World Wide Web and the Internet - Essay Example

Running Head: World Wide Web and the Internet Student number: World Wide Web and the Internet Name: University: Course: Date: Table of contents: 1) Introduction 2) History i) Internet history ii) Worldwide web history 3) Differences i) World Wide Web and the internet 4) Importance 5) Other developments 6) Conclusion 7) References Introduction: This paper discusses the history of internet and the World Wide Web, the paper highlights some of the individuals who led to the development of these form of technology. Given that the internet and the World Wide Web are two different terms the paper highlights their main difference with references to their function and components, the following is a discussion of the history of their development. History: Internet history: The word internet was adopted as short form of the word internetworking in the early 70’s, internet can be defined as an interconnecting network that connects computers all over the world, before the internet system communication between computers was only available through local networks, those who led to the development of the network include Leonard Kleinrock and Paul Baran, in the 1950 the first network that resembled the internet was developed, however this network served only one purpose and were intended for a particular purpose, this network was central mainframe system where connection were made using communication lines. In 1960 Donald Davies developed the packet switching network that allowed messages to be divided into packets, each packet was routed separately reducing chances of failure, therefore this form of network improved bandwidth and increased the response time, this form of network was better given that the one existing at the time was prone to failure because they were based on single rooting. In 1962 APRANET was developed by Leonard Kleinrock and others and this connection connected California University, Utah University and Stanford Institute, Steve Crocker developed software that would help in hosting the network. This network was adopted rapidly and by 1980 over 200 hosts had joined the network. Other networks were developed during this period and they include UUCP that was developed by Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott at the duke university and Sub link Network in Italy developed in 1987. All these networks were growing from local networks to global networks and in 1982 Robert Kahn started working on a way to unify these networks and by 1983 the IP protocol was approved and this replaced the NCP protocol. Following the adoption of these networks which enabled the connection of different networks led to the development of the internet. WWW history: On the other hand World Wide Web (www) can be defined as a system used to access internet, it is a systems that runs on the internet enabling clients all over the world to access internet. The first form of World Wide Web was launched in 1982 in France by France telecom and was accessible over a telephone line; in 1990 Tim Berner also developed a web server after writing his book weaving the web, by 1993 the world wide web was almost fully developed and was made free to access, clients were also allowed to develop servers without restrictions. The Web was unique given that clients would access information over the internet without contacting the owner of such resources, other systems were bidirectional whereby clients would have to contact the resource owner to access information, and the web was unidirectional and enables users to access information directly. WWW functions uses hyper text to access information over the internet, first the user will input the URL of a website, the URL is then interpreted as an IP address by the system with reference to the domain name, finally the browser sends requests to the server using the IP address which include text file requests and image requests. Differences: World Wide Web and the internet: There is a difference between the internet and the World Wide Web as discussed above the internet comprises the hardware and software required to network computers all over the world, the internet is like a local network whereby computers are connected and communications between clients is enabled. The world wide web is a system that allows clients all over the world to access internet resources, the world wide web can be accessed using browsers such as internet explorer, opera and Mozilla, the web allow individuals to visit websites and other resources over the internet. Therefore the World Wide Web runs over the internet, Without internet we cannot have the world wide web, this is because the internet is the connection between computers and servers all over the world and therefore without these connections we cannot access websites. Without the World Wide Web the internet will still function given that the World Wide Web is one of the systems that runs on the network, the interconnection would be still there but clients would not access websites and other resource. Therefore internet allows us to connect with other computers all over the world whereas the web helps us access resources over the internet; it helps in sharing information and sending opinions over the internet. Importance: Internet and the World Wide Web play an important role in the world today, the role they play include email messages, these are short messages that are sent over the network and they are effective modes of communication. This technology also offer an opportunity to search information in a more convenient and less time consuming way, it enables sharing of knowledge and it is a source of entertainment. Other roles played include advertising, marketing and formation of social groups. Other developments: Latest concerns have recent concerning the safety and privacy of web users, it is evident that identity theft have risen and other forms of crime following the development of the internet and world wide web, however despite these disadvantages the world wide web has been and continues to benefit individuals all over the world. Conclusion: The above discussion shows that the development of internet and the world wide web started in the early 1960’s, the development of the internet started with the need to connect with other computers in other networks and its development enabled development of the world wide web which allowed individuals to access resources over the internet. The main difference is that the World Wide Web runs on the network referred to as internet while the intent only comprises of the software and hardware required to connect computers in different networks. References: George Strawn and Larry Landweber (2003) History of the Internet, retrieved on 18th December, from http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/fsnsf_internet.htm Robert Cailliau (2005) the World Wide Web, Oxford University Press, Oxford Read More