UniNet Internet Services
Guide to the Internet
Third Edition – 30 March 1998
What is the Internet and what is its history?
What you need to access the Internet
Responding to Web pages (Forms)
DISCLAIMER
All information is believed to be correct at the time of going to press.
The mention of software of any type should not be interpreted as a recommendation by
UniNet Internet Services of its fitness for any particular purpose. UniNet does not
provide any warranty on the programs, and disclaims any responsibility for damage or
losses that might occur directly or indirectly from the use of the programs.
Most software available over the Internet is either Freeware or Shareware.
Freeware is distributed free of charge and you do not have to pay for
personal use, although there are certain legal restrictions on how you may copy or
distribute it. Some freeware authors make a simple request, for example that if you
like the software you send them a postcard. Demonstration or evaluation software is
usually freely distributable providing it is not used in a commercial product without
permission.
Shareware is distributed subject to the condition that you may try it for
a short, specified period free of charge. After the trial period you must pay a
registration fee to the author if you wish to continue to use the software. Some
software may disable itself, or disable some facilities, after the initial period.
There are additional restrictions on how you may copy or redistribute it, for instance any
commercial distribution would be restricted.
In any case, always make sure to read, understand and comply with the conditions that
apply to each individual package that you use.
Copyright © 1998 UniNet Internet Services. All rights reserved.
Microsoft®, Windows and the Microsoft Internet Explorer logo are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries.
Individual trademarks are the property of the respective trademark owners.
UniNet recognises all copyrights and trademarks and acknowledges the copyright holder
where possible.
This guide is intended to provide a background to the Internet, before you attempt to start using it, and to provide a guide to each of the services available through the Internet, after you have successfully connected.
This Third edition replaces the second, dated 26 March 1998.
In 1969, the US Department of Defence funded a project called ARPANET; to link universities and contractors involved in military research. This project had an aim to develop a networking system that could remain operational when components were lost (e.g. in times of war). Thus the project created standards for computer communications protocols that have become the basis for "The Internet" as we know it today. These standards are known as the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. The Suite comprises five protocols, the first two of which also give their name to the whole Suite. The five protocols are: -
For the Windows environment Internet application programs need an interface to TCP/IP. Winsock provides this interface, which is an implementation of an agreed interface of the Berkeley socket library.
There are many implementations of TCP/IP (known as TCP/IP stacks) and for each implementation there is a corresponding implementation of Winsock.
These protocols lie behind much of the software associated with the Internet, and as a result the names and acronyms crop up in the names of many popular products.
To use the Internet you do not have to understand TCP/IP or Winsock. If you wish to know more about TCP/IP and Winsock anyway try http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~xniu/winsock.htm for a good starting point.
ARPANET was provided with its own cross-country communications backbone, but "The Internet" that we have today became realistic with the introduction of the earliest practical, high-speed computer networking technology. The first practical networks were Local Area Networks (LANs) created around 1982, covering no more than a couple of square miles.
Then began a variety of projects to link networks. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) funded a project to link university networks throughout the US to a number of super-computers. The UK government funded a network called JANET (Joint Academic NETwork).
Commercial organisations (e.g. IBM) began to develop their own compatible (IP) commercial networks, and gradually these networks became linked together.
Finally, this combination of networked systems has caught the imagination of the public sufficiently that viable business operations (On-line Service Providers (OSPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs)) have become possible, to provide connections for individual users.
When a network is connected to the Internet it requires a Router, a CSU/DSU, and a permanent cabled link (a leased line) to connect to an Internet Access (Backbone) provider, who, in turn, provides connection to the Internet.
Telephone companies provide leased lines of various speeds, on the basis of an annual fee. The different leased line speeds give more or less bandwidth, where the more bandwidth available the faster the access to the Internet.
It is a crucial characteristic of the Internet that is an essentially random inter-connection of networks. When data is passed between networks the Router in the originating network, and the Router in each network thereafter, will dynamically select the least busy route available. This may sound like a big administrative overhead, and may involve apparently unnecessary distances, but the flexibility and resilience that is implied was an objective of the original ARPANET project and has proved successful for a long time.
Data (an e-mail or file) is transmitted across the Internet by 'packet switching' (i.e. it is split into 'packets' that are sent individually and re-assembled automatically when they arrive at their final destination).
The predominant philosophy of the Internet is that once you have established a connection the only subsequent cost is that of the telephone charges. For individuals, 'establishing a connection', usually means subscribing to an ISP or OSP service and connecting to the service via a modem. It has recently become the norm for the telephone call to an ISP or OSP to be made using a telephone number charged at local call rates. Thereafter whatever site you connect to on the Internet, anywhere in the world, it only costs you the price of a local call. There are exceptions:
However, this situation may be expected to change. The interest being shown by many large commercial organisations is obviously with a view to commercial advantage. For the time being this is mostly limited to indirect commercial advantage (e.g. marketing, on-line retail sales), but we may expect the introduction of an increasing number of separate subscription-only leisure and information services in the future.
Clearly, with millions of computers on the Internet, it is necessary to have a scheme to uniquely identify each one. At the simplest level this is achieved with a numbering convention of four numbers separated by dots, for example:
204.181.198.34
As a more user-friendly alternative this numbering convention is parallelled by the Domain Name System, which provides an alphabetic equivalent. This alphabetic address is based on a hierarchical structure of domains. You may think of a domain as a 'group'. Name Servers automatically translate alphabetical addresses into number addresses. Individual users connecting to the Internet via their ISP and a modem are only aware of their alphabetic address, and when this is translated to a numeric address the numeric address will vary according to the dynamic process of connecting their modem to a modem at their ISP.
A typical domain name would be:
cowshorn.co.uk
The hierarchical structure is reflected in reverse order. The highest level domain is 'uk' and below this is 'co'. These top two levels show that the address is in the UK ('uk') and is a company ('co'). Typically, the next level is the name of the company ('cowshorn').
All domain names are strictly regulated and registered. The highest-level domain names are usually country codes, except in the USA where they take advantage of having been the originators of the Internet. Thus in the USA they have, for example, highest-level domain names of 'com' for a company (equivalent to 'co.uk' in the UK), 'gov' for government sites, and 'mil' for military sites. The domain name 'com' is also used by companies not primarily based in the USA, but the registration has to be handled by the USA registration authority.
With a little practise you will find that you are often able to guess at the domain name for a company, at least close enough to start a search on the Web. For an explanation of how this addressing is extended for Web page addresses and for limitations on how successful Web address guessing might be see "How the Web works" below.
Addressing of e-mail is an extension of domain naming. Thus:
alfred.porter@cowshorn.co.uk uniquely addresses Alfred Porter where @ is the conventional separator and 'alfred.porter' is the user name.
For a user connected to the Internet via an ISP their e-mail address will use the ISP domain name; for example:
alfred@porter.uninet.co.uk
This also illustrates that an individual may have multiple e-mail addresses on the Internet.
If you are unlucky enough to find that another user in your domain has the same name you will have use an alternative; for example:
alf@porter.uninet.co.uk
In principle, any person or organisation can choose their own domain name. The only limitations are the cost of registration and finding that the required name has already been registered. However, the real cost is not in the domain name, but in connecting it to the Internet. The simplest and least expensive way to arrange this is through an ISP, which will give the realistic appearance of a separate domain name while still connecting to the Internet via the ISP's domain.
Nobody!
The Internet works on the basis of a common standard for connection, and on the basis that many organisations and companies voluntarily connect their networks together. OSPs and ISPs have come into existence solely for the purpose of providing individuals with the means to connect.
