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Guide to Using Netscape

The Internet and the World Wide Web

In the last few years you have undoubtedly heard about the internet. Phrases such as "the net", "the world wide web", and "the information super highway" have become a regular part of our vocabulary. All of these catchy phrases refer to on thing: computers "talking to" other computers. This means that if a computer has an internet address, it can be accessed by other computers on the internet, not unlike the way a street address or a phone number allows people to get in touch with each other. The power of this lies in the fact that people are able to access information from all over the world without changing their physical location.

In the previous paragraph we referred to computers being able to talk to each other. They do this by a variety of methods including phone lines and hard wired connections between machines. The information is sent and received by a number of different protocols of data transfer. The World Wide Web (www) is a term used to describe all of the sites one can reach using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http). We will discuss Hyper Text in more detail later in this guide, but briefly the advantage of this protocol is that it allows the user to connect to one sit and then connect to many different sites. These sites are referred to as "home pages" or just "pages." The structure that is achieved by so many pages linked to each other is like a "web," hence the name World Wide Web.

It is now possible to view graphics and movies, hear sounds, and be part of interactive programs all from your personal computer while you're on the web. The software needed to access these sites is referred to as a Web Browser. A browser is a program on your computer that is able to decode the documents on the internet into something you can see (or hear) and which allows you to navigate from one place to another. The browser you will be using is Netscape.

What is Netscape?

Netscape is a browser which allows you to see and hear all that there is on the internet. It is a piece of software that resides on your machine and decodes the information coming in from the internet into something pleasing. It is not the only such program, but is currently the most popular. Another benefit of using Netscape is that it is distributed free of charge.


06/19/96
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