In 1973, the U.S. Defense Agency initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking various kinds of networks. The objective was to allow networked computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked networks. This was called the Internetting project and the system of networks which emerged from the research was known as the "Internet." In 1986, the U.S. National Science Foundation initiated the development of the NET and with the assistance of NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy provided the major backbone communication service for the Internet. By the end of 1991, the Internet had grown to include some 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries, serving over 700,000 host computers used by over 4,000,000 people. The Internet has revolutionised the computer and communications world like nothing before. The Internet has a worldwide broadcasting capability and is now firmly established as 'the' mechanism for information dissemination. The Internet is now the main medium for collaboration & interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location. Today, terms like E-mail and Website trip lightly off the tongue of the random person on the street as we see the Internet become a 21st Century phenomenon. 

Internet protocols 

Every form of communication – whether between people or between computers – requires protocols to support it. Within the Internet, dozens of such protocols operate simultaneously. The strength of the Internet protocol suite is that it can be placed on top of a wide variety of data communication networks, each with its own different protocols. The key Internet protocols are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). TCP splits large messages into smaller packets or ‘datagrammes’ that can easily be sent from one computer to another. It also attaches labels to each datagramme so that, on arrival, they can be re-assembled into the original message. IP creates ‘envelopes’ around each datagramme and ‘stamps’ them with the addresses of the sending and receiving computers. Once released, each envelope finds its own way to the destination. The datagrammes and envelopes are helped on their way by routers – ‘intelligent’ computers with maps of the network. The key ideas are that datagrammes travel through the jumble of national and international communication networks independently, and that there is no lasting connection between the two communicating computers. 

E-mail 

Thus, when a user wants to send an electronic mail, or e-mail, he or she uses an e-mail ‘client’ software (such as Outlook Express, Eudora or Pegasus) to compose the message, to attach an e-mail address to it, and to send it. Then an e-mail server takes over, splits the message into datagrammes, and sends them on their way. The datagrammes finally arrive at another e-mail server where the addressee has a mailbox. After reassembling the datagrammes into the original message, the receiving server holds the message until it is collected. 
Electronic mail is the most basic and most-used Internet application. Today, e-mail client software supports basic text formatting as well as MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension). This allows us to attach files to our messages. The files can contain documents, spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, sounds and movies – anything in a digital format. E-mail messages are passed through the Internet using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). E-mail servers receive and store messages using a protocol called Post Office Protocol (POP) – ‘cyber-technicians’ therefore call them POP-servers or just POP’s. Most people do not have a computer that is permanently attached to the Internet – instead, they dial in and connect to the e-mail server of an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which keeps their mailbox. 
Besides e-mail, Internet users will encounter many other Internet applications such as mailing lists, online chat, voice- and video-conferencing and the World Wide Web (WWW), usually shortened to 'Web'. 

The web: A killer application 

While e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups, file transfer, telnet and others have been around since the mid-1970s, the Web has totally transformed the way the Internet is being used. Retrieving information from the Internet used to be a lengthy process to determine the location of the file and its format, starting an application to display the file, logging into the right server, opening and reading the file, and logging out. The Web has collapsed all these steps into a single click of the mouse. What in the early days of the Internet took minutes or sometimes hours, now takes only seconds. However, one should never forget that the apparent simplicity of web ‘browsing’ software (such as Netscape or Internet Explorer) conceals enormous technical power. 
How is this possible? The inventors of the Web took a hypertext concept, which had been used for many years in publishing software applications, and designed a HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This software marks text so that it can display formatting and graphics, and make ‘hyperlinks’ to other documents, data files, or images. They also developed a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) so that clients and servers can exchange hypertext documents over the Internet. For this, they devised a universal resource locator (URL) that specifies the exact location of the HTML document on the Internet and the type of service requested. They recognised that, if such documents were made available on servers scattered across the Internet, they would create a ‘web’ of interconnected information that would stretch around the globe. Hence the name World Wide Web. Within the Web, the URL directs a client’s request to a specific web server. The most common URL format for retrieving files is http://name-server. Using web servers, any Internet user with a web browser can gain access to information, usually stored on a web site. All web sites have an opening menu, a home page, which serves as the entry point to the whole site. It normally provides information on the contents of the site and hyperlinks to various directories or folders. The files themselves are usually referred to as web pages. It is possible to skip the home page and retrieve a particular web page by adding its exact file name and folder to the URL (http://name-server/directory-path/folder/filename.ext). Since the launch of the Web, both the number of Internet (or, better, Web) users and the technology behind it have developed rapidly and continue to do so. The arrival of web programming languages such as Java and XML have made it possible for Internet users to search for content online, to query databases, and to ‘interact’ with web pages (online forms). The Web and the avalanche of applications it has engendered have also consigned most early Internet applications to oblivion. In fact, things will change even faster now that computer manufacturers and software companies have started to build powerful Internet ‘hooks’ into their operating systems and software (such as in Windows ’98). 

