 Internet Basics I Fulton County Public Library Mobile Digital Media Lab

Basic Concepts  What is the Internet?  A network of computers around the world, used to share ideas and information  What is it used for?  Finding information  Sharing information  Cat pictures :)  What is “information”?  Any file on your computer

Why Internet?  Free and Open (relatively speaking)  Constantly Changing/Updating  Communication Tool- , Instant Messaging (IM)/Chat, VoIP, Blogs  Entertainment  Case by case basis: Does the benefit outweigh the cost?

Internet: Diversion or Tool?  Some people just use the web for fun  Others make their living on the web  Others still buy things online  People use it to connect to others, to share ideas/work together  The Internet is everywhere! Not just home PCs; laptops, cell phones, tablets, other portable devices

Web browsers  What is a web browser?  A web browser is a computer program which allows you to view web pages located on other peoples’ computers/servers Ex.: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome  How does the internet work?  A person creates a web site and shares it on their computer  Another person (you) types the address of that website into the address bar of their web browser  The web browser reads & displays the web page

History of Internet  A (brief) History- 1950’s - a message was sent from a computer at UCLA to a 2nd computer at Stanford. Early 1960s - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) [limited to military sites and universities] Late 70’s Early 80’s - BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) which were the precursor to modern Forums websites Dec “Internet” is coined as shortening of “internetworking” Domain Name Servers are created, allowing for “.com” names instead of strings of numbers NSFNET sets up the first 56k (“modern” dialup) internet Europe’s internal internet goes global CompuServe is first to offer consumer internet

History of Internet 2  Modern History – AOL offers largest “walled garden” internet service “The World”: first commercial dialup The outdated ARPANET is decommisioned WorldWideWeb: world’s first web browser Mosaic: first browser to display images on webpages! Netscape Navigator (from the creators of Mosaic) Internet Explorer (a clone of Mosaic) 1996 – Opera web browser “Mozilla open source project” allows for new browsers 2003 – Safari: Apple’s web browser 2004 – Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome

Parts of the internet/browser… Address BarTab(s) Site Index Menu Bar Scroll Bar Zoom Exit Settings Favorites Home Page Text links underlined Pictures / buttons often “clickable”

Favorites  Shortcuts to websites  Also called “bookmarks”  Remember site addresses for you in browser  Can be transferred to other browsers  People are creatures of habit Browsers remember where you have been for you to make it easier next time!

History  In “View” menu, under “Explorer Bars”  Remembers where you have been today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year, etc…  Useful for remembering sites you’ve recently visited.

The World Wide Web, summary  The internet is not to be feared.  If harnessed properly, one can make it work for and not against us…  Practice makes perfect  It is your portal to information and like the public library, it is free and open to all…