U·NIT 2 CONCEPTS OF WEB BROWSERS

Structure Page Nos.

2.0 Introduction 32
2.1 Objectives 32
2.2 Concept of Client/Server Computing and Web Servers. 33
2.3 Structure of Internet 36
2.4 Structure of Web Address 39
2.5 What is Web Browser? 41
2.6 Microsoft Internet Explorer 44
2.6.1 How to Open an Internet Explorer Browser 45
2.6.2 How do I Start Browsing? 46
2.6.3 The Main Explorer Toolbar 46
2.6.4 Additional Features of Internet Explorer 47
2.7 Mozilla Firefox 50
2.7.1 Features of Mozilla Firefox 51
2.7.2 Additional Features of Mozilla Firefox 52
2.8 Common Error Messages from a Browser 57
2.9 Summary 59
2.10 Solutions/Answers 60
2.11 Further Readings 62.

2.0 .INTRODUCTION

In the previous unit, you have learnt the concepts of Internet including the basic
services which are available on the Internet. This unit provides you details about Web
browser, servers and their structure. The basis of the Internet as introduced in Unit 1 is
the client server computing. This unit explains the concept of Client/Server
computing. It also defines the clients and servers on the Client/Server Computing
system. In addition, unit explains various issues relating to the structure of Internet
and the Web address which were introduced earlier. This unit also explains the
concept ofIP address and subnet mask. As you know, one of the major services on the
Internet is the World Wide; Web. The web has become so popular that there are many
browsers available to choose from. This unit will explain you about only two web
browsers and their structure. However, this unit will help you to work with any other
browser available as the basic functionality of most of these browsers is the same.
Finally, the unit lists some of the common errors generated by a browser and some
common ways to deal with these problems.

2.1 fJBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• explain the meaning of web server;
• define the concept of web addresses;
• identify the structure of the internet;
• define the browser and its features;
• use the browser for Internet surfing; and
• identify common errors encountered while browsing and resolve them.
32
 Concepts of Web
Browsers
2.2 CONCEPT OF CLIENT/SERVERCOMPUTING
AND WEB SERVERS

As we discussed in the previous unit, the World Wide Web is oneof the most popular
services of Internet. In the past, a computer was used as a standalone device that was
specifically used for certain purposes, however, the Internet technologies have
changed it all. But, how did it all happened? Well, you have been exposed to this in
the previous unit. In this section, you focus on one of the basic concept that actually The largest and most
lead to the development of such a technology. This concept is the concept of client well-known example ofa
and'server. As the name suggestClientlServer computing splits any application WAN is the Internet.
including an Internet based application into tasks that are performed using three
separate components:

• The client computer - also called the front-end .

• The server computer - also called the back-end. It has to be apowerfulcomputer.
• The network that connects the two -such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or WANs are collection
" Wide Area Network (WAN ) that connects the client to the server. ofLANs and other
types of networks
The Figure 1 represents a client server computing platform. o together.

o
o
Compare LAN and
.......
- -""""'I!'-------r!------ tAN
WAN in terms of .
area covered,
bandwidth and
communication
channels used. ~.
'"hnrod Printer

,
"';"

Ia.rne (

'.1<.

'.
Figure i: A typical client server computing
. " .'
ar~hite(tu~e

. .

But why would you like toseparate thf;server from a client and depend on the:~',
, network to get the services of an application?'
•••• • '., t

33J
Web Based Technologies
The main reason is that by doing so you are able to create an intelligent system of
information, processing resources, services, applications etc. It can also reduce load
on the processing power requirements of a client machine. On the whole, the client
server computing technology empowers the users having finite processing power to
access information and applications that may require substantial resources.

In general, client server architecture opens up issues like; scalability, reliability,

• security etc. A client server system is expected to be more reliable and secure not
.because threats have reduced, but because such jobs can be specifically performed on
server resources in a much more efficient way. However, remember a single insecure
client may compromise the security of an application. Client server systems by very
nature are scalable. What does that mean? Assume that you are required to set up a
client server application that allows the students of a college to access information
about them. Assume that the college has just started its operations so have hardly 1.0.0.0
students, thus, you require just one server to serve about 1.0.0simultaneous clients.
Assume that after about 5 years the college had 5.0.0.0.0students an overall increase of
5.0times. Obviously, the number of clients will increase about 5.0times so as to the
number of servers and processing power of the server, yet your application if
developed properly, will scale up to the new environment.

Types of clients are On the whole a client server computing system is very adaptable to the organizational
web browsers, email changes such as enterprises break into smaller independent business units or
clients, and online chat enterprises growing in size.
clients.
How does the client server share responsibilities? The following example, tries to
explain it in a very simple way. ,.

Client: A client initiates a request.

Types of servers are For example, you may initiate a request to access your result from a
web servers, ftp ~.
University Result application (you may assume that this system is available
servers, application
through a LAN). In fact, for initiating such a request you may need to pass
servers, database
through an authentication process such as entering your user ID and
servers., mail servers,
password. Please also note that, for a well developed system you might have a
file servers, print
Graphical User Interface (GUI) based interface, where you just need to click a
servers, and terminal
button such. as "Show Result".
servers.
Server: Processes the request made by the client and returns the result. Some common.
server software includes: UNIX, LINUX, and Windows 2.0.07server etc.
Obviously, this result will be in a format such that communication process is
. very fast.

For example, on receivingthe "Show Result" request from your terminal,

server will process this request and generate resultant data - "Result data of
only your user ID" and send it in a predefined format to your client.

Client: The returned. results are in some predefined format. The client can apply some
application logic on the result. In addition, client also includes ~ presentation
component which is responsible for producing the interface for you. The ,
presentation component may cause the result to appear on the client's screen,
.."
e', normally in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) which provides a graphic-
oriented front end to applications.

_For example, the student result that will be obtained by the client from the
.server may contain subject wise marks of the student. The application logic
can convert these marks to equivalent grades and presentation component
formats
....,.. ...
,/
these marks in - tables containing course name, marks and grades ...
'.
 Concepts of Web
Thus, in a sense client/server computing creates anetwork of processing steps that are Browsers
distributed across the client and server. The client server computing also allows '
distributing processing functions across interconnected application-processors;

Web Servers

As discussed in this section a server processes the request made by clients. Now, you
extend the client server domain on the Internet appljcation.- WWW. What you can
clearly identify that you can make a request for a web page from the server. This
implies that you are a web client and the server from which you make a request is a
Web Server. As a web client you just need to run an application program called a
browser (You will go though the concepts of browser later in the Unit), whereas the
web server is software that fulfils the request of web clients.

