Special Edition, Using Microsoft BackOffice, Ch. 09

09 - Understanding the Internet

by Azam A. Mirza

  • How the Internet was developed - Gain an understanding of the Internet by learning about its origin, the current state of Internet technology, and what the future holds for online computing.

  • Tools and services for effectively using the Information Superhighway - Explore the tools and services the Internet offers for utilizing its vast array of services and resources. Some major Internet services are discussed in detail, and their importance and value to the Internet user are explained.

  • How the Internet provides value to the business community - Learn how the Internet has revolutionized the way the world does business today and how corporations are embracing the Internet to enhance their operations and visibility in the global marketplace.

  • How the Internet is organized - Learn about some technologies that make up the infrastructure of the Internet. Understand the techniques used to make up a network of disparate and distributed computer networks.

The enormous growth of the Internet during the early 1990s has fundamentally changed the computer software and hardware industries. Today, organizations and individuals alike consider the Information Superhighway a critical piece of the infrastructure that will dominate information technology well into the twenty-first century.

Microsoft's Internet strategy is a key component of the Microsoft BackOffice suite of server-based applications. Microsoft Internet Information Server together with Windows NT, SQL Server, and Exchange Server provide a comprehensive set of tools for connecting to the Internet and leveraging its technologies and services for business purposes.

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the Internet and how it has changed the way the world thinks of information technology. Although the main focus of this chapter is to introduce the Internet and provide a basic understanding of what it means to your organization to embrace the Internet, it also provides a road map of what BackOffice has to offer to make your organization's foray into the Internet world a success.

How the Internet Started

The idea behind the Internet originated out of a need to develop a communications network that could continue operations even if its major parts were rendered useless. The goal was to create a network where a packet of information could travel through the maze of interconnected nodes without any centralized control or authority. If major parts of the network were not operational, the packet could independently keep traveling through the available nodes until it reached its destination. Networks built upon this communications routing scheme, which was designed to be robust, are referred to as packet-switched networks.


The original idea for a robust, fail-safe network originated out of the RAND Corporation in response to the nuclear war threat.

A Brief History

In the early 1970s, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) became interested in the concept of a packet-switched network. DARPA consequently sponsored a research project to design and develop an advanced mechanism for facilitating the flow of information between distributed computers. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), as it was known by the time the project got underway, funded the initial creation of the packet-switched network called the ARPANet, which would eventually grow into what is known today as the Internet.

ARPANet initially used the UNIX operating system, the Network Control Protocol (NCP), and a 50 kilobits per second (kbps) line to connect four computers located at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah at Salt Lake City. By the early 1980s, a new protocol for network connectivity and communications - the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) - was proposed and adopted for ARPANet use. As a public domain protocol, TCP/IP was widely accepted by the computing community for connecting to the fledgling ARPANet. By the mid 1980s, ARPANet had grown from the humble beginning of a four-computer network to more than 200 linked networks with thousands of computers.

Recognizing the potential of the ARPANet as a major network for research, education, and communications, the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the NSFNet in the mid 1980s to provide a high-speed backbone for connecting to the Internet. From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the NSFNet backbone was consistently upgraded from a 56 kbps line to a 1.54 Mbps line to a 25 Mbps line. The NSFNet played a major role in funding the advancement of the Internet as a viable tool for research and development.

Shortly after the NSFNet backbone was put into place, other government agencies in the United States and organizations abroad got into the act with the creation of backbone networks by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NSINet), the Department of Energy (ESNet), and numerous European organizations. Over a short time period, the Internet grew to become a conglomeration of more than 5,000 networks in more than 60 countries with more than 5 million computers (see fig. 9.1).

Fig. 9.1 The Internet now provides connectivity to a major percentage of the world. (Illustration courtesy of the Internet Society.)

With the eventual decommissioning of the original ARPANet and the NSFNet backbone network as it was outgrown, other Internet backbone network providers emerged. Currently, the backbone for the Internet is supplied by a group of national commercial providers such as AT&T, MCI, and Sprint, as well as several smaller regional providers. Internationally, the backbone is supported by government organizations and private sector corporations.

The Internet Explosion

The Internet of the 1990s is an incredible departure from the small network created some 20 years ago for research purposes. With the spread of the Internet's popularity into the business community and private sector, the number of computers connected to the Internet has doubled every year since 1988. It is estimated that by the middle of 1995, more than 20 million users were accessing the Internet and connecting to more than 7 million host computers worldwide.

The initial Internet was nothing more than a collection of networks connected together that facilitated the flow of information between computer users. Because the Internet was largely based on computers that ran various flavors of the early UNIX operating system, it was mainly a text-based command line environment. Also, the slow transmission lines connecting Internet users necessitated the use of techniques that required the least amount of bandwidth for transmission of data. Most early tools and applications used cryptic commands and minimal user interfaces to save transmission overhead. However, as the NSFNet backbone was upgraded to higher speeds and the network became capable of handling higher volumes of information flow, the Internet became a more user-friendly and flexible environment.

