INTERNET APPLICATION

Internet is a global computer network. It is the network that connects computers all around the
World.

The Internet is a network of networks, linking computers to computers. The Internet is the
transport vehicle for the information stored in files or documents on another computer.

The Internet itself does not contain information. It is a slight misstatement to say a "document was
found on the Internet." It would be more correct to say it was found through or using the Internet.
What it was found in (or on) is one of the computers linked to the Internet.

APPLICATIONS OF INTERNET
1. Electronic communication (Electronic mail)
2. Social Networking (facebook, twitter, Instagram, youtube)
3. Searching for different information
4. Studying (Online classroom e.g Wikipedia)
5. Getting news updates
6. In Business; e.g. in money transfer, banking, hotel reservation, online shopping.
7. Leisure/Entertainment e.g. online music, videos, computer games.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET

1. Faster communication
2. Any kind of information is available on the Internet
3. Online services have assisted people to do activities at any place e.g. paying bills, buying
tickets, transfer funds etc.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET

1. You may risk theft of personal information, especially for online banking.
2. Computers connected to the internet are very prone to VIRUS threat
3. Pornography can be harmful to children and teenagers
4. Wastage of time i.e. Spending your valuable time online for nothing

COMPUTER NETWORK
A computer network is a group of two or more computers that are connected together and share
certain information.

MAIN TYPES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

1. LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)

Computers in a LAN are separated by distances of up to a few kilometers and are typically used in
offices or across a campus.

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 2. METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK
This is a computer network that exists within a town or city. However, it covers a longer distance
than a Local Area Network does.

3. WIDE AREA NETWORK

Is a computer network that is meant to cover a wide geographic area, usually over telephone lines,
as compared to a local area network that operates in a single company or institution. Sometimes
WAN is referred to as a group of local area networks.

IMPORTANT TERMS

WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW)

World Wide Web (WWW), computer-based network of information resources that combines text

and multimedia. The information on the World Wide Web can be accessed and searched through
the Internet, a global computer network. The World Wide Web is often referred to simply as “the
Web.”

WEBSITE

A website is an area in a World Wide Web that can be accessed by using its unique web address
called Universal Resource Locator (URL). In other words a website is a file of information located on
a server connected to the World Wide Web (WWW).

Web sites may include text, photographs, illustrations, video, music, or computer programs. They
also often include links to other sites in the form of hypertext, highlighted or colored text that the
user can click on with their mouse, instructing their computer to jump to the new site.

A single area of a website is called a webpage.

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WEB BROWSER
The user’s computer shall be connected to the Internet by means of special software called a
browser to retrieve and read information from a web site. Examples of browsers include Google
Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Maxthon and Internet Explorer.

Common browsers usually have the following main parts.

 ADDRESS BAR: A part of a browser where a user types a URL.
 BACK BUTTON: A browser command used to navigate to the previously visited web page.
 FORWARD BUTTON: A browser command used to navigate to the next web page.
 REFRESH BUTTON: A browser command used to re-load a web page.
 HOME BUTTON: Browser command used to display the home page of a browser.
 STOP BUTTON: Browser command used to stop a web page from loading.

HYPERLINK
This is a text or image that will take you from one page of the website to the next with a simple
click of your mouse. Some links appear in bold, some are underlined, and some are even attached
to pictures. A hand will appear over the word or picture if it is a link.  

UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR (URL)

This is a unique address used to access a website or certain webpage over the internet. A URL for a
website is usually called a DOMAIN NAME.

Main parts of a URL

A URL is composed of four main parts:
(a) PROTOCOL: This is a set of rules and principles which computer systems use to
communicate with other. In a web browser, a protocol used is HYPERTEXT TRANSFER
PROTOCOL (HTTP).
(b) LOCATION OF THE SITE: This specifies the location where a website is found, usually
within the Word Wide Web (www).
(c) NAME OF THE WEBSITE (Domain Name): This is the name of the Company, Institution,
government or Individual who owns the web site.
(d) TOP LEVEL DOMAIN: Indicates the purpose of the organization sponsoring the web site.

Example: http://www.yahoo.com

http://- Protocol
www- Location where a website is found
yahoo- Name of a website
com- Top level domain

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Some common Top-level domains:

Location extensions:
Some websites contain location suffix that is preceded by a top level domain. You might see foreign
addresses that add a country code as the last several digits of the address, such as:

.au (Australia)
.ca (Canada)
.fr (France)
.it (Italy)
.tz (Tanzania)
.us (United States of America)

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WEB SEARCH ENGINES
It is easy to get certain information from the WWW if the URL is known. Sometimes the URL is
unknown therefore Search Engines provide help in this case.

Instead of trying to guess where certain information may be located on the web, search engines
allow you to search the web by simply knowing a key word for a search item.

A search engine searches for keywords and returns a list of documents where the keywords can be
found. Most search engines allow you to search using plain language relevant to the topic of
interest, meaning you don’t have to know any special programming tricks to effectively search the
web.

COMMON WEB SEARCH ENGINES INCLUDE:

 www.yahoo.com
 www.google.co.tz
 www.bing.com
 www.ask.com
 www.alltheweb.com

A search engine contains a search box where the user enters a keyword for his/ her search item.
After performing a search, a web search engine returns a number of results in the Web that
contains a search item. Then a user can choose one of the results to follow the link where that
information is found.

HOW TO USE A WEB SEARCH ENGINE

 Enter the required keyword in the text box and press Enter key.
 The Find results are presented in the next page.
 Hyperlinks to web pages containing the keyword are displayed.
 Click the hyperlinks to load the respective web pages. The Address bar displays the
respective URLs.

