Internet Basics An Introduction to the World Wide Web…

Part I Introduction… What is the Web & Where did it come from?

What is the Internet?  The internet is a world-wide computer network.  A computer network consists of computers connected with one another to communicate and share information.  The Internet is an ever changing network of computer networks.

What is the Internet? -continued  Television or radio networks (like ABC and NBC) are one-way networks: they talk to you, but your TV or Radio can’t talk back.  The Internet is a 2-way network…  You can take information from it  You can add new information to it

What can you use the Internet For?  Web Browsing  ing  Chatting  Instant Messaging  Blogging

Web Browsing  Web Pages are screens of information containing words, pictures, sounds, videos, etc. about every conceivable topic.  Web pages are created by:  Ordinary People  Companies  Clubs  Interest groups  Schools, etc.

Web Browsing: A typical Webpage:

Web Browsing -continued  Web browsing is sometimes called web surfing.  When you browse the web you are flipping though pages of information much like flipping through pages of a book.  You can find stuff like news, weather, traffic conditions, how to grow flowers, what car to buy, what is global warming, etc…

Web Browsing -continued  Today the internet contains hundreds of millions of webpages…so your bound to find information on whatever you are looking for!

 stands for Electronic Mail  allows users to send messages to one or more people, anywhere in the world, instantly.  Anything sent via regular mail (also called “snail mail”) can be sent via the web.

What Looks Like

Chat Rooms  Chat Rooms are screens where people from anywhere log onto and discuss topics.  Chat rooms exist for almost any topic.

Instant Messaging  Instant messages are messages that pop up on your screen when a friend wants to talk  Messages are typed and sent back and forth to hold a conversation

What is a Blog?  The word Blog is short for WebLog.  A blog is like an online journal, with entries displayed in chronological order.  Blogs are useful to document events that you would like to share

A Blog…

What is a Message Board?  A message board is a place where users can hold a forum regarding just about any topic.  Different topics start different threads, with users responding to posts by other users.  Message boards are sometimes called discussion forums, bulletin boards, etc.

A message board…

Part II Surfing the Web Finding information (useful and otherwise) on the Web…

Some Common Web Terms:  Webpage: A document with text, photos, sounds, etc. available over the world wide web  Hyperlink: (or just “link” for short) Text or pictures on a webpage that when clicked takes you to another webpage.  Website: A collection of webpages regarding the same topic.

Some Common Web Terms:  Web Browser: The actual program on your computer that allows you to surf the web (common programs are Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.  URL: The acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, which is the address to the page on the internet.  URLs typically start with www. and end in.com.org.net or.gov

Opening Internet Explorer  Double-click on the Internet Explorer Icon.  If the icon is already highlighted, just hit enter. Internet Explorer Icon Highlighted Internet Explorer Icon

Internet Explorer Opens to its Home Site…  Internet Explorer will open, and the home site for this computer will appear, the Watchung Hills Regional High School Website.

Going to a Webpage  Click in the Address Box  Type in any web address  Hit Enter  Internet Explorer searches the web for the page you are requesting The Address box

Check the News at…  Once at the CNN homepage, you can scroll around the screen and read the headlines  To move to anything interesting, click on Blue Underlined Text  Such text are links Links

Pages Everyone Visits…  – World News  – Microsoft’s World News  – The Weather Channel  – Popular Online Shopping  – Online Auction  – Online Videos  - Encyclopedia  – Driving Directions/Maps

Going Back…  Click the BACK button to go backward to your previous webpage  You may click back as many times as you’d like The BACK button…

Stopping a Page Midstream…  To stop a page from loading click the STOP button  Stopping a page is handy if a large page is taking too long to load. The Stop Button

Reloading a Page  To reload a page, click the REFRESH button.  Refresh if:  the page doesn’t load properly  You want to see the most recent change to a page. Refresh Button

Searching the Web  Searching the web for information is similar to using a card catalog in a library.  Your online “card catalog” is a special website called a Search Engine  When you use a search engine, the site searches the web for relevant matches  A typical search will yield tens of thousands of web pages!

Typical Search Sites:  Google: The most frequently visited web page.   Yahoo!: The second most frequently visited web page 

Using Google…  Go to:  Type the subject you are looking for in the box on the screen  Click “Google Search” Type subject here… Click Google Search when done

Search Results…  The websites found, in order of most relevant, are shown as links. Sites Found Google Found 449,000 sites

Tips on Searching  Use capital letters as you would normally (don’t search in all caps)  If words should appear together put them in quotes:  “April fools day”  Use + and – to indicate what words should and shouldn’t appear:  +steam locomotives -diesel

Add a New Site to your List of Favorites  Internet Explorer allows you to save sites to a list of favorites so you do not need to type long URLs or constantly do a web search for a site.

Adding to your Favorites…  Go to the site you want to add.  Click on “FAVORITES”  Click on “Add to Favorites”

Adding to your Favorites -continued…  In the box that appears you may type in a new name for the site, or leave the name that appears.  Click ENTER

Adding to your Favorites -continued…  Check back in the favorites menu- your new site will be added to the list.

Going to a Favorite Site  Click on the Favorites Menu  Click on the site you want to visit.  Internet Explorer automatically take you to the site you want to visit.

Printing a Webpage  Sometime you might want a “hard copy” of the information on a page.  To print a page, go to the FILE menu.  Click on “PRINT”

Printing a Webpage -continued  In the box that appears select the printer, and the number of copies you’d like to print.  Click on the print button.  The page will print in the selected printer.

Copying and Pasting Text  Sometimes you may want to take who passages of text and incorporate them into a document you are creating.  Use the “COPY” and “PASTE” commands to copy text to another program.

How to Copy and Paste  Highlight the text to copy by pressing the left mouse button and dragging over the text you want to copy.  Highlighted text will turn blue.

How to Copy and Paste -continued  Right-click on the highlighted text using the right mouse button.  In the menu that appears, choose COPY

How to Copy and Paste  Go to the program you want to transfer your material too.  Right click in that program and choose “PASTE”

How to Copy and Paste  The material you pasted will appear in the new program.

How to Save a Picture  Search the web and find the picture you like.  Right click on the picture.  Choose “Save Picture As…”

How to Save a Picture  Choose the drive to save the photo to.

How to Save a Picture  Choose the folder to save the photo to.

How to Save a Picture  Give the picture a file name in the File Name box  Click “SAVE”

Shopping Online  Sites like Amazon.com sell everything from CD’s and DVD’s to books and small appliances.

Online Shopping  ADVANTAGES  Convenient- stores are always open  Prices- tend to be lower  Selection- greater selection than can be housed in a store  DISADVANTAGES  You can’t physically look and touch the stuff first.  You’re taking business away from local stores.

Using Your Credit Card Online…  The act of paying using your credit card only transmits your card number over the internet for a very brief moment in time.  Hackers would need to know the exact moment you make an order to even attempt to get that number.  Your number is encrypted when it is sent, so even if someone were to happen to get your transmission it would not be possible to decode.

Using Your Credit Card Online… continued  Using your credit card online is no less safe than using it in a store (when a purchase is made in a store your same number is sent encrypted to a credit company over the internet)