Topic Notes - INTERNET

What is internet ?? Why is internet ?? How will it affect me ??

The Internet was started as a result of the "Cold" war during the 1960’s. It started as a way to send information to and from Military sites.

During the 70’s and 80’s, colleges and Large companies were added to this network because they were involved in military research and needed a way to communicate with others working on the same projects. During the 90s’, individuals began connecting through companies such as AMERICA ONLINE.

What do you need to get on internet ?? Computer with a modem

ISP - internet service provider ( you pay these people a monthly charge to "connect" you to internet).. Ex: AOL, Bellsouth, MSN, Earthlink..

Once the ISP connects you to the internet, you need software to "browse". This is called a Browser.. Ex: Webcrawler, Netscape, Internet Explorer.
What can you do on internet today ?

Get information – fast - about anything !!

Medical – historical –Purchase tickets – cheap

Refinance your house

Maps - yellow pages – stock quotes (buy/sell)

Distance learning – classes

Virtual images - cruise lines show videos of different cabins before you purchase tickets.

Games – play video games against strangers.

Access video cameras from around the world. ( and control them remotely ).

Banking – All banks are doing this.

Advertising - Most companies have a web site.

Purchase a car.

Get "stuff" – at any hour of the day- IRS forms, instructions for fixing my clock – recipes – books – puzzles – jokes – weather – news..

Chat rooms – news groups – research

Videos – songs – advance information about movies..

MP3's ( What will happen to CD’s ??)

You can now "surf" . If you know a url( address) , you can type it into the address bar in your Browser and "go" directly to that site.  If you do not know the URL, you can go to  websites on the internet called SEARCH ENGINES. These are websites that are huge databases. If you type in a word to search for, it will check it's database and list the addresses of websites that contain that word.

They keep track of web pages on the net. If you want to search for something, you go to one of these "search engines". Ex: Yahoo, Alta Vista, Lycos, Dogpile, Google