The following is the text of a presentation I gave to the Newcomers Club of Cuernavaca in the spring of 1999. I gave a little history of the "net", the current state of affairs including how to get connected and then I daydreamed a little on what we might see in the future. At the end, you'll find a little glossary you might find helpful. I hope you enjoy it!

I realize that the majority of you have some experience with the Internet but I hope I can fill in some blanks and answer some of your questions, even before you ask! Today we'll cover the history of the Internet, how it works and what you can do with it. That should take 20-30 minutes. We can spend the balance of our time with a question and answer session.

The History

The Internet was conceived in 1967 during the Cold War as a means of maintaining communications in the event of a nuclear strike on US soil. The idea was to create a web of communications, which, if any connection points were knocked out of service, would route communications around the affected areas. They did this by designing a system of interconnected computers and a protocol or language whereby packets of information, each containing the address of the destination, would be passed from one computer to the next until they arrived at the destination. If any part of the network was knocked out of service, the packets would take a detour and find the destination by another path.

The first installations were placed in various universities around the U.S. But as the users changed jobs and moved on to other locations, they spread the technology with them.

How it works

To access the Internet you need a moderately respectable computer, one less than say two years old. You also need a modem; this is the computers version of a telephone. In addition, you also need some software or programs that understand how to communicate via the Internet and use e-mail. These software are referred to as the browser and the e-mail client.

In simple terms, this is how a message is able to travel from your computer to its destination. You must have a computer with a modem and the appropriate software. You use the software to tell the computer to use the modem to pick up the phone and place a call your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The provider's computer answers the phone and the two computers start a conversation. Back at home, you tell your computer to find a given address, say, IBM.com. The request travels down the phone line to the ISP. The ISP sends the request to the Tech de Monterey here in Cuernavaca on a dedicated phone line. The T de M sends the request to T de M in Mexico via a fiber optic cable. From there it goes on to Houston, again via fiber optic cable. The request is passed from one computer/cable/company to the next, until the destination is found and the route is established. The destination computer will acknowledge the connection and send word back through all those intermediate computers to your ISP and your ISP informs you that the connection has been established. Finally you can start sending your message to IBM.
Because each computer and each component of the Internet, by and large, has equal status, and is owned by a different entity, no one can own or control the Internet.

The Parts of the Internet

The word Internet is a general term that refers to the entire network of computers, cables and protocols. The resources of the Internet are occupied by several major functions. Among the more important are e-mail, Usenet and the World Wide Web. I'll describe each of those terms.

E-mail is the simplest but probably the most widely used. As the name implies, it's used to send mail electronically. It was originally designed to allow the user to send a simple typed letter to a single recipient. In the last few years it has been enhanced to the point were you can send more complex documents to long mailing lists. E-mail these days may even include photographs, sound recordings and short videos.

The important distinction is that this is point to point communication, you specify a specific person or persons as recipients. To send and receive e-mail you use a program called an e-mail client such as Outlook Express.

The next most sophisticated portion of the Internet is called the Usenet or the News Groups. The Usenet is similar to e-mail in that you can only send simple documents such as a typed letter. The difference is instead of sending your letter to a person, you post it on a specific computer just like you were using a bulletin board. Anyone who wants to read your message must log on to that computer and request a list of postings. They can then select your message to read and respond. Each message must be posted to one or more special interest groups or categories. There are between 10,000 to 20,000 of these groups. The subjects of the groups could be anything from technical discussions, to stamp collecting to philosophical discussions to pornography to fan clubs. Academics, researchers and technicians are the principle users of the Usenet. To access the Usenet you need a program called a news client. The Usenet seems to be declining in use.

Another portion of the Internet, one that is also declining in use, is called FTP. That's an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. It's a method used to send any type of file across the Internet. It's loosing popularity because its functions are being integrated into the other Internet services.

The World Wide Web is the part of the Internet that is receiving all the hype and rightly so. To access the WWW you use a program called a browser. The browser is the interface between you and some 800 million pages of information.

What is this information? You name it, it's there somewhere. Shopping, news, finance, travel, book reviews, games, education, music. The information is posted by major corporations, educational institutions and private individuals all over the world and in any language.

How to Use It

When you use the Internet you start by logging on to your account with your ISP by supplying your name and password. Once this information has been confirmed, your computer will present you with a window containing your browser. The browser will begin by showing you the page you've designated as your home page. This page may contain information on current news, stock market reports or subjects of interest to you. The page will also contain a number of hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a reference to another page. A click with your mouse on a link will take you to that page. There, you will find more things to see and more links. Moving along from link to link like this is called surfing.

