Internet and web world world wide web

Microsoft adCenter Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

2008-12-30T02:26:00.000-08:00

1
The right keywords for the right audience to capture the right customer
What is the adCenter Add-in for Excel with the Ad Intelligence module?
The adCenter Add-in is a keyword research and optimization tool, which enables users to rapidly build out or expand keyword lists and plan keyword strategy based on a range of important attributes such as relevance, historical cost, volume, geography and demographics. The adCenter Add-in provides the ability to easily research keywords to help you reach the right audience, and capture and convert the right customer.
This document contains:
I. External Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Contents
• About adCenter Add-in
• Getting Started
• How it Works
• Using the adCenter Add-in
• Support
• Troubleshooting
II. Glossary of Key Terms
I - External Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Contents
About adCenter Add-in
What is the Microsoft adCenter Add-in1. Beta?
Will the adCenter Add-in be available in other markets?2.
What features are found in the adCenter Add-in?3.
Why was the adCenter Add-in released in Beta?4.
Getting Started
What are the system requirements for the adCenter Add-in?5.
How do I download and install the adCenter Add-in?6.
I have an old version of the adCenter Add-in (formerly called adSage). How do I upgrade to the
7. new version?
I’ve installed the adCenter Add-in and now where do I find it?
8.
adCenter Add-inBeta for Excel
Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs)
2
How it Works
9. How come I don’t always get results when I use the adCenter Add-in?
10. Under the Keyword Suggestion feature, what is the difference between the three algorithms shown
(Campaign Association, Contained and Similarity)?
11. What are the date ranges available for the data provided by the adCenter Add-in?
12. When using the Monthly Traffic feature, how does the adCenter Add-in forecast the traffic for the
three future months?
13. When using the Daily Traffic feature, why do the results not show search impressions more recent
than 3 to 5 days in the past?
14. When using the Monetization feature, how are the output ranges defined for the conditional
formatting of CTR and CPC?
15. When I set Maximum Suggested Keywords to 100 in Keyword Suggestion, why do I sometimes
receive less than this amount?
16. Why do I get duplicate terms in my results for Spiky Keywords?
17. How do I set the Geography function to show state, city, or country?
18. How do I set custom defaults for date ranges or other preferences for the various functions?
19. If I bid the CPCs recommended for Position 1, am I guaranteed the number one spot?
20. Please explain why the query number in Monthly Traffic for a month does not match the
impression data in Monetization?
21. Why does a lower position have a higher average CPC than a higher position?
22. Could my keyword impression count be different than Microsoft adCenter Add-in’s report?
23. Is content match included in impression counts?
24. Why is my search result displayed in a new sheet?
25. How do I compare the scores from two different functions?
26. Is adCenter Add-in information only derived from MSN data?
27. What is the taxonomy used for Keyword Categorization?
28. For results derived from the Monetization feature, why is it that sometimes the impression count is
vastly different for Positions 1, 2, and 3 for terms with high-bid density?
29. How are the impression numbers different between adCenter Add-in forecast data and the research
tab data in adCenter?
30. How accurate is monthly traffic forecasting and how is it done?
31. Are these keyword expansion tools based on actual search queries or keywords in adCenter?
32. Can keywords be classified into more than one category (e.g. “apple” can be both a fruit and a
technology brand)?
3
Using the Add-in
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to quickly generate relevant keywords to describe my web sites?33.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to quickly create or expand a list of relevant keywords?34.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to forecast keyword search traffic?35.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the seasonality of keyword searches?36.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the localization of keyword searches?37.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the demographics of keyword searches?38.
How can I use the adCenter Add-in to obtain KPIs for keywords, such as CTR, CPC, Impressions and Position?39.
Support
Where else can I learn more about the most recent updates to the adCenter Add-in?40.
Who do I contact for adCenter Add-in support?41.
Where can I find adCenter Add-in support information?42.
How do I provide feedback and how can I suggest new features for the adCenter Add-in? (Excel 2007)43.
Troubleshooting
Why can’t I find my adCenter Add-in tab in the Excel ribbon? (Excel 2007)44.
I’ve successfully installed the adCenter Add-in, but when I run it I get an error message regarding “invalid user
45. authorization.” How do I resolve this? (Excel 2007)
How do you Optimize your campaign with the adCenter Add-in Beta for Excel?46.
About Microsoft adCenter Add-in
1. What is the Microsoft adCenter Add-in?
The Microsoft adCenter Add-in is a no-cost keyword research and optimization tool that integrates into Excel.
2. Will the adCenter Add-in be available in other markets?
The adCenter Add-in is currently available for adCenter customers in the US market. However, the adCenter Add-in provides data that can be useful in markets other than the US. You are free to download and use the adCenter Add-in even if you conduct business outside of the US.
3. What features are found in the adCenter Add-in?
The adCenter Add-in offers a broad selection of powerful keyword expansion and campaign optimization tools:
Keyword Extraction:• extracts commonly used keywords from a given website address, which allows the user to see what keywords are in popular use on that site.
Keyword Suggestion: • enables quick generation of a large list of relevant keywords from an initial list of keywords entered.
Search Buzz:• returns the top keywords, by vertical market, for the given time period. Two keyword trend research options are offered:
Top Spiky Keywords:• returns the keywords whose trends are sudden and spiking (i.e. not overall popularity, but demonstrate flashing and surging popularity).
4
Top Frequent Keywords: • displays the keyword trends for the overall most popular keywords.
Monthly Traffic: • provides both Monthly Traffic and Daily Traffic.
Monthly Traffic:• allows the user to look at monthly historical and future, forecasted query counts for the given keywords.
Daily Traffic:• provides the user with daily query counts for the given keywords.
Keyword Categorization: • input keywords, and then the algorithm suggests a category based on the taxonomy.
Geographic: • provides location information of searchers for specific keywords (user can specify country, state or city) about the input keywords within a set time period.
Demographic: • provides demographic information on searchers (by gender, age group) about the given keywords within a set time period.
Monetization: • this feature has two sub-features:
Monetization: • allows users to gather monetization information for the given keyword(s). This
feature provides information about clicks, impressions, position, click through rate, cost per click, and match type • within a date range.
Vertical KPIs: • returns KPI’s (key performance indicators) through monetization information about selected verticals within a date range.
Advanced Algorithm: • enables you to set the parameters of all of the features to suit your business needs. Each feature can be set to meet personal preferences or needs.
4. Why was the adCenter Add-in released in Beta?
The adCenter Add-in was released in Beta as a way to gather feedback from customers. We hope that customers enjoy the tool and understand that since this is a Beta version additional functionality will be forthcoming.
Getting Started
5. What are the system requirements for the adCenter Add-in?
You will need the following on your PC:
adCenter Login•
Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or Excel 2007•
Internet access•
6. How do I download and install the adCenter Add-in?
The adCenter Add-in installation instructions and setup program is located at the following site:
http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/adCenter_addin (Excel 2007)
http://advertising.microsoft.com/adcenter-beta-pilot-signup (Excel 2003)
7. I have an old version of the adCenter Add-in (formerly called adSage). How do I upgrade to the new version?
To upgrade to the new version, first uninstall the old version and then install the new version. Please see the installation guide for detailed instructions.
8. I’ve installed the adCenter Add-in and now where do I find it?
After the adCenter Add-in is installed, it should automatically be available to you within Excel as a new tab called “Ad Intelligence,” located at the top of the page. Alternatively, the application (including Excel) can be launched by double-clicking a short cut adCenter Add-in icon on your desktop or by selecting the application from your program list, under the Windows Start Menu.
5
How it Works
9. How come I don’t always get results when I use the adCenter Add-in?
In order to ensure that the data is anonymous when aggregated, we limit results to those that meet a minimum bar activity. For example, we typically limit the search counts to queries that are above a minimum search count for data that is based upon results from Live Search. In the case of the Campaign Association algorithm (based on data from adCenter), if only a small pool of advertisers have bid on a keyword, then the resulting data will be suppressed.
10. Under the Keyword Suggestion feature, what is the difference between the three algorithms shown (Campaign Association, Contained and Similarity)?
Campaign Association: • keywords that have been bid upon in adCenter.
MicrosoftContained: • keywords that have been part of a search query in Live Search and contain the given term.
Similarity: • keywords that are similar in context to other keywords used on the World Wide Web.
11. What are the date ranges available for the data provided by the adCenter Add-in?
Several different features in the adCenter Add-in offer different options for historical data ranges:
Top Spiky Keywords: • past 1, 10, 30 or 60 day period or a custom range.
Top Frequent Keywords, Monetization and Vertical KPIs: • past day, week or 30 day period.
Monthly Traffic: • past data for 1, 3, 6, 12 or 24 month period forecasted for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.
Daily Traffic, Geographic and Demographic: • past data for 1, 7, 10, 30 or 60 day period — or you may specify a time period.
12. When using the Monthly Traffic feature, how does the adCenter Add-in forecast the traffic for the future months?
Monthly Traffic can be forecasted forward 1, 3, 6, or 12 months into the future. The forecasted values are determined by an algorithm, which considers past keyword trends and seasonality.
13. When using the Daily Traffic feature, why do the results not show search impressions more recent than 3 to 5 days in the past?
To ensure data quality, the adCenter Add-in provides a sample set of data that typically commences 3 to 5 days prior to the current date.
14. When using the Monetization feature, how are the output ranges defined for the conditional formatting of CTR and CPC?
The result ranges specified in the tool can be found by selecting the Conditional Formatting menu in Excel, found under the Home menu.
15. When I set Maximum Suggested Keywords to 100 in Keyword Suggestion, why do I sometimes receive less than this amount?
Maximum Suggested Keywords provides an estimated set of keywords based upon all that are available. Sometimes there are fewer keywords available than the maximum number specified. You can modify the maximum number of results returned in your options.
16. Why do I get duplicate terms in my results for Spiky Keywords?
In our system, we detect and give starting and ending dates for each spiky term. If there are duplicate terms in the results, it means the same term has become a spiky term multiple times in the given time frame.
17. How do I set the Geography function to show state, city or country?
Click the Options or the Advanced Algorithm buttons and select Geography. From here, you can set your geographical level.
18. How do I set custom defaults for date ranges or other preferences for the various functions?
Click the Options or the Advanced Algorithm buttons and select the function you wish to customize.
6
19. If I bid the CPCs recommended for Position 1, am I guaranteed the number one spot?
The adCenter Add-in provides recommendations for bids based upon position; however, these recommendations are not conclusive. Variable factors impact placement such as the number of advertisers bidding, current bid prices and budget, term frequency, geographic and demographic targeting.
20. Please explain why the query number in Monthly Traffic for a month does not match the impression data in Monetization?
Monthly Traffic (and Daily Traffic) numbers are based on exact search query data. Monetization numbers are based on ad impressions which are further segmented by the match type chosen. The numbers will not match as a result of this.
21. Why does a lower position have a higher average CPC than a higher position?
CPC position can vary based on various factors, such as maximum CPC listed by the advertiser. For example, positions 1 through 3 could have a lower CPC than position 4 for one of your keywords. This happens when no ads were served for positions 1 through 3 for that keyword.
22. Could my keyword impression count be different than Microsoft adCenter Add-in’s report
Microsoft adCenter Add-in impressions for monthly data is based on exact search queries on Live.com. Monetization is based on keyword impressions by all advertisers. Microsoft adCenter keyword reports are based solely on keywords served. Microsoft adCenter data has also been filtered to remove invalid impressions.
23. Is content match included in impression counts?
Currently, content impressions are not included in Microsoft adCenter Add-in data.
24. Why is my search result displayed in a new sheet?
If you select more than 100 cells or if your selection is inside a data table, adCenter Add-in always creates a new sheet to keep the Excel sheet clean. You can also choose to always create a new sheet by clicking on Options and selecting Display Settings.
25. How do I compare the scores from two different functions?
Comparing scores from different functions is not meaningful since different functions have different algorithms that don’t use the same scales for their scores.
26. Is adCenter Add-in information only derived from MSN data?
The Traffic and Monetization features are derived from MSN data exclusively. With the exclusion of the traffic and monetization features our functions utilize data collected from crawling the Worldwide Web.
27. What is the taxonomy used for Keyword Categorization?
The Microsoft Contextual Taxonomy is used for this function.
28. For results derived from the Monetization feature, why is it that sometimes the impression count is vastly different for Positions 1, 2, and 3 for terms with high-bid density?
There are different match types for the same keyword and it is possible to have different impressions for keywords served.
For example, the query “red shoes” could result in the following keywords being served:
Position 1: red shoes
Position 2: shoes
Position 3: red shoes
A second search for “red shoes” could have results like this:
Position 1: shoes
Position 2: shoes
Position 3: red shoes
7
Monetization would show the following information:
keyword
position
impressions
red shoes
1
1
red shoes
2
0
red shoes
3
2
shoes
1
1
shoes
2
2
shoes
3
0
29. How are the impression numbers different between adCenter Add-in forecast data and the research tab data in adCenter?
The monthly forecast is based on an algorithm incorporating significant historical exact match search query data (not impression data). The Microsoft adCenter research tab provides projected numbers based on recent impression counts which could be different from the query counts based on match type. The projected data in adCenter and the forecasted traffic numbers in the Add-in will not match as a result of this.
30. How accurate is monthly traffic forecasting and how is it done?
The forecasting is based on several algorithms, which includes historical data. Forecasting and the other algorithms are checked regularly and updates are applied in order to try to make the best predictions possible. That said, historical trends may change over time and this would cause future results to deviate from past performance.
31. Are the keyword expansion tools (Keyword Wizard / Extraction / Suggestion) based on actual search queries or keywords in adCenter?
Keyword suggestions are based on Web data and are not limited to search queries.
32. Can keywords be classified into more than one category (e.g. “apple” can be both a fruit and a technology brand)?
Keywords can be in multiple categories. By default, the application provides multiple categories, sorted by confidence.
Using the adCenter Add-in
33. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to quickly generate relevant keywords to describe my web sites?
Relevant keywords can be quickly generated either by using the Keyword Wizard or by using the Keyword Extraction feature. The Keyword Extraction feature extracts commonly used keywords from the selected website addresses, which allows the user to see what keywords are in popular use on those sites.
34. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to quickly create or expand a list of relevant keywords?
Relevant keywords can be quickly generated either by using the Keyword Wizard or by using the Keyword Suggestion feature. The user simply enters a list of keywords into Excel and the Keyword Suggestion feature will generate relevant keywords based on one or more of the following three algorithms:
Campaign Association: • keywords are suggested based on advertisers’ keyword bidding behavior.
Contained:• keywords are suggested based on past user searches that contained those keywords.
Similarity: • keywords that are similar in context to other keywords used in the World Wide Web.
35. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to forecast keyword search traffic?
The keyword search traffic can be forecasted 1, 3, 6 or 12 months into the future, either through the Keyword Wizard or by selecting the Monthly Traffic feature. Both the historical queries (searches) for the past 12 months and the forecasted quotes for the upcoming 1, 3, 6 or 12 months are shown for each keyword.
36. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the seasonality of keyword searches?
Viewing historical trends of keyword searches provides insight into the seasonality of keyword searches, which can be done by using the Monthly Traffic feature.
8
37. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the localization of keyword searches?
Through the Geographic feature, you can view the number of searches for selected keywords by city, state or country, for up to 10 locations over various time periods. These settings can be temporarily or permanently changed through the Options feature or through the Advanced Algorithm feature.
38. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to understand the demographics of keyword searches?
You can view the breakdown of searches in percent by gender and age group through the use of the Demographics feature. It is possible to obtain this data for a range of time periods, which can be selected through the Advanced Algorithm or Options feature.
39. How can I use the adCenter Add-in to obtain KPIs for keywords, such as CTR, CPC, Impressions, and Position?
Keyword KPIs can be obtained through the Monetization feature.
Support
40. Where else can I learn more about the most recent updates to the adCenter Add-in?
You can visit the adCenter forum to learn more about the most recent updates to the adCenter Add-in.
41. Who do I contact for adCenter Add-in support?
If you have questions about Microsoft adCenter or the adCenter Add-in, please contact our support team by accessing the adCenter Add-in forum.
42. Where can I find adCenter Add-in support information?
You can find adCenter Add-in support information on the adCenter website.
43. How do I provide feedback and how can I suggest new features for the adCenter Add-in? (Excel 2007)
Premium: We value and appreciate your feedback. It is a critical component to the success of the adCenter Add-in. Please contact your account representative with any comments; however, feel free to provide feedback at any time by accessing the adCenter Add-in forum.
