Web
Terminology
Introductory
Concepts
The Internet
is a global network of connected computer systems that allows
people to communicate electronically. The World Wide Web is
a hypermedia-based system for graphically displaying information.
A Web browser is a program which allows you to navigate the
web, such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.
All computers and software which make up the Internet are
either clients (which request and receive data) or servers
(which provide data).
<Click
here for some common abbreviations and terminology>
Using
a Web Browser
Your
starting home page
This is
the default page on the WWW that your browser displays at
startup. You return to it at any time by clicking the Home
button in the button bar. 
You can decide what page is displayed here by editing your
preferences. Some browsers call this the Start Page to distinguish
it from your Personal Home Page (which would be a page about
yourself that you published on the web). The term Home Page
means the entrance page to a Site, a collection of webpages
in the same location.
Changing
pages
You can
jump to a new page at any time by simply typing in a new URL
into the location- or address field at the top. Browsers will
keep a history of the last few pages you accessed this way.
By clicking the little down-arrow to the right of
this location field, you get a drop-down list of those URLs
for quick and easy access.
What
is a URL?
URL means
Uniform Resource Locator, indicating that this is a form of
addressing any kind of resource on the internet in a
way understood by all kinds of different computers and operating
systems.
Parts
of a URL: protocol:(//)subdomain.domain.suffix
PROTOCOL
- http://
(for hypertext, the main web-format)
- ftp://
(for file transfers, one at a time)
- mailto:
(for sending email)
- file://
(for opening a local file on your computer)
SUFFIX
- .com
(commercial)
- .gov
(government site)
- .mil
(military)
- .edu
(educational)
- .net
(network)
- .org
(non-profit organization)
- .us
(United States)
- .uk
(United Kingdom)
- .jp
(Japan)
- etc.
(two-letter abbreviations to indicate the country)
DOMAIN
- uic.edu
- netscape.com
- arthritis.org
SUBDOMAIN
- www.uic.edu
(on tigger)
- www2.uic.edu
(on icarus)
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