CONTENTS
A
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET
Toward the end of the 1960's, the U.S.
Department of Defense was searching for ways to safeguard communications from nuclear
attack. Until that time, communications systems were rather like a string of
Christmas tree lights. If one "light" went out, so did all the subsequent
lights - and there went your communications link. So instead of having a single
"control center," they distributed the various communication links across a
network. The network was so designed that if any portion of it went down, that
portion would be isolated from the rest of the network, which remained interconnected
without it. Instead of a "hub," with all stations connected to the center,
the new system was more like a "grid" - or "web."
Eventually a new set of technical standards
arose, called "TCP/IP" (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). This permitted a unified interconnection of different types of computers into this new
"inter-net." Soon others began to use the new system, starting with
universities and other institutions, and then - look out - businesses. Since each
computer on the network was connected independently of the others, no real centralized
control of the Internet emerged.
As you read this, the Internet connects
almost 100 million people in the U.S. and millions more around the rest of the world. And yet the explosive rise of the Internet is still many years from peaking. In the
very near future, huge numbers of everyday appliances - from refrigerators and toasters to
automobiles and aircraft - will all intercommunicate using Internet technology.
According to
Bill Gates, founder of
computer software giant Microsoft, and author of the best-seller
The Road Ahead, this communications revolution
will make the personal computer revolution pale by comparison. Hard to imagine,
no? But, so far his predictions have all been right on the money.
 The visual, multi-media part of the
Internet you may be used to has come to be called "The World Wide Web" - or
"The Web." You explore, or browse, the various sites on the Web with
special software called a "browser." The most popular
browsers are Internet Explorer
for PCs, and Safari for Macs. Either of these browsers
will help you maximize your Internet "surfing" experience.
Another very popular browser I
particularly like is called
Mozilla Firefox (I use this one more than Internet Explorer these
days).
All these browsers are 100% FREE.
Where Did the Web Come
From?
No,
Al Gore did not invent the Internet.
The World Wide Web was begun at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in
Geneva, Switzerland in 1989. Tim Berners-Lee invented the HyperText Markup
Language (HTML)
which enabled linking from page to page, and set the Web apart from other
networked computer files. By late 1990, CERN had developed a Web server and
a text only browser. Originally envisioned as a text-only feature, hypertext
swiftly began to allow graphics on the Web and access to applications in
virtually any medium. By early 1993 there were 50 Web servers in existence
and rudimentary, but graphical browser software had been made available for
the Macintosh. By February 1993 the Web was accounting for 0.1 per cent of
all Internet traffic.
The Mosaic Revolution
Developed in 1992 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA) at the University of Illinois by a team headed by Marc Andreessen,
Mosaic was the first truly graphical, easy to use interface for the Web
which allowed the display of colors, pictures, graphics, even sound and
videos. Andreessen went on to participate in the formation of Netscape, with
Jim Clark, the former CEO of Silicon Graphics, and its browser, the
Navigator, quickly became the standard of the industry.
Wildfire Growth
"The Web is moving from first appearing as a neat application to being
the underlying information space in which we all communicate, learn, compute
and do business," said its creator, CERN's Tim Berners-Lee. The Web
seemed to burst into the national consciousness overnight -- suddenly Web
page addresses became commonplace in print and TV ads and having a personal
home page was almost as necessary as a cell phone to signal being current.
Microsoft Corporation was quick to join the fray with their browser,
Internet Explorer, and the competition between them and Netscape has
continued to fuel growth because of the rapid improvements in browsers that
keep occurring as they try to "one-up" each other.
 After the entry of businesses into the
system in the late 1980's, the Internet - and especially the World Wide Web
- grew to very large numbers, carrying
ever-increasing amounts of users, transmitting tremendous quantities of information. Soon people of all walks were depending on the Internet to help them manage information
and communication in their daily lives and businesses. To deal with the demand for
access to the Internet, companies arose that offered connection services through dial-up
modems, devices that use regular voice telephone lines to connect to the Internet. These companies are called Internet Service Providers, or "ISPs."
That single change let the genie out of the
bottle, so to speak, and the Internet exploded.
