The Internet
The purpose of this page is to give you a brief overview on the Internet. If you want more
details you will have to search elseware.
The Internet is simply a large nework, which is lots of computers tied together. You may have
network in your home or office so you can share files or printers. The Internet is the same,
only much much bigger.
ISP - In order to connect to the Internet you need an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
There are thousands and thousands of ISPs. Amigo.Net, AOL, Earthlink, etc. When you connect
to your ISP (with a modem or broadband connection) you are then connected to the Internet.
Broadband Connection - A broadband connection is simply a highspeed connection to the
Internet. Pretty much everything except using a modem. Some examples are DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line), Wireless, Cable, and Satelite. Generally the faster your connection the more
you pay.
Domains - There were orignally 5 top level domains, .com, .net, .gov, .edu, and .org.
.com was commercial, .net was networks, .gov was government, .edu was education, and .org was
non-profit organizations. They have since added several more and probably will add more in the
future. You may have heard of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Amigo.Net's IP address
is 209.94.64.11 but it's a whole lot easier to remember www.amigo.net than the 209.94.64.11.
In order to be able to use www.amigo.net instead of 209.94.64.11 there has to be a way to
convert the IP address into the domain name or visa-versa. That is where the DNS Server
(Domain Name Server) comes into play. When you type in www.amigo.net, the domain server
finds the name, then sends you to the correct IP address.
E-Mail - Your ISP will have a domain such as Amigo.Net. When you subscribe to your ISP,
you will generally get an email address which will be in the form of something@amigo.net.
Each and every email address is unique.
Web Sites - You can register your own domain (if it is available) from several different
companies. Let's say you were able to register mydomain.com. Now you own it, as long as you
continue to pay a fee to keep it registered. Now you can have your own web site (www.mydomain.com)
and your own email (joe@mydomain.com). To do that you need someone to "host" your domain, which
means they will set up a directory on one of their servers so everyone who has Internet access
can access your site. Your ISP can probably do it, or you can have someone else host it. There
will be a fee involed with hosting your domain. You
will still need your ISP for you to connect to the Internet. Whoever hosts you domain will be
able to set up email accounts for your domain as well. You can have as many as you want, but
there is generally a fee involved there as well.
Web Site Design - So now you have a domain, but you still need web site. You can create
it yourself, or have someone create it for you. If you do it yourself, you will some additional
programs. One is an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocal - the languange of the Internet) editor.
This will be used to create the page. Once the page is created you will need an FTP (File
Transfer Protocal) program to upload (Copy to the server) your page(s). If you have someone
else create your site the price can vary from very little to an awful lot. It all depends on what
you want and how much you are willing to pay.