Internet 101- Outline:
- Basics[5 minutes]
- Number of Users
There are a lot of people using the internet to find a lot of things but the concept of what the internet is, how it works and what we can find there is very complex so that is what we are going to take a closer look at this morning. - What is the Internet?
What is the Internet? The Internet is a network of computers connected to each other all over the world in order to exchange information. The Internet is huge. Some estimates indicate that there are over 1 billion sites presently on the Internet, however, even with all of these sites, not everything can be found on the Internet. There is no one person or organization in charge of the Internet. As a result of this, anyone can put a file anywhere on the Internet. The Internet is also extremely disorganized. And these are all important things to remember as we explore the internet and use it in our daily lives. The internet is constantly changing and even though I checked all of these links yesterday before I left work, someone may have changed them between now and then. I can’t possibly tell you EVERYTHING you can know about the internet but I’m going to try to give you a good place to start. - Internet Basics [15 minutes]
We are going to take a look at some general internet basics first including how we access the internet, basic terms and general structure of both the internet and individual websites. - Computer Parts
First, you need a computer. And even thought that isn’t an entirely true statement, we are going to start there. You have your monitor, keyboard, mouse and CPU. In order to connect to the internet, you also need to make sure that you have a modem. - Modems
A modem is required for a computer to transmit information. When the internet first started, information was transmitted via phone lines with an external modem. Now, most computers have a modem already installed internally but this picture shows a modem that is outside of the computer so that you can visualize the process. Additionally, most users now access the internet through cable lines rather than telephone lines. The modem establishes a connection between the computer and the Internet. You computer uses the modem to talk to your Internet Service Provider. - ISPs
All internet users must have an ISP (Internet Service Provider), which is an agency that provides a connection to the Internet, usually for a monthly fee. Common ISPs in Columbus are Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and ATT (either U-Verse or DSL). Internet service providersare the links between you and the large network we call the Internet, so by paying a fee they can give you access to their infrastructure and connect you to other computers. What you are really paying for is for the usage of their hardware: their cables, computers, routers, modems, the workers who maintain them and the real estate that is required to hold that hardware. - Internet Connections
There are four main types of internet connections- - Dial up: Slower than other internet connection types; connects through existing phone lines using a dial up modem; generally the cheapest option, but requires phone service; must ‘dial up’ to connect to the internet and disconnect when done; cannot use internet and phone at the same time (unless you have multiple phone lines).
- DSL: Much faster than dial-up; connects though phone lines but does not necessarily require phone service; “always on’- does not require dialing up; internet and phone can be used at the same time; unavailable in many locations even where there are phone lines.
- Cable: Much faster than dial-up, can be faster than DSL; uses cable connection but does not necessarily require a cable TV subscription; ‘Always on’- does not require dialing up; only available where cable is available.
- Satellite: Faster than dial-up but data is delayed so it is not good for real-time applications like gaming and videoconferencing; connects via satellites orbiting the earth; can be affected by rain or snow; does not require phone or cable lines, can be used almost anywhere in the world.
