The Internet

The Internet:

1. Delivers your mail
2. Furnishes product information and technical support
3. Offers powerful research tools
4. Lets you say everything from politics to your favourite eating places
5. Offers you shopping from the comfort of your home.....and it does many many more useful tasks

How does it work?

1. Your computer is assigned an address known as an Internet Protocol (IP).
2. You create a document on your computer.
3. This document is broken into small parts called packets and numbered.
4. Each packet is assigned an information part called a header that is attached to the packet and contains your IP and IP of the computer to which you wish to send to.
5. The packets are sent onto the Internet.
6. At various points on the Internet these packets pass through special computers called routers.
7. Each router looks at the header, reads the final destination and sends the packet to the next router in the direction of its destination.
8. The packets may take many different routes to their final destination.
9. When the packets arrive at the computer you sent to, the program checks to make certain that it received all of the numbered packets.
10. If any of the packets are missing the computer sends a message to your computer asking it transmit those packets again.
11. When all the packets are received, the program reassembles them and the transmission is complete.

Web Browsers

You already know how to use a browser since you are viewing this page! Most users have either Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape Communicator. There are also non graphical browser that will only show words on the page, Cyberdog and Opera. And finally there are those who may be connecting to the Internet through WebTV or America on Line. They have their own special browsers. Most web pages are written for IE and Netscape so other browsers may not be able to see everything that the web page has to offer.

Check Browser version

If you want to check the version of your browser, go to the top of the browser and select Help>About Internet Explorer (IE) or select Help>About Communicator (Netscape).If you don't have the latest version, you can download and install the latest version of Netscape or Internet Explorer. It's free!