A primer for those who want to join the on-line revolution
Written on December 11, 1996 by Robert & Karen Vanderzweerde
Appeared in Greenmaster Magazine on February/March and April/May 1997
Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learnin' how
Come on a safari with me!
The Beach Boys may have been thirty years ahead of their time, but the
sentiment in their song Surfing Safari is the tune of the nineties. There
is a lot of hype and buzz about the Internet, and its time to explore just what it has to
offer you.
This is the first of a two part article on the Internet. Part One
offers you a general overview of the "Net", and Part Two will look at each of
the major services in more depth.
What is the Internet?
In simple terms, the Internet is a collection of computers around the
world that talk to each other; a global network of computer networks. Each network
is called a DOMAIN; each DOMAIN has a name that uniquely identifies it. When someone
gives you their Internet address, part of the address will contain the DOMAIN NAME of that
network. Because these names must be unique in the world, there has been a rush
during the last year to register DOMAIN NAMES by corporations and other large users before
the name they want is used. You may have heard stories of well-known corporations
forced to pay large sums of money to purchase their name because someone else registered
the name first.
The computer networks are joined together by telephone lines, high speed
dedicated transmission lines, satellites, microwave links, and fibre optic cables.
Your message passes from local computer to computer to computer until it finally reaches
its destination, even to the other side of the world. Driving from Ottawa to
Toronto, there are several alternative routes passing through different towns; similarly,
messages can pass along a variety of networks to reach the person you want.
Each person who uses a network is a USER; each USER has a name that
uniquely identifies him/her/it (the USER-ID).
What can you do on the Internet?
You can share information. Sometimes you can share computing
resources, if the DOMAIN network you want to use permits this.
What services are available on the Internet?
Electronic Mail (E-MAIL): send messages to other users
News Groups (USENET): become a member of a newsgroup
File Transfers (FTP and HTTP): transfer files (text, pictures, programs)
to other users
Connect or Log-in to Other Computer Systems (TELNET): use someone else's
computer system
World Wide Web (WWW): view a collection of linked, multi-media documents
There are other services, but these 5 are the main ones.
What do I have to do to use the Internet?
You must be able to connect to one of the computer networks. There
are three ways to do this:
You can make your computer or computer network a permanent part of the
Internet. This is an expensive proposition; typically only large companies or other
organizations (universities, government) can afford to do this.
You can set up an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Your computer must be equipped with a modem so you can use a telephone line to dial
up to your ISP. This is the cheapest, easiest, and slowest connection to the
Internet, but it works for most people. You pay for the time you are connected to
the Internet; many ISP's offer a package with unlimited access for a flat monthly fee.
Support and help are limited, although your ISP will provide the software you need
to get started. If you think of using the Internet as traveling to Europe, this is
travel on the do-it-yourself plan.
You can use an On-line Service (such as America On-Line, CompuServe,
Microsoft Network, etc.). Your computer must be equipped with a modem so you can use
a telephone line to dial up to your service. On-line Services are considered to be
part of the "outernet" -- they let you use some of the Internet Services but
offer other services available only to their subscribers. Most do not offer an
"unlimited use" package -- you sign up for a specified number of hours, and pay
hourly for all excess use. Generally, more help and support is provided.
On-line Services usually have proprietary software which limits what you can do and how
you can do it, although this is changing as use of the Internet grows and develops.
Continuing our travel analogy, this is travel to Europe on a fully guided tour.
In the November 19, 1996 issue of PC Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 20, the
editors reviewed each of the major US ISP's and On-line Services. If you are
thinking of signing up, you would find their explanations of the features of each helpful
for when you shop. You can usually find back issues of this magazine at the library,
or if you can connect to the Internet, visit their website at http://www.pcmag.com.
Once you have a way to connect to the Internet, your service provider will
provide you with your address so other users can send mail to you.
In technical terms, your address is your UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR (URL). Usually,
your service provider will also provide the software you will need to send and receive
mail, and browse the Internet. The browser program provided may have limited
features; you can use it access the Microsoft site (http://www.microsoft.com)
to download Explorer (free) or the Netscape site (http://www.netscape.com)
to download Navigator (free 30 day trial). At the moment, Explorer (the challenger)
and Navigator (with over 80% of the market) are the two hot browsers.
The Internet (Part 2)
Are you ready to SURF? In our last column, we provided a brief
overview of the Internet and how it works; this time we are going to explore some of the
services in more detail. So fire up your computer, start your modem, and let's
explore what's out there!
How does E-MAIL work?
With your computer connected to the Internet, you type your message,
and when it is ready, provide your computer with the exact address of the person to whom
you want to send your message. Remember that the other person must have an E-MAIL
account! E-MAIL works like mail delivered by the Post Office ("snail
mail"), only it usually gets delivered faster. You can also send your message
to a list of users. Except for the cost of connecting to the Internet, E-MAIL is
cheaper than a fax or long-distance phone call because you do not have to pay long
distance charges to send your message.
For example, you can send E-MAIL to CGSA at the address cgsa@golfsupers.com. E-MAIL addresses follow
the format: userid@domainname. The userid may
be a combination of a person's names (common combinations are first name and last initial
or first initial and last name). You need to know the exact way the name is to be
entered, or the mail won't go through. For example, if you use upper case letters
when lower case is specified, your mail may not be delivered.
