THIS chapter introduces the Internet and its various facilities, showing you how you can make use of these with the ANT Internet Suite. Some technical information about the Internet is also included to help you understand how your Internet connection works - and what is happening when it does not work smoothly.
It is meant as a general introduction to the Internet. Specific advice relating to each part of the Internet is at the start of each subsequent chapter.
The Internet is the name for a loosely organised system of networks and connections which connects computer networks all around the world. Although it was started in the US in the 1970s as an aid to military research (when it was known as ARPANET), the Internet was quickly adopted by the wider world.
During the 1980s the Internet spread to connect university computers around the world. Academic resources are still a major part of the Internet, with many technical institutions maintaining shareware and public domain software libraries.
In the 1990s the Internet has become commercialised, with many companies joining their corporate networks to it. Private individuals have also been able to access the Internet through the advent of commercial Internet service providers who sell accounts which users can access by modem.
Using the Internet lets you:
One barrier to the success of the Internet in its early days was that it was hard to use. Most of the software and computers you could access it from required you to understand the UNIX operating system, the preserve of computer gurus in universities.
In the last two or three years the Internet has developed a friendlier face with the advent of more graphical software, such as this suite, to allow users of personal computers to access its facilities.
The Internet has also grown a friendlier face in the form of the World Wide Web, which allows you to read hypertext pages of information, graphics and even movie clips and music stored on computers connected to the Internet.
Service providers
This, combined with the advent of commercial Internet service providers who sell access to users whose workplace or college does not provide access, has led to an astonishing boom in the popularity of the Internet.
Service providers sell users dial-up access to the Internet, providing their customers with access to the Internet, an email address and often with space on the World Wide Web for their own `home pages'.
Who owns the Internet?
The simple answer is no-one. The Internet is an amalgamation of services and connections with no central control. Parts of the infrastructure which supports the Internet, such as servers and phone lines, may be owned by universities, telephone companies, Internet service providers, or other organisations, but no one body has overall charge.
There are organisations which oversee the Internet and suggest the direction which it should take, but these are increasingly under pressure from the commercial success of the Internet. For example, development of the HTML language which is used to write World Wide Web pages was originally controlled by an academic committee, but companies such as Netscape and Microsoft have introduced their own new features without reference to this body.
Who uses the Internet?
Growing use of the Internet means that more computers are connected to it and more information is accessible from it. Many companies, from manufacturers of cars to cosmetics now use the Internet, and particularly the World Wide Web, to provide information about their products, and a way for customers to contact them.
Companies, organisations, and individuals all make use of the Internet.
It is likely that you will use one of the two main methods for connecting to the Internet:
While the software which you use for Web browsing, reading mail and news, transferring files and so on is similar in both cases, behind the scenes the Internet Suite uses different software appropriate to your type of connection.
Working online and offline
The way in which you use software may also be different.
Some Internet facilities can only be used when you are online because they require constant contact with external computers to download information. Web browsing, FTP file transfers and Telnet sessions come into this category.
Behind the scenes for network connections
Working online requires that you are connected to the Internet, usually by means of a network (though it is possible to work online over the phone).
When using a network connection, you can be connected to the Internet all the time your computer is switched on. Mail which is received by your network mail server will be sent to you immediately, and news received by your server will be there for you to read.
Because network connections to the Internet typically use special phone lines with a greater data transfer rate than a standard phone line offers, some activities such as using the World Wide Web may be quicker than they are for dial-up users.
Behind the scenes for dialled connections
The Internet Suite contains its own dialler and modem drivers which are used when you choose Connect from the Internet Suite menu.
Once a connection is established by the modem driver, the access protocol driver (either PPP or SLIP) negotiates with the host computer at your service provider and logs in by sending your user name and password.
Once the connection is open the other Internet Suite programs can communicate with the host computer to send and receive information.
The following sections discuss some of the main Internet facilities available to you, and how you can make good use of them. They also describe which part of the ANT Internet Suite should be used to access each part of the Internet.