- WWW v. Internet
When most people think of the Internet, the first thing they think about is the World Wide Web. Nowadays, the terms "Internet" and "World Wide Web" are often used interchangeably—but they're actually not the same thing. The Internet is the physical network of computers all over the world. The World Wide Web is a virtual network of web sites connected by hyperlinks (or "links"). Web sites are stored on servers on the Internet, so the World Wide Web is a part of the Internet. - URL
To get to a web page, you can type the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in a browser. The URL, also known as the web address, tells the browser exactly where to find the page. However, most of the time, people get to a web page by following a link from a different page or by searching for the page with a search engine. - URL Makeup
URLs are very important- and they are made up of several different parts. First, most URLs start with either or This stands for ‘hypertext transfer protocol’ which was very important to know at the beginning of the internet but now, not so much. The important part to remember is that if the address starts with the site is secure. You will probably want to look for this ‘s’ on any banking sites or sites which store personal information like Facebook or email accounts. Next, most (but not all) addresses contain www. This stands for World Wide Web. This is an example of a website that does not start with www. This is another important piece from the beginning of the web but more sites now are dropping the www. Then, we get to the meat of the address. In this example, ‘Ohio’ is the domain name and in Internet Explorer, the domain name and domain are black while the rest of the URL is grayed out. This is a security feature that can help you to notice if anything is wrong or misspelled in the domain. Then we have the domain. There are several important domains that you need to remember. In the example here, the domain is ‘.gov’. Other examples of domains are .com, .edu, and .org. ‘.com’ will take you to a commercial site. The domain can also represent the country that the website is based in- for example .uk, .ca, or .au. After the domain, you will see a series of back slashes [/] separating the parts of the rest of the address. From here on, it is helpful to think of a URL as a street address- as you move from left to right across the address, it gets more and more specific- country, state, city, street. This is important because if you try a link that doesn’t work, you can always erase the last part of the link to try and find the website you are looking for. - Good v. Bad URLs
You can tell a lot about a website from a URL. For example, which one of these websites would you want to use? (i.e. v. Yes, you would want to use the whitehouse.gov address- do NOT go to whitehouse.com! However, you need to be aware that you can’t always trust what you see. A good example of this is despite the .org address, this organization is a white supremacy organization. Spot the difference: ohio.edu, ohio.gov, ohio.com. Now sometimes, you can assume a web address- for example the website for Macy’s is macys.com and the website for OhioState is osu.edu. BUT please, don’t always assume- a good example of this is the website for Dick’s Sporting Goods- which of these websites is correct? Again, do NOT go to dicks.com! - URL Shorteners
Now there are some URLs that are very easy to remember- for example, Simple. However, there are others like this one from the Ohio Department of Commerce that are just strings of numbers or random letters or very very long. In those cases, there are websites which create a shortened URL. - Bit.ly & tinyurl
These types of URLs are becoming more and more common and there are benefits and negatives to these shortened URLs- the benefit is that you don’t have to type in this long string of characters to get to this website. The negative is that you can’t see who created this website or where you are going to end up. Two of the most common companies that offer this URL shortening service are bit.ly and tinyurl. - 404 Error
Some things to remember about URLs: You have to type these addresses exactly- otherwise you will get what is called a 404 error. 404 errors can also occur if the computer you are trying to contact is temporarily busy or if the address is out of date. And this exemplifies two of the main characteristics of the internet — it is massive and dynamic. Often the dynamic quality of the Web can be frustrating. You may have a particular site that you need to find or return to. You carefully type in the URL and click Go. There is a message that appears, "Page Not Found." The most common reason for a Page Not Found error is a typo, so first check the address that you have typed to make sure that it is a valid address with no spaces or mistakes. Occasionally, you will get a Page Not Found error simply because of a glitch in the system. Retry the address again. If you still get an error, try again later. If, after several tries, Page Not Found still appears, the page may have been removed from the Internet or moved to a new location making it inaccessible. Most 404 errors will look like the one above but occasionally, some sites like to have a little fun with the error message. - Links
Now let’s talk about the other way to get to a website besides just typing in a URL. Most of the time, you will get to a different page by clicking on a link. A link can be text, button or an image, and it's usually formatted to stand out so you know to click on it. Many text links are blue, and they may also be underlined. For example, this is a link. It will open a web page in a new window, and you can close it to come back to this page. A link may lead to another web page, or it could lead to a document, video, or any other type of file. If you're not sure if something's a link, hover the mouse over it. The pointer should change to a hand symbol. Also, if you aren’t sure where a link goes, it can be a good idea to check before you click- You can check by hovering over the link and checking the lower left corner of IE- it will show the web address you would be going to by clicking the link. - Website Structure
Most websites will follow a basic structure. When we think about a structure like this, remember the back slashes in the URL- each of these levels usually represents another slash in the address. - Browsers
Let’s talk about browsers- a Browser is used to view websites. It is software that allows for displaying information on the Internet. Most new computers already come with a Browser installed. There are 3 major browsers to be aware of: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome. Are there any Mac or iPhone users? If you have an Apple device, your pre-installed browser will be called Safari and will look like the compass icon. - What is a Browser?
