Chapter-1

An introduction to the world wide web

1.1Concept of web technology

Technology at its peak has enhanced communications to a level undreamed of. Today information can be conveyed across vast distance within the twinkling of eyes. With the goal of sharing information throughout the world CERN (Centre European Research Nuclear), a centre for high Energy physics in Geneva ,Switzerland ,devised a technology known as world Wide web.

The world wide web is a vast amorphous blob text, images ,audio and video scattered across networks and computers world wide .Hence the name world wide web.it is shortly referred to asweb Or w3.technically speaking,it is asoftware invention which aids users to explore the internet facility. WWW is helpful in different ways to different users be it advertising, information about current inventions or entertainment .It is both humorous and informative. Institutions, government agencies , business organization, access web to barter information with millions of users to design and develop or create their own web pages.

Webpage:

Web is a collection of files known as web pages.these web pages can contain hyperlinks to link other web pages . a hyperlink can be any text images which when clicked would display another web page. There may be one or more pages in the home page which is the initial webpage present in a website.

Characteristics of www:
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(a)Hypertext:
It enables you to read and navigate text and visual information in a non-linear way based on what we want to know next . for ex. In the windows help to get more information on a topic we just ckick on that topic.the topic might be of any length that takes us to the new screen that contains the new information.

(b) Graphical and easy to navigate:

In the early days using the internet,involved simple text connections only,we Had to navigate the internets various services by using type command and tools. Then comes the first graphical web broser mosaic that paved the way for the web to display both text and graphics in full colour on the same page.this is one of the reasons it has become so popular.now web browser provide capabilities for graphical,sound & video to be incorporated with the text ,as well as even more for multimedia & Embedded applications.

(c) Distributed:
Information takes up great deal of space particularly when it includes images and multimedia capabilities. To store all the information,graphics and multimedia that the web provides. we would need an untold amount of disk space and managing it would be almost impossible.The web is succesful in providing so much information because that information is distributed globally across 1000 of websites each of which contributes the space for the information it publishes. We as the consumer of that information,go to that site to view that information.when we are alone we go somewhere, else and our system retains the diskspace.we dont have to install it, change diskor do anything other than point our browser at that site. 2

A website is a location on the web that publishes same kind of information,when we View that web page or the bit of information on that site has a unique address. This address is called URL.

Uniform resource locator:

Uniform resource locator(URL) is primary naming scheme which is used to identify Web resources that can be either be html documents or other services present in the web. These web resources are identified with special names called uniform resource identifiers (URI). The URL is the standard method used to identify any resource, for Example documents , graphics, gopher menu and usenet article anywhere on the internet.

URL consist of service, hostname and directory path.

Service:// hostname : port/directory-path

Service- indicates the name of the protocol used to access data present on the other End of the link. Hostname- indicates the domain name for the web serve where the web pages reside. Port: it is 80 for HTTP. Directory path- specifies the name of the html file. for example

HTTP://www.inform.edu/fun.html

Component HTTP

Description The service is identified as http, through which web Documents are transferred across the internet.

WWW

Is the name of the web server (particular computer)

Inform

Indicates the domain name for the web site where The web pages resides.

Edu Fun.html

Specifies the zone. It is an educational zone. Specifies the file name.

1.2 Web Browsers:

A web browser is a program that we use to view pages and navigate the world wide web. They are sometimes called as web clients & internet navigators.

Or in the other words we can say that:

A web browser also known as web client is software invention used to access the web. It is one of the most important internet software in use.

Microsoft internet explorer which is freeware is the best example of a web browser in use

Netscape navigator is another example of web browser used in unix and linux operating System. Other examples include: Opera, mosaic, amaya, hotjava etc. Function:

Any web browsers job is two fold : Given a pointer to a piece of information on the net ,the browser has to be able access that information or operate in some way based on the contents of that pointer. It deals with formatting and displaying web documents. Each web page is a file written in a language called Hyper Text Markup Language(html) That includes the text of the page, Its structure and links to other documents,images or Other media. The browser takes the information it gets from the web server and formats and display the same file differently depending on the capabilities of that system and the default layout options for the browser itself. Retrieving document from the web and formatting them for your system are the two tasks that make up the core of a browser functionality.