You see information on the Web as
"pages" that you can view with your browser. Web pages can contain any
combination of text, pictures (even animated ones), sound and video. When companies,
universities, non-profit organizations, the military, even everyday people, create a
series of web pages all linked together in one location, that's called a "web
site." Usually the first page is called the "home page,"
and acts as a kind of doorway, or table of contents, to the web site as a whole.
Web pages are written in a special
language, called "HyperText Markup Language, or "HTML." In fact, a
web page is really just a file on a computer that contains text written in HTML. All
the artwork, pictures, sound, video, etc. that you see on a web page are not actually
"on" the page, but rather they are pointed to by references in the page's HTML
text. You can see this page's HTML text by clicking on your browser's View
menu at the top of this screen (in Mozilla Firefox, click on View,
then Page Source. If you're using Microsoft Internet
Explorer, click on View, then Source.
If you're not using one of these popular browsers - why not?).
Web pages are labeled with a unique
identifier called a Uniform Resource Locator, or "URL" (still any doubt about
the military's involvement in the development of the Internet?). The URL tells the
Internet how to take a visitor to a particular web page. In fact, we call URLs
"addresses." You simply type in the URL in the area in your browser that
asks for an "Address" or "Location" and press the Enter
key on your keyboard.
URLs begin with "http://" -
"HyperText Transfer Protocol." Since every URL starts with
"http://", any decent browser inserts that for you automatically, so all you need to
concern yourself with is the "meat" of the address, which actually tells the
Internet which computer - or "server" - the web page is located on. This
site, for example, has an address of
http://www.shaunfurlong.com.
The most common beginning of an address is "www", which tells the
Internet you're looking for an address on the World Wide Web - obviously the most popular
place to go. Similarly, most URL addresses end with ".com", which stands
for "company."
Although most URLs will end in .com, there
are many other types of address "suffixes." Here is a list of the
most common, and what they stand for:
|
.net |
computer network |
|
.org |
nonprofit organization |
|
.info |
information |
|
.biz |
business |
|
.ws
|
website (seriously!) |
|
.tv |
television |
| .gov |
government |
|
.mil |
military |
| .edu |
educational (colleges, universities, etc.) |
|
.ca |
Canada |
| .uk |
United Kingdom |
| .jp
|
Japan |
(country suffixes are optional - a site
based in Japan may still end in .com)
And
more suffixes are on the way.
When typing URLs, as with most things
computer-related, you must be sure to type the address exactly as given, and especially
watch out for spaces. There are none in URLs. It is also important to
distinguish between a "/" ("forward slash or "slash") - and a
"\" ("back slash"). The easiest way to remember them on a
standard 101 style keyboard is that a forward slash shares the question mark key, and the
back slash is near the back key (laptops and non-101 keyboards don't count - these keys
could be anywhere on those).
When you see an address underlined in a web
page, or elsewhere in your computer system like this:
www.shaunfurlong.com, that means it's a
"hyperlink" - or "link." If you click once on a link with your
mouse, it will automatically take you to its web page, without you having to type out the
address in your browser. Links can be pictures, too. You can always spot a
link because when you move your mouse pointer over it, the pointer turns into a little
pointing hand, and often the link will change color, too. Try it with the links on
this page.
Most browsers also assume that the
"www" part of the address should be there even if you don't type it. Many
also do the same with the ".com" part of the address. So instead of
typing:
http://www.shaunfurlong.com
you could simply type
shaunfurlong
...and you
may end up in the
same place. Or your browser may automatically send you to a search
engine to look it up. Try it (you can use your browser's " Back" key to return here
to this page). Remember, these are assumed "defaults." If the
address doesn't begin with "www" or end with ".com", you must type
in the address exactly as it's given to you.
Probably the easiest way to
begin surfing the Internet is by using the links provided to you by your Internet Service
Provider (ISP). Usually, ISPs have their own start page (also called
"portal pages"), peppered with links to
interesting places. Yahoo! provides a very good customizable start page at, you guessed it,
www.yahoo.com. Just go there and click on
My Yahoo! Most search engines provide good start pages (more on
search engines in a moment).
