Uses of an Internet

 

Uses of Internet:

The Internet is a global networking system that can be used on most devices nowadays and has become an essential part of our lives. In today's technological era, most of the companies are getting their operations done over the Internet. There are various uses of the Internet by which companies and individuals are making their daily tasks more productive and more comfortable.

Here, we have discussed the major uses of the Internet that play a vital role in daily life:

Online Booking & Orders:

The Internet has made it a lot easier for people to book tickets for buses, trains, flights (domestic and international) directly using their devices from anywhere. People can also book a taxi by choosing their current location, and they will be picked up or dropped at a specified location. Now no one needs to wait in long queues for their turn to book tickets at the ticket counter.

Besides, people can order a wide variety of products at home using the Internet and devices. It can range from grocery products to ready to eat, fashionable clothes to medicines. Most items can be ordered at home and received directly at the door.

Cashless Transactions:

Most countries are promoting cashless transactions and digital payments. This helps people not carry much cash. People can pay their bills through debit or credit cards using POS devices. These devices are connected to the payment gateway on the Internet. Besides, People can also use their smartphone and the Internet for processing transactions on UPI (Unified Payment Interface). It does not even require them to carry their cards. The UPI payment method is continuously evolving and is expected to cover most transactions in the near future.

Education:

Most of the devices nowadays are connected through the Internet. The Internet has the availability of broad educational content on any topic with different types. People can study the relevant topic just by spending a couple of minutes over the Internet. Internet Search engines help people quickly find the relevant study material in multiple formats (such as images, videos, documents, etc.). This helps eliminate the need to go to the library to read several books to find the desired information.

Besides, the Internet has also enabled students to participate in their classes through video conferencing, where students can connect with their teachers or professionals anywhere in the world.

Online Banking & Trading:

The way of banking has changed after the introduction of the Internet. The Internet has made banking online where people can manage their bank accounts while sitting at home or traveling abroad. Nowadays, most of the features of banking are right in people's hands. With the help of online banking, people can securely transfer the money from one account to another, change their ATM pins, apply for the physical or virtual credit cards, update credit card limits, enable or disable international transactions, track their transactions, and many more. Also, they can even raise an online complaint or contact to bank's support staff.

Apart from this, the Internet has made it a lot easier for people to trade in the Stock market from anywhere. People can easily buy, sell, or manage stocks online.

Research:

The Internet is playing a significant role in the field of research. Before the use of the Internet, it was quite hard to look for information about anything. People had to go through hundreds of books for references to find the desired information. However, the Internet has made it a lot easier, and anyone can find the required information at some clicks only. In research, people can study about the success and failed research and work further for the improvements. Uses of the Internet in research have incredibly beneficial for the researchers.

Electronic Mail:

Email or electronic mail is one of the first significant uses of the Internet. The email has enabled faster communication between people on the Internet. Using email, people can quickly share information, data files, such as images, audio, video, and other types of files. The use of email has significantly reduced paper use, which was the primary source of communication in the olden days. Anyone can have a free email address and can easily communicate with others. This has also reduced the load on the physical mail system, although it is still in use.

Job Search:

Getting a job is a lot easier than before. Any person can view relevant job information using the Internet. Earlier, people had to go through each company individually to know if a position was vacant or not. However, the Internet has enabled people to find employment sitting at home to suit their interests. Many websites provide details about job availability. Once people submit their resumes, these websites keep informing about vacancies through email. Besides, each well-known company has its website, where the company posts about the vacancy opening. So, just sitting at home, people can search, apply for jobs and even give their interviews and see or know their results.

Social Networking:

Social networking sites have connected people around the world. Social networking is an essential part of the Internet. With the help of the Internet, people have got the ability to form social groups where they can share information, thoughts and ideas about anything. The social networking platform is the largest source of content, covering everything from informative content to entertainment. The best thing is that people don't have to pay anything to use these services. This helps businesses develop their community and promote their products.

Collaboration:

Due to the Internet, communication has become easier and better. You can easily connect with anyone on the Internet, either texting, calling or video calling. It has created new cooperation opportunities for the people. There are several online chat software and websites that help people create group discussions or meetings. It helps businesses to have a hassle-free discussion. Therefore, people do not always need to travel long distances to attend meetings. This helps people avoid unnecessary travel and save time for productive use.

