Understanding the internet and what it does can seem daunting, especially if your children are already logging on and clicking with confidence. But the internet isn't really scary as long as you know a few basics.

You can connect one computer to another using cables. These two connected computers are now a network and through that network you can share all sorts of information like pictures, music, words, data and video.

If you connect more computers to this network then those computers can share information too. Your child's school will most probably have a network where the users inside the school share information amongst themselves. Any computer connected to that network can share the information.

The internet is just a huge network with thousands and thousands of computers sharing an incredible amount of information.

The internet is international and it spans the whole world without any borders stopping its reach. It's totally open and designed so that anyone with the means to connect to the internet can receive the information on it or send new information to it.

From home you can connect to the internet with your modem or a broadband adapter. At work you may connect to the internet through a network which uses very high-speed cables buried beneath the ground. On the move you can even connect to the internet wirelessly.

There's no point having a large network like the internet if there's nothing happening on it. Things like the World Wide Web (WWW), email and chat are applications of the internet. They're things that you do or use on the internet.

The World Wide Web is the application which people use most often. It's a collection of web pages that usually contain text and pictures with information on them, and of course, links to other web pages. A collection of web pages are usually stored on a website, just as pages of information are put into books.

For example, bbc.co.uk/schools is a website and it has many web pages on it, like this page you're reading at the moment.

The World Wide Web is so called because it spans the world and is a web of connected computers. There are millions of web pages linking to each other in complicated, haphazard ways and if someone tried to draw all of the links on the internet it would resemble a very complicated maze. The web page you're on at the moment links to about 30 different other pages on its own!

Websites can offer all sorts of information to help your children learn and revise. The BBC Schools website has lots of sites with text and pictures, but also games, short tests and exams, sound clips and videos.

Back to top