Internet is a technology of connecting multiple computers together through a network. There are various types of network that combine to make the internet. Various types of small networks include Local area network (LAN), Personal area network (PAN), Metropolitan area network (MAN), Campus area network (CAN), etc. There is also a wide area network (WAN) which is a larger type of network also known as the internet.
By using internet users can send and receive messages over a network. Suppose you want to share a picture of yourself with your friends then you can simply upload your picture on the internet and your friends start liking and commenting on the picture. There are plenty of social networking sites on the internet. Some of the popular social networking sites include Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and WhatsApp. You can create a free account on these sites and start sharing your thoughts over the internet.
Internet uses different rules/standards for communicating devices that are known as TCP/IP. TCP is a short form of Transfer control protocol while IP is a short form of Internet protocol. TCP/IP was introduced in 1970. One feature of the internet is using electronic mail that was first time used in 1980. In 1990 World Wide Web (www) technology is launched. World Wide Web is used to make websites and display images, text, videos, animation on the screen. In 1970 DARPA (Defense advanced research projects agency) developed ARPANET which was used as a WAN to connect computers. Finally, from 1995 to onwards, the internet was accessed worldwide.
Now you may be thinking that how the internet works. Your computer sends/receives signals to/from ISP (Internet service provider). To send and receive signals from ISP we use the modem. The modem is a device which converts digital signal to analogue signal and analogue signal to digital signal. Data in our computer is in digital form and the medium we use to transfer data is in analogue form. Different types of medium are used e.g. telephone line, coaxial cable, fiber optics, etc. We use a modem as a conversion device between our computer and ISP.
We use different ways to connect to the internet and the ways or types of connecting to the internet are described below.
Types of the internet:-
- Dialup connection: It is an old way of connecting to the internet. Dialup connection uses a phone line and is very slow. You can either make a call on the phone or connect to the internet. The connection time is high in dialup connection. The internet speed is also very slow. You cannot do video/audio chat on this type of connection. Also downloading any file is very slow. Nowadays this type of connection is not used.
- Leased line: Leased line is a dedicated phone line used to connect to the internet. A leased line is used by big organizations. Some universities still use a leased line for making a connection to the internet.
- ISDN (Integrated service digital network): In this type of internet you can connect a computer, fax machine or telephone line to single ISDN. ISDN uses a modem to connect different devices. ISDN is costly than Dialup connection. You can transfer video, audio, and other data at the same time i.e. you can make a phone call from your telephone and also can use the internet at the same time.
- DSL (Digital subscriber line): DSL uses the modem for making an internet connection. It is 10 times faster than a dialup connection. Also, the voice quality of telephone is not affected when you use the internet at the same time.
- ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line): It is mostly used type of DSL and in this type of connection, download internet speed is high than upload internet speed. Mostly you use the internet for downloading data. And we upload files less.
- SDSL (Symmetric digital subscriber line): This is also a type of DSL but it has almost same download and upload speed.
- Cable modem: In this type of network you can connect modem with TV cable and internet.
- Wireless or Wi-Fi: Wireless connection is the most common type of internet connection by which you can connect laptops, smartphone, and other digital devices with the internet. The internet speed of Wi-Fi ranges from 5Mbps to 20 Mbps. Wi-Fi uses radio frequency to transfer data.
- Broadband: This is a very high-speed internet with a transfer rate of 100Mbps. The internet speed depends upon the cables i.e. coaxial cable or fiber optics. Coaxial cables loss some data during transferring data.
- Satellite: In this type of internet you can make a connection with the satellite but it has low internet speed i.e. 513 kbps to 2Mbps
- Cellular: This type of internet connection is given by mobile companies to its users. The cellular connection uses 3G (3rd generation) and 4G (4th generation) technologies. 3G gives around 2Mbps speed while 4G gives speed up to 21Mbps