Connecting and Communicating Online: The Internet, Websites, and Media

The Evolution and Foundation of the Internet

  • Definition of the Internet: The Internet is a worldwide collection of networks that connects millions of businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals. It serves as a platform for daily activities, such as accessing information, exchanging messages, and conversing with others via computers and mobile devices.

  • Origins (ARPANET): The Internet originated as ARPANET in September 1969. At its inception, it had two primary goals:

    • To allow scientists at different physical locations to share information and work together.

    • To ensure the network could function even if part of it were disabled or destroyed by a disaster.

Connecting to the Internet

  • Connection Types:

    • Wired Connections: A computer or device physically attaches via a cable or wire to a communications device.

      • Cable Internet Service: Provides high-speed Internet access through the cable television network.

      • DSL (Digital Subscriber Line): Provides high-speed Internet connections through the telephone network.

      • Fiber to the Premises (FTTP): Uses fiber-optic cable to provide extremely high-speed Internet access to a user's physical location.

    • Wireless Connections: For computers without internal communications devices, a wireless modem or other specialty device enables connectivity.

      • Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity): Uses radio signals to provide high-speed Internet connections to compatible devices.

      • Mobile Broadband: Offers high-speed Internet connections over wireless networks to computers and mobile devices.

      • Fixed Wireless: Provides Internet access using a dish-shaped antenna on a building to communicate with a tower location via radio signals.

      • Satellite Internet Service: Provides Internet access via satellite to a satellite dish that communicates with a terrestrial station.

  • Hot Spots and Tethering:

    • Hot Spot: A wireless network that provides Internet connections to mobile computers and devices.

    • Tethering: The process of using a smartphone to create a mobile hot spot for other devices.

  • Internet Service Providers (ISP): A business that provides individuals and organizations access to the Internet either for a fee or for free.

  • Bandwidth: A measure of the network's capability to send and receive data. It is typically measured in:

    • Megabytes (MBMB)

    • Gigabytes (GBGB)

Internet Addressing and Domain Names

  • IP Address (Internet Protocol Address): A sequence of numbers that uniquely identifies the location of each computer or device connected to the Internet or any other network.

    • IPv4: The traditional version of IP addresses.

    • IPv6: The newer version of IP addresses designed to accommodate the growing number of devices.

  • Domain Name: A text-based name that corresponds to the numeric IP address of a server.

  • DNS Server (Domain Name System): A server that translates the domain name entered by a user into its associated IP address so the network can locate the resource.

  • Popular Top-Level Domains (TLDs):

    • .biz: Businesses.

    • .com: Commercial organizations, businesses, and companies.

    • .edu: Educational institutions.

    • .gov: Government agencies.

    • .mil: Military organizations.

    • .museum: Museums and individual museum professionals.

    • .name: Individuals.

    • .net: Network providers or commercial companies.

    • .org: Nonprofit organizations.

    • .pro: Licensed professionals.

    • .technology: Technology information.

    • .travel: Entities whose primary area of activity is in the travel industry.

The World Wide Web (WWW)

  • Components of the Web:

    • The Web: Also known as the World Wide Web, it consists of a worldwide collection of electronic documents called webpages.

    • Website: A collection of related webpages and associated items, such as documents and pictures.

    • Web Server: A computer that delivers requested webpages to a user's computer or mobile device.

  • HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): A set of symbols used by developers to specify content elements of a webpage, including headings, paragraphs, images, and links.

  • Browsers: Applications that enable users with an Internet connection to access and view webpages.

    • Mobile Browser: A special type of browser designed for Internet-capable mobile devices like smartphones.

    • Home Page: The first page that a website displays.

    • Tabbed Browsing: A feature in current browsers that allows multiple webpages to be open in separate tabs within a single window.

  • Web Addresses (URL): A unique address for a webpage. For example, entering http://www.nps.gov/history/preserve-places.htm into an address bar and pressing enter directs the browser to a specific page.

  • Web Apps: Applications stored on a web server that are accessed through a browser. These applications usually store user data and information on the host's servers and often work in tandem with mobile apps.