Efforts got underway to develop methods of accessing the information databases available on the Internet. Early efforts led to the development of tools such as Archie, Veronica, Jughead, and Gopher. All four of these tools are used for the sole purpose of search and retrieval of information. Archie was the first of such tools. It uses a simple method to catalog the information and files available on remote machines and makes the list available to users. Subsequent tools became more and more sophisticated in their approach, leading to Gopher, which required the use of special Gopher servers for collecting, storing, and displaying information content for use by Internet users. Gopher is widely used for providing catalogs of books in libraries and phone book listings. Veronica and Jughead each provide additional indexing and searching capabilities for use with Gopher servers. Even though all these search and retrieval tools are very sophisticated, they have one thing in common: they all used text-based user interfaces.


The names Archie, Veronica, and Jughead were patterned after the popular comic book characters and are trademarks of Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Veronica and Jughead are both acronyms. Veronica stands for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives and Jughead stands for Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And Display. Gopher was named after its creators, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

In the early 1990s, with the arrival of the Microsoft Windows' graphical user interface, the continuing popularity of the Apple Macintosh user interface, and the X-Windows environment on the UNIX operating system, the graphical user interface became the norm on the user desktop rather than the exception. However, the Internet was still largely a text-based environment in a world becoming predominantly graphical. When it became apparent that it was possible to publish information on the Internet for access by the mass population, efforts got underway to develop tools for graphical display of the information.

The key factors responsible for the Internet's exponential growth are the development of the World Wide Web (WWW), covered later in this chapter, and a user-friendly way to browse through the information available on it. The development of the Mosaic graphical Internet browsing tool (in 1993) at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications resulted in making the Internet accessible and much easier to use. Mosaic allowed graphical point-and-click navigation of the vast Internet expanse and permitted people to experience the Internet without having to learn archaic and difficult UNIX utilities and commands. Naturally this proliferation of users led to creative approaches to sharing information on the Internet, and as the amount of quality information from an expanding variety of sources increased, the Internet phenomenon became known as the Information Superhighway, a topic covered in the next section of this chapter.

Through its first 20 years of existence, the Internet simply facilitated communications between researchers, scientists, and university students. Its primary value was in providing users with the capability to exchange electronic mail (e-mail) messages, participate in discussion groups, exchange ideas, and work with each other.

The Internet was strictly a nonprofit domain that resented and shunned anyone who tried to make a dollar out of its use. However, in the last three to four years, the Internet has gone through a tremendous transformation. The Information Superhighway is a place for communicating, advertising, conducting business, and providing information to the masses or the individual.

The Information Superhighway

The WWW and the graphical Web browsers are probably the single most important reason for the widespread popularity of the Internet in the last few years. Web browsers, such as the Netscape Navigator and the Microsoft Internet Explorer, provide a graphical user interface that makes the information available on the Internet easier to find and more fun to investigate. By allowing users to gain access to the Internet in a point-and-click manner, a whole new class of users were introduced to the online world of computing. The Internet was quickly transformed from the network of networks to the Information Superhighway. However, the Information Superhighway consists of much more than the pretty sites that encompass the WWW. It is truly a global information store for the following:

  • Doing research

  • Communicating across geographic and cultural boundaries

  • Engaging in commerce

  • Providing huge amounts of informational and retrieval services

These capabilities are available through the many services on the Internet, such as:

  • World Wide Web (WWW)

  • Usenet

  • E-mail

  • Telnet

  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

  • Gopher

Each of these services is described in the following sections.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) consists of computers connected to the Internet throughout the world that provide graphical access to information stored on those computers. A WWW server may be set up for the purpose of information publishing, education, or to allow electronic commerce. The characteristic that makes the WWW unique is its capability to provide multimedia features such as pictures, bitmaps, animation, video, and sound. Figure 9.2 shows a sample corporate informational WWW site set up by G. A. Sullivan.


A WWW site refers to a computer running WWW server software allowing Internet users to connect to it using WWW browsing software.

Fig. 9.2 Organizations, such as G. A. Sullivan, can convey information through the WWW.

The following languages and interfaces are used by WWW servers and browsers to facilitate communications between them:

  • Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

  • HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

  • Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

  • Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

Each of these is described in the following sections.

Uniform Resource Locator

The WWW uses a standard called the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for identifying services and machines available across the Internet. The URL is used for identifying the kind of service being used to access a resource, such as FTP, WWW, Gopher, and so on.

A URL uniquely identifies a machine, service, or product over the Internet. A URL has three parts:

  • Scheme. Identifies the kind of server making the service available, such as FTP server, WWW server, or Gopher server

  • Address. Identifies the address of the resource, such as www.microsoft.com

  • Path. Identifies the full path to the resource being used such as /home/images/image1.gif

For example, the URL for accessing the Microsoft FTP server for downloading a file called readme.txt will be ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/readme.txt. This means that the service being used is FTP (the scheme); the server address is ftp.microsoft.com (the address); and the file to download is readme.txt (the path). To further explain the URL format, every URL scheme is followed by a colon (:), followed by two slashes to identify that an address follows.

Simply put, URLs are a way for identifying resources on the Internet in a consistent manner.