A web server normally has: 0

o
• A high end computer with web server software. The three most popular web 0
server software are: .

o Apache HTTP Server, available in public domain

o Microsoft Internet Information Services (lIS)
o Sun Java System Web Server

• A very good Internet connection speed. so that it can supportmultiple

simultaneous users.

• Its-own domain name and JP address.

But how does this information exchange between the web client and web serveris
achieved? This whole communication is managed by a protocol called the Hyper Text
Transfer Protocol (HTTP). However, the only protocol that works on Internet as told
to you in the previous unit was TCP/IP. So what is this HTTJ?? Please note ;HTTP can URL ~Uniform
work only over a connection that is managed by TCP. Thus, it is a higher level ~esource Locator -
protocol that uses the services ofTCP. _. identifies 'the ,
GLOBAL address of a
. HTTP specifies the list of actions that lead to transfer of a requested information document or resource
exchange between a web client and web server. Whenever you wish to visit a web ontheWWW
page on the internet, you request that page from a web server. When you type a URL
.into your browser (for example, ••http://www.abc.com/ ••). your web browser requests
the page {or file) named index.html from the web server and the web server sends the.
page back to the web browser:

Web Server-

'Web Browser Web Server

requests the serves the
web page webpage

Figure 2: Interaction of Web Server and Web Browser

. .) " ,'-' -' - -.- "

35
.
;
'

Web Based Technologies

, The Figure 2 identifies how web browser andweb server interacts with each other. Let
./ ' us identify these steps in ~ore details: ' '
. -
1) As a first step you may put a URL likehttp://www.abc.comlindex.html or
The DNS was invented
by Paul Mockapetris in equivalent Domain name WWw.abc.com as the address of the website that you
want to access through your web browser.
1983.
The Web browser tries to resolve the IP address ofthe web site www.abc.com by
the information available in its own cache memory. If web server does not have
the information about IP address stored in its cache, it requests the IP address
froin Domain Name System (DNS) servers. The DNS server tells the browser
about the IP address of the website.
3) Once the web browser knows the IP address of the web site, it then requests the
web page (index.html page which is the home page in the present example) from
the web server.
4) The web server responds by sending back the requested web page. If the requested '
page does not exist then it will. send back the appropriate error message.
5) Your web browser receives the page from the web server and displays it as per the
display requirements of the. web page.

2.3 STRUCTURE OF INTERNET

As discussed in the previous Unit, Internet is a global connection of networks. But,

how are these computer connected? The Internet is basically built up of multiple
smaller networks called the subnets. Each computer systems on a subnet must have'
unique IP addresses. All these subnets are connected together with network devices
called routers, and each subnet may also contain its own subnets.

'ill

I'

,
Figure 3: Structure ofInternet
...;
36 /'
 ,Concepts of Web
Browsers,
Figure 3 is a top level view of the structure of the Internet as a cloud of many routers
that are connected to each other. You may be able to connect to any of the search
engines or any of the web servers like IGNOU web server through many alternative The Internet Protocol
routes. You may relate this diagram with the Figure 1 that shows a client server, Suite developed by
system. As you see in Figure 1, you as a client may be a part of LAN, W AN or Defense Advanced
wireless network, it does not matter. But in Figure 3 everything is almost in the Research Projects
Internet cloud -why? Because all these networks use one common protocol for reliable Agency (DARPA) in
data transfer, so they speak common language and communicate irrespective of the early 1970s.
physical differences. This ba~ic communication protocol on Internet is the
Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). This protocol ensures
reliable delivery of information from one source identified by it unique IP address to a
destination also identified by a unique IP address. Please note that the source and A Network Interface
destination computer may either be local orremotecomputer, depending 'on the Card is an interface
destination location. But-what are these IP addresses? We will answer this question a card used in many
little bit later. ," c'\ ' LANs. Each of these
cards may have a
To connect to a physical network all devices irrespective of wired or wireless uses an unique address.
interface card. An interface card may have its own unique physical address. However,
you can not locate a device just by its unique physical address, as these addresses do '
not provide any indication about the location of the device. Thus, you require a
protocol that uniquely identifies a device on the Internet.

TCP and IP (TCP/IP) are the two core protocols of the Internet Protocol suite. The
TCP primarily provides the reliable delivery of stream of bytes from a computer or a
program to another computer or a program. It breaks the data stream into packets at
the source and makes sure that all the packets are assembled orderly at the destination. I,

The IP protocol on the other hand identifies the location of source and the destination.
'Any computer on, Internetis identified by its unique IP address. Currently two
standard versions ofIP are av.ailable viz. Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) which is
currently being used on most of the Internet. An IPv4 address is a 32 bit address.
Figure 4 shows an IPv4 address:

IP address: 192.168.1.97 in various forms:

Decimal 192 168 .. 1 97

Hexadecimal C I 0 A I 8 0 I 1 6 I I'
Binary 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 I O· I 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1

Figure 4: IP Address

IPv4 address is a series offour numbers separated by dots (.). The four numbers
ranges between 0 and 255. So IPv4 address takes only 4-bytes (or32-bits) of Every time when a
computer memory. Not all the IPv4 addresses may be used to identify a computer. computer is connected
Some addresses of IPv4 are not used at all due to certain restrictions. In addition, to a Network it may
some addresses are reserved.for example; the IP address 255.255.255.255 is used for acquire a unique
broadcasts. dynamic IP address or
a Static IP address.
Every device, computer, printer or peripheral connected 1:-0 a TCP/IP network must , Find more about it
have its own IP address. Each 32 bit IP address consists of two components:. from the further
readings
• Network Identifier (Net ID) - which identifies one ofthe Networks that is a part
of Internet.
• Device Identifier (Device ID) - which identifies a specific device within the
identified Net-ID.

37
 ,-

W.eb-Based Technologies'
A Net ID may be of 8 to 24 bits long. By using a subnet mask in combination with
their own JP address, you can determine the destination address of the devices is
remote or local. for example, consider the JP address 192.168.1.35, having 24 bits Net
ID. The remaining 8 bits of this address specifies the device ID. The sub net mask for
this network should be 255.255.255:('). This subnet mask is used to identify the IP
address of the network.

The subnet mask is similar to an JP address - it is also a 4-byte (or 32-bits) field and ••
can be represented using dot notation. In binary, it always consist a series of ones,
" followed by sequence of zeros. The total number of bits is 32, but the number of ones
and zeros determines the nature of the mask. By comparing any JP address with a
given mask, you can split addresses into two parts, a network ID and a device ID.
Figure 5 explains this concept in more details.

Suppose your computer has an ip address of 192.168.1.35 and you want to access a
location 192.168.1.56, as your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, it will give you
following answers: ~..

