Internet basics

With the explosion of sequence and structural information available to researchers, the field of bioinformatics is playing an increasingly large role in the study of fundamental biomedical problems. The challenge facing computational biologists will be to aid in gene discovery and in the design of molecular modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, and experiments of other types that can potentially reveal previously unknown relationships with respect to the structure and function of genes and proteins. This challenge becomes particularly daunting in light of the vast amount of data that has been produced by the Human Genome Project and other systematic sequencing efforts to date. This unit begins with a review of the Internet and its terminology, also discussing major classes of Internet protocols, without becoming overly engaged in the engineering minutiae underlying these protocols. Matters of connectivity, ranging from simple modem connections to digital subscriber lines (DSL) are also discussed. Finally, one of the most common problems that has arisen with the proliferation of Web pages throughout the world is addressed--i.e., finding useful information on the World Wide Web.