2. Objectives
Candidates should be able to:
Describe the nature of the internet as a worldwide collection of computer networks
Describe the hardware needed to connect to the internet including modems and
routers.
Explain the need for IP addressing of resources on the internet and how this can be
facilitated by the role of DNS services.
Explain the importance of HTML and its derivatives as a standard for the creation of
web pages.
3. Definition of the internet
The internet is a global network of computers that any computer can join. It is a
WAN, which is a series of connected LANs.
4. Internet services
Technologies and services available over the internet include:
Web pages
Web applications (Apps on phones that use internet, such as Facebook or twitter)
Email
File sharing
Voice calls
Streaming audio and video
5. Connecting to the internet
There are 4 main parts needed to be able to connect to the internet.
These are:
An ISP (Internet service provider)
A modem/Router
A web browser
A connection to the network
6. Devices that can connect to the internet
In order to connect to the internet you need a device which is internet enabled.
Examples of these devices are:
Computer workstations
Mobile phones
Tablet
Game consoles
Laptop
Smart TV
7. Network adapters
Network adapters come in the form of a card or a chip.
The internet enabled devices that are big enough will have them built into them.
Devices with this will normally have an Ethernet socket.
8. WI-FI
Wireless Fidelity
If your device does not have a network adapter, for example because it is too small,
then the other way to connect to the internet is through Wi-Fi.
For this you need a piece of hardware in the device called the Wi-Fi chip.
If you are in an area that can pick up Wi-Fi then you are said to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot
and these hotspots are created by routers.
Often to connect Wi-Fi you will need a password.
9. Modems and routers
Modems and routers are two devices that are vital for your devices to connect to the
internet.
Modem stands for modulator Demodulator.
A modem is needed to convert analogue and digital data between each over so that
the phone line can understand analogue and the computer can understand the
digital data.
A router allows more than one device to connect to the same internet connection.
They can also direct network traffic, so they can decide which devices need to
receive which bits of data.
10. Cabling
There are two types of cable which phone lines are made of:
Fibre optic
copper wire
Copper wire gives the slowest internet speed giving 1 – 10 Mbps
Fibre optic cable can give you speeds up to 100 Mbps
Only certain areas in the UK have fibre optic cable because you must dig up roads to
lay it down.
11. Mobile internet (3G and 4G)
This is the method by which certain portable devices like mobile hones and tablets
can connect to the internet.
The maximum speed for 3G in theory is 7.2 Mbps but in practice it is usually a lot
slower.
At 4G the speed is around 40 Mbps.
The mobile internet signal is transmitted from masts and you can pay your mobile
phone company and use a certain allowance of the mobile internet.
12. Conclusion
Devices can connect to he internet using either a network adapter, Wi-Fi or mobile
internet.
If you are using a network adapter or Wi-Fi, then you will need a modem and router.
13. HTML (hyper text Mark-up Language)
Html is the language that is used to create webpages.
It is a type of language that uses tags to define how a webpage should be set out.
Some examples of some HTML tags are: <body>, <title>, <script>, <p>, <head>.
To close a tag, you would put a slash before the tag name, so for example to close a body
tag you would type </body>.
The world wide web consortium are in charge of HTML and release its new versions.
The latest version of HTML is HTML5 which came out in 2014.
You can write HTML in simple text editors such as notepad.
An issue that the HTML program sometimes has is that web browsers do not fully support
the latest version of HTML, specifically the older web browsers.
This is the reason why new versions of HTML are not often released.
14. CSS (Cascading style sheets)
CSS is a separate language that can be embedded into HTML pages.
It is used to describe the presentation of a webpage.
The advantage of using CSS is that it can be used again and again on different
webpages, therefore saving the programmer time.
15. JavaScript
JavaScript is a high level programming language that can be embedded into HTML
webpages.
It can be used to embed games into webpages.
16. Conclusion
HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the three main technologies used for world wide web
content production.