HyperText Markup Language

The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the scripting language used to define WWW server information content. HTML is a plain text ASCII scripting language that uses embedded control codes like the word processors of old to achieve formatting of text as well as graphics, images, audio, and video. The information is then stored as files on a WWW server. When a Web browser is used to access the file, it is first interpreted by the browser; the control codes are decoded, and the formatted information is presented to the user in a graphical format referred to as a Web page.

The WWW and HTML were both first developed at CERN in 1990. HTML1 was the version used by initial Web browsers such as Mosaic. The current standard being used is HTML3, which incorporates tables, figures, and other advanced features into WWW document creation. Figure 9.3 presents a sample HTML document for a WWW site home page, and figure 9.4 presents the page as it looks when viewed using the Internet Explorer 2.0 Web browser.


CERN is the name of a high-energy physics research center in Switzerland. Much computer science research is conducted at CERN on cutting-edge technology fronts.

Mosaic is the graphical Web browser developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Fig. 9.3 HTML source documents are used to create WWW home pages.

Fig. 9.4 WWW home pages can be viewed using the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web Browser.

The HT in HTML stands for HyperText, an important concept in WWW browsing. Hypertext, or hyperlinks, refers to links defined within normal textual documents that allow a user to jump to another part of a document. The Windows help system is an example of a document-based system that uses hypertext links. By clicking on highlighted or underlined words, users can navigate easily throughout the help system, even between different help files.

The WWW takes the same concept to the next level by allowing hypertext links between Web pages and even WWW sites. By clicking on hypertext links defined on a Web page, users can not only navigate within the same WWW site and view different pages, they can even jump to links pointing to sites on other WWW servers in remote locations. This powerful feature allows navigation of the Internet in a manner never possible before the advent of the WWW.

The HTML standard is platform independent because it does not incorporate any codes that specify platform-unique parameters. For example, the codes might specify what size font to use, but not the type of font to use. That is left up to the browser to determine based upon the platform on which it is running and the fonts available on that machine.

Common Gateway Interface

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard for extending the functionality of the WWW by allowing WWW servers to execute programs. Current implementations of WWW servers allow users to retrieve static HTML Web pages that can be viewed using a Web browser. CGI extends this idea by allowing users to execute programs in real-time through a Web browser to obtain dynamic information from the WWW server. For example, a WWW site may allow users to obtain up-to-the-minute stock quotes by executing a program that retrieves the stock prices from a database.


The WWW Server at www.dbc.com uses the method just described to provide users with free online quotes of the stock market. It executes a program to retrieve quotes from an online database of stock market quotes.

The CGI interface basically serves as a gateway between the WWW server and an external executable program. It receives requests from users, passes them along to an external program, and then displays the results to the user through a dynamically created Web page.

The most common usage of the CGI standard is for querying information from a database server. Users enter queries into a Web page; the WWW server accepts the data, sends it to the application or processing engine that will process the data, accepts the results back from the processing engine, and displays the results to the user.

The CGI mechanism is fully platform independent and can transfer data from any browser that supports CGI to any WWW server that also supports CGI. Because a CGI program is basically an executable file, there are no constraints on what kind of program can be executed through a CGI script. A CGI program can be written in any language that can create executable programs, such as C/C++, FORTRAN, Pascal, Visual Basic, or PowerBuilder. CGI programs can also be written using operating system scripts, such as PERL, UNIX script, or MS-DOS batch files.

Virtual Reality Modeling Language

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a scripting language for displaying 3D objects on the WWW. The VRML addition to the WWW allows the display of interactive 3D worlds (for example, a virtual computer-generated model of a university campus) that can be traversed by the users accessing them. The capabilities and opportunities afforded by VRML are only limited by the imagination of the Web page author and available bandwidth. VRML promises to provide the capability to visit virtual worlds on the WWW, walk through them, and experience the multimedia power of the WWW. Microsoft maintains a sample Web page to demonstrate the capabilities of the VRML technology, as shown in figure 9.5. If you would like to view such a site, use a search engine (like http://www.yahoo.com or http://www.webcrawler.com) and execute a search on VRML.

Fig. 9.5 Microsoft Internet Explorer can be used to view VRML 3D objects.

See, "Significance of Bandwidth," (Chapter 3)

Usenet

Usenet is a distributed discussion system that consists of a set of discussion groups called newsgroups. Newsgroups are organized in a hierarchy based on subjects such as recreation, sports, news, information, and religion. Each hierarchy includes anywhere from a few groups to thousands of groups and can be subdivided into minor hierarchies. They are organized similarly to the structure of a hard disk with its directories and subdirectories.

Usenet uses the TCP/IP-based Internet backbone as its transport mechanism. The standard used by Usenet news (or netnews) for propagation of Usenet traffic is called the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP). NNTP is a higher level protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol to facilitate communications between various servers running the Usenet server software.


In the earlier days of the Internet, another service was predominantly used for propagation of Usenet news called UUCP. UUCP stands for UNIX to UNIX Copy. The service is still used but has been mostly replaced by the faster and more flexible NNTP protocol. The recreation hierarchy, designated by the rec keyword is further subdivided into lower level hierarchies such as rec.arts, rec.games, rec.pets, rec.sports, rec.travel, and so on. The rec.pets newsgroup could be further divided into lower level hierarchies such as rec.pets.dogs, rec.pets.cats, and so on.

