1. The Internet:
In simplest words it is a global network of smaller networks interconnected using communication protocols that are standardised. The Internet standards describe a framework known as the Internet protocol suite. This model divides methods into a layered system of protocols.
These layers are as follows:
- Application layer (highest) – concerned with the data(URL, type, etc), where HTTP, HTTPS, etc comes in.
- Transport layer – responsible for end-to-end communication over a network.
- Network layer – provides data route.
Provides a variety of information and communication facilities; contains forums, databases, email, hypertext, etc. It consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
2. The World Wide Web:
The web is a subset of the internet. It’s a system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The documents are formatted in a markup language called HTML (that supports links, multimedia, etc). These documents are interlinked using hypertext links and are accessible via the Internet.
To link hypertext to the Internet, we need:
- The markup language, i.e., HTML.
- The transfer protocol, e.g., HTTP.
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the address of the resource.
We access the web using web browsers.
Difference between Web and Internet:
| INTERNET | WEB |
|---|---|
| Internet is the library and web a collection of books. The internet also consists of databases, email, forums, etc. | Web is a subset of the internet. The web is a large portion of the internet but it isn’t all of it. |
| The internet is a network, a way of transporting content and web lets us use that content. | The Web is ideally a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. Web is a collection of internet servers that can host HTML formatted documents. A collection of pages, of information connected to each other around the globe. Each page can be a combination of text and multimedia. |
URI:
URI stands for ‘Uniform Resource Identifier’, it’s like an address providing a unique global identifier to a resource on the Web. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the most commonly used form of a URI.
The URL consists mainly of two parts:
- The protocol used in transfer, e.g., HTTP.
- The domain name.
Who governs the Internet?
The Internet is not governed, it has no single authority figure. The ultimate authority for where the Internet is going rests with the Internet Society, or ISOC.
ISOC is a voluntary membership organization whose purpose is to promote global information exchange through Internet technology.
- ISOC appoints the IAB- Internet Architecture Board. They meet regularly to review standards and allocate resources, like addresses.
- IETF- Internet Engineering Task Force. Another volunteer organisation that meets regularly to discuss operational and technical problems.
