Using the Internet for...

Internet Basics

www.lifesteps.ie
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Using the Internet for... Internet Basics

by Ciarán Clissmann and Bruff O’Reilly, Pintail Ltd. and Libraries Development, LGMA, 2013.

LifeSteps offers you a range of online guides. Written by staff from Irish public libraries, each
guide contains easy to follow, step by step explanations of how to use the Internet to achieve
a specific goal or ‘life step.’

LifeSteps is an initiative of Irish public libraries, managed by Libraries Development, LGMA.

You can contact the LifeSteps team at [email protected].

We would like to thank all relevant institutions for permission to reproduce their material.
Every care has been taken to trace copyright holders. However, if anyone has been omitted,
we apologise and will, if informed, make corrections in any future edition.

Libraries Developmet, LGMA, is not responsible for the content of the websites included in this
guide.
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Contents

Introduction 3

Need to Know 3

Need to Have 3

Related Guides 3

Quick Guide 4

Step-by-Step Guide 5

Worked Example: Searching the Internet 12

Social Media 14

Links 15

Final Notes 15

Glossary 16

Note: words in red appear in the glossary at the end of this module.
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Introduction
This guide introduces the basic concepts of computers and the Internet and shows you how
to get started online. When you have finished this guide you will be able to switch on,
connect to the Internet and find information online, as well has having a good understanding
of what is going on behind the scenes.

This whole guide is essentially background. Rather than have a separate background section,
the main text of the guide is presented in the ‘Step by Step’ section.

Need to Know
You don’t need to know anything in particular to use this guide.

Need to Have
You need to have the following to get full value from this guide:

• A computer. A smartphone (e.g. iphone, android phone) is essentially a type of

computer; where you read ‘computer’ in this guide, you should understand that this
includes smartphones. The same goes for tablets (e.g. iPads, Surface etc.);

• An Internet connection – this may involve the use of a modem, a wifi network, a cable
connection, an ADSL line or a mobile phone with a data package;

• A Web Browser program such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Internet
Explorer or on your computer.

Related Guides
The LifeSteps Guide Internet Basics does not rely on your having read any other guides.
However, hopefully you will find that this guide is very useful when using every other guide
created by the LifeSteps project.
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Quick Guide
The Internet is a very large collection of computers, all over the world, that talk to one
another, sharing information in various ways. Two popular ways that information is shared
are electronic mail (email) and the World Wide Web.

The Web is made up of two types of computer program – Web server programs, that store
and send (or ‘serve’) information, and Web browser programs that receive information from
Web servers and display it to human users. The Web information is in the form of a special
sort of computer file called a Web page.

The most important part of the Web for most users is the Web browser program (Chrome,
Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer). This asks for Web pages from servers and then displays
them to users. The ‘Browser’ section of this guide explores the most important parts of a
Web browser.

Web browsers display Web pages. Pages are made up mainly of text and pictures, for human
reviewing. They also contain links, videos, sound files and forms.

There are billions of Web pages. To help you to find the pages that you want, you use a
search engine, such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. A search engine lets you type in words that
describe what you are looking for, and then gives you a list of Web pages that it thinks are
relevant to your search.
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Step-by-Step Guide
The Internet
What is a Network?

Network Diagram

A network is a collection of computers that are joined together so that they can share
information.
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What is the Internet?

Internet Diagram #1

The Internet is a large collection of computers, all talking to one another over a network. All
the computers run programs (e.g. servers and browsers) that let them talk to one another.

Many of the computers on the Internet run a collection of programs called the World Wide
Web, or simply the Web.
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The Web
There are two main programs on the Web – Web server programs and web browser
programs. A web server is a program that sends (or serves) information (web pages) from
the hard disk of the computer it is running on, over the Internet, to a web browser running
on some other computer. A web browser is a program (popular examples are Chrome,
Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer) that asks for and receives web pages and displays them
on the screen of the computer on which it is running.

Internet Diagram #2
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Moving Around the Web

Looking at Web pages on the Internet is really just pulling computer files off computers
someplace, and showing them on the screen. But it is often talked about as if there was
movement involved. Thus, you can ‘go to’ a Web page, or you can ‘surf from website to
website’. You can ‘follow’ a link to another page, or ‘jump to’ a favourite website. It can be
likened to sitting in a parked car, while someone puts pictures of different places against the
window, giving the illusion of movement. This ‘going’ on the Internet is illusory, but it is an
easy way to describe the experience.

The Browser
The role of the browser is to receive Web pages over the Internet from a Web server and dis-
play them on the screen, and to accept keystrokes, screen taps, and mouse-clicks from you
and send them to the Web server over the Internet.

The following image shows the Chrome Browser, with the most important parts labelled.
As you can see, these are ‘bars’ at the top and bottom of the screen. The Web page you are
looking at is shown in the main part of the browser screen - in this case, it is the popular
search engine, Google.

