Acessing the Internet The Net connections can be based on wire-line and wireless access technolgies. Wire-line access Wire-less access copper wires Satellites coaxial cables mobile terrestrial antennas electric power lines fixed terrestrial antennas fiber-optic cables Usually several kinds of network connections are employed at once. Generally speaking, when an E-mail message is sent it travels from the user's computer via copper wires or coaxial cables ISDN lines, etc., to an Internet Service Provider, from there, via fibre-optic cables, to the nearest Internet exchange, and on into a backbone network, tunneling across the continent und diving through submarine fibre-optic cables across the Atlantic to another Internet exchange, from there, via another backbone network and across another regional network to the Internet Service Provider of the supposed message recipient, from there via cables and wires of different bandwidth arriving at its destination, a workstation permanently connected to the Internet. Finally a sound or flashing icon informs your virtual neighbor that a new message has arrived. Satellite communication Although facing competition from fiber-optic cables as cost-effective solutions for broadband data transmission services, the space industry is gaining increasing importance in global communications. As computing, telephony, and audiovisual technologies converge, new wireless technologies are rapidly deployed occupying an increasing market share and accelerating the construction of high-speed networks. Privatization of satellite communication Until recently transnational satellite communication was provided exclusively by intergovernmental organizations as Intelsat, Intersputnik and Inmarsat. Scheduled privatization of intergovernmental satellite consortia: Satellite consortia Year of foundation Members Scheduled date for privatization Intelsat 1964 200 nations under the leadership of the USA 2001 Intersputnik 1971 23 nations under the leadership of Russia ? Inmarsat 1979 158 nations (all members of the International Maritime Organization) privatized since 1999 Eutelsat 1985 Nearly 50 European nations 2001 When Intelsat began to accumulate losses because of management failures and the increasing market share of fiber-optic cables, this organizational scheme came under attack. Lead by the USA, the Western industrialized countries successfully pressed for the privatization of all satellite consortia they are members of and for competition by private carriers. As of February 2000, there are 2680 satellites in service. Within the next four years a few hundred will be added by the new private satellite systems. Most of these systems will be so-called Low Earth Orbit satellite systems, which are capable of providing global mobile data services on a high-speed level at low cost. Because of such technological improvements and increasing competition, experts expect satellite-based broadband communication to be as common, cheap, and ubiquitous as satellite TV today within the next five or ten years. Major satellite communication projects Project name Main investors Expected cost Number of satellites Date of service start-up Astrolink Lockheed Martin, TRW, Telespazio, Liberty Media Group US$ 3.6 billion 9 2003 Globalstar 13 investors including Loral Space & Communications, Qualcomm, Hyundai, Alcatel, France Telecom, China Telecom, Daimler Benz and Vodafone/Airtouch US$ 3.26 billion 48 1998 ICO 57 investors including British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Inmarsat, TRW and Telefonica US$ 4.5 billion 10 2001 Skybridge 9 investors including Alcatel Space, Loral Space & Communications, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Sharp US$ 6.7 billion 80 2002 Teledesic Bill Gates, Craig McCaw, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud, Abu Dhabi Investment Company US$ 9 billion 288 2004 Source: Analysys Satellite Communications Database

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Pressures and Attacks against Independent Content Providers: Serbia The independent Belgrade based FM radio-station B2-92, which from December 1996 on also broadcasts over the Internet, repeatedly has been the target of suppression and attacks by the Serbian government. B2-92 offices have been raided on numerous occasions and members of staff have been repeatedly harassed or arrested. In March 1999 the transmitter of radio B2-92 was confiscated yet again by the Serbian authorities and editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, was taken and held in custody at a police station. Ten days after the confiscation of B2-92's transmitter, Serbian police entered and sealed their offices. All members of staff were sent home and a new General Manager was appointed by Serbian officials. Although by closing B2-92, the Serbian regime may have succeeded in softening the voice of the independent content provider, with the distributive nature of the Internet and the international help of media activists, the regime will have little chance of silencing the entire flood of independent content coming out of former Yugoslavia.

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4000 - 1000 B.C. 4th millennium B.C. In Sumer writing is invented. Writing and calculating came into being at about the same time. The first pictographs carved into clay tablets were used for administrative purposes. As an instrument for the administrative bodies of early empires, which began to rely on the collection, storage, processing and transmission of data, the skill of writing was restricted to only very few. Being more or less separated tasks, writing and calculating converge in today's computers. Letters are invented so that we might be able to converse even with the absent, says Saint Augustine. The invention of writing made it possible to transmit and store information. No longer the ear predominates; face-to-face communication becomes more and more obsolete for administration and bureaucracy. Standardization and centralization become the constituents of high culture and vast empires as Sumer and China. 3200 B.C. In Sumer the seal is invented. About 3000 B.C. In Egypt papyrus scrolls and hieroglyphs are used. About 1350 B.C. In Assyria the cuneiform script is invented. 1200 B.C. According to Aeschylus, the conquest of the town of Troy was transmitted via torch signals. About 1100 B.C. Egyptians use homing pigeons to deliver military information.

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Gateway A gateway is a computer supplying point-to-multipoint connections between computer networks.

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ciphertext the enciphered/encoded and primarily illegible text

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Galileo Galilee Galileo Galilee (1564-1642), the Italian Mathematician and Physicist is called the father of Enlightenment. He proofed the laws of the free fall, improved the technique for the telescope and so on. Galilee is still famous for his fights against the Catholic Church. He published his writings in Italian instead of writing in Latin. Like this, everybody could understand him, which made him popular. As he did not stop talking about the world as a ball (the Heliocentric World System) instead of a disk, the Inquisition put him on trial twice and forbid him to go on working on his experiments.

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ciphers the word "cipher" comes from the Hebrew word "saphar", meaning "to number". Ciphers are mere substitutions. Each letter of the alphabet gets substituted; maybe by one letter or two or more. an example: PLAINTEXT a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z CIPHERTEXT D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C

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