Hey, Scotty, Beam This

I believe one reason that most seasoned adults have a problem with the Internet is that they really don’t understand a few facts. Being a “senior citizen” myself I grew up in the days of the “How and Why” books. Very few of us would just accept “because” for an answer.

A simple explanation is that when your computer transmits data via the Internet, the data goes from your screen into your computer where it is taken apart bit by bit and “beamed” via the Internet to another computer that puts it back together from the bottom up. Just like the transporter from Star Trek.

A more complete explanation, although a bit technical in nature, is a white paper^[O1] written by Rus Shuler “How Does the Internet Work” (Just click on the different colored text called a “hyperlink” and you should get a new window transporting your computer to that site via servers, routers and wires using DNS, URL, IPS and ISPs. If you do not get a new screen or are not transported to that site then you have a “popup stopper” preventing it. There should be either an information drop down at the top of this screen under the “address bar” giving you options and instructions for continuing.

As you can already see the language, or the lingo of the computer does take some getting used to. Email us here at Fort Hard Knox with your questions about the Internet. We will try to answer them and perhaps write a story. Names will be withheld to protect the novices.

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^[O1] White Paper: A formal report. It gets it’s name from being bound in white. Originated in government slang.