Browser Window
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The Tab Title Bar shows the name of the Web page that you are looking at. Many web
browsers now use ‘tabs,’ which allow for multiple pages to exist in one browser window.
Here you can see both the Amazon and Irish Times websites and can click back and forth
from one to the other, without leaving either one.

The Address Bar shows the Internet address, or URL, of the web page at which you are
currently looking.

Padlock on secure sites

When you are accessing a secure server, usually to pay for something, a small padlock icon
appears in the status bar. See image above. (See the ‘Shopping’ LifeSteps guide for details
about shopping online).

The Navigation Bar is a set of buttons that help you to surf the Web. You use them by clicking
on them with the mouse. These buttons are used very often. The most important ones are
briefly noted here.
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Navigation Menu

The Back button brings you back to the last Web page you were looking at. The back button
can usually be used as often as you like, to go back as many steps as you like. You can go back
many steps at once by using the little ‘down-arrow’ beside the back button. In the picture
here, you can see the last three pages that were visited.

The Forward button brings you forward a step. So, if you visited a page, then went back to
the previous one, and would now like to go forward again, you click this one. Much less often
used.

The Refresh button tells the browser to get the page that you are looking at from the
browser. If the page has changed since the last time that you looked at it, then refreshing it,
by clicking on this button, will make the changes visible.

Of the remaining buttons, most are not important

for basic Web use. The exception is the Bookmarks,
which record the addresses of favourite pages you
plan to visit again. You can store them in folders for
easier access later.

This is used to record Web pages that you found

useful and expect to visit again.

Bookmarks
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Links
A link is an area on the computer screen (usually a word or words, or an image), which can
be used to leave the Web page you are looking at and move to a different Web page. Links
are used by clicking on them with the mouse (or tapping on a touch screen). You can identify
links by the fact that, as your mouse moves over them, it changes shape (usually from an
arrow into a hand with a pointing finger). Links are often blue in colour and are underlined.

Link Example
In the image above, the header in blue is a link.

Web Page Addresses or URLs

Every Web page on the Internet has its own address. Web page addresses are often referred
to as ‘URLs’ or Uniform Resource Locators.

If you know the URL of a web page you can type it into the address bar of the browser to visit
the page.

Forms
Web forms are just like paper forms - you fill in
various fields and you send the form away to be
processed. At the Web server, a program reads the
material that you typed in and then takes some
action. Common forms are ‘login’ forms, where you
enter a name and a password, and search forms,
where you type in some words that describe what
you are looking for on the Internet.

See the example of a login form above. As you can see, you type in a user name and a
password and then click the button. The can’t access your account? text is a link to a page
that handles lost passwords, etc.
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Worked Example: Searching the Internet

This section brings you through the process of finding Web pages about a particular topic.
Finding information on the net relies on the use of search engines. These provide an online
form – usually just a simple text entry window. The form lets you type in some words
describing what you are looking for. The search engine then looks up a huge database of
Web pages and descriptions of Web pages and tries to match those up with your search.

Let us imagine you are looking for the Irish Times. You type in ‘The Irish Times’ into a search
engine, such as google.com or bing.com.

Here is the first page of the results:

Google Search
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Click on any of the results to jump to the Web page in question. But before you do, look
closely at the results.

If you follow a link and find that it is not in fact what you wanted, use the ‘back’ button on
the browser to bring you back to the search engine and try one of the other results.

Note: to save you time, search engines will try to guess what you’re searching for, as you type
it in. These guesses appear immediately below the search window. If you see your search
appear there, you can click on it without having to type in the rest of your search.
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Social Media
Social media sites have become some of the most popular sites on the Internet. Social
media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, allow for users to create, share and exchange
information and media in virtual communities and networks. These sites provide a platform
for individual members to communicate with one another, and to represent themselves
online within a social network.

A social network refers to a group of individuals who are connected through any variety of
ways. They may know each other in real life, share common interests, or live in the same
geographical location. For instance, a user may support a sports team and form a social
network with other supporters of the team.

Often social networks rely on the concept of ‘friends’ – trusted members of the social
network that are allowed to do things that non-friends are allowed to do. For example, a
‘friend’ may be able to view private pictures or messages that are not accessible to the
general public.

Users of social media sites often contribute information, pictures, and videos about
themselves. Although this can be fun, and provide an easy method of exhibiting information
about your life, such as photos of your recent vacation to friends and family, you must be
cautious about putting information online that you wouldn’t want the general public to have
access to.
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Links
There are hundreds of websites on the Internet which provide background, introductory and
tutorial information about the Internet, the Web and the technologies that make them work.
For more websites on these topics please see our website at www.lifesteps.ie.

Alternatively, as for nearly any information requirement on any topic, visit Google or another
search engine.