Troubleshooting
44. Why can’t I find my adCenter Add-in tab in the Excel ribbon? (Excel 2007)
First, please validate that you’ve successfully installed the Microsoft adCenter Add-in by looking in your Start menu, under All Programs, for the Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2.0. If you successfully find the Add-in installed, return to Excel, and open Excel Options as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure1
9
Select Add-ins and then select COM Add-ins in the Manage box as shown in Figure 2.
After you’ve selected COM Add-ins, click Go. A dialog box called Com Add-ins will be displayed. Check adCenter Add-in and click the OK button.
**Workaround: If the above steps do not work, please uninstall the adCenter Add-in and reinstall.
45. I’ve successfully installed the adCenter Add-in, but when I run it I get an error message regarding “invalid user authorization.” How do I resolve this? (Excel 2007)
Please perform the following steps:
1. Click the Ad Intelligence tab to display the adCenter Add-in ribbon.
2. Click the Options button.
3. Under KSP Settings, click KSP Server.
4. Next, enter your username and password.
5. In the KSP Server dialog box, specify the Cloud Server address
https://kspv2.microsoft.com/ServiceContainer and click Test to verify your connection.
6. Click OK.
Figure2
10
46. How do you Optimize your campaign with the adCenter Add-in Beta for Excel?
The adCenter Add-inBeta is a keyword research and optimization tool, based in Excel and includes the Ad Intelligence model, which enables you to:
Easily and quickly build out or expand keyword lists•
Effectively plan keyword strategy based relevance, cost history, volume, demographics, geography, and more. •
Forecast monthly and daily keyword impressions and future trends.
•
Download the adCenter Add-inBeta today to start researching keywords to help reach the right audience—and capture and convert the right customer.
Microsoft adCenter Add-In Beta for Excel 2003 is here!
We now have the Add-in for Excel 2003 users. Download the latest version here and give it a try!
II. Glossary of Key Terms
API
Application programming interface: the Microsoft adCenter API enables you to programmatically access adCenter to create and manage advertising campaigns that are run on the Internet.
Beta
The adCenter Add-in will remain in Beta as we work to provide additional features and functionality. The product is fully functional and we’re excited to offer keyword optimization, search impression forecasting, monetization and other powerful features.
Category
The category provides the industry that the keyword or URL is affiliated with, based on our taxonomy.
Cloud Server
A technology that automatically distributes user queries to a farm of servers.
CPC
Cost-per-click: the advertiser only pays when the consumer clicks on their ad.
Crawl
Terminology used to describe how a search engine moves through the Internet by following links, in order to download web page content.
Confidence
This represents the confidence we have in a result generated by the tool, and ranges from 0 (not confident) to 1 (very confident).
CTR
Click Through Rate: the percentage of those clicking on a link out of the total number of those who see the link, which reflects the efficiency of the ad investment.
Impressions
Impressions in the adCenter Add-in are the number of instances that an ad was served on Live Search.
KPI
Key Performance Indicators: they are pre-defined, quantifiable measurements that reflect the critical success factors of a business or organization.
11
KSP
Keyword Services Platform: the platform from adCenter that allows third-party developers to build applications through standardized APIs to analyze keywords and websites and optimize campaigns.
Match type: Exact, Phrase, Broad
When using the Keyword Wizard to determine the Monetization of keywords, it is possible to select various match types:
Exact: the output will only return information for those keywords that you input, in the exact order, with no additional keywords and with no spelling variations.
Phrase: the output will reflect keywords resulting from when users search on the exact phrase and also when their search contains additional terms, as long as the keyword phrase is in exactly the same order.
Broad: matches are often less targeted than exact or phrase matches. The output returned will include any keywords that contain the same keywords you have input, in any order, and possibly along with other terms.
Position
This represents the position of the displayed ads on the page of the Live Search page results. There are eight possible positions on any Live Search page — three at the top of the page and five along the right hand side.
Search Query
A search performed on Live.com.
Spiky Index
The Spiky index is a relative measurement of how popular a keyword has become. The index has a relatively wide scale, which ensures that keywords with very large search impressions do not drown out keywords with a small amount of search impressions. The higher this index, the more the keyword has surged.
Spiky Keywords
Spiky keywords are keywords that have shown a recent surge in popularity, which may be short-lived. For example, Halloween is a typical spiky keyword, as its popularity surges around October each year.
SpikyStartDate
This represents the date when the keyword began to surge in popularity.
SpikyEndDate
This represents the date when the keyword’s surge in popularity ended.

Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

2008-12-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. This document first began as an
effort to help teams within Google, but we thought it'd be just as useful to webmasters that are new to
the topic of search engine optimization and wish to improve their sites' interaction with both users and
search engines. Although this guide won't tell you any secrets that'll automatically rank your site first
for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search
engines to both crawl and index your content.
Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website. When
viewed individually, these changes might seem like incremental improvements, but when combined
with other optimizations, they could have a noticeable impact on your site's user experience and
performance in organic search results. You're likely already familiar with many of the topics in this
guide, because they're essential ingredients for any webpage, but you may not be making the most
out of them.
Search engine optimization affects only organic search results, not paid or "sponsored" results,
such as Google AdWords
Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008
Even though this guide's title contains the words "search engine", we'd like to say that you should
base your optimization decisions first and foremost on what's best for the visitors of your site. They're
the main consumers of your content and are using search engines to find your work. Focusing too
hard on specific tweaks to gain ranking in the organic results of search engines may not deliver the
desired results. Search engine optimization is about putting your site's best foot forward when it
comes to visibility in search engines.
An example may help our explanations, so we've created a fictitious website to follow throughout the
guide. For each topic, we've fleshed out enough information about the site to illustrate the point being
covered. Here's some background information about the site we'll use:
• Website/business name: "Brandon's Baseball Cards"
• Domain name: brandonsbaseballcards.com
• Focus: Online-only baseball card sales, price guides, articles, and news content
• Size: Small, ~250 pages
Your site may be smaller or larger than this and offer vastly different content, but the optimization
topics we discussed below should apply to sites of all sizes and types.
We hope our guide gives you some fresh ideas on how to improve your website, and we'd love to
hear your questions, feedback, and success stories in the Google Webmaster Help Group.
Create unique, accurate page titles
A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. The tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site. The title of the homepage for our baseball card site, which lists the business name and three main focus areas Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 If your document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag will usually appear in the first line of the results (If you're unfamiliar with the different parts of a Google search result, you might want to check out the anatomy of a search result video by Google engineer Matt Cutts, and this helpful diagram of a Google search results page.) Words in the title are bolded if they appear in the user's search query. This can help users recognize if the page is likely to be relevant to their search. The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings. A user performs the query [baseball cards] Our homepage shows up as a result, with the title listed on the first line (notice that the query terms the user searched for appear in bold) If the user clicks the result and visits the page, the page's title will appear at the top of the browser Titles for deeper pages on your site should accurately describe the focus of that particular page and also might include your site or business name. A user performs the query [rarest baseball cards] Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 A relevant, deeper page (its title is unique to the content of the page) on our site appears as a result Good practices for page title tags • Accurately describe the page's content - Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page's content. Avoid: • choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page • using default or vague titles like "Untitled" or "New Page 1" • Create unique title tags for each page - Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site. Avoid: • using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages • Use brief, but descriptive titles - Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result. Avoid: • using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users • stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags Make use of the "description" meta tag A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph. Google Webmaster Tools provides a handy content analysis section that'll tell you about any description meta tags that are either too short, long, or duplicated too many times (the same information is also shown for <title> tags). Like the <title> tag, the description meta tag is placed within the <head> tag of your HTML document. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 The beginning of the description meta tag for our homepage, which gives a brief overview of the site's offerings Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Alternatively, Google might use your site's description in the Open Directory Project if your site is listed there (learn how to prevent search engines from displaying ODP data). Adding description meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet. The Webmaster Central Blog has an informative post on improving snippets with better description meta tags. Snippets appear under a page's title and above a page's URL in a search result. A user performs the query [baseball cards] Our homepage appears as a result, with part of its description meta tag used as the snippet Words in the snippet are bolded when they appear in the user's query. This gives the user clues about whether the content on the page matches with what he or she is looking for. Below is another example, this time showing a snippet from a description meta tag on a deeper page (which ideally has its own unique description meta tag) containing an article. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 A user performs the query [rarest baseball cards] One of our deeper pages, with its unique description meta tag used as the snippet, appears as a result Good practices for description meta tags • Accurately summarize the page's content - Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result. Avoid: • writing a description meta tag that has no relation to the content on the page • using generic descriptions like "This is a webpage" or "Page about baseball cards" • filling the description with only keywords • copy and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag • Use unique descriptions for each page - Having a different description meta tag for each page helps both users and Google, especially in searches where users may bring up multiple pages on your domain (e.g. searches using the site: operator). If your site has thousands or even millions of pages, hand-crafting description meta tags probably isn't feasible. In this case, you could automatically generate description meta tags based on each page's content. Avoid: • using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages Improve the structure of your URLs Creating descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on your website can not only help you keep your site better organized, but it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 search engines. Also, it can create easier, "friendlier" URLs for those that want to link to your content. Visitors may be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words. A URL to a page on our baseball card site that a user might have a hard time with URLs like these can be confusing and unfriendly. Users would have a hard time reciting the URL from memory or creating a link to it. Also, users may believe that a portion of the URL is unnecessary, especially if the URL shows many unrecognizable parameters. They might leave off a part, breaking the link. Some users might link to your page using the URL of that page as the anchor text. If your URL contains relevant words, this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or oddly named parameter would. The highlighted words above could inform a user or search engine what the target page is about before following the link Lastly, remember that the URL to a document is displayed as part of a search result in Google, below the document's title and snippet. Like the title and snippet, words in the URL on the search result appear in bold if they appear in the user's query. A user performs the query [baseball cards] Our homepage appears as a result, with the URL listed under the title and snippet Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Below is another example showing a URL on our domain for a page containing an article about the rarest baseball cards. The words in the URL might appeal to a search user more than an ID number like "www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/article/102125/" would. A user performs the query [rarest baseball cards] A deeper page, with a URL that reflects the type of content found on it, appears as a result Google is good at crawling all types of URL structures, even if they're quite complex, but spending the time to make your URLs as simple as possible for both users and search engines can help. Some webmasters try to achieve this by rewriting their dynamic URLs to static ones; while Google is fine with this, we'd like to note that this is an advanced procedure and if done incorrectly, could cause crawling issues with your site. To learn even more about good URL structure, we recommend this Webmaster Help Center page on creating Google-friendly URLs. Good practices for URL structure • Use words in URLs - URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them. Avoid: • using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs • choosing generic page names like "page1.html" • using excessive keywords like "baseball-cards-baseball-cards-baseballcards. htm" • Create a simple directory structure - Use a directory structure that organizes your content well and is easy for visitors to know where they're at on your site. Try using your directory structure to indicate the type of content found at that URL. Avoid: • having deep nesting of subdirectories like ".../dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/dir6/ page.html" • using directory names that have no relation to the content in them Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 • Provide one version of a URL to reach a document - To prevent users from linking to one version of a URL and others linking to a different version (this could split the reputation of that content between the URLs), focus on using and referring to one URL in the structure and internal linking of your pages. If you do find that people are accessing the same content through multiple URLs, setting up a 301 redirect from non-preferred URLs to the dominant URL is a good solution for this. Avoid: • having pages from subdomains and the root directory (e.g. "domain.com/ page.htm" and "sub.domain.com/page.htm") access the same content • mixing www. and non-www. versions of URLs in your internal linking structure • using odd capitalization of URLs (many users expect lower-case URLs and remember them better) Make your site easier to navigate The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google's search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site. All sites have a home or "root" page, which is usually the most frequented page on the site and the starting place of navigation for many visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content. Do you have enough pages around a specific topic area that it would make sense to create a page describing these related pages (e.g. root page -> related topic listing -> specific topic)? Do you have hundreds of different products that need to be classified under multiple category and subcategory pages? The directory structure for our small website on baseball cards Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 A sitemap (lower-case) is a simple page on your site that displays the structure of your website, and usually consists of a hierarchical listing of the pages on your site. Visitors may visit this page if they are having problems finding pages on your site. While search engines will also visit this page, getting good crawl coverage of the pages on your site, it's mainly aimed at human visitors. An XML Sitemap (upper-case) file, which you can submit through Google's Webmaster Tools, makes it easier for Google to discover the pages on your site. Using a Sitemap file is also one way (though not guaranteed) to tell Google which version of a URL you'd prefer as the canonical one (e.g. http://brandonsbaseballcards.com/ or http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/; more on what's a preferred domain). Google helped create the open source Sitemap Generator script to help you create a Sitemap file for your site. To learn more about Sitemaps, the Webmaster Help Center provides a useful guide to Sitemap files. Good practices for site navigation • Create a naturally flowing hierarchy - Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and effectively work these into your internal link structure. Avoid: • creating complex webs of navigation links, e.g. linking every page on your site to every other page • going overboard with slicing and dicing your content (it takes twenty clicks to get to deep content) • Use mostly text for navigation - Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site. Many users also prefer this over other approaches, especially on some devices that might not handle Flash or JavaScript. Avoid: • having a navigation based entirely on drop-down menus, images, or animations (many, but not all, search engines can discover such links on a site, but if a user can reach all pages on a site via normal text links, this will improve the accessibility of your site; more on how Google deals with non-text files) • Use "breadcrumb" navigation - A breadcrumb is a row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the root page. Many breadcrumbs have the most general page (usually the root page) as the first, left-most link and list the more specific sections out to the right. Breadcrumb links appearing on a deeper article page on our site Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 • Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file - A simple sitemap page with links to all of the pages or the most important pages (if you have hundreds or thousands) on your site can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure that search engines discover the pages on your site. Avoid: • letting your HTML sitemap page become out of date with broken links • creating an HTML sitemap that simply lists pages without organizing them, for example by subject • Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL - Some users might navigate your site in odd ways, and you should anticipate this. For example, instead of using the breadcrumb links on the page, a user might drop off a part of the URL in the hopes of finding more general content. He or she might be visiting http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2008/upcoming-baseball-card-shows.htm, but then enter http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2008/ into the browser's address bar, believing that this will show all news from 2008. Is your site prepared to show content in this situation or will it give the user a 404 ("page not found" error)? What about moving up a directory level to http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/? • Have a useful 404 page - Users will occasionally come to a page that doesn't exist on your site, either by following a broken link or typing in the wrong URL. Having a custom 404 page that kindly guides users back to a working page on your site can greatly improve a user's experience. Your 404 page should probably have a link back to your root page and could also provide links to popular or related content on your site. Google provides a 404 widget that you can embed in your 404 page to automatically populate it with many useful features. You can also use Google Webmaster Tools to find the sources of URLs causing "not found" errors. Avoid: • allowing your 404 pages to be indexed in search engines (make sure that your webserver is configured to give a 404 HTTP status code when non-existent pages are requested) • providing only a vague message like "Not found", "404", or no 404 page at all • using a design for your 404 pages that isn't consistent with the rest of your site Offer quality content and services Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 A blogger finds a piece of your content, likes it, and then references it in a blog post While the content you create could be on any topic imaginable, here are some recommended best practices: Good practices for content • Write easy-to-read text - Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow. Avoid: • writing sloppy text with many spelling and grammatical mistakes • embedding text in images for textual content (users may want to copy and paste the text and search engines can't read it) • Stay organized around the topic - It's always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends. Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users find the content they want faster. Avoid: • dumping large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without paragraph, subheading, or layout separation • Use relevant language - Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, a long-time baseball fan might search for [nlcs], an acronym for the National League Championship Series, while a new fan might use a more general query like [baseball playoffs]. Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results. Google AdWords provides a handy Keyword Tool that helps you discover new keyword variations and see the approximate search volume for each keyword. Also, Google Webmaster Tools provides you with the top search queries your site appears for and the ones that led the most users to your site. • Create fresh, unique content - New content will not only keep your existing visitor base coming back, but also bring in new visitors. Avoid: • rehashing (or even copying) existing content that will bring little extra value to users Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 • having duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content across your site (more on duplicate content) • Offer exclusive content or services - Consider creating a new, useful service that no other site offers. You could also write an original piece of research, break an exciting news story, or leverage your unique user base. Other sites may lack the resources or expertise to do these things. • Create content primarily for your users, not search engines - Designing your site around your visitors' needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results. Avoid: • inserting numerous unnecessary keywords aimed at search engines but are annoying or nonsensical to users • having blocks of text like "frequent misspellings used to reach this page" that add little value for users • deceptively hiding text from users, but displaying it to search engines Write better anchor text Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link, and is placed within the anchor tag <a href="..."></a>. This anchor text accurately describes the content on one of our article pages This text tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to. Links on your page may be internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about. Good practices for anchor text • Choose descriptive text - The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about. Avoid: • writing generic anchor text like "page", "article", or "click here" • using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to • using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases (although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address) Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 • Write concise text - Aim for short but descriptive text—usually a few words or a short phrase. Avoid: • writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text • Format links so they're easy to spot - Make it easy for users to distinguish between regular text and the anchor text of your links. Your content becomes less useful if users miss the links or accidentally click them. Avoid: • using CSS or text styling that make links look just like regular text • Think about anchor text for internal links too - You may usually think about linking in terms of pointing to outside websites, but paying more attention to the anchor text used for internal links can help users and Google navigate your site better. Avoid: • using excessively keyword-filled or lengthy anchor text just for search engines • creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site Use heading tags appropriately Heading tags (not to be confused with the <head> HTML tag or HTTP headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important. On a page containing a news story, we might put the name of our site into an <h1> tag and the topic of the story into an <h2> tag Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text is important and could help them understand something about the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Good practices for heading tags • Imagine you're writing an outline - Similar to writing an outline for a large paper, put some thought into what the main points and sub-points of the content on the page will be and decide where to use heading tags appropriately. Avoid: • placing text in heading tags that wouldn't be helpful in defining the structure of the page • using heading tags where other tags like and may be more appropriate • erratically moving from one heading tag size to another • Use headings sparingly across the page - Use heading tags where it makes sense. Too many heading tags on a page can make it hard for users to scan the content and determine where one topic ends and another begins. Avoid: • excessively using heading tags throughout the page • putting all of the page's text into a heading tag • using heading tags only for styling text and not presenting structure Optimize your use of images Images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimize your use of them. All images can have a distinct filename and "alt" attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. The "alt" attribute allows you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason. Our alt text here is a brief but accurate description of the image Why use this attribute? If a user is viewing your site on a browser that doesn't support images, or is using alternative technologies, such as a screen reader, the contents of the alt attribute provide information about the picture. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Our image wasn't displayed to the user for some reason, but at least the alt text was Another reason is that if you're using an image as a link, the alt text for that image will be treated similarly to the anchor text of a text link. However, we don't recommend using too many images for links in your site's navigation when text links could serve the same purpose. Lastly, optimizing your image filenames and alt text makes it easier for image search projects like Google Image Search to better understand your images. Good practices for images • Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text - Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they're short, but descriptive. Avoid: • using generic filenames like "image1.jpg", "pic.gif", "1.jpg" when possible (some sites with thousands of images might consider automating the naming of images) • writing extremely lengthy filenames • stuffing keywords into alt text or copying and pasting entire sentences • Supply alt text when using images as links - If you do decide to use an image as a link, filling out its alt text helps Google understand more about the page you're linking to. Imagine that you're writing anchor text for a text link. Avoid: • writing excessively long alt text that would be considered spammy • using only image links for your site's navigation • Store images in a directory of their own - Instead of having image files spread out in numerous directories and subdirectories across your domain, consider consolidating your images into a single directory (e.g. brandonsbaseballcards.com/images/). This simplifies the path to your images. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 • Use commonly supported filetypes - Most browsers support JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image formats. It's also a good idea to have the extension of your filename match with the filetype. Make effective use of robots.txt A "robots.txt" file tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site. This file, which must be named "robots.txt", is placed in the root directory of your site. The address of our robots.txt file All compliant search engine bots (denoted by the wildcard * symbol) shouldn't access and crawl the content under /images/ or any URL whose path begins with /search You may not want certain pages of your site crawled because they might not be useful to users if found in a search engine's search results. If you do want to prevent search engines from crawling your pages, Google Webmaster Tools has a friendly robots.txt generator to help you create this file. Note that if your site uses subdomains and you wish to have certain pages not crawled on a particular subdomain, you'll have to create a separate robots.txt file for that subdomain. For more information on robots.txt, we suggest this Webmaster Help Center guide on using robots.txt files. There are a handful of other ways to prevent content appearing in search results, such as adding "NOINDEX" to your robots meta tag, using .htaccess to password protect directories, and using Google Webmaster Tools to remove content that has already been crawled. Google engineer Matt Cutts walks through the caveats of each URL blocking method in a helpful video. Good practices for robots.txt • Use more secure methods for sensitive content - You shouldn't feel comfortable using robots.txt to block sensitive or confidential material. One reason is that search engines could still reference the URLs you block (showing just the URL, no title or snippet) if there happen to be links to those URLs somewhere on the Internet (like referrer logs). Also, non-compliant or rogue search engines that don't acknowledge the Robots Exclusion Standard could disobey the instructions of your robots.txt. Finally, a curious user could examine the directories or subdirectories in your robots.txt file and guess the URL of the content that you Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 don't want seen. Encrypting the content or password-protecting it with .htaccess are more secure alternatives. Avoid: • allowing search result-like pages to be crawled (users dislike leaving one search result page and landing on another search result page that doesn't add significant value for them) • allowing a large number of auto-generated pages with the same or only slightly different content to be crawled: "Should these 100,000 near-duplicate pages really be in a search engine's index?" • allowing URLs created as a result of proxy services to be crawled Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links Setting the value of the "rel" attribute of a link to "nofollow" will tell Google that certain links on your site shouldn't be followed or pass your page's reputation to the pages linked to. Nofollowing a link is adding rel="nofollow" inside of the link's anchor tag. If you link to a site that you don't trust and don't want to pass your site's reputation to, use nofollow When would this be useful? If your site has a blog with public commenting turned on, links within those comments could pass your reputation to pages that you may not be comfortable vouching for. Blog comment areas on pages are highly susceptible to comment spam. Nofollowing these useradded links ensures that you're not giving your page's hard-earned reputation to a spammy site. Many blogging software packages automatically nofollow user comments, but those that don't can most likely be manually edited to do this. This advice also goes for other areas of your site that may involve user-generated content, such as guestbooks, forums, shout-boards, referrer listings, etc. If you're willing to vouch for links added by third parties (e.g. if a commenter is trusted on your site), then there's no need to use nofollow on links; however, linking to sites that Google considers spammy can affect the reputation of your own site. The Webmaster Help Center has more tips on avoiding comment spam, like using CAPTCHAs and turning on comment moderation. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 A comment spammer leaves a message on one of our news posts, hoping to get some of our site's reputation Another use of nofollow is when you're writing content and wish to reference a website, but don't want to pass your reputation on to it. For example, imagine that you're writing a blog post on the topic of comment spamming and you want to call out a site that recently comment spammed your blog. You want to warn others of the site, so you include the link to it in your content; however, you certainly don't want to give the site some of your reputation from your link. This would be a good time to use nofollow. Lastly, if you're interested in nofollowing all of the links on a page, you can use "nofollow" in your robots meta tag, which is placed inside the <head> tag of that page's HTML. The Webmaster Central Blog provides a helpful post on using the robots meta tag. This method is written as <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">. This nofollows all of the links on a page Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Promote your website in the right ways While most of the links to your site will be gained gradually, as people discover your content through search or other ways and link to it, Google understands that you'd like to let others know about the hard work you've put into your content. Effectively promoting your new content will lead to faster discovery by those who are interested in the same subject. As with most points covered in this document, taking these recommendations to an extreme could actually harm the reputation of your site. Good practices for promoting your website • Blog about new content or services - A blog post on your own site letting your visitor base know that you added something new is a great way to get the word out about new content or services. Other webmasters who follow your site or RSS feed could pick the story up as well. • Don't forget about offline promotion - Putting effort into the offline promotion of your company or site can also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site, make sure its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead, posters, etc. You could also send out recurring newsletters to clients through the mail letting them know about new content on the company's website. • Know about social media sites - Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made it easier to match interested groups of people up with relevant content. Avoid: • attempting to promote each new, small piece of content you create; go for big, interesting items • involving your site in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the top of these services • Add your business to Google's Local Business Center - If you run a local business, adding its information to Google's Local Business Center will help you reach customers on Google Maps and web search. The Webmaster Help Center has more tips on promoting your local business. • Reach out to those in your site's related community - Chances are, there are a number of sites that cover topic areas similar to yours. Opening up communication with these sites is usually beneficial. Hot topics in your niche or community could spark additional ideas for content or building a good community resource. Avoid: • spamming link requests out to all sites related to your topic area • purchasing links from another site with the aim of getting PageRank instead of traffic Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Make use of free webmaster tools Major search engines, including Google, provide free tools for webmasters. Google's Webmaster Tools help webmasters better control how Google interacts with their websites and get useful information from Google about their site. Using Webmaster Tools won't help your site get preferential treatment; however, it can help you identify issues that, if addressed, can help your site perform better in search results. With the service, webmasters can: • see which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling • upload an XML Sitemap file • analyze and generate robots.txt files • remove URLs already crawled by Googlebot • specify the preferred domain • identify issues with title and description meta tags • understand the top searches used to reach a site • get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages • remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results • receive notification of quality guideline violations and file for a site reconsideration Yahoo! (Yahoo! Site Explorer) and Microsoft (Live Search Webmaster Tools) also offer free tools for webmasters. Take advantage of web analytics services If you've improved the crawling and indexing of your site using Google Webmasters Tools or other services, you're probably curious about the traffic coming to your site. Web analytics programs like Google Analytics are a valuable source of insight for this. You can use these to: • get insight into how users reach and behave on your site • discover the most popular content on your site • measure the impact of optimizations you make to your site (e.g. did changing those title and description meta tags improve traffic from search engines?) For advanced users, the information an analytics package provides, combined with data from your server log files, can provide even more comprehensive information about how visitors are interacting with your documents (such as additional keywords that searchers might use to find your site). Lastly, Google offers another tool called Google Website Optimizer that allows you to run experiments to find what on-page changes will produce the best conversion rates with visitors. This, in combination with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (see our video on using the "Google Trifecta"), is a powerful way to begin improving your site. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008 Helpful resources for webmasters Google Webmaster Help Group - Have questions or feedback on our guide? Let us know Google Webmaster Central Blog - Frequent posts by Googlers on how to improve your website Google Webmaster Help Center - Filled with in-depth documentation on webmaster-related issues Google Webmaster Tools - Optimize how Google interacts with your website Google Webmaster Guidelines - Design, content, technical, and quality guidelines from Google Google Analytics - Find the source of your visitors, what they're viewing, and benchmark changes Google Website Optimizer - Run experiments on your pages to see what will work and what won't Tips on Hiring an SEO - If you don't want to go at it alone, these tips should help you choose an SEO company Except as otherwise noted, the content of this document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, Version 1.1, published 13 November 2008<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>WWW 2</h1> 2008-12-14T23:51:00.000-08:00 In the last lesson I told you that "URLs" is pronounced "earls." In fact, a lot of people still use the initials and call them "U-R-Ls." I personally prefer calling them "earls" because "earls" rhymes with "squirrels," but the choice of what you call them is completely up to you :) Let's take a look at how a sample WWW browser works. There are three basic types of WWW browsers available: line-mode browsers, full screen browsers (like Lynx), and graphical browsers (like Mosaic). Line-mode browsers are about as user un-friendly as you can get. This is hard to describe, but line-mode browsers work a little like FTP inasmuch as you type a command, get some information on your screen, type a new command, get some more information, and so on ... A full screen browser puts a menu on your screen that looks a little like the Gopher menus that we saw in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP18.html">MAP18: Gopher (Part One)</a>. You move the cursor up and down the screen, select a highlighted link, press enter or return, and you are automatically taken to a new document or file (your fill screen browser may work differently than this, though). Graphical browsers allow you to access not only text, but also pictures and sound (a.k.a. "hypermedia"). In fact, these pictures can be put in Web documents (a.k.a. Web pages), making that Web page look less like a Gopher menu and more like a page from a color magazine! Most graphical browsers use a mouse, and you point-and-click on a highlighted link to access it. The URL for the sample Web page that we are going to use in this lesson is <ul><tt>http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~vmhttpd/index.html</tt></ul> and I am going to be using the UF WWW Browser for CMS to access this page. I'll talk a little more about how you can access a WWW browser in a few minutes, but I first want to show you what a basic Web page looks like. The UF WWW Browser for CMS is the browser that my service provider uses, and it is a full screen browser. The browser that you use -- if you can even access a WWW browser -- will probably look and work a little differently than what you will see in this example. Finally, in real life my browser highlights the links by making them a different color than the rest of the text. There is no way for me to use different colors in this letter, so I have highlighted the links in this example by surrounding them with a (<tt>* *</tt>). Just like I can access an item in a Gopher menu by pointing at it and selecting it, I can access a WWW link by pointing at it and selecting it. Enough talk. Time for the example. I access my provider's WWW browser, and the following appears on my screen: <pre> Albert 1.2.0 (UF WWW Browser for CMS) Screen 1 of 2 (more screens) Viewing=http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~vmhttpd/index.html Title=UA1VM WWW Home Page Welcome to The University of Alabama's CMS WWW Server This CMS server is still under development. Any (*comments*) or (*suggestions*) will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Gopher Sites: - (*UA1VM CMS Gopher Server*) - (*UA1IX AIX/370 Gopher Server*) - (*RISC/6000 Gopher Server*) - (*RICEVM1 CMS Gopher Server*) Telnet Sessions: - (*UA1VM.UA.EDU*) - (*UA1IX.UA.EDU - Line Mode*) - (*RISC.UA.EDU - Line Mode*) WWW Sites: - The University of Alabama Libraries (*WWW*) - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (*WWW*) - The Alabama Supercomputer Network (*WWW*) - NASA Information Services via (*WWW*) Leisure: - (*Intertext Magazine*) - Electronic Fictional Magazine at The University of Michigan - (*Wiretap*) - a gopher to Cupertino, California - (*NNR*) - UA1VM's Network News Reader Other Neat Stuff: - The University of Alabama Library's On-Line (*Card Catalog*) - a (*map*) of The University of Alabama campus ... snip snip snip ... </pre> COOL! I can select any of these links -- the words set apart from the rest of the text with a (<tt>* *</tt>) -- and be transported to that particular link. >From this one Web page, I can access Gopher, telnet, and even other Web pages! (I can also access FTP, although this page does not show it). We've seen a lot of Gopher and telnet recently. Let's take a look at another Web page. Since I used to be a Simulations Director at the United States Space Camp (did I forget to tell you that?), I'm going to move my cursor down to the (<tt>*WWW*</tt>) link next to "<tt>NASA Information Services</tt>", press enter, and see what happens: <pre> Albert 1.2.0 (UF WWW Browser for CMS) Screen 1 of 2 (more screens) Viewing=http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html Title=NASA Information Services via World Wide Web National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Logo (*World Wide Web (WWW) information services*) (*Hot Topics*) NASA news and subjects of public interest (*NASA Strategic Plan*) (*NASA Strategies, Policies, and Public Affairs*) (*NASA Online Educational Resources*) (*NASA Information Sources by Subject*) ... snip snip snip ... </pre> This is certainly more interesting than SURAnet! ;) >From this Web page I can access OTHER Web pages, and from those Web pages I can access even MORE Web pages, and so on ... Yesterday I told you that it is possible for you to connect directly to a specific Internet resource so long as you know the resource's URL. How you do that depends on the browser that you use. For the line-mode browser at CERN, for example, the command to connect to a particular URL is <ul><tt>GO <url&gtl</tt></ul> replacing <url> with the URL of the Internet resource that you want to access. In Lynx, you just select the "<tt>GO</tt>" link on the browser's start-up page; in most graphical browsers (like Mosaic), there is usually an "Open URL" option in one of the menus. <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP24.html#Sources">(1)</a> Before you can do this, however, you have to first access the Web. There are three ways that you can do this: <ol><li>Through a browser stored on your local Internet service provider's machine. Ask your provider if your site has a Web browser, and how you can access it. </li><li>Through a browser stored on your own machine. Until recently, you had to have a SLIP or PPP connection to do this. Some providers -- providers who FLOODED my mailbox when I did not talk about the special Level 2.0002746278546723 access that they offer -- now allow you to store a Web browser on your own machine even though you only have Level 2 access. If you do not have a SLIP or PPP connection, contact your provider BEFORE you store a Web reader on your own computer and double-check that your provider will support the browser. Most service providers can not support a Web browser unless you have a SLIP or PPP connection. </li><li>Through a telnet connection to a publicly-accessible Web browser. </li></ol> If you have a SLIP or a PPP connection, the WWW FAQ that I have stored on the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server (WWW FAQ1) has a list of FTP sites where you can get specific Web browsers. (Do me a favor ... re-read that last sentence. Did you EVER think you would understand a sentence like that? Isn't this workshop COOL?!!) If you do not have access to a Web browser through your site, you may still be able to access a Web browser through telnet. The following are a few of the public Web sites: <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP24.html#Sources">(1)</a> <pre> telnet address comments -------------- ----------------------- info.cern.ch No password is required. This is in Switzerland, so U.S. users might be better off using a closer browser. www.cc.ukans.edu The "Lynx" full screen browser, which requires a vt100 terminal. Login as www. Does not allow users to "go" to arbitrary URLs. www.njit.edu Login as www. A full-screen browser at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. sun.uakom.cs Slovakia. Has a slow link, so only use from nearby. info.funet.fi Login as www. Offers several browsers, including Lynx (goto option disabled there too). fserv.kfki.hu Hungary. Has a slow link, so use from nearby. Login as www. </pre> Once you are on the Web, it is possible for you to do keyword searches (much like the Veronica searches we did in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP21.html">MAP21: Veronica</a>) using one of the Web's many search engines. One of the best Web search engines is the WebCrawler. The WebCrawler's URL is <ul><tt>http://www.biotech.washington.edu/WebQuery.html</tt></ul> and the WebCrawler searches for documents whose title AND CONTENT match your keyword. Another Web search engine you probably will want to check out is the World Wide Web Worm. The Worm's URL is <ul><tt>http://www.cs.colorado.edu/home/mcbryan/WWWW.html</tt></ul> The Worm is not at thorough as the WebCrawler, but it is still a pretty competent search engine. Both of these search engines provide really good on-line help and instructions. One last thing, and I am though for this lesson. Please remember: <ul><li>The "Web" is the collection of all of the files and information that can be accessed by a Web browser. </li><li>Mosaic and Lynx and just BROWSERS that allow you to access the Web. </li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>WWW</h1> 2008-12-14T23:50:00.002-08:00 I wish I had six weeks just to talk about the World Wide Web (a.k.a. WWW or "the Web."). If you think Gopher is neat, wait until you start playing around on the Web :) <a name="SixWeeks">Unfortunately,</a> I don't have six weeks to talk about the Web -- I only have two lessons. Because of this, we are going to go through the Web like Sherman went through Georgia <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP23.html#Notes">(1)</a>. <a name="BadNews">That's the bad news</a>. The good news is that there are a lot of REALLY good Web guides available, and I am even seriously considering developing my own Web workshop that I will offer late next year <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP23.html#Notes">(2)</a>. Until that time comes, however, let's talk about the BASICS of the Web. In the last few lessons I showed you how most Gopher menus are linked together. We started out in the <tt>gopher.squirrel.com</tt> root menu, and eventually ended up at the SURAnet gopher menu. We were able to do this because the menus that we traveled through had links to menus and files that were located at other Gopher sites. Because Gopher menus are linked together, a whole world of information is available to us with just a few keystrokes! Imagine if we were able to take these links one step further. Instead of linking menus, we could link documents together. You could read one document, find a keyword in that document that really interests you, touch that keyword, and automatically be taken to a NEW document somewhere else in the world -- and this new document could even have links to OTHER documents around the world, and so on. Sound too good to be true? It isn't, thanks to something called "hypertext." If you have ever played with Apple's HyperCard program or the "help" menus in the latest Microsoft packages, you have already experienced hypertext. You "select" a highlighted word -- usually by clicking on it with a mouse -- and you are taken into an entirely new document or help screen. The World Wide Web is based on hypertext. It is possible for you to go roaming around the Web, bouncing from document to document, using nothing but the links in those documents! Just as you can access Gopherspace through a Gopher server or client, you can access the Web through something called a "browser." A browser can read documents, fetch documents, access files by FTP, read Usenet newsgroups, telnet into remote sites, and even travel around Gopherspace. In short, everything that we have talked about from <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP08.html">MAP08: Usenet</a> to <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP22.html">MAP22:Gophermail</a> can be done using nothing but a Web browser! The Web is able to accomplish all of this thanks to something called URLs ("earls") -- Universal Resource Locators. URLs list the exact location of any Internet resource. If you think about it, giving every Internet resource a unique address is the hard part. Once you have given something an address, linking to it is pretty easy :) What is really special about the Web is that the Web does all of this "behind the scenes." It is possible for you to bounce from one link to another without ever knowing the exact address of where you are, or even how you got there. If you ever want to jump directly to a particular Internet resource, however, you are going to need to know a little bit more about URLs. Here are a few basic URLs: <pre> file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html news:alt.hypertext telnet://dra.com </pre> Gee ... those look a little like FTP addresses, don't they? The first part of an URL -- the stuff before the colon -- tells the browser how to access that particular file. For example, to access <ul><tt>ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors</tt></ul> your browser would use FTP. Most of the access methods are pretty straight-forward. Here is a list of some of the more common access methods that you are going to see listed in the first part of URLs: <pre> method what it stands for ------ --------------------------------------- ftp File Transfer Protocol file File Transfer Protocol (same as ftp) news Internet News Protocol (Usenet) gopher Gopher telnet Telnet http Hypertext Transport Protocol </pre> We've used all of these before, except for "<tt>http</tt>". If you ever see a URL with "<tt>http</tt>" at the beginning of it, that means that the file is a hypertext document (with hypertext links to other documents). The rest of a URL -- the stuff after the colon -- is the address of that particular file. In general, two slashes (<tt>//</tt>) after the colon indicates a machine name or address. For example, <ul><tt>file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip</tt></ul> is the URL for an FTP file at <tt>wuarchive.wustl.edu</tt>, and <ul><tt>http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html</tt></ul> is the URL for a hypertext document at <tt>info.cern.ch, port 80</tt>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Q & A</h1> 2008-12-14T23:50:00.001-08:00 <ol><li>I'm subscribed to the '<tt>squirrel</tt>' LISTSERV mailing list (<tt>SQUIRREL@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>). I just heard a story about how an energetic squirrel once crashed the mainframe at Mississippi State University during registration (a true story) and I want to share this information with everyone on the '<tt>squirrel</tt>' mailing list. What address should I send my e-mail letter to if I want the letter to be distributed to everyone on the "<tt>squirrel</tt>" list? <ol start="2" type="a"><li><tt>SQUIRREL@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> Letters should be sent to the list address. </li></ol> </li><li>I'm looking for a list of all known LISTSERV lists. What LISTSERV command should I use to get such a list? <ol start="3" type="a"><li><tt>LISTS GLOBAL</tt> BTW, you can send the lists global command to any LISTSERV address ... it is a universal LISTSERV command. </li></ol> </li><li>Okay, I just got the "list of lists." I found a neat list called "<tt>navigate</tt>" but the list of lists only shows the address as <tt>NAVIGATE@UBVM</tt>. What address should I send my subscribe command to? <ol start="3" type="a"><li><tt>LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET</tt> This was a tough question. You had to remember to convert the <tt>LIST@NODE</tt> address to <tt>LIST@NODE.BITNET</tt>. You also had to remember that LISTSERV commands have to be sent to the LISTSERV address. :) </li></ol> </li><li>I want to subscribe to the alt.abuse.recovery newsgroup. I sent a e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> with the command <tt>SUBSCRIBE ALT.ABUSE.RECOVERY JOE STUDENT</tt>, and I got back an error message saying that "<tt>alt.abuse.recovery</tt>" is unknown to the LISTSERV. What's going on? <ol start="2" type="a"><li><tt>alt.abuse.recovery</tt> is a Usenet newsgroup; to subscribe to the group from a Usenet reader. Remember, if the group's name has periods in it, it probably is a Usenet newsgroup. </li></ol> </li><li>How can I unsubscribe from the Roadmap workshop? <ol start="3" type="a"><li>send an e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> which says <tt>UNSUB *</tt> in the body of your letter. </li></ol> </li></ol> <h3>PART TWO: TRUE OR FALSE</h3> <ol start="6"><li>FALSE There is nothing wrong with giving my best friend my password. (Never give your password to ANYONE!) </li><li>FALSE WRITING IN ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED TO BE GOOD NETIQUETTE. (Writing in all caps is ANNOYING.) </li><li>FALSE The word "<tt>squirrel</tt>" would be an excellent password. (Squirrel is in the dictionary. NEVER use a password that is in the dictionary.) </li><li>FALSE Letters to a LISTSERV list should be sent to the LISTSERV address. (Letters should be sent to the list address.) </li><li>FALSE LISTSERV commands should be sent to the list address. (Commands should be sent to the LISTSERV address.) </li></ol> <h3>PART THREE: SHORT ANSWER</h3> <ol start="11"><li>One of my friends just e-mailed me a chain letter offering me good luck so long as I send the chain letter to ten additional people. Heck, there are several hundred people subscribed to each of the Usenet newsgroups and LISTSERV lists. Why can't I just forward the chain letter to these groups? Chain letters violate the relevant posting rule (and are likely to turn you into flame-bait). Also -- and this was not covered in the lessons -- most networks have Acceptable Usage policies that strictly prohibit chain letters. If someone sends you a chain letter, forward the chain letter (along with an angry reply) to that person's postmaster. </li><li>Patrick's dad said "DON'T include the entire contents of a previous posting in your reply(s)." Why can't I do this? It is rude. When you re-post the entire contents of a previous posting, you are forcing the readers to reread something that they have already read. The purpose of reposting is to remind everyone what was said, not to repeat what was said :) </li><li>If someone spams a list that I am on, what should I do? Why shouldn't I just send my angry replies to the list? Your best bet is to ignore it. If you are really angry, reply to the poster at his e-mail address, or complain to the poster's site administrator. You should not send your replies to the list because the spammer is probably not even a member or the list, and, if he is, he probably does not care about what you think. </li></ol> <h3>BONUS QUESTIONS</h3> <ol start="14"><li>How many National Football Championships has the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide football team won? <ol start="4" type="a"><li>12 </li></ol> </li><li>Patrick Douglas Crispen is: <ol start="4" type="a"><li>a squirrel </li></ol> </li></ol><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>FTP</h1> 2008-12-14T23:49:00.002-08:00 I hope that you are having as much fun participating in this workshop as I am having teaching it! :) In the last lesson we used a tool called "Telnet" which allowed us to access remote computers and run programs on those remote computers. In the next few lessons we are going to use a tool called "File Transfer Protocol" (or "FTP") which will allow us to access remote computers and retrieve files from these computers. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say that we will be using "anonymous" FTP, but I'll explain that in a minute. What sort of files are available through FTP? Well, "hundreds of systems connected to the Internet have file libraries, or archives, accessible to the public. Much of this consists of free or low-cost {computer} programs for virtually every make of computer. If you want a different communications program for your IBM, or feel like playing a new game on your Amiga, you'll {probably} be able to get it {using FTP}." <a name="1"> "But </a>there are also libraries of documents as well. If you want a copy of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, you can {get a copy using FTP}. Copies of historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence are also yours for the asking ... You can also find song lyrics, poems, {and} even summaries of every {Animaniacs} episode ever made. You can also find extensive files detailing everything you could possibly want to know about the Net itself". <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP13.html#Sources">(1)</a> Before we get too in-depth into FTP, I think that now is as good a time as any to quickly review the client/server relationship that I briefly mentioned in lesson three (<a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP03.html">MAP03: Levels of Internet Connectivity</a>). "Client" is just another word for a program running on your service provider's system that enables you to talk to, and get stuff from, distant computers. The client on your service provider's system takes your commands and turns them into requests for information from programs -- "servers" -- running on other, distant computers. The client/server relationship allows you to TELNET into remote computers and run programs on those remote computers, and it also allows you to use FTP to get files from remote sites. The client/server relationship is also what makes my job as an Internet trainer quite difficult. While all of the FTP clients out there do the exact same thing, they all use different commands to do it. Fortunately, if you can understand the basics of what happens during an FTP session, the commands -- no matter what client you are using -- are pretty easy. The basic steps in an FTP session are: <ol><li>Start-up your FTP client. </li><li>Give your FTP client an address to connect to (and, just like TELNET, step one and two can be combined into one easy step). </li><li>Identify yourself to the remote site. </li><li>Give the remote site your password. </li><li>Look around the directory for files. </li><li>Change Directories. </li><li>Set the transfer mode (optional). </li><li>Get the file(s) you want. </li><li>Quit. </li></ol> The best way to understand what is going on is to look at a sample FTP session. The University of Alabama's connection to the Internet is through SURAnet (a large regional network), so I'm going to FTP to them. Before I do that, though, there are three things that I need to emphasize: <ol><li>FTP requires a heck of a lot of resources, both on your system and on the remote system that you are accessing. Because of this, FTP sessions should only be run during non-working hours (usually 6 PM to 6 AM local). I realize that this constraint is going to be a difficult for those of you who are reading this at work, and who only have Internet (and FTP access) through your employer. However, as responsible Internet citizens we have to remember that the FTP sites are providing us FTP access out of the kindness of their hearts. If we take advantage of this kindness, and access various FTP sites during working hours, those FTP sites may decide to close their doors to the public ... and then EVERYONE loses. </li><li>In light of what was said in #1, please do not flood SURAnet. In <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP15.html">MAP15: FTPMAIL</a> I will post a list of FTP sites that you can visit (much like the TELNET list I posted in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP12.html">MAP12: Telnet (Part Two)</a>). Until I post that list, just sit back and enjoy the show :) </li><li>Since this lesson is already over 100 lines long, I hope that you won't mind if I break this FTP lesson into two lessons. The first lesson is in this document, and I'll finish it in the next document. This will mean that we will end this lesson in the middle of our sample FTP session, but it will also mean that this lesson won't be the size of a small book :) </li></ol> Starting an FTP session is pretty easy. For most of you, all you have to do to start-up your FTP client is type <ul><tt>ftp</tt></ul> on you system's command line (or, if you are in a Windows or Mac environment, double-click on the FTP icon). >From there, you would give the client an FTP address to connect to. Like TELNET, however, there is a way to combine these two steps into one, easy step. For most of you, to access your FTP client and give your client an address to hook up to, all you would have to do it type the command <ul><tt>ftp <site></tt></ul> and replace <site> with the address of the FTP site that you want your client software to access. In our example, the SURAnet FTP address is <tt>ftp.sura.net</tt>, so I would type <ul><tt>ftp ftp.sura.net</tt></ul> to start an FTP session. (Note that the second "<tt>ftp</tt>" is part of SURAnet's FTP address. If I wanted to ftp to <tt>info.umd.edu</tt>, I would type "<tt>ftp info.umd.edu</tt>"; if I wanted to ftp to <tt>lcs.mit.edu</tt>, I would type "<tt>ftp lcs.mit.edu</tt>"). Once I hit the enter key, the following appears on my screen: <pre> ftp ftp.sura.net Connecting to ftp.sura.net 128.167.254.179, port 21 220 nic.sura.net FTP server (Version wu-2.4(1) Fri May 20 10:20:58 EDT 1994) ready. USER (identify yourself to the host): </pre> The second line tells me that my system is connecting to ftp.sura.net (and even gives me the IP number for <tt>ftp.sura.net</tt>), the third line is some automatic information from SURAnet, and the bottom line is asking me to log in. If I had an account on the SURAnet system, I would enter my SURAnet user ID. But, since I don't have an account on this system, I have to find another way to access the system. ;) This is where the "anonymous" FTP I mentioned earlier comes in :) The other way to access some FTP sites -- at least those FTP sites that allow outside access -- is to use the userid "anonymous". By using the name "anonymous", you are telling that FTP site that you aren't a regular user of that site, but you would still like to access that FTP site, look around, and retrieve files. So, where it says USER, I type the word <ul><tt>anonymous</tt></ul> hit enter, and cross my fingers. If SURAnet does not allow anonymous access, I'm about to find out :) <pre> >>>USER anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. Password: </pre> COOL! Its going to let me in. All I have to do is give the site a password. Out of politeness to the FTP site, if you login as "anonymous", you need to use your full Internet address as your password. This helps the FTP site keep track of who has visited its site. So, since it wants my password, and since the password for any anonymous FTP session is my full Internet address, I type <ul><tt>pcrispe1@ua1vm.ua.edu</tt></ul> (Stop laughing -- p-crispy-one is not funny!!). Once I hit enter, my screen fills with the following: <pre> >>>PASS ******** 230- SURAnet ftp server running wuarchive experimental ftpd 230- 230-Welcome to the SURAnet ftp server. If you have any problems with 230-the server please mail the to systems@sura.net. If you do have problems, 230-please try using a dash (-) as the first character of your password 230- -- this will turn off the continuation messages that may be confusing 230-your ftp client. ... 