 Very often you can customize
these pages to your own liking, so that topics that don't interest you, e.g.
"sports", can be removed from view. You can even go there (right now, if
you like!) and set your browser to bring you to that web site (or anywhere, for that
matter) when it starts up. Every time you run your browser, it will then
automatically take you to your chosen web site (your browser's Help feature can help you
here. Browsers usually refer to such an "auto-start" feature as setting
your "home" page, an unfortunately confusing term that shouldn't be confused
with a web site home page as defined above). If you
received your browser software on a CD from your ISP (e.g. EarthLink, AOL), when you installed
your browser it probably set itself to start at their start page (it's only fair, isn't
it?).
Search engines and directories
are web sites that house special software to look for web sites based on your search
criteria, usually a few "keywords." Some very popular
search engine and directory web sites are, in no particular order:
These are by no
means all the search engines and directories out there; there are actually thousands.
Although they all work pretty much the same, you will find that each has its own
distinct "personality." Choose the one you like the best or feel free to
bounce back and forth between them.
Can't decide on a favorite? There are
search engines that actually combine other search engines. Called "meta
search engines",
DogPile
and
metacrawler
are two good ones that come to mind.
The difference between search
engines and directories is that search engines constantly visit web sites on the Internet
using special "robot" software called "spiders" or
"crawlers", and catalog their findings. Because they run automatically and
index so many web pages, search engines may often find information not listed in
directories. Directories, such as Yahoo!, are administrated by people, not
robots. Sites are submitted to directories, where they are assigned to an
appropriate category or categories. Because they are manned by decision-making
humans, directories often deliver a better or faster payoff.
Using search engines is easy.
All you do is type in your keyword(s) and click on the Search or Go button (Of
course, in DogPile it's the Fetch button). Complete help and instructions are right
there on each search engine's home page. Some web sites are better found by one
search engine than another. Like anything else, the more you use search engines and
directories, the better you'll get at it. But because they are essential for you to
maximize your use of the Internet, take some time and get used to them.
You can store web site
addresses in your browser so they're easy to return to later. Microsoft Internet
Explorer calls these remembered web sites "Favorites", while
Firefox and others may call them "Bookmarks." But they both operate essentially
the same way. While you're visiting a web page you want to store for later use, just
click on the Favorites or Bookmarks icon at the top of
your browser screen, and then click on Add to Favorites or Add
Bookmark. Your Bookmarks and Favorites can be organized into folders, just
as you would organize files in your computer.
Some web pages contain links
that will automatically open your browser's Add to Favorites or Add
Bookmark feature when you click on them. In fact, if you want to bookmark
this page, just click
here to see how a Favorites link works (Firefox users type
Ctrl D on your keyboard).
 One of the most powerful
benefits of being connected to the Internet is the use of electronic mail, or
"email." Once you get used to communicating via email, you will almost
certainly not want to do without it. You can send messages just about instantly to
anyone else who has an email address and email software, and they can respond back to
you with ease. You can then respond to their response, and so on. You can also
forward messages to any number of email recipients, who can then forward your message or
respond directly to you.
And how much does this
wonderful service cost? Believe it or not, it's included in the monthly Internet
access fee you pay your Internet Service Provider! What's more, almost all browsers
include their own email software when they are installed on your computer. So while
email is not technically free, you have already paid
for it!
You can start your email
programs in different methods. The most popular way is to click on your browser's Mail
icon. But you can also start your email programs on their own by clicking the Windows Start button (located in the lower left-hand corner of your display),
then Programs and then clicking on the email program name (Microsoft
Internet Explorer uses Outlook Express - or possibly Outlook if you have
MS
Office).
Using your email software to
send an email message is a simple, five-step process:
-
Run your email
program
-
Compose
(create) a message
-
Send
the message.
It is also worth mentioning
here that most email software also retrieves incoming messages to you at the
same time it sends your outgoing messages.