Host (you): 192.168.1.35

SubnetMask 255.255.255.0

Result: 192.168.1.0

Accessed Location 192.168.1.56

SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 .:

Result: 192.168~ 1.0

Since, the Result of both the operation points to same Net ID, therefore, you can
conclude that the referred destination JP address is local.

Now, suppose your computer has an JP address of 191.168.1.35 and your NetID is 16
bit long. Suppose you want 0 access a location 190.168.1.35. Since, you have 16 bit
NetID, therefore, your network subnet mask will be 255.255.0~0, it will give you
following answers:

Host (you): 191.168.1.35

SubnetMask 255.255.0.0
Sub-netting is based
on CIDR (Classless
Result: 191.168.0.0
Inter-Domain Routing)
concept. It is used in
Accessed Location 190.168.l.35
routing between •
networks both locally
Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0
and .globally.
Result: 190.168.0.0 .,...
"

Since, the Result of both the' operation points to differentNet ID, therefore, you can
conclude that the referred destination JP address is remote .

.Figure 5:'U se of Subnet Mask

By comparing the source network ID with the JP address of the source and the
38 network ID cif the d.estination JP address" you can easily determine if the destination is
 Concepts of Web .- . iI
within the same subnet. A web page request, thus, can be identified as local page or a Browsers ,
page from remote server. But, how do you find the location of the remote server? The
answer to this question is beyond the scope of this unit. However, you should know
that routers may be responsible in finding the final path to the remote server.

As the numbers of users are increasing, the IPv4 addresses will run.short. Therefore, a
64 bit Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) was designed which is at present actively
being deployed on the Internet. For more details on IPv6, please refer to Further
Readings.

2.4 STRUCTURE OF A WEB ADDRESS

Now, you know about the IP addresses. What do you think about the IP address? Are
not they very cumbersome to remember? For example, to visit IGNOU web site the
address www.ignou.ac.in is far simpler than that of an IP address like 190.10.10.247.
Obviously, what we want to use are simpler textual domain addresses instead of
complex IP addresses. However, to enable the use of simple textual address, you will
a
require service that will map these text based names to respective IP addresses
automatically. Such a service was designed in 1983 by the University of Wisconsin
with the name Domain Name System (DNS).

In the present day Internet, Domain Name System (DNS) should keep track of address
of each computer or any other internet device and email addresses. The DNS
translates the web address or email address to respective IP address. For example, the
DNS translates address like www.ignou.ac.in into a computer understandable IP
address. It sounds simple, but remembers on Internet you are dealing with million of
addresses and every day this list is increasing. All these computers have to have a
unique address. Therefore, DNS follows a hierarchical naming scheme that is
supported by distributed database system to erisure no duplicate names are issued at
all. Figure 6 shows the hierarchical structure of domains names. For example,
traversing the hierarchy from the top you can track down ignou.ac.in as: .

First you can findthe in (India) in the top level country domains. Within this domain
find the ac (Academic) sub domain. Please note most of the Indian Universities will .
be in this sub-domain. Finally, in the ac you can find the entry for ignou. This entry
should point to the IP address for the ignou. ac. in for the WWW as well as for the mail
server. This is how the DNS finds the addresses, thus, is a very efficient system.

f-----Generic ------------- ~ Countries--1

......
-1 Root

corn edu org

I
net . gOY

~ ..

. ibm microsoft sun W3

Figure: 6: A sample portion of domain names on Internet

39
Web Based Technologies
Thus, using the DNS you will be able to relate a given textual address to IP address.
For converting domain name into IP address, it first accept request from programs and
other servers. After accepting the request, the DNS server can do the following:

• If it knows the IP a-ddress of requested domain, it will answer the request with an
IP address of the requested domain. ,
• If it does not know the requested domain name, it will contact another bNS server
and try to find the IP address.
• If the requested domain name is invalid or domain does not exist, it will return an
error message.

But how can you name a web page on the Internet? To answer this question you may
first identify that a web page actually.is part of a website that may reside on a web
, server having a, unique IP address. Thus, to identify a web page you need to identify -

• The protocol used to access that page.

• The server on which the web site is located. ,
• The mime of the page within that web site. Please note that simple web pages are"
stored as files. '

Please note all pages are stored as files.

Thus, to identify a web page you will have an address like:;'

'.~)

http://www.ignou.ac.in/students/result.html

• the address as above recognises the protocol http (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
to access the page, " '~ ,
• the www.ignou.ac.in identifies the DNS name ofIGNOUs WWW server, and
• the name of the page accessed by you is result. html which resides in the students
folder within the website. ', , '

This address-is called the URL. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locater.
The range of Well
Known Ports is in You can now clearly see that a URLconsists of three parts, - the first part is used to
between 0-1023. tell 'the browser what kind of server it will connect to. In the example above, the
browser will connect to a web server using Hypertext transfer Protocol (HTTP). Other
protocols that we can use in this field of an URL are FTP, gopher, smtp etc. the "
protocol IS always followed by "://".
",

The range of The second.part of an URL is a fully Qualified Domain Name (www.ignou.ac.in). In '
Registered Ports is an URL, the fully qualified domain name identifies the site running the server. Web
in between 1024- servers use port 80 by default, but some servers has been set up to use other ports. For
49151. this, a URL can contain a port number following the domain name and separated from
it by a colon. (www.ignou.ac.in:80).itis optional to write a port number with domain
name. If the URL contains no port number, the default port is used.

The first two parts of an URLare used to' identify the web server of the web site. Each
The range of
web seryer has a borne page and a directory to store the entire document related to the
Dynamic and/or
web page like images, audio, video files.
Private Ports is in
between 49152-
, The thirdcomponentofURL is an optional pathname for a particular documentitself
65535.
For example, the address http://www.ignou.ac.in/students/result.html specifies the file
result.html i.e., in the directory students (lstudents/result.html) in the specified web
site. - >

40
,,'
.Concepts of Web'
Browser~ \ ',
r:::sr Check Your Progress 1

1) '.Write the elements and their roles in the Client/Server computing: ~

................. ~ ; ',' ',' , .
• ~ ~ •••• ~(•••••••••• ~"""""'."'.""" •• """."',""'" "" ."~••••• ~.', •.•..• : •••.••••• ' ••••. ,", •• .t •••••••••

• ••••••••••• ' •••••••• '.' ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 0' ••• ;". ~ • '0;" •• 0' '. '. ,' •• ;;0 "••.•• 0,••• :, ~ .,' • ~ .•• " • " • ~ ••••••

2). Explain the procedure of sharing of data between Web Serv~rarid Web Clients?
••••••• 0 •••••• ~ •••••••••••••••••• ~'~' •••••••••••••••• ; •••••• ~ ••••• ~'!~•.•...•• ~ .•::":.~'."., ~ '," .', '0_ .•.• ",: ,' ••••.•• '••••• :••

.............................................. ,
.
,
.
.. •.•.••••••••
,
, ••••.••••••••••
.
!