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. Command: </pre> Notice the line "Guest login ok, access restrictions apply." This means that the site has given me access, but I only have access to the files that are available to the general public. Okay ... now what? I've started-up my FTP client, I've given the client an FTP address to connect to, I've identified myself to the remote site (I told it that I am anonymous), and I've given the site my password. Now it's time to see what sort of files and directories are around, and to get those files ... which we will do in the next lesson :) <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>TELNET</h1> 2008-12-14T23:49:00.001-08:00 We are about to enter a new section of this workshop. For the past few lessons, we have talked about communicating on a one-to-one basis (e-mail) and on a one-to-many basis (LISTSERV and Usenet). Now, I'm going to show you how to log in to other computers around the world and take full advantage of the public programs and services that these other computers offer. There is some bad news, though. Some of you, especially a good number of you with "level one" Internet access, do not have access to TELNET. If this is true for you, please accept my apologies. I promise to make it up to you when I show you File Transfer Protocol -- and besides, you can always take this lesson and the next lesson and bug your local Internet provider into offering TELNET (you can also save this lesson for the day that you do have TELNET access). With TELNET, the commands that you type on your keyboard are sent from your terminal to your local Internet service provider, and then from your provider to the remote computer that you have accessed. Unlike the LISTSERV commands that you sent in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP05.html">MAP05: LISTSERVs</a> and <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP06.html">MAP06: Other Mail Servers</a> that took CENTURIES to process (okay, a slight exaggeration), TELNET commands (usually) travel so fast that you can't even tell that you are using a remote computer. So what can you do with this ability to log into remote computers? If your local Internet provider allows it, it is possible for you to TELNET into your account from another city and check your e-mail while you are on vacation or away on business. You can also TELNET into huge databases to do research, or even TELNET into libraries around the world to check if they have a certain book that you are looking for. TELNET also offers an easy entry into the world of Gophers and the World Wide Web for those people who may not otherwise have access to these tools. In <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP04.html">MAP04: E-Mail</a>, I showed you that an Internet address for a user looked something like: <tt>user@address</tt>. Well, since we are no longer interested in the person -- we want to access the computer, not the person -- we can throw away both the "<tt>user</tt>" and the "<tt>@</tt>" part. All we care about now is the stuff after the <tt>@</tt>. TELNET addresses look something like this: <pre> seabass.st.usm.edu cybernet.cse.fau.edu bbhost.hq.eso.org fedworld.gov 128.118.36.5 192.160.13.1 </pre> Gee ... that's easy. Also notice that TELNET addresses can be in domain name format (i.e. <tt>seabass.st.usm.edu</tt>) or in IP address format (i.e. 1<tt>20.118.36.5</tt>). (Note: both the domain name system and the IP address system were discussed in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP04.html">MAP04: E-Mail</a>). You may also see TELNET addresses with numbers stuck on the END of them. Those numbers are "port" numbers. Port numbers don't have anything to do with hardware ports on the computer; instead they are (sort of) a way for you to tell the remote computer which program or server you want it to pull up. A TELNET address with a port number allows you not only to access a remote computer, but to also pull up a specific program or server on that remote computer (BTW, the standard port number is port 23): <pre> seabass.st.usm.edu 23 cybernet.cse.fau.edu 2010 bbhost.hq.eso.org 6969 fedworld.gov 4242 128.118.36.5 23 192.160.13.1 66 </pre> We seem to have the addresses down pat. Now for the fun stuff! There are seven steps to a successful TELNET session. These steps are all based on simple common sense, and I will explain them all in a minute. But first, here are the seven steps: <ol><li>Start-up the TELNET program. </li><li>Give the TELNET program an address to connect to. (BTW, some really nifty TELNET packages allow you to combine steps 1 and 2 into one simple step!) </li><li>Make a note of what the "escape character" is. </li><li>Log in to the remote computer. </li><li>Set the "terminal emulation". </li><li>Play around on the remote computer. </li><li>Quit. </li></ol> Now let's talk about each of these steps. There are a lot of different TELNET software programs around, but each of these programs operate on the same basic principles. (BTW, my explanation may be a little "mainframe-y" but you will soon discover that you can easily translate my explanation so that you can use TELNET in Windows or on a Macintosh). Starting the TELNET program is easy. All most of you have to do is type the word TELNET on your command line, and the program will start right up. If you are using Windows or a Macintosh (or an equivalent), double-click on the TELNET icon. The second step is to give the TELNET program the address of the computer that you want to access. This is where the programs start to differ. Some programs will automatically ask you to enter the address of the remote host, but most won't. If your program does not automatically ask you for the address, you need to type <ul><tt>open <site> <port></tt></ul> on the command line. For example, to get TELNET access to <tt>YALEINFO.YALE.EDU 7000</tt>, you would type <tt>OPEN YALEINFO.YALE.EDU 7000</tt>. (If you are using Windows or a Mac, the OPEN command may be located on a pull-down menu). If you don't include the port number, TELNET will automatically assume that you want to connect to port 23. Remember when I said that some nifty TELNET programs allow you start-up the TELNET program and access the address all in one easy step? Instead of doing the two steps I just went over, you may be able to just type <ul><tt>telnet <site> <port></tt></ul> on the command line (for example: <tt>TELNET YALEINFO.YALE.EDU 7000</tt>). After you have told TELNET which computer you want it to access, and right before you gain access to the remote computer's login screen, you will see something like this: <pre> telnet YALEINFO.YALE.EDU 7000 Trying 130.132.21.53 Port 7000 ... Connected to YALEINFO.YALE.EDU Escape character is ... </pre> This tells you that your TELNET program is trying to access the <tt>YALEINFO.YALE.EDU 7000</tt> address, gives the IP address for YALEINFO (remember those from <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP04.html">MAP04: E-mail</a>?), tells you when you are connected, and gives you the escape character. Remember the escape character! You are going to need it in a second :) The next step is to log in to the remote computer. Everyone should know how to log in to a computer by now ;) <=== a winking smiley If you are accessing a public site, the "login" -- the "password" that you need to access the remote computer -- will probably be publicly known. For example, in the next lesson I will show you a list of several dozen TELNET sites, including their addresses and logins. Some public sites even TELL you what the login is when you TELNET to them! Heck, some TELNET sites are wide open and do not require a login or password at all!! The fifth step is to set the terminal emulation. All this means is that you are going to tell the remote site how data should be shown on your screen. The most common terminal emulation setting is VT100, which is the standard for terminal-based communications. If you do not have a VT100 terminal, or a terminal that can pretend its a VT100 terminal. you may have to set your terminal emulation to either your correct terminal type or, if you do not know your your correct terminal type, to a "dumb" terminal emulation. Fortunately, some TELNET sites automatically take care setting the terminal emulation for you, so you don't even have to worry about it. If you end up with a screen full of gibberish, chances are you did not use the correct terminal emulation setting. Your best bet if this happens is to disconnect from the site and try again. I think you can figure out the sixth step -- play around on the remote computer -- all by yourself :) The final step is to quit. Some sites are nice and tell you how to do this, but most expect you to figure out how to quit on your own. That is where the escape character comes in! Remember that once you access the remote computer, every keystroke of yours will be carried out not on your computer but on the remote computer! Typing the escape character (usually the control key and the right bracket key pressed at the same time) temporarily interrupts your TELNET session and puts you into the TELNET command mode. Once you are in the command mode, you can use a couple of commands: <dl><dt><tt>CLOSE</tt> </dt><dd>Closes your TELNET connection to the remote computer and either returns you to the command mode (if you started in the command mode) or quits TELNET. </dd><dt><tt>QUIT</tt> </dt><dd>Quits the TELNET program; if you are connected to a remote computer, QUIT will disconnect you from the remote computer and then quit TELNET. </dd><dt><tt>SET ECHO</tt> </dt><dd>If you can't see what you are typing, or if you type and see double, this command should take care of the problem </dd><dt><tt><enter></tt> (or <tt><return></tt>) </dt><dd>Pressing the enter or return key will take you out of TELNET command mode and return you to your TELNET session. </dd><dt><tt>OPEN</tt> </dt><dd>Opens a connection to a remote computer </dd></dl> So, if you are in the middle of a TELNET session and you decide to quit, you would type the escape character to enter the TELNET command mode, and then type the word <tt>QUIT</tt>. One last thing and I will let you go: regular TELNET does not work if you are trying to TELNET to an IBM 3270 mainframe computer. You'll have to use TN3270 instead. It works just like TELNET, only the keys on your keyboard may change a little (IBM uses something called map3270 to lay out the keys, and IBM uses a lot of function keys). <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Internet Security</h1> 2008-12-14T23:48:00.001-08:00 <h1> </h1><center> </center> I would love to tell you that the Internet is a safe place and that there is no reason for you to protect your password. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of people out there who would LOVE to break into your account and "use your account as a base for operations <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(1)</a>." How prevalent is this? According to Mike Godwin, Chief Legal Counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it's "fairly common." <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(1)</a> The main defense against people who want to break into your account -- a.k.a. "crackers" -- is your password. Keep your password secure, and you should never have anything to worry about. Give your password to others, or write your password down and put it near your computer, and ... well, you get the picture. There are some KEY points you need to remember to protect yourself and your account: <ul><li>NEVER give your password to anyone <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(1)</a>. The whole purpose of having a password in the first place is to ensure that no one other than you can use your account. </li><li>NEVER write your password down, and especially never write your password anywhere near your computer. </li><li>NEVER let anyone look over your shoulder while you enter your password. "Shoulder Surfing" is the most common way that accounts are hacked. </li><li>NEVER e-mail your password to anyone. </li><li>DO change your password on a regular basis <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(1)</a>. There is no better way to thwart a would-be cracker than to change your password as often as possible. Your local Internet service provider will be able to tell you your system's recommendation on how often you should change your password, but a good rule of thumb is to change it at least every three months. </li><li>DON'T pick a password that is found in the dictionary <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(1)</a>. When you set your password, it is encrypted and stored into a file. It is really easy for a "cracker" to find your password by encrypting every word in the dictionary, and then looking for a match between the words in his encrypted dictionary and your encrypted password. If he finds a match, he has your password and can start using your account at will. </li><li>DON'T use passwords that are foreign words. The hacker can get a foreign dictionary, and ... </li><li>NEVER use your userid as your password. This is the easiest password to crack. </li><li><a name="YourName">DON'T</a> choose a password that relates to you personally <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP10.html#Sources">(2)</a> or that can easily be tied to you. Some good examples of BAD passwords are: your name, your relatives' names, nicknames, birth dates, license plate numbers, social security numbers (US), work ID numbers, and telephone numbers. </li><li>DO use a password that is at least eight characters long and that has a mix of letters and numbers. The minimum length of a password should be four to six characters long. </li><li>NEVER use the same password on other systems or accounts. </li><li>ALWAYS be especially careful when you telnet or rlogin to access another computer over the Net. When you telnet or rlogin, your system sends your password in plain text over the Net. Some crackers have planted planted programs on Internet gateways for the purpose of finding and stealing these passwords. If you have to telnet frequently, change your password just as frequently. If you only telnet occasionally, say, for business trips, set up a new password (or even a new account) just for the trip. When you return, change that password (or close out that account). </li></ul> The best passwords -- the ones that are the easiest for you to remember, and the ones that are the hardest for crackers to crack -- are passwords that are like those fake words you used to create when you would cram for a test. For example, to remember that "the Law of Demand is the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded," I created the word TLODITIRBP&QD. NO ONE could hack that as a password. Best of all, its EASY to remember (well, its easy for an economist to remember). Here are a couple of other good passwords: <pre> Sentence Possible password In 1976 I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma I76IMTTO The conference lost 12,000 dollars TCL12KD U of A Crimson Tide Football is #1 UACTFI#1 </pre> Sentences are EASY to remember, and they make passwords that are nearly impossible to break (and please do NOT use these sample passwords as your own). Do NOT use well known abbreviations (for example: <tt>wysiwyg</tt>), and do NOT use keyboard patterns (for example: <tt>qwerty</tt>) as your password. If you notice weird things happening with your account: <ol><li>Change your password IMMEDIATELY! </li><li>Tell your local Internet service provider about it. </li></ol> It is very common for someone whose account has been hacked to dismiss the signs that the account has been hacked as technical problems with the system. However, when one account is hacked, it very often puts the whole system at risk. Finally, there is one last thing that I want to say before I close: I feel that "hacking" and "cracking" so violates the spirit of the Internet that I will do everything in my power to help put the overgrown babies who engage in such activities where they belong -- behind bars. Until that time comes, however, I'm going to change my password as often as possible. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>E-mail</h1> 2008-12-14T23:47:00.002-08:00 <h1> </h1> <center> "I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage" Henry David Thoreau </center> I think I have the oldest e-mail program in history. I wouldn't be surprised if my VM Mailbook program was written by the ancient Greeks (or by my campus' squirrels). One of the features that my mail program does not have is a spell-checker, so a few typos are bound to slip through. Please accept my deepest apologies for this :) Almost all e-mail programs have similar, universal functions. The problem is that all of the e-mail programs use completely different commands to access these functions (example: to reply to the author of a current message using the "elm" or "pine" e-mail programs, you type the letter "<tt>r</tt>"; to do the same function in the VM Mailbook program you have to hit the <tt>PF5</tt> key). I'm not going to be able to discuss all of these functions, but what sort of functions do most e-mail programs have in common? Well, most mail programs have <ul><li>a function that will allow you to access and read your incoming mail; </li><li>another to save incoming mail in a file; </li><li>one to print incoming mail; </li><li>one to send new messages; </li><li>one to reply to a message; </li><li>another to include a file in a mail message; </li><li>and one to import/export special objects into your mail messages. </li></ul> Depending on your e-mail software, these functions are either easy or difficult ... but nearly always possible. With all of the different e-mail programs out there, and all of the different commands required to run each program, how are you ever going to find out what commands are right for YOUR e-mail program? Easy! Ask your local e-mail service provider! This may shock you, but almost every mail provider provides some sort of instruction sheet or file that will teach you how to use the e-mail program that your provider is running. All you have to do is ask! I want to take a moment to show you how to actually read an Internet address. I have to admit that when I first started learning how to use e-mail, I was intimidated by the length of all of the Internet addresses. However, once I learned to read the addresses BACKWARDS -- from right to left -- Internet addresses ceased to be a thing of mystery. <ul> Sample Internet Address (mine): <tt>PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt></ul> Every Internet address has three parts -- a user name, an "at" sign (<tt>@</tt>), and the address of the user's mail server. In this example, my user name is <tt>PCRISPE1</tt> (and stop laughing -- there is nothing funny about "p-crispy-one"), and my mail server's address is <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>. The mail server address (the <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> part of the above example) is actually called the "domain" name, and it is based on something called an IP (or Internet Protocol) address. Each server connected to the Internet has a numerical IP address. The IP address is four sets of numbers connected with periods (for example, the IP address for the mail server that I am using at the University of Alabama is <tt>130.160.4.100</tt>). Fortunately, the powers that be realized that people remember NAMES better than numbers, and they created the domain name system. The domain name system associates the numerical IP address with an easier to remember "name" (for example, thanks to the domain name system, the IP address <tt>130.160.4.100</tt> becomes a much easier to remember <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>). You may run into IP addresses from time to time when you are FTPing or telnetting (we'll talk about both of these tools in several lessons later on). Just remember than an IP address (the four sets of numbers connected with periods) is simply another way to write a domain name, and you will do fine. Both IP addresses and domain names should work equally well. Anyway, back to the "p-crispy-one" example. Remember that my domain name is <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>? Well, as I said earlier, the best way to read an Internet address -- and, for that matter, a domain name -- is from right to left. Domain names are broken down as follows: <pre> EDU Educational sites in the U.S. COM Commercial sites in the U.S. GOV U.S. Government sites NET Network administrative organizations MIL U.S. Military sites ORG U.S. Organizations that don't fit into other categories SU Soviet Union (yes, there is still a Soviet Union ... at least on the Internet) FR France CA Canada ... (other counties have their own country code) </pre> Since my domain name has an <tt>EDU</tt> at the end of it, we now know that <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> is the domain name for some educational site in the United States. But where? The rest of the <tt>UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> domain name lists the "subdomains" that tell you where my mail server is actually located. UA is the University of Alabama, and <tt>UA1VM</tt> is the name of my mail server's machine. So, <tt>PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> is the Internet address for someone named "p-crispy-one" (stop laughing!!) at some U.S. educational site. Further investigation shows that the site is at the University of Alabama, and that the machine "p-crispy-one" is using is called <tt>UA1VM</tt>. <ul> Another Sample Internet Address: <tt>w.v.braun@hq.msfc.nasa.gov</tt></ul> Okay, reading this right to left, we see a <tt>GOV</tt>. That means it's a U.S. Government address. I think we all know what <tt>NASA</tt> is -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Unless you are a a big NASA fan, however, you probably don't have the slightest clue what <tt>MSFC</tt> stands for (it is the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama). <tt>HQ</tt> is pretty self-explanatory -- Headquarters. So we know that <tt>w.v.braun@hq.msfc.nasa.gov</tt> is the address of some person named <tt>w.v.braun</tt> whose mail server is at the Headquarters of the Marshall Space Flight Center, and that the Marshall Space Flight Center is part of NASA, which itself is part of the U.S. government. What can you tell from the Internet address <tt>ike@saceur.pentagon.army.mil</tt>? A lot, especially if you are a history buff, and if you know that <tt>"saceur"</tt> is the military abbreviation for Supreme Allied Commander-Europe. The best rule of thumb I can give you about Internet addresses is this: if the address is not of the form described above and does not end with one of the standard top-level domain abbreviations or country codes, the address is not an Internet address. You may still be able to send mail to non-Internet addresses through a gateway, though. <hr /> <h3>Homework:</h3> This homework is completely optional. Remember though, please do not send your homework assignments to me. :) Also, please remember that you must send your <tt>GET</tt> commands in the body of a new e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>. <ol><li>I