What are the Internet and the World Wide Web

Internet Resources in the Health Sciences

What are the Internet and the World Wide Web?

The Internet

Just what is the Internet?
The Internet is an international network of networks.

History of the Internet - Thanks, Sputnik!
When the USSR launched Sputnik in 1957, one of the US responses was to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the Department of Defense (DoD). In 1969, ARPANET appeared. In 1981 BITNET ("Because It's Time NETwork") began its reign as the academic network of choice. Also created that year was CSNET (Computer Science NETwork), and the two merged in 1989. NSFNET was created in 1986. Also during the 1980s the term "Internet" began to be used. In 1990 ARPANET was decommissioned. In 1991 the "gopher" arrived at the University of Minnesota. 1993 saw the arrival of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser. In 1995, NSFNET returned to its original research function. The Internet, especially the World Wide Web, blossomed during the 1990s to include electronic commerce, live broadcasts (Voodoo Lounge - 1994), and an explosion of information - both good and bad.

History of Internet and WWW: The Roads and Crossroads of Internet History
http://www.internetvalley.com/intval.html

Life on the Internet: Net Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/index.html

Internet Society: All About the Internet: History of the Internet
http://www.isoc.org/internet-history/

Yahoo! ... Internet History
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/History/

What is the difference between the 'Net and the Web?
The Internet includes a wide variety of services. You can logon to other computers (telnet), transfer files (ftp), correspond via e-mail, read news, or surf the Web.

The World Wide Web, "the universe of information available via hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)," is part of the Internet.

E-Mail: I have e-mail, so why can't I use the Web?
E-mail is just one service that you can use on the Internet. It allows you to send and receive messages. Depending on your system, you might also be able to use "attached" files such as WordPerfect documents, graphics, sound, or video. To use e-mail, you must have a mail program, such as Pine, Pegasus Mail, Microsoft Outlook, or Netscape. You also need an e-mail account. Depending on your e-mail system and account set-up, you may or may not have access to other services, including the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web

What is the difference between a Web site, a Web page, and a home page?
A Web site consists of one of more Web pages. The home page is the first or opening page of the Web site.

What is a URL?
A Uniform Resource Locator is a standard address for a web page. It "uniformly" indicates

protocol://server-name.domain-name.top-leveldomain:port/directory/filename

the protocol or application (http, https, ftp, gopher, mailto, telnet)
server name or host computer (www, arginine)
domain name (umdnj, ololnursing)
top-level domain (edu, com, gov, org, net)
port, if necessary (this is a number)
directory
filename

http://www4.umdnj.edu/~swartz/healthinfo/nursing.html
http://www4.umdnj.edu/camlbweb/ (index.html is implied)

Web Browsers
Web browsers, like Lynx, Netscape, or Internet Explorer, read and format information that has been placed on the Web in hypertext mark-up language (HTML). The browser does NOT contain the information - it simply reads, formats, and displays.

Web Servers
A Web server can be thought of as a computer running software that "serves" you the Web page that your browser requests.

Links - on a Web page and bookmarks in a Web browser
Bookmarks are attached to your Web browser. In Netscape, it is a file called "bookmark.htm". Within Netscape, you can put the bookmarks into folders, sort them, edit the name or the URL, and save the file under a different name.

Web pages are independent of your browser. They can be on a hard or floppy disk, on your intranet, or on the Internet. If they are on your hard drive or a floppy disk, you can open them using your browser. If they are on your intranet or on the Internet, you will only be able to open them if they are on a Web server and if you have permission to use them.

You can create Web pages with your bookmarks. Once you save your bookmark file under a new name, you can edit the new file. If it remains on your microcomputer, you can open it with a browser like any other Web page. You can also put it on your Web server if your organization permits.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the author. The contents have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Return to Internet Resources in the Health Sciences

Updated June 22, 2007
BJ Swartz
swartz@umdnj.edu