This Section is a brief introduction to the Internet
and the World Wide Web. While it doesn't provide an in-depth look
at the Internet, it will provide some background to what makes up
the on-line world.
The
Internet
The Internet is made up of many thousands of computers hooked together
in a network. Each computer can share information with all the other
computers in the network. Special communication languages have been
developed so the computers can communicate with each other, so every
machine on the network speaks the same "language" or protocol.
The Internet is not located in one specific place; instead it exists
because computers are connected to other computers. No one owns
the Internet - it is a cooperative environment of universities,
businesses and corporations, government agencies, the military,
and individual citizens.
At its core, the Internet is about sharing information, which people
can do through Email, File Transfer, newsgroups, and the World Wide
Web.
The
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a fairly new development, however it is the
way most people access information from the Internet. Sometimes
people use the World Wide Web (or Web) and Internet interchangeably.
This leads to confusion as the Web is not the Internet; it is just
a part of a much larger whole.
The Web was invented in 1991 and gained popularity in 1995. It
is used to share information using text and graphics.
Web pages are made using a standard called HTML, which allows pages
to be linked to each other with hypertext. By clicking on a link,
a person can jump from one page to another and from one site to
another.
Browsers
and Addresses
Just as people use special programs to draw pictures and type text
on a computer, so do they use special programs to access the Internet.
Email is read using an Email client like Eudora or Outlook Express.
Files are transferred between machines with FTP programs such as
Fetch, and Web pages are viewed with programs called Browsers.
The two most popular Web browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer, but there are many other browsers available as
well.
A person enters an address, or Universal Resource Locator (URL),
presses return, and the software sends out a request to the computer
where the site is located. The computer responds to the request
by sending back data to the browser, which can take the data and
format it in a way that people can understand (that is, words and
pictures).
Today's web browsers have other features that allow the program
to receive and send Email and transfer files, so a modern browser
can replace other Internet programs. Netscape's web browser is called
Navigator, which is part of the Communicator package. Communicator
has Email, file transfer, and web site authoring tools. Microsoft's
Internet package includes Outlook Express for Email.
How
is the Web organized?
The bottom line is that the Web is not organized at all. Because
anyone can make a web page there are literally millions of sites
available online, with more being added every day.
The "index" of the Web are search engines - web sites
that collect and categorize all other web pages.
