Internet Basics for World Wide Web Beginners

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The Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense began what we know as the Internet in 1973. It began a project to make communication easier among government agencies should nuclear or other catastrophic disaster befall the United States. It developed a protocol to send information packets to individual computer addresses. Personal computers weren't mainstream America yet. Only the government, research, and educational facilities used the huge mainframes that existed at the time. Mainframes were large and very expensive, easily filling up rooms, taking what the seventies lexicon referred to as "nerds" or "geeks" to program and run them.

Nearly forty years later, computers have infiltrated the world on every level of life from government to schools to medicine to the tiniest, slimmest computers that we use everyday to access communication in our society. The basics haven't changed, we have. We are a technological people from the time we can depress a button or click a mouse. The toothpaste is out of the tube, we can't go back, we are caught in the Web of the Internet from homework to banking to every facet of communication mankind develops.

What is the World Wide Web? - The resources and users on the Internet that use Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP addresses in order to communicate. It is a global, web of network-accessible information. The information is sent from address to address via packets made up of bits and bytes of digital information. Human users can tap into this vast communication resource in order to share human knowledge. The World Wide Web, known as the WWW is just one protocol of the Internet, the worldwide, umbrella system of computers that enable the web and its many other protocols to function.

What is Electronic Mail? - Electronic mail is most commonly referred to as email. Like postal mail or "snail mail" as it is called, email is the transfer of communication by the exchange of digital messages that are routed from one address to another. Email consists of a header, which contains the routing information and the email body, which contains the message. The transfer is completed by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP. SMTP carries the email packet to one of more recipients separate from the actual email being sent. The bits an bytes are scrambled, then reassembled at one or more email destinations. Email is not a secure way to communicate and is greatly troubled by spam, better known as junk mail.

What is Chat? - Online chat communication is usually one-to-one communication over the Internet, but can be synchronized with many to form group chats or informal communication exchanges. It is a type of social networking and messaging that allows one or more users to instantly "talk" in real-time to each other by typing messages into a window. There are many chat program, applets, and protocols to choose from such as: AOL Chat, Google Talk, Skype, other proprietary chat interfaces. The most popular chats include: IMs or instant messaging, chat rooms, where two or more people can talk in groups or privately, as well as business support chats. These chats allow consumers to ask questions about products and services without leaving their work or homes.

What are Discussion Boards and Forums? - Discussion boards or "channels" are Internet forums that are very similar to traditional bulletin boards in their simplest form. The forums are actually web applications that have been created to give users a place to post content. These message boards or forums are conducive to not only social networking, but to higher-level discussions through work Intranets. Communities of users use Internet "slang" to speed up discussions. For example, someone who needs to leave a discussion might type "BRB", a short way to say "Be Right Back." Most discussion boards and forums are used purposefully to discuss specific user-related content, such as within "use-groups" or "usenets", a specific group for a specific purpose online, often in real-time. Students use asynchronous or discussion not scheduled at the same time for online classes as well as real-time synchronous discussion with instructors, peers, and other students.

Internet Etiquette

What is the norm for cyberspace behavior? The Internet global, multicultural, multilingual, with no sense of nuance. No one can see you roll your eyes or smirk. But they can read inflammatory opinion, compassion, and usually not lies between truth and fiction between the lines. If you would not say it to someone's face, reconsider writing it. No one is moderating your email, but yourself. You may have a moderator who's subjectivity in a chat room is colored by his type of day he had.

Netiquette: Simple rules of engagement over the Internet, like "Do not write in all caps." This means that you are shouting.

Poor Net Behavior: A sarcastic look at how users act on the Internet.

Core Rules of Netiquette: Remembering that you can't see the face on the other end, so respect each other and remember that we are all human, even in cyberspace.

Your Email and Online Persona: Crafting the rules for your behavior online.

Tips for Good Netiquette: Lists of the do's and don'ts of effective email communication on a personal level.

Tips for Kids: Things like "avoiding hurting someone's feelings" and "respect privacy" are two of the tips for kid netiquette.

Mail List Netiquette: Tips for a better experience on specific mail lists such as genealogy lists.

Net Manners: How to use your computer with courtesy to others. Site includes Q & A, special topics, such as email fibbing, accusations, and forwarding, and access to the newsletter and blog.

Netiquette Guidelines: Focuses on email communication to one or more persons, as well as general mail list and general user guidelines.

The View from a Troll: Essays on Internet trolls, those users who know no netiquette or who enjoy chaos from their emails and posts.

Network Netiquette: Early netiquette basics, circa 1994.

Classroom Netiquette: Tips for etiquette online in the classroom.

K12 Netiquette Tips: Netiquette tips for the elementary and secondary school crowd.

Rules of Cyber Engagement: Online course netiquette tips and resources.

Caring About Netiquette: Internet history and how the Internet evolved to include the general public and the need for netiquette.

