What is the Internet?

The Internet itself is the catch-all word used to describe the massive world-wide network of computers. The word "internet" literally means "network of networks". In itself, the Internet is comprised of thousands of smaller regional networks scattered throughout the globe. On any given day it connects roughly 15 million users in over 50 countries. The World Wide Web is mostly used on the Internet; they do not mean the same thing. The Web refers to a body of information-an abstract space of knowledge, while the Internet refers to the physical side of the global network, a giant mass of cables and computers. Unlike other public telecommunications networks, it is not managed by a single corporation, government agency, or other entity. Rather, it is a cooperative interconnection of many such single-entity networks.

How was the Web created?

The Web began in March 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (a collective of European high-energy physics researchers) proposed the project to be used as a means of transporting research and ideas effectively throughout the organization. Effective communications was a goal of CERN's for many years, as its members were located in a number of countries.

How does the Web work?

The Web works under the popular client-server model (browser). A Web server is a program running on a computer whose only purpose is to serve documents to other computers when asked to. A Web client (browser) is a program that interfaces with the user and requests documents from a server as the user asks for them. Because the server does a minimal amount of work (it does not perform any calculations) and only operates when a document is requested, it puts a minimal amount of workload on the computer running it.

How is everybody connected?

Commercial service providers build networks by leasing dedicated phone lines and/or virtual circuits from phone companies, and attach no content restrictions to the use of their networks. Most of the service providers connect to one or more other service providers, thereby extending the reach of their networks.

Why should I use the Internet?

There are five important reasons why the Internet is having such an impact on business worldwide:

The Internet enables companies to interact with any other business using the Internet, anywhere else in the world.
The Internet is everywhere: currently, there are more than 25 million users of the Internet, and that figure is growing at a rate of 10 percent per month.
Because of its inherent high-bandwidth capacity, the Internet can accommodate the many diverse forms of your company's communications with suppliers, business partners, and customers--from simple text to graphic images and audio clips.
Finally, when compared with the alternative networking and communication technologies, Internet access costs are surprisingly modest.

What is HTTP?

HTTP stands for HyperText Tranmission Protocol, the language that Web browsers and servers use to communicate with each other. All Web clients and servers must be able to speak HTTP in order to send and receive hypermedia documents. For this reason, Web servers are often called HTTP servers.

What is HTML?

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, the standard language the Web uses for creating and recognizing hypermedia documents. HTML is widely praised for its ease of use. Web documents are typically written in HTML and are usually named with the suffix ",html".

What is an URL?

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, what HTML uses to represent hypermedia links and links to network services within documents. It is possible to represent nearly any file or service on the Internet with a URL.

What's the average age of people online?

The average age of users is 34.9 years old. Average age has been slowly but steadily increasing. (Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

What's the gender ratio & how has this changed over time?

The gender ratio is nearly identical to the Fifth survey, with 31.4% female and 68.6% male. European users are still predominantly male (80.2%). There was a slight increase in the percentage of women over age 50 in the survey (Sixth: 27.1%, Fifth:24.7%). It is interesting to compare these percentages to the First Survey conducted in Janauary 1994 where 95% of the users were male, and the Third Survey were 82% of the users were male. (Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

What about location, marital status, & occupation?

The percentage of respondents from the US increased in this survey to 82.7%. This is even higher than the percentage in the Fourth survey (80.6%). 83% of female respondents were from the US, but all locations were more gender-balanced in this survey compared to previous surveys. Older respondents are more likely to be from the US than younger respondents (89% of those over 50 compared to 75% of those 19-25).

There was a slight increase in the percentage of respondents who are married in all categories. 45.7% report being married and 36.7% report being single. More Europeans that responded from the US report being either single or living with another. Almost 3/4 of those age 19-26 are single, while almost 3/4 of those age 50 and over are married.

There was a slight increase in the percentage of users in Management and Professional categories. European users were more likely to be in Computers or Education than their US counterparts. Women are only half as likely as men to be in Computer related fields, but are equally likely to be in Management or Professional positions. More than half of those age 19-25 are in Education (which includes being a student). Those aged 26-50 are more likely to be in Computer fields than any other. (Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

How often do people use the Web instead of watching TV?

Almost 37% of respondents claim that they use the Web instead of watching TV on a daily basis. An additional 29.03% say the Web replaces TV on a weekly basis, usually more than once a week. This pattern almost exactly mirrors the pattern found in the Fifth Survey. These number when used in conjunction with the use of the email. (Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

The internet user profile......

The average income of the net user= $66,700 per year

81% attended college
59% are professional managers
31% are self employed
68% make 3+ direct mail purchases a year!

(Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

What internet users do.....

82% browse
59% education
53% work
31% business research
10% go online strictly to shop!

(Based on GVU's Sixth Annual Survery)

What's the difference between an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and a Website development and hosting company?

An ISP provides an account or "dial-up" service, allowing you to browse or "surf" the Web using an Internet browser such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer or the like. Some ISP's also provide Website design and development. A Website development and hosting company designs and develops Websites and serves them to the Internet for people around the world to view.

