Where Am I? - Internet Basics

1. Networks

Internet

The Internet consists of all computers and networks across the world which are able to communicate with each other using telephone, fibre optic, microwave, radio, satellite or any other type of link. The Internet includes private, commercial, government and military computer systems.

As an individual, you cannot access the Internet directly.  You need to have a link to an organisation that does. Special types of businesses have arisen to provide links to the Internet.  These companies are called Internet Service Providers or ISPs. In many countries, these companies are also the suppliers of telephone numbers and wireless communication and will bundle their service charges for all types of communication.  The speed of the connection determines the quality of the service.  If the Internet connection is provided by dialing into a telephone connection it can be slow and expensive to access the Web.  Dial-up connections can be too slow to view a video or other media.  Broadband access via dedicated service lines (DSL) and wireless connection make it possible to enjoy all the features of the Web and often for a more affordable cost.

Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) or in short the Web is part of the Internet. What distinguishes the Web is its support of a variety of media, including text, graphics, audio, video, and animation. The Web is a network of servers that store web pages, which can be read by browsers (programmes/applications that are able to read the Web) such as Internet Explorer®, Firefox®, Google Chrome®, or Safari®.  A browser is an application that is able to read (but not create) web pages.

When you use email or an internal private network such as your employer’s company network, you are on the Internet but you are not on the Web.  When you search for information, book online travel, log into Facebook®, watch YouTube® videos etc., you are on the Web. 

2. Web Applications

In Unit 1, you learned that desktop applications are software programs that are stored in your computer.  There are many types of software available that do not require large amounts of data to be downloaded on to your computer.  Instead, web applications run on servers somewhere else and allow you to have access to them via the Web.

Some common Web applications include cloud services, webmail, wikis and online auctions.

3. Browsers

A browser is the application that allows you to access the Web.  Most computers come with a default browser installed although you can also have more than one browser in use on your computer.  Computers with a Microsoft® operating system installed will usually also have Internet Explorer® set as the default browser.  Other popular browsers include:  Google Chrome®; Mozilla Firefox®; Safari®. 

Browsers allow you to type in an address to go directly to a page you already know about (e.g. www.col.org) or to search for a web page by key word.

Just like the operating systems, the browsers are frequently updated to provide new features or more often, to fix security vulnerabilities.  If you are using an older version of a browser and your computer is not set to automatically update, you will sometimes go to a webpage and receive a message that your browser is out of date.  It is usually quite easy to follow the link provided to update your browser and there is no cost to do this.

Browsers are set to open to a default page that is usually a service that provides a search engine so that you can quickly find what you are looking for.  You can change this default page to anything you prefer.  At the top of the browser there will be a bar where you can enter the address of a website.  There will also be a feature where you can bookmark a page so that you can save it later.

Note:  Programs called web apps are reducing the role of the browser and the search engine.  On the tiled Start Menu of Windows 8® and on most smart phones and mobile devices, many of your favourite "sites" are already there as an icon or button.  Instead of searching on the Web for your Facebook® page, you are given quick direct access via an app that can do extra things like notify you when some new information has been posted.

3.1. Internet Browser View: Internet Explorer

3.2. Internet Browser View: Firefox

3.3. URLs

To find pages on the Web, it must have a unique web address or URL.  A web address will look like the following:

If you were to type in this address and hit enter, you would be taken to the main page of Amazon® books.  From there you can search around their website for other pages of information from Amazon®.  If you want to go directly to another page within Amazon® such as their page that contains information about gift cards, the web address or URL will get longer as it directs you to the correct page and provides information to the website owner about where you are looking.

https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gc_surl_giftcards?node=3063530011

Complicated URLs such as this one are difficult to type correctly.  If you think you may wish to visit this page again, your browser will allow you to bookmark or save the URL as a link. 

In Internet Explorer®, you will see a star icon in the right top corner of the window.  Click on this icon, go to Favorites and choose "Add to Favorites". 

The computer will automatically select the name of the page you are on and hyperlink the URL to it.  When you open the browser next time (from the same computer), you can go to the Favorites section to find the link to take you directly to the page. 

If you have a lot of links in your Favourites section, you can create sub-folders to help with organization.  In other browsers, Favorites may be called Bookmarks but are also located in the top toolbar and work in the same way.

Note:  Modern browsers don't always show the "http" protocol part of the link.  You can type in www.amazon.com and the browser will automatically add the "http://" portion.  Another protocol "https" is a more secure link and is often found on sites that do financial transactions or provide access to sensitive data.

