The Internet Rules!!!
Almost every one of us has a personal computer put up at our different homes. This is to aid us in our work, especially in school work. Personal computers with its preinstalled programs help us in typewritten works. Computer is even offered as a subject for grade school students. This is to help the children learn the new innovation which is very helpful for us, especially when we have jobs. This is not only an efficient way but also a time saving way of doing things. This is truly an innovation that will be used up until man is extinct.
Among the common useful program that people use is the internet. Usually with the aid of such, people are able to communicate and develop relationships worldwide. Furthermore, this can help in researches and in searching for information about a certain topic. With the internet, communication can be made with you here and the other there. This is a convenient way of saying hi or even checking up on a long seen relative. This is a bridge among gaps of two individuals. This is a stepping stone towards the other person. With all these helpful ways, the internet can benefit, who wouldn’t want one?
An internet service provider is also needed to build up an internet connection. This is a certain company which will connect you to the internet. The internet has bridged gaps and will continue to do so in the upcoming times.
When the first computers began connecting to each other over Wide Area Networks (WAN’s), a form of identification was needed to, properly access the various systems.
At first, the networks were composed of only a few computer systems associated with the United States of America Department of Defense and other institutions. As the number of connections grew, a more effective system was needed to regulate and maintain the domain paths throughout the network.
In 1972, the United States Defense Information Systems Agency created the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which was responsible for assigning unique ‘addresses’ to each computer connected to the Internet. A year later, the Internet Protocol (IP) addressing system became the standard by which all networked computers would be located. The internet continued to grow with the creation of electronic mail, e-mail as many for describe it, and newsgroups.
Greater numbers of user networking with each other created a demand for a simpler and easy to remember system than the bulky and often confusing IP system of long strings of numbers. This demand was answered by researchers and technicians at the University of Wisconsin, who developed the first ‘name server’ in 1984. With the new name server, users were no longer required to know the exact path to other systems; and thus, the birth of the current addressing system in use today.
After a year, the Domain Name System (DNS) was implemented and the initial top-level domain names, including .com, .net, and .org were introduced. Suddenly 121.245.078.2 became ‘company.com’.
In the 1990, the internet exploded into commercial society and was followed a year later by the release of the World Wide Web. The same year the first commercial service provider began operating and domain registration officially entered the public domain.
A new organization was needed to, specifically handle the exponential increase in flow on the Internet. InterINC, a quasi-governmental body mandated to organize and maintain the growing DNS registry and services, was created in 1992. At first, the registration of domain names was free but in 1995, due to budget constraint, it imposed a 100 US dollar fee for each two-year registration of DNS.
Three years after, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit, private sector Corporation, was formed by a broad coalition of the Internet’s business, technical, and academic interests worldwide. It is recognized as the “global consensus entity to coordinate the technical management of the Internet’s domain name system, the allocation of IP address space, the assignment of protocol parameters, and the management of the root server system.”
At present, there are estimated 19 million domain names registered with forty thousand more registered every day. The Internet continues its unprecedented growth into the stratosphere and there is really no end in sight.
Indeed the internet has continued to progress as much as we have expected it would. It has made the unpredictable believable. It has made communication known to different parts of the globe. It has never and will never stop progressing as long as man is never contented of what he has. The internet will be simply a means of helping man in achieving what he or she wants. It will further help man in his quest for satisfaction and entertainment.
The Inevitable Shift
Talking to people over Internet text chat platforms used be a novelty, a curious feature for an already very popular application. But “Internet phone calls” technically called as the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is now seen as the future of telecommunications. All over the world, telecommunication companies are investing billions of dollars in investments to lay down fiber-optic cables and network-support equipment to handle the new wave.
The size and magnitude of the Internet Protocol shift, the IP integration, has never been seen in the history of telecommunications. It is bigger in terms of investment and work than the integration of wireless communication. Never before has the communications industry seen as huge as shift since sea cables facilitated long-distance phone calls more than a century ago.
The reasons are simple yet complex. Internet Protocol networks enables not only phone calls but also data transmission through the same line. The prime example of this capability is in the 3G (third generation) phone handsets, which transmits not only SMS messaging, but also voice calls and video calls at practically the same cost for most networks. Internet Protocol networks also have higher quality, has relatively low maintenance cost (despite the staggering initial investment) and the same network can also integrate other services like wireless Internet.
But the shift is not easy. Most of the world’s telecommunication network is still on the analog stage. Shifting to Internet Protocol networks will not only require changing software platforms but changing entire network infrastructure as well from databases, backbone facilities and cellular sites scattered all over the countryside.
On the bigger scale, Internet Protocol networks cannot inter-connect with the old analog networks. Telecommunication companies in the world still debate whether it is viable to shift to Internet Protocol networks individually or they all sign an agreement that all of them shift to the new network all the same time. Some telecommunication companies are ready for the shift but many are having problems due to lack of funds, experts and support infrastructure.
Another challenge is the individual telephone units. The giants like Avaya, Cisco, Siemens or Nortel have been producing Internet Protocol network and 3G-capable phones but more manufacturers have to catch up. Many of these manufacturers left behind are very visible in small and developing countries in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.
Many analysts believe, however, the shift to Internet Protocol networks will happen and is just a matter of time. The biggest networks have already laid down their facilities, smaller networks in order to provide quality service to their customers must keep up to inter-connect. Or else, they will lose their clients.
Perhaps the biggest reason is Internet Protocol networks are just too good to resist. The ability to do not just voice calls and text messaging but video-calling and wireless Internet over your mobile phone is just too great that consumers will soon demand for it. The whole shift is now relying on technology, on when laboratories start creating affordable, mass-produced mobile hand sets that will make Internet Protocol networks a necessity for everyone, leaving telecommunications companies with no choice but to shift.