The present day Internet is an undetermined number of computers connected to create a network capable of passing information. No organization or government controls the Internet, there is no regulatory body. The Internet started as a US Department of Defense project handled by a group of US universities. The first functioning Internet (at that time called ARPANET) was created in 1969 and had only four networked computers (located at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, University of Utah, and Stanford Research Institute). What they created was TCP/IP, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A protocol is a set of rules and steps that control the operation of a computer or group of computers. TCP/IP is the protocol that allows a computer to be part of the Internet, basically allows it to 'talk the language' of the other computers on the Internet. Intranets are computer networks using TCP/IP to create a limited access network owned by one company or organization. Extranets are limited access networks using TCP/IP involving more than one company. Approximately eight to ten times more web pages are written for intranets/extranets than for the public access Internet. TCP/IP was released into public domain (i.e., free for anyone to use) when the universities were unable to find any company interested in developing TCP/IP for commercial use. (It was offered several times to the major computer and communication companies, all of whom decided the Internet would never have any viable business use...The crystal balls were evidently a bit cloudy.)
The Internet is platform independent, meaning it does not matter what operating system or software is used to access the Internet as long as it "speaks" TCP/IP.
Client/server architecture is a notable trait of the Internet. A client accesses the Internet to obtain desired information. The server is responsible for performing the tasks as requested by the client. While the client and server can run on the same computer, most of the time they are on different units and often separated by long distance. Information is sent as packets, each message being broken down into chunks that can be handled by the connecting media. (Think of it like the US Postal Service, with a size limit requiring letters to be sent one page per envelope.) Bandwidth refers to the amount of information that can be transmitted. Telephone lines are the most common means of transmission, be that the 56K (56,000 bps) of a regular phone line or the faster fiber optics of T1 (1.54 Mbps) and T3 (45 Mbps) lines. The Internet is an 'information superhighway', with slower connections linking up to faster ones. Backbones are high speed communication lines operating as key connections in the Internet. Servers are computers that house the software necessary to connect to the Internet, with routers (specialized computers for linking together networks over long distances) and other devices helping aid in fast and dependable relay of the messages. An individual could directly connect their computer to another on the Internet, but normal telephone charges would be incurred. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) allow individuals to access the Internet without incurring the high expense of long distance telephone calls. ISPs lease high speed telephone lines and charge a fee for unlimited access to the various parts of the Internet.
TCP/IP is a group of protocols allowing multiple functions. File transfer protocol (ftp) allows the remote access and transfer of files from one computer to another (e.g., copying files from a remote server). Telnet allows the remote access and running of a program (e.g., logging on procedures to another computer/server). File protocol allows access of local files. News protocol requests information from a news group. Hypertext transfer protocol (http://) allows the transfer and viewing of web pages. Mailto protocol governs the creation and exchange of electronic mail (e-mail). E-mails involve not only the simple transmission of a text message to an individual, they can involve group mailings, mailings under CC: and BCC:, and the sending of attachments (files). Unfortunately email has also spawned spam, the 'junk mail' of the Internet. Requests are phrased in the form of how://where/what with "how" specifying what protocol is needed, "where" is the address of what is being requested, and "what" refers to the specific resource being requested.
Messages sent on the Internet utilize addresses to be able to reach the correct destination. Internet Protocol addressing is a series of numbers. IPv4 (Internet Protocol 4) is the present structure of the numeric addresses, four groups of digits of a possible range 0-255 separated by a period (e.g., 146.85.111.345). IP addresses are registered, and an organization is given a set number or series of numbers for their usage. Certain license types allow an organization to create subnets, subdivisions within their organization's network that can operate separately and 'group' their numbers for ease in file management and security. The Internet was not originally designed with the idea of a world wide network, and the number of unused addresses is dwindling fast. IPv6 uses a wider numbering system and allows for more addresses. Conversion of IPv4 to IPv6 has not been given a set date as of yet.
IP addresses were the original method of connecting, but remembering a long series of numbers could be difficult and an address easily mistyped. Domain names are an 'alias' that stands for a specified IP address. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is another name for it. An individual or organization registers their chosen domain name, and indicates what IP address it should connect to. A domain name can be used to shorten a longer name or make it easier to remember. For example, ravencatt.org is a domain name that connects to http://ravencatt.tripod.com. A site can have multiple domain names, but only one IP address. The Domain Name System (DNS) is the index that matches domain name to actual IP address. Masking would block the true address from showing up in the browser address window; if I used masking for this site, ravencatt.org would replace ravencatt.tripod.com in the address window every time. Masking along with subnets can make it appear that a site is totally standalone even if it is part of a larger site. Squatters were individuals who would buy up domain names they thought would be used by companies and then attempt to sell them the rights at inflated prices. This practice is now illegal and anyone caught attempting it is subject to prosecution.
