UNIT 13

The World Wide Web

STARTER Study this URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

http: //www. hw. ac. uk/libWWW/irn/irn. html

protocol Web domain domain country directory document

prefix name code path
Fig 1 extension
Uniform Resource Locator

Which part of the address tells you:

1 the company is in the UK
2 this is the webpage
3 the type of transmission standard your browser must use to
access the data
4 this points to the computer where the webpage is stored
5 this is where the webpage is stored in the computer
6 this is a company
7 this is a Web file

Study these approved domain name extensions and their

meanings. Then match these suggestions for new extensions to their
meanings.

Extension Meaning
. aero aviation industry
. biz businesses
. com (. co in UK) commercial
. coop cooperatives
. edu(. ac in UK) educational and research
. gov government
. info general use
. int international organisation
. mil military agency
. museum museums
. name individuals
. net gateway or host
. org non-profit organisation
. pro professionals
 Suggested extension Meaning
1 . firm a informative
2 . store b cultural or entertainment
3 . web c personal
4 . arts d firm or agency
5 . rec e online retail shop
6 . info f Web-related
7 . nom g recreational

LISTENING Study this diagram which illustrates how your browser finds
the webpage you want. Label these items:
a Router
b Domain Name System (DNS) server
c Remote Web server
d Browser PC
e URL
f Internet Protocol address

Fig 2
How your browser finds the page you want
90 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web

Now listen to this recording which explains how the

process works and take brief notes on each stage. For example:

Stage 1
Click on a webpage hyperlink or URL.
The browser sends the URL to a DNS server.

LANGUAGE WORK Time clauses

What is the relationship between each of We can use once in place of when to
these pairs of actions? emphasise the completion of the first action.
1 a You click on a URL. It often occurs with the Present perfect. For
b Your browser sends it to a DNS server. example:
2 a The packets are passed from router to Once the DNS server has found the IP address,
router. it sends the address back to the browser.
b They reach the Web server.
3 a The packets may travel by different We can use until to link an action and the
routes. limit of that action:
b They reach the Web server. 2 The packets are passed from router to
4 a The individual packets reach the Web router until they reach the Web server.
server.
We can use before to show that one action
b They are put back together again.
precedes another:
Each pair of actions is linked in time. We can 3 The packets may travel by different routes
show how actions are linked in time by using before they reach the Web server.
time clauses. For example:
If the subjects are the same in both actions,
We can use when to show that one action we can use a participle:
happens immediately after another action: The packets may travel by different routes
1 When you click on a URL, your browser before reaching the Web server.
sends it to a DNS server.
We can use as to link two connected actions
happening at the same time:
4 As the individual packets reach the Web
server, they are put back together again.

Link each pair of actions using a time clause.

a You use a search engine.

b It provides a set of links related to your search.
a With POP3, email is stored on the server.
b You check your email account.
a You have clicked on a hyperlink.
b You have to wait for the webpage to be copied to your
computer.
 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web 91

4 a You listen to the first part of a streamed audio file.

b The next part is downloading.
5 a The graphics can be displayed gradually.
b The webpage is downloaded.
6 a You receive an email message.
b You can forward it to another address.
7 a You click on a hyperlink.
b The browser checks to see if the linked webpage is stored in
the cache.
8 a You can bookmark a webpage to make it easier to find in the
future.
b You find a webpage you like.
9 a You type in a Web address.
b You should press the Enter key.
10 a You click on the Home button.
b The browser displays your starting webpage.

Fill in the gaps in this description of buffering, a way of

ensuring that Web video runs smoothly.