The newsgroups allow users with the appropriate news reading software to view articles posted to these groups, post their own articles, and reply to articles posted by other users.

After an article is posted into a Usenet newsgroup, the article is broadcast using the NNTP service to other computers connected to the Internet and running the NNTP service. Usenet groups are different from mailing lists because they require central storage of articles at an NNTP server computer for viewing by all members of the network connected to that computer.

At last count, there were more than 14,000 Usenet newsgroups for topics ranging from distributed computer systems to daily soap opera discussions. A multitude of Usenet news reading software programs are available on the Internet as shareware programs and also commercially. Internet Web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator have news reading capabilities built in. Figure 9.6 shows the user interface of a shareware product called Free Agent used for reading newsgroups. The same company also offers a more complete version of the program called Agent version 1.0.

Fig. 9.6 Free Agent is a shareware Usenet news reading program available for reading Internet news.

The latest news reading programs, such as Free Agent, provide sophisticated features such as:

  • Message threading. Allows users to follow a particular discussion topic by reading all posted articles about the subject - for example, reading a group of articles in a thread on the discussion of dog house training in the rec.pets.dogs newsgroup.

  • Kill files. Used for ignoring articles the user may not want to read. For example, directing the news reader to ignore all articles that include the word "Pitbull" in article headers in the rec.pets.dogs newsgroup.

  • Filtering. Allows users to selectively read only the articles they are interested in and ignore the rest. For example, filtering all articles in rec.pets.dogs newsgroup except for articles that contain the keywords "Alaskan" and "Malamute" in the article headers.

  • Rot 13. Encryption technique for making articles unreadable. The main purpose of this technique is to post articles that might be offensive to certain users. By encrypting the articles and including a warning about its contents, users can be made aware of the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Most news readers include the Rot 13 encryption/decryption technique.

  • Post/reply/e-mail. Allows users to post articles to newsgroups, reply to posted articles, or send private e-mail to the author of a particular article.

  • Binary file viewers. Automatic viewing of posted binary image files. Some posted articles might have binary files attached with them such as a bitmap image. Sophisticated news readers allow users to view these images on-the-fly without having to download them and use an external viewing program.

E-Mail

E-mail, is the most prevalent service used by Internet users. E-mail allows Internet users to send messages to each other using a service called the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Just like NNTP is used to transfer Usenet news, SMTP is used to transfer e-mail messages. SMTP also runs as a higher level service on top of the TCP/IP protocol.

E-mail provides a fast and cost-effective method of communication that is remarkably useful. E-mail messages can travel across the world in a matter of minutes to reach their destination. Even though the WWW has been instrumental in bringing the Internet to the masses and transforming it into the Information Superhighway, the speed, effectiveness, and simplicity of the e-mail concept has made it the most widely used service over the Internet.


The Internet community affectionately refers to the normal postal mail as "snail mail," due to its comparative slowness.

Numerous commercial and shareware software packages are available for receiving and sending e-mail messages using the SMTP service. Popular proprietary e-mail programs such as Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus cc:Mail have special interfaces for receiving and sending SMTP based e-mail. Microsoft Exchange Server is a part of BackOffice and is covered in Chapters 12 through 16.

An off-shoot of the individual user-to-user e-mail connectivity has been the invention of mailing lists. As the name suggests, mailing lists are similar in concept to the mass mailings you receive through the postal service. However, on the Internet, you must subscribe to a mailing list. Users just send a simple message to the mailing list administrator asking to be included in the list and shortly thereafter will start receiving messages originated from the list as normal e-mail messages.

See "Electronic Mail - Just the Beginning," (Chapter 12)

Telnet

Telnet is a service that allows users to log on to remote computers (that is, other computers on the Internet) and remotely execute programs on those computers. It is a mainstay of the old Internet days when users could log on to remote computers and run applications and programs on those computers. Today, telnet is used mainly for remote administration of computer systems and for accessing Internet hosts to run command-line applications such as ping, finger, and so on. Figure 9.7 presents a sample telnet session for connecting to a remote computer system.


Ping and finger are two utility programs with origins in the UNIX operating system. Ping allows users to send an echo signal to another machine using the TCP/IP protocol. It is used to test the network connection. Finger allows users to find out how many users are connected to a machine and who they are. It also reports more detailed information about a particular user, if desired.

Fig. 9.7 Telnet can be used to connect to remote Internet host machines.

Telnet is inherently a command-line application interface that uses the popular VT-100 terminal emulation for displaying information to the user. When users log in to a remote machine using telnet, they are presented with a command-line prompt. Users may execute any command-line programs using telnet.

The TCP/IP protocol suite included with Windows NT includes a telnet client as part of the TCP/IP utility programs.


The Windows NT Resource Kit includes a telnet server for facilitating telnet access into a Windows NT Workstation or Windows NT Server machine. Telnet server allows users to log in to a machine using a telnet client, such as the one included with Windows NT.

