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Engage & Learn

What is the Internet? (Yes! People have asked)

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably, the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail, in addition to popular services such as online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) person-to-person communication via voice and video. The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. By 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth’s population uses the services of the Internet.

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What is a web server?

The internet isnt just a box. Of course that sounds stupid and we know you know that!

However servers make up the web and is a computer tool that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients (user agents such as web browsers), and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are web pages such as HTML documents and linked objects (images, etc.).

The more powerful the server, the faster it can serve up website pages. Slower, smaller servers may result in frustrating lag time for viewers. High traffic can also slow servers that are not powerful enough to handle high volumes of data exchange. This lag time should be a concern if you are shopping for a web host. Most web hosts have a page dedicated to sharing technical information about their web server, including speed, capacity, network configuration and other details.

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Brief history of the webserver.

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee proposed to his employer CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) a new project, which had the goal of easing the exchange of information between scientists by using a hypertext system. As a result of the implementation of this project, in 1990 Berners-Lee wrote two programs:

• * a browser called WorldWideWeb;
• * the world’s first web server, later known as CERN HTTPd, which ran on NeXTSTEP.

Between 1991 and 1994 the simplicity and effectiveness of early technologies used to surf and exchange data through the World Wide Web helped to port them to many different operating systems and spread their use among lots of different social groups of people, first in scientific organizations, then in universities and finally in industry. In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee decided to constitute the World Wide Web Consortium to regulate the further development of the many technologies involved (HTTP, HTML, etc.) through a standardization process.

The following years are recent history which has seen an exponential growth of the number of web sites and servers. Server may refer to:

Server (computing), a server application, operating system, computer, or appliance

Application server, a server dedicated to running certain software applications

Communications server, carrier-grade computing platform for communications networks o Fax server, provides fax services for clients o File server, provides file services

Home server, a server for the home o Newsreader server, a server that feeds Usenet groups to client Newsreaders

Proxy server, provides database IT server in services

Sound server, provides multimedia broadcasting / streaming.

Standalone server, an emulator for client-server (web-based) programs

Web server, a server that HTTP clients connect to in order to send commands and receive responses along with data contents

Web Feed Server, a server that distributes, manages, and tracks internal and external RSS feeds in an enterprise

Client-server, a software architecture that separates “server” functions from “client” functions

Peer-to-peer, a network of computers running as both clients and servers Catalog server, a central search point for information across a distributed network

Here is some information provided to get you started with your new website including Resources in Frequently Asked Questions and setting up your email account in MS Outlook and Apple Mail.

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What is web hosting?

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

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What is FTP?

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to exchange and manipulate files over an Internet Protocol computer network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server applications. Client applications were originally interactive command-line tools with a standardized command syntax, but graphical user interfaces have been developed for all desktop operating systems in use today. FTP is also often used as an application component to automatically transfer files for program internal functions. FTP can be used with user-based password authentication or with anonymous user access.

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What is HTML?

Hypertext Mark-up Language, or HTML, is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to describe a structured document by denoting structural semantics to text such as headings, paragraphs, lists etc. and also some other semantics by denoting text as links, quotes, and other things. It also allows embedded images and objects and interactive forms. It is written in the form of “tags” consisting of elements surrounded by angle brackets, and can embed or load scripting languages such as JavaScript, that can affect the behavior of HTML processors like Web browsers, and Cascading Style Sheets to define the appearance of text, and the layout of block elements - which is encouraged over explicit presentational markup.

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What is a CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the colors, fonts, and layout. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for tableless web design). CSS can also allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on Braille-based, tactile devices. While the author of a document typically links that document to a CSS stylesheet, readers can use a different stylesheet, perhaps one on their own computer, to override the one the author has specified. CSS specifies a priority scheme to determine which style rules apply if more than one rule matches against a particular element. In this so-called cascade, priorities or weights are calculated and assigned to rules, so that the results are predictable.

The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Internet media type (MIME type) text/ css is registered for use with CSS by RFC 2318 (March 1998).

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What is a PHP?

PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications. While PHP was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995, the main implementation of PHP is now produced by The PHP Group and serves as the de facto standard for PHP as there is no formal specification. PHP is free software released under the PHP License, which is incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL) due to restrictions on the use of the term PHP.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It generally runs on a web server, which is configured to take PHP code as input and create web page content as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.

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What is a SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. The acronym “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

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What is a Marketing?

Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others. Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. [1] The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to buy or sell goods or services.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing, which is the world’s largest marketing body[citation needed], defines marketing as “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”

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What is Email?

Electronic mail, often abbreviated as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages, designed primarily for human use. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device (e.g., a personal computer) for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user’s device to another’s. An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email’s content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator’s email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field. Originally a text-only communications medium, email is extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). All information is provided by Wikipedia. Please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page for more information typing in any of the following questions to learn more..

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How do I setup MS Outlook with POP3?

The following is a general guide to setting up Microsoft Outlook 2007 to enable you to send and receive emails.

• 1. Start Outlook from the Start Menu, from the main window you will be able to set up Outlook to send and retrieve mail
• from the email account you have hosted with Yourhostingcompany.co.uk. Click on Tools -> E-mail Accounts to enter into
• this set-up process.
• 2. Select POP3 and then click the Next button.
• 3. Enter your User Information
• Your Name: This is the name that you want to appear on the e-mail
• E-mail Address: e.g. Yourname@yourdomain.co.uk
• Server Information
• Incoming mail server (POP3):
• pop.Yourhostingcompany.co.uk
• Outgoing mail server (SMTP):
• smtp.Yourhostingcompany.co.uk
• Logon Information
• User Name:
• your Mailbox email address
• Password
• Enter the password you chose when you created your e-mail account
• 4. Click the Next button.
• 5. Click the Finish button.
• 6. Close and re-start Outlook 2007

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How do I setup Apple Mail?

This answer explains how you can setup your Apple Mail client.

• 1. Open mail and go to preferences.
• 2. Click on to the accounts tab and click on the ‘+’ on the bottom left to add a new account.
• 3. Use the following details for setting up your account.
• Description
• Account Description, This can be anything you like
• Email Address
• you@yourdomain.co.uk
• Full Name
• You’re Display Name, This will be the senders name
• Incoming Mail Server
• pop.Yourhostingcompany.co.uk
• User Name
• Pop Box User Name
• Password
• Pop Box Password.
• 4. Once you have filled that part out click the Options button in the Outgoing Mail Server section.
• Our outgoing mail server is smpt.Yourhostingcompany.co.uk.
• 5. Click “OK”. You should now be able to send and receive emails using Mail. SETTING UP YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT

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