3.4. Bookmark View (2)

3.5. Copy A URL

If you wish to send a web link to someone else via an email for example, then you can click once on the address in the bar at the top of the window. 

When it highlights, type Control C on your keyboard to copy the link. 

Next, go to your email message or a Word document and once you have your cursor in the right location, type Control V to paste the URL into your message and hit Enter on your keyboard. 

Most programs are set to recognize a URL and create the live link automatically.  Usually the text will change colour or be underlined to indicate it is a live link. This live link is called a hyperlink.

If you receive a url that is not a hyperlink, you can use the same Control C, Control V sequence to copy and paste the URL into the address bar in your browser.  Once it is there, you can click on it to take you to the web page.

3.6. Copy URL View (2)

3.7. Browser Tabs

It is possible to have several websites open at the same time.  This is helpful if you are working in one area and need to refer to other websites.

Browsers have tabs across the top.  While you are in one website, you can click on a new tab and open another browser window and search for another website.

In this example from Internet Explorer, there are three websites open:  Google, Commonwealth of Learning and Wikicommons.  The user is currently viewing the Commonwealth of Learning page.  To switch between the websites, click on the relevant tab.

3.8. Search Engines

So far, we have dealt with web addresses or URLs that are already known or bookmarked.  Most of the time, pages on the Web are found by searching. 

A program known as a search engine is required to look for these pages. Popular web search engines include: Google®; Bing®; Yahoo!®.  Sometimes your computer will be set to open a search engine as soon as you open your browser.  As well, most browsers will have a search engine option in the top toolbar.  You can also type in the URL for a search engine.  For example:  www.google.com

The search engine is designed to search publically available pages for keywords or sets of words that match your search parameters.  There are millions of pages on the Web and search engines retrieve thousands of matches to most queries.  Making an effective query is an important skill to develop for successful web searches.

While Google® is currently the search engine of choice for most people, it does not ensure you have completed an exhaustive search.  Try other general search engines and search engines that are for specific areas of interest to see what types of results you will receive.

If Google® is not open on your browser and you wish to use it, type www.google.com in the address bar at the top of your screen, or just type the word "Google" into your current browser search bar and it will come up in the search list. 

Note:  Google has hundreds of regional domains as well.  For example, if you are in Canada, www.google.com will redirect to www.google.ca  Your search will priorize for your country and language of choice.

3.9. Search Engine Views: Bing, Google Chrome

3.10. Searching

The secret of using a search engine such as Google® lies in choosing the best key words or phrases to locate useful web sites.

Suppose you have a special interest in mountain climbing and you would like to find websites that can give you information on mountains to visit in Nepal.

You can use one of the following keywords or phrases:

mountain – gives about 289 000 000 possible sites
mountain climbing – gives about 85 000 000 possible sites
“mountain climbing” – gives about 1 930 000 possible sites
“mountain climbing sites” – gives you 143 000 possible sites
“mountain climbing sites” Nepal – gives you 27 200 possible sites

What did you do to narrow down the number of sites?

mountain – search sites that contains the word “mountain”
mountain climbing – search sites that contains the words “mountain” and “climbing”
“mountain climbing” – add parentheses to search sites that contains the phrase  “mountain climbing” and not the separate words
“mountain climbing sites” – search sites that contains the phrase  “mountain climbing sites” and not the separate words/phrases such as “mountain climbing” or “climbing sites”
“mountain climbing sites” Nepal – look for websites where the phrase “mountain climbing sites” appear with the word Nepal.

From the above it is evident that you have to be as specific as possible in your searching criteria (and make no spelling errors) to get the best searching results.  Always try different combinations and techniques until you get the desired results.

Google® has optional search tools and an Advanced Search section to further narrow your search by date, location and other parameters. On the main Google search page, you can find the Advanced Search option by clicking on Settings in the lower right corner of the pages

Although it is not always helpful, Google and other search engines will guess what you are trying to locate and start providing results even as you are still typing your query.

3.11. Advanced Search View

3.12. Search Results

The search engine uses web crawlers to look through web pages for any instance of the keyword or phrase you have entered.  They look at the headings, the URL and the text itself.  

The order of the search results returned by Google® is based primarily on an algorithm which assumes that the more times a web page has been linked to by other pages, the more important that page will be.  You will probably notice that Wikipedia entries are often one of the first search results returned.

Commercial and many non-commercial websites use a technique called search engine optimization (SEO) to improve their ranking in search results.  This involves tagging key words to their site address and to the content on their pages, which they anticipate you may use in your searches.  In this way, they can increase the chances that their site will turn up in your search. 