Besides, there are many cloud-based software and websites that offer people to work on the same project simultaneously at the same time. People from different places can easily connect and support their specialties using the Internet.

Entertainment:

The Internet is the most effective means of entertainment. There are various options available on the Internet, which people can try, such as watching movies, playing online games, listening to songs, etc. The Internet has also made it easy for people to download entertainment items to their local storage. Using the Internet, people can also share their videos, songs, pictures online with others. Also, nowadays, people can watch live TV or sports on the Internet.

E-Commerce:

The Internet is not just limited to ordering things; it can also be used to sell products. Many e-commerce websites allow businesses and individuals to sell their products. Products are purchased by these e-commerce companies, stored in their warehouses, packaged in their brand packaging, and distributed by themselves. E-commerce companies charge some commission to distribute goods to customers. Also, they offer great discounts and offers to customers. The best thing is that customers do not have to go to physical stores.

Besides, sellers can also create their website and list their products there. They can refer to all information about the product, answer customer questions and provide online payment options to their customers. All these things are possible on the Internet.

File Transfer:

The Internet has made file transfer between systems or devices easier. With FTP (File Transfer Protocol), data can be securely exchanged over the Internet. FTP is mainly beneficial when large files need to be transferred because email allows sharing files with limited size. FTP is the best way to exchange information between two stakeholders. This method is still quite popular and in use.

Navigation:

The navigation mechanism is one of the most beneficial uses of the Internet. Once a user put the location in the online maps (such as Google maps), it provides all the details about that location. Users can even find the best route to visit that particular location. The map also provides the distance between the locations. The best thing about navigation is that it will provide the shortest possible route with less traffic. One can also search for any specific place like the nearest hotel, restaurants, banks, ATM, etc. Apart from this, a person can share a live location with others using the Internet and the navigation technique.

Advertising:

Because most people use the Internet, it is the best means of promoting something or advertising. There are options for paid promotion as well as free promotion. There are many advertising platforms on the Internet that help promote products or businesses online. These platforms advertise products on other related websites using banners, videos, email etc. They charge for these advertisements according to distance, keywords and audience etc. However, one can also use social media platforms to create online groups or communities and advertise freely.

Real-time updates:

The Internet is helping people to keep up with what is happening around the world. Many news and information websites provide real-time updates on various categories, such as politics, history, news, geology, leisure, sports, technology, marketing, and more. One can easily select the category of interest and stay connected with updates. The presence of e-newspapers and magazines is updating people and helping to cut paper usage.

 

Terminal Network (Telnet) : Login Types and Network Virtual Terminal (NVT)

 

Terminal Network (Telnet):

 

·         The main task of the internet is to provide services to users. For example, users want to run different application programs at the remote site and transfer a result to the local site. This requires a client-server program such as FTP, SMTP. But this would not allow us to create a specific program for each demand.

·         The better solution is to provide a general client-server program that lets the user access any application program on a remote computer. Therefore, a program that allows a user to log on to a remote computer. A popular client-server program Telnet is used to meet such demands. Telnet is an abbreviation for Terminal Network.

·         Telnet provides a connection to the remote computer in such a way that a local terminal appears to be at the remote side.

·         There are two types of login:

Local Login

·         When a user logs into a local computer, then it is known as local login.

·         When the workstation running terminal emulator, the keystrokes entered by the user are accepted by the terminal driver. The terminal driver then passes these characters to the operating system which in turn, invokes the desired application program.

·         However, the operating system has special meaning to special characters. For example, in UNIX some combination of characters has special meanings such as control character with "Z" (^Z) means suspend. Such situations do not create any problem as the terminal driver knows the meaning of such characters. But, it can cause the problems in remote login.

Remote login

·         When the user wants to access an application program on a remote computer, then the user must perform remote login.

How remote login occurs?

At the local site:

The user sends the keystrokes to the terminal driver, the characters are then sent to the TELNET client. The TELNET client which in turn, transforms the characters to a universal character set known as network virtual terminal characters and delivers them to the local TCP/IP stack.

At the remote site:

The commands in NVT forms are transmitted to the TCP/IP at the remote machine. Here, the characters are delivered to the operating system and then pass to the TELNET server. The TELNET server transforms the characters which can be understandable by a remote computer. However, the characters cannot be directly passed to the operating system as a remote operating system does not receive the characters from the TELNET server. Therefore, it requires some piece of software that can accept the characters from the TELNET server. The operating system then passes these characters to the appropriate application program.

