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What is the Internet?
The Internet is a network of computers. Initial development by the Department of Defense began in the late 1960’s and was primarily used as a communications network by the U. S. Government. This first network was named ARPAnet. By 1971, ARPAnet had added 15 educational and research institutions to its network. During the mid 1980’s most military use of ARPAnet ceased and the National Science Foundation took control of the network. In 1982 TCP/IP was accepted as the standard transmission protocol and the term “Internet” was born. 1991 saw the first commercial use of the Internet and by 1995 Internet control had become privatized.
Internet Access
There are two ways to access the Internet from your home PC. The first is through a bulletin board system (BBS) such as AOL or The Microsoft Network. Some BBS's focus on certain subjects such as programming or investing. Most offer connection to the Internet and let users send/receive mail and download files. The second type of access is through an Internet service provider (ISP). ISP's do not concentrate on any specific content and give you direct access to any information on the Internet. ISP's offer services such as e-mail, server space, PPP access and FTP capabilities. This type of access allows you to control what Internet content you see and also allows you the option of creating your own informative site.
Webster Jargon!
| ASCII | The American Standard Code for Information Exchange consists of 256 codes that represent the English alphabet, punctuation, and other needed control characters Each keyboard key is associated with an ASCII code |
| Bookmark | A browser feature that automatically stores the URL of your favorite web sites for future reference sometimes referred to as a "Hotlist" |
| Browser | An interactive piece of software that enables you to display specially coded data files in a readable text and/or graphical layout The first significant browser was developed in 1993 by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois and was called Mosaic The two most widely used browsers are Netscape and MS Internet Explorer |
| Bulletin Board | An interactive web page feature which allows users to post information on someone else's web site |
| Bit | 10101101 or eight bits = one byte Computer processors run on binary codes, which are simply on/off switches in your computer It takes one byte of space to form a character such as a single alphabetical letter |
| Byte | The amount of storage space your hard drive uses to store one character For instance, 1024 bytes = 1 KB (kilobyte), 1024 KB = 1 MB (megabyte) |
| Domain | An easily readable Internet address such as www.mycompany.com A domain name is owned by you and moves with you no matter what ISP you use Domain names are researched and registered through an ISP for a fee The initial 2 year registration fee is around $70 After that an annual $35 (more or less) maintenance fee is required |
| Electronic Mail is how Internet users communicate E-mail also can contain attached files such as graphics or word processing documents | |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol is used to upload files from your computer to a server FTP is also used to download files, graphics and software from the Internet |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format is a file format used for line-art graphics storage GIF's are widely used on the web because of their compression capabilities |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language is the coding used to define platform independent styles for Web documents HTML does not have the ability to display standardized page sizes or text sizes Its main purpose is to form the document structure, not appearance Because of this web documents may appear different when viewed with assorted browsers |
| JPEG | Joint Photographics Experts Group developed this photographic image compression standard |
| Network | Computers linked together and operating with other computers in a group |
| News Group | Online discussion groups based on articles or individual postings concerning specific topics |
| Meta Tag | Code inserted into a web page which is wormed out by search engines and used to list your site |
| Modem | A device which converts digital format to analog format and visa-versa This allows a computer to transmit digital data over an analog phone line Modems are rated by how many bits per second they can transmit, otherwise known as baud rate The most common baud rate these days is 56K (56,000 bits per second) With analog phone lines you're lucky if you are able to transfer at speeds around 53K |
| Plug-in | Compact software routines which do tasks through your browser such as play movies or specialized audio files If you don't have the required plug-in you can still view a web page, but you will not be able to view the page as originally designed Web sites needing a plug-in will usually prompt you to download the required program on the spot |
| PPP | Point to Point Protocol allows your computer to act like an Internet host and enables multitasking This is the best kind of ISP connection |
| Server | A computer running specialized software which is hooked up to the Internet 24/7. A web site is put on a server so it can be accessed anytime by anyone on the Internet. Many companies specialize in server management. These are called Isp's or Internet Service Providers. Unless you plan on running your own server you will have to seek out an Isp to host your web site |
| Search Engine | A Web site which uses your keywords to find links to other Web sites containing those words |
| TCP/IP | Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the fundamental program which carries data from computer to computer over the Internet |
| Telnet | A protocol which allows your computer to access another computer's data via the Internet in terminal (text-based) mode Very useful for accessing your e-mail from someone else’s Internet account |
| URL | An Internet address technically known as the Uniform Resource Locator Most commonly the URL is entered into a Web browser which, in turn displays the indicated site address on your computer monitor If the URL begins with http://, then it is a Web address, but if it starts with ftp://, it is a File Transfer Protocol site |
| WWW | The World Wide Web is a global network |
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