Internet as a global information system. When did the Internet appear in Russia? Internet resources

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The Internet is familiar to modern man, but this state of affairs was preceded by a rather long and difficult path of formation and development of technologies, thanks to which it was possible to ensure the deployment of the World Wide Web on a global scale. What are these solutions? How did the World Wide Web develop in Russia?

Defining the Internet

The Internet as a global information system is a computer network, the nodes of which are distributed all over the world, and at the same time are connected logically through the use of a special address space. The functioning of this global network is possible primarily due to the unification of communication standards: for example, TCP / IP is used as the main one, which is implemented in the same way on any computers connected to the World Wide Web.

In its modern form, the Internet as a global information system has existed for about 30 years. But by the time it appeared, the infrastructure on the basis of which the World Wide Web was deployed was quite developed in many countries.peace.

It will be useful to consider how it was built in various states. It is noteworthy that the history of the development of infrastructure, on the basis of which the modern Internet began to be built, practically coincides with the period of confrontation between the two largest world technological systems - Western and Soviet. Of course, this is a very simplified classification, since both within the first system and the second, regional, national technologies were actively developed, which are very different in some cases.

In the end, the Western model became the basis for the development of the modern Internet - however, by the time it was introduced in the USSR, Soviet specialists already had experience in deploying computer networks, to some extent similar to the Western model of the Internet. Thus, let us consider how the World Wide Web developed within the framework of the Western technological system, as well as when the Internet appeared in Russia, based on the specifics of the development of the national infrastructure of computer networks.

History of the Internet in Western countries

In the late 50s, during one of the most difficult periods of the Cold War, the US government set a task for American scientists: to create a data transmission infrastructure that could function even in a global armed conflict. Scientists proposed the concept of such a system - the project was called ARPANET.

In 1969, the computers of several major American universities were networked according to schemes that were developed by scientists in the framework ofthe specified project. Subsequently, the experience gained by researchers was adopted by many other interested structures: this led to the growth of computer networks operating according to ARPANET standards on a national scale.

Specialized programs for this infrastructure also appeared: for example, as early as 1971, software for sending messages was written for the ARPANET. In fact, we are talking about the appearance of the first e-mail - the main functions of the Internet today still include the organization of data exchange in the appropriate format. In the 70s, according to researchers, e-mail was the most demanded function of a computer network deployed as part of an American project.

Gradually, the scale of ARPANET went beyond the US: various European organizations began to connect to the network. At the same time, communication with the American infrastructure was organized through a telephone cable laid across the Atlantic Ocean.

In fact, from the moment the Europeans connected to the ARPANET, in particular in 1973, British and Norwegian organizations began to organize data exchange with the network, the project became international. However, communications between computers located in different parts of the planet were not always stable due to the lack of generally accepted standards for data exchange.

The problem has been fixed with the implementation of the universal TCP/IP protocol. It is still used by almost all Internet resources.

By the time TCP-IP was introduced,the American-European network was more interregional than global - despite the fact that in 1983 the name "Internet" was assigned to it. But its further expansion was rapid. This process was facilitated by the invention in 1984 of the DNS standard - on its basis, the domain name service began to function. It can be noted that in the same year, the ARPANET project had a serious competitor in the face of the NSFNet network, which united computers from various universities.

NSFNet as the backbone of the Internet

The NSFNet infrastructure allowed for significantly higher data transmission dynamics. She grew at the same time at the most active pace. Gradually, the “Internet” began to be called just the same growing network NSFNet. In 1988, it became possible to use its resources to organize instant messaging in the chat format - using the IRC protocol.

In 1989, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed the concept of a global computer network, the World Wide Web. Over the next 2 years, he creates the Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP, the HTML language, as well as URL identifiers. According to many researchers, it was thanks to the inventions of Tim Berners-Lee that the Internet as a global information system began its rapid march around the planet.

These standards, as well as the capabilities of the universal TCP / IP protocol, have made it possible to scale the World Wide Web on a global scale at a gigantic pace. In the early 1990s, the main features of the Internet available to modern users were formed: gaining accessto web pages through browsers, placing information on them, receiving and transmitting files. Of course, e-mail, IRC services remained in demand.

The hypertext language and site management technologies were improved. For a long time, NSFNet servers were used as the infrastructure basis of the Internet, but in 1995 this function was transferred to network providers. In 1996, the WWW standard became widespread, through which it was possible to transmit almost any data using Internet channels. But the FTP standard has also retained its relevance. And today, many Internet resources continue to use it in order to organize an effective file exchange.

In the form we are used to, the World Wide Web as a whole was formed by the beginning of the 2000s. As the speed of user access to online resources increased due to technologies such as DSL, fiber, 3G, 4G, video content hosting resources such as YouTube, gaming portals, and cloud services became especially popular. Through the Internet, not only data exchange between people is organized, but also between various devices - from simple household items to large industrial infrastructure. There are a large number of scientific concepts regarding how the Internet will develop as a global information system in the future. They are very different, and in many respects their implementation depends on the development of computer technologies themselves.

History of the Internet in Russia

Let's now study when the Internet appeared in Russia. from the westernwe got acquainted with the model of development of online communications, now it is important for us to understand how the corresponding infrastructure was implemented in our country.

As we noted at the beginning of the article, for a long time information technologies in the Soviet Union developed in parallel with Western ones. It should be noted that, to a large extent, their development became possible due to the appearance in the USSR of resources for the reproduction of the Western microprocessor base, which began to be actively introduced at various levels of communications management in the 60-70s, although before that Soviet scientists had very progressive developments of their own.. But one way or another, the essence of the Internet in the Western interpretation could differ significantly from the concepts of the development of computer networks in the USSR.

