Basics Applications

The basic web applications

Web Browsers ,   Email ,    FTP ,    Publishers ,    Command Line

There are thousands of applications / programs that can be used in conjunction with the internet. This page is here to introduce you to the basic ones you should be aware of if you have a website and some of the advantages they have.

Browsers

are the interface that most people use to access the internet. Internet Explorer, Mozilla or Firefox, Opera, Netscape, and Safari are the most recognized web browsers, though there are quite a large number of them out there. Every web browser is has different features, but most of them share some core abilities. While the language may differ a little or the features found in a different place many browsers offer the same features. Check out some of the really great add ons that are offered. Sea Monkey is the Mozilla Suite and provides not just a browser, but an email client, and a web site publisher with an FTP connection.

What are the different Email systems?

Email or electronic mail
is a way to send messages, letters, and memos to another person. The message is delivered to the other person's electronic mailbox. Because a mailbox stores messages, it does not matter if the person is online. They can pick up those messages at anytime. An email address is set up with the format username@domain. For example- webmaster@mysiteisdown.com, webmaster is the user name and mysiteisdown.com is the domain that it is attached to thus creating a unique email address on the internet. The domain portion of the email address is what the internet uses to locate where it should send the message. Email servers use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, (SMTP), to relay messages from one computer to the other. An email client is an application that allows users to interface with the email server to send and receive email. To access an email server, a user must log in with the user name and password. An email client may be a web based application, (such as gmail), an application on the users computer, ( like outlook or macmail), or an application on a cell phone or other hand held device. ( An email client is ONLY an interface, the email address must already exist on the public internet before it can begin receiving email.)

Web based email clients
usually do not require any setup outside of the original sign up. Most of the time the web interface requires only that the user enter the email address and a password, the system does the rest. The greatest advantage to these systems are that they can be used from any computer connected to the internet. The disadvantages are they do not offer as many options, they are usually much slower, and there is no automatic notification that you have a new message. Some of these systems may also require that your computer connect to a port that is being blocked by your internet service provider, firewall, or antivirus system making it impossible to open the page. Many of the web based email systems offer their own email services. Most people are more familiar with these free email account system, such as yahoo, gmail, and hotmail. There are other companies that simply provide an interface that allows users to access their email without signing up for any account. An example of this would be mail2web.com.

Computer application email clients
are programs that are installed on a computer. A user must then set the program up by giving it the proper information for connecting to the email account they wish to send and receive email from. Before an email client can be configured, you must know what type of email account you have. Usually there are several options for setting up an account. These options usually include, (but are not limited to):
Exchange Server: A server system is set up to store and exchange email messages. This type of setup is often found in businesses and companies that provide internal email for the employees. Exchange allows users to sync multiple email clients and mobile devices for the same email account. A change made on one, is seen by all the others. Exchange boxes will sync multiple applications- email, calender, tasks, and address/contact lists. It allows access from any computer that can connect to the internet through a web mail or email client system. It allows you to share your email, calender, tasks, and address/contacts or parts of them with others on the same exchange system.
POP: POP3 is the current standard for Post Office Protocol, a specific method for storing and receiving incoming email messages. The most important thing to remember about a POP system is that once you have retrieved the messages from the email server with a POP client, you will NOT be able to retrieve the same message with a second POP client. Many people use a POP system such as Outlook or Thunderbird at both their home and their work place. If you click the button to receive mail while at the office, you will NOT be able to receive the same email message a second time if you go home and hit the send/receive button. The emails you receive in a POP client can only go to 1 computer. Email messages are copied to your computer's hard drive so once they have been downloaded, (or “popped down”), they can be opened and read even if the computer is not connected to the Internet. POP clients allow the user to sort their emails by creating rules and folders. Many email clients allow the profile to be migrated so email messages can be backed up to multiple places ensuring that important email files don't get lost should something happen.
IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol was designed to fix the flaw POP systems have with only going to 1 computer. An IMAP system allows users to access the same email messages from multiple computers. You can get a copy of the same email on your home computer, work computer, and laptop. This is possible because the email client simply makes a copy of the email stored on the server. It is superior to web mail systems because you can use the email client's ability to create rules and folders to sort email. The biggest disadvantage to IMAP is that the email messages can not be accessed unless you are connected to the internet.
HTTP: This is used for connecting to those web based email accounts, like hotmail. Back to the Top

What is FTP?

FTP is File Transfer Protocol. It is a means of transferring files from one computer to another over the internet. FTP came into use even before the world wide web was established. It is the fastest way to transfer files.
FTP is the mode of transfer used by most publishing systems such as DreamWeaver.
FTP requires an FTP client to connect to an FTP server. The FTP address is usually referred to as a remote host or FTP host, remote site, or FTP site. Many systems will simply use the domain name.
FTP requires a log in system with a user name and password. Anonymous FTP allows users to connect without this set up, but does not allow the user to make changes.
It requires a port to connect to. The default port for FTP to connect to is port 21.
There are several connection types it can make. Passive mode or several different secure modes.
Unless using command line, most FTP clients look similar. The left hand side shows directories and files on the local computer. The right hand side shows the directories and files on the remote server. FTP clients usually allow a simple drag and drop of files from one computer to the other. Users can move hundreds of files at once. If a user is sending files from their local computer to the remote server, this is called Uploading. If a user is grabbing files from the remote server to their local computer, this is called Downloading. Most Internet Service Providers have a much faster download rate than upload rate. Back to the Top

What's a Publisher?

A publisher is a program that enables people to create a website. The most popular publishers are Front Page and Dreamweaver. There are a large number of programs that allow users to create a website and most word processing programs will even allow users to to save their document as an HTML. The only problem is that the code created is not the cleanest code so the pages are not optimized to run as quick as they could, but a very viable option for the total beginner that has no idea where to start.
NVU Free Publisher
Kompzer Free Publisher
Sea Monkey Free Mozilla Suite w/ publisher
Aptana Free or Pro Version
Selida Free HTML editor
HTML Kit Free HTML editor
CoffeeCup Publisher
Adobe offers free 30day trial of dreamweaver
Microsoft Expression Web Free Trial
PageBreeze Free or Pro Version
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Command Line? Isn't that just for geeks?

Command line is not difficult, and it is very useful for diagnosing issues. To access command line using Windows, from the keyboard press the Windows button and the R key. The run box should appear. Type in cmd and hit OK. The command line prompt will be launched. For a MAC go to Applications and choose the program Terminal.