How the World Wide Web Works

What Is the Web? The World Wide Web is a collection of electronic documents linked together like a spider web. These documents are stored on computers called servers located around the world. The Web has evolved into a global electronic publishing and commerce medium.

What Is the Web Made of? The Web consists of: Your personal computer Web browser software to access the Web A connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) Servers to host the data Routers and switches to direct the flow of data

How the Web Works Web pages are stored on web servers located around the globe. Entering the Uniform Resource Locator or URL of a web page in your web browser or clicking a link sends a request to the server that hosts the page. The server transmits the web page data to your computer and your web browser displays it on your screen.

Web Pages A web page is an electronic document written in a computer language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Web pages can contain text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, as well as interactive features, such as data entry forms and games. Each page has a unique address known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which identifies its location on the server. Web pages usually contain hyperlinks to other web pages. Hyperlinks are text and images that reference the addresses of other web pages.

Websites A website consists of one or more web pages that relate to a common theme, such as a person, business, organization, or a subject, such as news or sports. The first page is called the home page, which acts like an index, indicating the content on the site. From the home page, you can click links to access other pages on the site or other resources on the Web.

Navigating the Web There are three main ways to move between web pages or websites: Clicking a text link. Clicking a hyperlinked graphic, such as a button, photograph, or drawing. Typing the URL of a web page in the location box (also known as the address field) of your web browser and then pressing the Enter or Return key.

Identifying a Hyperlink Text links are usually underlined and in a different color from the rest of the text. To determine if a graphic is hyperlinked, move your cursor arrow over the image. You know the item is hyperlinked if: The arrow turns into a hand. [Hand Icon] A URL appears in the status bar at the bottom of your web browser (except in Safari.)

How Hyperlinks Work A text or graphic hyperlink hides a URL. Clicking a hyperlink passes the URL to your browser. In addition to pointing to web pages, hyperlinks can access media files or pop open photo viewing windows.

Using Web URLs A URL indicates where the web page is stored on the Internet. URLs never use back slashes (\). All slashes are forward slashes (/). 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. URLs may not contain spaces between characters. The location box or address field on your browser indicates the URL of the page you arrived at after clicking a link.

Examples of URLs http://www.learnthenet.com The home page for the Learn the Net website. http://blog.wired.com/ Blogs or weblogs from Wired magazine. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/ A directory of files at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that you can download. news:rec.gardens.roses A newsgroup about rose gardening.

Anatomy of a URL Here's how to interpret the various parts of a URL: http:// www. learnthenet.com /english/ start.htm http:// Short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, this indicates a Web document or directory. www. This indicates a page on the World Wide Web. (These days, the "www" is usually optional.) learnthenet.com This is the domain name, which includes the top-level domain (below). .com Called the top-level domain, it often indicates the name of a company, university, or organization. It can also tell you the country of origin. / Forward slashes separate parts of the file structure. english/ This is directory or folder on the web server that contains a group of related web pages within the website. start.html This is a web page inside the folder. A URL doesn't always include the name of the web page.

Saving an Image from the Web Place your cursor over the graphic you want to save. Windows users: Click the right mouse button. A pop-up box appears. Macintosh users: Click and hold the mouse button. A pop-up box appears. Save the image to your hard drive by selecting a Save Image As… or similar option. You can accept the current file name or rename the file (web graphic files are usually in .gif, .png or .jpg formats—don’t change this file extension!)