A Global Computer Network

  The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in the United States in 1969 as a mil­itary experiment. It was designed to survive a nuclear war. Information sent over the Internet takes the shortest path available from one com­puter to another. Because of this, any two computers on the Internet will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between them. This technology is called packet switching. Owing to this technology, if some computers on the network are knocked out (by a nuclear explosion, for example), information will just route around them. One such packet-switching network already survived a war. It was the Iraqi computer network which was not knocked out dur­ing the Gulf War. Most of the Internet host computers (more than 50 %) are in the United States, while the rest are located in more than 100 other coun­tries. Although the number of host computers can be counted fairly accurately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet, there are millions, and their number is growing by thousands each month worldwide.

  The most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. However, other popular services are avail­able on the Internet: reading USENET News, using the World-Wide Web, telnet, FTP, and Gopher.

  In many developing countries the Internet provide business­men with a reliable alternative to the expensive and unreliable telecom­munications systems of these countries. Commercial users can com­municate over the Internet with the rest of the world and can do it very cheaply. When they send e-mail messages, they only have to pay for phone calls to their local service providers, not for calls across their countries or around the world. But who actually pays for sending e-mail messages over the Internet long distances, around the world? The answer is very simple: a user pays his/her service provider a monthly or hourly fee. Part of this fee goes towards its costs to connect to a larger service provider. And part of the fee got by the larger provider goes to cover its cost of running a worldwide network of wires and wireless stations.

  But saving money was only the first step. When people saw that they could make money from the Internet, commercial use of this network drastically increased. For example, some western architecture companies and garment centers transmit their basic designs and concepts over the Internet into China, where they are reworked and refined by skilled − but inexpensive − Chinese computer-aided-design spe­cialists.

  However, some problems remain. The most important is security. When you send an e-mail message to somebody, this message can travel through many different networks and computers. The data are constantly being directed towards its destination by special com­puters called routers. Because of this, it is possible to get into any of computers along the route, intercept and even change the data being sent over the Internet. In spite of the fact that there are many strong encoding programs available, nearly all the information being sent over the Internet is transmitted without any form of encoding, i.e. "in the clear". But when it becomes neces­sary to send important information over the network, these encoding programs may be useful. Some banks and companies even conduct transactions over the Internet. However, there are still both commercial and technical problems which will take time to be resolved.

 

2 In the text find equivalents to the phrases:

- выжить в ядерной войне;

- охватывать миллионы пользователей по всему миру;

- пакетная передача данных;

- пока существует один маршрутизатор;

- число головных компьютеров можно посчитать достаточно точно;

- надежная альтернатива;

- зарабатывать деньги с помощью компьютера;

- доступные сильные кодировочные программы;

- стоимость обслуживания.

3. Form phrases by matching the words from 1-10 with the words a-k:

1) millions    2) the shortest 3) route  4) fairly

5) developing 6) reliable  7) garment 8) encoding

9) conduct 10) architecture

 

a) around b) accurately  c) system     d) program e) companies

f) transactions g) center  i) countries  j) path       k) of users

 

4. Form nouns from these verbs and translate them:

1. to net; 2. to access; 3. to intercept; 4. to travel; 5. to inform;

6. to transmit; 7. to encode;    8. to transact;  9. to service; 10. to resolve

TALKING POINT

5. Discuss in pairs:

· the most popular Internet services nowadays;

· where your monthly fee goes to;

· the possibilities to make money through the Internet;

· the use of the Internet resources for studing.

VOCABULARY STUDY

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