See "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)," (Chapter 4)

File Transfer Protocol

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is one of the earliest and most commonly used services provided by the Internet. It is a simple file transfer utility that allows users to transfer files between their computer and a remote computer running the FTP server service.


FTP servers allow users to log on to a machine using FTP clients. All TCP/IP based services require special server programs to facilitate access by client programs. Under Windows NT, most server programs such as WWW server, FTP server, SQL Server, and telnet server run as operating system services.

The TCP/IP protocol suite included with Windows NT includes an FTP client and an FTP server as part of the TCP/IP utility programs.

The FTP system is platform independent and facilitates file transfers between disparate systems such as a UNIX workstation and a DOS PC. The FTP protocol allows for the transfer of both plain text ASCII files and binary files. Figure 9.8 presents a sample FTP session with the ftp.microsoft.com server site.

Fig. 9.8 Use FTP to transfer files between a local computer and a host computer (both on the Internet), such as Microsoft's FTP server.

FTP uses a command-line interface that requires users to know and understand FTP keywords for transferring files. Many graphical FTP programs also are available that facilitate point-and-click use of FTP services. The FTP standard defines a basic set of commands that must be supported by all implementations of the FTP service.

Because FTP uses clear text for transfer of information between client and server, it is not a very secure service. FTP should not be used for transferring sensitive files or information. For example, when connecting to a host computer, users are required to enter a logon ID and password. The logon ID and password are passed from the client to the server using clear text, and as such there is a potential of having the information being intercepted and viewed by a third party.

A powerful feature of the FTP service is its capability to allow anonymous logons to users. An anonymous logon is similar in concept to the guest account on Windows NT machines. It allows users to log on to a machine and have viewing and reading rights on predetermined directories and files on the system. Users can download files using anonymous FTP from any FTP server that allows anonymous logons. Anonymous FTP makes the FTP service more secure than normal by allowing the capabilities of the client to be limited.

See "A Flexible Set of Services," (Chapter 2)

See "Security for Your Internet Server," (Chapter 11)

Gopher

Gopher, named after its developers at the University of Minnesota, was developed for retrieving information from an online database, such as downloading the IRS catalog of tax forms. As with all high-level TCP/IP services, Gopher also uses the client-server process model to facilitate the transfer of information between a user running the Gopher client and a Gopher server.

Gopher is similar in concept to the FTP service, however, it only allows retrieval of information and has no provision for uploading information to the server. However, Gopher does provide the following significant advantages over FTP:

  • User friendly interface for information retrieval and display as opposed to the command-line interface of FTP.

  • Access to more information and resources such as program files, online phone book databases, online catalogs, Usenet news, and plain text files. FTP, on the other hand, is primarily used for downloading files such as shareware programs, text documents. and other file based information.

  • Provides a simple menu system for accessing the information. Even if used using a terminal-based textual interface, Gopher displays menus, lists, and other text formatting features to graphically display information and is a vast improvement over the cryptic command-line structure of the FTP service.

  • Allows jumping between information stored on different servers. It uses a mechanism similar to hyperlinks to connect distributed Gopher servers together and for linking information between them. Users can start from a particular Gopher server and navigate to other Gopher servers across the Internet. In contrast, FTP only allows connection to a single server at a time and users cannot navigate between servers. Users must log off and log on to switch between FTP servers.

Figure 9.9 presents a sample session with a Gopher server.

Fig. 9.9 Use a Gopher client to connect to a Gopher server.

Additional Services

Other services are on the Internet in addition to those already mentioned. Although they are perhaps less important, they still are useful, and you may find a reason to use some of them. The Internet is still growing, and new services are created and offered from time to time. A brief list of a few additional services is as follows:

  • Mailing lists. Informational mailings to which users can subscribe. Mailing lists usually are created for specific discussion topics, special interest groups, or specific products (for example, a mailing list for the Canon EOS Cameras). Mailing lists are sent to all subscribers through the e-mail system.

  • Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS). Allows users to access vast amounts of information for browsing and retrieval. It is designed to search indexed material using keywords or phrases. The WAIS (pronounced "waze") concept is one of the few Internet technologies to have come out of the commercial sector rather than the research and education community. WAIS was originally developed to publish information for easy access by corporate employees. For example, the entire phone directory for a large multinational corporation can be put on a Wide Area Information Server for easy access by company employees using the Internet. The major difference between WAIS and WWW is the protocol used.

  • Internet Chat or Internet Relay Chat (IRC). A mechanism for engaging in interactive communications with a group of users. IRC allows users to engage in conversation in real-time. However, the mode of communication is text only.

  • Shareware and freeware. Software and tools available all across the Internet for users. Most of these software programs are written by other users and made available to the Internet community free of charge or for a nominal fee. The main purpose of software sharing is to provide benefit to fellow Internet users.

This is only a partial list of what the Internet offers, and as time goes by and technology advances, you are sure to see other applications added.

