ASSIGNMENT

DEFINE COMPUTER NETWORK

A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network that allows computers to
exchange data. In computer networks, networked computing devices pass data to each other along data
connections. The connections (network links) between nodes are established using either cable media or
wireless media.

TYPES OF COMPUTER NETWORK
1. Local Area Network LAN These types of computer networks connect network devices over a relatively
short distance. Quite often, a networked office building, home or school contains a single LAN although it is
normal to come across a building that contains a few small LANs. On a few occasions, a LAN may also
span over a group of nearby buildings. Such computer networks are usually owned by one organization.
2. Wide Area Network WAN As the name suggests, a WAN spans over a large physical distance. It may be
regarded as a collection of LANs dispersed over a geographical area. The internet is a very good example
of a WAN. LANs are connected to a WAN through a device referred to as a router. In IP networking, both
the LAN and WAN addresses are maintained by the router. Most WANs exist under distributed or collective
ownership and management and unlike the LANs, are not necessarily owned by one organization.
3. Wireless Local Area Network WLAN These types of computer networks refer to LANs that are based
on Wi-Fi wireless network technology.
4. Metropolitan Area Network MAN This is a network that spans over a physical area like a city that is
smaller than a WAN but larger than a LAN. Quite often, such computer networks are owned and operated
by single entities such as government bodies or large corporations.
5. Campus Area Network CAN This type of network spans over multiple LANs but is generally smaller than
a MAN. You could find such computer networks in universities or local business campuses.
6. Storage Area Network SAN This type of computer network connects servers to devices for data storage
using technology such as Fibre channel.
7. System Area Network This type of computer network is also referred to as a Cluster Area Network. It
links high-performance computers in a cluster configuration with high-speed connections.

DIFFERENTIATE INTERNET AND WEB
What is The Internet?
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.
Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols.
What is The Web (World Wide Web)?
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. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to
transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the
Web to share information. The Web also utilizesbrowsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access Web documents called Web
pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video.
The Web is just one of the ways that information can be disseminated over the Internet. The Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-
mail, which relies on SMTP, Usenet news groups, instant messaging and FTP. So the Web is just a portion of the Internet, albeit a large
portion, but the two terms are not synonymous and should not be confused.


READ ABOUT THE REASON BEHIND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNET
HISTORY OF WEB
A Brief History of the World Wide Web
A global collection of text, graphics and sound resources on the Internet.
At the end of the 1980s, one man's vision of a new way to store and retrieve data launched
the technological journey to where we are today.


BEFORE THE DAWN
1945

Vannevar Bush wrote in Atlantic Monthly about a memory extension Memex which was a photo-electrical-
mechanical device that linked documents on microfiche.
1958

In response to the launch of Sputnik, the U.S. Defense Department established Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA), which eventually would focus on computer networking and communications technology.
1962

Doug Engelbart devised NLS "oNLine System" for browsing and editing information. In the process, he
invented the computer mouse.
1965

Ted Nelson coined the name hypertext for a complex, changing, indeterminate file structure.

Donald Davies at the UK National Physical Laboratory coined the terms packet and packet switching.
1969

ARPA started what would become the Internet when it created ARPANET connecting the University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA) with SRI International at Menlo Park, California, and then the University of California at
Santa Barbara and the University of Utah.

ARPANET used packet switching for network robustness and disaster survivability.
1971

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is established.

Fifteen sites were connected to ARPANET.
1974

TCP/IP becomes the Internet Protocol Suite.

The term Internet was coined to describe a single global TCP/IP network.
1978

Amateur radio operators began experimenting with packet radio transmitting ASCII encoded data over VHF
amateur radio frequencies using homebuilt equipment.
1979

USENET established for global discussion groups.
1980

Tim Berners-Lee, at CERN in Switzerland, wrote a notebook program called ENQUIRE "Enquire-Within-Upon-
Everything" which linked computer information points.

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research founded in 1952. The name is an acronym for the
French Conseil European pour la Recherche Nucleaire or European Council for Nuclear Research.

Earlier forms of text messaging become electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail.
1983

The Domain Name System (DNS) is invented.

Generic top-level domain categories are .gov, .edu, .com, .mil, .org and .net.
1985

The country code .us is established as a top-level domain for the United States.
1989

British engineer Tim Berners-Lee at CERN wrote "Information Management: A Proposal" and "HyperText and
CERN." He proposed what was to become the World Wide Web.
THE DAWNING
1990

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, HTML, and a text browser. He used a NeXT computer to write a
global hypertext system and create a hypertext graphical user interface (GUI) browser and "what you see is what
you get" editor.

