IT FAQs
What is the Internet?
The Internet today is a large-scale network of
millions of computers that allows continuous communication
across the globe. The various aspects of the Internet
are:
- The World-Wide Web (the web or WWW)
- Electronic Mail (E-Mail)
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Internet Relay chat (IRC)
- USENET (a news service)
The World-Wide Web
he www is the reason the Internet has become
as popular as it has. This is the part of the
Internet that the majority of users see —
the websites and the pages that make them up.
The web is the most widely used service of the
Internet, accessed through a web browser like
Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. These
pieces of software are gradually integrating other
parts of the Internet into them (most notably
e-mail and ftp), so that eventually we will have
one interface to the entire array of services
the Internet offers.
The web is an immense collection of web pages,
linked together with hypertext links. Thousands
of new pages of information are added to the heaving
web every hour. Each page is placed on a server,
a computer continually connected to the rest of
the web. The information is then available to
anyone else with access to the Internet. Web pages
can have a mixture of text, graphics and multimedia.
Nowadays, there's information on practically anything
you could be interested in available somewhere
on the web. You can use a search engine to find
what you want.
E-Mail
Electronic Mail works in much the same way as
traditional mail (now charmingly labeled 'snail-mail')
does. Anyone is allowed to sign up for an e-mail
address and then people can send you messages,
or attach files from their computer and send them
too. The main benefit of e-mail is the close to
instantaneous delivery of messages that occurs.
You can send an e-mail to the other side of the
world and it will arrive in less than a minute.
You can also sign up to weekly newsletters and
have information you want delivered right to your
computer.
File trasfer protocol
While web pages are transferred between computers
using the http protocol, other types of files
are sent using FTP. People can share files, like
music and videos, among each other and the rest
of the world by uploading them to a server and
allowing others to download them to their own
computers.
Internet Relay Chat
IRC is a service that allows you to connect to
your chosen channel and talk in real-time to people
with the same interests as you. You can download
» mIRC and start chatting right away.
USENET
USENET (Unix User Network) is a system of bulletin
boards where you and anyone else can post messages
and people will read and reply to them. As with
IRC, you will find boards set up for all sorts
of groups of people. The search engine »
Google has set up a web-interface for these discussion
boards.
If you require more information,
please
click
here to notify one of our team members.