Explanation of Various Areas of the Internet

As one can see, there is more to the Internet than just the WWW. There are also other aspects of the Internet that users will come into contact with sooner or later, by accident or design. The area of most interest is the Usenet. This is the area of newsgroups, 20,000+ newsgroups to be inexact. These groups cover a vast array of subject manner from the mundane to the sublime, from the spiritual to the pornographic. By and large, they are neither censored nor moderated. Unlike the WWW the content is fluid and changes completely over an 11 day cycle.

The "postings" are added to a particular group by a method that is essentially sending an e-mail to the group. Dialogs are held and information is solicited and exchanged in this manner. The postings include the e-mail addresses of the person posting the message and one can either send a response to the newsgroup or to the individual directly. E-mail has an attachment feature that allows the sender to include other files. These files might be programming, text documents or graphics for example. These attached files can also be downloaded from the newsgroups.

The Browser acts as the window onto the Internet. It is the program that provides the browsing controls. To better understand your Browser, read about:

• Controls
  
• Settings
  
• Search Engines
  
• Shareware and Freeware
  
• Downloading Files
  
• Viruses
  

Introduction to the Internet
• Brief History of the Internet
  
• Explanation of Terms (definitions)
  
• Areas of the Internet
  
  • Controls
    
  • Settings
    
  • Search Engines
    
  • Shareware and Freeware
    
  • Downloading Files
    
  • Viruses