Basic Internet and Email

8/14/2019 Basic Internet and Email

1/51

Basic Internet and Email

Steven A. Gillis

Albert L. Scott LibraryAlabaster Alabama


2/51

The Internet

What is it?

A large network of computers

Worldwide communication through standards

Standards allow computers in China to access

data from Zimbabwe or New York

Not like a phone line

Phones dedicate a connection even the silence

The internet uses packet switched data.


3/51

Packet Switched Networks

A packet is just that, a tiny bit of

information

The packet has a FROM address and aTO address just like a letter

The packets have an order, and are

reassembled at the other end

The packets can be received in any order

and take different routes to get there


4/51

Standards

The standards just make sure we are all

playing the same game

If every country had different standards there

would be no interoperability wed just be

babbling 0s and 1s at each other

The Standard for the internet is TCP/IP

Over 200 protocols

Includes rules for email, FTP (Downloading),

telnet (remote access to a computer) etc.


5/51

What this means to you

Since the data is not continuous it mightget interrupted

All information has to get to your computer

any way it can, sometimes things get lostor data gets confused, this is why tryingagain often works with the internet

The small packets work much faster thana direct connection, theres not reallymuch dead time like on a phone


6/51

Everything comes to you

Data comes to your computer, has to beprocessed there, then displayed

We may call it Surfing but were really

gathering data Almost all the data is decoded from 0s and 1s

into text, because text is CHEAP to transmit.

Each 0 or 1 in a set is a bit. 8 bits are a byte.256 different combinations!


7/51

Tell me what to do!

The 0s and 1s become text, the text

becomes orders, the orders become a

display.

The translator standard used for most of

the internet is HTML. Hyper Text Markup

Language.

The program we use to display this

language is called a browser


8/51

Browsers

Code looks strange!

Byte

From

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


9/51

Browsers

The browser takes all that text and uses itto create what you see on the screen.

Different browsers have different

translations. Although the web tries to beuniform, things may not always display thesame.

There are standards for the Web portion ofthe internet, but not all companies adhereto them.


10/51

Internet Explorer

One of the most common browsers is

Internet Explorer, it is what we have here

in the library. Many other browsers exist

and often people have strong opinions on

which is best

Sometimes the text sent to your computer

requires MORE than just the HTMLdecoding by your browser


11/51

Scripts

In order to do complicated things notcovered in the display language of HTMLwe use Scripts

These are sets of text that tells yourcomputer to do something, but require youto have a program that interprets thecommands

Java, PHP, ASP etc. are all scriptinglanguages.


12/51

Wheres the script

Most scripting languages are included in a

computers operating system but may

need to be updated regularly

Scripts can cause problems with older

systems

Scripts are more and more common as

computers get faster, complex scripts take

more processing power than HTML


13/51

Where can I get my 0s and 1s

The internet is a lot more than the HTML

World Wide Web but today well be using

just the browser

The browser connects to the network with

some kind of modem

Modem means Modulation/Demodulation

It converts digital On/Off (0s and 1s) to

sound that travels over the phone lines


14/51

Modems

Basic modem sound conversion uses the

normal phone line which wasnt designed

for digital data. A single line has a

maximum speed of 56,000 Bytes persecond, and is often slower

These days 14336000000 a second is slow!

Cable modems use a more digital friendlyline and can be very fast


15/51

Broadband

ADSL is Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Link

(Asymmetric because download is usually

much faster than upload you do more

receiving than sending so this is fine) By using frequencies much higher than human

speech it gets around the slow limit of the telephone

56,000 Bytes

Can be very fast

Cable/DSL connections are Broadband


16/51

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the amount of data you canshove in at one time. The Broader yourband the better.

Broadband is becoming common enoughthat browsing can be painfully slow withoutit.

Text is fast, images are slow A picture really IS more than a thousandwords! Color/Brightness/position


17/51

1000 words?