All you need now to send an
email message is the email address of the person you're emailing. Email
addressed have three parts: username, @ symbol, and hostname:
|
Username |
@
symbol ("at") |
Hostname |
Examples: |
stevesmith
smith
shaun
spunky |
@
@
@
@ |
earthlink.net
earthlink.net
shaunfurlong.com
happynet.com |
Username:
The name the email user selected when they signed
up for email.
The @ symbol ("at"): Self-explanatory.
Hostname: The name of the server (computer) where the user's
email account resides.
When email is sent from one
person to another, it is actually copied onto an email server, a powerful computer that
stores the messages in virtual "email boxes" until their owners retrieve
them. The time it takes an email message to move from your ISP's email server to
your recipient's ISP's email server will depend on the efficiency of those ISPs.
The world of email has its
own set of rules and regulations. The rules are generally optional and fall under
the heading of "netiquette" - the term used for etiquette on the net (not
a term invented by the military). Regulations are compulsory and are created by the
FCC and your ISP. If you follow the rules of proper "netiquette," you will
probably never run afoul of the cyber cops.
Email communication is unique
and there are some special rules that apply here that really don't apply anywhere else.
Here are three biggies:
Avoid using all capital
letters in any message unless you absolutely intend to. Caps indicate YELLING,
and are a dead giveaway of an amateur user.
Be careful how you phrase
things. Without the voice-to-voice component, you can be easily misunderstood.
Avoid sending email to
anybody who may not want it (it's called "spam"), especially for commercial
purposes.
Let's say you've received the
following email message:
Hi, Sam!
Are we going to the movies today?
I hear "You Have Mail" is great!
Let me know what theater you want to go to and I'll get the show times.
Mary
You now have the option of
replying to the message automatically. You do this by clicking on the Reply
button at the top of your email window. This will open a new message window for you
that includes the original message, indented with an angle bracket (>), like so:
>Hi, Sam!
>Are we going to the movies today?
>I hear "You Have Mail" is great!
>Let me know what theater you want to go to and I'll get the show times.
>Mary
There are three basic ways you
can type in your reply:
1. Simply write your
reply above the indented original message, like this:
Mary:
Sounds good. How about the early afternoon at The Eyeball Burner Express 30-Plex?
Get back to me with the time and I'll meet you at the theater.
Sam
>Hi, Sam!
>Are we going to the movies today?
>I hear "You Have Mail" is great!
>Let me know what theater you want to go to and what show time is best for you.
>Mary
2. Write your reply below
the original message, like so:
>Hi, Sam!
>Are we going to the movies today?
>I hear "You Have Mail" is great!
>Let me know what theater you want to go to and what show time is best for you.
>Mary
Mary:
Sounds good. How about the early afternoon at The Eyeball Burner Express 30-Plex?
Get back to me with the time and I'll meet you at the theater.
Sam
3. Intersperse
your reply after each paragraph or point in the original message:
>Hi, Sam!
>Are we going to the movies today?
Sounds good.
>I hear "You Have
Mail" is great!
>Let me know what theater you want to go to and what show time is best for you.
>Mary
How about the early afternoon
at The Eyeball Burner Express 30-Plex?
Get back to me with the time and I'll meet you at the theater.
Sam
You can always use the first
method, but you may want to use the second method if there has been any appreciable delay,
so you can bring your correspondent up to speed. And the third method is best used
when you have a long message you want to respond to point by point.
When the message is responded
to by your recipient, an additional angle bracket is automatically added to each previous
response in order to keep the order straight. If you were using method 1 above, your
final reply would look like this, with the messages sequenced from bottom to top:
The Eyeball Burner Express
30-Plex it is! The show starts at 1:40pm.
I'll see you there!
Sam
>Mary:
>Sounds good. How about the early afternoon at The Eyeball Burner Express
30-Plex?
>Get back to me with the time and I'll meet you at the theater.
>Sam
>>Hi, Sam!
>>Are we going to the movies today?
>>I hear "You Have Mail" is great!
>>Let me know what theater you want to go to and what show time is best for you.
>>Mary
Your email program has lots
of options, and you'll get to understand them best by just jumping in and using your
email. We won't even try to cover everything here.
By the way...