Internet Access (Backbone) providers are specialist companies with their own network connected to the Internet.
The Internet Access (Backbone) providers are the companies that provide the capacity and the co-operation that makes the Internet what it is. Some exist to manage and promote the content of their network; others exist solely to provide access capacity to other organisations. Some Internet Access (Backbone) providers are also Internet Service Providers, but others base their business on providing Internet Access (Backbone) only to Internet Service Providers.
This is the nearest that any organisation comes to 'owning' the Internet.
However, several bodies exist to set and maintain standards or to provide a forum for co-operation between otherwise competing companies: -
The Internet Society supports the Internet Activities Board (IAB), which amongst other things, is responsible for assigning network IP addresses, through the Internet Assigned Number Authority, and for governing how the Domain Name System works, through the Internet Registry.
The World Wide Web Consortium is responsible for standards of the World Wide Web.
Several organisations and facilities exist for ISPs and OSPs. The main purpose of the London Internet Exchange (LINX) is to avoid traffic solely between UK Internet users having to go outside the UK. This is a co-operative organisation, funded by its members, and restricted to Service Providers with their own international capacity. By sharing UK capacity the members are able to keep their own costs down and maintain performance for their end users.
Similar organisations to LINX exist in Europe and the United States. In Europe it is known as RIPE. In the United States there are three, the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) in California, the MAE-east on the East Coast, and the MAE-west on the West Coast.
Through their partners, UniNet are represented at all of these ISP organisations.
Fortunately, while the above is an interesting background, it is not necessary for an individual user to understand it in any greater detail. An ISP (or OSP) will provide all that the individual user requires. However, not all ISPs are equal, and the issues of reliability, support, and speed of access will be crucial to the individual user.
The On-line Service Providers (OSPs) (e.g. Compuserve and America Online) were the first services offered to individuals. Their networks offer full access to the Internet, and in addition, unique content and special services that are only available to their subscribers. In some cases these services parallel those available to everyone on the Internet, but benefit from better, more co-ordinated, presentation and management. For example, Compuserve Forums are similar to a combination of Internet Newsgroups and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
The only reason why you would not automatically choose an OSP over an ISP is that the OSP is likely to cost you more. This is because OSP charges are typically based on a limited free access time for a monthly subscription, plus charges that relate to the time that you are connected to their unique content and services. (This is in addition to the telephone line charge.)
The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have become more popular with the development of the World Wide Web, because where once a company would use one or more of the OSPs to make their product information available, they now have their own Web site that is available to all Internet users. Most ISPs now offer unlimited access for a fixed period charge.
What you need to access the Internet
The basic list is:
For the purposes of this guide the type of computer that most people use has been assumed. This is the so-called IBM-compatible PC. An Apple Mac or Sun Workstation, for example, is equally suitable.
The technology of PCs changes very fast and this makes up-to-date advice hard to give. There is an interesting way to look at the PC market that is used regularly in PC magazine articles. This involves assuming a budget for a PC purchase and at regular intervals investigating what specification you can get for this sum. Setting aside the details of the technology this exercise has shown over the last few years that at any given time there are three broad categories on offer.
In the middle price range is the specification that is the norm for that time. Below this is the 'old stock' that can be obtained cheaply, but has one or two more obvious shortcomings in specification. Above the middle price range there are many variations, including models providing the best of everything, models for specialist requirements, and models that simply represent chasing the latest technology. This sounds obvious and would be no help except for one thing; the price brackets have hardly changed in the last few years. The price ranges are £600-£1000, £1000-£1300, and £1300-very expensive. When the technology changes less quickly we may expect prices to fall in real terms, but there is no sign of this at present.
The features of a PC that you need to consider in detail are:
The Processor should be a Pentium 166 or 200Mhz with MMX technology. Pentium II Processors are the coming thing but for a few weeks yet will still command a small premium on price. (This is a good example of the difficulty in giving advice - it so quickly gets out of date.)
Memory should be a minimum of 16Mb. Of all the features this is the first place to go for more than the minimum. You are more likely to benefit from more memory than a faster Processor. Memory is the key when you are running several programs simultaneously or programs are handling a large volume of data (e.g. graphic, image, sound and video files).
Hard Disks are now rarely less than 2Gb. Typical disk capacity is the factor that has grown fastest in recent years, both in terms of availability and requirement. It seems hard to believe that the requirement could continue to grow at the same rate, but it probably will. If you get short of disk space it will not effect performance, but you will find it frustrating to have to regularly tidy up the disk space because you are running close to the limit.
A Monitor with a resolution of 800x600 and 256 colours, with 2mb of memory on the VGA card is a sensible minimum. Games players in particular will appreciate more memory and perhaps a higher colour resolution. 15" monitors are gradually replacing 14", but you will still have to pay a small premium. 17" monitors are helpful for multiple concurrent windows or if you expect to spend a lot of time reading text on screen, but they cost considerably more.
You will need a 16-bit sound card and speakers, which usually come with a card.
A CD-ROM drive is essential. Very little software is distributed now on floppy disks. The speed of CD-ROM drives has increased dramatically in a short time. 'x20' is now typical. Except for some games players you will find it difficult to justify spending extra for a faster drive.
The PC operating system Windows95 will make life significantly easier than its predecessors will. Windows NT 4 is also available but if you don't already know what it is you don't need to know. For an Apple Mac 7.5 is the earliest version to use, but aim for 8.0.
You need both keyboard and mouse.
WebTV is a new concept. The primary advantage is that it costs only about £300 and you save the cost of a computer and modem. The primary disadvantage is that it is not a computer and the TV screen display quality is likely to be worse than a computer monitor is. There are very few suppliers so far and you will need to find an ISP that will support it. You will need to think about the logistics of using this combination of kit. Will you buy the optional infrared linked keyboard to be able to sit at leisure to use it, and if you do, will you be able to see the contents of the screen from that distance?
Some day soon computers and televisions will have a lot more in common, including screen technology (PCTV is both, in the same box, and already exists), but how the commercial world is going to get us there is not at all clear. WebTV may be a step on the way, but it does not seem to have made the way any clearer yet.
You can use your existing telephone line; in fact most people do, but bear in mind the following:
Modems were given their name because they modulate and demodulate data before and after it is transmitted across the telephone network. In other words modems work in pairs to send and receive and every modem is capable of handling either role. This is necessary because the telephone network was designed to handle voice in analogue format, rather than digital.
This is all just beginning to change, with digital telephone lines (known as ISDN) becoming available. These are designed with computer data in mind. To use these lines you don't need a modem, but you will need an ISDN card or terminal adapter. For the time being ISDN is expensive enough to be unusual. ISDN lines are faster and more reliable so if you expect to be a heavy Internet user (at least a small business) it may be worth looking into the costs.
The modem may be internal or external. An internal modem fits neatly inside your PC. The reason to choose an external modem is for the flexibility to use it with more than one PC. An internal modem occupies one of a limited number of slots in your PC; an external modem occupies space on your desk (approx. 7" x 5") and one of the serial ports of your PC. If you have an existing PC check that the serial port is fast enough (look for a '16550 UART chip or better) and if not upgrade it.
You will find a choice of modem speeds, starting at 28.8 Kbps, and also 33.6Kbps and 56Kbps. Ordinarily the best choice is the fastest (i.e. 56Kbps), which will minimise your connect time (and demands on your patience) and make savings that will offset any extra that you pay for it. Unfortunately, after a few years of harmony and a number of co-ordinated new technology standards, the modem manufacturers have had a spat over the standard for 56Kbps and have agreed to differ at the expense of the consumer. The current situation is that there are two standards and since your modem will have to co-operate with the modems of your ISP you need to know what standard(s) they support.
