What is the World Wide Web?
There are a few basic things that are good to know if you are new to using the Internet.
What is a hyperlink?
What is a browser?
How do I use a browser?
What is a search engine?
What are domain names?
What are some useful pages?
What are viruses?
Click here to practice using the mouse.
The World Wide Web is a network of pages created by people and services you probably already know. The weather, newspapers, magazines, travel agencies and many other useful resources all have pages available for your viewing.
Hyperlink:
Internet Terms
A hyperlink is a button, picture or text (often underlined)that takes you to another place, often another page or spot on the page.
Browser:
A browser is a software application that loads and displays web pages. Some browsers you may recognize are Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox.
How do I use a browser?
You can visit web pages by typing the website address in the Address box in the browser.
Buttons:
1. The back button takes you back to pages you just visited, in the order you visited them.
2. The stop button stops the page from loading. It is especially useful if the page is loading sounds or music you want to stop.
3. The refresh button reloads the page you are looking at.
4. Every browser has a home page it automatically opens to when you first open the browser. The home button returns you to that page.
5. The search button opens up a search engine. (See below for more on search engines)
6.The favorites button opens up a list of links that you can add to by hitting the 'add' button.
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Domain Name:
Every web site has a name that identifies its address on the Internet, followed by a 3 letter domain name suffix, like .com
.com commercial company
.org nonprofit organization
.gov government agency
.mil military agency
.net a network provider
.edu educational facilitySearch Engine:
A search engine is a constantly updating online index of web sites. This is the way most people find websites on the Internet. Some of the popular search engines are:
google.com
ask.com
yahoo.com
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The Internet is a great source of constantly updated information. Here are just a few helpful sites.
Weather:
www.weather.org You can enter your zipcode and get local weather.
News:
www.boston.com The Boston Globe online.
www.googlenews.com Google has headline news in categories with links to news pages around the world.
Maps:
www.mapquest.com Maps and directions inside the United States.
Phone Numbers:
www.switchboard.com Look up phone numbers of people and businesses.
www.411.com Look up phone numbers of people and businesses.
A virus is a computer program created specifically for the purpose of damaging computers or networks.
Some common symptoms that could indicate your system has been infected are:Unusual messages, images or sounds on your computer
Changed file names
Missing programs of files
New programs or files appear that you have not created
Files are corrupted or damagedNew viruses are being created all the time, which is why virus protection software has to frequently updated. Norton Internet Security is one company that provides software to protect your computer against viruses.