Business Value of the Internet

The Internet has become a great influence in the business world. Its impact was expected by some, but has taken the majority of people somewhat by surprise. Business entities of all types are still struggling to find ways to take advantage of this significant and relatively new resource. The enormous popularity of the Internet:

  • Has motivated companies around the world to rethink how they do business and how they reach their target audience. For example, several TV commercials now include a footprint note for the WWW site of the advertiser.

  • Presents an outstanding opportunity for businesses to reach a mass market audience.

  • Provides opportunities for individuals and organizations looking to launch businesses using the Internet as the vehicle.

  • Provides a convenient medium for communicating enormous amounts of information to a large audience. The information is available for them to view at their own leisure and preference.

These concepts are supported by the predominant applications being implemented that utilize the Internet and the WWW in particular:

  • Marketing/Advertising

  • Sales

  • Communications

  • Publishing

Marketing/Advertising

The Internet has been recognized by organizations around the world as a new and exciting opportunity for expanding their business to reach new and untapped customers. The WWW has leveled the playing field for all organizations big and small by making the medium of communication the same for all. Companies must compete with each other using the same methods and tools and on the strength of their products rather than a glamorous or convincing marketing campaign. This apparently level playing field makes it difficult for organizations to differentiate themselves from each other for attracting customers. However, it also pushes the envelope for coming up with new and exciting ideas for grabbing the attention of the audience.

The most common method of marketing information about your business is to develop a WWW site for introducing your products. Many organizations have created WWW sites for introducing customers to their products in the hopes of enticing them to buy the products. Unique and innovative ideas are used by organizations to attract potential customers to their WWW sites. Figure 9.10 shows the WWW site maintained by Toyota for providing WWW users with information about its automobiles.

Fig. 9.10 Toyota maintains a WWW site for introducing its automobile products to potential Internet-based customers.

Another more common method of advertising over the WWW is to buy advertising space on WWW sites commonly visited by Internet users at regular intervals. Organizations providing services to Internet users, such as the Yahoo WWW search database site, sell advertising space on their WWW site to finance their operations. Businesses can buy advertising space on other sites that grab users' attention and introduce them to products being offered by organizations around the world. These advertising spots usually also include hyperlinks to the WWW site being maintained by the advertiser so that the users can immediately navigate to that site if they are interested in checking out the products. Figure 9.11 depicts the Yahoo Search Database WWW site with some advertisements by other businesses.

Fig. 9.11 The Yahoo WWW Search Database sells advertising spots on its site.

Sales

The Internet has always been used for the buying and selling of goods using the electronic medium. In the old days, most activities involving electronic commerce over the Internet were done between individuals. The Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the NSFNet backbone expressly prohibited the use of the Internet for commercial activities and as such prohibited organizations and individuals from selling products over the Internet.


The Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) was defined as part of the NSFNet charter and governed all conduct over the Internet. It is a set of guidelines that is still adhered to in some form or another by all users of the Internet. It defines what is considered acceptable and unacceptable for being a "citizen" of the Internet.

Before commercial activity was acceptable over the Internet, the only means of buying or selling products over the Internet was special Usenet newsgroups. These newsgroups were set up for allowing users to engage in trade amongst each other and are still heavily used by Internet users. For example, a newsgroup called misc.forsale.computers.monitors exists for allowing users to buy or sell computer monitors. The newsgroup rec.photo.marketplace is used exclusively to buy and sell photography equipment.

However, after the NSFNet backbone was decommissioned and the Internet became more commercial-sector based, changes were brought about to allow commercial activity over the Internet. The WWW became the medium of choice for carrying out electronic commerce over the Internet. One of the most famous and popular WWW sites for sales of commercial products over the WWW is The Internet Shopping Network. The ISN, as it is more commonly called, is one of the first WWW sites developed exclusively to sell commercial products over the Internet. Figure 9.12 displays the home page for the Internet Shopping Network WWW site.

Fig. 9.12 The Internet Shopping Network sells a multitude of products to WWW users.

Over the last couple of years, hundreds of WWW sites have sprung up for selling products to the Internet community. They are commonly referred to as online shopping malls. The Internet can be used to buy products in any imaginable category from clothes to skiing gear to computers to boats.

Traditional businesses that have moved the fastest to embrace the Internet have usually been in the apparel retail business and the mail-order catalog business. Companies such as Lands' End, The Nature Company, The Limited, Damark mail-order catalog, and others have moved quickly to adapt their businesses to embrace the Internet.

Communications

One of the major advantages of the Internet has been its capability to provide a means of communications between organizations. E-mail and mailing lists provide businesses with a convenient and relatively inexpensive mechanism for communicating with customers and vendors on a one-on-one basis. More and more, business users are using Internet-based e-mail to keep in touch with each other, exchange ideas and information, and receive customer feedback.

Mailing lists are maintained by organizations around the world to inform their customers of new happenings, product announcements, and other important events. One example of a mailing list is the Microsoft Windows NT Server mailing list available to registered users of Windows NT Server. It informs them of product updates, bug fixes, and upcoming events relating to the Windows NT Server product.