The two standards are known as K56flex and X2. K56flex is the slightly more common. It is a sad reflection on the combatants that neither has gained a reputation for being better than the other is. So long as you co-ordinate your choice with your choice of ISP you will not have worry about it, but they do not all support both standards. This appears to be particularly so since a compromise standard (known as V90) was agreed in February 1998. The expectation is that the ISPs will first deploy the standard and then their subscribers will be able to apply an upgrade to either modem type and we will all return to a single standard.
You will find that there are more expensive modems with one or two other major features that are not relevant to Internet connection but may be of interest to you. Some have fax capability and allow you to use your PC for fax handling. Some have voice capability, which allows you to use your PC for telephone answering and voice messaging.
The list of software that you need is:
Historically all of these have been separate programs but more recently there has been a trend towards combining some of them. Typically this has taken the form of making e-mail and newsgroups look like functions of the Web Browser, which is slightly confusing.
The following section gives details about the purpose and functionality of the application programs listed, in the context of the services that they provide.
The installation program will be supplied by your ISP or OSP and will install the set of software that they offer. This may or may not be a full set as above, or may not include the particular brand of a program that you prefer or expected. This will not prevent you from obtaining what you do want and augmenting or replacing what was originally offered. In doing this you should take into account the support position outlined by your ISP. Even the ISPs that deliberately offer a good support service (24-hour cover is a good indication of a positive attitude) will define the programs that they are geared to support and may struggle with those for which they are not.
The dial-up communications software is used by your PC to make the connection or 'log-on' to your service provider's Internet connection and is referred to as a SLIP or PPP connection. For PCs this software has been largely standardised as the Windows95 Dial-up Networking feature - use it if you can.
When you are downloading files you are vulnerable to viruses. Of course in most cases there will be no problem, but when you grow in confidence and start to cast further for software than the more obvious suppliers the risks will grow. Fortunately there is an answer, which is anti-virus software. You will have to buy this software, and to keep abreast of new viruses it requires an on-going subscription, but you will become convinced of its value if you just once suffer from a virus that messes up your PC in a big way.
The Internet supports many different services (or applications). The most popular are:
It is perhaps surprising to find the Web tucked away at the end of a list of Internet services. The Web has perhaps become 'the tail that wags the dog', but if our objective is to provide an understanding then this is its logically and chronologically correct place. It may be some consolation to know that the section of this document that describes the Web is large.
There are others, like Archie, Veronica, Gopher, and WAIS, but these were developed in the earlier days of the Internet and have been largely replaced by the Web.
Archie is a Public Service provided by NEXOR. With Archie client software you can find files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it. Try http://www.nexor.com/archie/ to find out more.
Gopher is a widely successful method of making menus of material available over the Internet. Gopher is a Client and Server style program, which requires that the user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher spread rapidly across the globe in only a couple of years, it has been largely supplanted by Hypertext. There are still thousands of Gopher Servers on the Internet and we can expect they will remain for a while. The University of Minnesota created the first Gopher site and they named it after their mascot. Applications used to browse and navigate Gopher sites are also called gophers. Try ftp://snake.srv.net/pub/windows/archives/wsg-12.exe for a gopher described in a review as the best gopher available on the 'net.
This service goes back to the earliest days of the Internet and is the simplest form of communication (i.e. the exchanging of files). The concept is simple, but bear in mind that a considerable variation in computer types, operating systems, and file formats is accommodated so the underlying technology is not trivial.
FTP is the basis for the increasingly common step of downloading files from the Internet. Many web sites have FTP Servers that offer many files for downloading. For example:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com will take you directly to the Microsoft files available for downloading. Typically such a location will initially present a top-level directory (folder) list which you can browse down to the file level. Brief descriptions of each folder and file are given but this route more or less pre-supposes that you know what file you are looking for. Therefore it is more common to use your Web Browser (see below) to access the normal web site and expect to be directed from there by links, for example:
http://www.microsoft.com will lead you to an explanation of available Software Updates and to the corresponding files at the ftp site. After selecting the destination directory or folder the file will be automatically transferred to your hard disk.
Large files can take a long time to transfer and therefore such files are often compressed to reduce transfer time. Such files need to be decompressed after they arrive. Often this process is made transparent to the user because they are 'self-installing' files (with a .exe filename extension), which it is only necessary to run to both decompress the file and install the software it contains. Where files are compressed but the 'self-installing' technique is not used they will have a .zip filename extension. In this case you will need a program to decompress them. The most commonly used program is a shareware program named WinZip, which is available from the Web site http://www.winzip.com. WinZip is also useful for compressing files for transfer.
When you are downloading files you are vulnerable to viruses. Of course in most cases there will be no problem, but when you grow in confidence and start to cast further for software than the more obvious suppliers the risks will grow. Fortunately there is an answer, which is anti-virus software. You will need to buy this software, and to keep abreast of new viruses it requires an on-going subscription, but you will become convinced of its value if you just once suffer from a virus that messes up your PC in a big way.
In the normal run of things you will be able to send files to other people by attaching them to an e-mail.
However, there are circumstances in which it is useful or even necessary, to transfer a file to another computer on the Internet without any involvement on the part of the recipient. A good example is the publication of your own Web site, which needs to be uploaded to your ISP's Web Server.
Various software combinations exist to handle this, but one alternative is a separate FTP software program. This program will simultaneously present you with the directories (folders) hierarchy of both your own PC and the selected target computer. All that you need to do is to select the source files and target directory (folder), select the 'binary' option for the transfer mode, and initiate the transfer.
E-mail (electronic mail) has made a rapidly increasing impact in the commercial world and it has recently been suggested that it has overtaken the fax as the most popular form of communication.
E-mail is ideal for short, sharp exchanges of news, information and opinion. The only limitation of e-mail is that not everyone has access to it, but the number that do is increasing rapidly. The time is not far away when our televisions will serve for Internet connection and therefore e-mail. Once the means has been established the cost of an e-mail is very low because it only requires a telephone connection of seconds at local call rate although the recipient may be anywhere in the world.
All Internet users have an e-mail address (see Addressing on the Internet above), for example:
alf.porter@cowshorn.co.uk
There are numerous software programs available to handle e-mail. Some are e-mail specific programs; others are general Internet programs with an e-mail function. There are also combinations of programs that more or less work together. Some examples of programs are described at the end of this section. The remainder of this description of how e-mail works is generic.
The basic functions for sending an e-mail are:
Until the last step it is possible (normal) to remain unconnected to the Internet. For multiple e-mail items all of the steps up to the last may be repeated, with the effect that all of the e-mails will wait in the outgoing mail tray. Sending the waiting e-mail(s) will take only a matter of seconds (and thus cost little in telephone charges).
The function to receive e-mails is a single step. E-mail being received is handled automatically by the server for the user's domain and is stored there until (and potentially after) the user has requested to see their e-mail. As with sending e-mail you may expect to be connected to the Internet only for as long as it takes to actually transfer the received e-mail from the server.
If you wish to reply to an e-mail most software programs provide a function (e.g. Reply button) that will automatically set up a reply using the details (addressee(s) and subject/title) from the received e-mail. It is usually an option to include the original message to remind the sender what you are replying to.