1.2.1 Internet Explorer:

Microsoft developed their own internet access software (browser) known as internet Explorer. The internet explorer can used to acquire information on the internet. Microsoft has been the only browser developer that has met and exceeded netscape Navigators pace of development. Internet explorer supports many of netscapes features and adds a few of its own. In addition, Microsoft has made significant with several; commercial online service, so it shares a significant amount of browser market. thus giving a direct challenge to netscape navigator for control of the browser market. Even with the large number of browsers available today, there are only two in widespread

use: microsofts and netscapes internet explorer 5 running on windows 98. As compared with netscape navigator, Microsoft is fast at work on version 6 of its Browser, due sometime near the release of windows 2000 which is faster and better integrated than any of its previous releases.

1.2.2 Netscape navigator:

Netscape has built entire site of software around its netscape browser called netscape Communicator includes modules for: (a) (b) (c) (d) reading newsgroups. For reading , sending and managing internet mail For audio conference. For collaborative work on whiteboard application in which people can view and markup the same document simultaneously.

Such enhancement will help user in an era of collaborative computing. Not only will internet be used to transmit and receive information, but it will also alter the way we do business and help us to communicate more effectively.

How netscape communication works:

The centre piece of communication is netscape navigator, the web browser component. The netscape conference is the workgroup and multimedia communications component of communicator used primarily on internets. It helps people to hold group conference calls from their computers ,as well as view and use shared files and documents together. this is called a whiteboard application. Communication includes an e-mail component called netscape messenger. Unlike some other e-mail packages , messenger can read html documents so you can receive entire web pages as well as messages that includes graphics and multimedia. Communication also includes an html editor that allows you to edit,create and post html 6

to the web.

1.3 Internet and Intranet : Internet may be defined as a network of networks that are:

Interconnected physically. Capable of communicating and sharing data with each other. Able to act together as a single network. OR

Internet can be defined as the largest world wide web inter network system which is the cheapest and fastest means to: Get information Compile information Provide information

Using the internets vast resources, one can communicate with people from all over the world and about and desired subject of choice. File can easily be transferred from any remote computer to your computer system. Electronic Journals and Newsletters There are hundreds of electronic journals and newsletters on the Internet. These journals are like printed counterparts in that they appear on a regular schedule hire a team of editors and reviewers, and focus on a specific topic. Some electronic journals appear in both paper and electronic editors, including the bi-weekly newspaper. The scientist and the journals Post-modern Culture. Traditional newspapers are becoming available on certain networks but they are not yet accessible on the layer network. Customization
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Information can be maintained centrally on a network server and still be displayed, accessed, and disseminated on a individual basis. Co-ornation Access to shared data , project coordination, and co-ordinates information management resulting in enhanced opportunity for joint development and innovative products and services. Integration We can link on line activities with internal, back-end process for maximum impact, distribute information and customer interaction across functions, and promote new business applications. E - Commerce Internet offers Electronic c0mmerce (E-commerce) which supports online ordering, purchase orders, inventory, and delivering tracking.

WHO MAINTAINS INTERNET? It would be surprising to know that there is no regular maintenance body for internet. Instead, there is an organization of internet users called the internet society (ISOC). This organization is completely voluntary and their goal is to promote global information exchange through internet. The appointed leaders of this organization known as Internet Architect Board (IAB) have the responsibility of technically managing and directing internet. This group is irresponsible for standardizing the technology use to connect to, communicate with, and work with the internet. These standards were developed as and when required, with plenty of inputs from interested individuals.
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The inputs come through another group is ISOC known as Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This task force again consists of volunteers, interested in technical problems facing internet.

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERNET The maximum hardware and software required to get an internet connection is as follows: Computer Modem Linkage mechanism Computer All types of computers right from PC (having DOS or windows) to Pentium and the mainframes are suitable for internet. If one is intended to use the internet for E-mails and transferring files, a text-based terminal or a slow or outdated PC will serve the purpose. The current trend is to acquire a Pentium with 150-200mhz , 1- 2 GB hard disc space using windows rather than DOS with 16 or 32 MB RAM. Windows makes internetworking easier and further windows 95 will make things even simpler as it has much basic connectivity tools built-in. it also requires a SVGA monitor and mouse with pad. Modem It is a device that converts the digital signals from a computer into a analog one, which is suitable for transmission over a telephone line or other convenient communication channel. Every modem is characterized by the speed with which data can be transferred. The faster the modem,
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the lower telephone bill will be, and its speed mainly depends on band rate and compression. Linkage Mechanism The following are the methods using which linkage can be established on the internet: Dial up STD telephone Leased telephone line. VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) Radio ware link.

