Internet and Email

Internet:
A computer network is an interconnection among two or more computers that can
communicate with one another. The world wide network of computers is called the
internet. So, internet is the biggest network over the world.
In the other words, the internet is the network of network.
The large amount of information can be collected and shared from one hemisphere to
another hemisphere of the globe. Billions of computers are connected through the internet.
Any information from any computer in the network can be shared among the networked
computers. So, the internet contains a vast amount of information.
Tim Berners Lee developed all the tools for working on the internet for the first time.

Use of Internet:
Since the internet is the biggest network over the world, it provides the medium for
vast amount of information. In addition to the information, internet provides communication,
entertainment, services and many more. Here is a list of some uses of internet;
1. Text or voice mails can be sent and received to and from another computer.
2. Internet phone or internet fax can be done.
3. Chatting or video chatting can be done among the computers from one hemisphere to
another.
4. Social network can be established so that thousands of people can share the
information.
5. Important files can be transferred and shared among the computers.
6. We can use the internet as the E-Library.
7. The desired website can be browsed for information.
8. The facilities of entertainment like internet radio, internet television, internet cinema
and etc can be used.
9. Different types of internet games can be online played.
10. E-learning, online education and distant education can be run by the help of internet.
11. E-Business, E-Advertisement, E-Banking, E-Transaction, E-governance and etc, can
be run through the internet.

Misuses of internet:
There are not only advantages of the internet but also disadvantages from it. Some
disadvantages are as follow:
1. There may be the possibility or theft of personal information:
2. Bulk emails and spam emails just disturb, irritate and kill the user's valuable time.
3. Different types of viruses attack online and our computers may get infected from
viruses.

Protocols:
Computers don't communicate with each other without a pre-defined instruction or
rule. The instruction or set of rule that facilitates the computers to communicate each
other is called the protocol. The protocol is simply is a codes or programs that run in
computers or communication related devices for effective communication.
There are different types of protocols are used in different situations. Some of them
are as follow;
IP (Internet Protocol)
The main task of IP is the best deliver of the packets. The packets are the pieces of
information. The IP scheme used today are IPV4, IPV6 and etc.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

The function of TCP is the reliable and guaranteed delivery of data from one
computer to another. The TCP and IP are the components for suit for internet.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

This protocol describes the rules for the interlinked or hypertext documents. The
hypertext documents are placed in a special computer called server.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This protocol transfers the files from one computer to another. Transfer of file may be
from client to server or vice-versa.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

This protocol transfers the mails between email servers. Actually, the SMTP is used
for outgoing mails from one email server to another.

POP (Post Office Protocol)

The main task of this protocol is to receive the emails from a remote mail server.

SOME TERMS RELATED TO THE INTERNET:

Web Browser;
We know that the internet is the medium of vast source of information. But, we need
particular software to browse this information. So, the software for browsing the internet is
called the internet browser or web browser. The web browser can read the text, view the
graphics and play the sound, video and animation in the HTML documents.
Mozilla firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, Sea Monkey
and etc are the examples for web browser.

Web Page:
A webpage is a document written in tagged language called HTML or XHTML. It is
the information suitable for the World Wide Web. It can be accessed by a web browser. The
document or information is in HTML or XHTML formats. The more information about
anything is linked to a text or image or button in a webpage. So, a single webpage contains
much information in the hyperlink form.
A web page provides the information trough text, image, audio, video, animation and
other multimedia contents.

Website:
Website is a collection of related web pages, associated files, scripts, databases. It is
served or provided by a web server on the World Wide Web. A web site is hosted on at least
one web server or HTTP server.
A website can be accessed locally from a local server or from remote server.
Homepage:
Homepage is a first and an index webpage for a website. It contains all the links
about that website. So, it is the main page or front page of a website.
In the past, the homepage itself would be the website. Now days, website contains
many web pages containing a large amount of information in it. So, we need the index page
for the web pages.

Web Server:
A web server is a computer system with web server software that provides web
pages to the clients. The web server contains a large collection of websites and databases to
respond the client requests.
The web server should respond the multiple requests from the clients and contain
large amount of web sites. So, the web server should be fast, stable and of huge capacity.
A client can request to the web server for HTML documents through web browser.
The web server may be near the clients or in another hemisphere of the globe.

URL:
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is an address for a resource (web page) in
the internet. The URL describes where the resource is and how to access it. Each web page
is assigned to a URL. The URL has three parts: protocol part, host name (or Domain name or
IP address) and local file name of the server computer.
For example, in an address http://www.nepalwirless.com.np/downloads/ipscan.exe,
http (hypertext transfer protocol) is protocol part, "www.nepalwirless.com.np" is the host
name and "/downloads/ipscan.exe" is the file path.

DNS:
The DNS (Domain Name System) is a naming system for computer, services or
resource available in internet. By DNS, each URL is assigned to a unique IP address in the
internet. The DNS name like www.nepalwireless.com.np is used by the users and its IP
address 192.168.254.2 is used the system.
The Domain name or host name is easily memorable for users, but the DNS server
knows the IP address for that name. Because the IP address is not easily memorable, we need
the DNS for domain name.
The DNS server converts the Domain names to its IP address.