When you send e-mail you may attach documents that you have prepared separately with a Word Processor or Spreadsheet program for example. It is only recently that this facility has been made user-friendly, with the introduction of standard, automatic encoding techniques to get documents into the e-mail and out again. This is necessary because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII (i.e. text). There are three main types of encoding:
So, without dwelling unnecessarily on the difficulties of the past, you may now expect your e-mail software program to offer you the chance to attach document(s) by browsing all of your files in order to select the one(s) required. The recipient will similarly be able to save the attached document(s) to a folder of their choice and view it there with the appropriate program.
As your collection of e-mails (sent and received) grows you will wish to manage them in separate folders according to subject. Most e-mail programs provide the user with the means to do this, for example with a conceptual Filing Cabinet in which folders may be created with names (e.g. House, Hockey, Cricket, Ballet, etc) of the users choice.
The computer world and the Internet in particular have a deserved reputation for insecurity. It has been a theme for many years for 'hackers' to entertain themselves by demonstrating that they can gain access to data (including e-mails) that were never intended for their sight, or even create data appearing to have been originated by someone else. There are also other factors that make your e-mail inherently insecure:
Thus, as the Internet stands at present you should not expect, and certainly do not rely upon, your e-mail being private.
However, all of the foregoing aside, very little risk is associated with the vast majority of e-mail. The worst that can happen in the majority of cases is that e-mail is not successfully delivered and this is usually reported back to the sender.
For that minority of e-mail that requires secure handling some features are already available and others are becoming available:
Many search engines (see "Searching the Web" below) provide the facility to search an e-mail directory. However, while this may narrow down a search it is not a certain way to identify an address for an individual. For example, the same name is likely to come up for each of several service providers. Entries do not also contain confirmatory details like postal address or telephone number. The only reliable way to proceed is to have people tell you their e-mail address, and when they do, try it immediately to confirm that you have it right.
Sorry, but the same problems exist with e-mail as with paper mail. Much of this is randomly targeted, 'get rich quickly' material. Deleting such material is not difficult, if slightly irritating. If you are tempted to take any interest in junk mail be particularly careful of running any attachments sent to you; they just might be malicious and contain a virus!
Reputable companies (e.g. Microsoft) will sometimes become aware of your e-mail address and put you on to a mailing list 'to keep you informed of their product news'. In these cases it is usually possible to respond to have yourself removed from this mailing list.
Mailing lists are a mechanism for people with a common interest to share their e-mail. To join a mailing list you 'subscribe' to it, and then you will be given a special address to use, which will have the effect that any e-mail you send will go to all subscribers to the mailing address. To drop out of the mailing list you simply 'unsubscribe'.
The current trend for common interest groups is to use Newsgroups (see below), which are similar, but have significant differences. In summary, a mailing list will guarantee that you have the opportunity to see every item, but at the cost of a potentially very busy mailbox. Newsgroups items are held on the Internet (on a News Server) and are regularly tidied up, so if you fail to check the Newsgroup for too long you may miss items.
TELNET provides a remote logon capability, which lets a user at a terminal or personal computer log on to a remote computer and function as if directly connected to that computer.
Formerly known as Usenet newsgroups.
Newsgroups are a variation on a computer bulletin board, and accommodate common interest groups.
Newsgroups have much in common with Mailing Lists (see above), but instead of receiving items (e-mails) you have to visit the Newsgroup to see what others have posted there.
There are thousands of Newsgroups on the Internet and they are supported by computers (Newsgroup Servers), which interact to exchange new items. In this way each service provider provides its subscribers with an up to date view of all the Newsgroups.
Thus, in principle, there is an ever-increasing content within the Newsgroups, but this is managed by periodically clearing out the oldest items. The period varies from Newsgroup to Newsgroup. The support of Newsgroups to users, and particularly the management of Newsgroups, requires significant computer resource.
Each ISP has to choose what level of support to provide for Newsgroups. The first choice is the number of Newsgroups to support. The second choice is the strategy for their Newsgroup Server, which may be a separate computer or be shared with another server (e.g. the Web Server). The implication of this second choice is not only the performance of Newsgroup handling, but also the performance of the other functions on the same computer. According to these choices an ISP may not suit your requirement. For example, if you wish to access a specific Newsgroup you should check with prospective ISPs that they support that Newsgroup.
Some order is brought to Newsgroups in various ways:
Some OSPs provide their own equivalent of Newsgroups (e.g. Compuserve has Forums), which may have additional features, but are of course restricted to the subscribers to the OSP which rather defeats the object of the openness of the Internet.
A Newsgroup name is made up of words separated by dots. The words are hierarchical, the left most being the highest (i.e. opposite to e-mail addresses). For example:
alt.recipes.babies
alt.recipes.hawaii
soc.history.african.biafra
soc.history.medieval
Finding the Newsgroups that are of particular interest to you is a matter of browsing, beginning with the use of key words in search facilities. Some of the Internet search engines may be directed to the Newsgroups (e.g. AltaVista) and the separate Newsgroup programs also provide a name level search facility.
When you have located a Newsgroup to which you wish to subscribe your Newsgroup program will allow you to 'subscribe' to it. For the Newsgroups to which you elect to subscribe your Newsgroup program will store them in a file to allow you to read them. There is an equally simple facility to allow you to 'unsubscribe' from a Newsgroup.
Once you have selected a Newsgroup, you will be presented with single line headers summarising each item. Click on an item to have it displayed.
You will be wise to get the feel of a Newsgroup before posting an item, to make sure that you know what the existing subscribers expect from it. In particular make sure that you read any Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, and don't attempt to use a Newsgroup for commercial purposes, which contravenes the established etiquette. Posting an item is similar to sending an e-mail, except that you do not have to supply an address.
Replying to an existing item is much the same except that there will be a unique function which will automatically give you the subject heading, rather like replying to an e-mail.
To check for responses to your items you will need to return to the Newsgroup after an interval, again rather like the use of e-mail.
Some Newsgroup programs provide the option to use e-mail for a posting or reply. In this case you may expect to receive messages back via e-mail.
Well you won't actually get a conversation because it does not take the form of voice but, almost as you type, your text is displayed for other users who are connected to the same Chat Server. There are many similarities with ham radio.
There are numerous Chat Servers from which to choose, and each Server offers multiple channels each of which is nominated for a particular topic. (To see a list of available Chat Servers visit the #IRChelp Web site (http://www.irchelp.org).)
Like ham radio the majority of 'conversation' is small talk, but the possibilities are exiting for unofficial news bulletins out of strife torn or remote parts of the world.
It is also typical of IRC for users to adopt a nickname and to use acronyms for commonly used phrases (e.g. AKA - also known as).
If you are connected via an OSP you may find that you cannot get access to the Internet Chat Servers, although the OSP will probably offer a similar service. This will of course be no consolation if the people that you wish to converse with are using an Internet Chat Server.
This is the service that has really put the Internet on the map in the last year or two. Typically for a development of such influence it has created some confusion for all except the most committed or involved. The Web is a service on the Internet, which by its scale and influence has come to dominate the Internet.
The Web is a free-for-all electronic publishing medium for words, graphics, pictures, animations, sound, and video. The form of publication is known as Web 'pages' and a set of Web pages is known as a Web site.
Access to this explosion of publications is free to all those who are connected to the Internet.
Anybody can publish Web pages on the Internet. Organisations that can afford their own Web Server attached to the Internet can store Web pages on their own Server. Individuals who access the Internet via an ISP can rent Web space to store Web pages.
