This seminar is designed to give you the background information you need to understand the web and how it works, then show you how to build your own pages using DreamWeaver.

A technical definition of the World Wide Web is: all the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

In English: The web is a part of the internet; it is made up of web pages that represent infromation graphically via a browser.

The Worldwide Web is a system based on:

• the Internet
• a standard protocol (HTTP)
• a standard format for describing the structure of documents (HTML) for transmission of hypermedia documents,
• a set of servers that respond to requests from a viewer
• browsers (or clients) for those documents

The Internet is a network of computers, connected throughout the world. The Internet is made up of several parts, each of which does different things. These parts are:

Email
The World Wide Web
Telnet
Gopher
FTP
Usenet

Email:

E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication.

Telnet:

Telnet is the way you can access someone else's computer, assuming they have given you permission.

Gopher:

Gopher is an Internet application protocol in which hierarchically-organized file structures are maintained on servers that themselves are part of an overall information structure. Gopher provided a way to bring text files from all over the world to a viewer on your computer.

Popular for several years, especially in universities, Gopher was a step toward the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). With hypertext links, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and the arrival of a graphical browser, Mosaic, the Web quickly transcended Gopher. Many of the original file structures, especially those in universities, still exist and can be accessed through most Web browsers (because they also support the Gopher protocol).

Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota, whose sports teams are called "the Golden Gophers."

FTP:

FTP (File Transfer Protocol), a standard protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

Usenet:

Usenet is a collection of notes on various subjects that are posted to servers on a worldwide network. Each subject collection of posted notes is known as a newsgroup. There are thousands of newsgroups and it is possible for you to form a new one. Most newsgroups are hosted on Internet-connected servers, but they can also be hosted from servers that are not part of the Internet.

Most browsers, such as those from Netscape and Microsoft, provide Usenet support and access to any newsgroups that you select.

A web page is made up of several different elements, all linked together through the use of html. HTML is the language it is written in, and so the backbone of the page, but html alone does not make a page. You need other elements.

Your video, audio, graphics and text all work together to create the page. The elements are added to your page by way of html linking; they are not actually inside the page, only referred to and called to appear on demand.

Many pages together make up a web site. A home page is the starting point in a site. Usually, a home page is the beginning point in a personal page, but could also be the first page in the cnn.com site.

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is the set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a browser page.

The markup tells the Web browser how to display a Web page's words, images, and multimedia.

Each individual markup code is referred to as a tag. Some tags come in pairs that indicate when some display effect is to begin and when it is to end.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that the Web uses to send information to the client, so the client browser can view Web pages.

Like FTP, HTTP is a protocol or language. Unlike FTP, HTTP cannot send all types of files; it is limited to text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files. You could not, for example, view a powerpoint or word document using http.

A document is requested via http by using a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator.

A url looks like this:

Your web browser is sometimes capable of other protocols as well, such as gopher or ftp.

1) In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same or other computers.

2) The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may contain a number of server and client programs). 3) A server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. Specific to the Web, a Web server is the computer program (housed in a computer) that serves requested HTML pages or files. A Web client is a browser.

For example:

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