You won't find the Internet on any map. You can't touch it. You can't see it, except on a computer. When you turn off the computer, the Internet disappears. Or does it? Have you ever thought about how much information is on the Internet? On any given day there are approximately 100 million active Internet domains. If you went to 5,000 different domains every day, it…
Usually, the Internet is simply called the net. Most of the places that we visit on the Internet are part of the World Wide Web (www). The web, as it is often called, consists of so many websites that we can't count them. Schools, stores, newspapers, and magazines have their own websites. Local governments have websites. Even some families and individuals have their own websites…
In order to connect to the net, you must have an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Many different kinds of companies provide Internet service. You may get this through your telephone company or your cable TV company. You might receive it through an Internet company such as AOL (America Online). You pay each month for Internet service just as you do for telephone service. When …
What if you know what you're looking for on the web, but you do not have a website address? You can go to a website called a search engine, type in whatever you're looking for and hit search. If you were writing a book like this one, you could type in Internet or History of the Internet or World Wide Web. The search engine would give you choices of hundreds, thousands, or even…
Do you use your computer to send or receive email? This has become one of the most popular uses of the Internet. In order to use email (electronic mail), you must have an email address. Many different websites offer email addresses, which usually don't cost anything. If you get one through Google, your email address will be something like yourname@gmail.com. (@ stands for at). If you …
Who started the Internet? No one person invented it. It actually began during the 1960s, long before homes had personal computers in them. The government agency that developed this computer communication system was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). It was part of the government's Department of Defense. What was later known as the Internet had its beginnings in a system c…
In the mid-1970s, computers started getting small and inexpensive enough for people to have them in their homes. Many home computer users started using the network to communicate between computers and share messages with each other. You may wonder how computers talk to each other. In 1963, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) was developed. Different manufacturers …
Some websites serve as places where friends can connect, put up pictures, and keep in touch. These are called social networking sites and have become very popular in recent years. Two of the most popular sites for teenagers are Facebook (www.facebook.com) and MySpace (www.myspace.com). Websites officer a couple of different ways for you to communicate online. Two common types of …
attachment (uh-TACH-ment): a file that is sent along with an email chat room (CHAT room): an imaginary room where people who have signed on to enter it can communicate with each other cyberspace (SY-bur-spayss): the electronic world of computer networks, the invisible space where the Internet exists, and computers communicate with each other domain (doe-MANE): a website's name downloading …