The World Wide Web consortium manages how the Web develops and is not above promotional hype, describing the Web as "the universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge". More soberly, we might agree with the former and admit the potential to achieve the latter.
This potential is subject to the resolution of a philosophical issue. The Internet, and therefore the Web as part of the Internet, has grown up as a facility that is free, apart from the cost of providing access, to anyone. Many commercial organisations are aware of the potential of the Web, but cannot justify providing a free service. After growing up with a free facility it may take a little time for the user population to get used to having to pay for access to some Web sites. This dimension of the Web is covered in the later section entitled Services on the Web.
In 1989 a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, working in Geneva for CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, developed a system which would enable members of his working community to share information across the Internet. The system proved successful, was taken up by other working groups, and around 1995 commercial groups began to experiment with it. Tim Berners-Lee remains involved as Director of the World Wide Web Consortium.
The Web does not so much 'work' as exist. It comprises vast numbers of 'pages' of material, stored on computers all over the world, all connected via the Internet. By conforming to the standard set by the World Wide Web Consortium these pages may be accessed by application programs called Web Browsers. The most popular Web Browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
Every page on the Web has a unique address. The basis for this address is as described above in "Addressing on the Internet". A Web page address is also known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the language of the underlying standard. Examples of Web page addresses are:
http://www.british-airways.com
http://www.open.gov.uk/inrev/sa
The first two of these addresses are examples of self-explanatory addresses. With a little experience of the Web you might expect to guess at these addresses if you were looking for information. The third is a little less obvious, but would give Inland Revenue pages for Self-Assessment. The fourth is Liverpool FC! The moral is that you will often need to do some detective work to get to the pages you want (see below).
The "/inrev/sa" for example is a confusing part of the hierarchical address structure. As described in the earlier section "Addressing on the Internet" the hierarchy of "www.open.gov.uk" is inverted (i.e. right-to-left in descending order), but "/inrev/sa" defines subsequent descending levels, and reads left to right! It is dreadful, but was presumably necessary when they set the standard. I think that it is only embarrassment that discourages other authors from writing down the explanation.
Taking the Web page address (URL) - http://www.location.com/directory/file.html
The first two of these elements are very commonly as in the example, but variations are possible. The more common variations on the first element are:
The second element is entirely at the discretion of the owner of the server. If these owners want us to be able to guess at the address of their site they can only use "www." but there are plenty of variations and these are equally visible to the search mechanisms.
As a help to users many of the Web Browsers have an option such that they will accept a Web page address without the prefix up to and including the first dot, adding in the prefix automatically, assuming the most common case (http://www.).
Web page addresses are automatically recognised by Web Browsers (and an increasing number of other software programs) and are automatically displayed in a contrasting colour and under-lined. A powerful feature of the Web is that where such an address is included in a Web page it automatically gets treated as a Hypertext Link (usually referred to as a Link). This has the effect that by clicking on the Link the user is whisked off to the page addressed by it. And it is on this basis that the terms 'surfing' and 'browsing' have been coined, with the implication that the user takes the opportunity to follow attractive cross-references as they are offered.
Links are not always presented is this explicit form. In Web pages of deliberately elegant design Links will often take on a more overtly tempting form. Whatever form a Link takes it will cause the cursor symbol to change, usually to a hand.
Despite the firm identification of standards for the Web a little divergence has crept in between Web Browsers relating to the encoding of features or designs on a Web page. You may see this divergence reflected in Web pages that tell you that they will only be seen at their best if displayed by a specific Web Browser. If you ignore this issue the worst that can happen is that a Web page will not look its best.
There are a number of Web Browsers but the most popular are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The former is free, but by no means owes all of its popularity to this. The latter became the most popular by virtue of its usability and features in the days before Microsoft introduced a competing product. At some stage when you are getting set up for the Internet you are likely to get one of these Web Browsers thrown in. Most likely when you buy a PC or when you sign up with an ISP.
It is symptomatic of the increasing influence of the Web that Web Browsers are becoming ever more sophisticated and are encompassing features relating to the Internet (e.g. E-mail and Newsgroups). To avoid some of the confusion Netscape uses separate product names. Their Web Browser is Navigator and Communicator is their set of products for the Internet that includes Navigator. Microsoft, having called their Web Browser Internet Explorer, has since expanded the content to match the name, so that Internet Explorer (package) contains Internet Explorer (Web Browser) as well as many other applications!
Microsoft have caused a major furore in recent months, and been accused of taking a monopolistic course, by attempting to make their Web Browser just an additional dimension of their Windows operating system. Initially they presented Windows and the Web Browser as inseparable, but the competitive outcry has obliged Microsoft to, at least temporarily, separate them again so that the user does have the option to use an alternative Web Browser. From which we gather just how important the Web has already become.
The following are the broad categories of functions; the details of operation of particular Web Browsers are beyond the scope of this generic guide.
There are many reasons why you may wish to publish Web pages on behalf of a company:
There are also many personal and social reasons to publish Web pages:
One or two pitfalls and options are worth considering before you get started.
A presence on the Web is not a guarantee that you will be noticed in a big way. This is perhaps the down side of the fact that so much material has already been published on the Web, let alone how much is yet to be published. Users of the Web have a lot of material to wade through. You should regard your Web site as a reinforcement of your business marketing and advertising.
If you are planning to accept payment on the Web remember that much bad publicity has given the customers cause for concern. There have been well-publicised examples of customers giving their credit card number in good faith only to find that the supplier was not genuine and used the number to obtain money fraudulently. This may have taken the form of simply failing to supply the goods, or worse. To overcome this you will need to overtly adopt one of the latest procedural environments that are provided by the Web Browsers or OSPs for credit card transactions.
If you wish to run an information service and propose to charge your users you will need to utilise an access security system of user names and passwords to ensure that only your subscribers get access. There is an alternative to setting up all of this security yourself, which is to partner with an OSP. For a cut of your revenue an OSP will plug you in to one of their subscription-based services. Through an OSP you would have the option of charging according to how long your subscriber is connected because OSPs can measure this. However, this is only possible because the only access to your information service is via the OSP and this is a very much more limited audience than the Web as a whole.
There is a rapidly growing service industry to create and publish Web pages so you will find plenty of options to have the job done for you. Remember that your Web pages will need to be kept up to date, not to say 'fresh' in advertising terms. This means that you will also have to budget for an on-going cost, but given the size of the audience you may easily conclude that a Web site is an opportunity to save money.
Web pages are constructed using a coding system known as HTML. This stands for Hypertext Mark up Language. In the past it was necessary to know this coding system and to prepare text containing the appropriate codes to get the layout that you required. However, with the level of interest of the last couple of years has come a flood of software that makes it unnecessary to know these codes. In the case of word processing software it has taken the form of a mode which generates suitably encoded text, but this does not encompass all of the potential for Web page design. In addition there are now specialist programs to provide all of the flexibility that HTML offers. As you would expect there are still people around to argue that the full flexibility of HTML is only available by manually constructing the intended material.
You will find all of this software through the Web. Amongst the Microsoft products, their word processor Word97 allows you to save files in HTML and uses the file extension .htm. For older versions of Word you can download Word Internet Assistant, which will update Word and allow you to create Web pages. The latest version of the Microsoft fully-fledged Web page program is FrontPage98.
