pcbasics2 handout.doc

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Basic Computer Skills ClassMaterials

Class 2: PC Basics 2

What is the Internet? What is the Web? What does online mean?

The Internet is a vast collection of connected computer networks that usethe Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of computernetworks which includes millions of private, public, academic, business,and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by abroad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. Thebackbone of the Internet is a collection of connected telephone lines, fiberoptic cables, and satellites that span the world. Data travels along thisbackbone. The Internet carries a huge amount of information resources and

services, including the inter-linked HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure tosupport electronic mail (e-mail).

The Internet began in the late 1960s as a project called ARPANET,sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department. Over time, the Internetexpanded to include other government agencies, universities, researchlabs, businesses, and individuals. No one owns the Internet itself, thoughpeople and organizations own individual pieces, such as the computers(called servers) and the infrastructure, such as communication lines. TheInternet is overseen by the WC3, a non-profit organization whose job is to

standardize protocols and make sure everything flows smoothly.

The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly knownas The Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents contained onthe Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that maycontain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate betweenthem by using hyperlinks. Using the Internet, you can read the latest news,do research, shop, communicate with others, listen to music, play games,watch TV and movies, and access a wide variety of information.

To get online you need three things: a PC with an Internet card or capable

of connecting to the Internet, an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and amodem (usually supplied by the ISP). An ISP could be your phone or cablecompany, or AOL, or another company which, for a fee, provides you with aconnection to the Internet. Digital subscriber line (DSL) telephone services,television cable hookups, and satellite dishes all provide broadbandconnections to the Internet. The DSL connection resembles a telephone line,whereas the cable and satellite connections use television cable. These

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connections are always on, so all you need to do to access the Internet is toturn your computer on.

World Wide Web Basics

To work effectively on the Internet, it is helpful to understand a few terms:

Web Page: World Wide Web information is presented on Web pages thatyou view using a Web browser program, such as Internet Explorer. Each Webpage can combine text with images, sounds, music and even videos topresent information on a particular subject. The Web consists of billions ofpages covering almost every imaginable topic.

Web Site: A Web site is a collection of Web pages associated with aparticular person, business, government, school or organization. Some Web

sites deal with only a single topic, but most sites contain pages on a variety

of topics.

Web Server: Web sites are stored on Web servers, which are special

computers connected around the world to make Web pages available forpeople to browse. A Web server is usually a powerful computer capable of

handling thousands of site visitors at a time. The largest Web sites are run byserver farms, which are networks that may contain dozens or even hundreds

of servers.

Hyperlinks/Links: A hyperlink, usually called a link, is an interactive

connection to another location on the Web. A link takes you to anotherlocation on the current page, to another page onthe same site, or to a page

on another Web site. Hyperlinks are the main method of navigation on the

World Wide Web. Links can appear as text or images. A text link is often

underlined or has a different color from the regular text on the page.Typically, the mouse pointer changes to a hand when positioned over a link.

When you click a link your Web browser loads the page associated with thelink.

Web Address: Every Web site and Web page has its own Web address thatuniquely identifies the page. This address is called the Uniform Resource

Locator, or URL. If you know the address of a page, you can type thataddress into your Web browser to view the page. The URL of a Web site or

page is composed of three basic parts: the transfer method(usually http,

or Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the Web site domain name, which is thedirectory where the Web page is located on the Web server, and the Web

page filename.

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Web Browser: A Web browser is a software program you use to view Webpages. Browsers download and display the Web pages to you by"translating" the HTML-encoded files into the text, images, sounds, andother features you see. Browsers work in similar ways, but some are fasterand/or more secure than Internet Explorer, have additional features and

offer more opportunities for customization, such as add-ons, widgets,appearance of tool bar, personalization, etc. Internet Explorer usuallycomes pre-loaded on most computers which use the Windows operatingsystem, but you can download other Web browsers, such asMozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, for free.

This image, which shows the main page of the Googlesearch engine web

site, as shown through theInternet Explorer (IE) browser, will help youto identify common Web Browser features:

Open your browser and locate the

following:

Address Bar

Navigation Buttons,

Search Box

Favorites Button

Link

Status Bar

Browser Tabs (hint: it youhave more than one open, it will

be easier to locate)

Address Bar: this text box shows the address of the displayed Web page.

You can also use the address bar to type the address of a Web page you wantto visit.

Navigation Buttons: each Web browser has navigation buttons that enable

you to move back and forth through recently visited web pages.

Search Box: use the Search box to find web sites or web pages.

