How the Internet Works / Edition 8 available in Paperback
- ISBN-10:
- 0789736268
- ISBN-13:
- 9780789736260
- Pub. Date:
- 11/21/2006
- Publisher:
- Pearson Education
- ISBN-10:
- 0789736268
- ISBN-13:
- 9780789736260
- Pub. Date:
- 11/21/2006
- Publisher:
- Pearson Education
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Overview
Detailed explanations walk you through the technology.
The Internet has changed the world... and, with everything from blogs to podcasts, Internet phones to video, it’s still changing the world. Now, it’s easy to understand how it all works! This book’s big, brilliant, full-color illustrations and clear explanations make it all incredibly simple!
DISCOVER HOW THE INTERNET REALLY WORKS... IT’S AMAZINGLY EASY!
This new edition has been completely updated for today’s hottest Internet technologies, Web connections, hardware, communications and entertainment services, and much more!
• See how the Internet can deliver any kind of information, anywhere: web pages, email, music, video, phone calls, and more!
• Understand the most exciting new Internet technologies, from blogs and podcasting to wikis and BitTorrent
• Discover how your connection to the Internet works... wireless, cable modem, DSL, even cellphones
• Go behind the scenes with today’s most sophisticated websites, applications, and services
• Protect yourself from the latest Internet dangers, including phishing, web surveillance, and wireless hacking
Preston Gralla is the award-winning author of more than 30 books, including How the Internet Works, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Internet Privacy and Security, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Protecting Your Child Online, and How Wireless Works. He has written
frequently about security issues, computer technology, the Internet, and has been a columnist for many magazines, websites
and newspapers.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780789736260 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pearson Education |
| Publication date: | 11/21/2006 |
| Series: | How It Works Series |
| Edition description: | Revised Edition |
| Pages: | 432 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
is the award-winning author of 20 books, including
How Wireless Works
, How To Expand and Upgrade PCs, and TheComplete Idiot’s Guide to Protecting Yourself Online
. He is an executiveeditor and columnist for CNet and ZDNet; is a technology columnist
for the Dallas Morning News; and has written about technology
for many magazines and newspapers, including USA Today, PC
Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Magazine, PC/Computing,
Computerworld
, and FamilyPC among many others. Gralla has wonseveral writing and editing awards, including one from the
Computer Press Association for the best feature article in a computer
magazine.
As a well-known expert on computers and the Internet, he has appeared
frequently on numerous TV and radio shows and networks,
including the CBS Early Show, CNN, National Public Radio’s All
Things Considered, MSNBC, CNBC, TechTV, and CNet Radio.
He was the founding managing editor of the well-known newspaper
PC Week
and a founding editor of PC/Computing. Under his editorship,
PC/Computing
was a finalist for General Excellence from the
National Magazine Awards.
Gralla lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife Lydia, children
Gabriel and Mia, and a rabbit named Polichinelle. He also
writes the free Gralla’s Internet Insider email newsletter. To subscribe
to it for free, send an email to preston@gralla.com with the
words SUBSCRIBE NETINSIDER on the subject line.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1: The Wired World of the Internet
One of the most frequently asked questions about the Internet is: Who runs it? The truth is that no centralized management of the Internet exists. Instead, it is a collection of thousands of individual networks and organizations, each of which is run and paid for on its own. Each network cooperates with other networks to direct Internet traffic so that information can pass among them. Together, these networks and organizations make up the wired world of the Internet. For networks and computers to cooperate in this way, however, a general agreement must take place about things such as Internet procedures and standards for protocols. These procedures and standards are laid out in RFCs (requests for comment) agreed upon by Internet users and organizations.A variety of groups guide the Internet's growth by helping to establish standards and by educating people on the proper way to use the Internet. Perhaps the most important is the Internet Society, a private, nonprofit group. The Internet Society supports the work of the Internet Activities Board (IAB), which handles much of the Internet's behind-the-scenes and architectural issues. The IAB's Internet Engineering Task Force is responsible for overseeing how the Internet's TCP/IP protocols evolve. (See Chapter 3, "How TCP/IP Works," for details on protocols.)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops standards for the evolution of the fastest-growing part of the Internet, the World Wide Web. The W3C is an industry consortium run by the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Private companies oversee the registeringof Internet domains, such as www. zdnet. com or www. mcp. com. These companies all must cooperate with one another and work in concert with a company called the InterNIC, which used to hold a monopoly on registering domains. InterNIC still maintains the central database of all domains registered, but now other companies are allowed to oversee registration of domains as well. These companies, called registrars, are overseen by a board made up of people from business, the government, and individual Internet users.
