5.9: Internet Connections
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- Ly-Huong T. Pham, Tejal Desai-Naik, Laurie Hammond, & Wael Abdeljabbar
- ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)
Internet Access Technologies
There is a wide range of approaches to associate users and associations with the Internet.
Home clients (telecommuters) and workplaces regularly require an association with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to access the Internet. Association alternatives change significantly among ISP and topographical areas. Notwithstanding, companies incorporate a broadband link, broadband computerized endorser line (DSL), remote WANs, and versatile administrations.
Associations commonly expect access to other corporate destinations and the Internet. Quick associations are required to help business administrations, including IP telephones, video conferencing, and server farm stockpiling.
Business-class interconnections are normally given by specialist organizations (SP). Well-known business-class administrations incorporate business DSL, rented lines, and Metro Ethernet.
Home and Small Office Internet Connections
Regular connection choices for little office and home office users:
- Cable : Typically offered by digital TV specialist co-ops, the Internet information signal is carried on a similar link that conveys satellite TV. It gives a high transmission capacity, consistently on, association with the Internet.
- DSL : Digital Subscriber Lines gives a high data transmission, consistently on, association with the Internet. DSL runs over a phone line when all is said in done, small office and home office clients associate utilizing Asymmetrical DSL (ADSL), which implies that the download speed is quicker than the upload speed.
- Cellular : For a Cell phone network to connect, it utilizes cellular internet access. Any place you can get a phone signal, you can get cell Internet. Execution will be restricted by the telephone's abilities and the cell tower to which it is associated. The fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology is 4G, which most people are familiar with because it is on smartphones. 5G is upcoming and expected to be faster than and succeed 4G by 100 times, which will have the ability to transmit a lot more data at a much faster pace than 4G.
- Satellite : Internet access through satellite is a genuine advantage in those territories that would somehow or another have no Internet availability by any means. Satellite dishes require a clear line of sight to the satellite.
- Dial-up telephone : An economical choice that utilizes any telephone line and a modem. The low transmission capacity supported by a dial-up modem association is normally not adequate for huge information transfer. However, it is still a valuable choice wherever other options are not available such as in rural areas or remote locations where phones are the only means of communication.
Fiber optic links are increasingly becoming more available to home and small businesses. This empowers an ISP to give higher data transmission speeds and bolster more administrations, for example, Internet, telephone, and TV.
Business Internet Connections
Corporate connection choices contrast from home client alternatives. Organizations may require higher transmission capacity, devoted data transmission, and oversaw administrations. Business connection options include:
- Dedicated Leased Line : Leased lines are really saved circuits inside the specialist organization's system that interface geologically isolated workplaces for private voice or potentially information organizing. The circuits are ordinarily leased at a month-to-month or yearly rate. They can be costly.
- Ethernet WAN : Ethernet WANs broaden LAN access into the WAN. Ethernet is a LAN innovation you will find out about in a later section. The advantages of Ethernet are currently being reached out into the WAN.
- DSL : Business DSL is accessible in different organizations. A famous decision is Symmetric Digital Subscriber Lines (SDSL) which is like the purchaser rendition of DSL. However, it gives transfers and downloads at similar paces.
- Satellite : Like small office and home office clients, satellite help can give an association when a wired arrangement isn't accessible.
The decision of connection shifts relying upon topographical area and specialist organization accessibility.
Sidebar: An Internet Vocabulary Lesson
Networking communication is full of some very technical concepts based on some simple principles. Learn the terms below, and you will be able to hold your own in a conversation about the Internet.
- Packet : The fundamental unit of data transmitted over the Internet. When a device intends to send a message to another device (for example, your PC sends a request to YouTube to open a video), it breaks the message down into smaller pieces, called packets. Each packet has the sender’s address, the destination address, a sequence number, and a piece of the overall message to be sent.
- Hub : A simple network device connects other devices to the network and sends packets to all the devices connected to it.
- Bridge : A network device that connects two networks and only allows packets through that are needed.
- Switch : A network device that connects multiple devices and filters packets based on their destination within the connected devices.
- Router : A device that receives and analyzes packets and then routes them towards their destination. In some cases, a router will send a packet to another router; it will send it directly to its destination in other cases.
- IP Addres s : Every device that communicates on the Internet, whether it be a personal computer, a tablet, a smartphone, or anything else, is assigned a unique identifying number called an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Historically, the IP-address standard used has been IPv4 (version 4), which has the format of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by a period. For example, the domain Saylor.org has an IP address of 107.23.196.166. The IPv4 standard has a limit of 4,294,967,296 possible addresses. As the use of the Internet has proliferated, the number of IP addresses needed has grown to the point where IPv4 addresses will be exhausted. This has led to the new IPv6 standard, which is currently being phased in. The IPv6 standard is formatted as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, such as 2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334. The IPv6 standard has a limit of 3.4×1038 possible addresses. For more detail about the new IPv6 standard, see this Wikipedia article .
- Domain name : If you had to try to remember the IP address of every web server you wanted to access, the Internet would not be nearly as easy to use. A domain name is a human-friendly name for a device on the Internet. These names generally consist of a descriptive text followed by the top-level domain (TLD). For example, Wikipedia's domain name is Wikipedia.org; Wikipedia describes the organization, and .org is the top-level domain. In this case, the .org TLD is designed for nonprofit organizations. Other well-known TLDs include .com , .net , and .gov . For a complete list and description of domain names, see this Wikipedia article.
- DNS : DNS stands for “domain name system,” which acts as the directory on the Internet. A DNS server is queried when a request to access a device with a domain name is given. It returns the IP address of the device requested, allowing for proper routing.
- Packet-switching : When a packet is sent from one device out over the Internet, it does not follow a straight path to its destination. Instead, it is passed from one router to another across the Internet until it reaches its destination. In fact, sometimes, two packets from the same message will take different routes! Sometimes, packets will arrive at their destination out of order. When this happens, the receiving device restores them to their proper order. For more details on packet switching, see this interactive web page.
- Protocol : In computer networking, a protocol is the set of rules that allow two (or more) devices to exchange information back and forth across the network.