What is a "home page"?
A home page is the first document of a web site. It is a point-of-entry for the web site. Many people use the term home page to refer to a set of pages on the Web that represents their presence on the web.

What is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)?
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the "language" web documents are written in. For example, the following line of HTML:

will produce the following result in a web browser:

A few years ago if you wanted to create a home page on the Internet you had to learn HTML. Today there are many HTML "editors" available that let you create web documents as you would a word processing document. Support for some HTML features have been added to existing word processors like Microsoft Word. However, if you want to create more than a simple web page you will want to use an editor designed specifically for creating web pages.

What is a protocol?
A protocol is a convention for communication. For example, when diplomats meet there is a certain expected protocol for communication. Why do we have protocols? It facilitates communication. Without protocols a non-english diplomat may hold up his middle finger when asked if he would like one or two sugars in his coffee. (Or, equally repulsive, an English diplomat might cross his legs in front of a Middle Eastern diplomat.)

Protocols also have a vital role in enabling computers to work together. Computers connected to the Internet are able to communicate because they all agree on the protocol. The low level protocol that the Internet runs on is TCP/IP. All computers connected to the Internet understand and communicate with the TCP/IP protocol.

What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be sent across a communication channel or wire. Just as a fire hose can transport more water than a garden hose some Internet connections can transport more data than others. For example, if you connect to the Internet from home through your phone line you are connecting with a relatively low bandwidth connection. If you sign on from a public lab on the UMKC campus you are connecting with a relatively high bandwidth connection. High bandwidth connections are better because pages download faster and they support rich media types such as audio and video which require lots of bandwidth.

Bandwidth is usually measure in bits per second (bps) or kilobits per second (kbps). A typical analog modem (what you would use from home) transfers data at about 28 kbps or 28,000 bps.

One of the most vexing problems for the communication industry right now is how to get a high bandwidth Internet connection into the home.

What is compression?
Compression allows you to do more with less.

The bandwidth of an Internet connection is fixed, and it's usually a little less than what you would like. Compression is a software technique used to increase the effective bandwidth of a communication channel. Here's how it works:

  1. The original message or data is compressed to a smaller size. (Not sure how you would compress a message? If you have ever written a number in scientific notation you have used compression. For example, rather than writing 1,000,000,000 you can express the same number in scientific notation as 1x10^9. The number in scientific notation takes 6 characters rather than 13 which is a reduction of more than 50%. You can compress words using a similar technique.)
  2. The compressed data is sent over the communication channel.
  3. The compressed data is decompressed to recover the original form of the data or message.

What is encryption?
Encryption is the encoding of information to keep it private. The Internet is a public network. A message you send over the Internet may travel through several machines (or switches) as it makes its way to its destination. A trained technician with the proper access to one of these intervening computers could possibly read your message. If you want to ensure that your message remains private as it travels across the Internet you can use encryption. Encryption works like this:

  1. You encrypt the message you want to send. For example, "Hi Robin" after encryption might be "Ij Spcjo".
  2. You send the message "Ij Spcjo" across the Internet.
  3. The person receiving your messages decodes "Ij Spcjo" to "Hi Robin."

For the above example to work the person receiving the message must know how to decode it. The key to decoding the message above is to shift the letters "left" one position. So, I->H, j->i, etc. You normally communicate the decoding procedure via a trusted communication channel.

Note: It's rare for anyone to eavesdrop or intercept a message. Also, the encryption algorithms used are much more complicated and secure than the one given above.

What is DNS (Domain Name System)?
This is more technical but I'm including it because it helps explain an error message new Internet users often see. (I have even heard this error message mentioned twice in news reports. In both cases it was used to make the point that the Internet is still too complicated for the average consumer.)

Before explaining DNS and how it relates to this common error message, I have to explain one interesting detail about the Internet we haven't yet covered.

I already said that domain names (such as vu.umkc.edu) are used to identify computers on the Internet. Every computer connected to the Internet also has a unique number. Just as every telephone in the world has a unique number every machine connected to the Internet has a number. The number for the Virtual University Web server is 134.193.15.57. In fact, you can type this number in place of the domain name in most applications. For example, if you type:

http://134.193.15.57/CS100/

into a browser. It will take you to the same place as http://vu.umkc.edu/CS100/

Computers (and telephones) are assigned numbers because machines like numbers. People, on the other hand, prefer words. It's easier for people to remember and type words. So how do you allow people to enter words (like vu.umkc.edu) for a computer name when what is really needed to find another computer on the Internet is it's number? The answer is DNS. DNS translates domain names into numbers.

