Frequently Asked Questions about the Internet

Q: What is the Internet?

A: The Internet is a global network of millions of computers arranged in interconnected networks based on the Internet Protocol (IP). You do not have to know how the Internet works to use it, just as you don't need to know how a motor car engine works to drive it. The Internet offers many different facilities that you can use in your everyday life. These include Electronic Mail (E-mail), Usenet, News, World Wide Web (WWW) browsing, File Transfer (FTP), Remote Terminal login (Telnet), Live Chat etc. The most popular are e-mail and the graphical www which provides links to still pictures, video, text and audio resources.

Q: What is surfing the Net?

A: Finding information on the Internet is often called "surfing the Net" or "surfing the Web". It is very easy. If you know where you want to go, you just enter the address of the page (URL) and then follow any interesting links from there.

Q: What do all these terms mean?

A: Like, any other field, there is a lot of jargon on the Internet. If you find terms like FTP, IRC, http etc confusing, find an online Glossary for clarification. One such a glossary can be located here

Q: What is a browser?

A: The tool (software) used to access www documents is called a browser. There are a number of browsers available today, e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator (AOL) etc. Browsers are specific to the operating system and machine platform (Intel, Sun Sparc, Motorola etc). You are probably using Explorer 4.0, 5.0 or 5.5 on a Windows platform.

Q: What can I find on the Internet and WWW?

A: You can find information about almost anything you can think of as well as people to communicate with about almost anything, anywhere in the world.

Q: What is a Web Site?

A: A web site is a collection of "pages", like the one you are reading now, on the WWW. People make web sites about things that interest them, companies use them to promote their products and services. Others aim to provide access to information. Others allow people to discuss issues and communicate. Still others are used to gather information from visitors via surveys.

Q: What is a Home Page?

A: Each website has a top page or front page (default.htm, index.htm etc.) called the Home Page - which works a bit like the cover of a book and index combined. The home page serves as a starting point to access the rest of the information on the web site. It also serves as a reference point to return to after you have followed several links into the web site. Each browser will start up with a specific page, also called the Home Page. This is normally the Home Page of the browser maker or your Internet Service Provider (ISP). From that page you can search the Internet, surf the WWW or find information they indexed on your behalf.

Q: How do WWW addresses work?

A: There is some structure to the way web site addresses work. This depends on the country of origin of the people who buy a certain address. Sites with a three letter Top Level Domain (TLD) e.g. .com, .edu, .int, .org etc are predominantly found in USA. The rest use domain names behind the two letter country code TLDs e.g. .uk (United Kingdom), .de (Deutschland - Germany), .za (South Africa), .zw (Zimbabwe) etc. Most addresses start with http://www. which indicates the WWW or hypertext protocol. The www identifies the source of the information as a WWW source. The name ends in .com if it is a US commercial company or .co.zw if it is a Zimbabwean company. The only part that requires guessing is the middle part indicating the name of the company like microsoft, cnn or aol.

Q: Who organises the Internet?

A: The Internet is not organised by any particular body or organisation and there is no formal directory to point you to information sources. Instead, you will have to rely on the collections built up over time in search engines and virtual libraries. These collections are gathered by programs that search the Internet websites and then build up a database of terms found on the pages.

Q: How do I access information?

A: You can either look up a known address or you can search for information by topic or keyword. To access a document with a known URL, just enter the URL in the browser box marked address.

Q: What are search engines?

A: Google, Yahoo, Max, HotBot, Excite and AltaVista are a few different search engines. It is often easier to start your surfing by entering a phrase or a keyword on one or more of the search engines. It will save lots of time. Each search engine has its unique way of narrowing down your search until you are left with a manageable number of documents to process.

Q: What is a Bookmark?

A: If you were reading a book, you would mark an interesting page with a little marker. The browsers all offer a similar function to keep track of interesting places visited. Microsoft software calls bookmarks "favorites". Access them from the Communicator --> Bookmarks menu in Netscape and Favorites menu in Internet Explorer.