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Internet from the Beginning - Lesson 1Before getting started on building your website it is important that you have at least a basic understanding of how the Internet works. We shall try and keep the technical details to a minimum, but if you are able to grasp the basics of what is going on behind the scenes of your web site, you will be able to maximise its potential later on. The Internet can be thought of as a giant network of computers. These computers are connected to each other all over the world so it is easy for information to pass from place to place. People use their computers to connect to this network and exchange data. The World Wide Web allow colours, images and multimedia to be shared on the network. What makes this possible is the web browser such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The browser translates a certain type of code known as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and displays it to your screen. HTML describes, in a systemised manner, exactly how your web page is to be displayed by the web browser. The code tells the browser what colours to use, what images, where to put things, when to play sounds or show movies and a host of other things. Once you have determined what you would like your web site to look like (see the Design section for more details), this description must be converted into a form that the browser can understand, that is HTML. This may sound harder than it actually is, so don't be put off. HTML isn't difficult but if you feel like your time would be better spent elsewhere then never fear, there are plenty of people and software out there to make life easier for you! That is pretty much it! You create your web page on your computer using HTML and then send it to a computer that is connected to the Internet. The computer that is connected to the Internet will typically be provided by your web host and the process for transferring your files from your computer to theirs is known as uploading. |