Multimedia communications is provided
through World Wide Web sites. Two companies, Netscape
and Microsoft, currently provide the vast majority of
browser software packages in use. These client
software packages provide a core set of
standards-based capabilities. In addition, each
provides "extensions" which offer unique
features to its users.
The browser software conveys the user's
requests for web pages to the server software that
hosts the desired page. The page is identified by its
URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which is sent to the
server as part of the request.
Pages are written in a language called
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and can be designed
for compatibility with multiple browser types by
careful design of the code.
Browser software interprets the HTML code
and creates the display for the page. Because
different browsers do not work exactly the same,
pages may appear differently on browsers from
different companies, or even between different
versions of browsers from the same company.
Pages are hosted by a web server that
responds to requests from the browser. The
information for a single web page may be contained in
multiple files and the server retrieves these files
and sends them to the requesting browser. An
interactive site is accomplished by designing dynamic
information that depends on user input into the
pages. This dynamic information can be generated by a
program running on the server, or it can be the
result of software executed by the browser, such as
Java or Active-X components.
Internet service providers (ISP) offer
virtual web site hosting services. Subscribers to
these services can place their web pages onto the ISP
server and have their web addresses point to this
virtual site. Generally this type of hosting is best
used for sites that are not interactive.
Where a highly interactive web site is
desired, a dedicated web server can be used for the
site. This server connects to the internet through an
ISP and provides the programs required to generate
the interactive pages dynamically in addition to
serving the static pages used in the site.
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