Guide Section 3: EXPLORING THE INTERNET

The Internet (or Net), World Wide Web (or Web), Information Highway, Cyberspace--these are all terms, which refer to aspects of the worldwide network of computers that "talk" to each other. You can see it, you can hear it, you can almost touch it, you will be able to smell, but where is it anyway? Let's take a look at some ways of imagining this abstract universe of connections that has become so popular.

***NEWSFLASH*** There is only one internet, so which ever way you connect to it, you are connected to the same thing as everyone else. Your friend's houses' internet, is the same one as yours. As is the library, and the local community computer lab. There are lots of 'places' in it, but they all connected. One big happy network.

You connect to this information "highway" system by building a stretch of driveway from your house to a road that is already connected to the highway system. In that way, the highway system includes your piece of road as well. This highway permits you to access a collection of electronic documents that are linked together like an enormous spider web. You can think about this "web" as a collection of text and multimedia files and other network services interconnected via a system of hypertext documents. These documents are stored on computers (called servers) located around the world.

This is all made possible by the underlying "language" of the Internet--a set of computer protocols called TCP/IP. An analogy would be to the streets in a city: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), along with the physical wires upon which the data is carried, can be thought of as the streets; and IP (Internet Protocol) can be thought of as the street addresses. If you know the IP address of your destination, you can take any one of many routes to get there. If there are "streets" under construction, you can take a detour. You'll generally still get to your destination, despite whatever obstacles may exist.

Our Internet streets resemble a rush-hour traffic jam more often than not. To examine the congestion, we'll add another element to our street analogy: the intersections. Whenever one network meets another, that intersection is controlled by a router--an electronic traffic cop, or a computer that does nothing except direct traffic towards its destination, using what it thinks is the quickest route. The responsiveness of the Internet depends largely on the ability of these routers to quickly and efficiently route traffic to its destination, and on the capacity of the major Internet carriers to carry that traffic.

When you connect to your Internet service provider (or ISP), you are utilizing that driveway from your computer to the streets that make up the rest of the Internet. When you use your Web browser to dial up a site, a request goes down your driveway (your modem link) and onto the streets of the Internet, through a series of intersections (routers), until the website you called up receives the request and sends the data back to you. If any segment of this journey is overburdened or sluggish, your whole Internet experience bogs down. Unfortunately, there are many opportunities for things to go awry.

There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Until recently, a dial-up connection was the most common and least expensive way of connecting to the Internet. This type of connection utilizes the same cabling used for normal telephones and works with your computer's modem. A dial-up account through an Internet service provider allows you to use your modem to make a connection to your provider's system. With a dial-up account, you have a login name and a password that lets you access some parts of a computer system. Once you have dialed your provider's local number and are connected, the provider then connects you directly to the Internet, where you can run any Internet navigation software (like a web browser), just as you would if you had a direct connection to the Internet.

Modems are responsible for converting data into a signal that can be transmitted through a standard telephone line, and converting incoming signals into data that your PC can understand. Typically, a phone line plugs into the modem. This phone line will carry information to and from the Internet through a connection supplied by whichever dial-up ISP you've chosen to use.

56k is now the bare minimum speed one should connect to the internet, as if you are not able to get broadband access (broadband meaning many times quicker), then this is your only option. Do not bother with any service offering less than 56k speed dial up. Do not believe any service that says they can offer faster than this, but only using a dial up service, because they can't. If you see the words DIAL UP anywhere, it is referring to the lowest level of internet connectivity.

Another way to access the Internet is with a cable modem. As the name suggests, a cable modem is a device that gives you Internet connectivity through the same coaxial wire that your cable television signal comes through. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access to the Internet. The advantage of cable modems is not only speed. A cable modem will provide you with a permanent connection without the need to dial up every time you would like to browse the Internet. This, combined with the fact that millions of homes are already wired for cable TV, has made the cable modem very popular.

