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Website Development & Hosting

The Web

The web represents a particular way of accessing and moving through the Internet. It is based on

hypertext, which allows the user to jump to other places within a document, to other documents,

and  to  other  sites.  Unlike  traditional  Internet  access  that  requires  the  user  to  move  in  a  strict

hierarchical/linear fashion, the web lets the user bounce through cyberspace, jumping in at the

beginning, middle, end or anywhere else within a location or document, as long as that particular

location or document is linked.

To use the web, you need a browser. There are two basic kinds: line or text browsers, such as

Lynx , and graphical browsers, such as Netscape  and Internet Explorer . Text browsers

let users see the text files of documents mounted on the web; graphical browsers let users see the

text and also access any other kinds of files that might appear, such as photographic files, sound

files, or video files.

Sometimes  the  browser  is  referred  to  as  the  client  and  the  machine  holding  the  data  or

information being accessed is called the server.

The physical appearance of the document and how much of it you can access depends on several

things:

a

the kind and version of browser that you have

a

the way in which the data within the document was entered (that is, the kind of markup

or modelling language used, and the version or standard of that language)

a

the way you have set your preferences

a

the hardware and software available on your computer

a

permissions and rights (password-protected sections that are accessible only to authorised

visitors).

Hypertext

Websites  and  pages  are  joined  by  the  use  of  hypertext  links.  These  links  are  embedded  in  the

source code of the documents offered on the Web and appear to the user as coloured, shaded,

underlined, or otherwise distinguishable items (text, icons, and pictures). Clicking on the coded

item activates the link, causing the user to jump to another part of the document, to hear an audio

file, to view a video or to move to another computer anywhere in the world. These links have to be

built into the document by the creator.

Addresses

To  access  an  Internet  site  via  the  web,  you  need  to  know  the  URL,  the  Uniform  Resource

Locator. The URL has standard parts:

Copyright  NESIS 2002

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