Connecting to the Internet 

To use these smart Internet applications, both to offer information (through a server) and to access information (from a client or with a browser), one has to be ‘connected’ to local, national or international data communication networks. Typically, ISPs arrange the hook-up of institutional servers and Local Area Networks (LANs) that need to be connected continuously to the Internet, mostly via leased lines. They also provide dial-up connections for individuals, usually via the public telephone network using a modem. A major concern with respect to the connections within and to the Internet is the ‘connection speed’ or, as it is often called, the ‘bandwidth’. In particular, efficient use of the Web requires lots of bandwidth. This is because Web users are ‘online’, they are directly connected to the Internet. 

How web addresses work 

When you type a web address (often called a "URL" - Universal Resource Locator, if you're interested) into your browser, it doesn't care whether the site is in Australia or the house next door. Sometimes it's nice to know, though. You can't always tell where a site is by examining the address, but you can often tell quite a lot.We can take this address apart and learn things from it. The first part, http:// is called the scheme and is the same in nearly all web addresses. It doesn't tell us anything much (it says "this is a web page" - but we knew that), so we can strip that out and forget about it,We can also strip out the last part, "index.htm", which is the name of the HTML document we are looking at. You don't normally bother to type that part in anyway for an index page, because if you don't specify a document, your browser automatically looks for a document called "index.htm" or similar at the location specified. The remainder, www.jonstorm.com is the important part, and you often see web addresses written like this because they are easier to remember. The "dots" (full stops/periods) separate the address into domains. You start reading from right to left, and the last part, which is called the "top level domain", tells you (at least in theory) that the owner is a company. It doesn't tell you where though. Originally .com (pronounced "dot com"), meant a US company, but nowadays it could be anyone who is or wants to appear international. The internet was mostly created in the US, and the designers first set up domains for commercial organisations (.com), educational establishments (.edu), the US government (.gov), non-profit organisations (.org) and a few others. It didn't occur to anyone that other countries would be on the net too. When companies from other countries started appearing on the net, they were mostly quite happy to be .com and so indistinguishable from a US company. Not so good for governments though, who certainly didn't want to be indistinguishable from the US government! And not ideal for people offering a service only applicable to a particular geographic area, like a restaurant or a theatre, or whose website is in a language other than English. So a new set of domains was created, one for each country : .fr for France, .uk for the United Kingdom, .us for the United States, and so on. Rather than replacing the original domains, which would have meant everyone who had an address in one of the original domains would have had to change it, the new domains were created alongside them. The US pretty much ignored the new .us domain and carried on using the old ones. But the other countries quickly started using their national domains. Some countries, like the UK and Australia, subdivided their national domains into similar categories to the original ones, so a UK government website will end in .gov.uk, and an Australian corporate website will be .com.au. Instead of using .com.uk, the UK decided to shorten it, just to be different, so UK corporates are .co.uk, which is very popular with UK companies, because it's a lot safer buying things over the web if the company you are buying from is in your own country - makes it much easier to resolve any disputes. Other countries, like France (.fr) and Germany (.de) decided not to subdivide their domain into categories, so the French ISP Freesurf simply have the address freesurf.fr. 

ISP - Internet Service Provider 

An ISP provides, on disk or by download, the basic software which gives people the opportunity to use the Internet. This software includes the dial up facility to the Internet from your modem, a Browser and basis e-mail facilities

Modem 

A Modem is a device that enables a Computer to transmit data / information over telephone lines. Modems can be either a separate external device connected up to the back of your Computer or they can be an Internal Modem which is built into your Computer. Both types of Modem require to be connected to a phone line and without a Modem you cannot be connected to the Internet

Browsers 

Browsers allow you to view Search Engines and Web pages on the Internet. The most commonly used Website Browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The ISP's (Internet Service Providers) AOL Online and Compuserve offer their own Browsers within their Software and they are similar in functionality to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Search Engines 

Search Engines are Websites designed to search the Internet and find documents within Websites. You would enter a keyword or a number of words or a phrase onto the 'Search Page' of a 'Search Engine' and it will send out a 'spider' to fetch as many documents as possible which relate to your Search entry. There are a lot of Search Engines with Alta Vista, Excite and Google being amongst the largest. Internet Home Help recommend for searching that you use www.dogpile.com or www.mamma.com as these are Websites which collectively do a Search which selects the best of twelve or more of the top Search Engines. 