The bandwidth to save the word monkeya 6 character word 1000 times, in an 8 bitcode like ASCII (one of the simplest codes

for English) is about 600 bytes This small picture is about 3400 bytes

He would also like us to know he is anAPE not a Monkey


18/51

Internet Savvy

No matter what browser you use some

things will be similar

The address of the internet site you are

accessing (Really you are downloading thecode into your computer FROM that location

Usually displayed in a Bar at the top

Buttons Forward/Back, Stop, Refresh, Home A Title Display for the webpage

Menus for options or actions you can perform


19/51

The Address Bar

http://www.cityofalabaster.com/Default.asp?ID=188&pg=Library

The URL: Uniform Resource Locator

The Root: www.cityofalabaster.com

The Script: ASP

The title of the page is above the buttons and address bar:

City of Alabaster, Alabama: City of Alabaster-Albert L. Scott Public Library


20/51

What the root can tell you

.gov Government sites in the United States at any

level, city, county, state, federal etc.

.org Organization or individuals

.com

Commercial (for profit) .net

Network providers


21/51

Rule of thumb

Commercial sites usually have a financial

motive, treat them like a salesman when

they make statements about quality or

capability.

Org sites often have biases just like we all

do. Remember that without some

verification there are a lot of opinions thatare stated as facts.


22/51

More dependable

.gov sites are usually dependable.Remember that Ketchup is a vegetable! Although the USDA never passed this into

standards the government is far frominfallible. They are still some of the best.

.edu sites are probably the most reliablebut be aware of biases

Not all .com sites are sales www.cityofalabaster.com for example!
http://www.cityofalabaster.com/http://www.cityofalabaster.com/


23/51

BACK FORWARD STOP! REFRESH HOME SEARCH

FAVORITES HISTORY EMAIL PRINT

These are some of the buttons found somewhere on most browsers

Back Forward

Stop

Refresh

Home

Print


24/51

History Button shows whereyouve been!


25/51

Some great sites

www.snopes.com Investigates urban myths, scams, and rumor

en.wikipedia.org

An online encyclopedia maintained and updatedby users, be careful with controversial topics!

www.gutenberg.org

Free access to books no longer copyrighted! User

added content, even has audio files!
http://www.snopes.com/http://../My%20Documents/Computer%20Classes/en.wikipedia.orghttp://www.gutenberg.org/http://www.gutenberg.org/http://../My%20Documents/Computer%20Classes/en.wikipedia.orghttp://www.snopes.com/


26/51

Gateways to the Web

Search engines sift through the text on theweb and try to find things that match.Different search engines bring different

results back! Two commonly used search engines

www.yahoo.com

www.google.com Our librarys home page for public

computers is www.yahoo.com.
http://www.yahoo.com/http://www.google.com/http://www.google.com/http://www.yahoo.com/


27/51

What a Search Engine Isnt

It doesnt check content for you There are also filters that are sometimes in place that

reduce your content!

It doesnt guarantee veracity Just like a book or a newspaper, a webpage can be

wrong, or very biased

It doesnt filter out garbage for you In fact it may be set to filter out good stuff

It cant figure out what you really meant It only knows the letters you type and the order


28/51

Googling

Google has been such a popular search

engine that people use the term as a verb

Google it!

Since it is so popular, and unlike Yahoo!,

isnt categorized Ill show you some tips

and tricks


29/51

www.google.com

But wait, there's more!

There are a lot more things to Google than the

basic search. The first thing to notice is the

labels at the top. These change your searchtype.

You can click on the advanced search link

next to the Google search box to reallyspecify what you want.


30/51

Google AdvancedThe Advanced Search link just to the right of the normal Google

search bar gives you lots more control! Limit byfiletype (Like .pptfor power points!) orroot domains!

.ORG .GOV etc.


31/51

Google Images

Images, Maps, and More!