Search Engine:
A search engine is a web page or program that searches the information in the
internet. So, it is also called the web search engine. The keyword or a complete question
about the information to be searched is typed in the search box in the search engine. Then the
results are listed as links. The links can be selected for more information.
Some search engines are W3Catalog, google.com, altavista.com, bing.com, msn.com,
yahoo.com, alltheweb.com and etc.
INTERNET CONNECTION:
Internet connection can be done by two ways. They are Dial up connection and LAN
connection with dedicated server.

Dial up connection:
The PC can be connected to the internet through dial up connection. For this, we use
the username, dialing number and password provided by the ISP or Telecommunication
companies.
In dial up connection, we normally use the telephone line. The telephone line and the
PC is connected by Modems.

Dedicated connection and LAN:

In this connection, a computer is connected to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) by
some network technology. This computer is called the dedicated server. Then, this server
computer is connected to other computers by some network topology.
The NIC (Network Interface Card) is used in LAN (Local Area Network) instead of
Modem.

Email:
Email or electronic mail is a digital message. The digital message may be text, image,
audio, video, and etc. The email is sent from one email account (ID) to another email
account. We need the internet for complete delivery of an email. An email is sent to the
destination email ID in a second if the internet is complete.
We should log on to a valid email account to send and receive the emails.

The advantages of email are:

1. Digital messages can be exchanged from one email account to another.
2. We can keep in touch (stay in touch) with desired persons easily.
3. We can chat with, talk to and make video conference with desired persons.
4. Digital messages can be kept as record in the mail server. So, any mail can be read at
anytime.
5. Different digital files can be shared by attaching them in the emails.
6. Group mails can be sent to the multiple users.
7. There is a service of address book.
8. Email saves time, cost and labour.

Messenger Services:

Messenger is an online communication between the persons having the valid email
accounts. Messenger service is one of the email based service. We can chat with, talk to and
make a video calls to the desired persons online.
The online communication may from PC to PC, from PC to phone or phone to phone
through internet. As well as online communication, different digital files can be shared
among desired people. The digital file may be text or images or music or video or all of them.
For the messenger services, we may need messenger programs.
The messenger services can be available in offline mode, too.
For messenger service, one should have a valid email account and he or she should
log into that account.
Different types of email accounts:

We need email accounts for online or offline communication. But, there are different
types of email accounts. Some of them are discussed below;

1. POP email account:

The POP means Post Office Protocol. It is designed for offline mail processing. In
POP mail account, the mail is delivered to a central server. These mails are later downloaded
in the local computer (personal computer). Then these mails can be read offline mode.
We should buy the POP email account. We need the mail programs like Outlook,
Netscape messenger and etc to download the mails.
Advantages and disadvantages of POP mail account
Advantages Disadvantages:
1. Emails can be read and composed 1. POP email account is not for free. It
offline. should be bought.
2. It is suitable for the user who uses a 2. It is not suitable for those who use
single personal computer. different computers for emails.
3. There are no problems of bulk and 3. The third party software is needed to
spam mails. download the emails.
4. Emails can quickly be downloaded.

2. Webmail email account:

The webmail email account is designed for online mail processing. We don't need to
download the email to the local computer to read. So, one can log on then read and compose
the email online from any clients. It is suitable for those who use different computers for
emails.
The webmail based email account can be freely registered. Gmail, Yahoomail,
Hotmail. Operamail are some common web based email account providers.

Advantages 1. Web based email account is slow to

1. There is no need of the third party access.
software to download the mails. 2. There are problems of bulk and spam
2. Web based email accounts are free of mails.
cost. 3. Offline messaging is difficult in web
3. It is suitable for those who use based email accounts.
different computers for emails.
Disadvantages;

3. IMAP email account:

The IMAP means Internet Mail Access Point. It is designed for both the offline and
online mail processing. IMAP mail services offer extremely powerful control over emails.
Emails are sent to an email server then the server stores the mails in the recipient's
mailbox.
Advantages
1. There are both online and offline mode of email processing.
2. Multiple clients simultaneously can access the same mailbox.
3. There is multiple mailboxes in the server.
CREATING THE WEB-BASED EMAIL ACCOUNT:

Since the web-based email ID is free of cost, we can register such type of email
account to work with emails.

Steps:
1. Open up any web browser.
2. On the address bar, type any web address that provides free email accounts. For
example, yahoo.com, gmail.com, hotmail.com, and etc.
3. Click the Sign Up button.
4. Then fill up the form for email account registration.
5. In the form,
 Type your First name, Middle name and Last name.
 Choose Gender
 Enter your date of birth
 Select your country or State then type the Postal code (eg. 00977)
 Type your email ID name and check it. Select any email ID if there appears a list of
available email accounts.
 Type your password and retype it again. (Note: Don't forget this password because it
is you key to log on your email account.)
 You can supply your alternate email account if you have. Otherwise, you can leave it.
 Select any secrete question and type its answer.
 Type the shown code in the code box.
 Accept the agreement.
6. Then, finally click on the button Create My Account.
7. If any information in the form is incorrect, the filled up form appears. Then, correct them.
8. If the registration is successful, a congratulation page appears. Then click on Continue
button to join the recently created email account.

After creating the email account, you can log on the email account. To log on the
email account,
use the email address or email ID name as username,
use the password you typed while registering as password.

After logging on and working with the emails, log out the account by clicking sign out
link.