CHAPTER 2: INTERNET AND ITS SERVICES

Chapter 2:

Internet and Its Services

1. What is Internet?

Ans. Internet is a network of networks. It provides the wide area network connection all over the world. It has become very essential part of the communication, in which millions of computers are connected throughout the world.

2. What are the hardware and software requirements for the Internet connection?

Ans. The hardware components are:

i) Computer set                   

ii) MODEM                          

iii) Bridger                             

iv) Hub                                 

v) Gateway                          

vi) NIC, etc.

The software:

i) GUI based Operating System like Windows, LINUX, etc.

ii) Browsers

iii) Account from ISP

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Internet?

Ans. The advantages are:

i) Information Sharing                       

ii) Online service

iii) E-mail

iv) Entertainment, etc.

The disadvantages are:

i) Theft of personal information

ii) Spamming

iii) Virus threat

iv) Pornography, etc.

4. What are the services provided by Internet?

Ans. The services are:

i) E-mail

ii) Remote login (Telenet)

iii) FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

iv) Newsgroups (USENET)

v) WWW (World Wide Web) service

vi) Online or Offline Chatting

vii) E-commerce

viii) Video conferencing, etc.

5. What is an email?

Ans. It is an electronic mail, which is sent and received by using the electronic paths or by using electronic means of communication. In contrast of the traditional post mail, email is much faster and one email can be sent for many mail addresses. It is much cheaper and can be saved for the future use, too.

6. What is Telnet?

Ans. Telnet is the concept of remote login in which a user can use the computer staying at a far distant place. Usually, this is popular for configuring or maintaining the network computers by the technician staying at a distant and also used by the people who often visit from place to place. We can use our ISP account of Nepal staying in the foreign country, too.

7. What is Newsgroup (Usenet)?

Ans. This is a service of Internet, which is a type of Bulletin Board Service (BBS).  In this, people join each other to share the knowledge, skill or ideas of common interest on any subject. Any people can join the USENET and upload or download the material needed for them.

8. What is WWW?

Ans. World Wide Web is the collection of web pages with various sounds, pictures, animation, videos, text, etc. Before the evolution of www, one had to know the certain path to search any material on the net. It was a tedious task but www has collected them all and the exploration has become very easy. 

9. What is chat or chatting?

Ans. It is a way of talking each other. It can be done by real time typing by keyboard or speaking through the microphones. We can send or receive offline message, too.

10. What is E-commerce?

Ans. E-commerce is a concept of modern business, in which, computers are widely used for the business promotion (benefit). They are used for the quality and quantity control of the production. One can have an online shopping facility. In the same way, modern business policy prefers to use computer for the advertisement. These all are concept of e-commerce.

11. What is video conferencing?

Ans. This is a way of chatting in which one can have a live chat with other looking each other on the screen face to face. The use of web cam also an example of it but there are many other advanced form of it.

12. What is URL?

Ans. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the addressing method or scheme of the websites in Internet. For eg: http://www.nepalnews.com, http://animals.org.in, etc.

13. What is a web browser?

Ans. Web browser is a special software, which is used to display the web pages in the Internet. The web pages developed in different languages use to be compatibles for the web-browsers. It translates the markup language into simple English language and we can seem them as web pages. Examples: Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc.

14. What is a webpage?

Ans. The pages of any websites, which contain text, pictures, audio, video, sound, animations, etc are the web pages. These web pages contain hyperlinks too, on which we click to visit different pages.

15. What is a homepage or index page?

Ans. Homepage or an Index page is the main page of any website, which contains the main topics, introduction of the sites and hyperlinks. After this page, we can visit other pages.

16. What is a website?

Ans. Website is the collection of various web pages which is understood by a certain unique name. Examples: www.sports.com, www.himalaya.com, etc.

17. What is a web server?

Ans. This is a main computer, which controls the client computers in sharing web pages. While we type any web address in our browser, it sends the request to web server and takes the web pages from there and displays for us.

18. What is search engine?

Ans. It is special software, specially made or designed for searching any information in the Internet. While we make any request to it, it searches them in its database and displays for us. The use of search engines has become common these days. Keyword searching, Concept based searching, Refining the searching, Relevancy searching, Meta tag based searching etc. are some examples of the way of searching in it. Google, HOTBOT, Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos, etc are some examples of search engine.

19. What is a Proxy Server?

Ans. It is also similar to web server but it is like a mediator between web browser and web server. Proxy server is also a computer but used in local ISP to control the net surfing of that particular area. It helps to maintain the security in any network. Whenever we use the net, we get the information or interaction throughout the world in control of a proxy server

20. What is an ISP?

Ans. Internet Service Provider is an institution to provide Internet service in local area. There can be many ISPs in an area, which keep the proxy server and provide the services. For this, we should pay certain amount for taking an account with username and password. For example: wlink, mercantile, HONS, etc.

21. What is Internet Telephony?

Ans. Internet Telephony is a process of making a phone call by using Internet. This technology is more popular with the term ‘Internet Phone’. This is a facility of Internet, in which the voice calls are transmitted through the path of Internet. The parties included in the particular voice calls are:

i) The subscriber (the user)

ii) The voice over IP (VOIP) service provider

iii) The Internet Service Provider (ISP)

22. What is E-fax? What is the difference between e-mail and e-fax?

Ans. E-fax is an electronic fax, which is almost the same of email but that goes to direct printer for printing. It does not store in inbox but e-mail goes to store in Inbox. E-fax and email both use different software.

23. How does an email work?

Ans. The email works on the principle of store and forward. While we send an email from our computer, that goes and stores in server computer of ISP. It recognizes the path to send the mail and forward again. On the way also, there used to be various stations (like server, repeater, transponder, router, etc.) to be stored and again they forward the message recognizing the mail header (destination address). Finally it reaches to the Inbox of local ISP and received by the recipient.  It uses SMTP for sending and POP for receiving.

24. What is Intranet?

Ans. Intranet is a private network that is usually used by any private institution or organization. They can be private or governmental both. It is used in the highly sensible area for secret data transmission. In the network of UN, in the defense ministry, army, and even by the criminals can use such a Intranet.

25. Compare an email with ordinary mail.

Ans. The comparison is given below:

Email	Ordinary mail (Post mail)
i) It is written electronically.	i) It is written on the paper.
ii) It is very fast.	ii) It is very slow.
iii) One mail can be sent all over the world.	iii) It cannot be sent.
iv) It goes to store in Inbox.	iv) It cannot store.