Term 3 Theory

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (also known as the Web, WWW or W3) is a system of interconnected
internet servers containing hypertext documents.
The World Wide Web standards are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (or W3C).
Note that the World Wide Web is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but is
just a service operating over the Internet. Another example of such a service is mail.

Hypertext documents are designed using HTML, also known as Hypertext Markup Language.
Hypertext refers to text containing hyperlinks- links to other hypertext documents.
Hypertext, through using hyperlinks to other documents, can embed other media into the HTML
document being loaded.
For example, by containing links to other media documents such as music, video, graphic
images, and more, you can load up and interact with this media through hypertext.

Hypertext documents are loaded up through a special category of software, which is used to load
and interact with the rendered hypertext document. This software category is called “browsers”,
and they enable easy access to the World Wide Web.

The three main browsers currently are:

• Firefox, developed and maintained by Mozilla
• Chrome, developed and maintained by Google
• Safari, developed and maintained by Apple Inc

Note that although other browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera GX and more also exist,
the vast majority are derived from the source code used to build Chrome, and are derivative
clones of the Chrome project.

Protocols on the Web:

Protocols are a set of rules which need to be followed, you may have them in the way that you run
your day. Such as whether you put cereal or milk into your bowl rst.
Internet protocols are a set of rules which allow data communication over the Internet. The
following are the protocols which are of interest to us at this stage.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

This is a set of rules for transferring les on the web. As noted above, these les can be varied but
are typically embedded in hypertext. As soon as a user opens an internet browser, they are
inadvertently making use of HTTP.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This is a protocol which is useful in exchanging les between computers on the Internet. FTP is
usually used for downloading programs and les to your client computer from other Internet
servers.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

SMTP is used in sending and receiving of emails over the Internet. This protocol allows a user to
save messages into a server mailbox and to download them regularly from the mail server.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol)

IP is responsible for dividing a le’s data into small “packets” at the machine of origin (source) and
converting the received packets at the destination machine into a copy of the original le. IP is
also used for moving data packets between nodes.
TCP is responsible for verifying the correct delivery of data from the source machine to the
destination machine, and is important for preventing data loss. Data can be lost in the
intermediate network through signal interference. TCP adds support for detecting errors and lost
data, and can request retransmission of data packets until the complete le is successfully able to
be received.
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 Components of the Web:
The components of the web are as follows. You should recall some of them from term 1 when we
discussed the theory of networking.

Web client: This is a client on the web, and makes requests over the internet to receive desired
les.

Web server: This is a computer in a network which hosts web data in the form of web pages.
There are a large number of web servers connected to form the internet. The primary function of
web servers is to deliver web pages and their associated content through hypertext transfer
protocol.

Web browser: As stated, a browser is a special kind of software which is useful in accessing web
information through hypertext documents.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company which o ers connection to the internet through the
use of data transmission technology such as the wired and wireless transmission media we
handled in term 1.

Uses of the Web

The internet forms a part of our daily lives. There are millions of applications online, and the web
enables us to explore and interact with them. Some of the basic uses of the Web are as follows:

E-Commerce
This is electronic commerce and refers to online trading. In other words, goods services and
information being traded and exchanged online. There are a large number of websites which sell a
large variety of goods and services, and the use of e-commerce even enables the payment of
utility bills. Examples include retailers such as Amazon, Takealot, and the Municipal fee payment
platforms.

Education
There are many websites providing access to educational resources, some free and open, others
belonging to bigger institutions requiring payment. There are a handful of speci c uses for
education on the web, generally being broken down into online tutorials, online forums, web
publishing, and easy navigation between web sources.
The role which online education plays is vital as it enables access to education for everyone in
society, allowing non-traditional students to study further.

Entertainment
There are countless websites on the web which o er countless kinds of entertainment. Ranging
from memes to videos, music, forums, gaming, and more. You should be aware of multiple
sources of entertainment accessed through the web already.

E-Governance
In a similar vein to e-commerce, e-governance enables governments to e ectively use web
technologies for various aspects of governance. Our own government’s eservices website forms
such an example, as well as the multiple governmental websites which exist around the world.

Blog
Blogs are sites where discussion or information about things is provided, and articles called
“posts” are published. On blogs, the most recent posts appear rst and then proceed towards
older posts. Blogs typically contain text, pictures, audio, video and more. Usually, blogs are used
by individuals to give their insights into areas of interest for their audience. Blogs developed into
the next category.
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Social networking
This enables people to communicate with one another online based on their backgrounds,
interests, activities, opinions, relationships and more. Each user has a social pro le on a given site
and can interact with other people. As derived from blogs, they can comment, share content, form
communities around a given interest, and more. The bigger social networking sites include
Instagram, Facebook, X(formerly Twitter) and Reddit.

News
Popular news outlets utilise the web to rapidly update and inform the public on current a airs
through their own web pages, blogs, and social media platforms.

Internet telephony
This is a technology which allows the Internet to be used as a medium for telephone calls. In
using this, a user can pay for an internet connection and then use this service to make local and
international telephone calls using software on their devices with a microphone and speakers. An
example of Internet telephony software is Skype, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

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