CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET

While technology changes at a rapid pace, so do Internet connections. The connection speeds listed below is a general snapshot, representing general average to maximum speeds at the time of publication.

As technology grows, so does our need for bigger, better and faster Internet connections. Over the years the way content is presented via the Web has also changed drastically. Ten years ago being able to center, bold, and produce text in different colors on a webpage was something to admire.  Today, Flash, animations, online gaming, streaming HD video, database-driven websites, ecommerce and mobile applications—to name but a few—are standards.

The need for speed has changed the options available to consumers and businesses alike in terms of how and how fast we can connect to the Internet.  The connection speeds listed below represent a snapshot of general average to maximum speeds at the time of publication. This is no doubt will change over time and Internet connection speeds also vary between Internet Service Providers (ISP).

Analog: Dial-up Internet Access

Also called dial-up access, an analog Internet connection is both economical and slow. Using a modem connected to your PC, users connect to the Internet when the computer dials a phone number (which is provided by your ISP) and connects to the network. Dial-up is an analog connection because data is sent over an analog,  public-switched telephone network. The modem converts received analog data to digital and vice versa. Because dial-up access uses normal telephone lines the quality of the connection is not always good and data rates are limited. Typical Dial-up connection speeds range from 2400 bps to 56 Kbps. Today, analog has been widely replaced by broadband (Cable and DSL).

ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network

Integrated services digital network (ISDN) is an international communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines or normal telephone wires. Typical ISDN speeds range from 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps.

B-ISDN - Broadband ISDN

Broadband ISDN is similar in function to ISDN but it transfers data over fiber optic telephone lines, not normal telephone wires. SONET is the physical transport backbone of B-ISDN. Broadband ISDN has not been widely implemented.

DSL – Digital Subscriber Line DSL is frequently referred to as an "always on" connection because it uses existing 2-wire copper telephone line connected to the premise so service is delivered simultaneously with wired telephone service --  it will not tie up your phone line as an analog dial-up connection does.  The two main categories of DSL for home subscribers are called ADSL and SDSL.  All types of DSL technologies are collectively referred to as xDSL.  xDSL connection speeds range from 128 Kbps to 9 Mbps.

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

ADSL is the most commonly deployed types of DSL in North America. Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line ADSL supports data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). ADSL requires a special ADSL modem.

ADSL+2 - ADSL  Extension

An extension to ADSL broadband technology that provides subscribers with significantly faster download speeds when compared to traditional ADSL connections. ADSL+2 works in the same fashion as ADSL a special filter is installed on a subscriber's telephone line to split existing copper telephone lines (POTS) between regular telephone (voice) and ADSL+2. ADSL2+ service is most commonly offered in highly-populated metropolitan areas and subscribers must be in close geographical locations to the provider's central office to receive ADSL2+ service.

SDSL - Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line

Short for symmetric digital subscriber line, SDSL is a technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines (POTS). SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. SDSL works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires and cannot operate simultaneously with voice connections over the same wires. SDSL requires a special SDSL modem. SDSL is called symmetric because it supports the same data rates for upstream and downstream traffic.

VDSL - Very High DSL

Very High DSL (VDSL) is a DSL technology that offers fast data rates over relatively short distances — the shorter the distance, the faster the connection rate.

  

Cable - Broadband Internet Connection

Through the use of a cable modem you can have a broadband Internet connection that is designed to operate over cable TV lines. Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels for upstream transmission. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access.  Cable providers typically implement a cap to limit capacity and accommodate more customers. Cable speeds range from 512 Kbps to 20 Mbps.

Wireless Internet Connections

Wireless Internet, or wireless broadband is one of the newest Internet connection types. Instead of using telephone or cable networks for your Internet connection, you use radio frequency bands. Wireless Internet provides an always-on connection which can be accessed from anywhere — as long as you geographically within a network coverage area. Wireless access is still considered to be relatively new, and it may be difficult to find a wireless service provider in some areas. It is typically more expensive and mainly available in metropolitan areas.

Internet over Satellite

Internet over Satellite(IoS) allows a user to access the Internet via a satellite that orbits the earth. A satellite is placed at a static point above the earth's surface, in a fixed position. Because of the enormous distances signals must travel from the earth up to the satellite and back again, IoS is slightly slower than high-speed terrestrial connections over copper or fiber optic cables. Typical Internet over satellite connection speeds (standard IP services) average around 492 up to 512 Kbps.






References :-

1. http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000720.htm
2. http://compnetworking.about.com/od/internetaccessbestuses/a/how-to-connect-a-computer-to-the-internet.htm
3. http://digitalunite.com/guides/using-internet-0/connecting-internet/how-connect-internet
4. http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/connecting-to-the-internet-using-your-router/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Connect

By Sharifah Nursabrina binti Wan Mahlar (2010381017)

Internet

The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. According to Internet 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 a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) "phone calls", two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The research and education community continues to develop and use advanced networks such as NSF's very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS), Internet2, and National LambdaRail. Increasing amounts of data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1-Gbit/s, 10-Gbit/s, or more. The Internet's takeover over the global communication landscape was almost instant in historical terms: it only communicated 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks in the year 1993, already 51% by 2000, and more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007. Today the Internet continues to grow, driven by ever greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment, and social networking.


