K, I am 16 and I don’t know very much about computers. Everything I say is what I have gathered and is probably wrong. Please correct my ignorance!
K, ppl generalize, thinking the Internet is the same thing as the WWW right? Isn’t the Internet just a huge connection of computers? While the World Wide Web, created by Tim Berners Lee uses the Internet to view HTML. Is there a WWW center anywhere??? I mean there has to be right??
Thanks,
Matt
P.S. I’ll probably post more questions on this thread, I can’t think after lifting!
It sounds like you know more than a great many people. Your description of the internet and its distinction from the web is on the money. Some of the other internet services that are available are Email, FTP and IRC – each entirely distinct from the web.
As for a WWW center, probably the closest thing that would fit the bill is the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org). In simple terms, this organization creates the standards that programmers the world over use to write programs like web browsers and such that actually make the web work.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) those standards aren’t binding. Programmers are free to use as much of the standard as appropriate for their particular program or conversely, they can add additional features not included in the standard.
If you really are interested in how the Net evolved to be what it is today, I would recommend the book “Nerds 2.0.1 : A Brief History of the Internet” by Steven Segaller. It’s written at an easy level, and will teach you a lot about the Net, up to about 1998 or so.
The internet is a whole bunch of computers. The web is isn’t a thing really, butits what we call all the webserver software that is running on computers that are part of the net.
Y’know, it might be interesting to make a list of some of the things its used for.
the web (http and https), this includes java based chatting and gaming, and web-based email
FTP
streaming audio and video
POP email
various instant messaging protocals
ICQ
IRC
FTP
telnet
peer to peer filesharing (Napster, gnutella, freenet etc.)
online gaming, with or without a server
utilities like tracert and whois
tools that crackers use
archie
veronica
gopher
finger
(I’m not sure if those four are still used much)
what have I forgotten?