Internet is a way of collecting information as far as the information is published into the net. We can explain the Internet reality by making a comparison with the computer system. The web is like a very high number of files of different gender, different interests, different areas, located in different parts of the world, connected to each other. There is no central unit that co-ordinates the function, each unit is autonomous and can interline and collect information from any required one.

Practically, through Internet, we have the opportunity of getting all the information we want just by requesting it either from our place of work or elsewhere. Through the Internet we can enhance our culture, business, education, knowledge. This is where the benefits are innumerable and where frontier between nations are erased.

From this comes the saying that the world through Internet is becoming a global village. Moreover, as underlined before, Internet is a way of promoting the business of any individual, no matter where the person is operating. Anybody can publish his own personal/company site into the web to become part of the international business community. For instance, a telecommunication Engineer in Nigeria can offer his services at a cheaper rate than one from an industrialized company. Once the person has published his web site, advertising and promoting his services and the related cost, the page will automatically be inserted into an international directory for the specific area of service for his specific field of operation. Any person interested in using such services will search on the specific area (i.e. telecommunication) and will find along with other names, the company of the Nigerian Engineer and will make a selection accordingly.

So, there will be a double benefit: for the person that is searching for the service, the benefit will be that he has a greater selection from which to make his choice; for the person that published his web page, he has the opportunity of publicizing and promoting his service, all over the world, no matter where his location is.

To have access into Internet, we require specific software technically called a browser.

Through the browser, we can type, locate and download the site being searched for. Commercially, there are different types of browsers but the most popular ones are Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer. Whenever a site is to be accessed, the first operation is to get linked to our ISP. Once the connection is established, the browser is opened and the address of the site being searched for and is typed in the appropriate space. Immediately, the system will make the search and when the site is detected, it will start downloading it.

The time it takes for the system to completely download the site depends on the quality of the telephone line, the speed of the ISP, congestion traffic, requests made on the site at that moment and the speed of our modem. The combination of all these elements will give the true speed and the time to download the specific site requested. Downloading is the term that defines the transference of a web site from its original location to our computer. The common format of an Internet address technically called Uniform Research Locator (URL) is:

www.cnn.com (the Internet address of CNN).

The main characteristic of a majority of Internet addresses is the triple w that stands before the name of the owner of the account and it means World Wide Web.

Analyzing the example above, we can see that immediately after the www, there is the name of the owner of the site that provides the information. Like the e-mail address, it can be the full name, abbreviation, code or whatsoever defines the site. After the name of the owner of the site, there is another abbreviation, which specifies the type of company that owns the site, in this case com means a commercial company.

 

Back To Table Of Content         Return To Top