Any of the above methods can be adopted for the purpose by the organization after looking into their individual requirements . Communication Software These days modems come with all types of communication software. And if these are not supplied as a part of modern delivery, then it is either exclusively requested from the vendor or internet is loaded with all kinds of fun ware and shareware. APPLICATIONS OF INTERNET Internet being a network of networks spread worldwide is capable of the following major services. E-mail Mailing lists Usenet Groups WWW (World Wide Web) Miscellaneous tools

E-mail (Short Volume Transfer Service)

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E-mail is one of the most popular components of the internet. There are about 4.62 million E-mail boxes worldwide almost a growth of 84% on E-mail sites during 1991-1993 . Service providers deliver E-mail connectivity by linking together all those who wish to send or exchange messages. By using a system that can generate millions of unique address, internets addressing scheme is called the domain name system (DNS) which creates address including the name, geographical location and other conceptual information. An internet address would be read as sks@skcompany.com where sks stands for the name of the user, skcompany represents the name of the organization and com symbolize that the user is a commercial user. The domain extension mentioned below signify the corresponding : .com : Commercial user for business organization. .net : Networking sites eg VSNL, UUNET .gov : Government eg parliament house .edu : Educational eg universities, colleges .mil : Military eg Ministry of Defence .org : Non-commercial Organisation.

In case of geographical location of the server the address would carry an extension eg. .in : for India
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.uk : for United Kingdom .hk : for Hong Kong And so on.

Fue Mail We can have our personal E-mail account free of cost. All we need to access our mail box in an internet connection. There are several companies which offers this service free of cost. What we have to do is register, choose an E-mail ID and give a password. Few of these sites that offer these service are : . hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com) .yahoomail (http://www.yahoomail.com) .gmail (http://www.gmail.com)

Mailing list Mailing lists provide an opportunity to keep up with the developments and happenings in a specific field of interest with maximum effort and cost besides allowing us to share our knowledge with other subscribers. The activities of the internet mailing-list communities are managed worldwide by mailing list servers. The server acts like a agent message particular for a group. Any message posted by any member is automatically broadcasted to the E-mail box of every person on the mailing list. To join the mailing list,
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one can send a E-mail message that includes ones own E-mail address to the list server. Working :Mailing list works in the following fashion. A message is sent to a single E-mail address which is referred to as the mailing list address. This message is then re-sent to all other subscribers to the mailing list. Usenet News Groups Users network is known as Usenet. It is a vast body of news groups that are served all around the world by computers called news servers. Mailing lists and newsgroups offer forums of discussion on the internet but differs only at one point that the mailing list relay messages to our Email IDs. Whereas the message posted on a newsgroup could be viewed by anyone as long as the service provider supplies the newsgroups. In fact Usenet is not a part of the internet and thus computers that are not linked to the internet can also access newsgroups .eg by dialing to a (Bulletin Board System) that carries Usenet messages. Network news transport protocol (NNTP) services around the globe host news group that shares information & commentary on defined topics. The basic building block of the usenet is the news groups which is a collection of messages with related theme. Each group takes the form of a large bulletin board where members post and reply to messages, creating message threads.

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Usenet news groups are divided into about 20 major subject classifications known as top-level categories. Some of the main subjects classifications are : .news : Groups concerned with the news networks. .biz : Business News Groups dealing with subjects like marketing and advertising. .rec : Groups dedicated to recreational activities. .talk : Debate oriented forums on any topics and so. Miscellaneous Tools : Telnet (Remote Connection or Remote Access Service) One of the original reasons why the internet was setup was to allow people to work on remote computers. The service allowing to log in and use a remote computer is called telnet. To utilize this service, we use a telnet client to make the connection and then provide the services of a terminal. Thus, using a telnet client is just like using a terminal to work with remote host. Using telnet we can log in to any computer on the internet that supports remote users. Unless we have a specific need, we will probably never have an account on a remote computer. However as public service , many internet hosts are setup to allow anybody to log in using a special guest account. When we log in with such an account, we will have restricted privileges usually we will be able to run one specific program. For example, in the United States, there is a remote host to which we can telnet in order to display Weather reports from around the country. Anyone can log in to this system and check out the weather Without using a password. Telnet available user to access internet resources on other computers around the world. A variety of resources are available through Telnet. For example, library catalogs, databases, other internet tools such as FTP, Gopher etc.
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FTP (High volume Transfer Service):