Yet another option for accessing the Internet is with a DSL connection. Digital Subscriber Line (or Loop) technology provides high-speed, broadband network connections to homes and small businesses. DSL utilizes the same cabling used for normal telephones, but it can offer higher data rates through use of so-called digital modem technology. Technically speaking, the term "Digital Subscriber Line" is misleading in that modems comprise the heart of this technology and the lines themselves are actually just plain telephone lines. From a customer's point of view, their DSL modem (that they've obtained as part of the service) talks to another DSL modem somewhere at the provider's location, but the telephone line itself doesn't change. In fact, unlike dial-up accounts, it's possible for DSL subscribers (through the use of special filters) to share the same line for their digital and analog traffic. This means you can keep surfing the Web while waiting for that phone call you are expecting.

Most online services offer access to some Internet features. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet service provider (or ISP), such as Comcast.

Using the net on dial up is better than nothing at all. Go to a friends house and watch their faster than dial up connection and you will want it to. If you have never had internet access then try dial up as quite often it is the cheapest, at around $10 a month, or in some cases free! When you are hooked on being online, then think about how often you want to use it, and if the investment of a faster connection is worth it. Remember that the internet is ONE place, and you can do nearly all the things on which ever speed you choose. The trade off is the pace at which you can examine that big old cyber universe out there. Go on, give it a try yourself, you know you want to...

The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers. This network is decentralized by design and each Internet computer (or host) is independent. This means its operators can choose which Internet services to use, and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. As a result, the Web offers a rich array of content and services, and by familiarizing yourself with the basics, you can learn how to make the most of your surfing experience.

A web page is an electronic document written in a computer language called HTML (or Hypertext Markup Language). Web pages can contain text, graphics, video, animation and sound, as well as interactive features, such as data entry forms. These pages are stored on web servers located around the globe and each page has a unique address known as a URL (or Uniform Resource Locator). A URL indicates where the web page is stored on the Internet. Entering the URL of a web page in your web browser or clicking a link sends a request to the server that hosts the page. The server sends the web page to your computer and your web browser displays it on your screen.

A website is one or more web pages that relate to a common theme, such as a person, business, organization, or subject, such as sports. The first page (the home page) acts like an index, indicating the content on the site. From the home page, you can click hyperlinks to access other web pages. Hyperlinks are text and images that reference the URLs of other web pages.

Clicking a text hyperlink or a hyperlinked graphic image, such as a button, photograph, or drawing, are ways of moving between Web pages or websites. Text links are usually underlined and in a different color from the rest of the text. Clicking different parts of a linked graphic may take you to different Web pages or different places on the same page. In addition to pointing to Web pages, hyperlinks can access media files, such as sound or video clips. The location box or address field on your browser indicates the URL of the page you arrived at after clicking a link.

Another way of moving between Web pages or websites is by typing the URL of a Web page in the location box (also known as the address field) of your Web browser, and then pressing the Enter or Return key. You need to type a URL exactly for your browser to locate the desired Web page.

You can read HTML documents that reside somewhere on the Internet or on your local hard drive with a software program (called a Web browser). Web browsers read HTML documents from remote Web servers and display them as formatted presentations, with any associated graphics. The two most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Browsers basically work the same way, so once you know one, you can easily learn the others.

The sound, video, animation, and 3D interactive video that you find on the Internet are referred to as multimedia. Some multimedia, called streaming media, plays as soon as you access a web page. Others require that you download the multimedia file to your computer first. Multimedia files often require that your browser use a special plug-in program.

Getting Help

A wonderful tradition on the Internet, the FAQ was developed by people who got tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Short for Frequently Asked Questions, FAQs are made available to newcomers who are urged to read them before asking redundant questions in a Usenet newsgroup, on a BBS, or on a mailing list. As a tool to help you get up to speed before joining a conversation, FAQs provide you with a wealth of information about a particular subject. Although FAQs are most commonly found on Usenet newsgroups, they exist all over the Internet and can be found on many websites. FAQs often begin with an extensive index at the top, so you may have to scroll down a bit to get to the heart of the information.