••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••• ··;· ••• : ••••• ·•••••••• ·••••••••••••• t ••••••••••••

3) What is DNS? How is it used?'

· ' ' ' ' '.' ~.'~. ~ .
.................................................................................... '"
"
- . .
.
· ' ", : ~' .. .' : ; '.' ~ ~ ' ~ " .

4) What ate the components of an IP address? What is sub-netting?

................................... . -, .
.
,
,';
.................... .
,

.' ' -

• ••• '.' •••••••••••• ~ ••. ' ••••• ; ••••••• ~ •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

. ? •••••••••••• ~ ••••• '.' • " •••••••
'

."
2.5 WHATISWEBBROWSER?
"
In the previous section, 'youha~e gone.through the details about the web addresses.
By now you also know about- the Internet and WWW. However, how do you see the
content of a web page that is available at a web address? To visit a website that is
identified by a web address, you need to use a software application. This software
application allows formatted display of information of the desired web page as well as
possible interaction with the website. This software iscalledth~lVeb Browser. The The first Web browser
information on a web page"may be textual, images, audio, video, interactive game etc. on the World Wide
In addition, a ~eb page may contain links called Hyperlinks to other web pages on the' Web was created by
same or different website. Web browser displays these hyperlinks. On clicking these Tim Berners-Lee in
hyperlinks you will get the display of web page / text / table /picture to which the link 1991,
is referencing in the web browser .

. Thus, a Web browser is a software application that provides functionality to a client to

display and interact with text, images, and' other Information located a Web. Server on
on the World Wide Web. Following are some of the information about the browser' -
- ~ '\:

• NCSA Mosaic, the first web graphical browser was developed at the National .World first very
Center for Supercomputing Applications in the 1993. 'It was an easy to use popular web browser,
browser. It supported point and click interface which helped to popularize the .Netscape Navigator
Web Browser. was developed in
• Although all web browsers display the contents and format as per the standard ' 1994.
, r: versions of Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), however, theappearance of a
Web page may differ between browsers .
• , Some Of the Web browsers available for perso-nal computers are Internet Explorer,
MozillaFirefox, Safari: Opera, and Netscape.

.41
Web Based Technologies
~igure 7 shows the Home page of the IGNOU's web site in the Browser window ..
"1.

~') Welcome::lndira Gandhi National Open University - Mozilla I ire/ox ~l, 1:I1i1 G..l@~

• !G'
t<mt ''1!I\;,d • ~f;t<lt~
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~ :rrt<tft ~ ~ ftr...-fttCl'(q:q
l@ INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

•
MAmAN GARHI. NEW OElHI-l10068

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For Studem..s . Prosperous New Year,to all
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Figure 7: A Web Browser

Browsers basically provide the followingfacilities which help users and save their
time, when they are jumping from one website to another that is doing internet
surfing:
• Browsers do not require you to "log on" to a server computer (called web server) .
and later to "log out" when you have finished accessing information stored on the
web server..
• Browsers allow you to directly visit a web site stored on a web server computer,
however, to do so you must type the URL address of the web site you want to
access. Alternatively, you can also click on the hyperlink that refers to that web
site.
• Browsers allow you to-create and maintain a personal list of favourite URL
.addresses that you are likely to frequently visit in future. Your list is stored on
your own computer from which you are accessing the WWW.
• Most of the, browsers store your surfing information called history. Browsers
maintain a history of the websites visited in a session. These save all the URL
Web browsers are addresses visited during session in the computer through which you are accessing
the most-commonly- theWWW .
.used type ofHTTP • Browsers allow you to download information in various formats. The downloaded
user agent. information can be saved for later use.

Browsers come in various forms and capabilities. The currently available browsers
can be classified into the following three types:
• Line Browsers
• Graphical Browsers
• Java-enabled Browsers

.Line Browsers
• It is a text-based browser.
• It provide command-line interface to its user.
• Line browsers are used to display.only plain text. It cannot display images, audio
and video etc. .
42 "
 Concepts of Web
• They display a hypertext link either by using numbers in brackets [1], or by using Browsers
boldface type.
• One ofthe most common line browser used these days is Lynx. It uses boldface
.' .
type to denote a hypertext link.
• These browsers provide a very fast access to web sites as they display only the
text part.

Figure 8: A Line Browser

Graphical Browsers

A graphical browser is designed to overcome the problem faced inthe line browsers
specially relating to non-availability of images, audio, video etc. in the text browsers.
• Graphical browsers are designed to take total advantage of the WorldWide Web.
• It has the ability to handle all kinds of digital media such as image, video, audio
etc.
• . You need to use a mouse for navigation and for selecting information on a
graphical browser.
• These require the web client computer to have graphics capabilities of handling
and displaying multimedia data.
• There are many graphical browsers available today like Mosaic, NetScape,
Internet explorer, etc.

Java-enabled Browsers

Java-enabled web browsers are also known as second generation browsers. These
were designed to overcome the limitation of the graphical browsers. It should be noted
that the graphical browsers now have extensive features.

• Java enabled browsers are based on the j ava programming language,.· :'" ,~'<
• The browser also has the ability to dynamically downloadjava applets from web
server computers to web client computers and execute these applets on theclient
computers.
• The example ofjava enabled web browser is "lobo". It is an.open source web
browser, written completely injava.
• Java browser has advantages like portability, extensibility and security.

43
.. \veb'Based Technologies

2.6 MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer) abbreviated as

MSIE, commonly abbreviated to IE, is a graphical web browsers developed by
Microsoft. The Internet Explorer project was started in the summer of 1994 by
Thomas Reardon and after that Benjamin Slivka worked on that project. It included IE
as part of the Microsoft Windows operating systems starting in 1995. It has been one
of the most widely used web browsers ..

The versions of IE which are still being used are Internet Explorer 6 and Internet
Explorer 7. Microsoft has already introduced their latest version of Internet Explorer
i.e., Internet Explorer 8. .

Internet Explorer 6.0: It was released on August 27,2001, a few months before'
Windows XP. This version included Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language
· (DHTML) (DHTML allows display of dynamic web pages. DHTML will be defined
in BlockZ in more details) and partial support of Cascading Style Sheets (eSS),
Document Object Model (DaM). Some of these concepts will be discussed in
Block 2.- . .
.~--~-~

I~ternet Explorer 7: It was released on October 1~, 2006. It includes tabbed

· browsing; a multiple-engine search box, and anti-phishing filer. Please note that
, phishirig is a fraudulent process of acquiring your critical information like username .
· and password, credit card details etc., using fake web -sites or e-mail or messengers
etc. IE7 is included with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and is available
for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later and Windows Server 2003.