But as I’m going to show you, many people don’t know what a browser is or does. VIDEO As you can see from this video, you are already going to be ahead of many people in this country after this class. - Internet Explorer
The default browser on most Windows computers is Internet Explorer. We are going to look at IE in great detail in the next section so let’s move on to the next browser. - Firefox
You can also use Firefox to view websites. As you can see, it looks very similar to IE. The biggest difference is that there are fewer menus- those can all be accessed using the orange Firefox dropdown menu to access the most common menu items. - Chrome
The final browser I want to introduce is called Chrome and it is from Google. Again, it looks very similar to Firefox and you can access the menus using the tool icon in the upper right corner. - Internet Basics Activity
Now that we know a few basics, let’s do a quick quiz: Type this URL into your address bars and hit enter. Then see if you can answer the questions on that page.
Hit end of section at 9:40 - Browser Basics[15 minutes]
I said that we were going to take a closer look at Internet Explorer and this is it. We are going to look at each of the parts of the browser window and what they do- - Browser Window
This is what you see when you start IE. Beginning at the very top left, you will see a title message from the website you are on- in this case ‘Welcome to Ohio.gov’ and a reminder that you are using Internet Explorer. - Navigation- Back & Forward
Moving down, the first icons we come to are the ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ Navigation Buttons. You will notice that right now the buttons are sort of muted. This is because we haven’t gone anywhere yet. Once have gone to a couple of webpages and moved back, those buttons will become active. You can use these buttons to return to a page you have been recently to move forward in your browsing history. You can also use the down arrow to see a list of all of your recently visited sites. The final link under the down arrow will take you to your complete history- we will look at the history feature in detail a little later. - Address Bar
Next, is the address bar- this is where you will enter your URL. While we have already talked a bit about URLs, I want to show a neat feature of IE and all of the browsers. When you start typing, the address bar will suggest websites for you based on websites you have visited recently or where it thinks you want to go. You can continue to type your URL or you can use your mouse (or the arrow and return key) to select a site from the list provided. If you choose to finish typing your URL, simply hit enter to be taken to the website. You can also view a list of your recently viewed or popular websites by clicking the dropdown arrow at the far left side of the address bar. - Navigation- Refresh & Stop
To the right of the address bar, we have the reload and stop buttons. The ‘STOP’ button stops the current web page from loading- this is very useful when a page is slow. The ‘REFRESH’ button reloads the current web page. Select this to view an updated version of the current page- this is useful on news sites that change frequently (or when impatiently awaiting an email). - Search Box
Beside the reload and stop buttons, you will find the search bar. Most browsers have a built-in search bar, located to the right of the address bar. To do a search, just type what you're looking for (known as the search terms) in the search bar, and then press Enter or click the magnifying glass button. Your browser will then take you to the search engine's web site to show you the search results, which is a list of all of the web sites that contain your search terms. Many browsers allow you to add to or change the search engines used by the search bar. You can do this by selecting the drop down arrow next to the magnifying glass button. On this menu you can change your default search engine or add additional search engines by clicking the ‘Find More Providers…’ option. - Favorite Bar
Moving down the page, you will see the menu bar. We are going to skip that for now and go into more detail about each of the menus later. So we are going to continue down and look at the ‘Favorites Bar’. This should be used for sites that you go to all of the time. - Adding to Favorite Bar
If you have a page that you browse quite often, such as email, news or weather sites, then you may want to add it to your Favorites Bar. Simply click the Add to Favorites Bar button (Yellow star with green arrow) and the page will automatically be added. - Favorites & History
If you've found a page you'd like to go back to later, you can add it to your Bookmarks (sometimes called Favorites). Bookmarks make it easier to find a page later on. Instead of having to remember the exact web address, you can just scroll through your bookmarks until you see the name of the page. Suppose you visited a page a few days ago but forgot to bookmark it. You can find the page again by using your history, which is a list of web sites you've visited. Usually, pages will stay in the history for a certain number of days. To maintain privacy, you can delete your history at any time. - Deleting History