet.
Telnet enables you to log on to a remote computer anywhere and use it as if you were sitting right in front of it.
Other facilities include, web-phone, web-TV, realaudio and more facilities are being developed and added to the Internet.
As for the mobile net surfer, you will need a Pentium based laptop, a fast modem, a GSM digital mobile phone and lots of money to enjoy all of these services. It is best to get a laptop computer that has the latest MMX CPU technology from Intel, bundled with modem, soundcard (SoundBlaster) full duplex, 24 MB RAM minimum, a large hard disk, CDROM and if possible, a digital video camera. Try http://www.mwmicro.com or http://www.epstech.com , have your gold card ready. It is cheaper to buy everything together than to buy separately. Always remember that upgrading is always a more expensive option and at present the fastest connection you get with your mobile phone is at 9600 bps (good for email). If you want something smaller then a laptop check out http://www.compaq.com, http://www.nec.com, http://www.lge.co.kr for window CE based HPC (Hand-held Personal Computer).
A cheap alternative for mobile users only interested in email facility, is to visit your local cyber-café, search for web sites that offer free email (try http://www.geocities.com). You can then surf the net in any cyber-café in the world and at the same time check your email box.
You have a satellite TV on your boat why not try the satellite dish for the net, visit http://www.GEOSAT.com, Internet access at 14 times the speed of standard modems (Note: you can only receive pages, you still need your standard modem to send yours clicks and email). Take a look at wireless data network – i.e. mobile phone data communication technology at http://www.metricom.com and the latest craze WebTV at http://www.webtv.net
See the earth from a new angle check out http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/glob1.htm and for the best Internet information always check http://www.microsoft.com, these guys do their homework!
First dropped: | Last modified: February 28, 2026