want you to find the following two commands for your mailer: <ul><li>the command that allows you to delete an e-mail letter without having to read the letter </li><li>the command that allows you to delete an e-mail letter after you have read the letter </li></ul> You will soon discover that these two commands are the most important, and most used, e-mail commands you will ever use. </li><li>If you have "Level Two" or "Level Three" connectivity and are on a UNIX, VAX/VMS, or VM system, there are three files I want you to <tt>GET</tt> from the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server (see <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP02.html">MAP02: LISTSERV File Server Commands</a> for a review of the <tt>GET</tt> command). The files are from Richard Smith's "Navigating the Internet" workshop, and Richard was kind enough to give me permission to use them in this workshop. The first file covers the basic e-mail commands for the UNIX, VAX/VMS, or VM systems. The second file covers the commands to send e-mail, and the third file covers the reply function. Remember when using the <tt>GET</tt> command that your commands must be sent to the LISTSERV address, not to the list or to me. <pre> UNIX USERS: VAX/VMS USERS: filename filetype filename filetype UNIX 1 VMS 1 UNIX 2 VMS 2 UNIX 3 VMS 3 VM USERS: filename filetype VM 1 VM 2 VM 3 </pre> You will have to use three <tt>GET</tt> commands (one for each file), but you can put all three <tt>GET</tt> commands in one letter. For example, if I wanted to get all three of the VM files, the body of my letter would look like this: <pre> GET VM 1 F=MAIL GET VM 2 F=MAIL GET VM 3 F=MAIL </pre> Please remember to send your <tt>GET</tt> commands -- or *any* other LISTSERV commands -- in the *body* of an e-mail letter sent to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>. </li><li>If you are not on a UNIX VAX/VMS, or VM system -- or if you are not sure what sort of system you are on -- contact your local Internet provider and ask for some information on how to use your mail program. In particular, you should ask for information on how to: <ul><li>access your e-mail program </li><li>open and read an e-mail letter sent to you </li><li>save an e-mail letter to a file </li><li>print an e-mail letter </li><li>send a new e-mail letter to someone </li><li>reply to an e-mail letter sent to you </li><li>include text in a reply (and how to edit this text) </li></ul> You probably know how to do most of these things, but it never hurts to review it from time to time. </li><li>If you would like to get a list of all of the Internet Country Codes, use the <tt>GET</tt> command to get the file <tt>COUNTRY CODES</tt> from the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server. </li></ol><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Levels of Internet Connectivity</h1> 2008-12-14T23:47:00.001-08:00 <h1> </h1> <center> "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Lao-Tsu, The Way of Lao-Tsu </center> Welcome back to the first full week of the Roadmap workshop! It looks like we survived another weekend without a squirrel attack. Yay :) (by the way, the :) is an "emoticon" smile; put your left ear on your left shoulder to see it). Today's lesson is really simple, but you'll find that it's going to save you a lot of heartache and confusion in the long run (it may also convince you to go out and get a PPP or SLIP connection). There are generally three levels of Internet connectivity (although there are several variations on the three levels). For our purposes, I am just going to call these three levels "Level One," "Level Two," and "Level Three." Before I talk about the three levels of connectivity, experience shows that I have to say the following to keep myself from being overrun with e-mail: the "three-level approach" to Internet connectivity is a very simplified view of the different ways that you can access the Internet. It does not take into account UUCP, TIA, Trumpet Winsock, or the recent expansion of some BBS' into a combination Level I and Level II access. This over-simplification is on purpose! Please recognize that I have taken some editorial liberties in this lesson to make the lesson easier to understand for the new users (aka. "newbies"). Level One connectivity ("access through a gateway") is access to the Internet from a network that really isn't "on" the Internet. Picture two circles that touch each other at only one point. One of the circles is the Internet, and the other circle is a non-Internet network. The point where the two networks touch is called a gateway. The gateway allows the two networks to "talk" to each other, but users of the non-Internet network are limited in their ability to fully access all of the tools of the Internet. With Level One connectivity, you are limited to what you can access on the Internet by what your service provider allows you to access. A good example of networks with Level One connectivity is America On-Line (AOL), Compuserve, Prodigy, and many of the other commercial on-line services. AOL is, in effect, its own little network. It has a great number of different programs that its subscribers can use, but ALL of these programs only run on the AOL network. AOL subscribers, and the subscribers to most of the other commercial on-line services, are lucky in the fact that they can still access SOME of the tools of the Internet through their gateway. A lot of people with Level One connectivity only have e-mail access (by the way, if you have Level One connectivity, do not worry -- I'll show you how to access a lot of the Internet's tools using e-mail (it's not easy, but you can do it)). Level Two Internet access ("remote modem access") is access through a dial-up terminal connection. This is where, through the use of a modem, you access a "host" and your computer acts like it is a terminal on that mainframe. You may type the commands on your own computer, but it is the host that carries out your commands. Level Two connectivity is the most "popular" (in the sense that more people have Level Two connectivity than any other level) and the most misunderstood level of connectivity. To begin with, Level Two connectivity limits you to using the programs (also known as "clients") that are running on the host. If, for example, you hear of this hot new client called "Mosaic" and you want to try it out, if your host does not have a Mosaic client on it you are out of luck! Putting a copy of the Mosaic client software on your own computer won't do ANYTHING for you -- remember that the only programs that you can use when you have Level Two connectivity are the programs that the host has! Also, with Level Two connectivity you must always remember that everything you are doing is through the host, NOT through your own computer. If you download a file from somewhere (like we did in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP02.html">MAP02: LISTSERV File Server Commands</a> with the <tt>GET</tt> command) that file will go to the host, NOT to your own personal computer. You'll need to download the file one more time -- this time from the host to your computer -- if you want the file to be on YOUR computer. (Your local Internet provider can tell you more about this). <a name="Level3Connectivity">Level Three connectivity</a> ("Direct Internet Access") is the highest, and most expensive, level of connectivity there is. With Level Three connectivity, you are directly wired into the Internet using high-speed telephone lines, and you are "on-line" twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Level Three connectivity is great if you are a mainframe or a major site with hundreds of users, but is not too advantageous if you are a sole user with a beat-up PC. Besides, Level Three Internet access is so incredibly expensive <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP03.html#Notes">(1)</a> (the University of Alabama pays $29,000.00 (US) each and every year just to connect to the Internet, and that doesn't include the software, hardware, facility, and staff expenses) that, until recently, Level Three connectivity was limited to large corporations and Universities. Also, because Level Three connectivity is limited mostly to mainframes, you as a user are still limited to using the programs that are already loaded on the mainframe. Thanks to some recent breakthroughs in modems and telephone lines, there is a new branch of Level Three connectivity which is called "On-Demand Direct Connectivity." Since you probably aren't going to spend twenty-four hours a day on the Internet, there are some sites out there that will let you connect to the Internet whenever you want using a high speed modem and something called "Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)" or "Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP)" connection. There are two cool things about PPP and SLIP connections. First, because you aren't connected to the Internet all day long, it doesn't cost as much as regular Level Three connectivity (you can find sites that will only charge you about $40 or $50 US (that's about $29,547,952.00 Canadian -- I'm kidding :) -- per month for a PPP or SLIP connection). The second cool thing about PPP and SLIP connections is that the client software is stored on YOUR computer. Want to play with Mosaic? Load it onto your computer and play with it (you can't do this with any of the other levels of connectivity). The one bad thing about PPP and SLIP connections is that they are a relatively scarce commodity. Not many Internet service providers offer PPP and SLIP connections, but the number of providers offering PPP and SLIP connections will certainly increase over time :) In review, there are three levels of Internet connectivity: <pre> LEVEL DESCRIPTION COMMENTS One Access through a Gateway Limited Internet access. Two Remote modem access Most "popular". Commands executed by host. All programs on host. Can only run client software already on the host. All files on host unless you download to your computer. Three Direct Access EXPENSIVE! (1) 24 hour connection. All software on mainframe. -- PPP/SLIP Not all that expensive. Connect when you want. Client software on YOUR computer! </pre><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>LISTSERV File Server Commands</h1> 2008-12-14T23:46:00.000-08:00 <a name="Patience"><h1> </h1> </a> <center> "Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius" -- Benjamin Disraeli </center> If you had subscribed to the Roadmap list, you would have sent an e-mail letter to <ul><tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt></ul> which said <ul><tt>SUBSCRIBE ROADMAP YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME</tt></ul> in the body of your letter. Well, the <tt>SUBSCRIBE</tt> command <ul><tt>SUBSCRIBE listname <></tt></ul> is just one of dozens of LISTSERV commands that you can use by sending an e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> (or to any other LISTSERV address) with a command in the body of your letter! <a name="LISTSERV"> First off, what is a LISTSERV?</a> Well, a LISTSERV is a mailing list program designed to copy and distribute electronic mail to everyone subscribed to a particular mailing list. We will talk much more about LISTSERVs and LISTSERV commands in <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP05.html">MAP05: LISTSERVs</a> and <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP06.html">MAP06: Other Mail Servers</a>, but LISTSERVs work on a concept called "mail explosion." A single piece of e-mail is sent to a central address (the LISTSERV's address), and the LISTSERV then "explodes" the letter by duplicating that single letter and sending one copy of that letter to every single person subscribed to a particular mailing list <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP02.html#Sources">(1)</a>. This "mail explosion" concept is what allows anyone subscribed to a LISTSERV to communicate with all the other subscribers with just a single e-mail letter sent to a central address. Note from the Roadmap Workshop Webmaster: When I was subscribed to the Third Roadmap Workshop (the one you're reading right now), this is how I received all the lessons. What we are going to talk about, however, is the LISTSERV file server. In an effort to keep this group's mail volume to a minimum, I've placed many of the "optional" workshop files on the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server. What is a LISTSERV file server? Well, besides distributing letters, LISTSERVs can also serve as a "library" of files -- files that you can retrieve using nothing but a simple e-mail letter sent to the LISTSERV's address with a few simple commands in the body of that letter. If you had subscribed to the Roadmap list, you would have mailed an e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> with this command in the body of your letter: <ul><tt>SUBSCRIBE list-name <></tt></ul> To get files from the University of Alabama's LISTSERV file server, you can send a letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> with a new command in the body of your letter: <ul><tt>GET filename filetype F=format</tt></ul> Now that may look a little intimidating, but you are about to see that the <tt>GET</tt> command is as easy to use as the <tt>SUBSCRIBE</tt> command. Let's break the <tt>GET</tt> command down into its individual parts: <dl><dt><tt>GET</tt> </dt><dd>tells the LISTSERV that you want it to send a file to you. </dd><dt><tt>filename filetype</tt> </dt><dd>tells the LISTSERV the name of the file that want it to get (for example: <tt>COPY NOTICE, ROADMAP 94-00001, RFC 1462</tt>, etc.). </dd><dt><tt>F=format</tt> </dt><dd>tells the LISTSERV how you want the file sent to you. For what we are doing, lets use <tt>F=MAIL</tt> (that way the LISTSERV will e-mail the files to you). </dd></dl> Now suppose I tell you that there is a file on the LISTSERV file server at the University of Alabama called <tt>COPY NOTICE</tt>. What do you have to do to retrieve this file? Well ... <ol><li>Address an e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> (remember, you are about to send a command, and all commands must be sent to the LISTSERV address). </li><li>In the body of your letter type <tt>GET COPY NOTICE F=MAIL</tt> </li></ol> How about if I told you there was a file on the LISTSERV file server at the University of Alabama called <tt>RFC 1462</tt>? Well, again you would send an e-mail letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>, but this time the body of the letter would say <tt>GET RFC 1462 F=MAIL</tt> Think you can handle this? I hope so ... because this is your first homework assignment (eeeeek!). There are three files on the LISTSERV file server at the University of Alabama (<tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt>). Those files are: <pre> filename filetype description COPY NOTICE The Copyright notice for the entire Roadmap workshop, along with the workshop's acknowledgments. NET INTRO My own special explanation of what the Internet is and how it works. RFC 1462 The OFFICIAL "What is the Internet" RFC/FYI by Krol and Hoffman (this is kind of advanced stuff) </pre> What I want you to do is use the <tt>GET</tt> command to get at least one of these files (you can get more than one if you want). What do I want you to do with the file after you get it? READ IT!! (As I said in the last lesson, please do not send the files back to me -- my mailer can not handle the volume of your responses). That's your homework. IMPORTANT NOTE: You must write a new letter to <tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt> for your <tt>GET</tt> commands to work. Replying to this letter will not work! <hr /> What if the <tt>GET</tt> doesn't work? First, realize that it may take several hours for the LISTSERV to process your request and send the file back to you (hence the <a href="http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/tis//Roadmap/MAP02.html#Patience">patience</a> quote at the opening of this lesson). 25,000 requests, even at one second per request, is going to take a LONG time to process! If, after an incredible amount of time has passed, you have not heard back from the LISTSERV, <ol><li>Double check that you used the correct address: <ul><tt>LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU</tt></ul> That's "<tt>you-ay-won-vee-em</tt>". </li><li>Make sure the <tt>GET</tt> command is in the BODY of your letter. </li><li>Finally, make sure that you have included all of the parts of the <tt>GET</tt> command: <ul><tt>GET filename filetype f=format</tt></ul> </li></ol> If, after all of this, the command still does not work, talk with your local Internet service provider (do NOT write to me). Chances are, the problem is that your mail program is putting the wrong return address onto your letters. This is a local problem, and your local Internet service provider should be able to give you some suggestions. (Again, do NOT write to me!) Have fun :) <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Current Web Architecture</h1> 2008-11-27T23:10:00.000-08:00 <h2>Introduction</h2> This section of the <a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/survey.htm">Internet Tool Survey</a> describes the current architecture of the World Wide Web (WWW). The <a href="http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Glossary/GlossaryDL.html">NCSA Glossary</a> is a useful starting point for Web terms. Another is the <a href="http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html">ILC glossary of Internet Terms</a>. The following sections describe <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">the basic two-tier architecture of the web in which static web pages (documents) are transferred from information servers to browser clients world-wide, </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">extensions that permit three-tiered architectures where content pages can be constructed dynamically and where programs as well as data can be transferred, </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">other information transfer protocols, and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">related standards. </li></ul> <h2 style="text-align: center;" align="center"> <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </h2> <h2> <a name="BasicArchitecture"></a>Basic Web Architecture</h2> The basic web architecture is two-tiered and characterized by a web client that displays information content and a web server that transfers information to the client. This architecture depends on three key standards: HTML for encoding document content, URLs for naming remote information objects in a global namespace, and HTTP for staging the transfer. <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/">HyperText Markup Language (HTML)</a> - the common representation language for hypertext documents on the Web. HTML had a first public release as HTML 0.0 in 1990, was Internet draft HTML 1.0 in 1993, and HTML 2.0 in 1994. The September 22 1995 draft of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_toc.html">HTML 2.0</a> specification has been approved as a standard by the <a href="http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/html.charters/html-charter.html">IETF Application Area HTML Working Group</a>. <a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html3/Contents.html">HTML 3.0</a> and <a href="http://www.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions.html">Netscape HTML</a> are competing next generations of HTML 2.0. Proposed features in HTML 3.0 include: forms, style sheets, mathematical markup, and text flow around figures. For more detailed information, see the <a href="http://www.sandia.gov/sci_compute/html_ref.html">HTML Reference Manual</a>. HTML is an application of the <a href="http://www.sil.org/sgml/sgml.html">Standard Generalized Markup Language</a> (SGML ISO-8879), an international standard approved in 1986, which specifies a formal meta-language for defining document markup systems (more <a href="http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/WebSGML/WebSGML.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/SGML/">here</a>). An SGML Document Type Definition (DTD) specifies valid tag names and element attributes. HTML consists of embedded content separated by hierarchical case sensitive start and end tag names which may contain embedded element attributes in the start tag. These attributes may be required, optional, or empty. In addition, documents can be inter or intra linked by establishing source and target anchor points. Many HTML documents are the result of manual authoring or word processing HTML converters, but now several WYSIWYG editors support HTML styles -- see <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Tools/">listing at W3C</a> and the <a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/survey.htm">Internet Tools Survey</a> section on <a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/author.htm">Authoring HTML</a>. HTML files are viewed using a WWW client browser (software), the primary user interface to the Web. HTML allows for embedding of images, sounds, video streams, form fields and simple text formatting. References, called hyperlinks, to other objects are embedded using URLs (<a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/WebArch.htm#URLs#URLs">see below</a>). When an object is selected by a hyperlink, the browser takes an action based on the URL's type, e.g., retrieve a file, connect to another Web site and display a HTML file stored there, or launch an application such as an E-mail or newsgroup reader. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/Addressing.html">Universal Resource Identifier (URI)</a> - an IETF addressing protocol for objects in the WWW ("if it's out there, we can point at it"). There are two types of URIs, Universal Resource Names (URN) and the Universal Resource Locators (URL). The current IETF URI spec is <a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Addressing/URL/uri-spec.html">here</a> and the URL spec is <a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Addressing/URL/url-spec.html">here</a>. <a name="URLs"></a>URLs are location dependent and contain four distinct parts: the protocol type, the machine name, the directory path and the file name. There are several kinds of URLs: file URLs, FTP URLs, Gopher URLs, News URLs, and HTTP URLs. URLs may be relative to a directory or offsets into a document. Arguments to CGI programs (see below) may be embedded in URLs after the ? character. