Basic Internet and Email

Basic Internet and Email
Steven A. Gillis
Albert L. Scott Library
Alabaster Alabama
The Internet
• What is it?
– A large network of computers
– Worldwide communication through standards
– Standards allow computers in China to access
data from Zimbabwe or New York
– Not like a phone line
• Phones dedicate a connection even the silence
• The internet uses “packet switched” data.
Packet Switched Networks
• A packet is just that, a tiny bit of
information
• The packet has a FROM address and a
TO address just like a letter
• The packets have an order, and are
reassembled at the other end
• The packets can be received in any order
and take different routes to get there
Standards
• The standards just make sure we are all
playing the same game
– If every country had different standards there
would be no interoperability… we’d just be
babbling 0’s and 1’s at each other
• The Standard for the internet is TCP/IP
– Over 200 protocols
– Includes rules for email, FTP (Downloading),
telnet (remote access to a computer) etc.
What this means to you
• Since the data is not continuous it might
get interrupted
• All information has to get to your computer
any way it can, sometimes things get lost
or data gets confused, this is why trying
again often works with the internet
• The small packets work much faster than
a direct connection, there’s not really
much “dead time” like on a phone
Everything comes to you
• Data comes to your computer, has to be
processed there, then displayed
• We may call it “Surfing” but we’re really
gathering data
• Almost all the data is decoded from 0’s and 1’s
into text, because text is CHEAP to transmit.
• Each 0 or 1 in a “set” is a bit. 8 bits are a byte.
256 different combinations!
Tell me what to do!
• The 0’s and 1’s become text, the text
becomes orders, the orders become a
display.
• The “translator” standard used for most of
the internet is HTML. “Hyper Text Markup
Language.
• The program we use to display this
language is called a browser
Browsers
• Code looks strange!
<body class="mediawiki ns-0 ltr page-Byte">
<div id="globalWrapper">
<div id="column-content">
<div id="content">
<a name="top" id="top"></a>
<h1
class="firstHeading">Byte</h1>
<div id="bodyContent">
<h3 id="siteSub">From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</h3>
<div id="contentSub"></div>
Browsers
• The browser takes all that text and uses it
to create what you see on the screen.
• Different browsers have different
translations. Although the web tries to be
uniform, things may not always display the
same.
• There are standards for the Web portion of
the internet, but not all companies adhere
to them.
Internet Explorer
• One of the most common browsers is
Internet Explorer, it is what we have here
in the library. Many other browsers exist
and often people have strong opinions on
which is best
• Sometimes the text sent to your computer
requires MORE than just the HTML
decoding by your browser…
Scripts
• In order to do complicated things not
covered in the display language of HTML
we use “Scripts”
• These are sets of text that tells your
computer to do something, but require you
to have a program that interprets the
commands
• Java, PHP, ASP etc. are all scripting
languages.
Where’s the script
• Most scripting languages are included in a
computer’s operating system but may
need to be updated regularly
• Scripts can cause problems with older
systems
• Scripts are more and more common as
computers get faster, complex scripts take
more processing power than HTML
Where can I get my 0’s and 1’s
• The internet is a lot more than the HTML
“World Wide Web” but today we’ll be using
just the browser
• The browser connects to the network with
some kind of modem
– Modem means Modulation/Demodulation
– It converts digital On/Off (0’s and 1’s) to
sound that travels over the phone lines
Modems
• Basic modem sound conversion uses the
normal phone line which wasn’t designed
for digital data. A single line has a
maximum speed of 56,000 Bytes per
second, and is often slower
– These days 14336000000 a second is slow!
• Cable modems use a more digital friendly
line and can be very fast
Broadband
• ADSL is Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Link
(Asymmetric because download is usually
much faster than upload… you do more
receiving than sending so this is fine)
– By using frequencies much higher than human
speech it gets around the slow limit of the telephone
56,000 Bytes
– Can be very fast
• Cable/DSL connections are “Broadband”
Bandwidth
• Bandwidth is the amount of data you can
shove in at one time. The “Broader” your
band the better.
• “Broadband” is becoming common enough
that browsing can be painfully slow without
it.
• Text is fast, images are slow
– A picture really IS more than a thousand
words! Color/Brightness/position…
1000 words?
• The bandwidth to save the word “monkey”
a 6 character word 1000 times, in an 8 bit
code like ASCII (one of the simplest codes
for English) is about 600 bytes
• This small picture is about 3400 bytes
• He would also like us to know he is an

