The Birth of the Web Browser
In October of 1994, Mosaic Communications Corporation (renamed “Netscape Communications” on 11 November 1994) introduced the first public version of their browser, “Mosaic NetScape”. A browser is a software program which reads the computer language (Hyper Text Markup Language – HTML) used to code information on the Web and allows you to view documents on the Web. This was one of the first web browsers to be freely distributed across the Internet.
How does email work?
Let’s say you are sending mail to (user name @domain name). When you have finished composing your email, your mailer (email software) performs a gethostbyname system call to look up the IP address of the remote host (aol.com). The IP address (INTERNET PROTOCOL address) is an assigned number, which identifies a host in an Internet. It has three parts: network, optional subnet number and host number.
Your system queries an Internet name server to find the address of aol.com.
Your mailer opens a virtual circuit over the Internet to “joy’s” mailer. It communicates with the remote mailer by using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
If all goes well, the mail is usually delivered within a few seconds, even if the recipient’s machine is on the other side of the world.
If the Remote site is down, your mailer will keep trying every hour or so, usually for a couple of days.
If the site still can’t be reached, the mail will be returned to you as “undeliverable message”.
People and organizations without fulltime Internet connections may also use the Post Office Protocol (POP).
Vocabulary
department of defense – министерство обороны
to withstand – выдержать, противостоять
freeway – автострада высшего класса
host – хост (сетевой узел, использующий протоколы tcp\ip
host address – ведущий адрес
scale – масштаб, размер
subnet – подсеть
query – запрос
server – сервер
mailer – почтальон (программа доставки электронной почты адресату)
email software – программа для электронной почты
down – не работающий, не функционирующий (о компьютере)
undeliverable message – недоставленное сообщение
Task 2. Answer the questions.
How is the host address expressed in DNS?
What is browser?
What is a domain name?
What is the IP address?
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Text 5. Who owns the WWW?
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Who owns the World Wide Web (WWW)? The answer is – NOBODY! How can that be? – you could ask. This concept is a bit difficult to grasp unless you understand the structure of the Internet and its component parts, including the WWW.
We have called the Internet “The Information Superhighway” and that is still the most accurate analogy. The Internet is a network of independently-owned and operated interconnecting communication pipelines, just as the system of roads and bridges is a network of independently-owned and operated thoroughfares. From dirt roads to gravel roads to two lane paved roads to the largest multi-lane superhighways. Each road and each bridge was built by an independent entity and continues to be owned and controlled by that entity, including sale or other transfer of interest. Anyone can connect to an interstate highway, if the price is right.
The beauty of the system, however, is that anyone can drive on any of these roads, usually for free. Once you get on one road in the system, you can use it to access any number of other roads, to go anywhere on the network you choose. All you need is a vehicle – a car or a computer with a modem and software.
The Internet works the same way. Some parts of the Internet were installed and now maintained by government agencies, some by universities, some by private businesses, some by individuals. Each new connection to the Internet is achieved by acquiring permission to connect to someone who is already connected. It can be as simple as an individual signing up for a dial-up access account through an ISP, or as complicated as a new ISP establishing a high-speed data connection to a major backbone, with dozens of pieces of computer hardware to regulate and route the traffic. Once you’re on, you’re on. You can go anywhere.
The WWW is merely a subset of information published on the Internet. The only thing distinguishing information on the Web from other types of information on the Internet is the format in which the information is published. Web documents are published in Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). In order to put up a web page of your own, whether individual or business, you need to get access to the WWW by either renting space on an existing commercial Web server or by putting up your own Web server and paying for a connection to someone else’s data pipeline.
Either way, you’ll own a piece of the WWW yourself!