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/">HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)</a> - an application-level network protocol for the WWW. Tim Berners-Lee, father of the Web, describes it as a "generic stateless object-oriented protocol." Stateless means neither the client nor the server store information about the state of the other side of an ongoing connection. Statelessness is a scalability property but is not necessarily efficient since HTTP sets up a new connection for each request, which is not desirable for situations requiring sessions or transactions. </li><ul type="circle"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">In HTTP, commands (request methods) can be associated with particular types of network objects (files, documents, network services). Commands are provided for </li><ul type="square"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">establishing a TCP/IP connection to a WWW server, </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">sending a request to the server (containing a method to be applied to a specific network object identified by the object's identifier, and the HTTP protocol version, followed by information encoded in a header style), </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">returning a response from the server to the client (consisting of three parts: a status line, a response header, and response data), and </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">closing the connection. </li></ul><li class="MsoNormal" style="">HTTP supports dynamic data representation through client-server negotiation. The requesting client specifies it can accept certain <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/rfc1341/0_TableOfContents.html">MIME</a> content types (more on this below) and the server responds with one of these. All WWW clients can handle text/plain and text/html. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">HTTP/1.0 Internet Draft 05 (the seventh release of HTTP/1.0) is targeted as an Internet Informational RFC. The next immediate version of HTTP is HTTP/1.1 Internet Draft 01. </li></ul></ul> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"> <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </div> <h2>Web Architecture Extensibility</h2> This basic web architecture is fast evolving to serve a wider variety of needs beyond static document access and browsing. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) extends the architecture to three-tiers by adding a back-end server that provides services to the Web server on behalf of the Web client, permitting dynamic composition of web pages. Helpers/plug-ins and Java/JavaScript provide other interesting Web architecture extensions. <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/CGI/">Common Gateway Interface</a>(CGI) - CGI is a standard for interfacing external programs with Web servers (see Figure 1). The server hands client requests encoded in URLs to the appropriate registered CGI program, which executes and returns results encoded as MIME messages back to the server. CGI's openness avoids the need to extend HTTP. The most common CGI applications handle HTML <form> and <isindex> commands. </form><ul type="circle"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">CGI programs are executable programs that run on the Web server. They can be written in any scripting language (interpreted) or programming language (must be compiled first) available to be executed on a Web server, including C, C++, Fortran, PERL, TCL, Unix shells, Visual Basic, Applescript, and others. Security precautions typically require that CGI programs be run from a specified directory (e.g, /cgi-bin) under control of the webmaster (Web system administrator), that is, they must be registered with the system. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Arguments to CGI programs are transmitted from client to server via environment variables encoded in URLs. The CGI program typically returns HTML pages that it constructs on the fly. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Some problems with CGI are: </li><ul type="square"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">the CGI interface requires the server to execute a program </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">the CGI interface does not provide a way to share data and communications resources so if a program must access an external resource, it must open and close that resource. It is difficult to construct transactional interactions using CGI. </li></ul><li class="MsoNormal" style="">The current version is <a href="http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/overview.html">CGI/1.1</a>. <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/OOP/">W3C</a> and <a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/OOWeb.htm">others</a> are experimenting with next generation object-oriented APIs based on OMG IDL; Netscape provides <a href="http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/server_api.html">Netscape Server API (NSAPI)</a> and Progress Software and Microsoft provide <a href="http://www.process.com/news/spec.htp">Internet Server API (ISAPI)</a>. </li></ul></li>  <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Helpers/Plug-ins - When a client browser retrieves a file, it launches an installed helper application or plug-in to process the file based on the file's MIME-type (<a href="http://www.objs.com/survey/WebArch.htm#MIME#MIME">see below</a>). For example, it may launch a Postscript or Acrobat reader, or MPEG or QuickTime player. A helper application runs external to the browser while a <a href="http://www.netscapeworld.com/netscapeworld/nw-10-1996/nw-10-pluginbook.html">plug-in</a> runs within the browser. For information on how to create new Netscape Navigator plug-ins, see <a href="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/plugins/pguide.htm">The Plug-in Developer's Guide</a>. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Common Client Gateway (CCI) - this gateway allows a third-party application to remotely control the Web browser client. <a href="http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/index.html#clie">Netscape Client APIs 2.0 (NCAPIs)</a> depends on platform specific native methods of interprocess communication (IPC). They plan to support DDE and OLE2 for Windows clients, X properties for UNIX clients, and Apple Events for Macintosh clients. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Extensions to HTTP. <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/">W3C</a> and <a href="http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/">IETF Application Area HTTP Working Group</a> are working together on current and future versions of HTTP. The HTTP-NG project is assessing two implementation approaches to HTTP "replacements": </li><ul type="circle"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/HTTP-NG/http-ng-status.html">Spero's approach</a> - allows many requests per connection, the requests can be asynchronous and the server can respond in any order, allowing several transfers in parallel. A "session layer" divides the connection into numerous channels. Control messages (GET requests, meta information) are returned in a control channel; each object is returned in its own channel. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP-NG/Activity.html">W3C approach</a> - Jim Gettys at W3C is using <a href="ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html">Xerox ILU</a> (a CORBA variant) to implement an ILU transport similar to Spero's session protocol. The advantages of this approach are openness with respect to pluggable transport protocols, support for multiple language environments, and a step towards viewing the "web of objects." Related to this approach, Netscape recently announced future support for OMG <a href="http://home.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease199.html">Internet Inter-ORB Protocol</a> (IIOP) standard on both client and server. This will provide a uniform and language neutral object interchange format making it easier to construct distributed object applications. </li></ul><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://java.sun.com/">Java</a>/ <a href="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/handbook/javascript/index.html">JavaScript</a> - Java is a cross-platform WWW programming language modeled after C++ from Sun Microsystems. Java programs embedded in HTML documents are called applets and are specified using <applet> tags. The HTML for an applet contains a code attribute that specifies the URL of the compiled applet file. Applets are compiled to a platform-independent bytecode which can be safely downloaded and executed by the Java interpreter embedded into the Web browser. Browsers that support Java are said to be Java-enabled. If performance is critical, a Java applet can be compiled to native machine language on the fly. Such a compiler is known as a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. JavaScript is a scripting language designed for creating dynamic, interactive Web applications that link together objects and resources on both clients and servers. A client JavaScript can recognize and respond to user events such as mouse clicks, form input, and page navigation, and query the state or alter the performance of an applet or plug-in. A server JavaScript script can exhibit behavior similar to common gateway interface (CGI) programs. JavaScript scripts are embedded in HTML documents using <script> tags. Similar to Java applets, JavaScript scripts are directly interpreted within the client's browser and are therefore platform-independent. For a comparison of Java and JavaScript, see <a href="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/handbook/javascript/introd.html#C2">here</a>. The Java Language Specification can be found <a href="http://www.javasoft.com/doc/language_specification.html">here</a>, a Java tutorial <a href="http://www.javasoft.com/books/Series/Tutorial/index.html">here</a>, the Java Virtual Machine (interpreter) <a href="http://www.javasoft.com/doc/language_vm_specification.html">here</a>, the Java Developer's Kit (JDK) <a href="http://www.javasoft.com/products/JDK/1.0.2/">here</a>, and Java FAQs <a href="http://java.sun.com/faq2.html">here</a>. A comprehensive Java page of resources can be found at <a href="http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov/home/stayman/java.html">JPL</a>. The JavaScript Language Specification can be found <a href="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/handbook/javascript/index.html">here</a>, a JavaScript tutorial <a href="http://www.webconn.com/java/javascript/intro">here</a>, and the JavaScript FAQs <a href="http://www.freqgrafx.com/411/">here</a>. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">The <a href="http://www-ns.rutgers.edu/www-security/wts-wg.html">IETF Security Area Web Transaction Security (WTS) Working Group</a> is working on security services for WWW. As chartered, it has produced Internet-drafts of a <a href="ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-wts-requirements-01.txt">Requirements for Web Transaction Security</a> and a <a href="ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-wts-shttp-03.txt">Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol</a> specification plus <a href="ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-wts-shtml-02.txt">Security Extensions For HTML</a>. </li></ul> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"> <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </div> <h2><a name="OtherProtocols"></a>Other Transfer Protocols</h2> The Web also uses other <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/RelevantProtocols.html">HTTP-related protocols</a> for transferring and representing information, including: <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) - the fundamental protocol that provides for the reliable delivery of streams of data from one host to another. An introduction to TCP/IP is <a href="http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/comm/tcpip.htm">here</a>. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">File Transfer Protocol (<a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/rfc959/">FTP</a>) - a common method of moving files between two Internet sites. It is based on TCP/IP. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/Gopher/gopher_protocol/protocol.rtf">Gopher</a> - a distributed document search and retrieval protocol (IETF <a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/Gopher/gopher_protocol/protocol.rtf">RFC 1436</a>) for obtaining files or information from hierarchical menus in the Gopher information-retrieval system. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP) - an inter-ORB protocol for communication between objects and applications. It is based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) <a href="http://www.omg.org/corbask.htm">specification</a>. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><a name="MIME"></a>Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (<a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/rfc1341/0_TableOfContents.html">MIME</a>) - the protocol for multimedia email and a building block of HTTP. The first packet of information received by a client identifies the type of file the server has sent, e.g., binary, audio, video, movie, formatted word-processor documents, graphics, spreadsheets, etc.. The extensions to the SMTP format allow it to carry multiple types of data. When multimedia files are sent using the MIME standard they are encoded into non-readable text. The Web browser maintains a list of pairs of MIME-Types and helper applications for handling each type. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Network News Transfer Protocol (<a href="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Protocols/rfc977/rfc977">NNTP</a>) - the protocol used to connect to Usenet discussion groups. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Secure Socket Layer (<a href="http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/SSL.html">SSL</a>) - a security protocol developed by Netscape for sending and receiving encrypted information. It is based on encryption technology developed by RSA, Inc.. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (<a href="http://ds.internic.net/std/std10.txt">SMTP</a>) - a protocol for transferring electronic mail from one host to another. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) - a protocol that allows a network administrator to monitor network devices over the network. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/z3950/official/">Z39.50</a> - a protocol that governs the formats and procedures by which two computers interact with one another. It is used to search several databases of the same type, and is session-oriented and stateful. </li></ul> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center;" align="center"> <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </div> <h2><a name="OtherStandards"></a>Other Open Standards</h2> The Web also builds on additional open standards: <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">GIF, JPEG, and XBM image formats. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Virtual Reality Modeling Language (<a href="http://vag.vrml.org/www-vrml/vrml.tech/vrmlspec.html">VRML</a>) - a proposed standard language for describing multi-participant interactive simulations within the WWW. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">HyperMedia Management Protocol (<a href="http://wbem.freerange.com/wbem/hmmp.htm">HMMP</a>) - a protocol to access and manipulate components of the Hypermedia Management Schema (<a href="http://wbem.freerange.com/wbem/hmms.htm">HMMS</a>), a data representation formalism (schema) for representing managed objects. HMMS and HMMP are major components of the <a href="http://wbem.freerange.com/">Web-Based Enterprise Management</a> standards effort to integrate existing standards, such as SNMP/UDP, HTML/HTTP and DMI/RPC into a <a href="http://wbem.freerange.com/wbem/obsm.htm">browser-managed architecture</a>. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) - a recently proposed communication protocol for control and delivery of video and audio in real-time. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Proxy and SOCKS firewall protocols. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">S-HTTP security protocol. </li></ul> A more complete list of standards can be found at <a href="http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/standards_qa.html">Netscape</a> and the <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/#Specifications">World Wide Web Consortium</a>. A complete list of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard RFCs can be found <a href="http://ds1.internic.net/std/">here</a>. <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"> <hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </div> </script></applet></li></ul></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Blogs and RSS</h1> 2008-11-26T23:08:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style>The Web is a welcoming medium for experimentation and user participation. It is becoming easier to post Web content and share comments with other users. The idea of the Web site is still very much alive, but Web participation is taking new forms and being driven by new technologies that foster social interaction. Here are two of the latest trends. Blogs: A blog is an easy-to-create Web site that allows users to share their thoughts with the world managed by a lightweight content management system. The word "blog" comes from "Weblog" because a blog consists of a signed and dated log of individual postings. The topic of the blog can be anything, from the personal to the professional. A blog is what you make of it. What is important about blogs is the content management system that manages the content. This system can offer a variety of features that can make the blog a useful tool. Examples include a calendar view of postings, organization of postings into categories, archived postings, options to send e-mail notification of new postings, and so on. Blogging can be an interactive activity. Readers can add comments to a blogger's postings, other can respond, and a conversation ensues. Lately, bloggers have become well-known commentators on the political scene, but blogging can encompass any topic or no topic at all. If the blogging software allows it, bloggers can use RSS to distribute their postings. Visit <a href="http://www.technorati.com/" target="blank">Technorati</a>, a search engine devoted to locating blogs. You can set up your own blog by visiting <a href="http://blogger.com/" target="blank">Blogger</a>. RSS: RSS allows people to place news and other announcement-type items into a simple XML format that can then be pushed to RSS readers and Web pages. The initials RSS can stand for different things, including Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Users can subscribe to the RSS newsfeeds of their choice, and then have access to the updated information as it comes in. RSS is used for all kinds of purposes, including the news itself and announcing new content on Web sites. RSS content may be read by using an RSS reader, or aggregator. This is usually free software that you can install on your computer that posts new items and stores old ones in a graphical interface. An RSS reader similar to e-mail software in that it displays incoming items and can store content for offline reading. Subscribing to a newsfeed is usually as simple as entering the address of the RSS document. A useful list of RSS readers is available on the site of <a href="http://allrss.com/rssreaders.html" target="blank">RSS Compendium.</a> It is also possible to subscribe to and read your own collection of RSS feeds on Web sites devoted to this purpose. <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/" target="blank">Bloglines</a> is one such example. The advantage here is that you can access your RSS feeds from any computer that is connected to the Web. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Web - Programming Languages and Functions</h1> 2008-11-25T23:07:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style>The use of existing and new programming languages have extended the capabilities of the Web. What follows is a basic guide to a group of the more common languages and functions in use on the Web today. CGI, Active Server Pages: CGI (Common Gateway Interface) refers to a specification by which programs can communicate with a Web server. A CGI program, or script, is any program designed to accept and return data that conforms to the CGI specification. The program can be written in any programming language, including C, Perl, and Visual Basic Script. A common use for a CGI script is to process a form on a Web page. For example, you might fill out a form to order a book at Amazon. The script processes your information and sends it to Amazon to process your order. Another type of dynamically generated Web page is called Active Server Pages (ASP). Developed by Microsoft, ASP is a programming environment that processes scripts on the Web server. The scripts run on the server, rather than on the Web browser, to generate the HTML pages sent to browsers. Visual Basic and JScript (a subset of JavaScript) are often used for the scripting. ASPs end in the file extension .asp or .aspx. Java/Java Applets: Java Java is an object-oriented programming language similar to C++. Developed by Sun Microsystems, the aim of Java is to create programs that will be platform independent. The Java motto is, "Write once, run anywhere." A perfect Java program should work equally well on a PC, Macintosh, Unix, and so on, without any additional programming. This goal has yet to be realized. Java can be used to write applications for both Web and non-Web use. Web-based Java applications are usually in the form of Java applets. These are small Java programs called from an HTML page that can be downloaded from a Web server and run on a Java-compatible Web browser. A few examples include live newsfeeds, moving images with sound, calculators, charts and spreadsheets, and interactive visual displays. Java applets can tend to load slowly, but programming improvements should lead to a shortened loading time. JavaScript/JScript: JavaScript is a programming language created by Netscape Communications. Small programs written in this language are embedded within an HTML page, or called externally from the page, to enhance the page's the functionality. Examples of JavaScript include moving tickers, drop-down menus, real-time calendars and clocks, and mouse-over interactions. JScript is a similar language developed by Microsoft and works with the company's Internet Explorer browser. XML: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a mark-up language that enables Web designers to create their own customized tags to provide functionality not available with HTML alone. XML is a language of data structure and exchange, and allows developers to separate form from content. With XML, the same content can be formatted for multiple applications. In May 1999, the W3 Consortium announced that HTML 4.0 has been recast as an XML application called XHTML. This move is slowing having an impact on the future of both XML and HTML. <st1:city st="on">Ajax</st1:city>: <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Ajax</st1:place></st1:city> stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. This langauge creates interactive Web applications. Its premise is that it sends data to the browser behind the scenes, so that when it is time to view the information, it is already "there." <a href="http://maps.google.com/" target="blank">Google Maps</a> is an example of an Ajax-enabled application. Another is <a href="http://lookahead.surfwax.com/rss-index.html" target="blank">SurfWax LookAhead</a>, an RSS search tool that retrieves feeds as you type your query. <h3>Real-Time Communication</h3> Text, audio and video communication can occur in real time on the Web. This capability allows people to conference and collaborate in real time. In general, the faster the Internet connection, the more successful the experience. At its simplest, chat programs allow multiple users to type to each other in real time. Internet Relay Chat and America Online's Instant Messenger are prime examples of this type of program. The development of a messenging protocols is underway. Such a protocol would allow for the expansion of this capability throughout the Internet. More enhanced real-time communication offers an audio and/or video component. CU-See Me is a sotware programs of this type. Even more elaborate are programs that allow for true real-time collaboration. Microsoft's NetMeeting and Netscape's Conference (available with Communicator) are good examples of this. Featured collaboration tools include: <ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">audio: conduct a telephone conversation on the Web </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">video: view your audience </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">file transfer: send files back and forth among participants </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">chat: type in real time </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">whiteboard: draw, mark up, and save images on a shared window or board </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">document/application sharing: view and use a program on another's desktop machine </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">collaborative Web browsing: visit Web pages together </li></ul> Currently no standard exists that will work among all conferencing programs. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Web Multimedia</h1> 2008-11-24T23:06:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style> Today's World Wide Web presents an ever-diversified experience of multimedia, programming languages, and real-time communication. There is no question that it is a challenge to keep up with the rapid pace of developments. The following presents a brief description of some of the more important trends to watch. The Web has become a broadcast medium. It is possible to listen to audio and video over the Web, both pre-recorded and live. For example, you can visit the sites of news organizations and view the same videos shown on the nightly news. Several plug-ins are available for viewing these videos. At one time, the entire multimedia file had to be downloaded before viewing. Since these types of files tend to be quite large, download times can be lengthy. This problem has been answered by a revolutionary development in multimedia capability: streaming media. In this case, audio or video files are played as they are downloading, or streaming, into your computer. Only a small wait, called buffering, is necessary before the file begins to play. The Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and QuickTime plug-ins play streaming audio and video files. Extensive files such as interviews, speeches, hearings televised video clips and music work very well with these players. They are also ideal for the broadcast of real-time events. These may include live radio and television broadcasts, concerts, Web-only broadcasts, and so on. Shockwave and Flash are plug-ins that provide another multimedia experience. They offer the creation and implementation of an entire multimedia display combining graphics, animation and sound. Sound files, including music, are also a part of the Web experience. Sound files may be incorporated into Web sites, and are also available for downloading independent of Web site visits. For example, try the search engine <a href="http://www.findsounds.com/" target="blank">FindSounds.com</a>. Sound files of many types are supported by the Web with the appropriate plug-ins. The MP3 file format, and the choice of supporting plug-ins, is one of the most popular music trends to sweep the Web. MP3 files are also the source of podcasts. These are audio files distributed through RSS feeds. A good example of library podcasting can be found on the site of <a href="http://www.dowling.edu/library/newsblog/podcasts.asp" target="blank">Dowling College</a>, which distributes podcasts of interest to its user community. A variation on the podcast is the vodcast, which is a video file distributed through RSS. This type of multimedia broadcasting is up-and-coming on the Web. (More on RSS below.) Live cams are another aspect of the multimedia experience available on the Web. Live cams are video cameras that send their data in real time to a Web server. These cams may appear in all kinds of locations, both serious and whimsical: an office, on top of a building, a scenic locale, a special event, and so on. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>WEB BROWSERS</h1> 2008-11-23T23:05:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style><o:p> </o:p> To access the World Wide Web, you must use a Web browser. A browser is a software program that allows users to access and navigate the World Wide Web. There are two types of browsers: <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Graphical: Text, images, audio, and video are retrievable through a graphical software program such as Internet Explorer, Firefox , Netscape, Mozilla and Opera. These browsers are available for Windows, Apple, Linux and other operating systems. Navigation is accomplished by pointing and clicking with a mouse on highlighted words and graphics. </li></ol> You can install a graphical browser on your computer. For example, Internet Explorer is a part of the Windows operating system, and is also available on the Microsoft site: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/" target="blank">http://www.microsoft.com/</a>. Firefox is available for downloading from <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/" target="blank">http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/</a> and Netscape is available from <a href="http://home.netscape.com/" target="blank">http://home.netscape.com/</a>. <ol start="2" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Text: Lynx is a browser that provides access to the Web in text-only mode. Navigation is accomplished by highlighting emphasized words in the screen with the arrow up and down keys, and then pressing the forward arrow (or Enter) key to follow the link. In these days of graphical browsers, it may be hard to believe that Lynx was once very popular. </li></ol> <h3>Extending the Browser: Plug-Ins</h3> Software programs may be configured to a Web browser in order to enhance its capabilities. When the browser encounters a sound, image or video file, it hands off the data to other programs, called plug-ins, to run or display the file. Working in conjunction with plug-ins, browsers can offer a seamless multimedia experience. Many plug-ins are available for free. File formats requiring plug-ins are known as MIME types. MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was originally developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of binary (non-ASCII) file attachments. The use of MIME has expanded to the Web. For example, the basic MIME type handled by Web browsers is text/html associated with the file extention .html. A common plug-in utilized on the Web is the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Acrobat Reader allows you to view documents created in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). These documents are the MIME type "application/pdf" and are associated with the file extension .pdf. When the Acrobat Reader has been downloaded to your computer, the program will open and display the file requested when you click on a hyperlinked file name with the suffix .pdf. The latest versions of the Acrobat Reader allow for the viewing of documents within the browser window. Web browsers are often standardized with a small suite of plug-ins, especially for playing multimedia content. Additional plug-ins may be obtained at the browser's Web site, at special download sites on the Web, or from the Web sites of the companies that created the programs. Once a plug-in is configured to your browser, it will automatically launch when you choose to access a file type that it uses. <h3>Beyond Plug-Ins: Active X</h3> ActiveX is a technology developed by Microsoft which make plug-ins less neccesary. ActiveX offers the opportunity to embed animated objects, data, and computer code on Web pages. A Web browser supporting ActiveX can render most items encountered on a Web page. As just one example, Active X allows you to view and edit PowerPoint presentations directly within your Web browser. ActiveX works best with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>THE URL and DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM</h1> 2008-11-22T23:01:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style><o:p> </o:p> URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. The URL specifies the Internet address of a file stored on a host computer connected to the Internet. Every file on the Internet, no matter what its access protocol, has a unique URL. Web browsers use the URL to retrieve the file from the host computer and the specific directory in which it resides. This file is downloaded to the user's client computer and displayed on the monitor connected to the machine. URLs are translated into numeric addresses using the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS is a worldwide system of servers that stores location pointers to Web sites. The numeric address, called the IP (Internet Protocol) address, is actually the "real" URL. Since numeric strings are difficult for humans to use, alphneumeric addresses are employed by end users. Once the translation is made by the DNS, the browser can contact the Web server and ask for a specific file located on its site. Anatomy of a URL This is the format of the URL: protocol://host/path/filename For example, this is a URL on the Web site of the U.S. House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/house/2004_House_Calendar.html This URL is typical of addresses hosted in domains in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Structure of this URL: <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Protocol: http </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Host computer name: www </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Second-level domain name: house </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Top-level domain name: gov </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Directory name: house </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">File name: 2004_House_Calendar_html </li></ol> Note how much information about the content of the file is present in this well-constructed URL. Several top-level domains (TLDs) are common in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>: <table class="MsoNormalTable" style="" border="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> com </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> commercial enterprise </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> edu </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> educational institution </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> gov </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> government entity </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> mil </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> military entity </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> net </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> network access provder </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> org </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> usually nonprofit organizations </td> </tr> </tbody></table> New domain names were approved in November 2000 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): .biz, .museum, .info, .pro (for professionals) .name (for individuals), .aero (for the aerospace industry), and .coop (for cooperatives). ICANN continues to investigate proposals for addding additional domain names, for example, .mobi for sites designed for mobile devices, and .jobs for the human resources community. In addition, dozens of domain names have been assigned to identify and locate files stored on host computers in countries around the world. These are referred to as two-letter Internet country codes, and have been standardized by the International Standards Organization as ISO 3166. For example: <table class="MsoNormalTable" style="" border="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> ch </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> de </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> jp </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">uk</st1:place></st1:country-region> </td> <td style="padding: 0.75pt;"> <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United Kingdom</st1:place></st1:country-region> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> As the technology of the Web evolves, URLs have become more complex. This is especially the case when content is retrieved from databases and served onto Web pages. The resulting URLs can have a variety of elaborate structures, for example, http://spills.incidentnews.gov/incidentnews/FMPro?-db=images&-Format=maps.htm&SpillLink=8&Subject=Waterway%20Closure%20Map&-SortField=EntryDate&-SortOrder=descend&-SortField=EntryTime&-SortOrder=descend&-Token=8&-Max=20&-Find The first part of this URL looks familiar. What follows are search elements that query the database and determine the order of the results. As a growing number of databases serve content to the Web, these types of URLs will appear more commonly in your browser's address window. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>PAGES ON THE WEB</h1> 2008-11-21T23:01:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style><o:p> </o:p> The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or Web pages, containing information and links to resources throughout the Internet. Web pages can be created by user activity. For example, if you visit a Web search engine and enter keywords on the topic of your choice, a page will be created containing the results of your search. In fact, a growing amount of information found on the Web today is served from databases, creating temporary Web pages "on the fly" in response to user queries. Access to Web pages may be accomplished by: <ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Entering an Internet address and retrieving a page directly </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Browsing through pages and selecting links to move from one page to another </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Searching through subject directories linked to organized collections of Web pages </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Entering a search statement at a search engine to retrieve pages on the topic of your choice </li></ol> <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>HYPERTEXT AND LINKS</h1> 2008-11-20T23:01:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style><o:p> </o:p> The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is created by the author of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds. Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. For example, visual formatting features are now often separated from the HTML document and placed into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This has several advantages, including the fact that an external style sheet can centrally control the formatting of multiple documents. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The World Wide Web</h1> 2008-11-19T22:56:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style>The World Wide Web is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. The World Wide Web is often abbreviated as the Web or WWW. The World Wide Web was developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Lab (CERN) in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The initial purpose of the Web was to use networked hypertext to facilitate communication among its members, who were located in several countries. Word was soon spread beyond CERN, and a rapid growth in the number of both developers and users ensued. In addition to hypertext, the Web began to incorporate graphics, video, and sound. The use of the Web has reached global proportions and has become a defining aspect of human culture in an amazingly short period of time. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. Internet protocols are sets of rules that allow for intermachine communication on the Internet. The following is a sample of major protocols accessible on the Web: E-mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP) Distributes electronic messages and files to one or more electronic mailboxes Telnet (Telnet Protocol) Facilitates login to a computer host to execute commands FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Transfers text or binary files between an FTP server and client Usenet (Network News Transfer Protocol or NNTP) Distributes Usenet news articles derived from topical discussions on newsgroups HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) Transmits hyptertext over networks. This is the protocol of the Web. Many other protocols are available on the Web. To name just one example, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows users to place a telephone call over the Web. The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. Once upon a time, it was necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers these protocols together into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web's ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is by far the most popular component of the Internet. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>FTP - File Transfer Protocol</h1> 2008-11-19T02:44:00.001-08:00 So you don’t get confused, understand that “FTP” is both a noun – referring to the software that transfers or “uploads” Web site files from your computer to your host’s server – and a verb – referring to the actual transfer: “I’m going to FTP these files.” That also pretty well takes care of explaining what it does. While hosts commonly include an FTP tool as part of their service, there’s often a limit on the size of the uploads it can handle. No matter. Plenty of free downloadable software on the Web can easily transfer your files to your host. A few that we like: • FTP Navigator • FileZilla • CoffeeCup Free FTP • Core FTP Lite With some hosting packages (such as Office Live Small Business), no FTP software is required. You can just find your document, image or file on your desktop and easily upload it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>What is Google AdSense?</h1> 2008-11-19T02:37:00.000-08:00 Google AdSense is an ad-serving program that places ads specifically, that make sense based on relevant content, and assumptions about who might be interested in that content. AdSense is an application of the broader concept of Contextual Marketing. Contextual Marketing is just what it sounds like. On a website about custom cars, you might have an ad for fancy wheels or car care kits. On a website about off-roading, you might have an ad for durable truck tires or spotlight rigs. A hockey site might advertise hockey sticks…and a tennis site, tennis shoes. Contextual Marketing just means aligning the ad serving with the context/nature of the website and its audience, the same way like items are grouped in a store. And the “context” can be cut much finer than website level, it can be page level, article level, and so on, so the ads always match the material they are appearing near, and thus, appeal to the interest of the reader/buyer at any given moment. So what’s in it for you – the website publisher/owner? That’s easy. Every time a visitor to your site clicks one of these ads, you make money. The better the ads are targeted, the more clicks you get, the more money you make. AdSense displays easy-to-read, text-based, relevant ads that don’t overshadow the content of your website or annoy visitors. Actually, you have seen hundreds of these ads yourself, as you’ll realize in a moment. Today there are probably only a few places in your website that can directly make you money, if any. The magic of Google AdSense is this: It allows you to earn money through every page of your website. On top of that, with algorithms Discover How to Turn Your Web Site's Content Into Cash! used to align ad content with page content Google automatically selects and displays ads for your website that are likely to generate the highest revenue for you.<div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Chat & Instant Messaging</h1> 2008-11-18T22:57:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style>Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the "chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program. A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messaging. With instant messaging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo also offer chat programs. Open Source chat programs include GAIM and Jabber. Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial <a href="http://www.internettutorials.net/www.html" target="blank">Understanding the World Wide Web</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Usenet News</h1> 2008-11-17T22:57:00.000-08:00 <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Csujata%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style>Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member. Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system. A good directory of Usenet groups can be found at <a href="http://tile.net/news/" target="blank">Tile.Net</a>. There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups. These range from academic to recreational topics. Serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups. The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products. Usenet is not as popular nowadays as it once was. Blogs and RSS feeds are newer modes of communication that have caught the interest of Internet users. These technologies are covered in <a href="http://www.internettutorials.net/www.html">Understanding the World Wide Web</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"></div> </article> </main></body></html>