Like mail delivered by the Post Office, with E-MAIL you must check your
mailbox regularly.
Want to practice? Send us some feedback on how you like these
articles, what else you would find useful, or just send a message to say hello. Send
the message to cgsa@golfsupers.com, and your
message will be sent on to us. We'd love to hear from you.
There are issues of reliability and security in the use of E-MAIL.
If you need to know your E-MAIL was received, you should request that they send back
confirmation of receipt. Because the message is passed from computer network to
computer network until it reaches the specified user, there is the possibility of trouble
along the way. E-MAIL can also be intercepted, so if the message must remain
private, you might want to consider encrypting (coding) the message.
Besides sending messages to friends, family and business associates, you
can also add your name to INTEREST LISTS and NEWSGROUPS.
An INTEREST LIST is a mailing list of people with interest in a specific
topic. If your name is on the list, you will get an E-MAIL message every time
someone sends a message to the INTEREST LIST. You can "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" (cancel your subscription) by following the instructions given by
the system operator. Typically this involves sending an E-MAIL message to the system
operator with the word subscribe or unsubscribe and your Internet address.
What is USENET?
NEWSGROUPS are similar to INTEREST GROUPS. Mail messages are
organized by topic, and are called ARTICLES or POSTINGS. POSTINGS are stored on one
of the DOMAIN computers, called a NEWS SERVER. You review the list of POSTINGS and
decide which ones you want to read -- they are not automatically sent to you. You
can copy the ones you want onto your own computer, and you can send POSTINGS to the
NEWSGROUP. Sometimes these groups are called USENETS.
For example, there is a NEWSGROUP of information and queries from golfers
called rec.sport.golf. When I read the messages in this group, there were queries
about golf technique, information on used items for sale or wanted, and stories about
problems experienced with some golf courses.
There are NEWSGROUP searching indexes; there are thousands of groups, and
the challenge is finding ones which are useful for you.
How do I use File Transfer?
You may read of two different types of file transfer. There is the
FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP) which is used to send programs, graphic images, and text
files from one computer to another. There is also the HYPERTEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL
(HTTP) which will also let you send sound and video from one computer to another. It
is HTTP that makes the WORLD WIDE WEB possible.
File transfer (either FTP or HTTP) is the tool you need to help search for
files that you want. Remember that information is spread on computers around the
world; locating information without knowing the exact name of the file containing it, and
the computer on which it is stored, is challenging!
Since files, especially those with graphics, video, or sound, are large,
they are usually compressed (shrunk) before they are sent so they take less time to
transmit. Once you receive the file, you will usually have to decompress (un-shrink)
it. There are special programs (e.g. PKZIP, WINZIP) that shrink and un-shrink files.
What is the WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)?
The WORLD WIDE WEB is a collection of linked multi-media documents stored
on the Internet. Each "screen" displayed is called a PAGE. A variety
of organizations and individuals have WEB PAGES set up to provide information, sell
products and services, advertise, and provide after sales or technical support. The
collection of WEB PAGES for an organization is called their WEB SITE. The first PAGE
is called the HOME PAGE, and provides a "table of contents" for the rest of the
WEB SITE. The DOMAIN NAME identifies the WEB SITE from other WEB SITES. PAGES
and SITES are "linked" together to make it easy to move from one to another.
To access the WWW, you need a connection to the Internet and software to
browse. As a rule, you click on items on the screen of interest to you, and the
software will take you there. Over a dial-up phone line, the transfer of data from
the WEB SITE to your computer can be slow, especially if there are pictures, video or
sound, so be patient. The information may be coming from around the world!
Sometimes you may need to try something a few times for it to work, so don't give up the
first time -- it might not be you!
To get to a particular HOME PAGE, you need to know the name of the WEB
SITE. The name will usually begin with http://www. The "http"
specifies the method of file transfer (hypertext transfer protocol) which is the protocol
necessary if sound or video is involved. The "www" indicates that the
service you seek is the World Wide Web. The "www" will be followed by the
desired organization's DOMAIN NAME. In order to access the WEB SITE, you need the
exact name, typed into the computer with all the correct colons, slashes and periods.
There are index services available to help you locate WEB SITES of
interest. One such index (there are about 10) is the WEB SITE: http://www.yahoo.com.
By clicking through the listings at the Yahoo Web Site, first on sports,
then on golf, you will find over 30 references to golf-related Web Sites, including the
GCSAA site (http://www.gcsaa.org). You can click
and go directly to the Web Site of your choice from the Yahoo index. The December
6, 1996 issue of PC Magazine has a 4 page "cheat sheet" with the address of
similar tools to help you search the WORLD WIDE WEB, USEGROUPS, and various other
services.
While you can always find a site through the indexing services, if you
find your connections slow, keep a list of your favourite sites so you can skip the index
and go directly to the site.
We hope you have fun browsing on the Web. There are thousands of
interesting sites -- one of my favourites is http://www.foundmoney.com.
This service searches to determine if any dormant bank accounts are listed in your
name. If a match is found, instructions will tell you how to claim your money!
Let us know if you find any sites of particular interest to golf superintendents;
we'll publish the addresses in our articles.
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