· Web viewInternet Basics THE WORLD WIDE WEB When most people think of the Internet, the first...

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THE WORLD WIDE WEB 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 websites connected by hyperlinks (or "links"). Websites are stored on servers, computers used strictly to store and manage data, on the Internet, so the World Wide Web is a part of the Internet. The internet and World Wide Web are used for a variety of tasks: Email Social Networking Social Bookmarking Blogging Podcasting Online chat News Feeds VoIP Wikis Email (short for "electronic mail") is a system for sending and receiving messages online. Many email services include extra features such as calendars, task lists, instant messaging, web feeds, and news headlines. Examples of Email providers: Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.com, and AOL. Blog is short for "web log." It's a type of web site that is usually updated frequently on a schedule. The topics covered can range from news articles to product reviews, how-to instructions to random musings. Some sites, such as blogger.com, allow you to create and edit your own blog for free. Examples of Blog providers: Wordpress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and Ghost. Social Networking refers to online services that allow people to interact with each other and stay connected friends and family around the world. Some social networking sites have a more specific purpose. LinkedIn, for example, focuses on career networking. Catster, on the other hand, was designed specifically for cat owners. Examples of Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google Plus+. Social Bookmarking allows users all over the internet to save and share interesting sites. Some social bookmarking sites are mainly used to share photos that people have found around the web. Examples: Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, and Delicious. 1 Last Edit: 11/27/2015 Internet Basics Some providers offer more than one service. Gmail, for instance, allows you to receive News Feeds, Online

Transcript of  · Web viewInternet Basics THE WORLD WIDE WEB When most people think of the Internet, the first...

Page 1:  · Web viewInternet Basics THE WORLD WIDE WEB When most people think of the Internet, the first thing they think about is the World Wide Web. Nowadays, the terms "Internet" and "World

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

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 websites connected by hyperlinks (or "links"). Websites are stored on servers, computers used strictly to store and manage data, on the Internet, so the World Wide Web is a part of the Internet.

The internet and World Wide Web are used for a variety of tasks:

Email Social

Networking

Social Bookmarking

Blogging

Podcasting Online chat News Feeds

VoIP Wikis

Email (short for "electronic mail") is a system for sending and receiving messages online. Many email services include extra features such as calendars, task lists, instant messaging, web feeds, and news headlines. Examples of Email providers: Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.com, and AOL.

Blog is short for "web log." It's a type of web site that is usually updated frequently on a schedule. The topics covered can range from news articles to product reviews, how-to instructions to random musings. Some sites, such as blogger.com, allow you to create and edit your own blog for free.Examples of Blog providers: Wordpress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and Ghost.

Social Networking refers to online services that allow people to interact with each other and stay connected friends and family around the world. Some social networking sites have a more specific purpose. LinkedIn, for example, focuses on career networking. Catster, on the other hand, was designed specifically for cat owners. Examples of Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google Plus+.

Social Bookmarking allows users all over the internet to save and share interesting sites. Some social bookmarking sites are mainly used to share photos that people have found around the web.  Examples: Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, and Delicious.

With a podcast, you can subscribe to a series of audio or video files that will automatically be downloaded to your computer. The files can then be played on the computer or an mp3 player. A podcast is basically a web feed for media. Often they can also be manually downloaded from an archive website. Examples of Podcasts hosts or Platforms: SWELL, SoundCloud, Pod Wrangler, and TuneIn.

If you watch a movie online or listen to iTunes radio, it's called streaming media, which means it plays while downloading so you don't have to wait for it to download first. The media starts downloading a little bit before it starts playing (called "buffering") so that it can play more smoothly.Examples of Streaming Media hosts: YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

A wiki is a type of website that allows content to be edited or created by anyone. This allows content to stay up to date and (ideally) allows for errors to be found and corrected.Examples: Wikipedia, wikiHow, WikiEducator, and WikiQuote.

Online chat is a system that allows users to communicate in real time. Unlike e-mail, all messages show up immediately in the same window, which makes conversations quicker and easier. Instant messaging is a type of chat where you communicate with a specific person instead of an entire chat room. Examples of Chat Programs: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Google Talk, Skype, TeamSpeak (TS).