Internet Explorer 8: It is the latest version of Internet Explorer and has been in'
development since, Augtist~2007. On March 5, 2008, the first publicbeta (Beta 1) was
released to the general public . On August 27, 2008, the second public beta (Beta2)
was released. It supports Windows XP, Windows Server2003, Windows Vista and
Windows Server 2008 on both 32-bit as well as 64-bit architectures.

I· Figure 9: Microsoft Internet Kiplorer

44
 ,/ ': - (
/
Concepts of Web
There are a number of other popular browsers that are available free of cost on the Browsers .
Internet. Some of these browsers are:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Netscape Navigator r
• Safari

These browsers support multiple numbers of operating system and very easy to use
web browsers. Figure 10 shows the start window ofMozila's Firefox web browser.

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Mozilla Firefux: Mozilla introduced Firefox asa free arid open-source web browser ..'
for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.' It is fast, small and easy to use web browser. It
provides many features sUCl1a~tabbed windows, quick links, security and the ability
to blockads.We.will discuss.Mozilla Firefox in detail later on this unit.

. Opera: Opera.is afull-featureci' inte~et web browser. Opera is a secure, small, and
. powerful web browser. The'installiltion of Opera web browser is fast and easy. It does
not interfere with other programs oil your computer, including other browsers. Opera " ...
is famous {or its speed in rendering of WebPages, and customizable user interface.

2.6.1 How toOpen an .InternetExplorer Browser (

. ,

To browse the internet you first open an Internet browser: To do this, you follow the
steps, given below:

• . Click the Start button.

. .

• \ Go to.Pr.ograms Menu and, highlight and click Internet Explorer.

• Alternatively click the Internet Explorer icon on the Desktop 'or on theTaskbar,

As soon as you start a browser, the browser window opens and displays page: This a •• i~ '.

page is called "the Home" page of your browser. You can change the home page of it
browser to any site of your choice. "
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45'
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Web Based Technologies

2.6.2 How do I Start Browsing?

The first thing to remember when you begin browsing the web is the web address of
the site that you want to visit. Go to the "Address Bar" near the top of the page, and
click on it. Now, type address in the Address bar, and then press enter. Internet
Explorer will go to this site directly from your current web page. You can click on any
link on the page to get the associated webpage displayed in your browser window. Try
browsing yourself.

2.6.3 The Main Explorer Toolbar

Once you are in the browser, you can see the Toolbar. Figure 11 shows the toolbar of
Internet Explorer.

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Figure 11: Explorer Toolbar

The main toolbar is composed of different buttons, each having different function and
purpose. The following paragraphs explainsome of these buttons in details..
".,~ '".

The Back Button: Assume that you are Browsing a series of web pages and suddenly
realize that you need to see the previous web page that you have visited. What do you
do'lJust press the Back button. Press it again and you will be seeing previous to
previous page. You can press this button again and again till you reach a point from .
where you started browsing during that session. At this point of time, this Button will
gray out indicting you can not go back any further.

The Forward Button: The forward button helps you when you want to move forward
to the next page. Whenever you click on that button it will forward you one page at a
time. When the forward button grayed out, that means there are no more pages
available to move forward.

The Stop Button: The stop button is used when the web pages take too much time to
show the content properly, just hit the stop button to stop current operation. The stop
button stops the current operation by Internet Explorer. It will stop any type of file or
document from loading.

The Refresh Button: The refresh button is used to reload the current web pages for
displaying the updates quickly.

The Home Button: This button takes you to the default web page set by you.
Whenever you press this button it will take you back at start up (home) page.

The Search Button: The search button is used when you want to search out
something from the internet. This button takes you to the default web search page.

The Favorites Button: The Favorites button is used to make a list of your mostly
visited website. Assume you visit www.ignou.ac.in web site regularly. Then you must <
add this w~b site on your favorite list by clicking this button. ~
 Concepts of Web
History Button: The history button is used to keep track on all the visited URL of Browsers
web pages you visited before. When you click on history button, it will open a menu
in which all the URLs visited by you are stored.

The Print Button: The print button is used for printing the contents of web pages.
Assume that you want to take a print of a web page then you have to click on this
button. This button will bring up a Print Dialog box.

The Font Button: The font button is used to resize the contents of the web pages.

The Mail Button: Assume that you get 'a mail while you surf around the web, then
you just click on this button to read your mail. This button takes you to the inbox of
your mailbox. However, this feature requires proper configuration.

The Research Button: The research button is used to search out the research articles,
blogs, books etc over the internet. After clicking this button a menu will display on
left side of window, then put your research article name in "Search for" and select a
reference book from "All Reference Books".

2.6.4 Additional Features of Internet Explorer

Microsoft incorporated some other features on Internet Explorer to give better
browsing with ease, These features are not directly affects browsing but it will make
browsing a little bit easy and fast. These features are:
• Favorites
• Pop-Up Blockers
• History
• Home Page
• Temporary Internet Files Maintain list of
your favorite
Favorites: The Favorite is used for making the list or storing the most visited URL.
items in Internet
The Favorites list contains only those URL whom you want to add on this list. It is
Explorer.
very useful when you do not need to remember it, just go to the Favorites list and
click on it. You can store any URL or web page in that list. For doing this, you have to
follow these steps:

• Open Internet Explorer Browser.

o
• Browse the web gages or enter an URL. , 0
• If you want to store this URL in Favorites list, then click on the Favorites option 0
from Menu bar.
• Click on Add to Favorites. An Add-Favorite dialog box gets invoked as shown in
the Figure 12.
• If you want to change their default name then type a name that you want to give
this URL
• Select a position where you want to store it. If you want to store it on default
position then click on OK button.
• If you want to store it in a folder, then first create a folder by clicking on New
Folder button. A Create New Folder dialogue box gets invoked. Type a name for a
new folder and then click on OK button. Finally just select folder (for example we
created a new folder named harry) where you want to store this URL as shown in
Figure 12.
• Finally Click on OK button.

47
Wi!b'~ased Technologies

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After storing. the URL; it will show under ·theFavoritesmenu.If you store it in folder
then it will show you under that particular folder. .
. .

Turn off Pop- Pop-up Blockers; You can sayPop-up ads orpop-ups both are the same. It 'is
ups blocker in basically a form of advertising on the Internet It is used to attract web traffic-or
Internet capture email addresses. It usually works when you browse web sites and
. Explorer;. automatically a new window gets invoked to display advertisement. Pop-ups may
disturb you.

o These pop-ups get invoked at particularinterval. If you want to restrict pep-us, follow
these steps: "
o • Go to the Tools in Menu 'bar. Select Pop-up Blocker.
o • Select Turn On Pop-up Blocker. It will block all the unwanted ads or Pop-ups.