The first thing to clarify is the definition of a Web page. It does not correspond to a page of paper or a single screen display. It is simply a logical division of material. The facility to link Web pages is a fundamental and powerful feature of the Web and influences the way in which material is divided into pages. The objective is to make an attractive and easy to follow Web site (i.e. combination of Web pages). The first page on a Web site is known as the Home page. The Home page is traditionally and wisely kept short and takes the form of a content page with links to further pages. The best way to get a feel for an appropriate Web site design is to access some existing ones and find out what a variety of others look like. Remember, of course, that what works for you is not necessarily the point; the design must appeal to your readers. Web page software offers a considerable range of flamboyant tricks and it is tempting to use them all. However, this may only be wise if it is appropriate to demonstrate your prowess specifically on Web page design, otherwise you may detract from the message that you are really trying to put across.
Links to other Web pages may take many forms. The obvious form is:
http://www.british-airways.com
Other forms, called 'hot spots', amount to a disguise to achieve greater elegance and impact. Popular designs are like a computer program function button or simply a graphic design or image. The only limitation is that the user should readily take it for what it is - a link.
By tradition all Web pages are short but if you are proposing to publish a lengthy explanatory document (like this one) you may be wise to make this clear on the Home page, and at the start of the document itself. You could suggest that the reader might prefer the option to print or save the large Web page in order to read it off-line.
Where you do not consider it appropriate to split material into multiple Web pages, but you would still like to include links for the convenience of your readers, you can define 'bookmarks' in strategic places. You can then include links in the same way, which refer to bookmarks instead of pages. This document is an example.
The use of the links in your Web pages is part of the facility for navigating your Web pages. You should put yourself in the position of your readers and try to imagine and prevent the risk of them becoming lost and confused amongst your Web pages. With this in mind there is some tradition that every Web page except the Home page should end with a link back to the Home page where the links of the content section offer the chance to get back on track.
Don't forget that linking is not restricted to pages of your own Web site. In fact links to other Web sites are just as easy to include. If you think that there could be any question of dispute in linking to another site take the safe route of asking for permission first. Remember that Web pages at another Web site might change or even cease to exist so you need to check your external links regularly.
The liberal use of drawings and photographs is considered to be almost de rigueur in the best Web pages. This view is based on the assumption that on-line users will not be willing to read large quantities of text on screen, and need the impact of visual material to keep their attention. You do however have to bear in mind that this visual material is relatively large in terms of file size and will have a significant impact on how long a user has to wait for a page to be downloaded to their PC. Perhaps the correct balance is plenty of impact in the early pages, followed by the 'meat' for those with more serious objectives.
Terminology can be confusing in this area.
Drawings are the common example of what is generally known as graphics. Graphics covers all material that is neither text nor photographs. (Note that even text can be handled as a graphic for certain purposes.) A graphic may be created using a graphics software package (e.g. CorelDraw or Visio) or there are many already in existence, including those that come with the software packages.
Photographs have to be converted to computer files and are then referred to as images, bit-mapped images, or digital images. A printed photograph can be captured as a computer file using a scanner or by using a PhotoCD service at a high street shop (e.g. Boots). If you use the latest digital cameras they will produce an appropriate file directly. There are several formats for image files, the most common of which for Web use are GIF (.gif) and JPEG (.jpg) because they automatically compress the data when it is stored. This helps to reduce the problem of file sizes for downloading. Another way to make image file sizes smaller is to settle for a colour resolution of only 256 colours. The number of colours is a function of the number of bits used to record them so it may go as high as 65,000. In some cases, for the sake of picture quality, you may wish to stick with a high colour resolution, but more likely you will settle for 256 colours. Your image software (e.g. Microsoft Photo Editor) will provide the facility to reduce the colour resolution.
Getting the graphic or image files into your Web pages is straightforward. Your Web page creation software will provide an 'insert' function with options for pictures, graphics, object, etc and will ask you to identify the file you want. (Note that only a pointer is actually inserted and therefore the set of files that are your Web pages must include all of the inserted files, especially when you load them onto the Web.)
Even more sophisticated than graphics and images are sound and video, and of course they also carry the problem of file size and download time to a new dimension. Your 'readers' will certainly have to be patient, and you will have to make it worth their patience. Much progress may be expected with the technology that will make sound and video a commonplace over the Internet in a year or two, but even the van of technology is stretched at present and a high proportion of users are always somewhat behind the van.
Both sound and video may be found as ready-made 'clips'. If you wish to make your own sound and video you will need the appropriate cards and their associated software to capture and create digital files. You will also need devices for the original source of the sound and video (e.g. a tape recorder and a video camera).
RealPlayer, which incorporates RealAudio, RealVideo and RealFlash (animations), from the collaboration between MacroMedia and Real Networks, uses a technique that they call 'streaming' in order to cut down the time that a user has to wait. This has the desired effect by starting to play the stream before the stream has finished downloading.
Other products that support this technology are Quicktime by Apple - see http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ and Shockwave by Macromedia - see http://www.macromedia.com/support/shockwave. Whatever you choose to use you would be well advised to give your readers guidance on how to obtain the software that they will need, and include links to the appropriate Web sites. On the whole the software to access the material is free; the suppliers make their money from the packages that are needed to develop the material.
Screen resolution is also something to consider because the resolution used on PCs varies. You should view your Web pages in the common resolutions to ensure that the way that the Web Browsers choose to display them is satisfactory.
The background for your Web pages may be varied in colour by simply selecting a colour in the Web page creation package. You may even select a graphic or image file to be used as a background. The result of your selection of background should be carefully checked to ensure that you have not sacrificed readability for impact. Particularly remember that not all of your readers will have perfect eyesight.
To make it as easy as possible for your readers to respond to your Web site you should provide full details of the options for making a response. For e-mail you can make your e-mail address a 'hot spot'. This means that when a user clicks on it their e-mail software will automatically prepare a new e-mail complete with your e-mail address.
If you would like your readers to be able to respond to your Web site to place an order or to simply request more information, you can create a form for them to complete. Typically a form has a 'Submit' button at the bottom that the user should click after completing the form. The effect of the 'Submit' button is to cause the form to be transmitted to you as an e-mail.
A facility that you will see on many Web sites is a counter to record the number of times that a Web site is accessed. This facility is available in Microsoft FrontPage98 extensions and may be offered by your ISP as a CGI facility.
Despite the firm identification of standards for the Web a little divergence has crept in between Web Browsers relating to the encoding of features or designs on a Web page. You may see this divergence reflected in Web pages that tell you that they will only be seen at their best if displayed by a specific Web Browser. Unfortunately this divergence applies to the two most popular Web Browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator) and you would be well advised to use only features that they can both handle until they sort themselves out with a common standard.
The latest technology for use in Web pages is philosophically different from Web page creation software or HTML programming. It involves new programming techniques and, in one case, a new programming language. Sun Microsystems' new Java language and the concept of ActiveX controls from Microsoft are designed to allow programs to be included in Web pages and then automatically downloaded and run by the Web Browsers. This of course is an extremely flexible and powerful facility, limited perhaps only by the trust that is required by the Web site 'reader' to allow his computer to be invaded in this way. In the context of the Intranet, where trust may more reasonably be assumed, this technique is considered advantageous because it is a way to ensure that all users are guaranteed to use the latest version of corporate systems and data. This is because they do not need to keep them in their computer, or if they do they can be automatically updated as necessary.
The legal issues relating to the Web are not different from any other context, except that the context is new and therefore there is scope for them to be challenged. Already many challenges are on going. For the majority of us, who wish to choose the safe course, we should take into account the Copyright Law and Data Protection Act just as we would for a document on paper. However, we also have to remember that our Web pages will be seen all over the world. You may consider that you have published in the UK, you may wisely use disclaimers to limit liability, and you may specify that English law applies to any dispute.