Posting
unsolicited email messages (usually promoting a
business) is called "spamming" and is probably the single
biggest offense you can commit on the Internet after hacking
(breaking into someone else's computer). So...
DO
NOT SPAM!
Yes, I'm
yelling!
An email
"attachment" is a file that "piggy-backs" on your email message.
This way you can send somebody a word processing or text document, a picture file,
a sound file - pretty much any file in your computer - via email.
At the top of the new message
window in your email software is a small icon of a paper clip. All you have to do
is click on that icon, navigate to the file you want to send, and double-click on
it. An icon representing the file will appear in your document. When you send
your email message, the file you have attached will ride along with it.
When you receive a document
that has an attachment, a small paper clip icon will appear next to it in your
inbox. All you have to do is open the document and you will see the icon of the
attachment. You now have three choices.
Save the attachment file in
your computer. Right-click on it and select Save As...
Then navigate to the appropriate folder in your system and click on the Save
button.
Open the attachment file
right now. Just double-click on the file's icon and follow the prompts (this will
vary depending on what type of file you're opening).
Do nothing. Maybe the
attachment is not important to you. Just close your email message window as usual
and move on.
One of the most popular
attachments to send are web pages and web links. While you're surfing the Internet,
you will come across a page you just know one of your email associates will want to
visit. You can send them this information from your browser without even opening
your email software.
To send a web page or link by
email, just go to that page using your web browser. In Microsoft Internet
Explorer, click on File, then move your mouse pointer to Send...,
then click on Page by Email... or Link by
Email... The browser will open your email new message window and
automatically include the page or the link for you. All you have to do is tell it
which addresses you want to send the web information to.
Note that when you are sending
a web page, some or all of the page's artwork may not accompany the file. The
recipient may see only text and a great deal of "holes" where the images were.
Links will appear as
underlined text in an email document. Web pages will appear as attachment icons.
Keep your attachment files as
small in size as you can, under 750KB if possible. Not only will larger files take a
long time to download to your email recipient (making them wait for it), most ISPs limit
the size of their customers' email boxes to somewhere around 5MB. If you cause
someone's email box to fill up, he or she will not be able to receive email until it's
emptied (downloaded) again. This will not help you win friends. A good rule to
live by is to ask first whenever you're going to send someone an email message larger
than about 500KB.
There is a part of the
Internet, "Usenet", that has on-line discussion groups, called
"newsgroups." A newsgroup is very much like a bulletin board, where people
post information by topic. When somebody posts a message, anyone visiting the
newsgroup can post a follow up message, and then another person can follow up to either
message, and so on. Taken together, a newsgroup message and all of its
follow up messages are called a "thread."
In the same
way your browser included software for email, it also includes a program for
you to access newsgroups. Internet Explorer contains a news reader inside its email
program called Outlook Express. From Outlook Express's menu, just select
Go, then News. Or you can just select the Mail
icon from the Internet Explorer browser, then select News.
Newsgroups are
usually very specific in terms of the topics they each cover. There is
probably a newsgroup for anything you can think of. For the most part,
like much of the Internet, newsgroups are not regulated. Some of the
topics can be offensive, so be look out.
Like email,
newsgroups allow you to submit (post) your message anytime. Unlike email, however, you must log on to the specific group you want to
communicate with, and use a reader to see the messages posted there, and
everyone will see everything that's been posted.
Google has a website that specializes in information about newsgroups. Take a
few minutes to visit this site, especially if you're new to newsgroups. You can search for newsgroup information at
groups.google.com.
Newsgroups permit
you to be heard by a large group of people, and for them to contact you. But there are a few things you should know about newsgroup netiquette:
The biggest
offense you can commit on a newsgroup (and the most common) is to post
something that is off topic - in other words, something that has nothing to do
with the topic of that particular newsgroup. Commercial messages that
attempt to take advantage of the vast number of potential customers gathering
in a newsgroup are even worse.
As with
email, posting lots of unsolicited newsgroup messages (usually promoting a
business) is called "spamming" and is probably the single biggest
offense you can commit on the Internet after hacking (breaking into someone
else's computer). So...
DO NOT
SPAM!
