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Nearly everyone uses the internet and visits websites, but most people don't know how it works. It's like me and my computer
monitor; I'm pretty well versed in all things computer, but I have no idea about how my monitor works. For all I know there
are little pixies in there that draw pictures and letters on the other side of this glass.
So I can't help you with your monitor, but if you are a new website owner, or just a curious individual, I'll try to explain
how it is that these websites get transmitted to the little pixies inside your monitor.
First of all, the internet is made up of millions of computers connected to each other all over the world. When you log into
the internet your computer connects to a special computer at your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) location (AOL, Earthlink, Juno,
RoadRunner, etc.). That computer is connected to thousands of other special computers, called "backbones". Those computers
connect to other computers which are connected to the millions of internet users internationally.
People use these connected computers to chat, email, share files, and (ta da) visit websites.
Websites are like computer programs stored on special computers. You connect to these special computers with your web browser
(Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc.). Your browser interprets these programs written in a language called
"HTML". When you type in "www.cnn.com" your browser connects to your ISP, which connects to other computers, which connect to
the computer on which cnn.com is stored.
The special computers on which these websites are stored are called "servers" or "webhosts". Website owners rent (although there
are free hosts out there) disk space on these computers from these webhosts. For Divergent Lines clients I connect to these
special computers via something called "file transfer protocol" (ftp). When connected to these computers I add, delete, or
modify files kept there to make your website look and act the way you want.
Besides HTML, there are other programming languages used in the development of websites. JavaScript, Java, PHP, MySQL, ASP,
and several others.
If you need professional help with your website, please contact us. We can help with
whatever stage of development you are in, from conception, to making your first sale, to trying to make your thousandth sale;
if you have a question about your monitor, I'll let you talk to my hardware geek.
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