FTP is the abbreviation for the File Transfer Protocol and the file transfer programs that use the protocol. File transfer simply means sending a file ( not a message) from one computer to another. Eg, files includes spreadsheets, sounds, compiled programs, or document files from a word processing program. For sending a file from one computer to another computer, we use the FTP program to upload or put the file, more frequently people use FTP to download or get something eg, to retrieve public domain computer programs. FTP is a tool to copy files from remote host from ones host and viceversa. FTP has made it possible to setup public accessible archives on the internet with all kinds of documents and software. Most of the information centers make available material on their systems, which they think might be interest of others. FTP access is granted to everyone under the user name anonymous using the E-mail address as the password. Files that can be transferred are stored on computers called FTP servers. To access these files FTP client programs is used, which is an interface that allows the user to locate file(s) to be transferred and initiate the transfer process. The basic steps to use FTP are: Connect to the FTP server Navigate the file structure to find the file(s) you want. Transfer the file.

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Gopher
Gopher is a protocol designed at the University of Minnesota to search retireve and display documents from remote site on the internet. Users interact with gopher via hierarchy menus and can use full-text searching capabilities of gopher to identify derived documents. It allows one to more around the globe looking for information in various information centerss or services. Gopher actually goes out, gets the information derived and puts the information on the screen. A gopher offer access to the libraries with categories in different countries. The internet gives access to the bibliographer records of millions of book and details on the holdings of academics and research libraries around the world. Gopher has made the internet on easier medium to navigate. When gopher first appeared, we could access it only through a gopher client program. Now days, users can access the gopher sites using the web browsers. The main advantage of using a gopher client is that it comes with a built in list of gopher addresses. Since the gopher resources are arranged in simple linear forms. Searching takes more time and further it does not support multimedia features. Both ftp and gopher mainly have text based resources.

Intranet Extranet Internet

E-business requires a network platform which is seen less and allows smooth flow of data and information in any form any location to any other destinations. The intranet is essentially an internet company network that uses internet standards namely HTML, http, and TCP/IP. The existing networks when loaded with these standards and supported by web
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servers and web browser becomes intranet for the organization. Intranet is meant for users from the origin. The normal network is able to handle database applications in client server architecture, the same network when converted as intranet can handle text and multimedia applications. The intranet is not accessible to the people outside the organization. To run intranet 4 software components are needed. They are1. 2. 3. 4. TCP IP Web server Web browser TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) A protocol which helps to send data to any location to any hardware platform. TCP breaks the message into packets, put them into envelops and sends at receiving ends where it gets reassembled as the original message. Internet Protocol- Every computer on a network server or client has a unique IP address known as URL which is recognized by internet protocol. Web servero Web server processes a request from a client o Acts as a host to add on products say search engine o Log all transactions Web Browser o Send a request to server to process html pages. o Interprets html codes and convert into a display containing text and graphics. Intranet is private to the organization.
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Extranet is an intranet for outside authorized users using same internet technology. The outside users are trusted partners of the organization who have access to information of their interest and concern for example. In auto industry spare parts manufacturers have access to inventory database and production schedules used to plan and shift the required spares to factory location. When intranet crosses the logical boundary of the organization and provides secure access to selected data and information of the organization the intranet become extranet. The security in extranet depends on organization policy on information management. If we our trusted partner like any other users of organization then security can be ensured through access rights, authentication and certification procedure. If we want to test trusted partners like outsiders to the organization we can build firewalls between outside users and intranet which will ensure no unlawful and unauthorized access to information. Intranet is global network of computers working as serves or client to exchange information. The internet is distributed over homes, businesses, schools and government offices, all over the world. Millions of computers of different types for example PCs, big main frame, Mini and others are connected in through networks. The internet therefore, is a network of networks spread over the world. Internet is suitable for types of computers any type of computer from OCs to laptops to a super computer loaded with TCP/IP. It uses a wide range of communications media. The wire that inter connect millions of computers on the internet includes- local area networks, private data lines, local telephone line, ISDN line, microwaves, satellites etc.
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The internet is a single network which exchange information from anywhere to anywhere because it is a platform independent due to the TCP/IP and communication technology. Internet is a network of clients and servers. The servers may be dedicated or general performing dedicated functions or serving general requirements.

