Question

This is a discussion question for a Networking Essentials Class.

What was the most important aspect of the Internet gaining wide acceptance in the United States?

Why?

In your answer consider networking, as well as identify hardware, software, network protocols, and legislation that have helped networking permeate into all layers of human life.

Answer 1

Why INTERNET is important?

The internet and social media provide young people with a range of benefits, and opportunities to empower themselves in a variety of ways. Young people can maintain social connections and support networks that otherwise wouldn't be possible, and can access more information than ever before. The communities and social interactions young people form online can be invaluable for bolstering and developing young people's self-confidence and social skills.

What is the most important aspect of internet in human lives?

The internet plays a vital role in ensuring that people stay in contact regardless of the physical barriers. Most friendships and business connections would die without the internet. It may not be equivalent to face-to-face communication, but the internet allows people to maintain important relationships.

Network security is one of the most important aspects to consider when working over the internet, LAN or other method, no matter how small or big your business is.

Hardwares:

Network cables are the transmission media to transfer data from one device to another.

A router is a connecting device that transfers data packets between different computer networks.

A repeater receives a signal and regenerates it before re-transmitting so that it can travel longer distances.

A hub is a multiport repeater having several input/output ports, so that input at any port is available at every other port.

A switch receives data from a port, uses packet switching to resolve the destination device and then forwards the data to the particular destination, rather than broadcasting it as a hub.

Software:

Browser is a software used for surfing(browsing) in the internet. ex : Google chrome.

Social Media is a platform for communicating with people. ex: Instagram.

Video calling is a phone call using an Internet connection, sometimes called VoIP, that utilizes video to transmit a live picture of the person making the call.

Instant messaging (IM) is a type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet.

Protocol:

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): TCP is a popular communication protocol which is used for communicating over a network. It divides any message into series of packets that are sent from source to destination and there it gets reassembled at the destination.

Internet Protocol (IP): IP is designed explicitly as addressing protocol. It is mostly used with TCP. The IP addresses in packets help in routing them through different nodes in a network until it reaches the destination system. TCP/IP is the most popular protocol connecting the networks.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP): UDP is a substitute communication protocol to Transmission Control Protocol implemented primarily for creating loss-tolerating and low-latency linking between different applications.

Simple mail transport Protocol (SMTP): SMTP is designed to send and distribute outgoing E-Mail.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP allows users to transfer files from one machine to another. Types of files may include program files, multimedia files, text files, and documents, etc.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): HTTP is designed for transferring a hypertext among two or more systems. HTML tags are used for creating links. These links may be in any form like text or images. HTTP is designed on Client-server principles which allow a client system for establishing a connection with the server machine for making a request. The server acknowledges the request initiated by the client and responds accordingly.

These are some well known protocols used in networking.

Legislation:

Computer Misuse Act 1990 - creates offences of unauthorised access and interference with computers and data.

Communications Act 2003 - creates offences of improper use of a public communications service (s.127) and dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services (s.125).

Investigatory Powers Act 2016 - controls the interception of traffic on networks. It also creates powers for the police and other investigating authorities to require networks to provide information about their users and their use of networks.

The Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-Keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018 - covers interception for business purposes, for example the enforcement of acceptable use policies.

Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation - establish requirements on anyone holding personal data on a computer or any other organised filing system.