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Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Your notes

Computer Science
The Internet & the World Wide Web
Contents
The Internet & the World Wide Web
Network Protocols
Web Browser
Web Pages
Cookies

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The Internet & the World Wide Web

Your notes
The Internet & the World Wide Web
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a global network of networks
The Internet is the most well-known Wide Area Network (WAN)
The Internet is the infrastructure used to provide connectivity to the World Wide Web

What is the World Wide Web?

The world wide web, or simply the web, is a collection of websites and web pages that are accessed
using the internet
It was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, who envisioned it as a way to share and access information
on a global scale
The web consists of interconnected documents and multimedia files that are stored on web servers
around the world
Web pages are accessed using a web browser, which communicates with web servers to retrieve and
display the content

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Network Protocols
Your notes
HTTP & HTTPS
What is HTTP & HTTPS?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) allows communication between clients and servers for website
viewing
HTTP & HTTPS are protocols, a set of rules governing communication between devices on a network
HTTP allows clients to receive data from the sever (fetching a webpage) and send data to the server
(submitting a form, uploading a file)
HTTPS works in the same way as HTTP but with an added layer of security
All data sent and received using HTTPS is encrypted
HTTPS is used to protect sensitive information such as passwords, financial information and personal
data

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Web Browser
Your notes
Web Browser
What is a web browser?
A web browser is a piece of software used to access and display information on the internet
A web browser displays web pages by rendering hypertext markup language (HTML)
Web browsers interpret the code in HTML documents and translate it into a visual display for the user

Functions of a web browser

Function Description

Render HTML Display the web page

Provide navigation tools E.g. back/forward buttons and home button, to help users move between
pages

Storing bookmarks & Allow users to save links to frequently visited websites and access them
favourites easily

Storing cookies "link to cookies here"

Record user history Allow users to quickly revisit recently viewed web pages

Provide address bar A place for user to type in the URL (link to URL page) of a web page to visit

Multiple tabs Allow multiple web pages to be open at once so users can quickly switch
between them

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Web Pages
Your notes
Loading a Web Page
How is a web page loaded?
Web pages are held on web servers (1), known as 'hosting'
To access a web page on a web server, a web browser is used
In the browser, a user enters a web page URL (2)
The browser sends the domain name to a DNS (3)
The browser connects to the web server and requests to access the page
HTML (4) is transferred and rendered by the browser, displaying the web page

Web Servers (1)

What is a web server?
A web server is a remote computer that stores the files needed to display a web page on the Internet
Web servers are generally available 24/7 and security is managed by the owner of the hardware
Web servers provide access to multiple users at the same time

Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) (2)
What is a URL?
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a unique identifier for a web page, known as the website address
It is text based to make it easier to remember
A user enters a URL into a web browser to view a web page
An example of a URL is:
https://www.savemyexams.com/igcse/computer-science/cie/23/revision-notes/
A URL can typically be split into three parts:
Protocol

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Domain name
Web page/file name Your notes
Using the example about the URL would be split as follows:
Protocol https Communication method to transfer data
between client and server

Domain name www.savemyexams.com Name of the server where the resource is

located

Web page/file /igcse/computer- Location of the file or resources on the

name science/cie/23/revision-notes/ server

Domain Name System (DNS) (3)

What is a DNS?
The Domain Name System (DNS) can be thought of as the Internet's equivalent to a phone book
It is essentially a directory of domain names and is used to translate human-readable domain names to
the numeric IP addresses that computers use
When you type a URL into your browser, the DNS translates the domain name into its associated IP
address so your computer can connect to the server hosting the website
Without DNS, we would have to remember the IP address of every site we want to visit

HTML (4)
What is HTML?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), is the foundational language used to structure and present
content on the web
HTML consists of a series of elements, often referred to as "tags"
Most tags are opened and closed e.g. <html> and </html>, whereas some tags are only opened e.g.
<img> and <link>

Structure
HTML is used to define the basic structure of a webpage by organising content into sections such as
headers, paragraphs, and footers

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The <html> tag is the root element of an HTML page and includes all other HTML elements used to
create a page structure
<!DOCTYPE html> Your notes
<html>
<head>
<title>My Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
</header>
<main>
<section>
<h2>About Me</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph about me.</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2>My Projects</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph about my projects.</p>
</section>
</main>
<footer>
<p>Contact: [email protected]</p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>

In this example, HTML is used to create a structure with a header, two sections in the main body, and a
footer
Other examples of HTML being used for structure include:
Creating lists to structure information
Positioning of text on the screen
Embedding media and interactive elements

Present
HTML is also used to present and display information in a visually meaningful way
The content layer of a web page is made up of HTML elements such as headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.),
paragraphs (<p>), links (<a>), images (<img>), and more
This layer is mainly handled by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>

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<p>This is a paragraph introducing the content of the website.</p>

<h2>Subheading 1</h2> Your notes

<p>Here is some detailed information under the first subheading.</p>

<h2>Subheading 2</h2>
<p>Another section with more information.</p>

<p><strong>Bold text</strong> and <em>italic text</em> can emphasise important points.</p>

</body>
</html>

In this example, headings (<h1>, <h2>) and text formatting tags (<strong>, <em>) are used to present the
content clearly and with emphasis
Other examples of HTML being used to present information include:
Presenting data in a table
Displaying images with captions

WORKED EXAMPLE
A company sells products over the Internet.
Explain how the information stored on the company’s website is requested by the customer, sent to
the customer’s computer and displayed on the screen.
[7]
Answer
Seven from:
Requested
a web browser is used
user enters the URL / web address (into the address bar) // clicks a link containing the web
address // clicks an element of the webpage
the URL / web address specifies the protocol
protocols used are Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) / Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
(HTTPS)
Sent
the URL / web address contains the domain name
the domain name is used to look up the IP address of the company
the domain name server (DNS) stores an index of domain names and IP addresses
web browser sends a request to the web server / IP address
Received

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Data for the website is stored on the company’s web server

webserver sends the data for the website back to the web browser
web server uses the customer’s IP address to return the data Your notes
the data is transferred into Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML)
HTML is interpreted/rendered by the web browser (to display the website)

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Cookies
Your notes
Cookies
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a tiny data file stored on a computer by browser software that holds information relating to
your browsing activity
Typically a cookie will contain:
Browsing history - what websites you have visited
Login information - usernames & passwords
Preferences - language/font size/themes
The two types of cookie are:
Session - Created and replaced every time a user visits a website
Persistent - Created and saved the first time a user visits a website, retained until they expire

What is the Privacy and Electronic Communications

Regulations (2003)?
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (2003) is a law that governs the use of
cookies
Any website that wants to store a cookie must:
Tell users the cookies are there
Explain what the cookies are doing
Obtain users consent to store the cookie

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