Ans. The Internet is
used for a variety of activities. Some of the common activities are:
·
Accessing and
retrieving information
·
Communicating
·
Transacting
business
·
Telemarketing
·
Using recreational
facilities
·
These activities are performed using a variety
of services available on the Internet. These services are briefly explained
below:
E-Mail :
Electronic mail or E-mail is a service for sending messages to individuals or
to mailing lists. It is faster and cheaper than traditional mail. Newsgroups
and bulletin boards are offshoots of e-mail. These allow users to post messages
or notices for anyone to read. Advanced interactive forms of e-mail with
multiple users enable computer conferencing in real time. Its significant
advantage is that it could be used for flexible participant groups.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) :
FTP helps with moving files from one computer to another. FTP has promoted a
broad range of public databases and services. It is possible to find
information on many topics such as law, public health, recipes, and
agriculture. Many free software programmes can also be downloaded using FTP.
When free FTP access is provided, it is known as anonymous FTP, as the users
are not required to reveal their own identity. Private archives can be accessed
only by authorized users. The main advantage is that large files of data or
information are transferred from one computer to another at very high speeds.
Archie is a tool that helps the users to search for files of their interest for
retrieval using FTP.
Gopher :
Gopher provides a menu driven system of access points to browse for resources
on remote computers. Once an item of interest is located, it can be immediately
accessed I through Gopher. The menu option varies with servers. Many university
library catalogs are available on Gopher. Quite a number of them provide
facilities for interlibrary loan requests.
Telnet :
It is a tool for logging into remote computers on the Internet. Telnet access
to several public services such as library catalogs is not restricted. But,
access to most computers is available only to those who have authorized accounts
on those computers or networks. Once connected to a remote machine using
telnet, your keyboard functions as if it is a component of the remote system.
Telnet is particularly useful in accessing from other locations your e-mail and
special services available on your computer.
Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) :
WAIS is an extremely useful service to search through indexed material and
finding articles based on what they contain. The search is essentially based on
a group of words to be found in the article(s). However, the search is limited
to only those items that are already indexed. After a successful search, WAIS
can display the documents if needed. Since indexing is a labour intensive task,
a limited number of free WAIS libraries exist supported by voluntary efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment