INTERNET

Definition :-
Called the 'information superhighway' and the 'network of networks,' it is
basically a means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in
the world. When two computers are connected over the Internet, they can send
and receive all kinds of information such as text, graphics, voice, video, and
computer programs. The type, size, or brand of the computers connected, or the
type of software used to connect them (called browser) does not matter. No one
'owns' or 'controls' Internet, although several organizations the world over
collaborate in its functioning and development. However, the high-speed, fiber-
optic cables (called backbones) through which bulk of the Internet data travels,
are owned by telephone companies in their respective countries. Internet grew
out of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's Wide Area Network (then called
ARPANET) established by the US Department Of Defense in 1960s for
collaboration in military research among the business and government
laboratories. Later universities and other US institutions 'plugged in' for their
own collaboration in R&D making ARPANET grow beyond everyone's expectations
and acquire the name 'Internet.' The development of hypertext based technology
(called World Wide web, WWW, or just the Web) provided means of displaying
text, graphics, and animations, and easy search and navigation tools that
triggered Internet's explosive world-wide growth.

History :-
The first Microsoft web server was a research project at European Microsoft Windows
NT Academic Centre (EMWAC), part of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and
was distributed as freeware.[2] However since the EMWAC server was unable to scale
sufficiently to handle the volume of traffic going to microsoft.com, Microsoft was forced
to develop its own webserver, IIS.[3]
Almost every version of IIS was released either along or with a version of Microsoft
Windows operating system. IIS 1.0 was initially released as a free add-on, a set of web-
based services for Windows NT 3.51. However, IIS 2.0 was included with Windows NT
4.0. IIS 3.0, which was included with Service Pack 3 of Windows NT 4, introduced the
Active Server Pages dynamic scripting environment.[4] IIS 4.0 was released as part of an
"Option Pack" for Windows NT 4.0 and dropped support for the Gopher protocol.[citation
needed]
IIS 5.0 shipped with Windows 2000 and introduced additional authentication
methods, management enhancements including a new MMC based administration
application, support for the WebDAV protocol, and enhancements to ASP[5] IIS 5.1
shipped with Windows XP Professional, and was nearly identical to IIS 5.0 on Windows
2000 except for several limitations Microsoft introduced. IIS 5.1 supported only 10
simultaneous connections and supported only a single web site.[6][7] IIS 6.0, included with
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, added support for
IPv6 and included a new worker process model that increased security as well as
reliability.[8]

IIS 7.0 was a complete redesign and rewrite of IIS, which shipped with Windows Vista
and Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 included a new modular design that allowed for a
lessened attack surface and increased performance. IIS 7.0 also introduced a hierarchical
configuration system allowing for simpler site deploys, a new Windows Forms based
management application, new command line management options, and increased support
for the .NET Framework.[9] IIS 7.0 on Vista does not limit the number of allowed
connections as IIS on XP did, but limits concurrent requests to 10 (Windows Vista
Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions) or 3 (Vista Home Premium). Additional
requests are queued, which hampers performance, but they are not rejected as with XP.

The current shipping version of IIS is IIS 7.5, included in Windows 7 and Windows
Server 2008 R2. IIS 7.5 improved WebDAV and FTP modules as well as command line
administration in PowerShell. It also introduced Best Practices Analyzer tool and process
isolation for application pools.[10]

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet :-

During his evolution journey from Neanderthals to Homo erectus and then to Homo sapiens, man
has come long way. Because of his continuous quest for more and more amenities and facilities,
the nineties have seen a major turn around with the invention of computers. 10 years ago, the
term internet was practically anonymous to most of the people. And today internet has become
the most ever powerful tool for man throughout the world. The internet is a collection of various
services and resources.

Although, many people still think e-mail and World Wide Web as the principle constituents of
internet, there is lot more in store than e-mail, chat rooms, celebrity web sites and search
engines. It also became the best business tool of modern scenario. Today internet has brought a
globe in a single room. Right from news across the corner of the world, wealth of knowledge to
shopping, purchasing the tickets of your favorite movie-everything is at your finger tips. Internet
has great potential and lot to offer… however, like every single innovation in science and
technology, internet has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

Communication:
The foremost target of internet has always been the communication. And internet has excelled
beyond the expectations .Still; innovations are going on to make it faster, more reliable. By the
advent of computer’s Internet, our earth has reduced and has attained the form of a global village.

Now we can communicate in a fraction of second with a person who is sitting in the other part of
the world. Today for better communication, we can avail the facilities of e-mail; we can chat for
hours with our loved ones. There are plenty messenger services in offering. With help of such
services, it has become very easy to establish a kind of global friendship where you can share
your thoughts, can explore other cultures of different ethnicity.

Information
Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. The Internet is a virtual treasure
trove of information. Any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on the
Internet. The search engines like Google, yahoo is at your service on the Internet. You can
almost find any type of data on almost any kind of subject that you are looking for. There is a
huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man,
ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new
ideas and technical support, the list is end less.

Students and children are among the top users who surf the Internet for research. Today, it is
almost required that students should use the Internet for research for the purpose of gathering
resources. Teachers have started giving assignments that require research on the Internet.
Almost every coming day, researches on medical issues become much easier to locate.
Numerous web sites available on the net are offering loads of information for people to research
diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. During 1998 over 20
million people reported going online to retrieve health information.

Entertainment
Entertainment is another popular raison d'être why many people prefer to surf the Internet. In fact,
media of internet has become quite successful in trapping multifaceted entertainment factor.
Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people
have discovered. There are numerous games that may be downloaded from the Internet for free.
The industry of online gaming has tasted dramatic and phenomenal attention by game lovers.
Chat rooms are popular because users can meet new and interesting people. In fact, the Internet
has been successfully used by people to find life long partners. When people surf the Web, there
are numerous things that can be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found and shared
on the Internet.

Services
Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking, purchasing
tickets for your favorite movies, guidance services on array of topics engulfing the every aspect of
life, and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line and can cost you more.

E-Commerce
Ecommerce is the concept used for any type of commercial maneuvering, or business deals that
involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet. It has become a phenomenon
associated with any kind of shopping, almost anything. You name it and Ecommerce with its giant
tentacles engulfing every single product and service will make you available at your door steps. It
has got a real amazing and wide range of products from household needs, technology to
entertainment.
Disadvantages

Theft of Personal information

If you use the Internet, you may be facing grave danger as your personal information such as
name, address, credit card number etc. can be accessed by other culprits to make your problems
worse.

Spamming:
Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails in bulk, which provide no purpose and needlessly
obstruct the entire system. Such illegal activities can be very frustrating for you, and so instead of
just ignoring it, you should make an effort to try and stop these activities so that using the Internet
can become that much safer.

Virus threat
Virus is nothing but a program which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems.
Computers attached to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing
your whole hard disk, causing you considerable headache.

Pornography:
This is perhaps the biggest threat related to your children’s healthy mental life. A very serious
issue concerning the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can