10 Facts About the Internet That Nobody Ever Told You

Most of us like to consider ourselves computer literate if we can check our email, update our social network status and send text messages with instant messenger software. If you are really smart then you might be able to build a web page, program a software application or even edit the Windows registry. But how much do you really know about the internet? This article will discuss ten things about the internet that you should probably know but that maybe nobody told you before.

1. The Internet Started As A Military Project Called DARPA-NET

In the late 1960s a division of the Department of Defense called the Advanced Research Projects Agency created one of the first decentralized computer networks that was first used to transmit research papers between scientists. This was the first time that a computer network of that nature had been developed, and it slowly began to grow into a community of those people who used the network to download and upload increasingly complex data.

Today we take for granted the fact that you can use your web browser to access information on a computer server located thousands of miles away, but this type of decentralized and nonlocal communication capability did not always exist. This initial primitive form of the internet we know today began by connecting universities, research facilities and military installations, with the further development of networks in other countries.

2. You Dont Need To Be A Spammer To Make Money With Email

Ask your parents how they think you might be able to make money on the internet, and their response might be sending out those darn Viagra emails! But it is possible to use email to make money without spamming, and it is something called opt-in email marketing. Opt-in marketing is where you send a newsletter or individual emails to a list of people who have agreed to receive it, and there can sometimes be a double opt-in procedure to make sure that it is a legitimate lead. This form of emailing usually is targeted at specific niche market segments, such as automobiles or stock traders.

If you are going to try your hand at email marketing, you need to know what the terms safe list and suppression list mean. A safe list is a list of email addresses by people who have agreed to receive posts and advertisements in exchange for being able to send out their own. A suppression list is a list of email addresses that have requested not to receive any emails from a particular source, and continuing to send email to an address that is listed on a suppression list could be a potential legal violation.

3. You Can Build A Website Using Only Notepad And Paint

Most people who want to start their own website end up not doing it for a number of reasons, such as not knowing how to build one themselves or believing that they need the most sophisticated software around in order to build a website. However if you have knowledge of basic HTML, you can build a website using just the default tools that come with your computer. And it doesnt need to be a website that looks like it was built in 1993 either, because there are thousands of free website templates available that look very professional and can be made unique with some basic HTML and image editing.

You can use MS paint for literally all of the image editing that you will need on your website, but you will want to save the file as a 24-bit bitmap file so that it has the sharpest picture. If you are willing to spend some money on your venture then you do not need to purchase a full-fledged digital editing suite but it might be a good idea to use a JPEG compressor so that the images on your website will load faster.

4. You Can Use Your Home Desktop Computer While You Are On Vacation

Imagine that your daughter or your wife is sitting at your home computer reading emails, when suddenly new programs start opening up and the text editor opens itself and starts typing What do you think youre doing? Thinking the computer has become possessed, she runs out of the room terrified. She then hears the phone ringing, and it is you from your hotel room in a foreign country letting her know that it is you who is controlling the computer.

Most operating systems come installed with remote desktop software, which can allow you to use a virtual private network connection and operate one computer from another computer. If you are concerned about having your laptop scanned as you go through the airport, it might be a good idea to just keep all your sensitive information on your home computer and then access that information from your laptop using remote desktop software.

5. You Can Use Your Internet Service Just Like A Phone Service

There are some companies that now offer a phone service called VoIP which stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, which acts just like a traditional landline phone service except it uses your existing internet connection to make calls. There is also free software available which can do the same thing, except you can just use your microphone and speakers on your computer to talk to the person you are calling.

One of the traditional benefits of having a landline phone is that it will still work during an event such as a power outage, so it is important to consider the fact that a VoIP phone line would not work at a time like this.

6. Your Neighbor Might Be Able To See Your Passwords

Even if you use a home wireless internet network that has a password to be able to access it, it is still possible to view somebody elsee data that is transmitted wirelessly. There are a number of different types of software and hardware that can be used to accomplish this, although it is much easier to view information that is unencrypted as opposed to password protected information. A popular wireless transmission protocol called WEP can be cracked without needing to resort to traditional methods such as brute force password attacks if you have smart enough computer software.

Every year in Las Vegas there is a conference called Defcon where the smartest computer hackers and programmers descend on the city for a few nights. Sometimes they will post something called the Wall of Sheep where they will run software that will automatically intercept any wireless data that can be interpretted, and if there is anything like financial data or account passwords they will post it up on the wall for everyone to see, because you were not smart enough to secure your data.

7. The Internet Can Be Accessed With Cell Phones And Mobile Devices

Most people who do not have the latest mobile gadget assume that internet access must be confined to a desktop computer or server, but in fact most cell phones and mobile devices that are being released today have built-in internet access. Some devices can make use of any Wi-Fi network that is within range to reduce any long distance communcation charges.

Today many important and essential functions can be performed using an internet-enabled cell phone such as internet banking or even trading the financial markets. Most new cell phones also contain the capacity to forward emails to the phone and even contain a typical computer keyboard for composing documents.

8. An .SHMTL Extension Means That The Web Page Is Secure

Most people are familiar with the basic extensions that web pages have such as HTML, HTM, or PHP, but the extension SHTML is not seen as frequently and it is important to note it when you see it. Todays web browsers can inform you whether or not a web page is secure, which means that any information that you enter cannot be intercepted, so it is a good idea to see whether or not you are on a secure web page.

As you might have guessed, SHTML would stand for Secure HyperText Markup Language or Secure HTML. This type of page format would not be important for a typical video or content site, but if you are on a web page where you need to enter sensitive financial information then it is important to know that your information is secure.

9. You Can Host Your Website From A Home Computer

It is possible to host a website using just a home computer without the need for a server room or typical hosting costs. While this is not an option recommended for people who do not know enough about computers to run an operating system such as Linux, there is no reason why you cannot use a fast computer to host your website from home. This option should only be used for small websites that would not attract a lot of traffic, such as if you just had some personal documents of files that you wanted to upload and have access to from any computer.

This approach has some obvious limitations and pitfalls, such as the fact that your computer could only handle a certain number of queries which would create a traffic bottleneck, and you need to keep your computer and internet access on 24 hours a day.

10. In As Little As A Few Years, Basic Internet Access Could Be Free

There are many skilled and brilliant people working at both large and small internet service provider companies in America and abroad, and with the incredibly rapid rate at which technological advances are occurring the idea of metering bandwidth and storage might soon be as outdated as 8-track players.

There was a time where 8-tracks were at the cutting edge of modern technology, but now they cant be given away. With large hosting and ISP companies switching to things like solar energy to run and cool their servers as well as microprocessor chips that are getting smaller and faster, surely prices will continue their descent downward to the point that internet access may become as universal and ubiquitous as water.