Network Virtual Terminal (NVT)

·         The network virtual terminal is an interface that defines how data and commands are sent across the network.

·         In today's world, systems are heterogeneous. For example, the operating system accepts a special combination of characters such as end-of-file token running a DOS operating system ctrl+z while the token running a UNIX operating system is ctrl+d.

·         TELNET solves this issue by defining a universal interface known as network virtual interface.

·         The TELNET client translates the characters that come from the local terminal into NVT form and then delivers them to the network. The Telnet server then translates the data from NVT form into a form which can be understandable by a remote computer.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) : Working, Modes, Advantages and Disadvantages

 

File Transfer Protocol (FTP):

 

File Transfer Protocol is a set of protocols that the networked computers use to talk over the internet. In more simple terms, it is a way to connect two computers and move files between them. FTP allows new web pages that are created by an individual to show up on the internet. It allows the web pages to transfer to the server so that others can access them.

Using an FTP client we can upload, download, delete, move, rename and copy the file on a server. If you send your file through FTP then your files mainly perform upload or download from the FTP server. When you are uploading the files then you are transferring the files to the server from your personal computer and when you are downloading the file you are transferring the file from the server to your personal computer.

How does File Transfer Protocol work?

FTP is a client-server protocol and it relies on two communication channels between the client and the server.

1. Control Connection: The FTP client, for example, FileZilla or FileZilla Pro sends a connection request usually to server port number 21. This is the control connection. It is used for sending and receiving commands and responses. Typically a user needs to log on to the FTP server for establishing the connection but there are some servers that make all their content available without login. These servers are known as anonymous FTP.
2. Data Connection: For transferring the files and folder we use a separate connection called data connection.

This connection can be established in two ways:

• Active Mode: In this mode, the user connects from a random port (random port 1) on the FTP client to the port 21 of the server. It sends the PORT command which tells the server that what port of the client it should connect to i.e. (random port 2). The server connects from the port 20 to the port which the client has designated i.e. Random Port 2. Once the connection is established the data transfer takes place through these client and server port.

• Passive Mode: In the situation, where the client cannot accept connection like when blocked by a firewall, the passive mode has to be used. This is the most common mode because nowadays the client is behind the firewall (e.g. built-in Windows Firewall). In this mode, the user connects from a random port (random port 1) on the FTP client to the port 21 of the server. It sends the PASV command which tells the client that what port of the server it should connect to i.e. (random port 3) for establishing the connection. The client connects from the Random port 2 to the port which the server has designated i.e. Random Port 3. Once the connection is established the data transfers take place through these client and server port.

Advantages of using FTP

1. It allows you to transfer multiple files and folders.
2. When the connection is lost then it has the ability to resume the transfer.
3. There is no limitation on the size of the file to be transferred. The browsers allow a transfer of only up to 2 GB.
4. Many FTP clients like FileZilla have the ability to schedule the transfers.
5. The data transfer is faster than HTTP.
6. The items that are to be uploaded or downloaded are added to the ‘queue’. The FTP client can add items to the ‘queue’.

Disadvantages of using FTP

·         FTP doesn't encrypt the traffic so usernames, passwords, and other data can easily be read by capturing the data packets because while transferring as they are sent in cleartext. FTP is vulnerable to packet capture and other attacks.

E-mail : Types, Uses, and Web Mail

 

E-mail:

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email entered limited use in the 1960s, but users could only send to users of the same computer. Some systems also supported a form of instant messaging, where sender and receiver needed to be online simultaneously. Ray Tomlinson is credited as the inventor of networked email; in 1971, he developed the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts across the ARPANET, using the @ sign to link the user name with a destination server. By the mid-1970s, this was the form recognized as email.

Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages or download it.

Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to carry text in other character sets and multimedia content attachments. 

 

The basic Internet message format used for email is defined by RFC 5322, with encoding of non-ASCII data and multimedia content attachments defined in RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions or MIME. The extensions in International email apply only to email.

