Who Uses the Internet? What is the Internet? When should you use the Internet in your curriculum? Where can you find relevant information? How can you access information more efficiently?
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What is the Internet?

What's a URL?

URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is simply an Internet address. Being familiar with the parts of a URL can often help you connect to online resources directly, without having to search. Notice that if you move the cursor over an item, before you click on it, its URL address appears on the status line at the bottom of the web page.

Each Internet computer has a geographical location (where it physically resides) and a network location (its position on the Internet in relation to other computers). Most of the time, you won't need to know this level of detail, but occasionally it can save you time and effort.

  • Computer names
  • The computer name begins after the double-slash, and continues to the next slash or the end of the URL, whichever comes first:

    • http://www.yahoo.com
    • http://www.yahoo.com/index.html
    • In both the above URLs, the computer name is www.yahoo.com

  • Internet domains
    • .edu - Educational institution
    • .org - Non-Commercial (not for profit) organization
    • .com - Commercial (for profit) organization
    • .gov - Government organization (non-military)
    • .mil - Military organization

    In any computer name, each word represents a subdomain, and each suffix represents a domain. Computer names are best understood from right to left. For example:

    • http://www.ncsu.edu ---
      This URL indicates the site is located at the educational institution, North Carolina State University, on the World Wide Web.
    • chccs.k12.nc.us---
      This server name indicates the email server is in the United States, in North Carolina, at a K-12 institution in Chapel Hill.

  • Educated guesses
  • URLs can be guessed from domain names and suffixes:

    • http:// is a typical web page.
    • gopher:// indicates a gopher menu.
    • ftp:// is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site, with files for downloading.
    • news: (followed by an area of interest, such as rec. for recreation; alt. for alternative....Because Usenet has no central location, newsgroup URLs don't contain a computer name, just the name of the newsgroup.)
    • mailto: an opportunity to send mail.
    • telnet:// indicates a login connection to another machine.
    • file:// is a file on your computer.

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