If you are here, you're probably intimidated by this whole "Surfing the Internet" thing. Well, there's no better time to get wet! The Internet, a worldwide network of computers, is getting easier to navigate with the help of new software. This primer is not intended to cover every aspect of the Internet, but it will introduce you to aspects of the Internet you'll encounter at this site, including the World Wide Web, Gopher, e-mail, and Usenet.
If you are a complete beginner, use the scroll bar to take you through the lessons below this introduction. If you know which subjects you need help with, click on them to jump ahead.
What is a Uniform Resource Locator?
What will I encounter on the WWW?
How do I use a website address I've seen or heard about?
How do I find things on the Web?
What is the World Wide Web?
The Internet offers several approaches for accessing stored information on other computers and communicating with other people. One of the best known and widely used aspects of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW), a hypertext-based system that lets you find and access Internet resources.
What is hypertext? Well, you've probably already used it--it's those highlighted words that have been coded to take you to another page (or section of a page) when you click on them. For instance, if you want to see the definition of any highlighted word on this page, like hypertext, click it to go to the glossary. When you're done reading, click the "back" button on your browser to return to this part of the page. Images or areas on a larger image can also be linked to a web page.
There are other methods of accessing information, like FTP and Gopher, but WWW documents, commonly called web pages, are what most people who "surf the Net" are browsing. Why? First of all, while Gopher and FTP files must be accessed by clicking appropriate directories in descending order, hypertext allows for flexible access of documents relevant to a certain page. Secondly, most WWW browsers worth their salt can access these other services, as well as e-mail and newsgroups, with a more understandable interface. Lastly, the advent of sophisticated web browsers allows web pages to display images, to play sounds, and to be truly interactive, whereas Gopher and FTP "pages" are only text--images, movies, and applications must be downloaded and played later.
What is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)?
The URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, indicates the location of a file on a certain computer and how to get to it. Look at the top of your browser--you should see
http://www.thomson.com/rcenters/polisci/surfing.html.
This is the URL of this page, Surfing Lessons. A URL tells your browser to contact a certain computer (www.thomson.com), ask for a certain file (surfing.html) sitting in a certain subdirectory(rcenters/polisci/), using a specific protocol (http). It will always* take the following form:
protocol://internet address/path_name/file_name.file_format
- Protocol: The protocol you'll see most often while surfing is called Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or http. You may also see Gopher or FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
- The Internet address is the name of the computer you are accessing. It will always have a suffix specifying what type of site you are visiting--most often either com, edu, org, gov, or net. Foreign addresses have an additional two-letter country abbreviation, such as uk for the United Kingdom. There is a numerical equivalent to this text-based address, but you will rarely see that.
- The path name may contain several directories, each separated by a slash.
- The file name is usually followed by a dot (period), then the name of the file format. The most common file format is html, which means a file is a text file coded in hypertext markup language. You may also encounter gif and jpeg (graphics), and mpeg (movies).
*OK, there are two exceptions, mailto and news. The URL scheme for sending e-mail is
mailto:username@hostname
and the URL to access a newsgroup is
news:newsgroup
What will I encounter on the WWW?
Web pages can contain hypertext, images, animations, links to download movies and software, forms to fill out, buttons to press, and interactive media. They can be organized as flat pages or in tables or frames. Web pages can also use other protocols to jump to Gopher or FTP sites, e-mail addresses, and newsgroups.
You may find that you are unable to experience certain media, see certain formats, or access other protocols. This is because
- Web browsers vary in their ability to understand and interpret the language behind the web pages that you see. The language is called HTML, and like a real language, it is evolving so that it can describe more complex behavior to your browser. Some browsers are unable to display graphics (like Lynx), some are unable to display frames and tables, and some are unable to run Java applets (early versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer).
- Web browsers also use auxiliary applications, called plug-ins, to display certain media. Plug-ins you may encounter at this site include Shockwave (multimedia), Real Audio (streaming audio), and RasMol (3D molecule viewer). Sites that require a particular plug-in will usually direct you to a page which tells you how to download and install that plug-in.
Some sites may ask you to register or to subscribe before you are allowed to browse their pages. Often, they want to know more about you so they can gather information about their visitors and the people using their products. Certain sites, like the Encyclopedia Britannica, charge for their services.
How do I navigate the Web?
You've probably already figured out the first half of this problem--simply point and click on hypertext or graphics that you are interested in. Navigation on the web can be divided into site-based navigation and browser-based navigation.
- Site-Based Navigation:
- If you come to a website at its home
page, you will see icons or text directing you to ever increasingly
detailed information. Websites are collections of web pages. Web pages
are the browser's manifestation of several files on a computer called a
server. Just as files on your computer are organized in directories
(represented by folders on the Macintosh and Windows), so are files on a
server. As you get deeper and deeper into a site, there should be icons
directing you back to higher levels. If you ever link to a page at one
of these bottom levels, and wonder what site you are at, you should look
for an icon or text that says "home" or "main." Clicking this will take
you to the home page. If you are unfortunate enough to find a page that
lacks any site-based navigation, you may still find your way up to the
home page by lopping off the end of the URL, leaving only the protocol
and Internet address (like http://www.netscape.com/).
