The Internet plays a major role in the future development of computers, networks, business, entertainment and education. In a very short space of time it has transformed our attitudes towards personal computers, entertainment, business and education. It has bridged the gap between many information sources, making access to information, business and entertainment much easier. Providing a focal point were all user groups young and old can access what they require at the touch of a button.

Just as the personal computer, television (satellite and cable) and telephone have become a part of every

household, so will the Internet. It will integrate all existing communication and entertainment utilities and

may even be the technological break through for this and the next decade. It has already influenced the development of software, hardware and communication and will do so in the future.

As integration of components and communication methods is having a major impact on the miniaturization

of technology, it will work to the advantage of the Internet allowing it to advance at a tremendous pace.

The Internet will appeal to the mobile user, providing the mobile user with a powerful utensil, which will

have the capabilities to fax, email, telephone, video and entertain while the user is on the move.

Security will undermine the development of the Internet and WWW. It is open to abuse if it is not

monitored vigorously. This is an area of serious concern; there is development and research in progress to

make the Internet as secure as possible. Nevertheless it will never be completely free of abuse.

At present the Internet offers a range of facilities such as, emailing, on-line directories, host web sites

which offer a wealth of information, chat lines were you can meet people and interact through email

messages on screen. It offers businesses and industry an opportunity to exploit another means of

advertising. There is no website on the Internet that you can go to without encountering someone trying to

sell you a product or service. The Internet is inundated with commercial advertising.

Since the discovery of the Internet and the WWW by the casual user as well as the business user, the

Internet has developed very quickly in a short space of time. It has expanded so much that other sources

have to be exploited to create more bandwidth, to cope with the flow of traffic on the network.

It is incumbent that major investment is required to resource the research into developing networks, by which more bandwidth can be attained. Fibre optics and satellite communication are two areas in which major development is taking place.

Optical fibre cables have been laid to offer better bandwidth with travelling speeds almost reaching the

speed of light Satellite communication is another source which is being used.

Satellite offers the opportunity to areas were there are no networks or telephone lines, this enables people in remote areas to link up to the WWW and use the Internet. In a couple of year's time, you'll be able to use the Internet 60 times faster than today. And in about three years time, 99% of the planet will enjoy the same privilege.

The technology behind this breakthrough, which makes the Internet accessible in remote parts of the third

world, is the satellite. And naturally, Bill Gates has a hand in it.

The system will also allow global video teleconferencing, paging, faxing and voice communications.

Users will need to install nothing more complicated than a lampshade sized antenna.

Telecommunications bodies worldwide say that the growth in Internet usage is slowing down their service

dramatically. Direct satellite access from individual users would improve the situation.

According to Leon Gerber at service providers Global Internet Access, satellite and wireless technology is

the answer for countries with poor telecommunications infrastructures, as well as for remote areas.

"We see satellite technology as the answer for Internet usage," says Gerber. "Many countries north of us,

like Zimbabwe, have very poor communications. Satellite links would provide almost unlimited bandwidth

at a very reasonable price."

A spokesperson for The Internet Solution (TIS) said: "We have only one option in South Africa, and that is

Telkorn. Users would have far better access speeds and pricing if the system were deregulated. Many

companies are already moving to satellite in various ways."

A wide range of people from children, businessmen and casual users use the Internet. Not all of these

people are capable of performing complicated operations on a computer to access and use the Internet.

Devices such as a mouse, trackballs, and joysticks are designed to be used with a graphic display monitor

which tracks the cursor or an object.

Trackballs are essentially an inverted mouse with the ball being moved by the users hand or palm. Unlike a mouse, it stays stationary on the desktop. It was a common device used in earlier stand alone arcade

games, now it is making a comeback with children's games for the PC (Brian Brown 1997).

Game pads are hand held devices which are used to send position information and button presses to the

computer. The position information is derived from a joystick device, and usually controls some object in a game, like a plane or a car (Brian Brown 1997).

Digitizers are device’s, which send information to the computer. A very simple digitizer is a mouse, which

sends its relative movement to the computer and thus controls the cursor position. The mouse has become

the defacto standard for windows based system. Tablets and pads are similar to mice. With tablets and

pads, the intelligence is in the pad or tablet, not the pointing device. They are used in conjunction with a

pen or stylus, which is held in the hand and moved across the surface of the tablet or pad.

(Brian Brown 1997).

Pressure Sensitive Pads are the same size as a mouse pad. Most use a cordless pen which may also have

several buttons. As the pen is moved across the surface of the pad, its position is detected by pressure, and

sent as x,y co-ordinates to the computer. It is suitable for free hand drawing, painting and general graphic

work (Brian Brown 1997).

The Internet at present will have to rely on object orientated software packages, so that all maneuvers on

the Internet can be performed easily by all user groups. This is why the mouse, pads and joysticks play an

important role in the near future of the Internet.

There is a minority user group that is the disabled user, which play an important and significant role in our

community today. This group almost totally relies on the use of peripherals adapted to their need.

In voice recognition systems, spoken speech is converted to text or recognized by the computer as

commands. For instance, with a suitably equipped computer which has a sound card and microphone, the

user could directly dictate and have the computer convert the spoken words into text automatically, saving

time typing. This would speed up the input of information into the computer (Brian Brown 1997).

VR systems in computers may also offer text to speech translation, which is taking typed text stored in text

files and speaking them via the sound speaker.

Microsoft Voice is an application which offers speech recognition and text to speech capabilities. It runs

under Windows 98 or Windows NT version4 or greater. A sound card and microphone are required.