The Internet has made it possible for people all around the world to connect with each other in meaningful ways. Whether for research, education, business or fun, the Internet has changed how many of us live, work, and play, in ways we may not even be fully aware of. As the Internet continues to evolve, so do the issues that impact the way we use it. While the medium is in many ways a reflection of the physical world, it is in other ways, fundamentally different, manifesting its own customs and practices.

But just like in the real world, following certain common sense rules of conduct, called Netiquette, will make your interactions with others much more enjoyable. Netiquette, or network etiquette, is the etiquette of cyberspace, a set of rules for behaving properly online. The core rules listed below are excerpted from the book, Netiquette, by Virginia Shea. They are offered here as a set of general guidelines for behavior in cyberspace.

Rule 1: Remember the Human.

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.

Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace.

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth.

Rule 5: Make yourself look good online.

Rule 6: Share expert knowledge.

Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control.

Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy.

Rule 9: Don't abuse your power.

Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes.

Learn More: Netiquette

Privacy

The Internet is a different realm than most of us are used to dealing with in our daily lives. It is constantly changing at a rapid pace. What is new in one moment can be literally out-of-date within a matter of hours-- sometimes, even minutes. This pace has slowed down somewhat recently, but, in many aspects, it still holds true. One of the things that make it so formidable is that it is always "on" -- the Internet never sleeps. Unlike the stock market, which at least shuts down for a few hours a day, the Internet continues to operate. If you want any level of privacy, you have to work at it.

Did you think that your little visit to http://www.peekaboo.com was anonymous? Think again. The Internet gives an image of anonymity, but dig a little deeper and you'll find it's a false front. Almost all Internet sites, and certainly the bigger ones, collect information about their visitors. It's logged by the site server that sends Web pages to your computer. Your personal data is recorded all over the Internet and within your computer. You'll be surprised how much information your disloyal computer passes over to the sites you're visiting--nothing as serious as your name or e-mail address, but probably much more than you'd expect. Here are the main items:

IP address: This is your "street address" for the Internet. It's a string of numbers that identifies exactly where you are in the huge ever-changing mass of networks that make up the Internet. It has to be passed to a site so that it knows where to send the pages that you've requested. The bad news is that your IP address is quite distinctive. It's easy to tell from the numbers which country you're connecting from and which Internet service provider you're using. The good news is that most ISPs use a rolling address system (or dynamic IP addressing), so you get a different address each time you log on to the Internet. However, if you're using a computer on an office network, for example, it might have its own IP address that never changes (or static IP addressing).

Ultimately, you can be tracked down from your IP address. Even if it's a rolling address (or dynamic), your ISP keeps records of who is using a specific address at any given time. In the space of a few seconds, they can link any address with a specific user (that's you), but naturally they're reluctant to do it--even for the police. If you use a free ISP account that didn't need registration, the details come from your phone line. So however you access the Internet, you can be traced, because the IP address collected by the site server can be linked directly to you or to your phone line.

Referring page: Many sites also collect referring page information. Your computer obviously knows where it's just come from, and the shameless electronic traitor freely passes this information on to the next site. "This is the site we arrived from," it says. (Hey, who's in control here?)

Browser and operating system: Your computer also tells its electronic friend at the other end what kind of browser you're using, including the version number and what kind of operating system you have--Windows, Mac, Unix, whatever.

Screen details: Although not all computers do this, many also tell the site server what size screen you have (in pixels, not inches) and what kind of color resolution you're using (256, 16 bit or 24 bit). (Is there no end to their treachery?)

Pages viewed: Finally, without the assistance of your computer, the site server records everywhere you go on the site and how long you stay on each page. So, just how anonymous was your visit? And that's ignoring cookies, which tie in your visit to others you've made to the same site before.