APE not a Monkey…
Internet Savvy
• No matter what browser you use some
things will be similar
– The address of the internet site you are
accessing (Really you are downloading the
code into your computer FROM that location
– Usually displayed in a “Bar” at the top
– “Buttons” Forward/Back, Stop, Refresh, Home
– A Title Display for the webpage
– Menus for options or actions you can perform
The Address Bar
http://www.cityofalabaster.com/Default.asp?ID=188&pg=Library
The URL: Uniform Resource Locator

The Root: www.cityofalabaster.com
The Script: ASP
The title of the page is above the buttons and address bar:
City of Alabaster, Alabama: City of Alabaster-Albert L. Scott Public Library
What the root can tell you
• .gov
– Government sites in the United States at any
level, city, county, state, federal etc.
• .org
– Organization or individuals
• .com
– Commercial (for profit)
• .net
– Network providers
Rule of thumb
• Commercial sites usually have a financial
motive, treat them like a salesman when
they make statements about quality or
capability.
• Org sites often have biases just like we all
do. Remember that without some
verification there are a lot of opinions that
are stated as facts.
More dependable
• .gov sites are usually dependable.
Remember that Ketchup is a vegetable!
– Although the USDA never passed this into
standards… the government is far from
infallible. They are still some of the best.
• .edu sites are probably the most reliable
but be aware of biases
• Not all .com sites are sales
– www.cityofalabaster.com for example!
Refresh
Back Forward Print
Stop Home
BACK FORWARD STOP! REFRESH HOME SEARCH

FAVORITES HISTORY EMAIL PRINT
These are some of the buttons found somewhere on most browsers
History Button shows where
you’ve been!
Some great sites
• www.snopes.com
– Investigates urban myths, scams, and rumor
• en.wikipedia.org
– An online encyclopedia maintained and updated
by users, be careful with controversial topics!
• www.gutenberg.org
– Free access to books no longer copyrighted! User
added content, even has audio files!
Gateways to the Web
• Search engines sift through the text on the
web and try to find things that match.
Different search engines bring different
results back!
• Two commonly used search engines
– www.yahoo.com
– www.google.com
• Our library’s home page for public
computers is www.yahoo.com.
What a Search Engine Isn’t
• It doesn’t check content for you
– There are also filters that are sometimes in place that
reduce your content!
• It doesn’t guarantee veracity
– Just like a book or a newspaper, a webpage can be
wrong, or very biased
• It doesn’t filter out garbage for you
– In fact it may be set to filter out good stuff
• It can’t figure out what you really meant 
– It only knows the letters you type and the order
Googling 
• Google has been such a popular search
engine that people use the term as a verb

– Google it!
• Since it is so popular, and unlike Yahoo!,
isn’t categorized I’ll show you some tips
and tricks
www.google.com
• But wait, there's more!
– There are a lot more things to Google than the
basic search. The first thing to notice is the
labels at the top. These change your search
type.
– You can click on the “advanced search” link
next to the Google search box to really
specify what you want.
Google Advanced
The Advanced Search link just to the right of the normal Google
search bar gives you lots more control! Limit by file type (Like .ppt
for power points!) or root domains!
.ORG .GOV etc.

Google Images
Images, Maps, and More!