Internet Safety Issues

The Internet is not a regulated entity. How do we keep personal information safe as it is transferred from IP address to IP address? How do we know what email is real and what isn't? Who are your kids talking to on the social networks and chat rooms? Phishing, spamming, sexual predators, and Internet fraud run rampant. Here is what you can do to protect yourself and your children against all sorts of Internet predators.

Doing Something About Spam: How the North American Consumer Project on Electronic Commerce is fighting spam in your inbox.

Identity Theft: Warnings from the IRS about phishing and other scams related to identity theft.

Phishing: When identity thieves "fish" or "phish" for your personal data, they can do major damage to your reputation and financial history. Here's how they try to get your information.

Keep Kids Safe Online: Tips and tools for parents to learn to monitor their children's Internet habits and usage.

Chat Room Safety: Real-time communication can also mean real-time danger for your family.

Internet Safety by Age: The fact that we even need to monitor a two year old on the Internet tells you how dangerous a place it can be. Also, delves into the risks of Internet use by children and general information.

Wired Safety: Learn how you can monitor, educate, and help thwart cybercrime, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and harassment for all age groups.

Online Sexual Predators: How to protect your kids from online pedophiles.

Project Safe Childhood: U.S. Department of Justice site geared to combating sexual predators on the Internet and keeping our children safer while on the Web.

Privacy and Security: Resources to help keep consumers and families safe on the Internet.

Be On Guard: Tips to help you be on guard and safe while being online.

National Vulnerability Database: Internet safety is just not personal, it is national, and international: a part of our national security.

Computer Crime: Paper focuses on cyberterrorism.

Information Warfare: What computer criminality is and our risks or vulnerability to attack.

Internet Safety for Seniors: How computer crimes are tailored to exploit senior citizens.

How to Search and Find Information on the Web

You can find nearly anything on the Web. Searching for obscure information is as easy as putting in the right keywords into the search engine. A metasearch engine is an algorithm that searches through millions and billions of sites, documents, everything that is found on the web. Google is a metasearch engine. The human rights search engine, HUMRISEARCH is a specialized search engine, targeting just human rights. Most search engines are customizable, although the alternative, smaller search engines tend to be bare-boned.

Recommended Search Engines: Which search engines lend themselves to finding web sites most effectively as well as recommended subject directories.

Search Engine History: Timeline of search engine initiation from 1945-2007.

Boolean Search: Search using Boolean logic using connectors AND, OR, and NOT.

Searching Through the Searched: How to make the best use of your search history.

Temporary Internet Files: Finding files in your browser cache does not need to be difficult. Here's how to do it.

Cookie FAQ: What cookies are and how they contribute to searching and finding information from the Web.

Google: This behemoth is arguably the computer user's first choice in search engines.

Bing: A newer search engine, rapidly catching on to the Internet community.

Altavista: Language translation is one of Altavista's strengths.

Dogpile: Dogpile has a little bit of everything, hence, the name.

Yahoo: A newsy, customizable search engine that allows you to search and go to news, email, and shopping all on its home page.

WorldCat: Use this browser plug-in to find books, videos, and downloadable audio books.

What Browser? Site tells you what browser you are using and how to best optimize it for a better search experience.

Anatomy of a Search Engine: See the paper that started the Google phenomenon.

Web Architecture: Discusses addresses or URLs and how they take you to the web pages that you are searching for.

Internet Glossaries and Internet Slang

A glossary lists specified terms and their definitions. An Internet glossary lists Internet terms and their definitions. Some glossaries are more specialized than the others. An Internet slang glossary, for example, would just list those terms associated with slang. An Internet browser glossary would just list the types of browsers and define them.

Slang History: Before getting into Internet slang, it is a good idea to know what slang is and how it is defined.

NetSmartz: An Internet glossary for kids from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Focuses on safety terms as well as general terms.

Get Net Wise!: Glossary to aid users to learn basic Internet terminology.

Internet Dictionary: Deciphers antonyms and other Internet jargon with various categories of dictionaries.

Slang Dictionary and Translator: Don't be confused by all the slang that your kids and friends are using on the Internet. If you don't want to look up each acronym or abbreviation, throw the entire phrase into the slang translator and get a translation in useful terms.

Acronyms: Easy to use dictionary for acronyms such as "A/S" for "Age/Sex" and "ROFL" which translates into "Rolling on floor laughing."

Abbreviation List: Some of the Internet abbreviations may be inappropriate for young users, although they may be the ones using them!

Emoticon Search: Emoticons are icons that reveal the emotion of the user. Most used in email, instant messaging, and other personal social networking programs.

Internet Slang and Slang Games: Over 4500 acronyms for your perusing pleasure with game links.

Glossary of Internet Terminology: A more technical glossary of Internet terms.

Domain Glossary: Technical glossary specific to domain-related terminology.

Computer Skills Glossary: Glossary specific to instructors teaching grade levels 3-8.

Networked World: Basic glossary of network terms for law school students. From the Harvard School of Law.

IT Glossary: Terms used in teaching information technology.

Contemporary Computer Terminology: Seattle Colleges' Writing Center glossary of "computer talk."