This is the step where you transfer your Web pages to the Web Server that supports your domain. This may be the private Web Server set up by your company or for an ISP subscriber it will be your ISP's Web Server. This step is not difficult but when it is completed your Web pages will be available for everyone on the Internet to see, so you should have done all that you can to check them out before you transfer them.
There is an ideal way to check out Web pages. Start your Web Browser but do not connect to the Internet. Type in the full pathname of your Home page on your hard disk (e.g. c:\wpages\hpage.htm) and the Web Browser will behave as if it were accessing the Web, except for any links outside your Web site.
Bear in mind that if you wish to be thorough you should check your Web pages with every Web Browser. However, you may think it sufficient to check them with only the Microsoft and Netscape Web Browsers since between them they cover more than 50% of Web users.
When you are ready to load your Web pages onto the Web start your FTP program (see FTP above). The FTP program will simply need to be told which files from your computer are to be transferred and what directory (folder) they are to be transferred to on the Web Server. Don't forget the graphic and image files - when you inserted them into your Web pages it was only a pointer that was inserted. If you subscribe to an ISP they will tell you the directory (folder) to use, and they will also tell you the URL notation for your Home page. For example:
http://www.uninet.co.uk/alfred.porter/home.htm
As has been explained before, the Web is a vast collection of material. Your Web pages may be regarded as the proverbial 'needle in a haystack' from the point of view of any reader, even if they know that they are there somewhere. There are several ways that you can improve the situation:
Registering with the search engines is not difficult. The search engine Home pages typically offer a form for you to fill in. Amongst more obvious details you will be asked to supply keywords that you would expect your target audience to use when searching for Web sites like your own. Your choice will be critical so plan with an open mind and canvas opinion from others, preferably those who do not think like you do.
The co-operative links schemes will obviously work best commercially on the basis of mutual gain, and are most likely to exist in the hobby and social interest areas like the league, county association, or guild that your club or society belongs to.
After you have first published your Web pages you should consider your strategy to keep them 'fresh'. Ideally you would wish your readers to re-visit your Web site regularly. You might use a news element for variety, and a planned and published schedule of updates (e.g. first of each month) will ensure that readers know when to re-visit.
At its simplest you type in a Web page address (URL) and the Web Browser will display the page. By clicking on Hypertext Links you can move on to further pages. The Browser will record the sequence and some details of pages that you visit and 'Back' and 'Forward' buttons (or similar) will allow you to re-visit these pages. In this case the speed of access is quicker because the Browser uses its record of the pages. To skip with more flexibility between pages you will find a 'History' function, which will display a list of all pages visited and allow you to select the page that you wish to skip to.
You will soon find that there are Web Pages that you wish to return to regularly and to avoid the need to re-type the page address you will be able to record a list of 'Favorites' or 'Bookmarks' (the terminology varies).
Sophisticated Web pages can involve a lot of data and take a long time to download, especially if a critical part of the Internet is unusually busy. If you want to give up in such circumstances you should find a 'Stop' button.
For particularly interesting Web pages you will find the 'Save' and 'Print' functions useful, but don't forget that copyright issues apply much as they do for printed publications.
If you find that the font used on a Web page is not to your liking (typically too small) you can usually change it, but you will sometimes find that this does not work. The most likely explanation is that the text takes the form of a graphical image of text - a technique used to give flexibility in page design.
While surfing and browsing have much to recommend them for entertainment you will probably have some requirement to use the Web for serious research. This is perhaps where the Web really comes into its own, because a vast collection of information on computer(s) lends itself to powerful search facilities. Although your Web Browser will helpfully lead you to search facilities they are not a function of the Web Browser.
There are a number of independent companies who provide 'search engines', which take the form of their Web site and are available free to all users of the Internet. The search engine companies make a constant effort to ensure that they encompass as much of the Web as possible, including new and changed sites. However, do not be surprised if different search engines give different results for the same search, or if you can find a Web site that no search engine can find.
The search engine companies make the majority of their revenue from advertising. This is quite different from similar businesses with independent databases, which have traditionally charged according to connection time. However, although the Web search engine companies have not yet done as well commercially as they originally hoped, the advantages of advertising with them are increasingly appreciated. By relating advertising to search results it is possible to target advertisements well and it is also possible to provide data on how many people have seen each advertisement. We can be sure that the search engine companies would like to charge for searches, but there is a lot of competition and perhaps the advertising revenue will grow sufficiently to remain the primary source of revenue.
The search engines generally offer various search criteria. The following are explanations of some of these criteria:
These search criteria may be used in any combination. After a little practise, and reading about the options provided by the various search engines, you will become increasingly proficient at finding the information that you require. Even so the results of a search are unlikely to be definitive and are likely to throw up some surprises. You will therefore find yourself back to browsing, but in the knowledge that your search has provided a browse platform.
When a subject proves particularly interesting you may find the 'more pages like this' feature of some search engines useful. This is based on an analysis of the text of the current page to identify keywords dynamically and then making a new search.
Web page data may take a variety of forms, from simple text to video with sound. This variety is what is meant by the term 'multimedia'. To add further complexity some of these forms (e.g. video) come in several different file formats. Your Web Browser will cope with most of these varieties, but you will have to keep abreast of new developments and over a period of time keep your Web Browser up to date to match them.
In many cases the multimedia file formats are handled in Web Browsers by so called 'plug-ins', so that as new formats are introduced it is possible to download a new 'plug-in' to handle it.
Most recently the concept of a plug-in has been developed further such that a Web Browser will recognise that a Web page contains a program and will automatically download and run it. This concept was introduced by Sun Microsystems with Java applets, and Microsoft have followed with their own process that they call ActiveX controls. In the latter case programs written in other languages, as well as Java, are accommodated. This, of course, represents the ultimate flexibility of Web pages.
All of this variety makes for increasingly attractive and entertaining Web pages, but the price is that they can take a long time to retrieve.
Little relief from the sheer volume of data seems likely, except that the speed and capacity of computers and communications equipment continues to growth exponentially. Otherwise the technique of streaming may be the only help. This works by playing the start of a file before the end of the file has even been transferred.
These issues are distinct from those that apply to running Web sites on Web Servers on the Internet.
In simply accessing the Web you should bear in mind the following:
A 'cookie' is an item of data stored on your PC as a result of an interaction with a Web page. The original purpose of these cookies was to simplify any subsequent access to the same Web page (e.g. details about yourself for membership, subscription or payment purposes). Unfortunately there is nothing to prevent any other Web page accessing the same cookie, which you may not wish to happen. Some of the latest Web Browsers provide the option to disable cookies.
Java applets and ActiveX controls may be any program and as such may cause problems on your PC, accidentally or even maliciously (akin to a virus). To address this issue Microsoft has developed a system of 'certificates'. Under this system, assuming that you run your Web Browser with the security level option at 'high', you will be warned when a Web page contains an ActiveX control and you will be shown a message box explaining the program's origin and its independent agency certification, if any. You will thus have the opportunity to reject the program.
If you use the Internet for shopping and quote your credit card number for payment this involves a great deal of trust on both sides and it is possible for hackers to find it. One example would be the cookie (described above); another would be an e-mail; and yet another would be completion of a Form (see below). This problem has held back progress in the growth of Internet shopping. For those who see the prospects of big business in this direction it has concentrated the mind wonderfully. New schemes are afoot involving the concepts of 'secure sites' and 'certification' for Internet shopping Web sites.