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 Concepts of Web
You can also turn off the pop-up blocker any time, by following the same procedure. Browsers
You can also set some properties for pop-ups. For doing this, follow these steps:

• Go to the Tools in Menu bar. Select Pop-up Blocker.

• Select Pop-up Blocker Settings. A Pop-up Blocker Settings dialogue box gets
invoked as shown in the Figure 13.
• You can add web sites on which you want to accept pop-ups. Just write the URL
in "Address of Web site to allow" field and click on Add button.
• All the allowed sites are shown in Allowed sites area. You can also remove it by
clicking on Remove or Remove All button.

History: It is used to keep track of all the visited URL or web pages you visited
before. It stores all the web pages or URL in a folder. It is not useful to store web
pages. For deleting all the history content, follow these simple steps:

• Go to Tools option from Menu bar and select Internet Options.

• Internet Option~ dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure 14.
• Under History option, click on "Clear History" button.
• Click on Apply button and then click on OK button .

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Figure 14: Internet Option Dialog box for Home page, Temporary Internet files and history items .

Home Page: Whenever a web browser starts or when the home button is pressed from
browser, it automatically loads a local file or an URL. You can specify a URL for the
page you want to be loaded whenever you start browser, as well as you can turn this
feature off and on. For doing this, you have to fbllow these steps:
-,
• Go to Tools option from Menu bar. and select Internet Options .
•, Internet Options dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure 14.'
• Under Home page, you can specify any address in "Address" field. Click on
Apply button and then click on OK button.
• If you want to use your default URL, then click "Use Default" button. Otherwise
set it blank by clicking on "Use Bhmk" button.

49
Web Based Technologies

Temporary Internet Files are stored in directory on computer systems. This

directory is used by Internet Explorer to cache pages and multimedia content, such as
video and audio files. This is very useful when you visit the website again, as the site
The content is stored will get loaded faster. These files are stored in hard disk, so anyone can access these
or indexed in a files. For privacy reason, you have to delete these files regularly. The cache can be
database file, known as cleared by using Internet Options dialog box. You can delete these files by following
Index.dat these steps:

• Go to Tools option from Menu bar and select Internet Options.

• Internet Options dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure 14.
• Under Temporary Internet files, click on "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files" as
you do not need these files.
• Click on Apply button and then click on OK button.

r::3'" Check Your Progress 2

1. What is a Web Browser? List some current Web Browsers.

2. List the main facilities provided by a browser.

3. What is Graphical Web browser? How it is different from the other browsers?

4. List all the buttons that are present in main Explorer Toolbar.

2.7 MOZILLA FIRE FOX

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser managed by Mozilla Corporation. Mozilla Firefox

was developed by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the
Mozilla Firefox is
Mozilla. After development of Firefox, Mozilla released several versions of Firefox.
available in 62
Firefox 1.0 was released on November 9,2004, Firefox 1.5 was released on
languages.
November 29, 2005and Firefox 2.0 was released on October 24,2006. The most
recent version Firefox 3.0 was released on June 17,2008. Figure IS shows the startup
screen of Mozilla Firefox.

50
 Concepts of Web
Browsers

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Figure 15: Mozilla Firefox Start up page

Firefox includes tabbed browsing, a spell checker, incremental find, live

bookmarking, a download manager, and an integrated search system,

You can add Functions add-ons created by third-party developers in the brows et.
Some of the popular Add-ons are: '
• NoScript disables JavaScript,
• FoxyTunes is a media player control toolbar,
• Adblock Plus is a ad blocking utility,
• StumbleUpon is a website discovery tool,
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer synchronizes the bookmarks,
• WOT: Web of Trust is a security site advisor,
• DownThemAll! enhances the download, and
• Web Developer toolbar helps the developers.

Mozilla Firefox runs on various versions of Microsoft "Windows, Mac OS, Linux
operating systems. Mozilla currently release Firefox 3.0.8 version on March 27, 2009.
Firefox is freeware software which means that you can use its source code freely.

Firefox provides built-in tools for the web developers to design and develop the web
sites. It creates an environment for web developers. The common tools for web
developers are Error Console or the DOM Inspector that help developers to create
object model of'the web pages.

2.7.1 Features of Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla is a very useful browser. Some of the main features of this browser are:
• Web technologies support
• Cross-platform support
• Security
• Tabbed browsing
• Pop-up blocking
• Download manager
• Live Bookmarks

51
Web Based Technologies
Web technologies support: Firefox supports basic Web standards including HTML,
XML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, and XSLT.

By default, Firefox does not support ActiveX controls. That means it can miss some
features in web pages designed using such controls. There are some methods in
Firefox like third party plugins to show ActiveX controls properly in a web page. But
this method does not work in all versions of Firefox or on all platforms.

Cross-platform sUPll0rt: Mozilla Firefox runs on different platforms. Firefox is open

source. It can be compiled and run on a multiple architectures and operating systems.
Thus, Firefox runs on many other systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, OS/2, AIX,
and FreeBSD.

Security: Firefox introduced many features for improving security. It has several
security features like Phishing detector, Option to clear all private data, like browser
history and cookies. It also support strong security model.

Firefox is an open source software, so anyone can view their source code and review
the code for security vulnerabilities,

Tabbed browsing: in tabbed browsing you can open multiple pages in the same
window under different tabs. Firefox 2 supports tabbed browsing with "session store"
and "undo close tab" feature.

Pop-up blocking: In Mozilla Firefox later edition, an integrated customizable pop-up

blocking has been included. By default, firefox blocks all pop-ups from all web sites.
But it can be configured to allow some specific sites to show pop-ups. When a pop-up
is blocked, a dialog box appears on the screen and it is possible to view the pop-ups
URL by clicking that dialog box. This will help you to decide if the pop-up should be
. displayed or not.

Download manager: In Mozilla Firefox later edition, have an integrated

customizable downloadmanager. Download manager allows, downloads to start/open
automatically or save the contents directly to disk. In Windows or Mac, Firefox
downloads all files in the user's desktop by default. But in Linux downloads are stored
in the user's home directory. You can also configure the download manager such that
all download files are downloaded at a specific location. Through download manager,
a user can view the URL of the source from where a download originated as well as
the location to which a file was downloaded.

Live Bookmarks: Mozilla Firefox introduced a live bookmark that is powered by

RSS or Atom feeds, called "Live Bookmarks". Using live bookmarks, users can
dynamically monitor to their favorite news changes. You can refer to further readings
to know more about RSS feeds.

