Internet Basics

What's the Internet?

Services from the net

Some of the services available on the Internet are listed below. New technologies emerge each day to add to the core of internet services.

Type's of Internet Access

There are two essential types of Internet access available, and they are:

How to Surf the World Wide Web?

To surf the web you need a browser - a software used to open documents in the www. Widely used browsers are Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer (IE) a very popular software for viewing documents on the www.

- examples of URLs are http://www.townserver.com/ducks/ , or http://yahoo.com/index.html , or ftp://ftp.heaven.com/pub.

- Links could point to pages on the same server or to a document on another server half way around the globe. Links can also be graphics or pictures.

- To jump to where a link is pointing, you simply have to click on the link.

- On the Internet, you will find links pointing to pages with more links pointing to pages with even more links and so on and so forth, forming a vast web of interconnected information and spanning the whole globe. This is how the World Wide Web got its name.

FOLLOW A LINK

- Simply click on the link. You will know if a text or picture is a link if your cursor changes from an arrow to a pointing finger when you pass over it.

TO GO TO A PAGE IF YOU KNOW THE URL

- Click the Open button and type in the URL. You can also type the URL directly on the LOCATION box.

TO GO BACK/FORWARD TO PAGES YOU HAVE PASSED

- If you have passed a page and you want to come back or go forward to it, click either the Back or Forward button .

TO LIST YOUR FAVORITE PAGES FOR QUICK VIEWING

- When you find Web sites or pages that you like, you can keep track of them, so it's easy to open them in the future.

- Add a Web page to your list of favorite pages. Any time you want to open that page, just click the Favorites button on the toolbar, and then click the shortcut in the Favorites list.

F REFRESH A PAGE

- You can click on the Refresh button anytime to reload and refresh the current page.

TO OPEN A NEW BROWSER WINDOW

- You can simultaneously browse multiple pages by clicking File>New_Window. This will open new window independent from the previous one. You can open as many windows as you like, limited only by your computer's available resource (memory).

TO SAVE A PAGE

- You can save to a file the page you are viewing by clicking File>Save_As.

TO DISPLAY A SAVED PAGE

- If you wish to display a page you saved previously, click File>Open_File and point to the file you want to display. You can also use this feature for displaying graphics files supported by IE such as GIFs and JPEGs

- For example, you can use IE to view pictures sent to you through Email file attachments.File>Open_File.

TO PRINT A PAGE

- If you have a printer, you can also print the page you are viewing by clicking on File>Print.

What is a URL?

The World Wide Web is a network of electronic files stored on computers all around the world.

Hypertext links these resources together.

Uniform Resource Locators or URLs are the addresses used to locate these files. The information contained in a URL gives you the ability to jump from one location on the Web to another with just a click of your mouse. A typical URL will look like the following:

- http://www.townserver.com/ducks/ - The Web Page of F. Magkasi; ftp://ftp.pworld.net.ph - The FTP site for PhilWorld Online Manila

A URL is comprised of 2 necessary parts.

A URL will always appear in the following order:

- Protocol:http, gopher, ftp, mailto, and news. The most common, which every Internet site URL begins with, is http (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

- Server name:the server is the Internet address of the computer or file server where the source is stored.

- Filename (optional part):the name the file has on the server. If the file is in a directory or subdirectory on the server, the path to the file and the name of the file will appear. The default file that Web browsers load is index.html.

What is HTML?

HTML means Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the language used to create documents (Web pages) on the World Wide Web. Hyper Text refers to the Web's ability to link one document to another by using a hot link. This is called a Markup Language because tags are used to mark up a document to provide instructions about how it should be displayed. These files are distributed across the Internet by WWW servers to WWW Browsers using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

An HTML file is just an ordinary text file which contains the HTML tags that the HTML browser will use to display your document.

A sample HTML file would be :

- <HTML>

- <Title> My First Web Page </Title>

- <body>

- <P> This is a sample paragraph

- </body>

- </HTML>

HTML files always starts with a <HTML> tag and ends with the </HTML> tag. Anything enclosed between <Title> and </Title> will appear in your browsers control menu title. Within the <body></body> is where you put in the content of your webpage. <P> specifies a paragraph to be shown on the browser window.

Default file extensions for HTML documents are HTML or HTM but you can use any extension for your purpose.

What is E-mail?

Electronic mail (or E-mail) is exactly what the name suggests - mail (messages) sent between users electronically. E-mail is the most popular, and probably the most productive resource available on the Internet.

According to The New Hacker's Dictionary, the term "e-mail" is derived from the French word emmailleure, meaning "network".

An e-mail address is comprised of 3 necessary parts:

- User ID: Every person with an e-mail address has a user identification of some sort. It is usually something simple, like jdelacruz, but can be more complex.

- @: The "at" sign connects the user ID with the third element.

- Domain: You have already learned about domain names; every e-mail address has one.

E-mail addresses are case sensitive.

They never contain spaces or commas. If you see an e-mail address with a comma or space in it, you know right away it is invalid. So, to put it all together, a typical e-mail address contains all three of the preceding elements. An example of an e-mail address is :

[email protected] ( e-mail add or f. magkasi)

FAQ - Emails

How do I test if my mail program is working properly?

- You can send yourself an Email. Address the mail to yourself and send it, then retrieve it back.

