IT 111

INTERNET AND
E-MAIL

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THE INTERNET

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 What is the Internet?
❖ The Internet is a global, interconnected computer network in
which every computer connected to it can exchange data with
any other connected computer.
OR
❖ The Internet refers to the physical network that links
computers across the globe. It is a network of networks.

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 What is the WWW?
❖ The World Wide Web (WWW) is the most common
technique for publishing information on the Internet.

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 The Significance of the Internet
1. It’s the first mass medium that involves computers
and uses digitized data.
2. It provides the potential for media convergence, the
unification of all media.
3. It is transforming how we communicate, obtain
information, learn, seek jobs, and maintain
professional growth.
4. Businesses find it an indispensable tool for their
needs.

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 The Internet and Web: What’s the Difference?
❖ The Internet is the physical connection of millions
of networks.
❖ The Web uses the Internet for its existence.
❖ The web consists of hypertext embedded on Web
pages that are hosted on Web sites.
❖ A Web site is a collection of related Web documents
that are made available to the public.
❖ The index page, or home page, is the first page of a
Web site.
❖ Web pages are individual Web documents.
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 The Hypertext Concept
❖ Hypertext is a way of presenting information so that
the order in which it’s read is left up to the reader.
❖ Hyperlinks are underlined or highlighted words that
can be used to view another document or Web
page.
❖ Hypermedia refers to a link to multimedia, such as
music and movies.

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 Web Browsers and Servers
❖ A Web browser (or browser) is a software
application used to locate, retrieve and display
content on the World Wide Web (WWW).
❖ These contents include Web pages, images, video
and other files.
❖ The first browsers were text-only.
❖ Mosaic was the first graphical browser.
❖ Web servers respond to the requests of browsers
by finding and sending requested resources back to
the browser.
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 Web Browsers and Servers
❖ Examples of popular Web browsers used today
include:

1) Mozilla Firefox

2) Microsoft Internet Explorer

3) Opera browser

4) Apple Safari

5) Google Chrome
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Web Browsers and Servers

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 Web Addresses (URLs)
❖ Web addresses are an addressing system that
identifies where a Web resource (i.e. Web page,
image, video and other files) is located.
❖ The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the
standard used to identify Web resources.
❖ The URL consists of:
1) Protocol – this identifies the means of access
2) Server – contains the domain name of the Web server
3) Path – identifies the location of the document
4) Resource – specifies the filename of the resource
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 Web Addresses (URLs)
❖ Example of the URL

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 Browsing the Web
❖ To access a Web page, you can do any of the
following:
1) Click a hyperlink
2) Type a URL in the Address box of a browser
3) Click a button on the Links toolbar
4) Use the Back and Forward buttons
5) Use a Web site’s navigation aids
6) Use the History list.
7) Use the Favorites or Bookmarks list.
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 How the Internet Works
❖ The Internet provides immediate and direct contact
with all computers on the network.
❖ All Internet computers have an Internet address (IP
address).
❖ Internet service providers (ISPs) sell subscriptions
to the public.
❖ The interoperability feature enables access for all
types of computers.
❖ Large organization maintain the Internet.

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 Domain Names
❖ Each computer connected to the Internet is given an
address composed of numbers and periods (e.g.
209.234.456.8)
❖ This address is known as an IP address
❖ These addresses are very difficult to remember.
❖ To simplify the task of remembering these address
domain names are mainly used.
❖ Domain Name System (DNS) enables users to type
names of Web sites and Web pages.
❖ For example: www.udom.ac.tz instead of let say
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192.168.3.1
 Domain Names
❖ The last part of the domain name gives the type of
organization that maintains the site.
❖ For example:
1) .com or .co – commercial (e.g. www.yahoo.com)
2) .net – network (e.g. www.metl.net)
3) .edu – Educational institutions (e.g. www.masters.edu)
4) .gov or .go – Government agencies
(e.g. www.tamisemi.go.tz)
5) .uk – United Kingdom (e.g. www.startups.co.uk)
6) .org – organization (non-profit) (e.g. www.mwakasege.org)
7) .tz – Tanzania (e.g. www.dse.co.tz)
8) .mil – Military (e.g. www.army.mil)

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 Accessing the Internet and Web
❖ To access the Internet you will need:
1) A computer with an operating system (such as
Windows) that support Internet protocols.
2) Communications equipment such as a modem,
ethernet card etc.
3) An Internet Service Provider (ISP)
4) Web browser software

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 Internet Services
❖ There are many services offered by the Internet,
including the following:
1) FTP
2) Web
3) Email
4) Instant Messaging
5) VoIP

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 FTP: File Transfer Protocol
❖ This is used to transfer files between computers
over Internet.
❖ Transferring files from an FTP site (server) to the
client computer is known as downloading.
❖ Transferring files from client computer to an FTP
site (server) is known as uploading.

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 Email
❖ This is computer-to-computer messaging.
❖ E-mail is a short for electronic mail.
❖ It’s inexpensive, and quite quick, but not instant
messaging.
❖ It is the most popular service on the Internet, even
more than surfing, but soon to be overtaken by
instant messaging.
❖ Billions of emails are sent over the Internet every
day.