Electronic mail
Electronic mail (email) lets you exchange text and program files directly with other Internet and email users around the world. It is probably the most widely used feature of the Internet. The part of the Suite you use to read and send email is called Marcel.
You can send email messages to one person or to groups of people. Many email users also join mailing lists (lists of email users with a special interest). Messages sent to the mailing list's host computer are mailed back out to all names on the list, providing a virtual conference by email.
ANT uses mailing lists to announce news to customers, and to provide a chat area for users of the Internet Suite. Find out more from the ANT Web site.
As well as text messages, you can attach files to messages so that they are delivered with them. Marcel can use an industry-standard format called MIME to send files: this helps the recipient's computer understand what type of file it has been sent. Marcel also supports the older UUencode standard for sending files by mail.
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web presents information as a rich mixture of text and graphics interconnected by `links' between `pages'. By viewing these `pages' with a web browser such as the ANT Internet Suite's Fresco, you can gather information from around the world simply by pointing and clicking.
The web works by using a mark-up language called HTML. All the information to be displayed on web pages is wrapped up in HTML codes, so that browsers receiving the information know how to process it. HTML tells Fresco whether to display a word as a headline, part of a list, part of a table, or even whether it belongs in a separate frame within the window.
In addition to text, web pages can include pictures, animations, video footage, sound clips and documents stored in a variety of formats. Fresco can deal with many of these, although in some cases like all web browsers it requires the assistance of an external `helper' program.
You will hear a great deal about PC-based web browsers such as Netscape Navigator. The latest version of Fresco supports many of the same features as Netscape and other advanced PC and Macintosh browsers, including tables, and client-side maps. Because new features for Web pages are being introduced all the time, development on Fresco continues
File transfer
One of the most useful resources on the Internet is the vast amount of software and information which you can download - take a copy of to store on your own computer.
Servers at many sites include:
Files are downloaded using FTP (file transfer protocol) software. Increasingly, this functionality is built into Web browser software (including Fresco). You can also use the separate FTPclient program both to download and to upload files.
You don't need to have an account to download files from the public areas of most servers: simply use the user name anonymous, with your email address as the password.
Internet news
Usenet newsgroups provide a space for discussions and debate about almost every subject under the sun. Many gigabytes of text are generated each day by readers of over 17000 special interest groups.
Some groups cater for hobby interests, others cover work-related topics, social issues, cultural issues and politics. Many of the most active groups cover computer-related topics, but music and media interests are also popular as well as locally-based discussion groups.
Many groups provide a list of questions and answers on topics of particular interest to readers. These are called FAQ lists (Frequently asked questions). Even if you do not plan to read a group regularly, its FAQ may provide much useful information.
Usenet groups are proud to uphold Internet traditions such as free access and freedom of speech. However, this has a downside in that debate is often of a low standard with useful information thin on the ground and personal abuse (referred to as `flames') proliferating. This is particularly true of political and religious discussion and debate, just like in real life.
Specialist technical groups such as the comp.sys.acorn.* groups are less prone to flame wars but not guaranteed to be free of time-wasting or irrelevant material.
Terminal connections
ANTterm is the Suite's terminal program for Telnet and other text-based connections.
This lets you connect directly to computer systems with which you have an account, and public systems such as on-line games.
Once you connect to a host computer in this way, you communicate directly with it using its commands, normally a version of UNIX or commands specific to an application such as a game.
Hotlist
The Hotlist utility stores and manages your lists of useful Internet addresses. Store all your addresses in the hotlist window and simply double-click on them to go to them and open the appropriate program.
The Hotlist can also be accessed directly from Fresco, ANTterm and the FTPclient to access services from a menu.
Finger
The !Finger utility is used for gathering information from a server.
It can give basic information about a particular user, or users who are currently logged in, or details about services provided by that server, or their status.
Internet utilities
The Suite contains several utilities to help you work with the Internet.