- Browser-based Navigation:
- As you travel from page, your browser is leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so that if you decide to go back, you can retrace your steps. If you decide to go forward again, you can also retrace your steps up the path in the last fork you traveled. There are several ways of travelling back and forth with a browser. Netscape Navigator, for instance, has five.
- Click either the back or forward buttons at the top of your browser
- Hold your cursor down until the Back and Forward options appear in a pop-up menu. Scroll, select, and release.
- Select Back or Forward from the Go menu
- Use the keyboard commands specified in your Go menu.
- Select the name of the desired page from the Go menu.
To move one page at a time,
To move by several pages.
Most browsers also allow you to bookmark a site, so that you can select it from your bookmark menu (also called hotlist or favorites by other browsers) and jump there immediately, instead of typing in the URL all the time.
How do I use a website address I've seen or heard about?
It seems like every company suddenly has a website address listed at the bottom of their print or TV ads. To visit a website, find a spot on your browser that says "location" or "address," and type in the URL. You may even hear an ad on the radio say "Visit us at www-dot-stuff-dot-com." "Dot" indicates a period. Try alternate spellings if your URL doesn't seem to work. If you are visiting a website, be sure that your URL starts with "http://", ads sometimes leave this portion of the address out.
How do I find things on the Web?
If you want to find pages about a certain topic or a site belonging to a certain organization, you need to find a good web index. These web indexes vary in their scope and the depth of information they provide about a site, but all are searchable by keyword.
Search engines use software programs that enable the user to locate specific information on the internet. Most operate by searching for specific key words among the millions of sites on the web. Some of the major search websites are Excite, AltaVista, and HotBot. There are many different search websites, and each is organized according to slightly different principles. The best way to use these websites is to locate one that works for you and then continue to use it; as you learn more about a specific search engine your searches will become more efficient and successful.
Microsoft and Netscape both provide a list of main search websites on their home pages. You may wish to start at either of these two sites to obtain information on all of the options currently available for searching.
Menu Searching
Some websites are organized according to menus, which allow you to narrow your search by selecting topics in a hierarchy to finally focus on what interests you. These menus usually only include sites that have been examined, categorized, and rated by the group hosting the site. Some of the best known of these sites are LookSmart, Magellan, and Yahoo. Although these three websites were created primarily as index or menu sites, they have added search capability as they have grown. Also, the major sites that were originally created as search websites have added indexes and directories as they have grown. The major search websites have thus become hybrids of the directory and the search approachs.LookSmart has one of the best menus of political science websites on the internet. Select one of the topics listed in the political science menu and you can go to websites that are rated as useful by the LookSmart organization. This kind of directory can be very helpful if you wish to find many sites related to a broad general topic. If you wish to find specific information, however, you may want to use one of the search engines listed above and search using key words or concepts.
Parallel Searching
You can download a software called Copernic which search in many search engines at the same time.I want to know more!
Try searching or browsing the following directory from Yahoo: Internet.
Microsoft Network provides another excellent online
tutorial with helpful illustrations
Glossary
- anonymous FTP
- A file retrieval program with a common public password. See also File Transfer Protocol.
- browser
- Specifically, a program for reading the Hypertext Markup Language of World Wide Web pages. More generally, any program for following a path of menu items or other links.
- download
- To receive information or files from a remote computer.
- Electronic mail
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- A program for transferring files from one computer (a host) to another (a client), especially for retrieving files from public archives. See also anonymous FTP.
- Gopher
- A hierarchical menu program for accessing information across the Internet.
- graphic interface
- A computer interface that displays graphic elements and icons rather than only text. A computer interface negotiated with a mouse as well as with cursor keys.
- home page
- An initial menu page of a World Wide Web site, written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
- hypertext
- Text that is linked to related documents.
- Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
- The system of embedding retrieval commands and associated addresses within a text; used for documents on the World Wide Web.
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
- The program controlling the transmission of documents and other files over the World Wide Web.
- Internet
- The worldwide network of networks connected to each other using the Internet protocol and other similar protocols. The Internet provides file transfer, remote login, electronic mail, and other services.
- newsgroups
- A distributed bulletin board about a particular topic. Thousands of newsgroups are distributed by a system called Usenet.
- protocol
- A formal description of operating rules.
- surfing
- Random or otherwise seemingly undirected browsing, as of the World Wide Web.
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
- A format for indicating the protocol and address for accessing information on the Internet; a name identifying documents and services on the Internet.
- Usenet
- A network and program for reading and posting messages on public newsgroups; accessible in whole or in part via the Internet or many online services.
- World Wide Web (WWW)
- A hypertext-based
system for finding and accessing Internet
resources.