Today, working on the Internet, by many called the World Wide Web, which, in general, is somewhat incorrect, you will not surprise anyone. But here to view the World Wide Web requires a few prerequisites, which not all novice users know about. So, let's figure out exactly how we need the tools.
What is the World Wide Web?
In general, the term World Wide Web, today denoted by the abbreviation WWW, officially appeared back in 19989, when Tim Burns-Lee proposed to the world the use of, so to speak, a global and comprehensive project for the publication of linked text documents.
The same time applies to the emergence of the HTML markup language and the basic identifiers WWW and HTTP. Since then, the World Wide Web has received its unspoken name of the World Wide Web. Documents, as a rule, are placed on physical servers or virtual web servers, which are capable of not only displaying the actually created documents (pages), but also generating them based on special scripts. Hence the simplest conclusion: to view the World Wide Web, you must have support for these elements. Let us dwell on each of them separately.
What you need to view the World Wide Web: First Steps
It goes without saying that the initial condition for accessing the global information space will require communication. By basic definition, these are services that are provided by a special service called a provider. It is he who is responsible for communication using his own servers and multi-channel access to remote systems.
As already clear, without an Internet connection, there can be no talk of any page views. So, to view the World Wide Web requires a connection. This can be either connecting a single computer terminal or laptop, creating connections on a local network with a single access of all terminals to the Internet through a central server, using a wireless connection or a modem connection.
Browser
But this is far from the only condition for viewing the World Wide Web. What more is needed? One of the main elements of any system designed to work on the World Wide Web is the presence on a computer, laptop or even a mobile gadget of a special program or several programs called Internet browsers.
Today, you can find a fairly large number of them. The most popular are Opera, Google Chrome, Chromium, Mozilla Firefox, etc., as well as Internet Explorer, which is installed by default on any Windows operating system (in Windows 10 it is the Edge browser). Their basic settings in terms of additional elements that are assumed by modern technologies will be discussed a little later.
The exact address
So, we sorted out the browser. What else do you need to know for sure to view the World Wide Web (WWW)? Of course, the so-called URL.
You can compare it, for example, with the home address of the person (very conditionally). Roughly speaking, each page is located on the server only if it is assigned a unique identifier (in our case, the location address, which is sometimes interpreted as the concept of a hyperlink). The convention is that in one apartment, for example, several people can live, but for all of them the address of registration is common. For pages or sites located on the same server, the main address will also be shared, but each page additionally has a separate link so as not to search among their number for the one that contains the necessary information. By the way, here it is worth paying attention that in the world there are no two identical addresses. In some ways, this is similar to a system for identifying computers by unique IDs.
Among the addresses of all types, standard ones can be distinguished, those starting with http: // www. (just www. or without using it after the first link), as well as addresses like https: // www., corresponding to the entrance to the protected zone.
Support for ActiveX controls and add-ons
In addition to everything described, one should take into account the fact that in the general World Wide Web system for viewing you need to be able to use some additional elements that can be used on sites or web pages.
So, for example, in the "native" Windows browser, this is support for ActiveX elements and executable scripts, which significantly expands the capabilities of not only the browser itself, but also the storage of completely different information on sites.
However, it is generally accepted today that the most common add-on in the form of a special plug-in (add-on) for browsers is Adobe Flash Player, which is responsible for playing audio and video of various formats on the Web. As such, the program does not start in the browser (that is, you do not need to start the application manually, as is done for a regular executable EXE file). It starts automatically when you click on the corresponding link or when you click the play icon in the player window on the site.
Antivirus protection
Again, and that's not all. To view the World Wide Web, you must have powerful antivirus software in your system. It’s good if you use "OSes" like Linux or Mac OS X. For them, there are no viruses, since they simply do not work in this environment.
Another thing is Windows systems. Since their appearance, viruses have become a real global problem. And if earlier one could “catch” a virus, say, from a floppy disk, now self-copying viruses can be transmitted not only on local networks, but also be present as threats only with a standard transition to a web page. It seems that we don’t need to talk about the consequences of the impact of such threats, because it can be either a harmless program or a serious enough product that can steal confidential information from a computer or server, and even completely disable the operating system or some of the hardware components of the computer .
Even native Windows security features (a firewall or, as it is also called, a firewall) are very conditional and far from perfect.
Conclusion
As you can see, not so much is required to view the World Wide Web. True, some additional elements and programs intended, say, to use e-mail, create and publish your own information materials in the form of integral sites, to upload files to a site (upload) or to a computer (download), CSS technology and etc. However, in this case only certain mandatory conditions were meant, which are basic for all systems.