Tutorial 1 — How To Use The Internet
For those of you who are new to the Internet, you'll soon find out that it's a fascinating place to spend some time. And, it may soon become part of your daily routine as it is with millions of others all over the world.
The Internet has a variety of features and tools that can help you to stay in touch with family and friends through Electronic Mail (e-mail) and Instant Messaging (IM or 'chat') or search for information on just about any subject through the World Wide Web (www) by using one of several search engines
In this group of tutorials, I'll explain in simple terms what the Internet is, how it works and how it can become a valuable part of your life. This guide is broken into 8 tutorials.
What is the Internet?
“The Internet,…” as defined by Wikipedia.org “… is a worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a “network of networks” that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.”
In more simple terms, the Internet is a group of computers that communicate with each other. When one or more computers communicate with each other, it is called a network and there are tens-of-thousands of networks all over the world. These networks are either part of a business, the government or a university. It might also be privately owned and in someone's home. No one knows exactly how many computers are part of the Internet, but we know there are millions of computers around the world that make up the Internet and that this number is growing each and every day.
Each computer on the Internet uses a special language that allows it to 'talk' to other computers on the Internet. This language is known as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). Your computer can translate the TCP/IP language into a language you understand (let's say English) and then back into TCP/IP. For example, let's say you want to bake a chocolate cake but you don't have a good recipe. You can ask your computer “find me a chocolate cake recipe”. Your computer then translates this into TCP/IP, goes out to the Internet and asks all the other computers if they know a chocolate cake recipe. Once the computer finds what you're looking for, it translates the TCP/IP into English and displays the recipe on your computer screen. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is actually.
As an Internet user, you will have access to a variety of Internet tools that will help you make the best use of the Internet. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use e-mail, how to use a browser, how to use a search engine. Plus, you'll learn about News and User groups, file transfer, chat and instant messaging.
Contrary to what is popularly believed, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one in the same. The Internet is a group of computers all connected to each other through either telephone line, fiber optic, or satellite. The World Wide Web is a collection of interconnected documents that you can access once you have an Internet connection. The World Wide Web, like e-mail and instant messaging, is just one way of using the Internet.
No one person or organization owns the Internet but there are several groups of individuals and companies that help to make the Internet experience better for you, the end-user. There are people who are constantly working to improve the Internet by making it faster, with better and more reliable information. There are also new products (applications) being developed that will use the Internet and most likely make its way onto your computer if you choose.
http://www.internetservicedeals.com/tutorials/how-to-use-the-internet.htm
