5.6 INTERNET ON A PC

 Internet is the backbone of modern communication system. In today’s life, we are dependent on the internet for almost everything from information collection to carry out various activities such as reservation, online shopping and education. Internet is a collection of computers world over connected together to share various resources.

There are various ways to connect an internet. Generally dial-up connection and broadband connection are the two types of internet connections which are used commonly. 

5.6.1 Dial-up Internet Connection 

It is a way to connect to the internet in which public switched telephone network (PSTN) is used to make a Internet connection via telephone lines to an internet service provider (ISP). In dial-up connection telephone network is of prime importance. Since dial-up connection requires telephone lines which have limited capacity. Its transmission speed is limited and it is slow. Generally dialup operate at speeds of 14.4Kbit, 28.8Kbit, or 56Kbit. Dialup speeds vary by the quality of the phone line and the many different user configurations. A MODEM is required for dial-up internet connection. MODEM is short form of modulator-demodulator. A modem is a hardware device or a software application program that is used in a computer to transmit data/ information over a network such as a telephone or cable lines. In computer information is stored in digital form whereas information transmitted over telephone lines is transmitted in the form of analog signal. A modem is used to convert between these two forms of analog to digital and vice versa. Now-a-days, dial-up connections are gradually being replaced by Broadband connections.


5.6.2 Broadband Internet Connection 

Broadband Connection is a high data rate connection as compared to dial-up connection. Broadband has very high rate of data transmission. In contrast to dialup connection, it is a permanent connection, which can be set up over a high-speed communication links. Generally, an internet connection of 256 kbps (kilo byte per second) or more is considered as broadband Internet connection. Multimedia applications such as video and computer games, can be downloaded very quickly and easily with broadband connection which was not possible, as fast in dial-up connection.

Webcasting is nothing but broadcasting on the internet. This facility is possible only due Personal Computer to high speed internet connection such as broadband connection. When we distribute same media files over the internet to different users using streaming media technology, it is called as webcast. Now-a-days, online web media is a great source of information and it is being successfully used in different sectors such as education, entertainment, technology etc. Online education is one of the most important field which is using this facility. You can find several webcast academic classes on the internet by experts. Even you can find the web lecturers on web link:  http://www.ignouonline.ac.in/Broadcast/


5.6.3 Proxy Server

Proxy server is used in a computer network. Proxy server is a server which acts as an intermediary between the client application and the Web server. Proxy server is used to improve performance and for filtering purposes. In an organization, proxy server can be used to prevent its employee to access certain types of website. It provides security and check to the overall system. It can also improve the performance of the network. Suppose two users access the web through proxy server. If user X requests a webpage, say page 1. Sometime later if user Y requests the same page then this request will not forwarded to the web server. Proxy server simply returns the same page which it has access for user X, thus saving lot of time.


You may configure Internet Explorer to use a proxy over a LAN connection on your PC. 

To configure Internet Explorer 6.0 on your PC, follow the following steps: 

1. On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, you click Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings. 

2. Under Proxy server, click to select the Use a proxy server for your LAN chec box. In the Address box, type the IP address of the proxy server. 

3. In the Port box, type the port number that is used by the proxy server for client connections. The port number by default is 8080. 

4. You can click to select the Bypass proxy server for local addresses check box if you do not want the proxy server computer to be used when you connect to a computer on the local network (this may speed up performance). 

5. Click OK to close the LAN Settings dialog box. 6. Click OK again to close the Internet Options dialog box.


You will learn in more details about computer networks and Internet in Block 3 of this course.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.5 SOCIAL NETWORKING

Image
 A social network is a network of individuals which have some sort of interdependence on each other. This interdependence may be in the form of friendship, kinship, common causes and so on. A Social networking service may be offered through a web site on the Internet. Some of the popular social networking services are – Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, MySpace, Friend Finder, Yahoo! 360, Classmates and many more.  You need to register to a social networking service in order to use it. Some of the features provided by these services are:  Creation of a profile page of your own informing others about the information that you would like to share about you.  Viewing of profile pages of others.  Creating your own network of friends.  Searching online friends.  Putting your albums online for your friends.  Sharing your thoughts and experiences.  Sharing of audio and video may be through youTube – a popular website where you can put your videos for general public viewership...
Read more

3.6 BLOG

Image
 Blog is a website where entries are written as information or news on a particular subject. You may choose any subject for writing a blog like food, health, or information about IGNOU dates etc. A blog may combine text, images, or other media components; however, most blogs are textual. They may also provide links to other web pages or blogs. In addition, blog allows you to leave comments in an interactive format. Blogging is becoming increasingly popular among students as it allows you publish and keep record of your ideas over time. In addition, you may get some useful comments on your ideas may be from your teacher or your peer group or other people. A blog need not be restricted to a single author; it can merge different kinds of ideas, including fellow students, teachers, and subject specialists. An example: http://edu.blogs.com/. Many famous personalities these days are hosting their own blog. The following is one of the many websites through which you can create your own bl...
Read more

3.4 COLLABORATIONS

Image
 Collaboration is defined as an act or process of working together on a project or some intellectual activity.  But what is the importance of collaboration? The world is increasingly becoming globalised on issues like environment protection, control of terrorism, international business, learning etc. In such changing circumstances, even the scientific explorations have become collaborative. Thus, in this global world, role of the Internet tools is to enable collaboration among people. From this perspective chat, news groups, wikis all are some basic tools for collaboration. Collaboration involves both communication and sharing of ideas. Modern day science, to certain extent, has become collaborative. Today, you may find a number of research papers coauthored by many people staying at geographically diverse places.  Each collaborative project has several social, political, ethical and technical issues that are to be addresses at the start of the project itself.  Some ...
Read more