2.7.2 Additional Features of Mozilla Firefox

Microsoft incorporated some other features on Internet Explorer to give better

browsing with ease. These features do not directly affect browsing but it will make
browsing a little bit easy and fast. These features are:
• Bookmarks
• Pop-Up Blockers
• History
• Home Page
• Private Data

52
 Concepts of Web
Bookmarks: The Bookmarks are used for making the list or 'storing the most visited Browsers
URL. The Bookmarks contains only those URLs that you want to add on this list. You
can store any URL or web page as Bookmarks. For doing thiayou have to follow
these steps:· , Bookmarked your
most visited web
• To store URL in Bookmarks, click on the Bookmarks option from Menu bar. pages orURL
• Click on "Bookmark This Page", A "Page Bookmarked" dialog box gets invoked using Firefox.
as shown in the Figure 16.
• If you want to change their display name then type a name that you want to give
to this URL in "Name" field.

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• Select a position where you want to store it. If you want to store it on default
position then click on OK button.
• J If you want to store it in a folder, then first create a folder by clicking on Folder
drop down menu. Select "Choose" then click on New Folder. It will create a
folder. Name that folder and select this folder (for example "harry" folder shown
in Figure) where you want to store this URL as shown in Figure 17.
• Finally Click on Done button .

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53
Web Based Technologies
After storing the URL, it will show under the Bookmarks menu. If you store it
in folder then it will show you under that particular folder.

Pop-up Blockers: Pop-ups have been explained to you in the section 2.6.3. If
you want to restrict pop-us in Mozilla, follow these steps:

• Go to the Tools in Menu bar. Select Options. An Options dialog box gets
invoked as shown in Figure 18. .
• Select Content tabs and select Block pop-up windows. It will block all the
unwanted ads or Pop-ups.
• Finally click on OK button.

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You can also turn off the pop-up blocker any time, by unchecked the field "Block
pop-up window". You can also set some exceptions for pop-ups window. For doing
this, follow these steps:

• Go to the Tools in Menu bar. Select Options.

• Select Content tabs. Under Block pop-up windows, select Exception. An
Exception dialogue box gets invoked as shown in the Figure 19.
• You can add web sites from which you want to accept pop-ups. Just write the
URL in "Address of Web site" field and click on "Allow" button.
• All the allowed sites are shown in "Site" area. You can also remove them by
clicking on "Remove Site" or "Remove All Sites" button.
• Finally click on OK button.

54
 Concepts of Web
,~~ Browsers
I- I

Figure 19: To set Exception for Pop-ups with the help of Allowed sites dialog box

History: It is used to keep track on all the visited URL or web pages you visited
before. It stores all the web pages or URL in a folder. It is not useful to store web
pages.

For deleting the history content, follow these simple steps:

• Go to History option from Menu bar and click on "Show all History" option.
• History "Library" dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure 20.
• Under History option, select a link or multiple links and right click on it and click
on delete option.

Figure 20: De leting URL from Library

55
Web Based Technologies
You can also open a web page from the Library under History option. As history
option maintain all the web pages that you have been already visited in past. If you
want to open it again then you can open it from this Library.

Home Page: Whenever a web browser starts or when the home button is pressed from
browser, it automatically loads a home page. You can specify the URL for the page
that you want to be loaded whenever you start browser. You can turn this feature off
and on. For doing this, you have to follow these steps:

• Go to Tools option from Menu bar and select "Options". Options dialogue box
gets invoked as shown in Figure 23.
• Under "Main" tab, you can specify any address in "Home Page" field. Click on
OK button.
• If you want to use your default URL, then click "Restore to Default" button.
Otherwise set it blank by selecting from "When Firefox starts" drop-down list
option "show a blank page".
• You can set a current web page as a Home page by clicking "Use Current Page"
button.

Private Data: The private data includes history, cookies and some other data. We
have already discussed about the history feature in this section. Cookies are small
pieces of data sent by server to the client. Cookies are used for authentication, session
tracking, and maintaining user's information. For privacy reason, you have to delete
cookies regularly.

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products :t!..'i1I· 't!h

Y:'f2-t!r(advancl?(
.;l~"l·~ ~t1'n

Figure 21: Options Dialog box for setting of Cookies, History

You can delete or set their properties by following these steps:

• Go to Tools option from Menu bar and select "Options".
• Options dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure 21.
• Select "Privacy" tab, under "Cookies" checked or unchecked the options "Accept
cookies from sites" also you can set exception for web sites by clicking Exception
button.
56
 I.
Concepts of Web
• Under '~rivate Data" mark check or unchecked the fields. By clicking "Clear Browsers
Now" button, you can delete all private data from the disk.
• .Click on OK button,

l
'2.8 COMMON ERROR MESSAGES
---
FROM A
BROWSER'
",',

When browsing the Internet, it is very coronion to face some sort of error messages
displayed in the browser. The 20 most common Internet Explorer Error messages are:
. t ~".
• 52 Runtime Error"
• 400 Bad Fil~ Request Try out to
• 401 Unauthorized resolve these
• 403 Forbidden/Access Denied errors, when
• 404 File Not Found it occurred
• 408 Request Timeout
• 500 Internal Error
• 501 Not Implemented
• 502 Service Temporarily Overloaded
• 503 Service-Unavailable o wo·

0,
• ' Bad File Request
• Unable to Locate Host
• Host Unavailable
• Connection, Refused by Host
• Errors on Page
• Script Error
• Runtime Error, ,I
• Failed DNS Lookup
• File Contains No Data
• Network Connection Refused by the Server
,
Here, we discussed only some important errors faced by a user while browsing the
internet.

52 Runtime Error: This is a "bad file name or number" error in JavltScript. It means
that the script cannot find a file or it is aconnection problem.

400 Bad File Request: It means the syntax used in the URL is incorrect (e.g.
uppercase letter, wrong punctuation marks).

401 Unauthorized: This error comes when the web site server is looking-for some
encryption key from the client and is not getting it. '

'404 File Not Found: This error comes when Server cannot find the file you
requested. Refreshing the page should resolve this problem, although continued error
messages may mean the, page is no longer available. '
, '-. , -- - . - .-
-,

51
Web Based Technologies

••••. Go I ...

.•. • ; T.J:f.L 13~ a

Figure 22: Error 404

500 Internal Error: This error comes when browser can not retrieve the HTML
document because of server-configuration problems.

I •. 1 The page ca n not be d ispla yed

There is a p r-ob l-erm with the page you are trying to reach and it
cannot be displayed.

please try the following:

• Open the tlconline .Iuxuryr-esorts .com home page, and then

look for links to the information you want.
• Click the Ef)
Refresh button, or try again later.
• Click ~ Search to look for information on the Internet.
• You can also see a list of related sites.

