internet

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Internet map

The Internet, 1960s – The infrastructure of the digital age

Internet – a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email.

Worldwide Web (WWW) –

Tim Berners-Lee – an English computer scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web. On 25 December 1990 he implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web’s continued development.

We all expect the internet to work all the time. Request a web page and it displays on the screen on your desktop computer, smart phone or tablet.

But how does that happen? This How the Internet works provides a great explanation.

Unfortunately, with all this new technology, there are also new ways to hurt others. Personal privacy and information security are at risk. Here are some things to consider and suggestions to help you and your data stay safe.

  • Protecting Your Online Privacy (SciFri podcast)- how can we protect our personal information? Jon Xavier, digital producer at Silicon Valley Business Journal, discusses the services that you can use to make your information more secure and private.
  • Millions of electronic packages

The How the Internet works video explains what happens, but how the engineers went through the steps in the [/Engineering%20Design%20Process Engineering Design Process] is an amazing story.

  • Ask (What? Ask questions, understand the need, identify the problem, define)
    DARPA realized that there was an important need to be able for people to stay connected by email even if there a big problem with the phone lines in one or more places in the U.S. at the same time. Originally this was going to be used by the military only, but they soon discovered that researchers and scientists in colleges and universities needed to communicate electronically too.
    Q: Who needed to communicate? Were interruptions in service ok?
  • Imagine (So what? Imagine, brainstorm, explore, discover)
    Q: How could information be shared quickly? What could be done to ensure that all the information reached the destination even if there was a power failure somewhere along the route?
  • Plan (Now what? Plan, design)
    Q: How could the technology ensure that all the pieces of the message got to where it needed to go?
  • Create (Do it. Create, try it out)
    Q: How did the network start out? How did was the technology expanded to more locations?
  • Improve (If this then what? Improve, make it better)
    Q: What were the early problems? How did these get fixed? What additional features were need? How did they support more users?

Engineering ideas

  • IP Address, networks, fiber optics

Do it
Here are some challenges for you to work on…

  • create a map of the links between your computer and the wikispaces computer where this page is stored.

Learn more…

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