Cookies: Many of the larger sites on the Web collect information about you. They do this for the best of commercial reasons. They're trying to match the material they show on screen with your personality, so you find it more interesting. They collect information about you by keeping a log of the pages you visit. This gives them some idea about your personal preferences. When you visit their site a second or third time, they want to make sure they can refer to the logs from your first visit and update them. Assuming you haven't formally registered as a visitor to their site, they find it hard to identify you when you return. That's where cookies come in.

A cookie is a small file that contains an identity code. Your computer accepts the cookie and stores it. Next time you visit the site, it's retrieved and your identity is established. It's a controversial practice because of the privacy implications, but it is extremely common. Most of the major sites on the Internet, including search engines and portals, send cookies. For instance, when you buy items from a site and place them in a so-called virtual shopping cart, that information is stored in the cookie. When the browser requests additional files, the cookie information is sent back to the server.

Some sites store a lot of information about you within the cookie, but most use it as just an identifier. Usually the big file containing your data is at the site server end. All the cookie does is make sure the correct data file is used. Cookies can remember other kinds of personal information, such as your password, so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit the site; and your preferences, so the next time you return to a site, you can be presented with customized information. For example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it, literally.

Most cookies have an expiration date and either reside in your computer's memory until you close your browser or are saved to your hard drive. Whether you're happy to have these personal profiles stored on various servers around the world is up to you. It does seem a bit "Big Brother," but the vast majority of sites are very sensitive to your privacy needs and won't release the information to anybody else.

You can use a text editor to view cookie files. For Windows users of Netscape Navigator, the file is called cookies.txt and is located in the same folder as Netscape. Macintosh users can find it in the Netscape folder in the System/Preferences folder. Internet Explorer creates separate files for each cookie and stores them in folders named Cookies or Temporary Internet Files.

A password is a code or word used to gain access to restricted data on a computer network. While passwords provide security against unauthorized users, the security system can only confirm that the password is legitimate, not whether the user is authorized to use the password. That's why it is important to safeguard passwords:

Viruses and Other Infections

For those who are new to computing, the concept of computer viruses can be confusing. Images of runny noses, sneezing, and antibiotics don't seem to fit with keyboards and CD-ROMs. Computer viruses are a very real and everyday threat, however, and some of them can cause so much destruction (it can make grown men and women weep). So what is a computer virus and why is it called that?

Computers are machines that do only what you tell them to do. The way you tell them what to do is by creating a list of instructions. That's what a computer program is: A long and very complex list of instructions that has been written by a computer programmer. That's why computers are so versatile. There seems to be no limit as to what a computer can do, and that's because it sits there like a willing servant awaiting its instructions. For example, if you give it a program that tells it how to design an airplane wing, that's what it will do. If you give it instructions on how to keep track of your grocery list, that's what it will do. If you want to create a personalized greeting card, just load a program for that into your computer and go for it. Computers can even do all of those things at once because they can be reading several different lists of instructions at the same time. It all depends on the programs that have been written and loaded into the machine.

But what if there is a computer programmer who is a practical joker or, worse, wants to cause harm? All that person has to do is create a program (or a list of instructions) telling the computer how to do it. What if the programmer wants that program to hit as many computers as possible? He just includes that in the instructions. For example, he may tell the program to hide itself in a file and if that file gets copied or sent to another computer, to have the program set itself up on the new computer, hide itself in some new files that may be copied or sent to other computers, and so on. Or he may even instruct the program to use e-mail to send itself to as many other computers as possible. That kind of a program is acting very much like a germ. It is an unwelcome intruder that can cause harm and has been passed from one host to another through some kind of contact. An "infected" computer or file can "infect" another and an outbreak of infections can occur.

Click here to read scary and weird information on viruses
**************************************************
Reading too much of this will make you worry needlessly. Virus protection is very easily managed these days, most being automatic things you rarely have to consider....feel better now?
**************************************************

The term "virus" is generally used to refer to a program written by a hacker or other computer vandal with the purpose of corrupting data and causing grief to computer users. A virus will attach itself to a file and then replicate itself in order to spread to other files. A virus must be executed before it is able to replicate itself and, therefore, is usually attached to an executable file so that it will spread rapidly.