Internet email messages consist of two sections, 'header' and 'body'. These are known as 'content'. The header is structured into fields such as From, To, CC, Subject, Date, and other information about the email. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters and information using message header fields. The body contains the message, as unstructured text, sometimes containing a signature block at the end. The header is separated from the body by a blank line.

Common header fields for email include:

·         To: The email address(es), and optionally name(s) of the message's recipient(s). Indicates primary recipients (multiple allowed).

·          Subject: A brief summary of the topic of the message. Certain abbreviations are commonly used in the subject, including "RE:" and "FW:".

·         Cc: Carbon copy; Many email clients mark email in one's inbox differently depending on whether they are in the To: or Cc: list.

·         Bcc: Blind carbon copy; addresses are usually only specified during SMTP delivery, and not usually listed in the message header.

·         Content-Type: Information about how the message is to be displayed, usually a MIME type.

·         Precedence: commonly with values "bulk", "junk", or "list"; used to indicate automated "vacation" or "out of office" responses should not be returned for this mail, e.g. to prevent vacation notices from sent to all other subscribers of a mailing list. Sendmail uses this field to affect prioritization of queued email, with "Precedence: special-delivery" messages delivered sooner. With modern high-bandwidth networks, delivery priority is less of an issue than it was. Microsoft Exchange respects a fine-grained automatic response suppression mechanism, the X-Auto-Response-Suppress field.^[43]

·         Message-ID: Also an automatic-generated field to prevent multiple deliveries and for reference in In-Reply-To: (see below).

·         In-Reply-To: Message-ID of the message this is a reply to. Used to link related messages together. This field only applies to reply messages.

·         References: Message-ID of the message this is a reply to, and the message-id of the message the previous reply was a reply to, etc.

·         Reply-To: Address should be used to reply to the message.

·         Sender: Address of the sender acting on behalf of the author listed in the From: field (secretary, list manager, etc.).

·         Archived-At: A direct link to the archived form of an individual email message.

 

Types:

Web-based email

Many email providers have a web-based email client (e.g. AOL Mail, Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail). This allows users to log into the email account by using any compatible web browser to send and receive their email. Mail is typically not downloaded to the web client, so can't be read without a current Internet connection.

POP3 email servers

The Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is a mail access protocol used by a client application to read messages from the mail server. Received messages are often deleted from the server. POP supports simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote mailboxes (termed maildrop in the POP RFC's). POP3 allows you to download email messages on your local computer and read them even when you are offline.

IMAP email servers

The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) provides features to manage a mailbox from multiple devices. IMAP shows the headers of messages, the sender and the subject and the device needs to request to download specific messages. Usually, the mail is left in folders in the mail server.

MAPI email servers

Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is used by Microsoft Outlook to communicate to Microsoft Exchange Server - and to a range of other email server products such as Axigen Mail Server, Kerio Connect, Scalix, Zimbra, HP OpenMail, IBM Lotus Notes, Zarafa, and Bynari where vendors have added MAPI support to allow their products to be accessed directly via Outlook.

Uses:

Business and organizational use

Email has been widely accepted by businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations in the developed world, and it is one of the key parts of an 'e-revolution' in workplace communication. It has some key benefits to business and other organizations, including facilitating logistics, helping with synchronization, reducing cost, Increasing speed, possibility of auto-processing and improved distribution, Email marketing.

Personal use

Many users access their personal emails from friends and family members using a personal computer in their house or apartment. Mobile "apps" for email increase accessibility to the medium for users who are out of their homes. Individuals often check emails on smartphones for both personal and work-related messages.

Email attachment:

Email messages may have one or more attachments, which are additional files that are appended to the email. Typical attachments include Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, and scanned images of paper documents. In principle, there is no technical restriction on the size or number of attachments. However, in practice, email clients, servers, and Internet service providers implement various limitations on the size of files, or complete email - typically to 25MB or less. Furthermore, due to technical reasons, attachment sizes as seen by these transport systems can differ from what the user sees, which can be confusing to senders when trying to assess whether they can safely send a file by email. Where larger files need to be shared, various file hosting services are available and commonly used.

 

Web mail:

 

Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through specialised email client software.

Examples of webmail providers are AOL Mail, Gmail, GMX Mail, Mailfence, Outlook.com/Hotmail.com, Yahoo Mail and IceWarp Mail Server.

Additionally, many internet service providers provide webmail as part of their internet service package. Similarly, some web hosting providers also provide webmail as a part of their hosting package.