Although all these kinds of organizations are important as a kind of glue for holding together the Internet , at the heart of the Internet are individual local networks. These networks can be found in private companies, universities, government agencies, and online services. They are funded separately from one another and in a variety of manners, such as fees from users, corporate support, taxes, and grants. Many Internet service providers (ISPs), which provide Internet access for individuals, have networks as well. Individuals who want to access the Internet pay ISPs a monthly connection rate, so in that sense, everyone who uses the Internet helps pay for it.
The networks are connected in a variety of ways. For efficiency's sake, local networks join in consortiums known as regional networks. A variety of leased lines connect regional and local networks. The leased lines that connect networks can be as simple as a single telephone line or as complex as a fiber-optic cable with microwave links and satellite transmissions.
Private companies who make money by selling access to their lines build backbones, which are very high-capacity lines that carry enormous amounts of Internet traffic. Government agencies, such as NASA, and large private corporations pay for some of these backbones. The National Science Foundation also pays for some backbones. The federal government also funds a program called the Internet2, which is a very high-speed portion of the Internet now devoted to universities and researchers, but which may eventually be used by everyone else as well....
Table of Contents
IntroductionPart 1: Understanding the Internet’s Underlying Architecture
Chapter 1 What Is the Internet?
Chapter 2 How Computer Networks Send Data
Across the Internet
Chapter 3 How TCP/IP Works
Chapter 4 Understanding the Internet’s Software Structure
Chapter 5 How Internet Addresses and Domains Work
Chapter 6 How Routers Work
Part 2: Connecting to the Internet
Chapter 7 How Computers Connect to the Internet
Chapter 8
How Internet/Television Connections Work
Chapter 9
How Wireless Connections and WiFI Work
Chapter 10
How Home Networks Work
Part 3: Communicating on the Internet
Chapter 11 How Email Works
Chapter 12 How Email Spam Works
Chapter 13 How Newsgroups Work
Chapter 14 How Internet Chat and Instant Messaging Work
Chapter 15 How Skype and VoIP Work
Chapter 16 How Blogging and RSS Work
Part 4: How the World Wide Web Works
Chapter 17 How Web Pages Work
Chapter 18 How Web Browsers Work
Chapter 19 How Markup Languages Work
Chapter 20 How Hypertext Works
Chapter 21 How URLs Work
Chapter 22 How Image Maps and Interactive Forms Work
Chapter 23 How Web Host Servers Work
Chapter 24 How Websites Work with Databases
Chapter 25 How .NET and Web Services Work
Chapter 26 How Grid Computing Works
Part 5: Using the World Wide Web
Chapter 27 How Internet Searching Works
Chapter 28 How Google Works
Chapter 29 How Map Sites Work
Chapter 30 How Wikis and Wikipedia Work
Part 6: Using Common Internet Tools
Chapter 31 How Telnet Works
Chapter 32 How FTP Works
Chapter 33 How Agents Work
Chapter 34 How Java, ActiveX, and JavaScript Work
Chapter 35 How CGI Scripting Works
Part 7: Enjoying Entertainment and Multimedia on the Internet
Chapter 36 How Music and Audio Work on the Internet
Chapter 37 How iPods, iTunes, and Podcasting Work
Chapter 38 How Music Sharing and File Sharing Work
Chapter 39 How Multicast IP and the MBone Work
Chapter 40 How Virtual Reality Is Created by VRML
Chapter 41 How Animation on the Web Works
Part 8: Shopping and Doing Business on the Internet
Chapter 42 How Intranets Work
Chapter 43 Shopping on the Internet
Part 9: Protecting Yourself on the Internet
Chapter 44 How Firewalls Wor
Chapter 45 How Hackers Can Cripple the Internet and Attack Your PC
Chapter 46 The Dangers of Wireless Networking
Chapter 47 How Viruses Work
Chapter 48 How Internet Sites Can Invade Your Privacy
Chapter 49 The Dangers of Spyware and Phishing
Chapter 50 Cryptography, Privacy, and Digital Certificates
Chapter 51 How Government and Workplace Surveillance Work
Chapter 52 Parental Controls on the Internet
Glossary
0789736268, TOC, 10/10/06