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Beyond Here There Be Dragons
By Susan Crawford
As Old World map makers were creating new maps, when they reached the far edge of known waters, they stopped, fearing the uncharted, and simply wrote "Beyond Here There Be Dragons". If you are embarking on your maiden Internet voyage, the information here is designed to slay the Internet dragons and help you chart your own adventure in these waters - bon voyage!
In The Beginning
The original idea of the Internet came from physicists who wanted to share information with colleagues. Then the U.S. military became involved, adding their twist of transmitting information across an undefeatable environment. This undefeatable environment has been achieved through the concept of breaking information into hundreds of pieces (data packets), routing it across hundreds of points then reassembling it safely at its appointed destination. This is a simple exercise in risk management. Whereas there is a high degree of interception risk in transmitting one packet of information, devious minds would find intercepting hundreds of small packets along hundreds of unpredictable points much like attempting to herd cats.
Connecting to the Internet starts with your computer. Your task is to select an Internet service provider who not only gives you access to the super highway but also gives you the vehicle by which to travel - software for your computer called a "browser." The Internet super highway is a network of other router hubs, servers and computers linked together along a super-powered structure (collectively, called the "Internet backbone").
Your requests move along this structure on its journey to the destination server/computer and back. When you browse the Internet, you are activating this loop with the end result of having the requested information delivered to your computer (session ends and a new session is initiated by your next request/command). Consequently, cached somewhere on your computer's hard drive (usually under Temporary Internet Files) is every Web page you have ever requested (including all graphics) ready for you to read offline. If you do a lot of browsing, you should keep an eye on this cache as you should empty it occasionally to prevent any computer problems.
Recognizing Each Other Online
All computers across the Internet (and the Web sites on them) need a unique way to identify themselves to each other. This identification is achieved by assigning each computer an Internet address ("URL") that looks something like this: "123.23.43.121." In order for a person to access a Web page they need this numeric Internet address, but who can remember all these numbers? Luckily, the Domain Names System ("DNS") allows us to use text addresses while it does the job of translating each name into the numbers computers need. If you want to learn more about the Internet numbering, visit www.arin.net
To ease the confusion and congestion of explosive growth, another naming system recognizes major domains (categories). The last group of letters in a text domain name designates these groups. The most commonly recognized domains of the current eleven are .com (commercial), .edu (education), .gov (government) and .net (network). Two-letter groups designate country of origin such as .uk (United Kingdom), .fr (France) and .ca (Canada). Special computers called "name servers" keep track of all these addresses and designations ensuring proper routing of all Internet traffic.
Internet Myths & Cookies
Like the Old World map makers image of dragons, the Internet has its myths and murky waters, too. One myth pertains to information security and something called "cookies." Cookies are bits of information created whenever you volunteer information about yourself or set personal preferences online. This information is filed on your computer and retrieved whenever you revisit that site. Cookies are intended to be helpers and they cannot sneak onto your hard drive to pirate at will. If you'd rather avoid cookies, most browsers allow you to enable/disable cookies (on MS Internet Explorer, look under Tools/Internet Options/Security). When you empty your cache, you will also delete all accumulated cookies.
Internet Security
The most common concerns about the Internet are viruses and information security (privacy and control over personal information, financial records and purchasing transactions). Having the latest protection software is always wise but being a savvy user is your best defense. Be careful where you create a password, sign up or buy things. This is where you can get a "cookie" that will tag you. A good tip if you want to be as safe as possible online before you perform a confidential transaction, such as submitting a credit card number, is to be sure you are in a secure environment. Two icons will be displayed on your browser when you are in a secure environment. First, at bottom-right you should see a "locked padlock" icon and second, the address (top-center) should begin with "https://" (not just "http://").
Using Search Engines
A search engine is an Internet tool (like a Web site) that helps you find information sources by submitting key words. My favorites are wisenut.com, teoma.com and google.com (they all get their results differently, so I test my searches across several search engines). Most search engines use a symbolic logic system called Boolean Logic, named after George Bole, a French mathematician who invented it. This system uses a set of connecting words and symbols called "operators"-- AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, -, and +--to make your search results more meaningful. In this example, let's assume your daughter is doing a project on pumpkins. You search for the key word pumpkins and get 5,000 returns, most of them about the Smashing Pumpkins rock group.
What next? You decide to use two terms to narrow your search. You type the key words pumpkins and varieties but get even more results than the previous search! What happened? If you use two terms without specifying a Boolean operator, most search engines will interpret it as OR. This means that you will get a list of all Web sites that contain the word pumpkins AND/OR the word varieties. Instead of limiting your search, you have expanded it and now you have pie recipes and pumpkin-colored paint. Next, try typing the key words pumpkin NOT paint, or type the key words pumpkin AND history. Success! This strategy works by specifying that the words must both appear in the document for it to show up on your result list.
Another variation is to use a semi-colon: pumpkin;varieties. Yet another variation is to insert a + in front of every word you want included in the search. Some search engines allow you to use quotation marks to link words together. This makes the words a phrase which says all the words must appear together and in the specified order. The asterisk acts as a wild card meaning "everything". Use it as a shortcut for unique long words or to finish a word or name you can only partially spell. Don't discount OR; it can be useful to use both the full word and an abbreviation, such as a company's stock exchange symbol, with OR in the middle. And a final tip, if you use lower case letters, the search will find both upper and lower case instances of the expression.
My Top Picks
I've researched a lot of Internet books and sites and highly recommend one pair of resources if you want to learn more about Internet operations. Visit www.internet-tips.net and find a copy of "How The Internet Works" by Preston Gralla.
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