Streaming is a way of dealing with

1
bandwidth problems you
download video from the Internet. One key
to successful streaming is the process of
The player feeds When connection 2
audio or video slowdowns or buffering you download a
data into the interruptions movie, the video player stores part of the
buffer. occur, the amount 3
of data in the
movie in memory playing it.
buffer decreases, Imagine the buffer as a container filled from
but as long as 4
some remains,
the top as shown in Fig 3 the
playback is container is full, the player sends data on
uninterrupted. for playback from the bottom. Data keeps
5
coming in a clip plays. The
Data goes out to
user can view the beginning of the movie
6
the player's the rest of the clip downloads.
decompression 7
connection slowdowns or
and playback
routines. interruptions occur, the amount of data in
the buffer decreases but as long as some
remains, playback is uninterrupted.
Playback continues at a steady rate
8
the buffer is empty.

Fig 3
Video buffering
92 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web

PROBLEM-SOLVING Search engines Study these tips for conducting searches

using AltaVista. Then decide what you would type into the search
box to find this data. Compare your answers with others in your
group and together decide what would be the best search. Restrict
sites to English language.

Don't use simple keywords. Typing in Apple or apPle, AltaVista will only match Apple and
the word football is unlikely to help apPle respectively.
you to find information on your
favourite football team. Unless special operators are AltaVista supports natural language
included, AltaVista assumes the default operator is queries. If you really aren't sure where
OR. If, for example, the search query is American to start looking, try typing a natural
football, AltaVista will look for documents containing language query in the search box. The question
either American or football although it will list higher Where can I find pages about digital cameras? will
those documents which contain both. find a number of answers but at least it will give you
some idea of where to start.
AltaVista is specifically case sensitive.
If you specify apple as your search
term, AltaVista will return matches
for apple, Apple and APPLE. However, if you use
 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web 93

Try using phrase searching. This is You can refine your search by doing a
where you place quotation marks field search. Put the field, then a colon
around your search term, e. g. and then what you are looking for.
'alternative medicine'. This will search for all For example,
documents where these two words appear as a URL: UK +universities will find only British
phrase. universities.
title: 'English language' will find only sites which
Attaching a + to a word is a way of contain this phrase in their titles.
narrowing your search. It means that
word must be included in your AltaVista supports the use of wildcard
search. For example, if you were looking for searches. If you insert a * to the right
information on cancer research, use +cancer of a partial word, say hydro*, it will
+research instead of just cancer. find matches for all words beginning with hydro such
as hydrocarbon and hydrofoil. Wildcards can also be
Attaching a - to a word or using NOT used to search for pages containing plurals of the
is another way of narrowing your search terms as well as to catch possible spelling
search. This excludes the search item variations, for example alumin*m will catch both
following the word NOT or the - sign. For example, aluminium (UK) and aluminum (US).
science NOT fiction or science -fiction will exclude
sites in which these two words occur together. If you are looking for multimedia files
then save yourself time by selecting
Use brackets to group complex images, audio or video with the radio
searches, for example: (cakes AND buttons on AltaVista's search box and then entering
recipes) AND (chocolate OR ginger) your search.
will find pages including cakes and recipes and either
chocolate or ginger or both.

1 a street map of Edinburgh, Scotland

2 train times between London and Paris
3 the exchange rate of your currency against the US dollar
4 a recipe for chocolate chip or hazelnut brownies
5 video clips of the Beatles
6 sumo wrestler competitions in Japan this year
7 the weather in New York city tomorrow
8 heart disease amongst women
9 New Zealand universities which offer courses in computing
10 Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion

Test your answers using AltaVista.

WRITING Write your own description of how your browser finds the page
you want. Use Fig 2 to help you. When you have finished, compare
your answer with the listening script to Task 4 on page 198.
94 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web

