Thursday, July 29, 2010

Domain names.

A domain name is the part of a web address that determines which website you will be connected to. For example, in the web address, http://www.kangan.edu.au/, the part that says "kangan.edu.au" is the domain name.

There are a few different suffixes for domain names:
- .gov refers to a Government website
- .net refers to a networking website
- .org refer to an organisations website
- .com refers to commercial business

A lot of domain names include a country code. Some examples are:
- .au for Australia
- .ca for Canada
- .nl for the Netherlands
- .jp for Japan

A couple of websites I like to visit are:
- http://www.tenth-planet.ca (Country code is .ca, meaning that the web server is located in Canada)
&
- http://www.quietlifephotography.ca (this Country code is .ca, meaning that this web server is also located in Canada).
These website don't seem to have a particular suffix to define the exact type of sites they are.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are the addresses used to locate electronic files on the World Wide Web.

URL or web address.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are the addresses used to locate electronic files on the World Wide Web.

Browsers.


The software program used to access the World Wide Web is called a browser. It retrieves and puts information together from web servers and displays it as a web page.


The browsers I have personally used are Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.


Mozilla Firefox is my prefered web browser. I use the search tool a LOT, and I also use the Bookmark a fair bit so I can find pages of interest and importance at a later date.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

How the Internet Works.

The connection/phone number of your computer calls an access number which enables your modem to send a message to connect to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your ISP will then provide an internet connection for you.

To go to an internet address, type the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the address bar of your internet browser. The first part of the web address, http://, means that the browser will communicate to the web server using Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
The second part of the web address, www, shows that the World Wide Web is the resource the address is using. The third part of the web address, learnthenet.com, is the domain name, which finds the host computer site. The host computer is called a web server. The browser you are using sends a request to the web server for the files needed to assemble the web page you want to see. The web server then downloads the files and information to your computer and can then be viewed on your screen.

Write/compose a message using an e-mail program and then click on the 'Send' button. Once you click 'Send', your message is sent to your ISP's mail server, which checks where the e-mail needs to be sent. Your message is then electronically sent to the mail server of the intended recipient ISP. The e-mail is then stored in an electronic 'mailbox' until the recipient logs into the mail server and retrieves it. The message is then downloaded to the recipients computer.

'Spiders' are software that search the internet for documents and their related web addresses and then sends that information to a search engines indexing software. The indexing software then takes the information from the documents and stores it in a database.The information that is indexed depends on which search engine you use. Some search engines will only index the title of a document, whereas some will index every word. The database is searched for documents matching an entered keyword/s and will then assemble a web page displaying the results as a list of hypertext links.

Newsgroups and forums work just like a bulletin board, by attaching a message on it for everyone in that particular community to read. The only differnce is that your attaching the message electronically rather than physically pinning it on a board. On a newsgroup or forum, you can post your own message and also read and reply to other peoples. When you send your message it is posted by the news server and made available for everyone to read and respond to if they choose. A group of messages that are related in content is called a thread.
Streaming media is called so because when you click on a media clip link (and your web browser requests the clip from an internet media server), the server sends the data to your computer in a continuous stream. Your computers media player is then launched and the streaming data is stored in a buffer. When there is enough data has been stored in the buffer, the clip you requested begins to play.
I haven't subscribed to a newsgroup or forum before. Upon doing a Google search, I think these forums would be interesting to join:
- http://www.designtalkboard.com/springboard/talkmultimedia.shtml (Design Talk Board)
- http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showforum=9 (Cre8asite Forums)
- http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx (Microsoft Discussion Group)
- http://www.geekpedia.com/Newsgroup686_Microsoft-Expression-Design.html (Geekpedia Microsoft Expression Design Newsgroup)

How I Use the Internet.

I use the internet in a few ways. There is, of course, Facebook, for keeping intouch with friends and posting photos. I visit YouTube to watch or find videos. I also use MySpace, although not as often these days. I have two MySpace pages; a personal one and one to promote Canadian band, Tenth Planet. Every now and then I'll go to Flicker to view pictures by a photorapher named Robert Ciolfi; his style of photography inspires me (as does Jewel Black on Facebook). Sometimes I search for Photoshop tutorials on how to create different effects on images. Every now and then I'll look for a recipe, something to help my niece with her homework, or just find information as needed.