Network and Internet Fundamentals
Senior 1 · ICT
Network and Internet Fundamentals
Lesson 2 of 5
22 min
People say "I found it on the internet" and "I found it on the web" as if they meant the same thing. They do not. The internet is the worldwide network of cables, radio links and computers. The World Wide Web is one service that runs on top of it, just as buses are one kind of traffic that uses Rwanda's roads. Email, video calls and online games are other kinds of traffic on the same roads.
In this lesson you will learn the key internet terms, the short history of the internet, how it is used every day, and the different ways of getting connected.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Internet | The worldwide network of networks that connects computers and phones everywhere |
| World Wide Web (WWW, the web) | All the web pages in the world, joined to each other by links and reached over the internet |
| Web page | One document that a browser can display, written in a language called HTML |
| Website | A group of linked web pages that share one name (domain name), such as all the pages of a school's site |
| Hyperlink (link) | Text or a picture that you click or tap to open another page |
| Web server | A computer that stores websites and sends out their pages when asked |
| Web browser | Software that fetches web pages and displays them, for example Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator: the address of a page on the web |
| ISP | Internet service provider: a company that connects you to the internet, such as MTN Rwanda or Airtel Rwanda |
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | ARPANET, a research network in the USA, sends its first message, between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute |
| 1971 | Ray Tomlinson sends the first email between computers on a network and chooses the @ sign for addresses |
| 1983 | ARPANET switches to TCP/IP, the set of protocols the internet still uses today |
| 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN near Geneva, proposes the World Wide Web |
| 1991 | The web is opened to the public |
| 1993 | CERN makes the web software free for everyone to use |
| 1998 | Google is founded; search engines make the growing web easier to use |
| 2007 onwards | Smartphones bring the internet to people's pockets |
In Rwanda, a national fibre-optic backbone of more than 3,000 km was largely completed by 2011, and 4G mobile coverage now reaches more than 97% of the population (2024 figure).
| Method | How it works | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile data (3G, 4G, 5G) | A SIM card connects the phone to a nearby mast by radio waves | Almost everywhere in Rwanda; you buy bundles from MTN or Airtel |
| Wi-Fi hotspot | A router, or a phone's "mobile hotspot", shares one connection with nearby devices by radio waves | Homes, schools, cafés, hotels |
| Fixed fibre | A fibre-optic cable carries light signals right into the building | Offices, schools and homes in towns; very fast |
| DSL | Uses an ordinary telephone line | Older installations |
| Satellite | A dish on the roof talks to satellites in space | Remote places with no fibre or mobile signal. Starlink began operating in Rwanda in February 2023 |
| Dial-up | A modem "phones" the ISP over a telephone line | Historical: very slow and no longer used |
Tip
Exam trap: the internet is the network (the roads); the web is one service on it (the buses). A web page is one page; a website is a group of pages; a web server is the computer that stores them. Get these three right and you avoid the most common mistake in this topic.
Explain the difference between the internet and the World Wide Web.
Solution: The internet is the worldwide network that connects computers. The web is the collection of linked web pages that you reach over the internet. Email uses the internet but is not part of the web.
A school website has a home page, a news page, a timetable page and a contacts page. How many websites and how many web pages is that?
Solution: One website made of four web pages.
Ishimwe uses Firefox on a laptop connected to Airtel's network to read a page stored on a computer in Nairobi. Name the browser, the ISP and the web server.
Solution: Browser: Firefox. ISP: Airtel Rwanda. Web server: the computer in Nairobi that stores the page.
Put in order: the web is proposed; ARPANET's first message; the first network email; Google is founded.
Solution: ARPANET's first message (1969) → first network email (1971) → the web is proposed (1989) → Google is founded (1998).
Suggest a suitable way to connect a small shop in Rubavu whose owner only has a smartphone.
Solution: Mobile data on the phone. It needs no extra equipment, and 4G covers almost all of Rwanda.
Summary
Sources and credits
The road-and-bus comparison, the worked examples and the practice items were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