Some searches will bring the first few results as advertisements.  This is because the search engine is searching metadata or, data about data and has allowed paid ads to appear that match your search criteria.  For example if you search for the word telephone, the first few results in the search engine Bing show up as ads.  Some of the advertisements do not even have telephone in their title or web address but they have used the word as part of the metadata about their site. 

3.13. Search Engine Ads View

3.14. Site Searches

Some web sites have thousands of pages within their site.  For example, Wikimedia Commons has a database of over 20,174,614 media files.  These sites will have search boxes that search within the site itself.  The search process is the same: use keywords or advanced search techniques to narrow your search.

Large websites will also have tabs, links and other ways to get to various pages.  If you are new to the home page of a website, it is a good idea to try clicking around on the page.  Images, words and headers can all contain hyperlinks that will take you to the referenced information.  

Although it is less common now than it was a few years ago, on some websites you may see a tag cloud.  This is a visual respresentation of some of the words that have been used to tag metadata for the purposes of searching.  The size and colour of the words can indicate their importance or how often they are accessed by other people (trending).  You can usually click on a word in a tag cloud and go to the relevant web page or to a list of pages which contain the selected word.

4. Security

Security is an important consideration when using your computer.  There are many machines and humans engaged in trying to steal personal information or damage sensitive data via the Internet.  There are dozens of ways that your computer can be hacked or corrupted and some of these techniques are sophisticated and difficult to understand.  As an individual user, be aware that any time you are visiting a public area on your computer (the Web, a social network, email) you are vulnerable to attack.

There are a few simple steps that will help you to keep your computer and your data safe.

1. Make sure you have virus protection software installed on your computer that will regularly check for viruses in your software updates and in your downloads. 
2. If you are using your computer device in a public area such as a wireless cafe, make sure your device is password protected.
3. Adjust your browser security settings.  The higher you set the security level, the safer you will be but your searches will be more limited.  Security levels are adjusted by going to the Control Panel/System and Security.
4. Delete your cookies, clear your cache and delete your browsing history.  The definitions for these terms are in the glossary but basically, you are just erasing the record of where you have been on the Web.  The items are grouped together in your Control Panel/Internet Options. 

4.1. Website Security

Passwords are an extra level of security for some sites to ensure that only approved users can view or interact with their data.  They are also used to identify the user and provide you with customized access to a website.  Because they can be easy to guess and are frequently stolen, many sites now require you to change your password on a regular basis and to create complex passwords containing symbols and numbers.  

On sites that have a high level of security (usually when a financial transaction is involved) you may also be asked to enter a verification code.  This may be a random machine generated password or number that will be sent to you via email or it may be an image on the webpage that is displayed in a way that only a human being can read and re-type. 

Tip:  If you find the image too difficult to read, you are usually permitted to ask for a second image so that you can try again.  There are also often alternatives provided for those who are visually impaired.

4.2. Social Security

Email is still one of the most common ways to inadvertently download a virus or other malware on to your computer.  Never click on a hyperlink or an attachment sent within an email from someone you do not know.  If the link has the .exe suffix, do not open it even if it comes from someone you know because it is likely a virus that has been sent to you by impersonating someone in your contacts list.  (You can always email your friend and ask them if they sent such a file).

Social networks (eg. Facebook®, Twitter®) can collect large amounts of data about you and your contacts and then share it with advertisers and other third parties.  Always take the time to read the privacy information about these sites.  You are usually permitted to shut off much of this personal data collection but you have to go into the application’s security settings and adjust them yourself.  Change these passwords frequently to reduce the chance of identity theft.

Be cautious of providing too much personal information to any website.  Only provide what is required to obtain an account.

5. Activity: Quick Review

In this unit, you learned to:

• define basic Internet technology terms
• create bookmarks of favourite websites
• complete an effective Internet search for information
• understand some basic privacy and security procedures

To test your knowledge, complete the following activity if you have an Internet connection.

1. Search the Web for the University of Uppsala and bookmark the site
2. Search for an Open Educational Resource (OER) on Basic Chemistry.  Copy the URL and place the link on a Sticky Note.   (Hint: look on your bottom toolbar or in your Start Menu for the Sticky Note).  If you don't have Sticky Note, open Microsoft Word and paste the Basic Chemistry link into a new document, then hit Enter on your keyboard to create the hyperlink.  As this is an exercise, you do not need to save your work.
   

Can you answer these questions?

• If you were planning to work on your laptop in a cyber cafe, what steps would you take to make sure your computer was secure?
• If you are using email are you on the Web?
• Why do some websites require passwords?