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An_Introduction_to_Internet
| An Introduction to Internet
An Introduction to Internet © by Maurizio Bisogno 2003
The Internet is the biggest revolution in the communication and
information era. Internet is millions of computers connected to
each other via phone lines and also via satellite. The content
of Internet consists of everything that is information-related
and can be transmitted and stored as text, image, video and
audio: i.e. in all the electronic forms information can be
stored. As I am writing more than 200 millions people are
connected in this worldwide network, accessing all kind of
information products.It also means that nearly in every corner
of this planet there are computers connected or potentially
connected to the each other.
You need therefore a computer with modem and Internet Browser
software to access this information world. When you have
provided yourself with that you need to dial in an Internet
Service Provider, which will allow you to access the whole web
through its servers.
The Internet Browser has several commercial names and
appearances, like Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera and
Monzilla. The windows that opens when you launch the Internet
Browser has at least a blank field in which you can enter the
web address of the page you are looking for; at least a window
to show you the content of the page and some basic buttons to go
back and forward among pages, or scroll up and down on the same
page. Every Internet page has a unique address called URL, which
stands for Unique Resource Locator. This is the unique address
of a web page; like your house, any page on Internet has a
unique address, which appears like this:
www.nameofthewebpage.com or .org, .us, .de, .org.
Imagine that you can chat with your pal in Australia, or China
or Japan or California in real time at the cost of a local call:
this is one of the numerous usages you can make of the Internet.
When your local is too small for you, you can get global – you
can reach the most remote computer on earth.
What said above is just to show you how powerful the World Wide
Web can be in making the world smaller. Communication and
Information are then the two words that will certainly put you
on the right track when trying to understand what Internet is.
Information and communication supported by computers and phone
lines or satellites: this is what keeps Internet alive. But
without you, the Internet USER, all this wouldn’t have any
sense.
As it allows you to communicate information, Internet is not
only a place of ideas, but also a place of action. This means
that you can do your shopping through the Internet; you can
actually buy anything you would in a normal shop down the road.
And of course, you could open your commercial web site where you
could sell to the world your special product. One of the biggest
mistakes is to believe that you can only sell information via
the web. That’s wrong. You put on your web site information that
sells, and it would sell products which are non-information
products, but 3D objects existing outside the web page or
services to be provided outside the world wide web.
One of the interesting usages you can make of the Internet is
banking. You can access your own bank account, view statement
and even manage your funds, paying bills or receiving money.
The aim of this article is not to list all that you can do, but
to give you a hint of what you can do over the Internet. You are
sitting at your computer in own room, or office, anywhere in the
world and it wouldn’t make a difference to you where the
information you are accessing is physically located.
In order to have an Internet Experience of a certain quality you
need to take care of some technical factors together with some
basic knowledge. In the first place, speed is a key factor: how
fast is your connection to your ISP? This is a crucial point.
Generally speaking information travels in seconds from one
corner of the world to the other; where you may experience the
slow down is in the segment that goes from your computer to your
ISP. This is why you should have a good phone line connection –
ISDN or Broadband, via cable or satellite. In this way your
Internet experience is fully enjoyable.
Once your speed connection is satisfactorily solved, you need to
know what you are looking for over the Internet and how to find
it, if you wish to make your Internet experience productive and
worthwhile. I cannot tell you what you should look for, but I
can give you some indication on how to find it.
You need to use a search engine like Google, Altavista, Lycoos
and others. A search engine is usually appearing to you as a
webpage containing at least a title, a blank field and a button
to launch the search. You need to type in your Internet browser
the URL of one of these web pages. When you open your Internet
Browser – Internet Explorer, Netscape, Monzilla, or Opera or
some other – you type in the Address field the URL of the search
engine page you wish to access.
In the case of a search engine like Google, you would type
www.google.com. Hit the Go button and the Google page with a
blank field will appear to you. Now, enter in the blank field
the description of what you are looking for and hit button that
launches the search. The results of your search will usually
appear in few seconds: a list of web pages titles, descriptions
and links will be the new page on your screen. If what your
looking for is listed, click on the page name and you will be
brought there. This also means that that title is a link; as
such you do not have to type manually the URL of that address
but it will bring you automatically there once you click on it.
Generally speaking you can search for virtually every imaginable
information that can be put electronically put into text, image,
video and audio. Just imagine how useful would be for a student
to have available at any time and nearly everywhere all kind of
information about his/her subject.
What about that e-mail you had to send to your friend? Indeed
your e-mail campaign to advertise the launch of your last
product is due to start today. And what about that song you
wanted to download and the last clips from that movie your
friend just produced? On the other hand you might just want to
chat with somebody about some difficulties you are having in
your activity- so you will find some newsgroups that have as
main topic your activity and you can ask for help by posting a
message with your request. And of course you can participate to
a discussion topic with your own messages.
There is point that I like to stress: Internet is interactive
and this means that you’re not passively receiving information,
but you constantly choose what info you want to access. From
digital photography printing to listening to your favourite
radio; from the web camera installed on your front door you can
watch who is ringing your door bell… the only difference that
you are sitting at the in your hotel room.
The Internet makes certainly the world smaller – Knowledge
becomes more and accessible. Even though the most popular
language over the net is English, a growing number of web sites
are available in all other languages.
If you are missing the Internet experience, you are missing more
than just a trendy event. So you have a computer connected to an
ISP via a fast speed connection; you have a basic understand of
what an Internet Browser is and you know some basics about the
Search Engine: what are you waiting for? Start you navigation,
follow the path to your object and enjoy the revolutionary
experience that is Internet today for you.
Maurizio Bisogno, graduate in philosophy and former IT
Professional,is the author of several publications and
translations. http://www.mauriziobisogno.com
mailto:me@mauriziobisogno.com
P.S. I have created an e-book containing the all series of The
12+1 Secrets to Become a High Achiever. So if you wish to have
the content in one e-book, easy to open and read just click on
the link below
click me to order
http://www.mauriziobisogno.com Feel free to contact me if you
need any other explanation or help.
Yours Maurizio Bisogno TRTW Editor
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