The internet

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Web addresses

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© Boardworks Ltd 20071 of 21

The InternetHardware and Networks


Learning objectives


Describe the uses of the Internet.

Know the processes behind sending e-mails and browsing the web.

Understand the uses of the World Wide Web, web browsers and websites.


10 Downing Street, London, England Sydney Opera

House, Australia

Jim’s Skateboards

USAPatel’s Fine Silks, India

The Internet

Koji Araki, Japan

The Internet is a wide area network (WAN) of networks that connects governments, people and companies all over the world.

What is the Internet?


The Internet began in the 1980s to allow US universities and research scientists to share computer resources. It grew so much that by the 1990s it had become possible for people to use the Internet from home.

The World Wide Web (www) was developed to make browsing (viewing) easier through http (hypertext transfer protocol).

http is a set of standards that allows web browsers and servers to communicate.

Where did it begin?


Uses of the Internet


When you connect to the Internet, you connect your computer to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is done through telephone or cable services.

An Internet Service Provider is the company you pay to let you connect to the Internet. Eg. AOL, BT, Orange, Tiscali etc.

The ISP will provide you with a browser, a broadband modem and sometimes a wireless router.

The ISP will give you e-mail accounts and web space to upload a web site onto.

How does it work?


Modem

Connection to the internet is normally done through the telephone line. Computer signals are digital but normal telephone lines are analogue, so you need an analogue to digital converter if you are using an analogue telephone line. This is called a modem (modulator/demodulator).


What do you need to connect to the Internet?

• Most computers nowadays are bought Internet Ready• This means they have got a Modem already installed• They have a browser already installed• A connection to the telephone line• They have a link to an Internet Service Provider


Broadband connections connect through an ADSL modem. It is a way of transmitting data at high speeds through existing telephone lines.

Broadband allows the user fast download speeds and the ability to stay connected to the service without having to dial up.

Broadband allows the user to use their telephone at the same time as surfing the Internet

Broadband and ISDN


Connecting to the Internet


Features of the internet

• WWW

• E-mail

• Instant messaging

• Discussion groups


The World Wide Web (WWW) was designed to make the Internet easier to use.

It uses browsers, like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, to load html web pages.

WWW


When people look at sites on the World Wide Web, they do it through a browser.

A browser first loads a home page that the user chooses. A browser has buttons to move forward and back, to refresh pages and to stop them loading.

It can store a list of favourite websites that the user might want to look at again. It can give a history of all the websites the user has visited over the past week or so.

Just browsing…


Web browsers

Browsers also remember. The history function allows you tosee the sites you visited over a period of time.

Web browsers can also look after security and privacy. Manybrowsers now come with a pop-up blocker to stop unwantedadverts appearing and browsers can also block cookies.

Cookies are small files of information sent backwards and forwards between websites and web browsers. Many sites use them to track user preferences and shopping habits.

Some people do not like to give out this information, and set their browsers to block cookies.


A website is a collection of web pages or files and documents linked together using hyperlinks.

A site is uploaded to a server on the WWW so that other people can see it.

It has its own address, which is also known as the URL – Uniform Resource Locator; this usually begins with http://www.

Typing the URL will take a user straight to the home page of the site.

You can also find websites by typing key words into a search engine.

Websites


click on hyperlinks to take youto other pages

have animations, sound or videoin addition to text and graphics

fill in online forms to ask for information or give your opinion

download pictures and informationto save on your computer.

A web page looks like one item but in fact it is made up of many types of information (graphics, text, sound etc.) stored as different files. It is possible to:

Clever stuff


Web pages can contain pictures, videos, animated graphics and sounds as well as text. File sizes for multimedia can be very large and this can slow down the loading of the web page.

Web pages


When you are deciding whether the information from a website is reliable, take a look at the URL as it will give you some idea about the source of the information.

www, standing for World Wide Weban organization name (.boardworks)a top level domain (.co)a country (.uk).

URLs are usually made up of these parts:

There are many top level domains, for instance .com, .org (organization), .sch (school), .ac (university).

Web addresses - URLs


All in the name


Instant messaging in action


MAILING LISTS

Discussion listE-newsletter listAnnouncement list

Individuals connect to a site on the internet and post messagesWhen other people visit the site they can post answers or their own messagesNormally groups are subject specific

These are like an online notice board or bulletin:

Discussion Groups / Newsgroups


Match them up


Search Engine

This is a web site that allows the user to search for a specific subject or web site.

The user keys in keywords which the search engine then looks up in it’s database

Web spiders are used to crawl the web collecting data about web sites to store in it’s database


Advantages

ConvenienceSpeedQualityQuantityUp-to-date information available 24/7AccessMultimedia virtual tours


Disadvantages

Validity – information is not always reliable or accurateHardware can break downSoftware may not run properlyNon-permanent source of informationSecurity issuesViruses


What do you think?

Technology

The internet