The handiest tools on the Web are the search pages. Search pages are posted on the Web by companies whose business it is to catalog the contents of the Web. The pages are easy to find and you can use them to locate whatever information is of interest to you.
Posting information on the Web is a little more difficult. For example, if you wished to advertise a house for rent you would first hire someone to design your web page, then rent space through your ISP to post the page. The page could include a photograph of the house, a written description and your e-mail address. If you wanted to get fancy you could add a video clip that takes the visitor on a guided tour of the house and garden all with  background music. How would potential buyers find your page? They would use a search page to request a list of pages that refer to houses for sale in Cuernavaca.

You may have heard of America On-line, the Microsoft Network (MSN), CompuServe or Prodigy. These are companies that have established private nets. They supply services such as e-mail accounts, news, weather and financial information to their clients and provide access to the rest of the Internet. These services are also known as Portals. They are okay for beginners but most people soon grow out of them.

A Few Statistics and Predictions.

Current Bells and Whistles

Now that you've seen the basics of how the Internet is put together and how you can use it, let's talk about some of the bells and whistles that are currently available.
One of the nifty enhancements to e-mail is voice mail. To send voice mail you simply record your message directly on your computer, compose the e-mail, attach the file containing the voice message, then send it off to the recipient. When the recipient receives the e-mail she will see a small icon somewhere in the body of the letter, double click this icon and their computer will play back the message.

The idea of voice mail has been expanded to include two-way communication. There are a couple of programs that are designed to manage two-way voice conversations across the Internet. You need to ensure that both you and the person you wish to talk to are logged on to the Internet at the same time and that both of you are running identical programs. Even then, the conversation is choppy at best. If both you and the person or persons you are calling have state-of-the-art PCs and Internet connections, this technology will allow you to make video conference calls.

Net2Phone is a company that has made the connection between the Internet and regular long distance telephone service. With their service you can place a phone call to anywhere in the world as though the call originated in the U.S.A. Using your computer, you place a call via your computer and ISP through the Internet to the company's office in Boston. From there it is relayed to a long distance service such as Sprint. Sprint then sends the call, as a normal long distance call, to your intended receiver.

WebTV has developed a small inexpensive box that attaches to your TV. Once connected you have limited access to the net, but it's better that nothing! Considering that there are 300,000,000 TVs in American homes along with telephones and stereos. This is the potential market for WebTV.

Some interesting facts about WebTV

I imagine that, someday you'll overhear someone say, "Honey, answer the TV will you, I'm watching the phone."

Hot Mail is a company that offers free e-mail accounts. Hot Mail is different than other e-mail accounts because it is located on the World Wide Web rather than on an e-mail server at your Internet provider. This has several advantages and some disadvantages. The primary advantage is that you can access your e-mail easily from any Internet ready computer anywhere in the world. The primary disadvantage is that you must remain on-line while composing mail.

The service asks a lot of marketing related questions when you open a new account.

The Costs?

What are the costs to get connected to the Internet? You can expect to spend $10,000 pesos and up for an Internet ready computer. You also need an adequate phone line. Some lines here in Mexico have too much static. You also need to subscribe to an Internet Service Provider. The inscription is roughly $200 plus $135 pesos per month.

How to find a provider. Before calling the Internet providers you should have an idea what you're going to do with your connection. If all you want is e-mail, you should be able to get by on less than 10 hours per month. If you also want to go surfing on Saturday afternoons, count on another 10 hours per month. If you have kids who will be using the computer add another 20 or more hours per month.

When looking for an ISP, ask about inscription costs and monthly access rates. Ask them how many clients they have and how many clients per phone line. A smaller company can give more personal service and more users per line means it's tougher to get a connection when you want.

"&the Internet will have a larger effect on civilization
than the invention of the printing press!"

Bill Gates

Glossary:

Browser - Program used to access the World Wide Web.

Download - Bring a file from the Internet to your computer.

E-mail - Electronic mail

FTP - File Transfer Protocol, used to transfer files between computers.

Host - A computer that stores internet files.

Icon - A small picture used as a reference to a program or file.

Internet - The whole network of computers and cables and the protocol used.

ISP - Internet Service Provider

Mail Client - Program used to compose, send, receive and read e-mail

Modem - The computer's version of a telephone

News Client - Program used to access the Usenet

News Groups - Another name for the Usenet

Surfing - Moving from link to link though the World Wide Web

Upload - Send a file from your computer to the Internet.

Usenet - System of computer based bulletin boards

WWW - World Wide Web, a major portion of the Internet that employs colorful documents sometimes with sound and motion. Also known as the World Wide Wait!