Publishing

Many organizations have recognized the WWW as a great place to advertise, and they are using the WWW as a means of publishing information about their products and services. The popularity of the WWW as an advertising and marketing tool is evident in the number of sites set up solely for the purpose of advertising products and services. The Internet also presents an enormous opportunity for service providers to develop a presence on the WWW. Virtually overnight, hundreds of businesses specializing in WWW server setup, Web page creation, electronic publishing, and content creation have sprung up around the world. The WWW home page for one such company is shown in figure 9.13.

Fig. 9.13 WWW content creators also have their own Web pages.

The WWW is also being used as a medium for electronic publishing. Following are examples of popular uses of the WWW:

  • Several books have been converted to electronic form and made available on the WWW. The contents of this book are provided in HTML format on the CD-ROM included in the back of the book. (Perhaps you are reading the electronic version with a Web browser right now!)

  • Several newsletters are published by individuals and organizations solely in electronic form and made available over the WWW.

  • The IRS publishes all tax-related materials over the WWW.

  • WWW sites are maintained by organizations for providing users with up-to-the minute news stories and stock market quotes. For example, ESPN maintains a WWW site for up-to-date sports news and information (see fig. 9.14).

Fig. 9.14 ESPN has a WWW site available over the Internet called ESPNet SportsZone.

Internet Concepts

The Internet is a vast and complex expanse of disparate computers networked together through a dizzying array of technological wizardry. To the uninitiated, the Internet can be intimidating and difficult to understand at first. Fortunately, you do not have to understand the inner workings of the Internet to use it. Nevertheless, the more knowledge you have about the Internet, the more successful you will be with your Internet Information Server implementation. Therefore, this section briefly describes some of the more technical aspects of the Internet.

Networks

The Internet is not a single network, but instead, a combination of thousands of networks spread throughout the world. As mentioned earlier, the initial ARPANet had humble beginnings as a four-node network. As time passed, more and more computers were connected to the initial network. In time, entire networks were connected to the base ARPANet. In the late 1980s, NSFNet came into existence and formed the backbone of a network that connected thousands of Department of Defense agencies, universities, commercial businesses, and research institutions.

Today, the Internet is comprised of a backbone of networks being maintained by companies such as AT&T, MCI, and Sprint. This backbone network typically runs at speeds of 45-100 Mbps. It also provides connectivity to the mid-level and regional networks being operated throughout the world.

For example, one of these is the Canadian Network (CA.net), which provides connectivity to most of Canada. These mid-level and regional networks then provide connectivity to local organizations, universities, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who provide or sell Internet connectivity to the commercial and private sectors.


The multilevel connectivity of the Internet is absolutely transparent to the average user and does not in any way affect their ability to explore the Internet.

Protocols

The Internet networks run on a network scheme called TCP/IP. TCP/IP is a mechanism that breaks up a message into small packets and transmits them over the network. In addition to carrying a piece of the actual message, each packet also carries an identification tag to facilitate reassembling its piece of the original message back into the proper order when it is received. The packets comprising a message are required to reach the proper destination, but they do not have to use the same route or travel through the Internet in a predetermined sequence. When all the packets containing a particular message have arrived at the destination, they are automatically put back together to re-create the original message. This is why the Internet is called a packet-switched network. The devices that collect these packets and determine the best transmission routes for them are called routers. See Chapter 8, "Using TCP/IP with Windows NT Server," for more information.

Domains and Addresses

Domains provide the Internet with a way to define network groups, computer names, and addresses. All Internet computers are identified by a unique number called the IP (Internet Protocol) address, and even though millions of computers are connected to the Internet (and therefore are in the Internet domain), each IP address must be unique. Thus, each IP address consists of four 3-digit numbers, with each set (or more correctly an octet) being separated by a dot. The permissible range for each octet is 0 through 255 (for example, 200.215.180.210).


Not all the above mentioned 4 billion addresses are available for general use. Certain ranges in the Class A address space have been reserved for administrative purposes and future usage, thus reducing the total number of available addresses significantly.

The enormous growth of the Internet has resulted in a shortage of available IP addresses. An inappropriate allocation of addresses in the Class B range has resulted in inefficient address usage. Many organizations have been assigned relatively large Class B addresses when a smaller Class C address range would have sufficed. Efforts are underway to rework the addressing scheme to alleviate the problems.

Dividing the IP address space into classes makes it easier to distribute addresses using the top-down domain level hierarchy method. Backbone providers are usually assigned Class A addresses, with subsequent lower level domains being assigned Class B, C, or D addresses under that range. For example, Macmillan Computer Publishing USA is assigned a Class C address of 199.177.202.X, resulting in 256 Class D addresses being available to Macmillan Computer Publishing to be assigned as they see fit within their domain. Macmillan's network provider has a Class B address assigned to them, 199.177.X.X, allowing them to assign more than 65,000 lower domain addresses to their customers. The IP address purposely distributes administration of address assignment to lower levels of the domain hierarchy for autonomy of operations.


The InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center) is now ultimately responsible for processing all IP address requests and has the final authority in assigning IP addresses to interested parties.