He made up the name World Wide Web. Other names considered were Information Mesh, Mine of Information,
and Information Mine.

He established the first successful communication between an Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and
server via the Internet.

The first web page was http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
AFTER THE DAWN
1993

Marc Andreessen, Eric Bina and others at NCSA displayed first graphical browser, Mosaic. Other browsers were
Midas, Erwise, Viola and one for Mac.

CERN donated the WWW technology to the world.

More than 200 Web servers were online.

The Web and Mosaic were publicized by The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Economist.
1994

Two million computers connected to the Internet were used mostly by academics, scientists, and corporate
researchers.

An Information Superhighway Summit hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the USC
Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future brought together government, technology, media, and
entertainment leaders.

Some major proprietary electronic services opened online services to the public.

Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark left NCSA to found Mosaic Communications, then changed its name to
Netscape.

World Wide Web Consortium founded.

More than 1,500 servers were online.

David Filo and Jerry Yang created Yahoo.

University of North Carolina college station WXYC became the first radio station in the world to broadcast its
signal over the Internet.

Print newsmagazine Space Today migrated to online publication as Space Today Online.
1995

Amazon.com bookstore appears.

Netscape IPO.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page planned the future Google.

The first wiki was written.
1996

Microsoft Internet Explorer appeared.

Hotmail was the first Web e-mail site.
1997

Web had one million sites, entered everyday American life.

U.S. Senate hearings on browser competition.

Blogging began.
1998

Netscape released its code, spawning Mozilla open-source browser.

Google opened and answered 10,000 search queries per day.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) takes over from the U.S. government
overseeing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
1999

Microsoft overtook Netscape in browser competition.

AOL bought Netscape.

Google performed three million searches per day.

Blogger publishing service is launched.
2000

Seventy million computers were connected to the Internet.

The dot-com market peaked, then crashed spectacularly.

Google answered 18 million search queries per day.
2001

Wikipedia opened.

Google answered more than 100 million searches per day.

Apple released the first iPod.

The file-sharing service Kazaa founded.
2002

AOL had 34 million members.
2003

More than three billion Web pages.

New browsers include Apple Computer's Safari and others including Amaya, Camino, Lynx, Opera and Phoenix.

The virtual world Second Life was born.

MySpace started.

WordPress blog publishing and content management system opens.

Skype voice calling over the Internet begins.

Apple introduces the on-line music service iTunes.
2004

Tenth anniversary of the Web's general availability to the public.

Newest browser is Firefox by Mozilla. It and Apple Computer's iPod pocket-sized MP3 music player are all the
rage.

Facebook started collecting friends.

Podcasting commenced.

Flickr image hosting website opens.

Digg was founded.

Mass use of Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP begins.
2005

More than eight billion Web pages.

Online technology is in two-thirds of American homes. Three-quarters of Americans go online spending an
average 12.5 hours there per week. Television viewing declines among Internet users.

High-speed always-on broadband access to the Internet is changing dramatically how we related to the Web
how often we go online, what we do online, how long we stay online.

YouTube began storing and retrieving videos.

Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical Internet site.
2006

Twitter began issuing tweets.

Google has indexed more than 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day, 1.3 billion images, and more
than a billion Usenet messages.
2007

Apple released the iPhone multimedia and Internet smartphone.
2008

Google released the Chrome web browser.
2009

It's estimated that a quarter of Earth's population uses the Internet.

Google sees one trillion unique URLs after eliminating duplicate entries.

The Internet has at least 27 billion web pages and could have as many as 58 billion web pages. They change so
many times a day it has become nearly impossible to count.

Microsoft's Bing joins Yahoo and Google as major search engines on the Internet.
2010

Apple released the iPad tablet computer.

It's estimated the population of Internet users is 1.97 billion.

The Internet has surpassed newspapers as a primary way for Americans to get news, according to the Pew
Internet and American Life Project. The Internet is the third most popular news platform, with many users looking
to social media and personalized feeds for news. National and local TV stations are strong, but the Internet is
ahead of national and local newspapers.

The majority of news consumers use two to five websites per day for news.

The proliferation of spyware, malware, cyber attacks and security leaks concerns Internet users.

The Federal Communications Commission establishes the first net neutrality rules.
2011

The Internet can be accessed virtually anywhere allowing great flexibility in working hours and location. Working
collaboratively via the Internet and the sharing of ideas, knowledge and skills is widespread.

Educational materials from pre-school to post-doctoral are available on the Web.

China, India, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil represent about 45 percent of Earth's population. However, their 600
million Internet users are only 30 percent of the two billion Internet users around the world. It's estimated their
Internet users will double to 1.2 billion by 2015 while the global total increases to some four billion users.