The facility to download files is your opportunity to keep your computer up to date with the latest software issues in a much more convenient way than was possible before the Internet. As explained above this facility is a specific user-friendly implementation of the basic Internet FTP facility.
If you are using a commercial software package you will almost certainly find that you can visit the suppliers' Web site and find out if any new releases have been made. You may find releases to correct bugs in the version that you have, as well as new releases containing new features, with which to upgrade your current version. In the latter case you are likely to have to pay, but even this can usually be arranged on-line.
Once you have found the file(s) that you require it they will probably have an associated Hypertext Link that will launch the download process beginning with an invitation to specify the directory (or folder) on your hard disk where you want to store it.
Downloading is obviously very much more convenient and quick than off-line purchasing, but take into account that the download time is a function of the size of the file(s) and can take a long time, being dependent upon the speed of your Internet connection. You will quickly learn what the typical rate for downloading is on your connection, and what the quiet times are when the risk of delay or even a broken connection is at a minimum.
You will also have ready access to a bewildering array of software known as 'freeware' and 'shareware'. The former, as the name implies, is free (some software authors are more interested in seeing their software used than getting paid for it). The latter often comes free initially and you are asked to pay a usually small sum if you like it and propose to make regular use of it.
Beware of viruses! (See the section on FTP for advice on avoiding them.)
As the Web attracts more and more commercial organisations which see the marketing potential so you will find that more and more Web pages will invite you to complete the equivalent of a 'reader reply card'. All you have to do is type in the information and click the 'submit' button. With the possible exception of being too free with your credit card number this is a harmless way of getting involved with the Web, but do remember that you may expect to get a lot of junk e-mail - its so easy to generate!
As explained elsewhere these functions have recently been included (by integration) in Web Browsers, but they are no different from the functions that exist in their own right. For a full description it is therefore satisfactory to refer to the earlier sections. To avoid confusion also remember that, for convenience, a Web Browser may provide these functions, but they are supported by the Internet not by the Web.
The origin of the Web, like the Internet, was the provision of a means to make information generally available without charging for it. This situation obviously suits many organisations and companies. For example the Inland Revenue have made all of their guidance documentation available on the Web. Thus, if you are struggling with the Self-Assessment forms and can no longer find the documentation that came through the post, you can read all about it on the Web. This arrangement suits everybody. The Inland Revenue can expect to save some time and money in distribution and support, and some of their 'customers' will have a convenient source of information. Perhaps when the majority of the public has access to the Internet the Inland Revenue will be able to reduce the circulation of that parcel of paper to an 'on request' basis.
However, for obvious commercial reasons many companies would like to dilute the concept of the Internet being free by providing a service via the Web and charging for it. There may well be a demand for such services, even at a price, and providing them will break no rules. However, some examples have been tried and have not yet met with overwhelming success.
For example the OSPs have found that their service strategy has been undermined. Their effort to develop information services on the Internet for their subscribers has been eroded because some of this information has been published separately on the Web with free access. In almost all cases this has been uncontroversial because the original owners of the information have simply taken the opportunity to make it more widely available.
Another example is the search engine services (discussed above). They find themselves operating on a basis familiar in the publishing world in which they depend to a large extent on advertising revenue.
Other examples are just beginning to be tried. Even before the Internet and the Web became popular on-line information services existed. Several good examples were (and still are) to be found in the business world. These services give descriptions and financial profiles of companies and are widely used to obtain an objective assessment of those companies. Access to these services has to be paid for. Some of these services are being made available on the Web, others only via one or more OSPs, and in all cases they continue to be chargeable.
For the time-being there is a healthy, if largely accidental, competition on the Web between those motivated by promotional or recreational interests, who will provide a free Web site, and those who are motivated by running a successful business. As you cast around on the Web for information you will come across examples of both.
We can probably characterise the situation as one that will resolve itself with the passage of time. The services that seem most likely to be successful are those providing material which co-ordinates otherwise dispersed data (e.g. competitive comparisons).
This Web service is not being held back by the customer's unwillingness to pay!
Almost all experts project that shopping via the Web will quickly reach a scale that will have an impact in the High Street. If we bear in mind that as little as a 1% change in shopping trends is likely to have an impact in the High Street this may seem less dramatic and more plausible. If we consider the success of the traditional mail-order catalogues this also supports the view that shopping on the Web is likely to find a niche.
The subject has already been discussed enough for a shorthand terminology to be coined for it - 'E-commerce'.
The issue that is holding back Web shopping is the lack of an established payment procedure. This in turn is caused by fears regarding the security of data, particularly credit card numbers, over the Internet. We may be sure that sufficient incentive exists to solve these problems and indeed solutions are already being introduced. In practise it will be no more possible to prevent fraud problems on the Web than it is in the way we conduct retail transactions elsewhere. The breakthrough will come when the risks peculiar to the Web are equally well understood and accepted. In the meanwhile much of the risk can be taken out of the process by avoiding impulse purchases and establishing a payment route in advance between customer and supplier.
Several experiments have been around for long enough to give an indication of success to come.
Book sales seem to benefit from the fact that customers can select from a much more comprehensive book list than any shop can offer from stock. In some cases customers are given access to the suppliers' own database and can therefore search by author, title, ISBN number, topic, or latest releases.
A current supermarket experiment allows customers to place an order, make payment, and expect delivery the following day. This may not suit the social shopper, but seems likely to be sufficiently popular to become established.
Several initiatives to make educational material available have been launched by the UK government, but all of them have involved commercial third parties and the inevitable costs to the user that go with this. BT has two OSP operations supplying educational material, but it is hard to see the long-term future for such a parochial facility.
The real breakthrough will come when the government's education authority publishes material corresponding to the national curriculum, so that it can be used by all students in conjunction with their lessons at school or college.
This facility is based on a principle sometimes-called 'push' technology. This refers to the relationship between your computer and the Web Server that it is connected to. Traditionally, your computer sees only what it asks for (i.e. pulls), but now we are looking at the facility to have material pushed by the Server on the basis of a prior arrangement. The Web Browsers call their facilities Webcasting or Netcasting and they allow you to 'register' with a Web site with the effect that you are informed when any change is made to it and may have the pages automatically downloaded.
Several products offer combinations of audio and video calls and data sharing over the Internet. Variously these products support:
This is a new and exciting dimension to the Internet. The excitement extends from the potential that is has for users, through the early struggles to set standards, to the resistance of the Telecommunications companies who see the potential for this technology to undermine the traditional telephony markets because the majority of Internet users are connected by local call connections.
For many years larger companies have been developing their internal network to improve communication between staff. With the increasing popularity of the Internet and for the benefit of using the established and user friendly interfaces of the Internet many of these companies have made their internal network Internet compatible. However, they have not connected their network to the Internet and have therefore created a separate, private Internet, for which the term Intranet has been coined. In this way these companies can create Web sites for individual operating units, etc in order to keep staff in the remainder of the organisation informed.
Having this relatively simple step a more recent view of Intranet potential is that it could form the basis of a total Management Information solution for an organisation. As applications require redevelopment the opportunity is being taken to use the Client/Server architecture that is a feature of the Web and to centralise the management of data. The final frontier to the world of Internet/Intranet is perhaps the development of security features that will allow an Intranet to be connected to the Internet with suitable multi-levels of protection for its data.
There are already many examples of companies that are well on the way to adopting this single user-interface policy and the signs are that it is just a matter of time for everybody else. In such circumstances we all know that the last to arrive will lose significantly to their competitors. Now is the time to get to grips with the Internet and Intranets.