Internet Basics IFulton County Public LibraryMobile Digital Media Lab

Basic Concepts

What is the Internet? A network of computers around the world,

used to share ideas and information What is it used for?

Finding information Sharing information Cat pictures :)

What is “information”? Any file on your computer

Why Internet? Free and Open (relatively speaking) Constantly Changing/Updating Communication Tool-

eMail, Instant Messaging (IM)/Chat, VoIP, Blogs Entertainment Case by case basis:

Does the benefit outweigh the cost?

Internet: Diversion or Tool? Some people just use the web for fun Others make their living on the web Others still buy things online People use it to connect to others, to

share ideas/work together The Internet is everywhere!

Not just home PCs; laptops, cell phones, tablets, other portable devices

Web browsers What is a web browser?

A web browser is a computer program which allows you to view web pages located on other peoples’ computers/servers

Ex.: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome How does the internet work?

A person creates a web site and shares it on their computer

Another person (you) types the address of that website into the address bar of their web browser

The web browser reads & displays the web page

History of Internet A (brief) History-

1950’s - a message was sent from a computer at UCLA to a 2nd computer at Stanford.

Early 1960s - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) [limited to military sites and universities]

Late 70’s Early 80’s - BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) which were the precursor to modern Forums websites

Dec. 1974 - “Internet” is coined as shortening of “internetworking”

1982 - Domain Name Servers are created, allowing for “.com” names instead of strings of numbers

1986 - NSFNET sets up the first 56k (“modern” dialup) internet 1989 - Europe’s internal internet goes global 1989 - CompuServe is first to offer consumer internet

History of Internet 2 Modern History-

1989 – AOL offers largest “walled garden” internet service 1989 - “The World”: first commercial dialup 1990 - The outdated ARPANET is decommisioned 1991 - WorldWideWeb: world’s first web browser 1993 - Mosaic: first browser to display images on webpages! 1994 - Netscape Navigator (from the creators of Mosaic) 1995 - Internet Explorer (a clone of Mosaic) 1996 – Opera web browser 1998 - “Mozilla open source project” allows for new browsers 2003 – Safari: Apple’s web browser 2004 – Mozilla Firefox 2008 - Google Chrome

Parts of the internet/browser…Address Bar Tab(s)

Site Index

Menu Bar

Scroll Bar

Zoom

Exit

SettingsFavorites

Home Page

Text links underlined

Pictures / buttons often “clickable”

Favorites Shortcuts to websites Also called “bookmarks” Remember site addresses for you in

browser Can be transferred to other browsers People are creatures of habit

Browsers remember where you have been for you to make it easier next time!

History In “View” menu, under “Explorer

Bars” Remembers where you have been

today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year, etc…

Useful for remembering sites you’ve recently visited.

The World Wide Web, summary The internet is not to be feared. If harnessed properly, one can make

it work for and not against us… Practice makes perfect It is your portal to information and

like the public library, it is free and open to all…