Internet and its Uses
1. Uses of Internet
a) The Email (Electronic Mail) - Probably the most common use of the internet. Email is much faster than traditional methods of sending documents (postal system). Documents travel as binary files and are then converted back into plain text using special software. Email is efficient and convenient. The email provides the facility to send letters through the Internet to people who have access to the net. Multiple copies can be sent to multiple addresses just by adding the address to the address list. You can check for post at any time of day. This is achieved by means of special application software such as Microsoft Outlook Express or Netscape Communicator. One of the greatest features of emails is the ability of attaching files to the letter in the form of documents, pictures, sounds, and movies. E.g. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Rediffmail etc.
b) Information Browsing - One of the most used features of the Internet is to search for particular information through large databases all over the world This information provided in the form of web sites makes part of the so - called World Wide Web or more commonly known as WWW. This is a means to search information centres all over the world. Examples of software used to access the WWW are MS Internet Explorer , Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera etc.
c) File Transfer - FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a system used on the Internet to make possible the transfer of information from one computer or network to another. Anonymous FTP refers to those archive sites which allow anyone to access it.
d) Socializing (Chat, Newsgroups, Social Media) - An important part of the Internet which is widely used by youngsters is the Chat or Internet Relay Chat - IRC. With this facility, people can communicate real - time through the keyboard. Another form of socialising, are newsgroups (known as Usenet). This allows you to post and read articles on newsgroups. Usually newsgroups are grouped and have a particular topic. Other examples of social media includes Face book, Twitter, Google Circles, Online Forums etc.
e) HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) - HTML is a language that is used to create Web - Sites. This language gives the facility of linking different pages together. On web - sites this can be seen when the cursor is dragged over a particular word or phrase. The cursor will change from an arrow sign to a palm sign. When the mouse button is double clicked on that word or phrase, another page will be loaded.
f) URL (Universal Resource Locator ) - This is the address that shows in which computer (information centre) the web - site is held. An Internet address (for example, http://www.laqshya.in/contact/), usually consisting of the access protocol (http), the domain name (www.laqshya.in), and optionally the path to a file or resource residing on that server (contact).
g) TCP/IP - TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and IP stands for Internet Protocol. The term TCP/IP is not limited just to these two protocols, however. Frequently, the term TCP/IP is used to refer to a group of protocols related to the TCP and IP protocols such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Terminal Emulation Protocol (TELNET), and so on.
