UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNET – IN SIMPLE TERMS

 

 

What Is the Internet?

 

The Internet is a “catch all” phrase that really means a collection of computers all over the world that are connected (generally) by telephone lines.  The Internet allows you to access “web” sites provided by companies and people from all walks of life.  The term web site applies to the World Wide Web (“web” for short).  The Internet evolved from initial research starting with ARPANET in 1962.

 

NOTE: To learn more about the history of the Internet, click on the following link:

 

http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/historical.html

 

The Internet connects personal computers (PCs), Macintosh computers, mainframe and other computers running under different operating environments that may include all of the flavors of Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh OS or a number of diverse mainframe computers. Normally these disparate computers cannot “talk” to each other without great difficulty but standards have been set that permit these computers to send computer information over the Internet to enable all people to read and acknowledge computer data (e-mails and the like).

 

Your computer may be connected to the Internet by a dial-up phone line, cable modem, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), wireless (Wi-Fi or Wireless Fidelity) or satellite.  With the recent innovations in wireless technology, you can even connect using a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or handhelds that let you send and receive e-mails and pictures without being directly hooked up to a “desktop” computer. 

 

Dial-Up, Cable Modem and DSL Connections

 

The difference between a dial-up phone line, cable modem, DSL or wireless is mainly the speed of sending or receiving the desired information.  For the moment let’s assume you are connected to the Internet by a dial-up connection.  When you first set up your service, you were offered one or more telephone numbers that permit you to connect to the Internet.  Generally, you choose the number that cost the least, insofar as the telephone company rates for the connection between your computer and that number.  You don’t want a number in a different area code, as you will incur a toll charge or even worse a long distance charge. Remember, it’s just like making a phone call each time you access the Internet (as far as telephone company charges).  As soon as you have completed your work with the Internet, you need to disconnect the dial-up line to minimize the costs (In other words, hang up the phone).

 

If you have a cable modem, instead of a phone call, a signal is sent to a computer at the cable companies’ facility requesting Internet access.  If you have a DSL modem, you are attached to the Internet as soon as you click on the icon on your desktop provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).  The major advantage of the cable modem and DSL is that once you are connected, you may stay connected as it makes no difference in your bill.

 

Using these connection types, they all work about the same.  Once you have made the connection either through a dial-up line, cable/DSL modem or wireless transmittal, a signal is sent to a larger computer called a server.  This centralized server, which accomplishes the actual connection to the Internet, may accommodate the traffic from a few hundred to a many thousands of computers just like yours. The server recognizes the name and location of your computer and then forwards your request across the Internet.

 

Creating a Web Site

 

Let’s say you want to create a web site for your company.  (If you are not interested in creating a web site, proceed to How the Internet Works).

 

1.      Obtain a Unique Domain Name

 

First you need to obtain a unique domain name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator).  By unique, we mean that the domain name may not exist anywhere else in the world.  The domain name, such as www.anyname.com, consists of the following parts:

 

www                = World Wide Web (product of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C))

anyname           = your chosen domain name

com                  = extension

 

www is the defacto standard used in the industry.  Your chosen domain name in combination with the extension MUST BE UNIQUE, i.e., anyname.com.  When the Internet was initially flourishing, there were only a few extensions such as .com (commercial) or .org (organization) or .edu (education) available.  Today there about a dozen extensions available including .biz (business), .info (information) and .us (United States).

 

A number of companies, such as Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com), can authorize the creation of a new domain name generally for $20 to $40 per year.  Once you register your domain name with one of these companies, you can proceed to the next step.

 

2.      Obtain an Internet Service Provider (ISP)

 

Unfortunately, you can’t simply connect your own computer to the Internet.  It can be a very complex process. That’s why Internet Service Providers (ISPs) exist.   You see the ads on TV all of the time for Verizon Online, Optimum Online, Earthlink, and many others.  Not only can you purchase basic connectivity to the Internet for your computer, you can also obtain web-hosting capabilities from these companies.  There are many companies that offer web hosting services.  Simply search the Internet for “ISP” or “Internet Service Providers”.

