Desert Sky Computing

Is the Internet the same thing as WWW or Web?

No. Most people do use the terms interchangeably but they are not completely synonymous. They are related but separate.

The internet is a massive collection of networks. It connects computers globally in which any computer can access another as long as they know the URL (this is the unique address of the other computer or site.

The Internet is used to send information like email, instant messaging and FTP. (File Transfer Protocol)

The Web on the other hand is a way of accessing information over the Internet using a specially formatted language. This is commonly HTML

The first thing in most addresses listed in your browser used to be HTTP:// However, in an effort to protect users everywhere, there have been a lot of recent changes to how web browsers view webpages. In the image below, the first action was to put the letter "S" at the end of http to indicate the site was secure. Sites with https:// are more secure than sites with http:// However, it is not foolproof.

Depending on the browser you use, You will see a new group of symbols. All are designed to increase your security while surfing the web.

definition-of-https

The next improvement was to add the image of a lock. If your browser address bar displays the lock in front of https:// it should be secure. If you see the encircled letter i that indicates that there is information detailing the sites cookies and that the site is not secure. In addition a red triangle indicates that the site may be dangerous.

address-bar-warning

The World Wide Web is a system of internet servers usually preceded by www. that support documents formatted in what is referred to as HTML which is an acronym for Hyper-Text-Markup Language, this is an internet protocol. This protocol supports audio, video and graphic files as well as the text you read.

The WWW is a collection of all the webpages that makes up a large part of the internet. It is accessed by individual users using web browsers on a computer, tablet or phone.

Because of the unique ability for a web server to store formatted information and a browser having the ability to translate that data to the end user, it has become the biggest part of what we call the Internet.