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Favorites Button: Called Favorites or Favorites Center by Internet Explore,this button is located on the browser toolbar and looks like this:

Using this toolbar button, you can create list of Web sites you like or visit frequentlyso that you can quickly find and navigate to that web site. In Firefox and Chrome,

this function is called Bookmarks.Browser Tabs: Most of the major Web browsers make tabbed browsing

available to you, which enables you to open multiple Web sites. The name of

each Web page appears in the browser tab. If you click the small space behindthe current tab, you open a new placeholder browser tab, and you can type a

URL or search the Web. The original browser tab remains open, and you can go

back to that page whenever you want by clicking the tab.

Status Bar: This area displays the current status of the Web browser.

**Out of Class Assignment : Explore other browsers to see if you have a

preference. Here are two good ones to start with:

Learn more about Mozilla Firefoxhere: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/Learn more about Google Chrome here:

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/index.html?brand=CHMB

Surfing the Internet

Viewing web pages is referred to as surfing or browsing the web.Browsing is just looking at web pages and clicking on hyperlinks. Onceyou are connected to the Internet via an ISP, heres how to browse:

Start/open the browser application. There are multiple ways you cando this. Most people click on the icon located on the desktop, but you canalso click on the browser icon located on the Quick Launch bar (located right

next to the Start button) or selecting it from the Start menu.

Click once in the address field, which is located at the top of the page.A blinking text cursor appears or the address already there becomeshighlighted. Type jacksonville.com, and then press the Enter key.Congratulations! Youre surfing the web! Click on any of the hyperlinks onthis website and see what happens. Move the cursor slowly around thepage. If the arrow becomes a hand, youve found a hyperlink.

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http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/index.html?brand=CHMBhttp://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/index.html?brand=CHMB


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Once you have explored the links on the Jacksonville Times-Unionwebsite, try entering other addresses into the address bar. Try insertingbrand names or generic words between www. and .com. Then try clicking onthe hyperlinks on those pages.

What is a search engine?

A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help findinformation stored on a computer system. If you need information on aspecific topic, you can use Web sites called search engines to help yousearch the Web for pages that have the information you need. Searchengines index Web pages by content and serve much the same purposeas the card catalog in a library. You supply the search terms and thesearch engine displays a list of Web pages that match the search terms.

The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly calledhits. You can search the web either by going directly to a search enginesite or using the search box built into your browser.

Google at http://www.google.com/is currently the most widely usedsearch engine, but is certainly not the only good one. Google does haveone of the largest databases of Web pages, including many other types ofweb documents (blog posts, wiki pages, group discussion threads anddocument formats (e.g., pdfs, Word or Excel documents, PowerPoint).Despite the presence of all these formats, Google's popularity rankingoften places worthwhile pages near the top of search results.

**Out of Class Assignment:

Other Search Engines: Although Google is a wonderful search engine,there are times when Google is not enough. Overlap studies show thatmore than 80% of the pages in a major search engine's database existonly in that database. For this reason, getting a "second opinion" by usinganother search engine can be worth your time. Explore these other searchengines on your own prior to class next week:

Alta Vista:http://www.altavista.com/

Ask: http://www.ask.com/

Bing: http://www.bing.com/

Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/

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http://www.google.com/http://www.altavista.com/http://www.ask.com/http://www.bing.com/http://www.yahoo.com/http://www.google.com/http://www.altavista.com/http://www.ask.com/http://www.bing.com/http://www.yahoo.com/


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Dogpile: http://www.dogpile.com/

To learn more about search engines, and about more search engines,

visit Search Engine Watch at http://searchenginewatch.com/links or go tothe Open Directory Project at http://www.dmoz.org/ and type search

engines into the search box.

Recommended Reading for Computer Basics Classes:

PCs Simplified. Elaine Marmel. Wiley Publishing, Inc.:2011 004.16Marmel

Teach Yourself Visually PCs. Elaine Marmel. Wiley Publishing, Inc.: 2011.

004.16 Marmel

Computer Secrets I Taught My Mom. Michael Shannon. Smart Guy Press

2006. 004.16 Shannon

Absolute Beginners Guide to Computer Basics. Michael Miller.Que 2007.

004 Miller 2007. 004.016 Marme

PC Annoyances: how to fix the most annoying things about your

personal computer. Steve Bass. OReilly & Associates 2004. 004.160288 Bass

Personal Computing Demystified: a self-teaching guide. Larry Long.

McGraw-Hill/Osborne. 2004 004 Long

The Complete Idiots guide to Computer Basics. Joe Kraynak. Alpha

Books, 2004. 004.16 Kraynak 2003

Its never too late to love a computer: a friendly first guide. Abby

Stokes 2005. 004.16 Stokes 2005

Computer Class Resources Website: http://jplcomputerstuff.notlong.com

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http://www.dogpile.com/http://www.dmoz.org/http://www.dogpile.com/http://www.dmoz.org/

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