The Internet is a huge collection of commercial, public, corporate, academic, and government networks that facilitate international communication and access to data resources. It is overseen by institutions that develop universal protocols, such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (or IANA).
The internet refers to the worldwide communication system, comprising technology and architecture, while the World Wide Web is one of the services conveyed over the internet.
The Internet is Explained by Techopedia
In the 1960s, the United States government started developing a computer network known as ARPANET, which later became the Internet. In 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States commissioned the creation of the NSFNET academic network backbone.
1995 saw the replacement of the system with new networks managed by commercial Internet service providers. Around this period, the internet was made more accessible to the general public.
Since then, the Internet has expanded and developed to provide services such as:
Email.
web-enabled audio and video conferencing services.
Online entertainment and gaming
Data transmission and file exchange are often facilitated via File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Instant messaging.
Internet forums.
social networking services.
Online purchasing.
Financial services.
As a worldwide network responsible for the movement of large quantities of data and the facilitation of processes, the Internet is continually changing. For example, the original IPv4 system that distributed Internet Protocol (IP) addresses has largely been superseded by a new IPv6 model that will increase the number of accessible addresses on each continent.
The Internet has moved beyond the standard workstation with the birth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The Internet of Things is dissolving the distinction between the Internet and the analogue world. There is still a distinction between conventional Internet nodes, which use a standard web browser, and Internet-connected devices, which more often employ reduced-instruction set software.
In addition, there is a critical framework that explains how the Internet is evolving and where it is expected to go in the future.
This consists of three versions or iterations of the World Wide Web, as stated in the preceding sentence.
Web 1.0 is the first version of the Internet in which the vast majority of data was read-only. Experts often define Web 1.0 as an Internet where the most popular types of activity are passive, such as reading, doing research, or learning about items and services prior to making a purchase through conventional media, such as the telephone.
Web 2.0 arose when technologists introduced features such as Javascript applets and modules to the web. Web 2.0 is the read-write web or the functional online, in which web fields and forms enable users to engage in transactions, upload resources, and publish their own comments in an ongoing discussion.
Web 2.0 is the Internet, according to the majority of people. Web 2.0’s “stateless” web-delivered functionality is primarily remedied by digital “cookies,” or trackers that record specific user data in the browser to allow features such as password saving.
The trade-off is that user behaviour is intrinsically tracked: when a user deletes cookies, session data is lost, and the user must begin as a new visitor for subsequent sessions.
Web 3.0 is the hypothetical future Internet referred to as the “semantic web,” in which Internet data will have developed relationships and mapping will automate a significant portion of what we now do manually on the Internet. The semantic web, according to its proponents, would be highly automated by the seamless connection of distinct virtual items and websites. Web 3.0 may thus enable us to abandon the existing methodology of retrieving session data through cookies.
All of these modifications demonstrate the Internet’s universal utility and its extensive reach in human communities. Defining bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) continue to work on universal methodologies and standards.
[Explore new information about internet security and privacy with Udemy’s Security Awareness Training].