Now let's consider this error message that seems to gravitate toward new users. Figure 2 to the right shows the error message you will get if Netscape can't find the domain name specified in the URL you have given. The message is saying that the domain name as you have typed it doesn't exist. This is usually because you have misspelled it.

badurl.gif (1859 bytes)
Figure 1. You enter a URL with a misspelled domain name.

Figure 2. Netscape returns this message.

What is Java?
Java is general purpose programming language used to develop platform-independent programs. What this means is a program written in Java can be run, without change, on machines from different manufacturers.

Java also has many new features that make it an ideal language for writing programs that interact with the Internet.

What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is a World Wide Web "scripting language." JavaScript is often used to jazz up HTML documents. For example, you can use JavaScript to check the input value on a form. JavaScript has little in common with Java.

Can I copy words/pictures/sounds from the Internet if they don't have a copyright (©) notice?
You can but you would probably still be violating copyright laws and could face civil and criminal penalties. Since 1989 authors are not required to place a copyright notice on their work to receive copyright protection. As soon as an author's work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression (and information on the Internet is considered in tangible form) it is automatically copyrighted.

I said you would  probably be violating copyright laws because if you copy someone else's work you are not automatically in violation of copyright laws. For example, if the owner of the content gives you written permission to copy the work it's ok. Or, if the reason you are making copies is for news reporting or scholarly research you are probably safe.

I keep using the words probably, could, might be because existing copyright law is frustratingly vague. There is some debate right now whether the existing laws can be applied in the online world, but so far congress and the courts seem to agree that they can be.

We have considered only one small part of copyright law here. If you are interested in learning more, Terrence Carroll's Copyright Resource Page is a good place to start.

What are USENET news groups?
USENET news groups are online discussion groups. The best analogy to USENET is a bulletin board. A bulletin board is a place were anyone can post or read information. USENET is the online equivalent.

USENET consists of over 28,000 discussion groups, everything from alt.cajun to talk.rumors including:

USENET is not the same as the Internet. USENET is, however, distributed over the Internet. You get access to USENET through your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Not all ISPs provide access and some may limit what groups they carry. Once you have access you can read and post messages to any group. Some groups are moderated which means your post must be approved by the news group moderator before it is widely distributed.

Tip!: With over 28,000 groups and thousands of posts going to some groups each month, actually "reading" news groups is practacly impossible. Another alternative is to use a search engine to search through news groups for information the same way you would search the web for information. Two of my favorite USENET search engines are:

www.altavista.com  and    www.dejanews.com

Why is indecent material allowed on the Internet?
This question falls under the topic "what is the significance of the Internet"? Today there are no laws expressively prohibiting any subject matter from being displayed on the Internet. Some material such as child pornography isn't allowed on the Internet because it isn't allowed anywhere in any form.

I already said that the Internet is a new communications medium unlike any that has preceded it. It has characteristics that distinguish it from radio, TV and print. Like radio and TV the Internet is broadcast and can't be confined to one place, but like print you have to seek out content on the Internet. (There is general agreement that seeking out a magazine or location on the Internet requires more work than selecting a channel on TV or a station on the radio.) The laws are very clear about what is allowed on radio, TV and in print. For the most part laws covering a particular medium are based on the accessibility of content in that medium to minors. If the Internet were enough like any one of these existing technologies there would be no debate; we would just use the existing laws for that technology.

In 1996 congress passed and the President signed the Communications Decency Act. In short this legislation made it a crime to display patently offensive material on the Internet in a way that is accessible to anyone under 18 years of age. A year later the Supreme court declared the law unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. In explaining their conclusion the high court described the Internet as "...the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed and is entitled to highest protection from governmental intrusion".

(Those who opposed the Communications Decency Act were very quick to point out the irony in the fact that the Starr report posted on the Internet by Congress would certainly not have been allowed under the Communications Decency Act which was passed by Congress only 2 years earlier.)

Most everyone agrees that some form of regulation is necessary and inevitable, but right now it hasn't been decided the best compromise between protecting the free speech rights of adults and the legitimate need to protect minors from harmful material.