Webmail access is made possible through webmail software, such as Roundcube or SquirrelMail, installed and running on the email server.

As with any web application, webmail's main advantage over the use of a desktop email client is the ability to send and receive email anywhere from a web browser. Its main disadvantage is the need to be connected to the Internet while using it.

 

The first Web Mail implementation was developed at CERN in 1993 by Phillip Hallam-Baker as a test of the HTTP protocol stack, but was not developed further. In the next two years, however, several people produced working webmail applications.

Most Commonly used WWW Development Languages

 

WWW Development Languages:

Most Commonly Used Languages

There is a variety of coding languages developers choose from, and most use the language they are most comfortable with. Their preference is formed over time based on their experience using different languages.

Here are the most common languages and how they are used:

1. HTML

HTML makes up the layout and structure for your website. This language is dynamic and allows you to create a beautiful website using less code. HTML is used to create a starting point for the website and is what most of your static pages start from. A better way to understand this language is to consider it as the skeleton that is holding your website together.

2. CSS

CSS is the language developers can use to style a website. The style sheet language describes how your website is presented and its layout. CSS is used hand in hand with HTML to add colors, backgrounds, layouts, font sizes, and more. This language is a core technology web developers use to design and build websites.

3. Java

Java is the most popular web programming language. It is used to develop website content, games, apps, and software. Java is used in the production of most Android apps. Studies have shown over 15 billion devices are using Java in some form or other. Java language is portable and can be run on multiple software platforms.

4. JavaScript

JavaScript is used in many aspects of web development. Web developers use this language to add interactive elements to their websites. User engagement is important to your business, and your web developer should be incorporating JavaScript elements in your design.

5. Python

Python is one of the easiest languages to use and work with. Python can create a framework for basically any website need. This language uses simple and straightforward syntax, making it easy for web developers to work with and explain to their users. Some familiar sites that are using this language are Pinterest and Instagram.

6. SQL

SQL is a database query language that is used when your website is computing large amounts of data. Using SQL allows you to gather data from different databases and use it to cater your website to your target audience. This language is not used alone; instead, it is paired with others to get the most out of your customer database and website development.

7. PHP

PHP is often used on data-heavy websites or for app development. This is an open-source language that can be easily modified to meet the needs of your business or website. Large websites like WordPress and Facebook use PHP to manage and process their data.

8. .NET

.NET (pronounced dot net) is a framework that provides programming guidelines that can be used to develop a wide range of applications from the web to mobile to Windows-based applications. The .NET framework can work with several web programming languages such as C#, VB.NET, C++, and F#. At Grand Circus, we use C# as well as MVC. .NET has a huge collection of predefined class libraries (pre-written code) that has support for simple and complex data structures.

9. Angular

Angular is a TypeScript-based open-source front-end application platform led by the Angular Team at Google and by a community of individuals and corporations. Angular is a complete rewrite from the same team that built AngularJS. Angular is a platform that makes it easy to build applications with the web. Angular combines declarative templates, dependency injection, end to end tooling, and integrated best practices to solve development challenges. Angular empowers developers to build applications that live on the web, mobile, or the desktop.

Why Do Some Languages Work Better Than Others?

No one language is inherently better than another, they just perform better with different tasks. There are some key factors that web developers consider when they are deciding what language or coding method to use while working on a project. Here are some of those factors:

·         Expressiveness: The expressiveness relates to how easy a language is to understand, use, and write. The productivity of a language says a lot about how expressive your website will be. The easier a language is to write, the more time can be spent on adding design elements to the site. The expressiveness relates to how easy it is to add to the existing code. A developer will use a language where he or she does not have to spend a lot of time thinking about how to expand upon the code to grow or update the website.

·         Reliability: The reliability of the language and the code is important. The functionality of your website relies on how reliable the language is. The code is also in place to protect your website and customers. Reliable code will be easy to test and maintain. When a developer is reviewing the code, he or she should be able to scan it and get a sense for how reliable the website will be.

·         Performance: This is an important factor for developers to consider when they are working on a business website. They must take into consideration the amount of traffic your site will receive and what types of activities users will be doing while they visit your website. They will look for easy optimization to different servers and browsers and will want to make sure the code will operate consistently throughout a visitor’s time spent on the website.