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 Email
❖ The Email system has three main components:
1) Email client
2) SMTP server
3) POP server
❖ Email clients are programs used for writing,
sending, receiving, and displaying email messages.
❖ Examples are: YahooMail, Hotmail, Outlook.

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 Email
❖ SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) – is a protocol
used to send and receive email messages over the
Internet.
❖ POP (Post Office Protocol) – is a protocol used for
receiving email messages.

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 Email
❖ To use email it requires that you have an account on
a mail server and supporting software on your PC

❖ The username and password will allow you to

access your account

❖ All e-mail programs allow you to Send, Compose,

Reply, and Forward mail.

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 Email
❖ You will need an e-mail server (post office) in order
to send and receive e-mail.
❖ You can get free accounts:
❖ www.hotmail.com
❖ www.yahoo.com
❖ www.gmail.com

❖ Every e-mail address is unique and consists of two

parts, a user name and a domain
❖ The @ sign is required
❖ Example: username@domain_name.com

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 Email
Mail Folders
Inbox – new messages as well as messages that
have been read
Outbox/Draft – messages not yet sent
Sent items – messages that have been sent (moved
here from outbox)
Deleted items – messages deleted from any folder
Custom folders – additional folders created by the
user

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 Disadvantages of Emails
1) Slow response times.
2) No way of knowing if the person you are sending
email to is there to read it.
3) The process of having a conversation through
email by exchanging several short messages is too
cumbersome.

❖ Instant Messaging(IM) solves these problems/

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 Instant Messaging (IM)
❖ Instant messaging provides a means of
communicating through real-time, text-based
conversations.
❖ Instant messaging systems let a user know when a
friend or business associate is online.
❖ The IM services available on the Internet include:
1) Yahoo! Messenger
2) Facebook Messenger
3) WhatApp
4) MSN Messanger
5) Telegram 27
 Instant Messaging (IM)
❖ These IM services allow us to maintain a list of
people (contacts) that we interact with regularly.
❖ We can send an instant message to any of the
contacts in our list as long as that contact is online.
❖ Whenever a contact in our list comes online, the IM
client informs us through an alert message and by
playing a sound.
❖ To send an instant message to a contact, just click
on the contact in the IM client, and start typing the
message.
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 Instant Messaging (IM)
❖ The selected contact will receive that message
almost immediately after you press “Enter”.
❖ When the contact’s IM client receives the message,
it alerts the contact with a blinking message and by
playing a sound.
❖ That contact then can type a response to the
received message, and sent it instantly.
❖ Several such conversations can be carried out
simultaneously, each occupying a separate IM
windows.
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 VoIP: Voice over IP
❖ VoIP is the voice delivered from one device to
another using the Internet Protocol.
❖ Voice is first converted into digital form then
transmitted over the Internet.

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 Finding Information on the Web
❖ There are different ways of finding information on
the web, including the following:
1) Browsing or surfing the Web
2) Searching the Web.
❖ Browsing or surfing the Web involves linking from
one Web page to another, and so forth.
❖ Searching the Web involves using search engines
to locate Web pages with information you are
looking for.

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 Using Search Engines
❖ To use a search engine:
1) Choose a search engine (e.g. google, Yahoo!,
MSN, Bing, Ask, etc)
2) Type in one or more words describing your topic
3) The search engine will check its database of
Web pages that contain the words typed.
4) The results will then be sent to your computer.
5) By clicking on the link it will take you to that
page.
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 Using Search Techniques
❖ Learning a few search techniques can increase the
accuracy of Web searches.
❖ Searches using search operators will improve
search performance.
❖ Most search engines use the following search
operators:
1) Inclusion/exclusion operators
2) Wild cards
3) Phrases
4) Boolean operators
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 Using Search Techniques
❖ The following tables show the results of using and
not using search operators.
Using Search Operators
No Search Operators Words Entered Possible Results – Web
pages containing
Words Possible
Entered Results – Web +Fire+station Fire station
pages Fire station
containing +Fire+station*
Fire stations
Fire +Fire-station* Fire
Fire station
station “Fire station” Fire station
Fire station
Fire and station Fire station
Fire
Fire or station station
Fire station
Fire not station Fire 34
 Rules for Evaluating Web Pages
1) Author – Who is the author?
2) Sources – Where does the information come from?
3) Server – Who provides the server for the page?
4) Objectivity – Is the information objective or one-
sided?
5) Style – Is the language objective or argumentative?
6) Purpose – What is the purpose of the page?
7) Accuracy – Is the information accurate?
8) Currency – Is the page up-to-date?
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 Electronic Commerce
❖ Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is often thought
simply to refer to buying and selling goods/services
using the Internet.
❖ E-commerce involves much more than
electronically mediated financial transactions
between organizations and customers.
❖ E-commerce should be considered as all
electronically mediated transactions between an
organization and any third party it deals with.

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Electronic Commerce

THANK YOU

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