Internet – Culture and society – Technology
We explain what the Internet is and the different types of Internet connections. Its history, services, and the other browsers.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a network of interconnected computers to share information. It is a network of calculation equipment related to each other through a universal language.
The Internet concept has its roots in the English language and comprises the words inter (which means between) and net (from the network, which means electronic network). It is a term that should always be written in capital letters since it refers to “The Network” (which connects computers worldwide through the TCP/IP protocol) and without an accompanying article (the) to refer to it.
There are different types of Internet connection, that is, other means by which one can get connected to the network of networks. The first was the dial-up connection, that is, taking the connectivity of a telephone line through a cable. Later, other more modern types emerged, such as ADSL, fiber optics, and 3G and 4G (LTE) connectivity for mobile devices.
To access the billions of websites available on the vast network of networks we know as the Internet, web browsers (software) are used, some of the most used being Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari, all developed by different technology companies.
How did the Internet come about?
It is said that the origin of the Internet is due to a military project developed by ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Networks), a computer network of the United States Ministry of Defense that sought to create a computer network that would unite the defense research centers in case of attacks to maintain contact remotely and not to interrupt their operation even though some of their nodes were destroyed. In any case, his initial purpose was to find other uses for the computer besides that of a calculator.
In 1989, the first proposal was made to use computers and links to create a network, later known as WWW (World Wide Web), which refers to a set of standards that allows the consultation of hypertext files (HTTP).
Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, a British engineer, made the initial proposal for WWW that year, and later, by implementing HTTP, he achieved the first successful communication.
Types of Internet connections
As the Internet is a network, it can be accessed through various channels.
Telephone lines. You can use a telephone line that is subdivided into conventional telephone lines (it transmits signals in analog form, but they were currently displaced by others that offer more significant benefits) or digital lines (through the use of a network adapter, the resulting frames are translated from the computer to digital signals).
Fiber optic cable). Likewise, it can be a cable connection (which implements light signals instead of electrical ones that encode a more significant amount of information, and, in turn, said cable is made of a material called fiber optics that allows it to transmit data between nodes).
Satellite. Also, there is the satellite connection (usually, we are talking about a hybrid satellite and telephone connection system to reduce the congestion in terrestrial networks).
Wireless networks. In turn, we can implement wireless networks (which replace cables with infrared light signals or radio waves to transmit information). In short, another method used within wireless networks is LMDS (an acronym that stands for Local Multipoint Distribution System and consists of high-frequency radio waves).
Power lines. If we talk about power lines, we use PLC (conjunction of three words: Power Line Communications). Finally, we can use mobile telephony (which refers to communications available for cell phones to access the Internet).