Find the answers to these questions in the

Email Protocols
Although the format of a mail message, as
following text.
transmitted from one machine to another, is
1 Name three different email protocols rigidly defined, different mail protocols transfer
mentioned in the text. and store messages in slightly different ways. The
2 Which email protocol is used to transfer mail system you're probably used to employs a
messages between server computers? combination of SMTP and POP3 to send and
3 Why is SMTP unsuitable for delivering receive mail respectively. Others may use IMAP4
messages to desktop PCs? to retrieve mail, especially where bandwidth is
4 Name two host-based mail systems limited or expensive.
mentioned in the text.
5 Where are email messages stored in an
SMTP system? SMTP is used to transfer messages between one
6 What happens when you use your Web mail mail server and another. It's also used by email
account to access a POP3 mailbox? programs on PCs to send mail to the server. SMTP
7 Give an advantage and a disadvantage of is very straightforward, providing only facilities to
having an option to leave POP3 messages deliver messages to one or more recipients in
on the server. batch mode. Once a message has been delivered,
8 What are the advantages of using the IMAP4 it can't be recalled or cancelled. It's also deleted
protocol? from the sending server once it's been delivered.
SMTP uses 'push' operation, meaning that the
connection is initiated by the sending server
rather than the receiver. This makes it unsuitable
Web mail systems use some of the same protocols as
client/server mail. Some can access an ISP-based POP3 for delivering messages to desktop PCs, which
mailbox, allowing you to read your mail anywhere you can aren't guaranteed to be switched on at all times.
find a browser.
 UNIT 13 The World Wide Web 95

In host-based mail systems, such as Unix and Web

mail, SMTP is the only protocol the server uses.
Received messages are stored locally and retrieved
from the local file system by the mail program. In
the case of Web mail, the message is then
0 Re-read the text to find the answers to
these questions.

1 Mark the following statements as True or

translated into HTML and transmitted to your
False:
browser. SMTP is the only protocol for transferring
messages between servers. How they're then a Different mail systems transfer emails in
stored varies from system to system. different ways.
b IMAP4 requires more bandwidth than the
Post Office Protocol other email protocols.
POP is a message-retrieval protocol used by many c SMTP is used for sending emails from a PC
PC mail clients to get messages from a server, to a server.
typically your ISP's mail server. It only allows you d SMTP delivers messages one at a time.
to download all messages in your mailbox at once. e SMTP does not allow a delivered message to
It works in 'pull' mode, the receiving PC initiating be cancelled.
the connection. PC-based POP3 mail clients can f SMTP is only one of many protocols used to
do this automatically at a preset interval. When send mail between servers.
you use your Web mail account to access a POP3 g POP protocol allows the user to download
mailbox, the mail server opens a connection to one message at a time.
the POP3 server just as a PC-based application
would. The messages are then copied into your 2 Match the terms in Table A with the
Web mailbox and read via a browser. statements in Table B.
Since POP3 downloads all the messages in your
Table A
mailbox, there's an option to leave messages on
the server, so that they can be picked up from a SMTP
different machines without losing any. This does b 'Push' operation
mean that you'll get every message downloaded c POP
every time you connect to the server. If you don't
d 'Pull' operation
clean out your mailbox regularly, this could mean
long downloads. When using a Web mail account e IMAP
to retrieve POP3 mail, be careful about leaving
messages on the server - if too many build up. Table B
each download will take a long time and fill up i An email transfer process in which the
your inbox. Many Web mail systems won't connection is initiated by the sending
recognise messages you've already downloaded, so computer rather than the receiving
you'll get duplicates of ones you haven't deleted. computer.
ii A mail transfer protocol that initially only
Internet Mail Access Protocol
retrieves the message headers.
IMAP is similar in operation to POP, but allows
you more choice over what messages you iii An email transfer process in which the
download. Initially, only message headers are receiving computer initiates the
retrieved, giving information about the sender and connection.
subject. You can then download just those iv A simple mail transfer protocol that is
messages you want to read. You can also delete used to send messages between servers.
individual messages from the server, and some v A message-retrieval protocol that
IMAP4 servers let you organise your mail into downloads all email messages at the
folders. This makes download times shorter and same time.
there's no danger of losing messages.

[Adapted from 'Using Web-based Email' by Jonathan

Bennett, PC Magazine, November 1999]