Internet 101: What Exactly is the Internet and How does it work?

Podcast

A series of audio or video files that will automatically be downloaded to your computer. The files can then be played on the computer or an mp3 player. A podcast is basically a web feed for media. Unlike internet radio, podcasts are not streaming, so the media has to download fully before it can be played.

Online Chat

A system that allows users to communicate in real time. all messages show up immediately in the same window, which makes conversations quicker and easier.

Instant messaging

A type of chat where you communicate with a specific person instead of an entire chat room.

Blog (Short for "Weblog')

A type of web site that is usually updated frequently, often with news articles or random thoughts

Wiki

A type of website that allows content to be edited or created by anyone. This allows content to stay up to date and (ideally) allows for errors to be found and corrected.

Web Feed (also known as a News Feed)

A way to receive updates from your favorite web sites and blogs. Instead of visiting many different sites to check for updates, you can read their feeds on a feed reader

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); internet telephone

Allows a user to have telephone service through an internet connection (i.e. Skype)

Blog, Blogger, Penzu, SquareSpace, Tumbler, Svbtle, Webly, Wordpress

Blog Sites

Streaming media

If you watch a movie online or listen to iTunes radio, it's called streaming media, which means it plays while downloading so you don't have to wait for it to download first

For a browser to display a webpage

It requests data from the server where the page is stored. The server processes the request, then sends the data to your browser, where it is displayed.

Web Feed Formats (two common)

RSS and Atom

A Client computer

Runs familiar software such as web browsers or email software, and it communicates with the server to get the information it requires

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious

Social Bookmarking Sites

The Internet Today; 2016

The largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of computers; A constantly evolving tool that not only contains an amazing variety of information but that also provides new ways of accessing, interacting, and connecting with people and content

Foundation of Internet began in 1969

U.S. Department of Defense created ARPAnet, a project to allow military personnel to communicate with each other in an emergency

Client

When you access a webpage, your computer is acting as a client

Server

a computer that "serves" many different computers in a network by running specialized software and storing information (like webpages)

Network

a group of two or more computer systems linked together

Website

a page or collection of pages on the World Wide Web that contains specific information which was all provided by one person or entity and traces back to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL)- Web Domain

Tim Berners-Lee

a software engineer who created the world wide web in 1989; before this computers could communicate over the internet buy there were no webpages

Email (electronic mail)

a system for sending and receiving messages online. Many email services include extra features such as calendars, task lists, instant messaging, web feeds, and news headlines

Social Bookmarking

allows users all over the internet to save and share interesting sites.

Web Browser

an application used to access and view websites. Common web browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari. It's primary function is to interpret HTML, the code used to design or "mark up" webpages, so that they can be viewed online .

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)

backbone of the World Wide Web; HTML documents are described by HTML tags (key words); each HTML tag describes different document content like links, as well as images and other media for web documents

Buffering

how media starts downloading a little bit before it starts playing so that it can play more smoothly

World Wide Web (the "Web")

is a virtual network of websites connected by hyperlinks (or "links")

URL (Uniform Resource Locator); or web address

tells the browser exactly where to find the page located on the internet

Wide Area Network (WAN)

two or more LANs. The computers are farther apart and are linked by telephone lines, dedicated telephone lines, or radio waves. The Internet is the largest WAN in existence.

Local Area Network (LAN)

two or more connected computers sharing certain resources in a relatively small geographic location, often in the same building (homes & offices)

Wikipedia, an encyclopedia, and wikiHow, a collection of how-to guides

two types of online wiki's