Basic online terms

What is a web browser?
When you sit down and look at web pages, you are using a web browser. This is the piece of software that communicates with web servers for you, translates HTML pages and image data into a nicely formatted on-screen display, and presents this information to your eyeballs -- or to your other senses, in the case of browsers for the vision-impaired and other alternative interface technologies. Web browsers also appear in simpler devices such as Internet-connected cell phones, like many Nokia models, and PDAs such as the Palm Pilot. The most common web browser, by a large margin, is Microsoft Internet Explorer, followed by the open-source Mozilla browser and its derivatives, including Netscape 6.0 and later. Apple's new Safari browser is gaining popularity on Macintoshes running MacOS X, and the Opera shareware browser has a loyal following among those who are willing to pay for the fastest browser possible, especially on older computers. The Lynx browser is the most frequently used text-only browser and has been adapted to serve the needs of the vision-impaired.

What is a web server?
Web servers are the computers that actually run web sites. The term "web server" also refers to the piece of software that runs on those computers, accepting connections from web browsers and delivering web pages and other files to them, as well as processing form submissions. The most common web server software is Apache, followed by Microsoft Internet Information server; many, many other web server programs also exist. For more information about web servers and how to arrange hosting for your own web pages, see the creating web sites section.

What is HTML?
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is a simple markup language used to make web pages. Although all modern word processors and many specialized tools can be used to make web pages without learning HTML at all, learning HTML itself is a useful way to learn more about the web and provides more control over the results. Luckily, HTML is very simple and quite easy to learn. We have an easy lesson in the tutorial section for you to do if you want!

What are web pages?
Every web site is made up of one or more web pages -- like the one you are looking at right now! This text is part of a web page, and is written in the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). In addition to text with hyperlinks, tables, and other formatting, web pages can also contain images. Less commonly, web pages may contain Flash animations, Java applets, or MPEG video files. For more information and an example, see the HTML Lesson.

What is a URL?
Look up at the top of this web page. Above the page you will see the "location bar" of your web browser, which should contain something similar to this:

http://theforums.ws/viewtopic.php?092382

This is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the web page you are looking at right now. A URL can be thought of as the "address" of a web page.

URLs are used to write links linking one page to another; for an example, see the HTML entry. A URL is made up of several parts. The first part is the protocol, which tells the web browser what sort of server it will be talking to in order to fetch the URL. In this example, the protocol is http.

The remaining parts vary depending on the protocol, but the vast majority of URLs you will encounter use the http protocol; exceptions include file URLs, which link to local files on your own hard drive, ftp URLs, which work just like http URLs but link to things on FTP servers rather than web servers, and mailto URLs, which can be used to invite a user to write an email message to a particular email address.

The second part of the example URL above is the fully qualified domain name of the web site to connect to. In this case, the fully qualified domain name is www.boutell.com . This name identifies the web site containing the page. The term "fully qualified domain name" refers to a complete web site or other computer's name on the Internet. The term "domain name" usually refers only to the last part of the name, in this case boutell.com, which has been registered for that particular company's exclusive use. For more information about registering domain names, see the setting up web sites entry.

The third part of the example URL is the path at which this particular web page is located on the web server. In this case, the path is /newfaq/basic/url.html. Similar to a filename, a path usually indicates where the web page is located within the web space of the web site; in this case it is located in the basic sub-folder of the newfaq folder, which is located in the top-level web page directory of our web site.

What is a hyperlink?
Every time you click on a link on a web page, such as the link you may have clicked on to reach this page, you are following a hyperlink. See also the URL entry.

What is the World Wide Web?
The term "World Wide Web" refers to all of the publicly accessible web sites in the world, in addition to other information sources that web browsers can access. These other sources include FTP sites, USENET newsgroups, and a few surviving Gopher sites.

What is the Internet?
The term "World Wide Web" refers to all of the publicly accessible web sites in the world, in addition to other information sources that web browsers can access. These other sources include FTP sites, USENET newsgroups, and a few surviving Gopher sites.

Who invented the World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). He went on to found the World Wide Web Consortium, which seeks to standardize and improve World Wide Web-related things such as the HTML markup language in which web pages are written. Specifically, Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser and the first web server. Tim Berners-Lee invented both the HTML markup language and the HTTP protocol used to request and transmit web pages between web servers and web browsers, in addition to coining the phrase "World Wide Web."

Who invented the Internet?
A very good history archive of the Internet are available on the web site of the Internet Society.

How do I translate web pages?
The major search engines have offered a web page translation service for some time now. Specifically, Google Language Tools provide a way to translate any web page between any of several languages. Use the "translate a web page:" option on that page. Of course, the results are far from perfect, but they are often sufficient to get what you were hoping for from the web page in question.

How do I do research on the Web?
start with a search engine; type in your question, or the most important words of your question. As of this writing, Google remains by far the most effective search engine, and the majority of all web searches are done through Google or a search engine that is "powered by" Google.

What is a firewall?
a firewall sits between your computer and the rest of the Internet, filtering out unwanted traffic and foiling attempts to interfere with or take over your computer. Firewalls can be separate devices, which is very common today, or simply pieces of software for your own computer, which is also fairly common. Separate firewall devices are often preferable because their very simplicity makes them less likely to have unknown security problems; however, it is still important to keep up with "firmware updates" released by the manufacturer, otherwise your firewall may be vulnerable to attack. "Cable/DSL routers" and similar devices sold by companies like Linksys provide simple firewall capabilities which are adequate for most home users.

What is DNS?
Every time you follow a link or type in the name of a web site, such as www.google.com , that name must be translated into an IP address on the Internet. This translation is done by the domain name service. A DNS server is a program that participates in the task of providing this sevice. Some DNS servers respond to queries from web browsers and other programs, make further inquiries, and return IP addresses, such as 102.24.35.136, which is the current IP address of www.google.com . Other DNS servers have primary responsibility for answering DNS inquiries about names within a particular domain, such as the boutell.com domain. Every time a new domain is registered, a DNS server must be configured to give out address information for that domain, so that users can actually find web sites in that domain. In most cases, web hosting companies provide this service for the domains that they host; it is rare for webmasters to run their own DNS servers.

What is Java?
Java is a technology that allows small programs, known as "applets," to be embedded in web pages. For instance, a web page using Java could contain an interactive weather map, a live display of subway trains, or a video game, without the need for the web server to do all of the work. Unlike normal software such as .EXE files, these "applets" can not access or delete your personal files unless they ask for and are given express permission to do so. As of this writing, Java is no longer included as standard equipment in Microsoft Internet Explorer, and unlike most other browsers, Internet Explorer does not make it convenient for the user to install the Java plug-in. Unfortunately, this means that most users will be unable to access your Java applets unless they install optional software manually. However, if you choose to use Java on your site, you can invite your users to download the Java plug-in from Sun's web site, using the "Get It Now" button on that site. As an alternative, see the Flash entry.

What is a secure site?
A site that uses the https: protocol to ensure that your information cannot be stolen by a third party between the sender and the receiver.

Credit goes to TheForums

cool information there man

thanks for sahring it with us

I will show this article to my little bro

Thanks for sharing

why does your little bro need to read it

Because he allways asks me newbie things, and I think this article is the best for such a situation

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