Telecommunications Notes

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Telecommunications = Distance + Communications

History of distance communications:

Smoke signals
Letter writing and Pony Express.
US Postal Service
Telephone (replaced the art of letter writing)
Radio (changed people's lives by bringing immediate world news into our living rooms.)
Television (brought a view of the universe into our homes)
Computer (changed the way we communicate forever!)

Postal Service - also known as Snail Mail

Sender takes letter to mail box or post office.
Your letter travels 1-5 days
Receiver receives your letter and responds to your request.
Response travels 1-5 days.
You receive your information.

Telecomputing/Internet/E-Mail

Key in request/message
Request/message travels in seconds
Receiver gets your request and responds.

What is the Internet?

The world's largest computer network.
Also known as the World Wide Web.
It is made up of millions of linked Hypertext documents or "pages". Because they are Hypertext, the user is able to point and click to "links" that take the user to related documents. Many documents contain sound and video.

Advantages of Modern Telecommunication:

E-mail the most popular telecommunication service.
Fast communication all over the world long distances between sender and receiver is not a problem.
No travel needed to meet with another person and share "files."
More people will be able to do work at home.

Disadvantages of Modern Telecommunication:

Expensive equipment needed.
Relatively high monthly costs to maintain access.
Sometimes information derived from Internet sites is NOT accurate. You must be careful of the sites you trust!!!

Other advantages of the Internet:

On-line shopping (You can buy almost anything without leaving home.)
Electronic mail (E-mail allows people to exchange messages and even computer files over phone lines.
Chat Rooms (Allows people to carry on conversations in "real time.")
Internet Social Networks (Allows people with similar interests to meet, but everyone should BEWARE - some members of Internet Social Networks could be predators.)
Information on almost any topic is available on Internet because it is the largest database in the world.
Many types of software are available online such as word processors, virus checkers, and games.
The most up-to-date news is available through many on-line services.

E-mail:

Looks very similar to a memorandum.
Guidewords always include: To, Subject, Attachment, Carbon Copy (CC).
Address includes: username, the @ symbol, the location of the server (as in aol.com, wcpss.net, nscu.edu; nc.gov)

E-mail tips:

Always put your name at the bottom of the message.
Read and respond to e-mail messages quickly.
To forward a message to another person, check the buttons or pull-down menus to help you.
The carbon copy feature allows you to send the same message to several recipients.
Never use all caps for your entire message. It is considered impolite. People read it as if you are shouting at them.

What things do you need to get on the Internet?

Computer
Telephone line or high speed line
Modem to send and receive information
Internet Provider or Commercial On-Line Service who will provide
Software needed to send and receive data.

Telecommunication Services:

Provides information from sources around the world and lets you communicate with others connected to the service.
Services provided include news, weather, sports, stocks and bonds, airline and hotel reservations, encyclopedias,
games, shopping, e-mail, chat rooms.

Types of telecommunications services:

Facsimile (FAX machines)
Video Conference
Business (ATM machines, database service, scanners for bar codes and credit cards.
Voice Mail

Searching the Internet:

The Internet is a great resource for searching for all kinds of information.
Can be compared to performing a database search.
There are several ways to look for information on the Internet.
Search engines and subject index are an easy way to search for almost any topic.
Yahooligans is a Web guide designed especially for kids and young teens.
For advanced Internet searching, you should be familiar with basic boolean operators. Go to http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html for an introduction to Boolean Searching.

Glossary

Telecommunications: communicating over a distance
Telecomputing: sending or receiving information to another computer via a modem and a phone/communication line.
Modem: a device that permits a computer to transmit and receive data over a telephone line. Modem is an acronym for modulator-demodulator.
Baud Rate: The speed at which a modem transmits data. A 28,800 modem (28.8) transmits 2880 characters per
second.
Upload: sending data from one computer to another.
Download: receiving data from another computer.
E-mail: private electronic messages that is sent and received from one computer to another.
Log-on: The act of connecting with another system or on-line service.
Log-off: The act of signing off and disconnecting with another computer system or service.
Internet: A global network of thousands of computer networks that offers e-mail and information services to millions of users.
Information Highway: A term used to describe electronic information networks that carry audio, video, and computer
data.
World Wide Web: A term used to describe an interface to the Internet that contains millions of hypertext documents
that are linked together and contain text, sound, video and graphics.
Hypertext: A special type of database system, invented by Ted Nelson in the 1960s, in which objects (text, pictures,
music, programs, and so on) can be creatively linked to each other. When you select an object, you can see all the
other objects that are linked to it. You can move from one object to another even though they might have very different forms.
Chat Rooms: a type of telecommunications that allows people to converse and send messages during "real time."
Search Engine: a telecommunication service that can help you research a topic and locate links to web pages related
to that topic.