In this article, we will learn “Internet Basics” to understand the basics of the internet. It includes the terms like Web Browser, Search Engines, Plugins, Protocols. We commonly use them in today’s era of the Internet but only a few of us can define them when asked during an interview.
Today I will brief you on all the above-stated terms and will co-relate the same with examples.
Do you know: Web Browser take help of search engines and plugins to enhance user experience and work under protocols defined by the governing authority.
Now let’s have some basic understanding of Web Browsers, Search Engines, Plugins, Protocols, Domain Name, and Hosting.
What are Web Browsers: Internet Basics
Search engines require a medium in which they operate and the medium is the browser. Let’s take an example of the browser named Google Chrome. This browser, like any other, provides an interface between the web server and the user.
Example: We open Google Chrome and write a URL/ web address in the address bar. The browser will contact the webserver and ask for relevant information and get back to the user with the desired result. In this whole process, there is an exchange of IP address, bits, and other information.
What is a Search Engine: Internet Basics
Let’s derive the meaning of the term “Search Engine” by splitting it i.e. Search and Engine
Search means finding something and Engine is the force that help us accomplish our task. Combining the term Search Engine we have its meaning i.e. “An engine that helps us in searching anything”.
Let’s take the example of the Giant Search Engine Google.
Google is a search engine having millions of documents stored inside it. It scans these and gives us a relevant result when a user hits a search query (search query is the question put by the user to the search engine).
Google.com, BING.com, Ask.com, etc. are some popular search engines which are extensively used in order to get the results of users query.
What are Plugins: Internet Basics
These are some add-ons which provide additional features to a browser.
Example: If you want to go from New Delhi to New York. For the same, you catch an airplane which is an add-on thus increasing your efficiency.
Similarly, browsers require some add-ons to do a specific task for e.g. showing flash content (Flash Player Plugin), showing a PDF file (Adobe PDF plugin), etc. In this way, plugins come in handy when providing additional features to a web browser and user.
What are the Protocols?
These are some standard rules that need to follow while transferring information over the internet. For the same, various terms related to internet come into play, like packets (we send data over the internet in the form of packets), IP Address (Each system has a unique IP Address that differentiate it room others), etc.
URL and Domain Name:
Definition of URL and Domain Name with an example:
Let’s explore what is URL, the most important term of the Internet.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It follows:
- Locating a resource over the internet (Web Address) by its domain name (IP Address comes handy in this case)
- It also defines the protocol (mostly HTTP or HTTPS) used by the web address.
Domain Name, what is it?
To explain what a domain is, let’s take this URL as an example: https://rockgrow.com/seo-training-syllabus
Let’s split this Web Address into different parts:
- HTTPS: The website address often starts with HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, etc. We know all the prefixes of the web address as Protocols which tell the browser how to retrieve data.
- www.onlineseoblog.com: In this section of the web address “www” is optional to write (used to tell that this website is open on Web where WWW stands for Worldwide Web).
Now, “onlineseoblog.com” is the domain name with an extension “.com” I consider which as a Top-Level Domain.
- /SEO-training-syllabus: This is the path for the page placed on the server which gets opened when you click on a link in the domain.
Hosting:
Once you have your domain name, then you need a place where you can launch that domain to become live on the internet. Launching the domain over the internet is known as Hosting. Opt for Hosting which provides 24*7 support with 100% uptime.
Types of Hosting:
Shared Web Hosting:
It is the cheapest web hosting where a single physical server is shared between a number of users.
Cloud Server Hosting:
In this, we have a virtual server which pulls their computing resources from extensive underlying networks of the physical web server. It is costlier than shared hosting
Dedicated Server:
This types of server are generally used by the bigger website which draws traffic in millions and hence requires more bandwidth to give their visitors better experience. In this, we dedicate a single server to a single company. This is the costliest among all.
More information: Learn how to purchase web hosting