Because it is difficult to remember cryptic numbers, the Internet uses a naming convention called the Domain Name Service (DNS), which translates IP addresses into names that are easier to remember. For example, the address of the Macmillan Computer Publishing USA Internet server is (currently) 199.177.202.10. Because it is difficult to remember a number like this, the server has been assigned the name www.mcp.com. Just like the numeric IP addresses, domain names are also separated by dots for the purpose of creating a name-based domain hierarchy. In terms of domain names, the addresses are read backwards to identify the top level domain and so on. With www.mcp.com, the top-level domain is the com domain. The mcp domain is a mid-level domain that is part of the com domain, and www is one of the names of a computer in the mcp domain (it may have other names as well).

Six top-level domains are defined for the United States:

  • gov. Government organizations

  • mil. Military organizations

  • edu. Educational organizations

  • com. Commercial organizations

  • org. Nonprofit organizations

  • net. Network service providers, usually mid-level regional networks

In addition, countries around the world have each been assigned a two-character top level domain name. For example, "uk" is for the United Kingdom; "ca" is for Canada; "au" is for Australia; and "fi" is for Finland. The DNS naming convention allows for anywhere from two to four levels of nested domains, a completely arbitrary selection based on ease of use and simplicity.


Recently, the United States has also been assigned a two-character code - namely "us" - to identify computers and domains within the United States. However, the previously mentioned six top-level domains are still predominantly used to identify entities within the United States, a concession to the country of origin for the Internet.

Dividing computers and networks into domains distributes the administration of the naming system to lower levels of the hierarchy. Because every computer name on the Internet must be unique, it is easier to handle the administration by placing the responsibility on the network administrators to maintain uniqueness within their own domain. For example, you can have two computers, each named "server" and be legal as long as one is in the gasullivan.com domain (server.gasullivan.com), and the other is in the hamilton.gasullivan.com domain (server.hamilton.gasullivan.com). You cannot have both computers in the gasullivan.com domain because their name strings would be identical (server.gasullivan.com). However, because "hamilton" is a subdomain of the gasullivan.com domain, it is possible to have a second computer named "server" within the hamilton.gasullivan.com subdomain. So as long as you can append the computer name to a domain name and have the entire name string be unique, you have satisfied the naming convention.

What the Future Holds

What does the future hold for the Internet? The Internet backbone transmission rates have progressed from an initial 50 kbps to more than 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Plans are currently underway to upgrade the backbone to achieve transmission rates of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) in the very near future. Significant increases in Internet transmission rates are necessary to accommodate the rapidly growing Internet population.

On the client access side, the advances have been even more dramatic. The Internet has evolved from a network of supercomputers accessible via 300 bps lines to a network of networks accessible from millions of locations at speeds up to 45 Mbps. Today, the lowest acceptable access speed for the average user connecting to the Internet is 28.8 kbps, and 64-128 kbps ISDN lines are quickly increasing in popularity.

In the near future you can only expect these access speeds to increase by an order of magnitude. Cable modems with transmission rate claims of 5-10 Mbps are already on the horizon. Advances in ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode - a new standard for network connectivity) technology promise to put 25-100 Mbps network connections on corporate desktops, and eventually this technology will trickle down to the private sector. Because ATM technology is scalable, transmission rates will only go up from here. Additionally, satellite connections will provide increased access speeds for the Internet community.

Advances on the software side will be as interesting. The current push is to develop standards for securing financial transactions on the Internet. When the standards are in place, you can expect to see a multitude of software applications ranging from secure online shopping to online banking and online trading of financial instruments. Electronic commerce, a means for doing financial transactions such as credit card purchases, stock purchases, and automatic fund transfers from bank accounts, will become a common occurrence as users conduct their day-to-day business using the Internet.

Tools such as the InternetPhone, which allows users to carry on a real-time audio-based conversation with each other using the Internet, have already broken new ground toward a new class of multimedia applications for the Internet. With the increase in available access speeds, you can expect to conduct extensive audio and video-based interactive sessions on the Internet. The Internet will become a place where people can interactively communicate with one another.

If the Internet maintains its current rate of growth, and there is every indication that it will, most of the world's population could have Internet access by the end of the century.

Internet users will also have a host of professional and personal productivity applications and tools available for them on the Information Superhighway. The Internet is sure to provide the following:

  • The capability to conduct electronic commerce for credit card purchases, stock purchases, fund transfers, wires, and other financial transactions.

  • Multimedia, 3D interactive information stores where users can browse through information using text, audio, and video. For example, users can visit an online version of the Microsoft corporate campus and get a tour of the facilities.

  • Real-time audio for online communications using tools such as the InternetPhone.

  • Interactive video will allow users to watch highlights of events as they happen. Examples include watching news, sports highlights, and information services.

  • Virtual tours will allow users to walk through online representations of information stores such as libraries.

The possibilities on the Information Superhighway are limitless. The rest of this decade will allow us to witness technologies and applications well beyond the dreams of the original Internet creators when they conceived the idea some 20 years ago.

From Here...

This chapter discussed how the Internet was developed, where it stands now, and how it will impact information technology in the future.

Table of Contents

08 - Using TCP/IP with Windows NT Server

10 - Preparing for Internet Information Server