Searching and Categorizing Information

  • Web Search Engine: Software designed to find websites, webpages, images, videos, news, maps, and other information related to specific topics.

  • Subject Directory: Classifies webpages in an organized set of categories (e.g., sports, shopping) and related subcategories.

  • Search Operators and Search Text Composition:

    • Space or +: Used to display results that include specific words. Example: art + music or art music results in pages having both words in any order.

    • OR: Used to display results that include only one word from a list. Example: dog OR puppy results in pages with either word; dog OR puppy OR canine results in pages with any of the three.

    • Parentheses ( ): Used to combine search results. Example: Kalamazoo Michigan (pizza OR subs) results in pages that include both "Kalamazoo Michigan" and either "pizza" or "subs."

    • Minus Sign -: Used to exclude a word from search results. Example: automobile -convertible results in pages with "automobile" that do not contain "convertible."

    • Quotation Marks " ": Used to search for an exact phrase in a specific order. Example: "19th century literature".

    • **Asterisk ***: Used as a wildcard to substitute characters. Example: writer* results in any word starting with "writer" (e.g., writer, writers, writer's).

Types of Websites

  • Search Engine: For finding information.

  • Online Social Network: For social interaction.

  • Informational and Research: For data and factual content.

  • Media Sharing: For photos and videos.

  • Bookmarking: For saving and organizing links.

  • News, Weather, Sports, and Mass Media: For current event updates.

  • Educational: For learning and instruction.

  • Business, Governmental, and Organizational: For official entity information.

  • Blogs: Frequently updated journals or logs.

  • Wiki and Collaboration: For collective content creation.

  • Health and Fitness: For wellness information.

  • Science: For scientific data and research.

  • Entertainment: For leisure content.

  • Banking and Finance: For managing money.

  • Travel and Tourism: For trip planning and guidance.

  • Mapping: For directions and geography.

  • Retail and Auctions: For buying and selling goods (E-commerce).

  • Careers and Employment: For job searching.

  • Portals: For aggregate entry points to other content.

  • Content Aggregation: For collecting content from various sources.

  • Website Creation and Management: Tools for building sites.

  • Web Publishing: The actual process of creating and maintaining websites.

Digital Media on the Web

  • Multimedia: Any application that combines text with various media types.

  • Graphics: Visual representations of non-text information.

    • Formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.

  • Infographics: Visual representations of data and information designed to communicate quickly, simplify complex concepts, or show patterns and trends.

  • Animation: The appearance of motion created by displaying a sequence of still images in rapid succession.

  • Audio: Includes music, speech, or any other sound. Audio files are often compressed to reduce file size and are played using a media player (e.g., Windows Media Player).

  • Video: Images displayed in motion.

  • Virtual Reality (VR): The use of computers to simulate a real or imagined environment appearing as a three-dimensional (3−D3-D) space. Users explore these worlds via touch screens or input devices.

  • Plug-ins (Add-ons): Programs that extend the capability of a browser to handle specialized content.

Other Internet Services

  • Email: The transmission of messages and files via a computer network.

    • Email Program: Allows users to create, send, receive, forward, store, print, and delete messages.

    • Email List: A group of email addresses used for mass distribution of messages, such as newsletters.

  • Internet Messaging Services: Real-time communication services that notify you when contacts are online, allowing for the exchange of messages/files or joining private chat rooms (e.g., Facebook Messenger).

  • Chat and Chat Rooms:

    • Chat: A real-time typed conversation on a computer or mobile device.

    • Chat Room: A website or application permitting simultaneous chat among many users.

  • Online Discussion: An online area, also called a discussion forum, where users have written discussions about specific subjects.

  • VoIP (Voice over IP): Technology that enables users to speak to others via their Internet connection.

  • FTP (File Transfer Protocol): An Internet standard that permits file uploading and downloading to and from other computers.

    • FTP Server: A computer that allows users to upload/download files using this protocol.

Netiquette

  • Definition: Netiquette is the code of acceptable Internet behavior that users should follow while communicating and interacting online.