In the last lab, we learned about many different ways to use the internet. If you need to, click here for a review. Today, we are going to cover a few of these methods, and learn how to use the internet more efficiently. To skip directly to the needed section, click on the links provided below. All of the following sections will involve using Netscape. Feel free to open the application now.
CAUTION: be forewarned that many of the links that you try may not work. Due to the nature of the internet, each computer is maintained by the owner. If the computer is off-line for whatever reason, a link that you normally use may not work. |
This section will be taught entirely in class using Netscape Mail
Gopher was the precursor to http, as mentioned in the last lab. But, it still exists. Many documents were created for gopher, and haven't been translated over to the new HTML style.Start by typing the following address into Netscape's location space.
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/This address is the start of the University of Minnesota's gopher server. By clicking on any of the links, you can move to a new section of the gopher servers. Also, gopher provides it's own search engines (a program that moves through the different pages and finds the information you request). Simply by clicking on a search engine (which has an icon that looks like a pair of binoculars), you pull up a screen which has a place to type. Click on the area to type and type whatever information you want to find. When you press the Return key, your information is submitted to the server, and the program seeks out all pages with that information.To Practice
- Using the U of MNs gopher server, skim "About Gopher" in the "Information About Gopher" folder.
- Find the information about you in the U of MNs phone book. Verify that everything is correct.
- Find information on Tel Aviv University (hint: it's in the middle east).
- See if you can locate the world's toughest final exam (a comical article).
By using FTP, we can download files to our computer or disk. This is exceptionally important if you want to get files, programs, pictures, or games from the internet for your computer. Many companies provide free software, or upgrades via the internet.Start by going to the same address we went to for gopher. But, this time choose the folder "Internet file server (ftp) sites". Here is a list of sites that allow you to download information from them. Because of HTTP though, these sites may not be in great use. Try moving through some of them to look at the information. Be careful though, if you click on a file, you may download it to your account or computer.
The more popular way of FTPing information is by using HTTP. Which, we will get into in the next section.
HTTP is the current rage in internet development. This is mostly what you see in Netscape. By now you should have plenty of practice in moving around pages in Netscape. To learn some of the more advanced functions of Netscape click here.For further practice, go to the U of MNs homepage by using the Home button. Moving through the links practice the following:
- Find the class schedule for winter quarter in the Office of the Registrar's page.
- View a painting from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum.
- Locate the Computer Science Department's home page.
By now, you are a master at following links, but there are easier ways to find information that you may like. One way is to use pre-created lists that people put out on the net. Try clicking on the "What's New" or "What's Cool" buttons and selecting a few links to follow.
By now, you may have been wondering... how do they get a page to look so cool? Well, what happens is that most pages are created in HTML, hyper-text markup language. This is a very simple language to learn, and that allows the viewer to control most of the variables. The programmer can decide what the text should be, and how it should be placed, but the viewer gets to decide on the relative size, and the style.
To see a simple page, and the commands that go with it, Click here. Otherwise, go up to the View menu, and click on the Document Source choice. A smaller window will come up showing you the source code (the html code) that the page uses. When you download a page, you actually download the source code. So, if you save a page to your disk, and then view it directly (such as by using a word processing program) it will look like that. When you are done looking at the code, close the window and continue.
Click here for a list of the items to hand in.
There is no test until the end of Lab 2. | ![]() |
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