1.7 ENHANCING AND TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

CHAPTER 1 The Internet and the World Wide Web

1.7 ENHANCING AND TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

When two or more computers are connected together so they can communicate with one another, they form a network. The largest computer network in the world in the Internet.

The Internet has a number of different services such as e-mail, Gopher, ftp, telnet, and Usenet news groups, but by far the most popular is the World Wide Web, or the Web.

The Web is a series of interconnected documents stored on a computer somewhere called a site or web site.

When you use your computer and a software program called a browser to visit a site on the web, your screen displays a document called a home page.

Web pages have highlighted words, buttons, or pictures that are hypertext links or links containing the address of another document. When you click a link you jump to that address.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used by the Web.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the language used to format Web pages.

Large companies usually have a person called a webmaster in charge of their site.

To use the World Wide Web you need to be connected to the Internet through a service providera company with a high-speed direct connection to the Internet.

Organizations needing a permanent Web presence are directly connected to the Internet through a service called a presence provider.

Individuals who need just temporary access to the web use dial-up access. This can be gained using a modem or other device to connect to an access provider.

To connect to the Internet over the telephone line, you need a phone connection that uses Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).

Direct service providers, such as AT&T, give you a connection to the Internet and storage space on their computers so you can use e-mail and transfer files.

Commercial on-line services such as Compu-Serve, America On-Line, or Microsoft Network can also connect you to the Internet. In addition, they also give you access to their own on-line service and e-mail.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are addresses of pages on the Web. URLs list a protocol (http), a domain name ( and/or sometimes the name of a folder and document (/new/index.html).

Search engines on the Web let you look up information using key words that might be in the document you want to find.

The index of words in a search engine is compiled by a software program called a spider, wanderer, or robot that wanders the web looking for documents.

Movies, sound and animations are sometimes sent slowly because the Internet lacks sufficient bandwidth.

Software called helper applications or plug-ins enhances a browser's capabilities.

The Web offers radio broadcasts, phone service and multimedia. Television and video are still primitive because of a lack of sufficient bandwidth.

CHAPTER 1 The Internet and the World Wide Web

1.7 ENHANCING AND TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

CHAPTER 1 The Internet and the World Wide Web

1.7 ENHANCING AND TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

  1. T F The largest network in the world is the one called the Internet.
  2. T F The most popular Internet service is the World Wide Web.
  3. T F The Internet and the World Wide Web are two names for exactly the same thing.
  4. T F To make a connection to the Internet over phone lines, you use what's called dial-up access.
  5. T F Commercial on-line services such as CompuServe, America On-Line, or Microsoft Network don't give you access to the Internet.
  6. T F Once you have clicked to display a new page, you can't back up to the page you jumped off from.
  7. T F The term surfing refers to the way you click links to move from site to site.
  8. T F Multimedia is slow over the web because your connection doesn't have enough bandwidth.
  9. T F Streaming refers to playing a movie or sound file before all of it has been transferred to your computer.
  10. T F You can hold a phone conversation over the Web.
  11. T F A number of television networks are already broadcasting live shows over the Web.
  12. T F To run any multimedia on the Web, the presentation must be transferred to your system and played there.

CHAPTER 1 The Internet and the World Wide Web

1.7 ENHANCING AND TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

CHAPTER 1 The Internet and the World Wide Web