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Internet Basics

Some providers offer more than one service. Gmail, for

instance, allows you to receive News Feeds, Online Chat, and

VoIP as well as email.

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A Web Feed, also known as a News Feed, is a way to receive updates from your favorite web sites and blogs. Instead of visiting many different sites to check for updates, you can read their feeds all in one place on a feed reader. Two common feed formats are RSS and Atom. Sites that have web feeds will usually include the orange feed icon.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), also known as internet telephone, allows a user to have telephone service through an internet connection. Some people find that they can save money by using VoIP instead of purchasing a separate telephone service. Examples of VoIP Programs: Skype, Google Hangouts, and TeamSpeak.

WEB BROWSERS

A web browser is the tool you use to access the World Wide Web and many of the services available on it. In order to get the most out of the Web, it's important to understand the various features of a browser.

Today, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are among the most popular web browsers. Other browsers include Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and Tor. Most Microsoft Windows computers come with Explorer already installed. Each one has its own look and feel, but they have the same goal: to display webpages correctly and attractively. For most webpages, any well-known browser will work.

NAVIGATION

Most of the time, you will get to a different page by clicking on a link. A link can be text 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 like this: link . A link may lead to another page within the same website, or it could lead to a completely different website. Links might also lead to a document, video, or any other type of stored file. If you're not sure if something's a link, hover the mouse over it. The pointer should change to a pointing hand shape.

Sometimes after you click on a link, you might want to go back to the previous page. You can do this using your browser's Back button. Once you've pressed the Back button, you can press the Forward button to follow the link again.

When you use the Back and Forward buttons, your browser may use its web cache to display the page. The web cache stores recently viewed webpages so they don't need to be downloaded again. This is good because it speeds up your web browsing, but sometimes you want to see the most up-to-date information on the page. You can use the Refresh button (sometimes also called Reload) to tell the browser to download the page again.

There are some instances when you don't want to use the navigation buttons. For example, with some online stores you shouldn't refresh the page or use the back button. Refreshing after purchasing an item could cause you to purchase the item twice and the back button may give you an error message due to the site’s inability to recreate certain temporarily generated pages because they rely on specific information the site has already discarded.

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GoogleChrome

MozillaFirefox

InternetExplorer

Safari Opera Tor

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URL / WEB ADDRESS

All webpages have a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL, also known as the web address, tells the browser exactly where to find the webpage. When multiple pages exist at the same URL, they are called a website. However, each URL must have something added to it to make it unique. Think of websites like apartment buildings. Each apartment has its own letter or number designation that is added to the street address. Depending on the type of page and the structure of the website the extra piece may be placed before or after the main address. Browsers show the web address of the page you are currently viewing at the top.

Looking at the URL can play an important part in deciding which of your results you want to take a closer look at. The letters before or after the main address part of the URL, separated from it by a dot, are called the extension or top level domain and they can tell you a little about the site.

There are two main types of extensions: two letter country codes like .uk and three letter generics like .com. These extensions tell you either the origin or the general purpose of a site. New extensions are being considered and added all the time, but here is a list of several of the more common ones.

.com – Intended for commercial sites, but not restricted.

.edu – Restricted for use by post-secondary educational institutions like colleges and universities only.

.gov – Restricted for use by the U.S. government only.

.mil – Restricted for use by the U.S. military only.

.org – Intended for non-profit organizations, but not restricted.

A few newer examples are: .info, .biz, .jobs, .travel, .name, .pro, and .museum.

FINDING INFORMATION ONLINE

The most common way to find information online is with a search engine. All you have to do is type in a few words, and the search engine will give you a list of results you can click on. There are many different search engines you can use, but Google is one of the most popular ones. Other search engines include Yahoo, Bing, Ask, WebCrawler, and Dogpile.

Some browsers have a built-in search bar for performing web searches. However, many browsers have combined the address bar and the search bar. You can type web addresses or search terms into the bar.

The better you can describe what you are looking for, the more accurate your list of results will be. However, the first terms you use to describe something may not always be the ones other people have used to talk about it. Be prepared to try synonyms and related terms if your first search does not seem to be giving you promising results.

