World Wide Web relies on various systems, protocols and technologies, all working together towards a common goal and as a single unit. It’s backbone, the Internet, has various other subsets such as the Email and FTP (File Transfer Protocol). However World Wide Web, because of its unique nature and extensive usage across the world is considered one of the most important subset of the Internet. All websites and web applications work because of these systems, protocols and technologies which make up the World Wide Web. Even complex search engines such as Google are simply put, web applications that make use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. This article will take you through the creation of Internet and the World Wide Web.
History of the Internet
Internet is one of the newer technologies in the field of telecommunications and data transport via digital communication. Previous telecommunications and data transport technologies such as the radio, telegraph and the telephone, also allowed instant communication over long distances, but had various disadvantages when compared with the Intenet. For example telephone, one of the most advanced forms of digital communication amongst these previous technologies, used circuit switching and consumed much more bandwidth than the Internet. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted over an Internet connection.
Internet was a revolution in the field of digital communication over long distances, as it started using packet switching, a unique and highly efficient communication method. A packet switching network converts long messages into smaller peices of messages called packets. These packages are then routed to the destination address using a packet switched network which does not require a continuous connection like telephones. Another advantage of the packet switching network over circuit switching network is that it does not require a continuous connection.
APRANET and the TCP/IP
One of the first networks that communicated using this model packet switching network was called the APRANET network. Primarily funded by the United States government it was exclusively used for academic and scientific purposes. As the technology evolved newer networks were created and as a result there was a constant requirement for a more unified communication protocol. Communication protocols are the openly available rules that facilitate exchange of data between two points and thus allow two computers to talk with each other. As a result TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol was the communication model created and adopted by the United States government’s, APRANET network. Soon thereafter other networks also transitioned to the TCP/IP. The TCP/IP allowed any computer to join this network as long as it used TCP/IP. This resulted in TCP/IP becoming the standard communication protocol for the internet, slowly and steadily it was adopted by the whole world.
