Two basic possibilities: "dial in", or "always on". In Australian
in 2002 it's most common to dial in to an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) using your existing phone line in conjunction with a modem
see later. At university, in contrast, all
of the computers are "always on".
usually some initial technical hassles getting everything
working. There are quite a few messy details that have to be
configured.
once it's running, we "Surf the Web", send and receive emails,
run special-purpose Internet software such as ICQ, RealPlayer, etc,
etc.
In this unit, we discover how it all works.
Important Note
In this subject, we attempt to tell no lies... However, we
do not guarantee to always tell the whole truth!!
That is, for every aspect of Internet technology that we cover,
there's always more to it that is revealed in these notes. This, of
course, quite normal in educational practice, but it's worth
reminding you up front.