NOTE: No search engine on the web is capable of handling all provided information. It is advisable
to use various search engines for different searches. Everybody has to find his favorite search
engine.

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E-MAIL
Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages
across the Internet or other computer networks.

You can also attach files, such as word-processing documents, graphics, or spreadsheets, to an e-
mail message, and virtually eliminate the need for paper reports and documents.

Email Addresses

You will need an email address, of course, a sort of electronic mailbox used to send and receive
messages. All such addresses follow the same approach: user@domain. (Email addresses are
different from website addresses, which do not use the symbol @.) A domain is simply a location
on the internet. Consider the following address:

joe_black@gmail.com
joe_black: User Name (User ID)
gmail.com: Domain name

Free email services

Most people use free email services to communicate electronically. These are available from a
variety of sources, ranging from so-called portals, or internet gateways, such as Yahoo!, Gmail, and
Hotmail.

What you need to do is go to the providers’ website and register for an email account which you
will use to send and receive email messages.

Sending, replying and Forwarding Email

Use the email message window to compose and send email messages.

To send a new message:

 Once you have opened your email clients’ window, click the New Mail or Compose Button.
 The email message window appears.
 Look for a menu and toolbars to help compose and format your message.
 There are several fields which you will see in email message window; These fields may
include To, CC, BCC, Subject, and the message body area.
 If you cannot see these fields, click on the links named add CC or add BCC.

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To and From

In the email message window, type the recipient’s email address in the To: field. This tells the email
server where to send the email message.

The person who is composing the email is called a sender. When the recipient receives a message,
a message header (sender’s email information, subject line, date and size received) usually appears
in the recipients INBOX.

Carbon Copy (CC) and Blind Carbon Copy (BCC)

CC: (short for Carbon Copy) and BCC: (short for Blind Carbon Copy) are additional fields used to
send multiple copies of message.

To send copies of your message:

 You can type multiple email addresses into the To: field

OR
 Type additional email addresses into the CC: field.
 Typing additional email addresses into the BCC: field allows you to send a copy to someone
else without the main recipient knowing you have done so. The CC: recipient sees the main
message and all intended recipients.
In any case, separate email addresses with a comma or semicolon.

The Subject Line and Body of the Message

When sending an email, the sender has the option to write a subject line. When the recipient
checks their email, the subject line appears in the message header. Make sure your subject line
describes the topic of your email message. A well-written subject line helps recipients prioritize
their email responses.

The body of the email message is typed directly into the large blank space (message area). Most
email clients support cut, copy and paste functions, so you don’t need to retype information
needlessly.

Send and Receive

Now that you can compose a new email message, you will want to send your message. That’s easy;
just click the Send button.

To receive new messages (known as “checking your email”), you may need to click the check mail
button/Inbox to display the new email.

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Replying to an Email Message

Now that you can check your email, you will need to know how to reply to a message.

To reply to an email message:

 Check your email

 Open a new message
 Read the message
 Click the Reply button. (Or, click Reply All to send a copy to everyone who received the
original message.)
 An email message window opens.
 Type your reply.
 Click the Send button

Most email clients include a Sent Mail folder or Outbox. If you are uncertain your message was
sent, check these areas before you resend your message.

When to Reply
Email is reliable, immediate, and often informal. However, there are some email “do’s and don’ts”
you should be aware of.

When replying. You have a couple of options:

1. Include all text
Include all quoted text from the previous message, type your response, and click send.

2. Delete all text

Delete all text from the previous message, type your response, and click Send.

3. Quote the text (delete some text)

Delete additional text that is not relevant to your response. Add additional information as
needed. This way, you don’t have to needlessly retype information, and the recipient knows
you understood their initial message.

Forwarding an Email Message

It is also helpful to know how to forward a message. Forward when you want to send email
message you have received to co-workers, friends or family.

To forward an email message:

 Open the email message you want to forward.
 Click the Forward button
 An email message window appears
 You may see message such as, “------------Forwarded Message” Followed by “from, date, and
to” and the original message.
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  The text from the original message may be “quoted”, or preceded by carat symbols (>).
 Type any new information at the top of the message.
 Click Send.

Attachments
An attachment is any file which you can send along with your email messages. When sending an
email attachment, your email program changes (encodes) your file so it can be sent across the
Internet.

To send an email attachment

 Enter a message into an email message window.
 Click the Attach files button.
 A dialog box opens (depending on email client). Browse until you locate the file you want to
attach.
 Browse the file.
 Click Attach files button (usually contains a paper clip image)
 Wait for the browser to complete the attachment.
 Return to the message window and send the message.

NOTE: When sending email attachments, keep the following in mind:

1. Include a note that briefly describes the attached file.
2. The file name should describe the attachment.

Opening email attachment

 Check your email.
 Click the message header to open a new message (you will see a paper clip sign).
 Click the attachment button to open/download the file.

ONLINE CHAT (Instant messaging)

Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to
refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat (formally also known as synchronous
conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, talkers.

Online Chatting sometimes referred to as Instant Messaging (IM). Instead of talking, you type
messages back and forth in real time.

An instant messaging service is software that runs on a personal computer. Like other email
services you need an Internet connection and software to use instant messaging. Yahoo
Messenger, Hangouts and Live messenger are just few examples of instant messaging software,
most services are free.

NOTE: To use instant messaging software you must have already signed up for a particular email
account.