Be Aware of your Settings! Moderate Safe
Search tries to edit out offensive images
from your search
The “Images” search just looks for

pictures! “Web” is the default search
Search Box Tricks
• “Monkey time” : would search for monkey
time, in that order exactly
• Monkey time : would search for any page
with monkey AND time on the same page
• Monkey OR time : would search for any
page with monkey on it, or any page with
time on it
• Monkey –time would search for any page
with monkey but without time (- = not)
Search Box Tips
• ( ) can be used to enclose a search
– (Monkey OR banana) time : would search for
any page with monkey or banana that ALSO
has time on it.
• Searches can be very exacting!
– (“monkey with a banana” OR “monkey in a
tree”) AND (time lunch spotted (lost OR
found)) : the AND is not needed but won’t
mess the search up either, and helps make it
more clear  ( ( stuff) ) is called “Nesting”
Neat Search Filters
• www.rollyo.com
– Roll your own search engine
• This site has some pre-made search limits like “reference”
and “tech news” or you can make your own search, using
sites you trust
• www.alltheweb.com
– Searches a lot of content that text browsers miss
Owned by Yahoo!, filters by type, useful for audio and
video
• http://www.pipl.com/
– “Deep Web” search of personal records databases
Yahoo! Mail
• We gave Google some good press so
we’ll use Yahoo! mail as our example for
web emails.
• If you don’t have an email account Yahoo!
will provide one for you for free
• My last class slides have instructions on
how to set up an account. I can go over it
with you if you need after this class
Mail.yahoo.com works 
If you don’t have an account start here!

If you have an account start here!
Your mail comes to an “inbox”
The new Yahoo! Mail has
several ways to get there
Yahoo mail has a “CLASSIC” View which is better for
older computers. From now on all displays will use this
option. Once you set the “CLASSIC” view Yahoo! will
remember and always use it.
Inbox
The new Yahoo! Mail has a lot of bells and

whistles but it can be slow. If your computer
is loading the New Yahoo! Mail slow it will
prompt you to change to “classic” view.
Advertisements appear at the top, often they are flashy,
with large images that change if your mouse goes over
them. This slows down your system and demands more
memory. Most computers can cope. Hey it’s free 
Unread mails appear in bold text. Attachments

are shown by the “Paperclip” image. Attachments
can hold viruses, Yahoo pre-scans but it’s not
perfect, so be careful.
Clicking on the email name will open it
Click on an attachment to open it

Compose lets you SEND a new email
You can DELETE an email REPLY to the sender

FORWARD it to another email address mark it as
SPAM or MOVE it to another folder (Like the
TRASH FOLDER)
TO is the email address or addresses
you want to send the mail to. Add CC
lets you send copies to others Add BCC
lets you send email copies but won’t
include that persons address in the
Attach Files Here other mails (Carbon Copy and Blind
Carbon Copy  just like the old days!)
Type text here!

When you click attach files you “Browse”
to the file you want. Usually it is easiest
to find on the “Desktop”. Save a file you
need to email somewhere EASY to find!
Once you find the file you want, left click on it and hit “open”
The file doesn’t really open it “Attaches”
The file now appears on the list, you can attach
many files at once, Yahoo defaults 5 slots, but you
can add more 
After you check to make sure this was the file
you meant to attach… continue to message
Yahoo shows you an “You did it!”

screen Plus one more chance to
show you an advertisement 
Once you finish your email text, and
attach all the files that you want to
attach click SEND!
Yahoo! Will ask if you want to add this
person to your address book so you
can keep track of the address. Or you
can return to your inbox.
Always remember to SIGN
OUT! Especially here in the
library!
You can click on your SENT mail folder to make sure

the mail was sent out. Yahoo! Keeps a copy until you
delete it. It even keeps a copy of attachments.
Thank You!
I will be happy to answer questions about
this class. If you aren’t in the library with
me, you can email me at:
alreference@shelbycounty-al.org

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Basic Internet and Email

• He would also like us to know he is an

The URL: Uniform Resource Locator

BACK FORWARD STOP! REFRESH HOME SEARCH

.ORG .GOV etc.

Images, Maps, and More!

The “Images” search just looks for

If you don’t have an account start here!

The new Yahoo! Mail has a lot of bells and

Unread mails appear in bold text. Attachments

Click on an attachment to open it

You can DELETE an email REPLY to the sender

Type text here!

Yahoo shows you an “You did it!”

You can click on your SENT mail folder to make sure

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