IP addresses, clients and servers, uniform resource locators? Who knew? It just goes to show that you can see and use something everyday without having the very slightest clue or idea just exactly what it is! All the particular features and functions of an Internet web browser that I took for granted and never noticed have now become clearly visible to me! It reminds me of the reaction I get from my wife when I try to explain to her how I fixed her car. I can literally explain to her every function and device that makes a car go, but when it comes to the Internet is a different story altogether. She doesn't really need all that but rather that it will get her to and from college or the mall safely. The same is true of Firefox or Safari and most of these facts may not be relevant to most people who are just surfing the web. I don't think my wife would need to know what an IP address is, nor would she even care in the slightest as this is the sort of a technical fact. Some of the things that we do with regard to a web browser are second nature and are done without even thinking about the steps and the technical background underneath the operation. We all know what happens when we are driving a car and we step on the gas pedal and go, but very few of us "technical" types indeed know exactly why. I'm sure that most of us do things like create a favorite, or check our history and print a web page without even thinking about it but there's quite a lot going on behind the visible that makes it all happen and that is definitely worth knowing!

 

Websites are composed of pages, much like a book or magazine. These pages are written with HTTP code and are arranged so as to have a logical flow to facilitate easy navigation. Web sites may contain video and audio content as well as graphics of many sorts to enhance the experience for the visitor. Rich media can act to grab your attention and lead you to maybe to make a purchase or join a social media site. To get to any web page, you must first know the address or domain name. A domain name is displayed as text, while an IP address (internet protocol address) is it’s numerical equivalent in the form of binary numbers and can be difficult to remember unless you are very good with numbers. A DNS name server is what takes a domain name and translates it to an IP so that you don’t have to type the IP numbers. A URL or Uninform Resource Locator contains a protocol and a domain name. It is what is displayed in the address window of your browser. It may also contain a path and file name (for example a PDF if you are reading a document). There are many options to consider when using a web browser, for example: you can use the history feature or a favorites list to go to a website that you have been to before or you can have “auto complete” configured to remember the sites that you have typed in before.When you do get to a web page you may be tracked by something called a "cookie" for the purposes of providing you the convenience of remembering your personal information such as your address. The file is stored on you hard drive and is accessed when you visit a site that it is associated with. This can be convenient for your preferences on a particular website. If you should decide to make a purchase on a website, it would be best to have the Secure Sockets Layer protocol in place (HTTPS://) on the URL so as not to put your account information (Personally Identifiable information or PII) at risk of being "hacked!" Hackers are those who would use malicious code or spyware to obtain PII for the purpose of monetary gain, compromise or otherwise malicious intents.Malicious websites may try to fool you into divulging your PII for similar reasons. Often they are duplicate sites posing as a legitimate site designed to fool you into delivering your credit card number or your bank username and password and of course this could be devastating to your finances. The homepage or primary page is usually identical to a familiar site and can be very convincing and is of course on an alternate server location than the legitimate one. The "Smart screen filter" feature of Internet Explorer can defend against such websites.Other concerns for risk are "Spyware" that can try to obtain PII and "Adware" which can provide unwanted solictations for shopping websites. Also of concern are viruses, which can lead to problems from program crashes to Operating system crashes requiring a complete system re-image and total loss of data.A good antivirus program can protect against a virus.Web filters can be configured to restrict content to protect children from unwanted access to inapropriate materials.