A Trojan horse, in the context of computers, refers to a program that does something different from what it is expected to do. A Trojan horse is different from a virus in that it does not necessarily replicate itself to destroy data. The manner in which a Trojan horse functions is to appear as though it is doing one thing (usually something appealing), while it actually does something quite opposite (something disastrous). For example, a Trojan horse could be written to erase the hard drive when the program is executed. Now, no user in their right mind would run this program if they knew its actual purpose. However, if the program were disguised such that the user thought it was a useful spreadsheet (or other) program, they would soon become an unsuspecting (and very unhappy) victim. Even though this example may provide the same result as some viruses in terms of lost data and frustration to the user, it was accomplished in a much different manner. The Trojan horse did not replicate itself to create havoc, it simply executed a single program and, like certain viruses, the damage does not necessarily have to appear immediately.

A worm is a destructive program, which is at once similar and dissimilar to a virus. The similarity is that it reproduces itself and spreads from one host computer to another. It is unlike a virus in that it does not need to attach itself to an executable file to replicate itself. Worms are spread via security weaknesses in electronic mail software. In effect, they enter an Internet host computer and find other hosts to which they mail themselves. The aftermath of a worm attack is not as severe as viruses or Trojan horses in that the purpose is not to destroy data, but rather to fill storage space and thereby slow down operations.

There are thousands of known viruses, with hundreds more being discovered each month. However, this does not mean you should stay away from your computer or fear using it. There are a few steps you can take to prevent infection and allow for a speedy recovery should you become infected. Some of these are:

1. Get an anti-virus program (or virus protection software) and update it regularly. With all of the viruses being discovered each month, this is the best way to protect yourself. The updates should be, at the very least, the product's virus signature files. You may need to update the product's scanning engine as well. Many of these updates can be downloaded for free from the product's website.

2. Do not open any files attached to an e-mail unless you know what it is, even if it appears to come from a dear friend or someone you know. Some viruses can replicate themselves and spread through e-mail. Better to be safe than sorry and confirm that they really sent it. Don't open attached files you aren't expecting, even if you know the person who sent them. If in doubt, contact the person to make sure it's a legitimate file.

3. Do not open any files attached to an e-mail from an unknown, suspicious or untrustworthy source.

4. Do not open any files attached to an e-mail if the subject line is questionable or unexpected. If the need to do so is there, always save the file to your hard drive and/or check it with an anti-virus program before opening it.

5. Don't send attached files unless it's really necessary.

6. Delete chain e-mails and junk e-mail. Do not forward or reply to any of them. These types of e-mail are considered spam, which is unsolicited, intrusive mail that clogs up the network.

8. Exercise caution when downloading files from the Internet. Ensure that the source is a legitimate and reputable one. Verify that an anti-virus program checks the files on the download site. If you're uncertain, don't download the file at all, or test it with your own anti-virus software.

9. Back up your files on a regular basis. If a virus destroys your files, at least you can replace them with your back-up copy. You should store your back-up copy in a separate location from your work files--one that is preferably not on your computer.

9a. It is common practice to mention backing up files, and it is something EVERYONE knows how to do, but few actually take the time to do it. The only people you will usually encounter who DO back up their files, are those that previously didn't and lost a lot of computer files for one reason or another and WISHED they had a back up to replace them. It's like not bothering to belong to roadside assistance, until you break down, in the middle of the night in the scary part of town, sitting there wishing you had.

10. When in doubt, always err on the side of caution and do not open, download, or execute any files or e-mail attachments. Not executing is the more important of these caveats. Check with your product vendors for updates, which include those for your operating system Web browser, and e-mail. Also see the Resources (Section 4) of this guide for a good Virus Information Library.

	SECTION 3: EXPLORING THE INTERNET Communicating With Other Computers