32/51

Be Aware of your Settings! Moderate Safe

Search tries to edit out offensive images

from your search

The Images search just looks for

pictures! Web is the default search


33/51

Search Box Tricks

Monkey time : would search for monkeytime, in that order exactly

Monkey time : would search for any page

with monkey AND time on the same page Monkey OR time : would search for any

page with monkey on it, or any page with

time on it Monkey time would search for any pagewith monkey but without time (- = not)


34/51

Search Box Tips

( ) can be used to enclose a search (Monkey OR banana) time : would search for

any page with monkey or banana that ALSO

has time on it. Searches can be very exacting!

(monkey with a banana OR monkey in atree) AND (time lunch spotted (lost OR

found)) : the AND is not needed but wontmess the search up either, and helps make itmore clear ( ( stuff) ) is called Nesting


35/51

Neat Search Filters

www.rollyo.com Roll your own search engine

This site has some pre-made search limits like referenceand tech news or you can make your own search, using

sites you trust www.alltheweb.com

Searches a lot of content that text browsers missOwned by Yahoo!, filters by type, useful for audio andvideo

http://www.pipl.com/ Deep Web search of personal records databases
http://www.rollyo.com/http://www.alltheweb.com/http://www.pipl.com/http://www.pipl.com/http://www.alltheweb.com/http://www.rollyo.com/


36/51

Yahoo! Mail

We gave Google some good press so

well use Yahoo! mail as our example for

web emails.

If you dont have an email account Yahoo!

will provide one for you for free

My last class slides have instructions on

how to set up an account. I can go over it

with you if you need after this class


37/51

If you dont have an account start here!

Mail.yahoo.com works


38/51

If you have an account start here!


39/51

Your mail comes to an inboxThe new Yahoo! Mail has

several ways to get there

Yahoo mail has a CLASSIC View which is better for

older computers. From now on all displays will use this

option. Once you set the CLASSIC view Yahoo! will

remember and always use it.


40/51

The new Yahoo! Mail has a lot of bells and

whistles but it can be slow. If your computer

is loading the New Yahoo! Mail slow it willprompt you to change to classic view.

Inbox


41/51

Advertisements appear at the top, often they are flashy,with large images that change if your mouse goes over

them. This slows down your system and demands more

memory. Most computers can cope. Hey its free

Unread mails appear in bold text. Attachments

are shown by the Paperclip image. Attachments

can hold viruses, Yahoo pre-scans but its not

perfect, so be careful.


42/51

Clicking on the email name will open it

Click on an attachment to open it

C l t SEND il


43/51

You can DELETE an email REPLY to the sender

FORWARD it to another email address mark it as

SPAM or MOVE it to another folder (Like the

TRASH FOLDER)

Compose lets you SEND a new email


44/51

TO is the email address or addresses

you want to send the mail to. Add CClets you send copies to others Add BCC

lets you send email copies but wont

include that persons address in the

other mails (Carbon Copy and Blind

Carbon Copy just like the old days!)

Attach Files Here

Type text here!


45/51

When you click attach files you Browse

to the file you want. Usually it is easiestto find on the Desktop. Save a file you

need to email somewhere EASY to find!


46/51

Once you find the file you want, left click on it and hit open

The file doesnt really open it Attaches


47/51

The file now appears on the list, you can attachmany files at once, Yahoo defaults 5 slots, but you

can add more


48/51

Yahoo shows you an You did it!

screen Plus one more chance to

show you an advertisement

After you check to make sure this was the file

you meant to attach continue to message


49/51

Once you finish your email text, andattach all the files that you want to

attach click SEND!

Yahoo! Will ask if you want to add this

person to your address book so youcan keep track of the address. Or you

can return to your inbox.


50/51

You can click on your SENT mail folder to make sure

the mail was sent out. Yahoo! Keeps a copy until you

delete it. It even keeps a copy of attachments.

Always remember to SIGNOUT! Especially here in the

library!


51/51

Thank You!

I will be happy to answer questions about

this class. If you arent in the library with

me, you can email me at:

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]