Search Engine
A search engine is a mean of searching for information that can be found on the internet. For example When accessing a search engine you might specify that you want to search for information about polar bears in which case the search engine would return all the URLs it knows about that has information about polar bears. How the search engine gives the data There are a number of ways a search engine can know about where information is to be found. Firstly, A Search engine can list information by keywords or page titles. These keywords or titles can either be submitted by uses that provide information on the internet or can be extracted by accessing web pages & extracting the page title & key words from the header of the web page. This keyword extraction selves on the appropriate HTML code on the header of the web page (it is called the Meta tag ) The advantage
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is that it is quicker to index information & less traffic is involved only headers are requested from websites, the entire web document is not read. The second method the search engine can use selies upon reading every page it know about (usually pages are submitted inclusion by web authors). This technique involves the use of programs called spiders or web robots that requests every page and stores these words in a large date base. Not all search engines are the same. Some use keywords extraction via Meta tags while others use keywords via page content indexing obviously content indexing is a much better. Method because you are more likely to find specific information. However this method has number of problems. One is the sheer size of the resultant database and the number of pages. As the size of WWW continuous to grow this becomes more and more difficult. Keeping the database up to data is a serious problem. (Or a very by task) .It is common to find that page returned by the search engine have impact since been involved or deleted. A search engine that uses topic, keywords & categories is yahoo.com while a search engine that uses content indexing is act a vista.com and exite.com

How does a Search Engine Works?

When a user accesses a search engine they are presented with a graphical interface form on which they specify what they are looking for, when they tell the search engine to start, the search. The search engine to start engine invokes the program that queries its database.

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The results are centured to the users as a number of possible URLs often these will be ranked in priority or success rate will higher values meaning more likely to contain the information you request. Meta Search Engine (MSE)- A meta search engine quires two or more search engines simultaneously and then displays the result. Meta search engine do not have their own database or index web page instead they send their own queries to search engines. The results are integrated with duplicated often being removed or merges and sometimes rank the returned results. MSE are good for quickly identifying page location specially where the key words used a very specific (using common addition, meta Search Engine do not return all the pages found to the user. They often only return the top ten or so pages.

Provide Information. Compile Information. For business community, Internet is the common place where they can discuss and set the business deals without moving from their place.
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The person who wants on Internet and the concerned supplier(s) can quote for the same, almost instantly. HISTORY OF INTERNET:ARPANET (Advance Research Projects Agency Network) laid the foundation of todays Internet almost these decades ago. It was established to test the security of network. In 1982, TCP/IP become the protocol suite for ARPANET and led to one of the first refernces to an Internet of connected networks. NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) known as the backbone of Internet come into existence in 1986 and until 1995 NSFNET was operated by ANS (Advance Network and Services) a research oriented non-profit company set up by Merit Network, IBM(International Business Machines Organisation) and MCI(Microwave Communications Inc.) in 1990 under a co-operative agreement between NSF and Merits. When this contracted after 1995, the running and maintaining of the backbone has been taken over by Internet service providers like America Online, MCI, and Sprint in the United States. On a overall basis, IETF (International Engineering Task force) represented by the government and academic oraganisations largely governs the Internet.

BENEFITS OF INTERNET:Internet is playing a very important role in National Development by extending the following major benefits of the citizens world wide. Education
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Publishing Shopping Advertising Financial Services Government and Regulations Carcus and so on.

You can perform any task related to the computing or IT. Some of the few topics available on Internet are Arts and Culture, Space and Astronomy, Travel and Geography, International Affairs, Environment and Nature, Science and Technology and so on.

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