Why can't I send/receive emails?

- Do the test for checking if your mail program is working properly. If the problem still persist, try to use another mail browser program, say Internet mail or Netscape mail. This is to isolate the problem and see if the program that you are currently using is the one who is causing the problem.

- There is limit of about 5 Mb disk space for mails in some mail servers. If you are keeping copies of your mails in a mail server and it has reached the maximum allowable size, you cannot receive mails anymore. But you can send though. Delete the mails in your mailbox by downloading them to your pc.

Is Email secure?

- No. Emails can be likened to a postcard wherein your messages are sent in the open. Anybody, with access to the host computers where your Emails are routed to, can read your Emails. If you have to send classified data by Email, you can use encryption to safeguard it. PGP, a public key encryption software, is available from a FTP Site.

F How fast is Email?

- Very fast. When you're logged-on, it only takes a couple of seconds, on the average, to get your Email to the other side of the globe. Of course, the Email will remain in the host computer of its recipient until the recipient logs in and retrieves it. It is advisable that you log in regularly and retrieve your mail.

How do we attach files on emails?

- Do the normal procedure in composing an email. To attach a file, choose "Attach file …..". A window will be shown for you to indicate where the file(s) to be attached is located. After choosing the file(s), the path will be posted in the "Attached:" section of the email's header. When the email is sent, the attached file will be picked up in the indicated path and will be sent also.

- When the recipient receives your email and opens it, there will be a message on the last part of the email saying that the attachment was converted and that the path where the attachment was placed will be shown.

Netiquette

This is a must for all Beginners!!! Your journey through the Internet will be more pleasant if you know how you are expected to behave in this global community called Cyberspace.

A few things you should remember:

- Unsolicited mails (spams) are frowned upon on the Internet. Never send unsolicited mails if you do not want to be flamed (receive hate mails). Examples of unsolicited mails are mass advertisements, chain letters, etc. In some countries like the US, sending spam is against the law and is punishable by a fine of $500.00.

- Always sign your Emails. Never use anonymous mail to harass anybody. Emails are traceable. You do not want to be on the receiving end, so don't do it!

- Capitalize words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading. *Asterisks* surrounding a word also can be used to make a stronger point. Capitalizing whole words that are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING!

- Be professional and careful what you say about others. Email is easily forwarded.

- Cite all quotes, references and sources and respect copyright and license agreements. It is considered extremely rude to forward personal email to mailing lists or Usenet without the original author's permission.

- Be careful when using sarcasm and humor. Without face to face communication, your joke may be viewed as criticism. Emails do not convey emotions very effectively. An intended joke may be misconstrued by the recipient. You can use "emoticons" like :-) happy face to denote humor.

-If you want to criticize, criticize the idea, not he person. Don't criticize a person's spelling or grammatical errors. The internet encompass users who are willing to learn English and trying to participate.

Definitions

F FTP = File Transfer Protocol

- It is the way in which files are transferred across the Internet in general. With this powerful tool, a person can send files (upload) to another account which he/she has accesses to or even to a public directory (e.g., when a person would like to send the homepages that he/she created on his/her computer and place it in his/her service provider).

- Likewise, it can be used to retrieve files from another account which they have access to or even to a public directory. Or when a person would like to retrieve (download) a file to be maintained on their computer, he/she would use the FTP program and retrieve the file/s he/she wanted.

What is IRC?

- IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat". It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. It was designed as a replacement for the "talk" program but has become much much more than that.

- IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people convene on "channels" (a virtual place, usually with a topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. IRC is constantly evolving, so the way things work one week may not be the way they work the next.

Bandwidth

- Bandwidth is a measurement for the rate at which data can be transferred, or in non-digital systems, the range of frequencies available for transmission.

Cookie

- A piece of data given to your browser by a web server, so that your browser will hand it back to the server with subsequent requests. First implemented by Netscape. Although there has been some furor over the privacy implications of cookies, they cannot be used to reveal anything about you to the server that you have not already explicitly revealed.

DNS

- Acronym for Domain Name Service, the mechanism by which human-readable hierarchical names are translated to IP addresses, and vice-versa.

Download

- The transfer of information from the Internet to your computer. Every time you instruct your computer system to retrieve your mail, you are downloading your mail to your computer. You may also download programs to your computer. However, be careful about downloading files or programs from a site in which you are not familiar. You could download a virus and never knew it until it's too late.

F FAQ

- An acronym for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ usually serves as a mini-help file.

Host

- The computer on which a web site is physically located.

Hypertext

- Text on a web page that links the user to another web page. The hypertext, or links, will usually be a different color than the other text on the page and is usually underlined.

Link

- A link will transport you from one Internet site to another with just a click of your mouse. Links can be text or graphic and are recognizable once you know what to look for. Text links usually will be underlined and often a different color than the rest of the text on your screen. A graphic link usually has a frame around it.

Load

- Short for download and upload. If someone asks how long did the page take to load? He/She is referring to the time it takes a page to appear on your screen. If a web page is loading slow, it means that it's taking a long time to fully appear on your screen. You can often scroll through a page and look at the parts that have loaded while the rest of the page continues to load. Also, you can usually click a link on the page you are loading and link to another page without waiting for the current page to fully load.

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