FC

L
E
C
T Introduction to
U
R
World Wide Web
E
Fundamentals of Computing
Polytechnic Foundation Programme
1A 2022/23, Semester 2
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Objectives

At the end of this lecture, you will

• Learn about the World Wide Web and how it works
• Understand how the browser fetches and displays Web
Pages

Polytechnic Foundation Programme Lecture 1A

FC AY22/23, Sem 2 Slide 2 Last updated 05/09/22
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Topics

 What is WWW?
 History of WWW
 Types of Web sites
 How does WWW work?
 How does the browser fetch the Web Pages?
 Internet vs Worldwide Web

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What is WWW?
 The World Wide Web (WWW) is most often called the Web.
 Individual document pages on the World Wide Web are
called web pages.
 Web pages may contain text, images, videos, and other
multimedia components, as well as web navigation features
consisting of hyperlinks.
 Web pages are accessed using a web browser.

Ref: https://technumero.com/most-popular-web-browsers/
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What is WWW?
 The WWW provides a hypertext-hypermedia interface to
information resources in the Internet.
 WWW is a distributed hypermedia system.
 The basis of the WWW was developed at CERN
• an international high energy physics research centre near Geneva,
Switzerland by Tim Berners-Lee and co-workers in 1989

Ref: https://webfoundation.org

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History of WWW
 In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau collaborated on
ideas for a linked information system that would be
accessible across the wide range of different computer
systems in use at CERN.
 Over the next two years, they developed a collection of tags
that described how a document should look when viewed in a
browser.
 The system of Tags became known as HTML and created the
use of hyperlinks that now define the World Wide Web
(WWW)

Polytechnic Foundation Programme Lecture 1A

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Types of Networks

Name Description Type

Global communication accessed through the
Internet Public
Web

Shared content accessed by members within a

Intranet Private
single organization

Shared content accessed by groups through

Extranet Private
cross-enterprise boundaries

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Types of Networks

Ref: https://medium.com
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How Does WWW Work?

 Web information is stored in documents called Web pages
(created using HTML). 
 Web pages are HTML files stored on computers called
Web servers or hosts located around the globe.
 Computers viewing the Web pages are called Web clients.
 Web clients view the pages with a program called a Web
browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc)

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How does Web Browser fetch Web Pages?

 To retrieve a web page, you enter the web address (Uniform
Resource Locator or URL) of the page into your web browser.
This sends a request to the server that keeps that page.
 A web page address looks like http://www.np.edu.sg

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How does Web Browser fetch Web Pages?

 The server then sends the web page (HTML file) you want
to your computer.
 The web browser on your computer will then display the
HTML file as a web page on your computer screen.

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How does Web Browser fetch Web Pages?

 Most web pages nowadays contain images such as photos
and other graphic material or even videos

Video - How Websites Work

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Internet vs World Wide Web

 The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used
without much distinction. However, they are not the same.

 Internet
• A global system of interconnected
computer networks
 World Wide Web
• One of the services transferred over
these networks

Ref: https://www.javatpoint.com/what-is-world-wide-web

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Activities

1. Browse Ngee Ann Web site. Are you able to find the HTML
code behind the pages?
2. List FOUR of your favourite web sites and give three
reasons why you like the web site.
3. What are the benefits of Internet? Provide at least three
benefits.

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Reading Reference

 http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/
 https://www.explainthatstuff.com/howthewebworks.html
 https://www.javatpoint.com/what-is-world-wide-web

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Summary

 In this lecture you have learned:

• About the World Wide Web and how it works
• How the browser fetches and displays the Web Pages

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