In voice response systems, recorded messages are sent to the user. Typical applications require the user to

use telephone keypads to respond to messages. Voice recognition systems allow a system to respond to

voice commands or recognize text and convert it to a text file for storage. This provides an alternative to

the traditional method of keyboard entry, for instance, allowing disabled users more freedom.

The Voice Recognition System has not fully developed on the Internet. It will play a major role in aid of

the disabled user. When it is fully operational it will add a new dimension to the Internet

Digital cameras are cameras that convert the captured photograph directly into the digital image and store it locally inside the camera for later down load to a computer (Brian Brown 1997).

They are a bit like a hand held video camera except they only take a limited number of frames. Some

cameras support multiple frames. The number of pictures that can be stored depends upon the memory

available within the camera and the size of each image.

Digital cameras are easy to use and operate, even by novice users. At present, they tend to be expensive

and have limited software support for emailing and taxing. Software included with the camera includes

download capability between the camera and PC, and image editing software for editing the images on the

PC.

Video conferencing has been available for a number of years, as the name suggests it mainly appeals to

business users. It links conference meetings at different locations. It is expensive as it utilizes large pieces

of equipment to provide 'room' based video conferencing.

Video conferencing led to desktop video conferencing this is the most up to date way of communicating via computer and video.

Desk top video conferencing is a new paradigm for video conferencing it is "desktop" based. The

paradigm for desktop video conferencing is that participants sit at their own desk, in their own offices and

call up other participants, using their personal computer in a manner like a telephone.

(Rhett D.Hudson 1996).

The only reason why the videophone has not been successful is because there is limited bandwidth.

Sending video through a communications channel requires a lot of bandwidth. The hardware to operate a

video phone system is available.

VC105 works with a TV and touch-tone phone to provide a complete videophone solution. The most

complete of 8x8's videophone solutions, this set-top videophone includes a digital camera, powerful 8x8

video processing chip and a high-performance analog modem. The VC105 uses standard telephone lines, so video calls cost no more than regular local or long distance calls. Features include adjustable picture

quality, size and frame speed, electronic pan tilt, zoom, snapshot, caller ID and auto answer.

(Rhett D. Hudson 1996)

To connect up to the Internet and surf the web you need a modem. There are many different types of

modems, which suit different uses and networks.

The Internet service provider must support the protocol the modem is based on. Also the phone line must

support the higher speed, period, for optimum performance.

Modems are devices, which allow digital data signals to be transmitted across an analogue link. Modem stands for modulator/demodulator. A modem changes the digital signal to analogue frequency, and sends

this tone across the analogue link at the other end; another modem receives the signal and converts it back

to digital. (Brian Brown 1997).

The central processor (CPU) is the chip, which acts as a control centre for all operations. It executes

instructions (a program) which are contained in the memory section. The.CPU is said to be the brains of

any computer system. It provides all the timing and control signals necessary to transfer data from one

point to another in the system (Brian Brown, 1997).

The microprocessor (CPU) plays the most important role in the computer system. Recent advances in the

microprocessor have bought some advantages to the Internet. The Pentium III microprocessor, which is the

latest release posses to be the fastest processor available.

The Pentium III microprocessor speeds up video, audio and graphics; Pentium III chips have a larger internal cache allowing them to run faster than earlier Pentium II and MMX chips

To efficiently use the Internet and surf the web you need software which will act as an interface to

information through out the world. Netscape is one software package, which is very popular for its design.

It allows users to access the Internet at ease, with its easy to read lettering animation and interactivity. It

links together many pages of information distributed on networked computers around the world.

Efficiency is the main criterion when you are surfing the net and Netscape fulfils this, offering segment pages, hypertext feature, bookmark facility and it allows you to customize applications to your own need.

Java is a cross platform method for adding small programs to the Internet. Java runs on top of existing

operating systems, either directly or as a component of a browser, like Microsoft Internet Explorer or

Netscape Navigator. Many websites have deployed Java with reasonable success.

Java is a low functional operating system. It could run on a network computer or other appliances and offer

mostly server base Java applications. Many organizations are looking for a way to manage their

applications better and Java on its own OS system or on another does offer a solution.

The Java programming language is many things. It is the next - generation programming language, a step

above C++ and easier to use as well as more modern than other languages. It will not be the only

programming language but it will be a significant force in the industry for a long time (Miller, Michael J).

The Internet is a network linked to a number of other networks. It links computers to each other, each

computer provides information, and the Internet transports this information around. It is a form of

communications utility. The Internet itself does not contain information; it only acts as a communicating

body, which knows the sources to information. The information is found on computers that are linked to

the Internet

The social aspect of the Internet has two sides to it; it's fun, inexpensive and the easiest way to meet lots of

people. The flaw is, it can be addictive many people get addicted to the Internet. They consume their time

day in day out emailing, gambling, shopping or visiting adult websites. This is fast becoming a big

problem especially in the work environment.

Employees who have access to the net end up surfing the net hours on end at the expense of their company.

Many companies monitor their system to catch persist misusers especially those who visit adult websites.

It has been known that employers have sacked workers on these grounds.

A PC World survey reveals that about 58% of employers who do monitoring do so to discourage

recreational use, 47% to eliminate the down load of pirated software and 33% to end sluggish down loads

because of excessive surfing. Some companies use monitoring to prevent sexual harassment charges.

The Internet will no doubt be the icon of the future. It is apparent that technology is available to incorporate Video and audio facility on the Internet. The problem is there is not enough bandwidth available on present networks to execute the task. Future development of innovative networks will inevitably decide the fate of the Internet.