E-Mail 

Short for electronic mail this is the transmission of messages over the Internet. The messages can be formulated by you using your keyboard or you can transmit electronically files and documents stored on disk. You will be given an e-mail address from your ISP but you can have any number of e-mail addresses. All basic e-mail software offers an address book and will store your messages until you are ready to retrieve them. Most e-mail's take a few seconds to arrive at its destination but they can sometimes take a few minutes. In recent years the use of e-mail has exploded and there are now over 25 million e-mail users sending over 15 billion messages per year. Opportunity. e.g. .. 

Domain Names 

A Domain Name is a friendly way of locating Computers on the Internet. These Domain Names are most commonly used for identifying Websites and e-mail. You can purchase your own unique domain name to use in locating your Website and e-mail address. Advertisements for cheap Domain Names are easy to locate, but be aware that the purchasing of a Domain Name usually involves a commitment to a 2 year contract with maintenance fees. Nearly all the companies providing Domain Names can point the name you have purchased towards the Website you have created. 

URL 

A URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator and it is the complete Web page address and full file name of a page. Using the actual URL is a good way of locating a particular page within a Website on the Internet.

IP Address 

IP Address is an abbreviation for Internet Protocol Address. Each computer that connects to the Internet is given a unique group of numbers which form an Address to identify it. This number allows any one computer to find another specific computer on the Internet 

HTML 

HTML is the abbreviation for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document and is used by Web designers. 

Cookies 

Cookies are messages given to a Web Browser by a Web Server. The Browser stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is sent back to the server each time the Browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of Cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customised Web pages for them.All internet home help Members MUST ensure that their Cookies are turned on at all times or they will NOT be able to login. Most computers have Cookies enabled as a default.

Download / Upload 

Download is the term given to copying data or an entire file from a main source, such as an Online Service, to a peripheral device, such as your PC Hard Drive. The opposite of downloading is to upload which is the copying of a file from one computer to another computer. The process of "Publishing" your Website with Pages2000 involves uploading as the Website you have prepared is automatically uploaded for you by Pages2000 straight onto the Internet. 

Plug-ins 

Plug-ins are Software or Hardware that adds a specific feature or service to a system. There are a number of different types of Plug-ins but most common to the Web are Plug-ins which will enable you to be able to display Websites with moving features for video and audio. Plug-ins are not to be scared of and should be viewed as helpful items which will enhance your computer not as items which will interfere with your computer functions

Flash Software 

Flash software is produced by Macromedia Inc. and the software is commonly used by most Web Designers in the production of animated Websites 

RealPlayer Software 

A product, made by RealNetworks Inc., designed to bring you an Audio and Video experience. Unlike the Flash Software Plug-in the RealPlayer Plug-in can offer you a "real time" facility, e.g. .. you can watch and listen to a live concert being transmitted on the Internet. 

JPEG & GIF Images 

JPEG is short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and pronounced jay-peg. JPEG is a compression technique used to reduce the file size of colour images and photos. 

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange format and is another compression technique used by the World Wide Web as it supports colour and various resolutions. It is especially effective for scanned photos.

Virus and Anti-Virus Software 

A Virus is a piece of code that is loaded onto your Computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. All Computer Viruses are manmade and can cause minor or in some cases major disruption to the functionality of your Computer Software and Hardware.Anti-Virus Software Programs are written and retailed by Software Companies. These programs periodically check your Computer system for the best known types of Viruses and eliminate them. 

Resolutions 

This refers to the sharpness and clarity of an image. The term is most often used to describe monitors, printers and graphic images. For monitors the screen resolution signifies the number of dots (pixels) on the entire screen. For example if you select to view your monitor in a 640 x 480 pixel screen your monitor will display 640 distinct dots on each of 480 lines. Computers and Laptops offer a number of resolution options for displaying the image on your monitor screen and you should select the one you feel most comfortable with. 

Newsgroups & Chat 

A Newsgroup is a discussion group that focuses on one particular subject. The discussion itself takes place through a form of e-mail, but the big difference is that these messages are posted for the whole group to read and respond to. You can join any group you like from a choice of over 75,000, with subjects ranging from Network Marketing, to Football to Star Trek. 

Chat is "real time" communication between two users via computer. Once a chat has been initiated, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the other users monitor. A lot of online services offer a chat feature and chatroom facilities