Internet Fundamentals Presented by the Tech Team

What is the Internet? Also Known As “The Net” World’s Largest Computer Network Connects networks all over the world

In the Beginning... ARPANET –Department of Defense ARPANET Wildly Successful –MILNET Military Sites –ARPANET Non-Military Sites

There are 1.46 million new Internet users each month. At year end 1999, the average internet user received messages per day, was online for 6.7 hours per week, and expended an annual $479 for online goods. Source: eMarketer, Interesting Facts

What’s in it for me? Electronic Mail ( ) On-line conversation Information retrieval

Which way to the Internet? Items Needed to Access Internet –Computer (Recommend: Pentium III, 500 Mhz, 4.o gig hard drive, 17 in monitor, 32X CD-ROM, Windows 98) –Modem 56 bps (cable access) –Browser (Internet Explore or Netscape) –Telephone Line –Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Internet Service Provider (ISP) A company that connects your computer to the Internet –Examples: AOL, COX at home, Earthlink, USWest, Neonramp, etc. Locate an ISP on the web

Interesting Fact In a survey of 7,000 Internet user ages 50+, Excite! Search engine discovered 83% log on every day and spend more than ten hours a week online. Source: Excite!

Computer Protocol The Internet works because all the machines speak the same language. The information is chopped into pieces called packets and then sent over the network.

Internet Vocabulary The Internet Language –FAQ Frequently Asked Questions –FTP File Transfer Protocol –HTML HyperText Markup Language –HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol

Technology Facts of Interest... The greeting card that plays “Happy Birthday” features more computer power than existed in the ENTIRE world before 1950!! Computer power is now 8,000 times less expensive than it was 30 years ago Web use is growing by 2,300% a year.

World Wide Web Invisible Network Within “The Net” Hypermedia Exchange –Linked Text –Images –Sounds WWW Files are Encoded –HyperText Mark-up Language

World Wide Web Browsers Netscape Microsoft Internet Explorer A browser allows you to surf the Net and see movies, hear sounds, and use linked text.

Uniform Resource Locator Otherwise known as URL or the Internet address. Starts with or ftp://, etc. – Is found at the top of the browser. You type in the URL to go to a new web site.

Links Any underlined text you see on a Web page is referred to as hypertext (link) Links are a graphic or text that take you to an Internet page. Clicking a link takes you to that page and the information is transferred to your computer. This is a link

Links Congratulations! By clicking on the link, you moved to this slide! The same thing happens on the Internet. When you click a link you connect to the page you requested. The information from that page is transferred to your computer!

Domain Names Identifies a website on the Internet Domain names are interpreted into IP address IP addresses are a series of digits separated by a dot –Example: IP addresses are the actual physical address of the server on the Internet

Bookmarking You can mark a favorite site by clicking on Bookmark and add bookmark Bookmarks can be organized into folders Bookmarks can be saved on a disk or on the hard drive of the machine

Search Engines and Directories Search Engines are controlled by a robot and computer. Contains thousands of databases of information. Directory (Subject Guide) are lists of information organized by a human. Information is divided into categories and subcatagories.

Search Engines Search Engines allow you to search for documents –Yahoo –WebCrawler –Lycos –Alta Vista –Excite

Secrets to Searching –Capitalize names and titles, such as December and Star Wars –Use double quotation marks to group words –Put a + sign in front of words that MUST be in documents –Put a - sign in front of words that SHOULD NOT appear in documents

Common descriptive names Com - Commercial Organizations net - Organizations managing networks org - Miscellaneous organizations mil - U.S. military organization gov - Government organization edu - Educational Institution

Geographical Abbreviations uk - United Kingdom jp - Japan au - Australia se - Sweden ca - Canada or California

Allows communication with anyone, anywhere, anytime Save, reply, delete, forward, read or print the Address books allow you to save addresses

Netiquette IT’S NOT POLITE TO SHOUT!

Emoticons (Smileys) :-)Happy :-(Unhappy :-DLaughing :-OShocked :-&Tongue-tied Rose

Newsgroup Netiquette Check Out FAQ’s Listen to Conversation Before Joining Send Your Flame to Flamer Only Include Your Address Don’t Change the Subject Private /Chat for Long Conversations

Enjoy “Surfing”