References :-

1. http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000720.htm
2. http://compnetworking.about.com/od/internetaccessbestuses/a/how-to-connect-a-computer-to-the-internet.htm
3. http://digitalunite.com/guides/using-internet-0/connecting-internet/how-connect-internet
4. http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/connecting-to-the-internet-using-your-router/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Connect

By Sharifah Nursabrina Binti Wan Mahlar (2010381017)

INTERNET : “Things” you need to know about INTERNET

“Things” you need to know about INTERNET

The internet went from being something exotic to being boring utility, like mains electricity or running water – and we never really noticed. Imagine what it would be like if, one day, you suddenly found yourself unable to book flights, transfer funds from your bank account, check bus timetables, send email, search Google, call your family using Skype, buy music from Apple or books from Amazon, buy or sell stuff on eBay, watch clips on YouTube or BBC programmes on the iPlayer – or do the 1,001 other things that have become as natural as breathing. The internet has quietly infiltrated our lives, and yet we seem to be remarkably unreflective about it. That's not because we're short of information about the network; on the contrary, we're awash with the stuff. It's just that we don't know what it all means. So we wound up being totally dependent on a system about which we are terminally incurious. In spite of all the answers the internet has given us, its full potential to transform our lives remains the great unknown. Here are the few things you need to understand about the most powerful tool of our age.

• THE WEB ISN'T THE NET

The most common misconception is that the internet and the web are the same thing. They're not. A good way to understand this is via a railway analogy. Think of the internet as the tracks and signalling, the infrastructure on which everything runs. In a railway network, different kinds of traffic run on the infrastructure — high-speed express trains, slow stopping trains, commuter trains, freight trains and (sometimes) specialist maintenance and repair trains. And there will undoubtedly be other kinds of traffic, stuff we can't possibly have dreamed of yet, running on the internet in 10 years' time.

So the thing to remember is this: the web is huge and very important, but it's just one of the many things that run on the internet. The net is much bigger and far more important than anything that travels on it.

• THE NETWORK IS NOW THE COMPUTER

For starter, a computer was a standalone PC running Microsoft software. Eventually, these devices were networked locally (via Local Area Network) and then globally (via the internet). But as broadband connections to the net became common place, something strange happened: if you had a fast enough connection to the network, you became less concerned about the precise location of either your stored data or the processor that was performing computational tasks for you. And these tasks became easier to do.

First, the companies (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft) who provided search also began to offer "webmail" – email provided via programs that ran not on your PC but on servers in the internet "cloud". Then Google offered word-processing, spreadsheets, slide-making and other "office"-type services over the network. And so on.

Here was a transition from a world in which the PC really was the computer, to one in which the network is effectively the computer. It has led to the emergence of "cloud computing" – a technology in which we use simple devices (mobile phones, low-power laptops or tablets) to access computing services that are provided by powerful servers somewhere on the net. This switch to computing as a utility rather than a service that you provide with your own equipment has profound implications for privacy, security and economic development – and public perceptions are lagging way behind the pace of development. Everywhere one looks, the transition to cloud computing has profound implications, because it makes us more and more dependent on the net. And yet we're sleepwalking into this brave new world.

• THE WEB IS CHANGING

Once upon a time, the web was merely a publication medium, in which publishers (professional or amateur) uploaded passive web pages to servers. For many people in the media business, that's still their mental model of the web. 

But in fact, the web has gone through at least three phases of evolution – from the original web 1.0, to the web 2.0 of "small pieces, loosely joined" (social networking, mashups, webmail, and so on) and is now heading towards some kind of web 3.0 – a global platform based on Tim Berners-Lee's idea of the 'semantic web' in which web pages will contain enough metadata about their content to enable software to make informed judgement about their relevance and function. If we are to understand the web as it is, rather than as it once was, we need more realistic mental models of it. Above all, we need to remember that it's no longer just a publication medium.

• OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIME IS NO LONGER FIT FOR PURPOSE

In the analogue world, copying was difficult and degenerative. In the digital world, copying is effortless and perfect. In fact, copying is to computers as breathing is to living organisms, in as much as all computational operations involve it. When you view a web page, for example, a copy of the page is loaded into the video memory of your computer before the device can display it on the screen. So you can't even look at something on the web without unknowingly, making a copy of it.

Since our current intellectual property regime was conceived in an era when copying was difficult and imperfect, it's not surprising that it seems increasingly out of sync with the networked world. To make matters worse, digital technology has provided internet users with software tools which make it trivially easy to copy, edit, remix and publish anything that is available in digital form – which means nearly everything, nowadays. As a result, millions of people have become "publishers" in the sense that their creations are globally published on platforms such as Blogger, Flickr and YouTube. So everywhere one looks, one finds things that infringe copyright in one way or another.

This is a disagreeable but inescapable fact – as inescapable in its way as the fact that young adults tend to drink too much alcohol. The only way to stop copying is to shut down the net. There's nothing wrong with intellectual property, but our copyright laws are now so laughably out of touch with reality that they are falling into disrepute. They urgently need reforming to make them relevant to digital circumstances. The problem is that none of our legislators seems to understand this, so it won't happen any time soon.

Reference :-

Beal, V. (2011). The Difference Between the Internet and World Wide Web. Webopedia : Everything you need to know is right here. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/Web_vs_Internet.asp

Dembo, S. (2005). Would you want a computer without internet? Teach42 : Education and Technology. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from http://www.teach42.com/2005/09/02/would-you-want-a-computer-without-internet

Knorr, E. (n.d.). What cloud computing really means : The next big trend sounds nebulous, but it's not so fuzzy when you view the value proposition from the perspective of IT professionals. InfoWorld. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means

Agarwal, A. (2009). Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English. Digital Inspiration : Tech A La Carte. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained

DeGroote , M. (2012). Digital piracy wrong but not 'theft' professor says.  Deseret News. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865553832/Illegal-copying-wrong-but-not-theft-professor-says.html

By : Mohd Nurhadi Bin Mohd Kifli (2010913601)