*When choosing an ISP, you may wish to consider using a local ISP or National. If you travel and wish to go online outside of your local area, a national ISP may be the right choice. Many national ISP's provide local dial-up numbers in most major cities throughout the U.S. and abroad. A local dial-up number will let you go online without the long distance charges.
*When choosing a Website design and development company, many prefer to use a company dedicated to this area as opposed to an ISP. A dedicated design and hosting company does not have the high level of maintenance required of ISP's and therefore can often times offer better Website maintenance and administration.

How do I get an email account?

Many Website design and development companies and Internet Service Providers (ISP's) provide email accounts for a small setup and monthly administration charge. To find out about the email services provided by Future Focus Inc., visit our Products and Services page.

My company is not "technology" related-- why do I need an online presence?

It is not necessary to be in "technology" to utilize the benefits of an online presence. Many companies go online to make their products and services available while others use the Web strictly for advertising, making their addresses and email addresses available to those interested.

Why do I need a domain name?

Although it is not necessary to have a domain name, it is professional and does simplfy how people can find your Website. Domain names should be made available in company literature, on business cards or any form of company advertising. Ex: mailers, radio ads, billboards, etc..

What does Website Hosting entail?

Hosting can either be simply giving you a disk storage space and access (FTP) on a Web Server or giving storage space, maintaining the Website (editing) and administering email. In both cases, disk space and 24 hour Internet connectivity make up the base fees.

How much does it cost for a Website?

The cost of a Website depends on many variables including but not limited to: Amount of Website content, level of interactivity, amount of graphic development, level of maintenance (updates) and bandwidth usage. To find out more about Website development provided by Future Focus Inc., please visit our Services page.

With all the talk about 56k modems, are they really worth having?

We find that the biggest complaint about surfing the web is the slow speed at which web pages download. The 56k modems are reportedly running at nearly twice the speed of todays standard 28.8k. Faster modems mean faster downloading, faster downloading means getting more work done in a shorter period of time or going to your favorite Websites in almost have the time.

Ok webheads, no laughing! we get this question all the time.

I've been told I can easily build my own Website--is this true?

Absolutely! Constructing Webpages can be a somewhat easy task. There are numerous HTML editors available to contstuct Webpages. The downside is that while basic pages are fairly easy, the level of programming is limited. This means that the level of interactivity and the overall look of the site will, in most cases, be limited. To have a Website that meets todays professional standards, a few areas must be considered. These areas include but are not limited to: graphics development, level of interactivity, animation, database integration and security. To find out more about the Website development services avialable at Future Focus Inc., please feel free to visit our Services page.

Can I host my own Website and how do I accomplish this?

Yes. Do you want to? that is another question. To host a Website, one must have a significant amount of hardware, a full-time Internet connection ($$) and a computer dedicated to serving Websites. In most cases, the cost is prohibitive and you may be better off paying a hosting company to host your Website.

To find out more about the Website Hosting services available at Future Focus Inc., please feel free to visit our Services page.

What do I need to get "online"?

Depending on your Operating System (O/S) you will need a dialer, an Internet account, and a browser such as Netscape Navigator. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP's) provide software that comes with a preconfigured dialer and a browser. Most ISP's offer a support line to help you with installation.

If I put my corporate LAN (Local Area Network) online, what are the security risks?

Any time you connect a computer(s) to the internet, you are opening yourself up to possible security risks. The minute you plug into the internet, you have opened a door to the whole world. Although this sounds frightening, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce your risk to a minimum. The first, and easiest, item to check is your passwords on your machine. You need to verify that all email, FTP, telnet, etc. passwords are not easily guessable. Many corporations go a step past this and put hardware or software firewalls in place on their gateway to the internet. Firewalls allow your network administrator to limit the access users have when coming into your network from the internet.

Are financial transactions over the internet safe?

No one wants unauthorized people to view their credit card accounts numbers, debit PINs, or bank transactions. Many steps are being taken now to provide a layer of security around all financial transactions on the internet to make them as safe as possible. All the methods which are currently available, or in the works, use some form of encryption technology to scramble all your transmissions so that hackers cannot read the information even if they intercept it. The current SSL encryption, which is available in Netscape and Internet Explorer, uses a 40 bit key. The larger the key, the harder it is to crack and decrypt the information. Current US export laws restrict the size of the key that may be used. It was proven that the 40 bit key can be broken in a reasonable amount of time if the hacker has enough computing power and knowledge of encryption. However, the number of people in the world with this knowledge, computing power, and capability is very small. You can read more about these certificates at the RSA website. For most transactions, the current SSL encryption provides adequate security.

What are "cookies" and do they pose a risk?

Cookies are bits of information which a website can send to your browser. When you browser returns to the website that gave it the cookie, it sends it back to that server. Cookies are commonly used to remember passwords, items in a shopping cart, or keep track of where a user goes within a website. There are people who feel cookies are an intrusion into their privacy since some websites use them to track the progress of a user through their site, and track what ad banners users click on. Cookies can NOT damage files on your hard drive, give you a virus, or expose any of your personal information on you computer to people on the internet. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer allow you to check for incoming cookies, but turning on the cookie alert quickly becomes annoying when visiting a website that uses cookies. If you are not concerned about webmasters knowing where you are browsing within their site, or what ads you click on, then leave the cookie alert off and just let the cookies flow.