Back in the 1950s, Soviet scientists were building computer networks as part of projects to create a missile defense infrastructure. These networks were based on Soviet computers such as "Diana-I", "Diana-II" and other solutions. The exchange of information between the respective computers was carried out in order to calculate the trajectory of the flight of antimissiles.

In the 1970s, computer networks were also actively used in the civil sphere - in particular, as an infrastructure within the framework of systems such as ACS-Express and Sirena, which made it possible to reserve railway and air tickets, respectively. In 1974, the KOI-8 computer encoding was invented.

In the first half of the 80s, the VNIIPAS Institute began to carry out, using computers, remote data exchange with foreignorganizations. In general, in the 80s, the deployment of Soviet networked computer systems was quite active, largely due to the appearance in the USSR of localized versions of the UNIX operating system (on the principles of which modern Linux operating systems and, in turn, Android operating systems based on it, which can be attributed to the most common in the world, if we take the mobile device market). In fact, by 1990, all the necessary infrastructure was formed in the USSR for the subsequent unification of Soviet computer networks and the Internet, which functioned on the basis of NSFNet resources.

RELCOM - national computer network

The all-Union computer network "RELCOM" appears, which uses the protocols and technologies of the Internet. Communication between computers is provided through telephone channels. The most important role in building this infrastructure was played by the developers of the Demos cooperative, which developed various software solutions.

In August 1990, researchers from the Kurchatov Institute established a connection with the University of Helsinki in order to ensure the functioning of the transmission channels of mail messages within the Internet itself. In September 1990, RELCOM specialists, as well as the Demos company, registered the. Su domain of the Soviet Union, which is still in use - and there are versions that its popularity will grow.

In the USSR, along with RELCOM, user FIDO networks are being developed. By 1991, resources with domain addressing become available for Soviet users connecting to RELCOM -like the modern internet. In 1992, the first providers appeared in the Russian Federation.

The use of the international TCP/IP standard in Russia is becoming ubiquitous. In April 1994, the national domain. Ru was registered. Since then, the Internet in Russia has developed in general in the same way as in Western countries. At the same time, Russian specialists also made a significant contribution to the development of the World Wide Web, in particular at the level of developing anti-virus and server solutions.

So, we have studied how the Internet works, the features of the development of appropriate communication technologies in Russia and in the West. Let's now explore what the World Wide Web is today.

Modern Internet: providers

Internet access for users is provided by providers. Let's study the specifics of the tasks they solve.

Who is an ISP? In the early years of the development of the World Wide Web, this was considered a company that provides switching services to ensure communication between the user and the nearest Internet servers. Now the provider is a supplier of high-tech communication resources that ensure the functioning of the network infrastructure on a regional and sometimes national scale. Companies providing these services can be both very large, international, and local, which can operate on the scale of one city.

There are a large number of technologies through which providers can provide their services: optical and telephone channels, satellite,cellular internet. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. The prices for the Internet formed by the provider largely depend on which channels are used. As a rule, the most affordable for the user are wired channels, a little more expensive - cellular, the most expensive - satellite. In this case, payment for the services of the provider can be carried out:

• in subscription fee format;
• for traffic;
• in some cases - for the time of access to the Web.

The role of the Internet in the modern world is primarily to provide users with the opportunity to visit various sites.

Modern Internet: sites

A site hosted on the Internet is a collection of files (text, graphics, video and audio recordings containing other multimedia components), access to which is carried out through such protocols as WWW, HTTP, FTP and others, which are optimal in that or otherwise. Of course, these files are systematized in a certain way to facilitate the perception of information by the user.

The main system element of the site is a web page. In most cases, it is compiled in HTML, often using various scripts. The site may have different themes. It can be an online newspaper, blog, video hosting, sports, entertainment portal - there are a huge number of types of resources that can be hosted on the World Wide Web.

Modern Internet: radio and television

Above we noted that as the developmentcommunication technologies and increasing the speed of data transfer, various video resources on the Internet are gaining popularity. Such can be considered, for example, Internet television, as well as online radio. These technologies make it possible to broadcast television and radio programs on special sites using special technologies.

It is noteworthy that many of the modern services allow any user to organize their own broadcasting. Internet television, given the prevalence of high-speed lines, is no longer a privilege, but an ordinary resource. Which, at the same time, may require significant investments (labor, financial) from users in its promotion and development. The same can be said about websites. An online newspaper or entertainment portal can be registered by anyone, but turning it into a recognizable brand is not an easy task.

Modern Internet: mobile applications

One of the most pronounced trends in the development of the modern Internet can be considered the ubiquity of mobile applications - special software launched from smartphones or tablets. Functionally, application data in many cases can be similar to web pages. But there are also specialized solutions of the appropriate type, for example, adapted to organize secure access to any personal account, such as a bank account. The Internet today is a communication medium within which almost any digital data can be transmitted, and in many cases this requires the use of specialprotocols and technologies, including those implemented in mobile applications.

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So, we have studied what the concept of the World Wide Web is, as well as the main technologies that are involved in order to ensure its functioning. The essence of the Internet is to provide users from all over the world with stable, inexpensive access to various types of useful information, files, multimedia content, as well as resources through which people can communicate with each other and exchange various data. Such an opportunity today is already familiar to residents of, probably, all countries of the world, although it was previously available to very few people, in many cases it could only be used with high qualifications in the field of information technology.

Who is an Internet provider, which one can be connected to and at what price - questions that a typical resident of a modern metropolis almost certainly knows. The World Wide Web continues to evolve: new services, technologies, concepts for organizing user communication appear, devices for data transmission are being improved. How technological progress will go, how the world economy will develop, will determine the vectors for the further development of the Internet.