Exercise 1: What is the World Wide Web?

The terms World Wide Web and Internet are often used interchangeably, which is incorrect. The World Wide Web (WWW) is only a part of the Internet. It is a multimedia hypertext environment that uses links to connect different pages together. You are looking at a WWW page right now. On this page, all of the words in blue are links. Links can also be underlined or in different colors, depending on whose page you are viewing, what browser you're using, and how your web browser is configured.

Netscape is a software program installed on your computer that allows you to surf the Internet. It is a commonly used graphical Web browser at Yale. Netscape displays text, images, sounds, movies, and other multimedia applications. Another Web browser used frequently at Yale is Lynx, a text-only Web browser that comes with a Pantheon account. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and the AOL Web Browser are also examples of graphical Web browsers.

Netscape is running on many of the public computers in the Yale Libraries. Most of these computers are set to a homepage called the Research Workstation. From the Research Workstation, you can connect to online databases, including Orbis, as well as Internet sites all around the world. Clicking on the home button at the top of the Netscape screen takes you to whatever home page has been defined in that particular copy of Netscape.

Connect to the Research Workstation

• Sound
• Images
• Clickable Images
• Film Clips
• Animation and design

As stated above, the World Wide Web is one face of the Internet. The World Wide Web provides access to all different kinds of Internet tools. The most common of these are: Telnet, TN3270, Gopher, and FTP. When you are using the Research Workstation, you will come across many telnet and TN3270 connections, especially in the Databases section of the Library's Research Workstation.

• Telnet
  Telnet is a direct terminal connection to another computer on the Internet. Checking your email on Pantheon, or searching Nexis are examples of telnet connections. When you make a Telnet connection to a remote server, Netscape launches a Telnet client. Make a telnet connection to Orbis.

• TN3270
  TN3270 is another kind of direct terminal connection to another computer on the Internet, but it connects to an IBM mainframe. When you make a TN3270 connection to a remote server, Netscape launches a TN3270 client. Make a TN3270 connection to Orbis.

• Gopher
  Gopher is an older Internet browser. Gopher is a hierarchical, menu-based arrangement. Many gophers have been supplanted by Web pages. Here is the old gopher version of YaleInfo.

• FTP
  FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. You use FTP to transfer files from one computer to another across the Internet. For example, you would use FTP to transfer a document from your desktop computer to your email account in order to send it to a colleague across the country. Netscape uses FTP to transfer files (usually software programs) off of the Web to your desktop computer. Fetch is the standard FTP client for Macs, and WinFTP is an FTP client for PCs.

Netscape is available on all of the networked Macintoshes & PCs in the Library. Current versions of Netscape can be downloaded from the Internet Information Center's homepage: http://www.library.yale.edu/iic/gettingsoftware-fd.html.

On to Exercise Two: Navigating with Netscape.