Online Courses: The Internet

Introduction

Summary

The internet is a world-wide network of computers. This means that each computer can be connected to every other computer.

The internet started as a technology to transfer information from one computer to another. This gave rise to a language used by computers to display pages called HTML. HTML allowed a page to be displayed on different computers and yet look the same. These pages became websites.

Nowadays, the ability to transfer information from electronic device to anywhere has given rise to the internet becoming a technology that is used much wider than just for websites. The Internet of Things is allowing all sorts of devices to communicate.

Networks

Computer Network

A network is a set of computers that are ‘joined together’ – in other words, they can talk to each other.

Usually, a network has one central computer that is used to store files, software and is used to help to control the network. This central computer is called a server. When a server is used on the internet to host a website, it is called a web server.

In order to make sure each computer can talk to each other, they are each assigned an address. This means that each computer on the network can be uniquely identified. When computers are attached to the internet, the address they are given is called an IP address (where the IP stands for Internet Protocol).

When you want to connect your computer at home to the network that is the internet, you have to connect to a server that is connected to the internet. To do this, you use an internet service provider (ISP) who have lots of servers that are connected to the internet and will usually have one near to your home. To control access to your ISP, you will normally use a router – a device that connects your computer to your ISP.

Websites

Websites started as one or more pages of HTML. Nowadays, website technology has moved on and typically a website uses a combination of technologies including something called Javascript. These newer technologies allow for websites to be interactive so that you can have shopping, banking and so much more.

In order to access a website, you need a piece of software on your computer called a browser. A browser allows you to connect to a web server, grab all the information needed to display a website and then display that website. There are many different browsers, including Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari and Chrome.

In order to connect to a website using a browser, you need to tell your browser where to go in order to find the website you want to view. So each website has a unique address to identify it. This is called the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This typically starts with a ‘www’ to indicate that the website sits on the internet, or the World Wide Web (www). With most browsers, you enter the URL of your desired site (like www.example.com) in order to view it.