Beyond Basic Html

Introduction

History

Twenty years ago, an important discovery was made; a new form of two-way communication. This new communication medium used phone lines for transmission, but did not send traditional voice signals down the wire. Instead, binary data would be sent and received between connected computers. This new form of communication gradually became known as “The Internet.”

Many years ago, the military understood the value in a decentralized form of communication. “The Internet began as a Cold War project to create a communications network that was immune to a nuclear attack. In the 1969, the U.S. government created ARPANET, connecting four western universities and allowing researchers to use the mainframes of any of the networked institutions” (National Museum of American History, n.d.). “The ARPAnet expanded to nonmilitary uses in the 70s when universities and defense-related researchers were permitted to join the network. By the late 70s, the ARPAnet was so large that its original set of standards and communication protocols could not support the growth of the network. After extended bickering and debate, the ARPAnet switched to the TCP/IP communication protocols (still in use today), which would allow further growth in the size of the network” (Savetz, 1996).

The evolution of the internet over the last twenty years has grown from static text messages posted by computer scientists on university computers to a dynamic, informational, interactive multimedia infrastructure enjoyed by the masses. Important technological advances have paved the way for innovation, and the digital pioneers of our time have discovered many new ways to use the internet. Instead of remaining a military application for scientific research, the internet has grown to accommodate the diverse interests of the people of this world.

Expansion into new areas

Once the internet became easily accessible to the public, many entrepreneurs began to see its potential in business. Many new businesses were bought, sold and born on the internet, while traditional businesses frantically tried to adapt current practices in this brave new world. E-commerce, the buzzword for the 90s, fueled internet growth as entrepreneurs, marketers and advertisers sought to strike gold on the internet. This frenzied move to online shopping malls, interactive storefronts, and ad supported websites became known as “The Dot-Com Bubble,” a phrase coined by economic forecasters in the media.

This era of experimental internet marketing introduced people to the idea of online shopping and commercial exchange. As stock prices for these online businesses climbed, so did the number of investors who tried to get on the Dot-Com bandwagon. What was believed to be the future of business came crashing down a few years later, and ultimately became known as “The Dot-Com Crash” of the late 90s. Some of the survivors of the Dot-Com Crash include in its ranks such high profile internet staples as Amazon.com, eBay, Google, WebMD and Yahoo.

A website that was researched for their simple shopping and outstanding overall rating is a site entitled ASHA. ASHA stands for the American-Speech-Language Hearing Association. The ASHA online store, Shop@ASHA, offers many professional development products as well as in-depth consumer information. “ASHA’s new online store makes shopping easier and faster in other way’s too. By logging into ASHA’s Web site to verify status, shoppers receive lower member pricing and a simpler check out process. All express orders placed by 2 p.m. EST on business days are shipped the same day; shoppers can monitor their orders from placement to delivery at their doorstep by using the online tracking feature” (Deitemeyer, 2006).

The lessons learned from the Dot-Com Crash have paved the way for a stable internet economy. A more mature understanding of the capabilities of the internet and online shopping habits has created tools that ensure the proliferation of e-commerce efforts indefinitely. Clearly, e-commerce is here to stay, and has even diversified into secure online banking and investment opportunities, automobile and real estate purchasing, and on-demand digital delivery of music, videos and software assets.

Web Servers

Before the first consumer PC hit the shelves of forward thinking shopping outlets, and before the first internet browser was introduced, mainframe servers were quietly hosting information to people with access to its resources. Servers are dedicated hardware platforms running specialized software that enables the exchange of information with the world. People often think of the internet as some vast mysterious cloud of search engines and software, never stopping to think about the server hardware and infrastructure needed to support such a wide audience. The existence of these transparent contributors of the internet is often overlooked by the public. For the internet to even exist, sophisticated server hardware and a substantial internet backbone is required. Without servers relentlessly running in converted storage closets and vast corporate server clusters, the internet would cease to function.

Servers can be thought of as the core enablers of all activities performed on the Web today. The term “server” can embody a few different aspects (i.e. software, applications, or simply architectural structures) in computing and information technology; however, the most recognized association of the term alludes to its “hardware” form. Servers, like standard consumer PCs, have operating systems that allow them to do various tasksвЂ"yet unlike personal PCs, servers tend to be dedicated to performing specialized information sharing tasks. Other than setup and maintenance, servers require very little human involvement, as many of them are designed to run on their own. Servers are usually designed with one or two specific tasks in mind. Multiple servers can be clustered and configured to handle numerous requests.

The web server model is fashioned around the client-server architecture. Clients make a request for information, then servers transmit that information to the client. Servers host the required information and can grant access to any user or limit access based on a variety of security protocols. New server technologies can even allow web servers to push information to clients without an initiated request.

Although the client-server model does not seem to be decentralized, a variety of techniques