How to Use the Internet

HOW do I find information on the Internet?

Information is located at an “address,” if you will, much like your address includes a house number, street number, city, state, country and zip code.

Addresses of locations are known as Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs which include separators such as colons, slashes and dots.

A sample URL is: http://www.marriott.com
http:	Describes type of access code or method being used (hypertext transport protocol)
//	Refers to directories like the files and folders from DOS or Windows
www.	Refers to the World Wide Web which is the part of the Internet that “speaks web”
marriott	Is the name of the company
.com	Is a suffix which indicates that this is a commercial site .gov for government .mil for military .edu for education .org for organization .net for network More suffixes are being added all the time to accommodate the large number of requests for URLs.

A URL may or may not include information after the .com (or .gov, etc.) which specifies a particular bit of information or a specific page. The more information, the more specific the result.

After connecting to your ISP, use your browser to find a URL. It can be typed in the box where your browser shows you the location or address of the site you are at. Just highlight (click on with your mouse) the box, delete the information there (usually a home page address specified by you or your ISP) and type in the URL you want.

When you hit “enter” your browser will find that URL and pull it onto your computer screen.

	DID YOU KNOW
	that you do not have to include the http:// or even www. because your browser will automatically add it for you, in most cases?