Difference between revisions of "Internet"

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The '''Internet''' (note the capital 'I'; just as there are 'white houses', but only one 'White House', there are many 'internets' - the short form of the term [[[internetwork]] - but only one 'Internet') is the world's dominant information network.
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The '''Internet''' (note the capital 'I'; just as there are many 'white houses', but only one 'White House', there are many 'internets', but only one 'Internet' - and like the example, 'internet' and 'Internet' have ''different meanings'', so changing the capitalization ''changes the meaning'') is an [[internetwork|internet]] (the short form of the term [[internetwork]]) which is the world's dominant information network.
  
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Its most important technical consituent is the [[Internet Protocol]], a [[protocol]] which offers direct [[datagram]] carriage across the entire network, providing an unreliable service which makes no guarantees that [[packet]]s will not be damaged, delayed, duplicated or re-ordered.
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It uses the [[TCP/IP]] [[protocol suite]] for communication.
  
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This lack of any delivery guarantees makes the job, and implementation, of [[router]]s, the [[packet switch]]es that form the lowest layer of the networking infrastructure (along with the [[physical network]]s that connect them), '''''much''''' simpler.
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It is to some degree a direct descendant of the ground-breaking [[ARPANET]], but only in the sense that its early dominant [[application protocol]]s ([[TELNET]], [[FTP]], and [[email]]) were direct clones of those of the ARPANET; that the technical community which created it was an overlap/descendant of the one which produced the ARPANET; and that the document series which describes the [[protocol]]s (the [[Request for Comments]] series) is a continuous whole. (See the TCP/IP article for more on TCP/IP's antecedents.)
  
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This means that it is the job of the protocols above the [[internetworking layer]] in the [[TCP/IP]] [[protocol suite]] (the protocol family used in the Internet) to ensure reliable data carriage on an [[end to end]] basis; these do so using [[sequence number]]s, [[timeout]]s, and [[retransmission]].
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==Further reading==
  
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==History==
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* David D. Clark, [http://ccr.sigcomm.org/archive/1995/jan95/ccr-9501-clark.pdf ''The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols''], Proceedings SIGCOMM 1988 <!-- https://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-design-philosophy-of-the-darpa-internet-protocols https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dga/15-849/papers/clark88design.pdf -->
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** David D. Clark, [https://web.mit.edu/6.033/www/papers/darpa.pdf ''The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols''] - later revision
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* Jerome H. Saltzer, David P. Reed, David D. Clark, [https://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.pdf ''End-To-End Arguments in System Design''], ACM Transactions in Computer Systems, Volume 2, Number 4, November 1984, pp. 277-288 <!-- https://groups.csail.mit.edu/ana/Publications/PubPDFs/End-to-End%20Arguments%20in%20System%20Design.pdf -->
  
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It is to some degree a direct descendant of the ground-breaking [[ARPANET]], but only in the sense that its early dominant application protocols ([[TELNET]], [[FTP]], and [[email]]) were direct clones of those of the ARPANET; and that the technical community which created it was an overlap/descendant of the one that produced the ARPANET.
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==External links==
  
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At its bottom layers, the Internet is to some degree ''sui generis'', although it was heavily influenced by the ground-breaking [[CYCLADES]] network.
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* [https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1958 Architectural Principles of the Internet] (RFC-1958)
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* [https://www.chiappa.net/~jnc/tech/end_end.html Will The Real "End-End Principle" Please Stand Up?]
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* [http://alexmckenzie.weebly.com/inwg-and-the-conception-of-the-internet-an-eyewitness-account.html INWG and the Conception of the Internet: An Eyewitness Account]
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190109070004/http://packet.cc/history-files/Brief-History.html A Brief History of the Internet]
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* [http://www.ictconsulting.ch/reports/European-Research-Internet-History.pdf The “hidden” Prehistory of European Research Networking] - A wonderfully detailed history of the spread of the Internet in Europe
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* [http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ Netizens: On the History and Impact of the Net]
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* [https://computerhistory.org/blog/born-in-a-van-happy-40th-birthday-to-the-internet/ Born in a Van: Happy 40th Birthday to the Internet!] - spells 'Internet' incorrectly, but otherwise pretty good
  
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[[Category: Networking]]
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[[Category: Internet]]

Latest revision as of 22:06, 19 April 2024

The Internet (note the capital 'I'; just as there are many 'white houses', but only one 'White House', there are many 'internets', but only one 'Internet' - and like the example, 'internet' and 'Internet' have different meanings, so changing the capitalization changes the meaning) is an internet (the short form of the term internetwork) which is the world's dominant information network.

It uses the TCP/IP protocol suite for communication.

It is to some degree a direct descendant of the ground-breaking ARPANET, but only in the sense that its early dominant application protocols (TELNET, FTP, and email) were direct clones of those of the ARPANET; that the technical community which created it was an overlap/descendant of the one which produced the ARPANET; and that the document series which describes the protocols (the Request for Comments series) is a continuous whole. (See the TCP/IP article for more on TCP/IP's antecedents.)

Further reading

External links

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