Domain name servers maintain an index of what domain name matches what IP address. You can connect to the Internet, attempt to connect to a site, and get the message "DNS not available". If you had the IP address you could connect, but because the index is not available the computer is unable to connect. Domain names have a suffix that denotes what type they are. In the US, most domain names are chosen according to function.
| Domain suffix | Type | Domain suffix | Type | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .com | For profit company | .org | Non profit company | |||
| .k12 | K-12 school | .edu | College/university | |||
| .gov | Governmental | .mil | military | |||
| .net | Network resource | .name | Person | |||
| .info | Informational site | .co |
Country Followed by designation .co.uk = Britain .co.ca = Canada etc. |
Gateways provide a means to extend the services a Web server provides. It is generally a script or program invoked by the Web server that can accept user input via the Web and can output data back to the user through the Web server. CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the mechanism for communication between the gateway and the Web server. It can be written in C/C++, Perl, tcl, C Shell, Bourne Shell, or other such language. Commercial Web servers provide this service, so all a Webmaster has to do is incorporate the correct script (code) in the manner instructed to invoke the desired actions. Processing of information from HTML forms is a prime example of usage of CGI.
Web pages are protected by copyright. Intellectual properties are legally protected by copyright (documents, songs, images; unregistered period: 85 yrs from publication or 120 yrs from creation; registered period: lifetime of creator + 70 years), patent (designs, blueprints; period: 20 years), trademark (exclusive use of name/symbol; period: 10 years renewable), and trade secret (special process/information; period: as long as not officially revealed to public). Copyrights, patents, and trademarks can be registered, which gives the owner stronger protection and more power to prosecute in the case of an infringement. The websites to obtain the information and forms for registering them are available elsewhere on this site on the Miscellaneous sites page.
Security measures to protect web pages and sites are very important. Computer viruses are programs that copy themselves onto your system and then do damage in some manner. Software is available to help protect your computer, but it must be up-to-date and running at all times the computer is on for it to be effective. Criminal hackers are individuals who find means to access systems illegally, some for 'fun' and some for theft. A firewall is a combination of hardware and/or software that limits access to a system and impedes unauthorized usage. Passwords are used to verify the identity of authorized personnel.
Web pages themselves are simply files stored on a web server, a server set up to maintain a website. The files can be created using a code generator such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. You can use a website's wizard, a program that will guide you through the steps of making a page. Microsoft's Office package (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) includes the ability to save the created documents as web pages. Note of warning: pages created by a code generator may have limited copyright coverage, and using a web host's software to create your pages will often give them and not you the legal rights to the pages.
At the very basic level, a web page is just a text file using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Web pages can also include other computer languages and features such as Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, XML/XHTML, Flash, PHP, and various others. However, web pages are viewed by a multitude of web browsers and a multitude of computer operating systems worldwide. The more recent languages may not be readable by all the browsers. Remember: no one controls the Internet. No one can order all browsers to be created so they can read and display all possible computer languages that can be used to create a web page. There are even some basic HTML tags that are not recognized by all browsers. So to reach the widest audience, you need to create your web pages in the simplest, most commonly recognized languages. HTML is the basic building block of web pages. HTML 4.0 and JavaScript 1.0 are safe choices.
The way a web browser recognizes that a file is a web page is by the extension. A file name is made up of three parts: the path, the name, and the extension. The file path tells the computer where the file is stored. Files can be stored in folders or directories. The proper term determined by what operating system you are using. Command line systems like DOS, UNIX, and Linux utilize directories while Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) like Windows and MAC use folders. A path denotes what drive the file is on as well as the folder/directory. The file name itself is the unique name given when it is created. Different operating systems have slightly different rules about what are acceptable file names. To be safe, in case you will store your web pages on a system different from your own, a file name should be 1-8 characters made up of alphabetic characters and/or numbers and beginning with a letter. Do not use any special characters. And consider it as case sensitive, meaning Total is not the same as total. The extension is a 3-4 letter addition added to the end of the name, usually separated by a period. A file extension is a kind of 'shorthand' that lets the system know what kind of file it will be working with. Most software packages will automatically attach the correct extension on any documents or files created by them.
So a full designation of a file can look like any of these:
index.html
a:/index.html
c:/site/index.html
http://ravencatt.org/index.html
All have the file name of "index" and the extension of "html". The only difference is the paths, which denote where the file will be found.
The extensions that denote web pages are .htm, .html, and .shtml. Text files have the extension .txt. Graphics files can be .jpg (.jpeg or .jpe), .gif; according to what format was used to digitize the image. Sound files can be .wav or .mp3. Movie files can be .mov. There are various other possible formats for the various image and sound conversions. These are the safer ones to use for web pages. For example, an image can be a bitmap (.bmp), but bitmaps are very large and can cause problems when someone tries to open a page containing one. It is better to use image manipulation software and change a .bmp into either .jpg or .gif if possible. This will make it easier for viewers to download (transfer from larger computer to smaller; e.g., from Web server to home PC) your page and make it easier for you to upload (transfer from smaller computer to larger; e.g., from home PC to Web server) everything to your web host.
While web pages can be created using expensive software packages, the simplest and basic way to do it is to use a text editor (such as Notepad), use HTML and JavaScript coding, and save it as a .html file. You can check how the page looks in your browser using the Open option. And to view the code on any webpage you are looking at, you can use the Source/Page Source option under View (for Explorer/Navigator users).
First HTML lesson: Text formatting
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