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MainAddress

Page designation

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Practice: 1. Begin with a one-word search like dog or cat and see how many results you get. 2. Now try adding other terms like spotted or fluffy and watch how dramatically the number of results can

change. 3. You can also narrow results down by type using words like picture, video, map or store. Some search

engines will even offer premade categories along the top or left part of the page.

Occasionally you may want to compare or combine information from different webpages. One of the best ways to do this is by opening them in separate windows or tabs. Having all the pages open at once makes it much easier to switch back and forth between them. Right click over the link and select either Open link in new tab or Open link in new window from the right click menu. They should be in the top few options. Each tab can be closed individually by using the little X built into it.

Practice:1. Choose 2 of your results and right click on them. Select Open Link in New Tab from the menu.2. Switch between the different open tabs by clicking on their names at the top of the browser. Note the

little X that appears to the right of the name. 3. Try dragging the tabs into different orders. This is done by hovering your mouse over the tab name and

holding down the left mouse button. Keeping the left button pressed down, move the mouse slowly to the left or right.

ADDING BOOKMARKS

Sometimes, when you find a page you like, you want an easy way to come back to it later. Bookmarks, or Favorites, are the main method used by browsers to create lists of webpages you want to keep track of. The Bookmark button is usually in the shape of a star or heart. Each browser will have a slightly different way of creating and organizing bookmarks.

Most browsers will provide you with some way to group or categorize your bookmarks. Often you will have the option to place them in folders or on a ‘Bookmark bar’ that will be visible along the top of your browser. Old bookmarks you no longer need can be deleted at any time. The options for your bookmarks are usually located right beside the bookmark button or sometimes even built into it. Look for a menu option to edit or organize your bookmarks.

Practice: 1. Choose 2 webpages from your list of results and right click on them to open them in separate tabs. 2. Locate and click your favorite button while looking at each page. You need to be looking at a page in

order to use the Favorite button on it. 3. Open your Favorite menu and find the sites you just added.

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HELP! MY INTERNET CONNECTION WON’T WORK: BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING

Direct Connect Internet Icons Wireless Internet Connection Icons

Connected

Not Connected

Connection Error

The very first step is always to check your internet connection icon and make sure you are still connected. If you are using a laptop, you may also have a physical switch or keyboard button to turn your connection on and off. If you are using a plug or cable to connect then make sure it is clean and firmly attached.

If the problem is not a lack of physical connection, then you can ask the computer itself to try and repair the problem. You can access the Control Panel from the Start Menu and seek out either Network and Internet or Network and Sharing Center. From there you can view the status of the network connection and troubleshoot.

You can also right click over the Internet Connection Icon and select one of the options on the menu. There is often a specific option for troubleshooting.

If you are connecting from home instead of from a public location, it is possible to manually reset your connection to clear out errors. This is usually accomplished by unplugging the power cord of your connection hardware, usually a router or modem, for several minutes and then plugging it back in.

If none of these methods are able to fix the problem, it is best to contact your internet service provider.

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A few more sites that will help you hone your internet prowess.

Twenty Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/en-US/homeA little bit of history, a little bit of innovation, and a lot of explanations that actually make sense.

A Google a Daywww.agoogleaday.comA cross between a scavenger hunt and Jeopardy. Great for improving advanced search skills.

The Internet Crime Complaint Centerwww.ic3.gov/media/default.aspx Learn about the latest online dangers or report something suspicious you’ve encountered online.

15 Things Journalists (And Everyone) Need To Know About Digital Securityhttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/222415/15-things-journalists-and-everyone-really-need-to-know-about-digital-security/Good general security information and suggestions.

Self-EvaluationEvaluate your abilities to perform the following tasks. Please ask your instructor to clarify any confusing

concepts.

Topic very clear clear a little confused very confusedOpening a web

browserTyping a URL

(web address) into the address barUsing a search

engine like Google to find information

on the webRefining a search

using content types and filters

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Modem

Router

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IMPORTANT:

Before moving onto the next class,you should answer “very clear” or “clear” to most of the above.

If you need further help with these topics,consider taking the class again after practicing your skills independently.

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