Web101 Web Communications Assignment 1

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1. What is the Internet? The Internet is a globally interconnected network of computers that, operating via several specific protocols, serves as a worldwide information system and provides the technological infrastructure on which countless applications are run (Leiner et al., 2012; Woods, 2013a). At the hub of every network is a server, with the Internet essentially being formed through the connection of multiple servers, encompassing all connected computers and creating a larger ‘inter-network’ (Woods, 2013b). Each device on the network has a unique numerical address and the Internet uses the DNS (Domain Name System) to allocate each a corresponding human-readable address (Woods, 2013a). Information is requested from a server and is sent using the packet switching and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) system (Jamison, 2001; Woods, 2013b). This involves breaking large files into smaller ‘packets’, allocating each packet addressing information, and sending them via different routes to be reassembled – including verification – at their destination (Jamison, 2001). Constantly evolving, the Internet has become an all-encompassing social, communicative and collaborative tool that is arguably essential to modern life (Leiner et al., 2012). 2. What is the World Wide Web? The World Wide Web is an application that utilises the Internet to provide a ubiquitous and user-friendly interface on which to share and retrieve information (Pallen, 1995). Accessed via software called web browsers, the Web is a database of documents, all linked together to form a limitless ‘web’ of information (Woods, 2013c). These documents are a combination of hypertext and hypermedia, meaning that they contain both text and other media such as audio, images or video, which are able to be linked to other documents or ‘webpages’ (Ingram, 1995). Documents are stored on

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