Final Notes
Quality

The Internet is very large and contains an enormous amount of information. Some of this is
unreliable – this reflects the fact that anyone can publish information on the net, there are
no editors and no quality control. However, much of the information online is of high quality
and the Internet is one of the most important sources of information available today.

Security and Safety

There is very little that you can do on the Internet that will break anything. You should feel
free to explore and experiment, surfing and browsing from website to website and becoming
familiar with the technology and what it can do.

However, you should bear in mind that there are large amounts of offensive and sometimes
harmful material on the Internet, often not suitable for juvenile or sensitive audiences. There
are technologies available for protecting users from such material and you may wish to look
into this.

Downloading anything other than text or pictures from the Internet should be done with
great care. In particular, be cautious about downloading and installing software that you find
on the net. A small but significant proportion of such material contains viruses and other
programs that can damage your computer and the information that you store on it, as well
as attacking other computers to which yours is connected. Ask the advice of someone with
more experience, if in doubt.
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Glossary
ADSL: A service offered by telephone companies, which enables some telephone lines to
carry a lot of information in a short time. ADSL turns a phone line into a broadband internet
link. Only available to some phone lines, but very useful where available.

Broadband: A word used to describe networks that can send a lot of information in a short
time. Most urban (ADSL, cable, wireless) internet links are ‘broadband.

Browser: A computer program, running on the human user’s computer/smartphone/tablet,

which gets information from Web servers and displays it on the screen.

Browser window: The browser window is that part of the computer screen that shows the
browser program, and includes the various parts of the browser (navigation bar, address bar,
etc.) and of course the main browser screen that displays Web pages.

Cable: A form of broadband Internet connection that allows for very fast Internet
connections. Cable refers to coaxial cable, the kind that you would use to hook up a
television set. Many cable broadband suppliers also supply cable TV.

Email: Email or electronic mail is a service that sends messages across the Internet from one
human user to another. Like a letter, email is person-to-person and it stores messages until
they are read.

File: A collection of computer information stored on a hard disk (or CD or floppy) and
accessed when the user needs it. For example, a letter typed with a word processor and
saved on the hard disk is in the form of a file. So is a song in MP3 format, or a Web page.

Form: A part of a Web page where the human user can type in some information to be sent
by the browser to the Web server. A form consists of fields that can have text typed into
them, buttons that can be clicked and (sometimes) check boxes and radio buttons.

Internet: A large collection of computers, connected together to allow them to share

information with one another.

Link: A link, or hyperlink, is a part of a Web page that, if clicked with a mouse, opens a
different Web page. Links are usually shown in blue and underlined on a web page.

Modem: A device which allows a computer to connect to the Internet via standard analogue
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telephone lines. Increasingly rare, as more and more computers access the net via wifi or
cable.

Program: A list of instructions that a computer understands. Programs usually have some
part that shows information to the human users of the computer – for example, the display
in a browser is part of the browser program. The browser also includes parts that are not
visible to the human user, like the part that sends messages to the Web server.

Search Engine: A program running on a Web server computer which creates and maintains a
directory of Web pages on the Internet. The engine has a Web page with a form; you type in
words describing what you are looking for; the engine looks up its directory and sends back a
list of Web pages that it thinks will fit your search criteria. Google is the most popular search
engine.

Search Results: The list of Web pages that are returned by a search engine in response to a
search. Each result usually includes a link which can be clicked on to bring you to the Web
page.

Server: A computer program which receives requests for Web pages from browsers, gets this
information from its hard disk or from another program running on the same computer and
then sends it back to the browser for consumption by the human user of the browser.

Social Media: Media content that is created and shared by individuals through social
networks.

Social Networks: The creation of virtual networks based around existing friendships,
geographical locations, and/or similar interests. Twitter and Facebook are good examples.
Boards.ie is an Irish social network.

Software: Those parts of a computer that tell it what to do when you touch the hardware,
and also what to show on screen. Software is made up of computer programs.

URL: The Uniform Resource Locator, or address, of a Web page. Like the phone number of a
particular person, this is unique and goes direct to the Web page it is associated with.

Web page: A Web page is a computer file which typically includes text, pictures, videos,
sounds, links and perhaps forms. The Web page also includes instructions to the browser
about how the page should look on the screen (colours, layout, etc.).

Wifi: Wifi is a network technology that connects computers to the internet (and so to one
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another) using a wireless connection. To connect to the internet using wifi, a computer
needs to be quite close to (usually within tens of metres at most) a wireless access point,
which is itself linked by a broadband connection to the wider internet. The computer also
needs wifi technology built-in; nearly every modern computer, smartphone, tablet, e-reader,
etc. has this.

World Wide Web: Also called the WWW or the Web. A service that sends information over
the internet from Web server programs to Web browser programs. The browser then
displays this information to the user on his computer screen.