- The Internet is a vast collection of computers, globally linked together by telephone lines, satellites and cables. A stateless entity, and currently self governing, it knows no bounds and recognises no borders.
Created by the US Government and subsequently adopted by US Universities in the late 1960's as a more efficient way to transfer data, it has now grown into the beast we see today.
With the invention of HTML and the WWW in 1989, the World Wide Web was born. This is the graphical, user friendly face that allows us all to utilise Internet technology.
It has now become a place to meet, shop, learn, play and work.
- To learn a little more, and find out what all the technical acronyms mean, check out our Web Glossary, towards the bottom of this page.
A Brief Guide To Web Pages 101:
The major difference between Web sites are between those that Do and those that Don't!
By that I mean, those pages that just show static information, and those pages that allow the viewer to interact with them.
An Interactive page may be more interesting but it is also more time consuming for the user. As time is a key factor in Internet use, this must be considered when putting a site together.
Interactive pages include games, quizzes and forms to fill in among other things. They do not necessarily have to be Multimedia pages.
A Multimedia page includes sound, video and/or animation. It is the all singing, all dancing web page that is much fun to view, but must be worth the wait for those viewing on slower connections.
To give your Web Browser the ability to view all of these wonderful sights and sounds, additional programs, known as Plug-In's (and Players) are occasionally required. Below are links to some of the most essential:
- URL - Universal Resource Locator - The Internet equivalent of an address, looks something like this; http://www.something.or.other.com.
- IP Address - Internet Protocol address - the numeric (e.g. : 123.456.789.10) address that is translated into a domain name by the DNS.
- DNS - Domain Name System - A database system that translates an IP address into a domain name.
- Domain Name - This is the last two parts of your URL which generally identifies the type of Web site you have, usually pronounced 'yourname dot something' eg; eary.com, eary.net, eary.co.uk etc.
The two parts split as follows: The part on the left is the name of the company, institution, or other organization. The part on the right identifies the highest subdomain. This can be a
country, such as .uk for the UK, .za for South Africa, or the type of organization: .com for commercial, .org for organisations, etc.
- HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language - The computer code that makes a Web page.
- FTP - File Transfer Protocol - The software that allows you to put (publish) things onto the Web (and, conversely, it also allows you to take (download) things from the Web).
- Browser - The software that allows you to look at Web Pages, most notably Netscape and Internet Explorer. Browsers turn HTML into words and pictures.
- Applet - Small program that runs autonomously of the Browser.
- Plug-In - An extra piece of Software which enhances your Browsers capabilities. Most Plug-In's provide extra multimedia support.
- Search Engine - A complicated piece of software that searches the Web for all sites published, and puts them in a directory to help you find what you are looking for.
- Meta Tag - A line of HTML code that allows a search engine to find and identify your Web page and the content therein.
- ISP - Internet Service Provider - The people who you pay a tenner to each month who allow you telephone access to the Web.
- GIF's and JPEG's (JPG) - Two of the most popular graphic file formats used on the Web. GIF files can also be animated.
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