HTTP 500 - Internal server error

Internet Explo~er

Figure 23: Error 500

503 Service Unavailable: This error comes when Server is busy, site may have
moved, or you lost your dial-up Internet connection.

Bad File Request: This error comes when Browser may not support the form or other
coding, that you are trying to access. 0

/ > Unable to Locate Host: This error comes when Host server is down, incorrect URL,
or Internet connection is lost.

Host Unavailable: This error comes when Host server is down. Refresh it or go to the
site later.

58
 Concepts ofWe~ .~
· Errors on Page: This error messages occurs when the browser has not read Browsers (
information from the web page properly or some items are missing from the web page
itself. This problem normally affects the graphics on a web page.

Runtime Error: When you are trying to browse to various websites, you may receive
an error message. Runtime error can occur when upgrade, enables the script-debugging
and script-error-notification options.

File Contains No Data: Page is there but is not showing anything. Error occurs in the
document.

r:::;:r Check Your Progress 3

1) List the features of Mozilla Firefox.

~-
...................................................................................................

2) What is the purpose of Private Data in Firefox and how can you delete these
private data?

3) List the Add-ons available in Firefox?

4) List five common errors that you may encounter while browsing .

............................................... ' .
............................................................................. \ .

2.9 SUMMARY

This unit provides a detailed discussion on client-server computing. It discusses the

concept of web addresses in greater details. In addition, we discussed about web
browser and their working in detail. Browser is a software application used to display
images, text and information located at web pages. There are three types of browser
line browser, graphical browser and java-enabled browser. We also discussed the
features of browser. We also discussed about two common web browsers that are
-:)0- Internet explorer and Mozilla Firefox. We discussed all type .of version in short. We
also discussed Explorer toolbar and their buttons. We had a-close look to how we
addressed a websites. We had a close look to most common 20 errors 'messages
generated by a browser.

59
Web Based Technologies

2.10 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Check Your Progress 1

I) The three components of Client/Server computing are: .~

• Client - used for front-end processing- like request initialization, formatting. of
returned data. . .' .
• Server - processes client request data. I
• Communication network - that allows communication between clients and the
server.

2) The procedure can be defmed as:

1. The client makes a request of a WeD page by giving its address.
2. The Web browser at client tries to resolve the IP address of the website by the
information available in its own cache memory. If not found then, it requests
the IP address from Domain Name System (DNS) servers. The DNS server
tells the browser about the IP address of the website. .
'I!
3. Once the web browser knows the IP address of the website, it then requests
the web page from the web server.
4. The web server responds by sending back the requested web page. If the
requested page does not exist then it will send back the appropriate error
message.
5'. Your web browser receives the page from the web server and displays it as
per the display requirements of the web page. .

3) Domain Name Service (DNS) is the service used to map names (human readable)
of host computers to JP.addresses and vice versa. DNS has a hierarchical structure
in which addresses are mapped starting from its top level domain.

r 4) An IP (IPv4) address. consists of a NetID and a Device ID, together they uniquely
identify a device. on the Internet subnetting is used to determine whether requested
IP address is local or remote.

Check Your Progress 2

1) A Web browser is an application software that is used to display and interacts

with text,.images, and-other information located on a Web Server. Some of the
web browsers available for web browsing are: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,
Netscape Navigator, Opera and Safari.

2) The web browser provides following facilities:

o Browsing the web site without login or logout on the remote server computer.
o Maintains the history of the web sites you visited earlier .
.0 . Makes a favorite list of the entire URL that you would like to visit in future.

3) A graphical browser displays all kinds of digital media such as audio, video and
images.

Difference between Graphical browsers and line browsers:

• The graphical browser displays all kind of digital images, sounds, videos etc
but line browser, can display only textual information.
• The interface of graphical browser is more users' friendly than that of line
browsers.
60
 Concepts of Web
4) The main toolbar is composed of different buttons. Each of these buttons has a Browsers
different function and purpose in Internet Explorer. They are:
1. Back Button
2. Forward Button
3. Stop button
4. Refresh Button
5. Home Button
6. Search Button
7. Print button
8. Fontbutton
9. Favorites button
10. Mail button
11. Research button

Check Your Progress 3

1) Features of Mozilla Firefox are:

• Web tethnologies support
• Cross-platform support
• Security
• Tabbed browsing
• Pop-up blocking
• Download manag/"
• Live Bookmarks

2) The private data consists of history items, Cookies and other useful information.
Cookies are the collection of text send from the server. Cookies are used for
authentication, session tracking, and maintaining users information. From the
history item you can access same web page again as you have been visited in the
past.

You can delete or set their properties by following steps:

• Go to Tools option from Menu bar and select "Options".

• Options dialogue box gets invoked as shown in Figure ...
• Select "Privacy" tab, under "Cookies" checked or unchecked the options
"Accept cookies from sites" also you can set exception for web sites by
clicking Exception button.
• Under "Private Data" mark check or unchecked the fields. By clicking "Clear
Now" button, delete all private data from the disk.
• Click on OK button.

3) Firefox supports add-ons created by third-party developers. The most popular

Add-ons are:

• NoScript JavaScript disabling utility,

• Tab Mix Plus customizer,
• FoxyTunes media player control toolbar,
• Adblock Plus ad blocking utility,
• Stumble Upon website discovery,
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer bookmark synchronizer,
• WOT: Web of Trust security site advisor, .
• DownThemAll! Download enhancer, and
• Web Developer toolbar.

61
Web Based Technologies
4) The five common errors while browsing are:

400 Bad File Request: It occurred when syntax is incorrect (e.g. uppercase letter,
wrong punctuation marks)

404 File Not Found: This error comes when Server cannot find the requested file.

Bad File Request: This error comes when Browser may not support the form or
other coding, that you are trying to access.

408 Request Timeout: This error comes when Client stopped the request before
the server finished retrieving it.

File Contains No Data: Page is there but is not showing anything. Error occurs in
the document.

"
2.11 FURTHER READINGS

• For Client/Server Computing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Client-server.

• For Web Browser - http://en.wikipedia.org/wikilWeb browser.
• Fundamental of computing by Sinha & Sinha
• For Common Errors Message from Browser-
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findtheproblem/tp/browsererror.htrn.
• For Private Data - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Usin~FirefoxlPrivacy
• For Mozilla Firefox - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Mozilla_Firefox
• For Features offirefox-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wikilFeatures of Mozilla Firefox
• For Internet Explorer - en. wikipedia.orglwikillnternecExplorer

62