Essential components What your computer can do depends upon two things: the hardware your computer has, and the software that can be run on your computer. Hardware are physical components that make up your computer. Any part of your computer that you can see or touch is hardware. Software are programs or applications that run on your computer. Without software, the hardware would be useless because the software tells the hardware what do to. For example, most computers can view web pages. Computers need both hardware and software to do this. Hardware it needs includes a modem or Ethernet card, processor and monitor. Yet, hardware alone can not show you web pages. Although you have the modem or Ethernet card to connect to the Internet, and the monitor to display the web pages for you, without the software your computer can not make the modem work, find the right web page on the web, or figure out how to bring it to your computer and display it properly. You can think of software as part of the "brains" of your computer. There are many types of software, such as word processing, games, programs, encyclopedias, web browsers, juke boxes, etc. The most important software on your computer is the Operating System. This is the "Master Mind" of your computer. It allows you to easily access all your other software programs, and assures that they work well with each other and your computer's hardware. Most computers come with the operating system and some software already installed, so whey you first boot up your computer it is ready to go. The most common operating system is Microsoft Windows. It is running on over 90% of all personal computers in the world.

Future of the web It will be almost impossible to predict what the Web will be like in the future. Ten years ago, few people would have predicted the rapid growth of the web in size and content. There are three things you can bet on. 1) More and more people will use the web. Not only is the world’s population increasing, but computer prices keep falling. As the “computer generation grows into adulthood, replacing the "baby-boom" generation in the work force, web use will increase. 2) The Web will get faster and faster. Not too long ago, you would have been happy to have a 28.8 Kilobytes per/sec modem. Then 56k modems came along. Now there is DSL and Cable offering speeds over 1000k. Over 70% of high school students in suburbia America already has a high speed connection. There is already talk about an Internet2, bringing technology enabling everyone will have the speed that only today’s backbone lines enjoy. 3) The Web will grow continually grow more wireless. Popping up all over the United States are “hot spots”, areas where a business, school, or home is broadcasting their Internet connection. All laptops are now equipped with Mobile Technology to automatically connect to any wireless Internet signal it can find. Many restaurants are broadcasting a wireless signal in an effort to attract more customers. Many predict that within a few years, you may not need a wired connection at all.

7 STEPS IN BUILDING A WEBSITE Most web sites are built to solve a problem or meet a need. For example, say your were a web professional and a dentist came to your office and said, “I have two problems: I am not getting enough patients and the patients I do have often forget their 6 month check-up appointments. Can a web site help me?” The problems of course are that he does not have enough patients, and the ones that he has often forget their appointment times. The goals of the web site should then be to gain new customers and help the current customers remember their appointments.