Unit VI “The Internet”

1. Discuss the questions:

1. Do you often use the Internet? 2. About how many hours a day do you use the Internet? 3. Do you think our lives have been improved by the Internet? 4. Do men and women use the internet for different purposes? 5. What are some of the ways the Internet can be used for education? 6. What are some of the ways the Internet can be used for entertainment? 7. What are the sites you most commonly access? 8. Which company is your Internet provider? 9. Is it expensive to access the Internet by mobile phone in your country? 10. Do you have more many e-mail addresses? Why do you need more than one e-mail address? 11. Do you think governments have the right to censor the Internet? 12. Information on the Internet is linked together; it is not just single documents. Why is this important? 13. Many Universities are now offering online courses. Give me some reasons why this is a good/bad thing. 14. Is it better to buy online or to go to a shop? Why? 15. To be current, that is to be up-to-date, is an important feature of the Internet. Why is this important and what impact is this having on society?

2. Read and translate the text: Main concepts about the Internet

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a global networkconnecting millions ofcomputers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges ofdata, news and opinions. According toInternet World Stats, as of December 31, 2011 there was an estimated 2,267,233,742 Internet users worldwide. This represents 32.7% of the world's population.

Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called ahost, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and whichlocalservices to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. There are a variety of ways toaccessthe Internet. Most online services offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercialInternet Service Provider (ISP).

Who Owns the Internet?

No one actually owns the Internet, and no single person or organization controls the Internet in its entirety. The Internet is more of a concept than an actual tangible entity, and it relies on a physical infrastructure that connectsnetworksto other networks.

There are many organizations, corporations, governments, schools, private citizens and service providers that all own pieces of the infrastructure, but there is no one body that owns it all. There are, however, organizations that oversee and standardize what happens on the Internet and assign IP addressesanddomain names, such as the National Science Foundation, theInternet Engineering Task Force,ICANN,InterNICand theInternet Architecture Board.

Is Web and Internet the Same?

The Internet is not synonymous with World Wide Web. The Internet is a massive network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet.

What is an Internetaddress?

An Internetaddressuniquely identifies anodeon the Internet. Internet address may also refer to the name orIPof aWeb site(URL). The term Internet address can also represent someone'se-mailaddress.

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device (e.g., computer, printer) participating in a computer networkthat uses theInternet Protocolfor communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interfaceidentificationand locationaddressing. Its role has been characterized as follows: "Anameindicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."

The designers of the Internet Protocol defined an IP address as a 32-bitnumber and this system, known asInternet Protocol Version 4(IPv4), is still in use today. However, due to the enormous growth of theInternetand the predicteddepletion of available addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the address, was developed in 1995. IP addresses arebinary numbers, but they are usually stored in text files and displayed inhuman-readablenotations.

What is URL?

Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator (URL) it is the global addressofdocumentsand otherresourceson theWorld Wide Web.

The first part of the URL is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocolto use, and the second part is called a resource name and it specifies theIP addressor thedomain namewhere the resource is located. The protocol identifier and the resource name are separated by a colon and two forward slashes.

A URL is one type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); the generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects on theWorld Wide Web.

The term "Web address" is a synonym for a URL that uses the HTTP/ HTTPS protocol.

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994 and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) URI working group. The URL format is specified inRFC 1738 Uniform Resource Locators (URL).

What is the domain name?

Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used inURLsto identify particularWeb pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD)it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

• gov - Government agencies

• edu - Educational institutions

• org - Organizations (nonprofit)

• mil - Military

• com - commercial business

• net - Network organizations

• ca - Canada

• th - Thailand

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web serverrequires aDomain Name System (DNS)server to translate domain names into IP addresses.

(based on: http://www.webopedia.com)