ED 603: Technological Capabilities
The University of Michigan / School of Education
Internet Tool Review-Web Browsers
What is the internet? The Web is built on a client/server model. The user utilizes a program called a web browser (the client) which in turn connects to computers that serve web pages (the servers). The communication between the client and server is facilitated using a standard hypertext transfer protocol language or HTML which is identified by a URL. Accessing the World Wide Web requires that you use a program called a "browser" to navigate the Web by either pointing and clicking or by using arrow keys to link to sites all around the globe. Web browsers are software that interpret and display on your screen the hypertext data sent to you by the host server. Browsers are either text or graphical. Lynx is a character based text browser. If your only access to the internet is a shell account, you'll need to use a text-based browser-but if you have a SLIP/PPP connection (as most people do) you can use a graphical image browser like Netscape or Mosaic. The browser with a graphical interface enable browsers to access text, audio, video files. Some Web pages are designed to be viewed through a graphical interface browser while other sites give you the option of viewing the page in a text only mode. You can access various internet services like Archie, FTP, e-mail, usenet news and Gopher. Netscape browser is the most sophisticated and most used browser on the market today.
Below is an annotated description of the most salient features of browsers and Netscape in particular:
- Uniform Resource Locators-These are World Wide Web addresses. URLs identify the location of a resource anywhere on the internet. The URL is composed of information on the type of resource (www, Gopher, FTP etc.), the servers address and where the item is located.
- Netscape Navigator-Netscape is a powerful graphical web browser. It is capable of making telnet or FTP connections, bookmarking websites, handling e-mail, and can be configured to play sound or full-motion videos. Netscape has a pull-down menu with several choices such as mailing a document, opening a file, saving a file, and quitting the program. The tool bar consists of icons that you can click to perform some of the tasks in the pull-dow menus. The Back icon takes you to the previous link, the Forward icon takes you one lik forwared and the Home icon takes you to the page you have designated as a starting page. The location dialog box is where yo type your URL address. Last the Netscape directory buttons give you access to netscape services such as a listing of new sites and information.
- Netscape Bookmarks-As you navigate the Net, you will find web pages you'll want to return to so the bookmark feature allows you to save the address to browse at a later time. choose Add Bookmarks from the menu bar at the top of the page. The default insertion point for added bookmarks is at the en dof th elist. You ca connect to any item in your list by clicking on the title. To view your bookmark list as a separate page select Go To Bookmars or View bookmarks. Depending on the type of computer you are using, you may "import" or "export" bookmarks. Export send your bookmark file to another location such as a hard drive and import option enables you to import or bring a file into Netscape.
- Netscape E-Mail-Netscape offers an easy to use interface to send and receive e-mail, including the ability to attach HTML document s to your messages. You will need to contact your service provider to find out what your SMTP and POP3 mail server addresses are. You will need to ender this information in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server and Incoming Mail (POP) server (text boxes).
- Encryption-A security feature
that functions as a lock to secure confidential information such
as credit cards or ID numbers.
The URL for more information regarding web browsers and links to other web browswer such as Microsoft Explorer and other browsers go to http://rs.internic.net/scout/toolkit/latest/index.htm
Follow these links to navigate to any of the pages within the Technological Capabilities Web Site or click here to return to the Home Page:
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