 

Various plans are available from these vendors ranging generally from $6.99 to $39.95 per month.  The options that exist in these plans consist of:

 

·         The total disk space you need to support your endeavors (measured in MBs or Megabytes)

·         The number of domain and subdomain names (will you want to have more than one web site for your company?)

·         E-mail capabilities

·         Tools that let you quickly build your own web sites or provide statistical data on the number of hits on your site on a daily basis.

 

3.   Creating A Web Site

 

The majority of web sites are created using programming tools called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and JavaScript or from a number of software packages like Microsoft FrontPage which lets you create the web site in a MS Word like format.  If you are not a programmer you do now want to start learning about it now.  Your time is more valuable concentrating on your own business. This is the point where you call in the experts, companies such as Small Business Consulting, who specialize in creating web sites.

 

These programming languages let you translate your ideas for content and web page appearance into reality.  Not only can you display text and graphics, you can add special effects such as animations, and the ability to take orders from customers directly over the web.  The costs to develop a web site can range from a few thousand dollars on up to $2 or $3 million depending on complexity.

 

How the Internet Works

 

One of the great difficulties with finding the information you desire is that there are literally billions of sources of information or web sites available on the Internet.  This is where “search engines” come into play, and there are hundreds of search engines vying for your business.   The search engines let you type in a word or a phrase.  The search engine will reveal the results of the search in the form of a total number of “hits” and then list the first 10 or 20 items it found in a list.  Unfortunately, however, rarely do the searches return exactly the information you are looking for unless your word or phrase is very precise, such as “AO Filar Micrometer” (enclosed in parentheses).  In this specific case, the search engines will return only a small list of candidates. 

 

Using A Search Engine

 

One of the most popular search engines is Google. Other search engines include AOL, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc.  Your own experiences with each search engine will dictate your preference for future searches.

 

To start an example search, type www.google.com in the address box at the top of the window.  Press the Enter key and the Google window will open.  It makes no difference whether you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, AOL or Netscape Navigator.  They all work in essentially the same way.

 

Let’s type in a phrase that we know will return a large list of potential “hits.”  Type in “legal firms” and press the Enter key.

 

Google will search the entire Internet looking for web sites that have identified “tags” with the phrase “legal firms.”  Whenever a web site is created, the author creates META TAGS (as mentioned above) that identify the types of information contained within that web site, such as “legal firm”, “lawyers”, “litigation”, “law suits”, and the like.

 

Displaying the Results of the Search

 

Goggle will then display the results of the search consisting of the number of hits and key information about the first 10, 20, etc. web sites that it found.

 

In this specific search, Google found 2,170,000 hits (note that statistic on the right side of the blue bar).

 

You may now scroll down through the first 10 sites it displayed and then continue the process by clicking on the Next button.

 

Refining the Search

 

Since it would take hours if not days to hopefully find the exact information you desire, Goggle has a feature that allows you to refine the results of the search. 

 

When you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a link entitled “Search within results”.  Click on that link and a new window will open wherein you can type in an additional word or phrase.  Let’s type in “New Jersey” and press the Enter key.

 

 

 

The new search reveals that the number of hits has been reduced to 408,000.  You can continue this same process by adding words or phrases until you have narrowed down your choices to a manageable number.

 

Unfortunately, this process can in itself be very time-consuming but much less so than searching through a list of 2,100,000 web sites.  Until better mechanisms are created to “zero” in on your target, for now this is the best alternative to find specific information.

 

Continue Learning About the Internet

 

This tutorial provided the basic essentials about the Internet.  You can obtain additional information about the Internet from many books that are published on the subject or from the Internet itself by typing “Internet” into any search engine, and then narrowing your search by using the techniques illustrated above.