The Internet

What is the internet?

• A system of interconnected

computers that share information.

Also known as:

-WWW

-Web

-‘Net

Things that are not the web:

-Local Area Network LAN

-Intranet

• There are different ways to share information over the internet. The world wide web (www) is just one of them.

What can you do on the internet?

• Send and receive e-mail. • Search for information. • Join discussion groups using chat or

email. • Shop online. • Read newspapers, magazines, and

books. • Watch TV shows and movies.

How the internet works?

• Your computer uses some kind of data connection (phone, cable, or wireless) to connect to an internet service provider (ISP).

Connecting to the internet• Dial-up/modem - Uses a phone line and a modem.

When you’re on, your phone is busy.

• DSL – runs through your phone line, but your phone line is available.

• Cable – operated by the cable company. No need to subscribe to cable TV.

• Wireless/satellite – operates over radio waves

Browsers• Different programs (software) that allow you to

navigate the WWW and see and hear text, graphics, sounds, and videos.

• There are five major browsers used today - Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

Internet explorer Firefox

www.microsoft.com www.mozilla.com

How browsers work?• You tell the browser which computer you want to

connect to by typing in a website address (URL).

Your browser doesn’t go anywhere. The page comes to you! (That’s why they call them web servers)

Title Bar

Address Bar

Tool Bar

Menu Bar

Status Bar

Tips for web addresses (URLs):

-No spaces

-Can usually omit http://(Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

-Press “ENTER” or click “GO”

Navigating Essentials on understanding how the Internet is organized and how the World Wide Web is structured.

Refresh

Reloads, or downloads the page again

Home

Takes you back to the “home” page

Back

Return to the previous page

Forward

Return to page you backed up from

History

See the sites you’ve visited in the current or previous sessions

Print

Make a hard copy of the website

• In newer versions of browsers, you can open more than one page in the same window.

Close Tab

Websites

-Can be a single page or collection of pages

-Have an address (URL). ex. http://www.boisepubliclibrary.org

* You need to type a URL exactly for your browser to locate the desired web page, otherwise you will access the wrong site or get an error message.

Searching

Locate information, businesses, organizations, or people on the WWW.

Go to the search engine web site and enter your search word(s).

Sites may not be about the topic you want; your search word(s) may appear on the web page in a different context.

Results are NOT everything on the web. At best you will be searching 25 - 35% of the web.

Popular Search Engines:

www.google.com www.yahoo.com

www.ask.com www.bing.com

Search

Results

Adverti-sement

• Most engines will surround results with

advertisements or sponsored links.

E-mail

• Electronic messages or letters, can include attachments such as pictures or sound files.

• Takes mere seconds to reach any destination.

Email Addresses:

-Like URLs, must be typed exactly in order for the message to be delivered.

president@whitehouse.gov

Recipient’s ID at Domain or “host”

Webmail vs. E-mail Client

• Webmail allows you to access email from any computer hooked up to the internet.

Web based email or E-mail software such as Outlook

• An e-mail client will download messages to your computer so you can read them and compose new mail offline.

Signing up for a free e-mail accountPick a provider: http://www.gmail.com

http://login.yahoo.com

http://www.hotmail.com

Choose a username: Usually a combination of letters and numbers such as

poodlelover452@hotmail.com

Pick a password that you will remember:

The most secure passwords are a combination of -

1. word(s) not found in the dictionary

2. numbers

3. symbols (!$&.*)

The advantages of Internet• Information: You can find any type of information on any

subject with the help of the search engines.

• Communication: By sending an e-mail, we can contact a person

who is physically present thousand miles away within the fraction of a second’s time.

• Entertainment: A wide variety of entertainment including video

games, music, movies, chat room, news and others can be accessed through the Internet.

• E-commerce: E-commerce is a fantastic option through which

you can shop anything anywhere from the world.

• Formation of communities:

A number of people can participate in different types of debates and discussions, express their views and gather valuable knowledge.

• Services: A variety of services are offered via Internet, for

example job searching, online banking, buying movie tickets, hotel reservations and consultation services etc. When you avail these services offline, they become more expensive.

The disadvantages of Internet • Spamming:

Spamming denotes distribution of unnecessary e-mails in large numbers that are meaningless and block the whole system.

• Theft of personal details: While using the Internet, there is high probability

that your personal details like name, address and credit card number may be accessed by some other person and used for fraudulent.

• Virus threat: PCs linked to the Internet have high probability of

virus attacks and as a result of this your hard disk can crash, giving you a lot of trouble.