Yes, I'm yelling
again. It's important.
Posting off-topic
messages and spamming is more than likely going to get somebody angry enough
to send nasty messages back to you. Sending nasty messages is called "flaming"
and it's no fun, especially if you feel compelled to respond and they respond
to your response and others join in and you end up in an all out "flame
war." You may also be reported to your Internet Service Provider,
who, in most cases, will shut you off almost immediately. When it comes
to spam, ISPs usually adopt a "shoot first and ask questions later"
approach.
Here are some good
rules of newsgroup Netiquette:
-
Lurk first: Spend time "lurking," or watching, a newsgroup before you post
for the first time. Every group has its own structure. The
more you watch, the more you'll be able to effectively contribute when you
speak.
-
Know the
FAQs: Before asking a question in a newsgroup, see if you can find an
answer in that group's "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ for short). FAQs contain basic information on the group, its
purpose, and common questions they'd rather not have asked again. FAQs were created to cut down on the questions that new users (called
"newbies") often post in newsgroups. There may be more
than one FAQ for a particular group, especially if it's populated by
people with opposing views. If you can't find an FAQ, go ahead and
ask your question.
-
Be
Prepared: No matter how careful you are, you may eventually get
flamed - so get used to the idea. You are bound to step on someone's
toes and make someone upset, and you'll probably get a rude note in your
email box or a nasty post about you in the newsgroup. The best way to
respond to a flame: don't respond at all.
-
Don't
Flame: If you see an off-topic or silly posting by a new user,
be polite. Send the user a note by email explaining what he or she
did wrong. Don't flame.
-
Follow the
thread: Only post a follow up message to a thread (a series of
messages on a topic) if your message is directly related. If not,
post a new message and start a new thread.
-
Don't post
copyrighted or private information: There is a legal issue here,
but there is also an ethical one. Don't post the copyrighted or
private information of others without their permission.
-
No "me
toos": Don't waste resources and time posting "me
too" responses. They take up space and add nothing to the
thread of conversation. But feel free to send support via an
email. Everyone appreciates acknowledgment, and you could make a
fast friend.
-
Be nice: Always stay calm. Be polite. Be cordial no matter how
obnoxious the other poster is.
You can really
apply these rules to all Internet activity.
The Structure
of Newsgroup Posts
Newsgroup names
tell you what the purpose of the newsgroup is. Here are some examples:
alt.fan.letterman
- David Letterman fans
comp.robotics.research
- computer robotics research
misc.writing
- writing
rec.sport.unicycling
- unicycling
soc.culture.welsh
- Welsh culture
Most newsgroups
are classified into standard sets, which are defined by the first word (or
abbreviation) before the first period in the name. These are the major
newsgroup sets:
alt.
- alternative newsgroups (by far, the largest of all the newsgroup sets
comp. -
computer
misc. -
miscellaneous
rec. -
recreation
sci. -
science
soc. -
society and culture
Following the name
of the set are one or more words separated by periods, providing greater
detail about the newsgroup. For example, the newsgroup devoted to
network administration for the computer operating system Windows NT looks like
this:
comp.os.mswindows.nt.admin.networking
Generally
speaking, you don't have to know much about this naming protocol because your
system's news reader will find any portion of a newsgroup name. For
example, if you type in the word "collie", your news reader might
display:
alt.animals.collie.open-forum
alt.animals.dogs.collie.free-speak
alt.animals.dogs.collie.open-forum
The first and
third are probably redundant - two separate newsgroups discussing the same
topic - a fairly common occurrence.
As with all
things, the best way to learn about newsgroups is to try them out. Run
your system's news software (e.g. Outlook Express) and find out how to
go to the newsgroups. Search for some topics of interest and see what
shows up. Go to those newsgroups and see what's there. After
you've lurked for awhile in a few newsgroups, and you have a feel for what
goes on in each one, go ahead and post a message - or a reply (if you have
something even vaguely of interest to contribute - that's why I suggested
"topics of interest").
Go back into the
newsgroup periodically and see how long it takes your post to show up. See if anyone posts a reply back to your post.
Have fun!
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