Question 1

What is the internet and how does the internet work?

Accepted Answer

What is the internet and how it works can be taken for granted. I strongly advise, if you don't really know how it works, that you take time to watch an 8-part video series from code.org (each video is extremely high-quality, well presented, engaging, short, and to the point).

When I first started online, I truly had no idea what things are. I found that series to be extremely helpful.

There are all sorts of terms and names you are going to hear when you are going to buy a domain name, when you are setting up a website, and so on and unless you understand these terms you are going to get lost and overwhelmed.

This series will answer a lot of terms like: HTTP, HTTPS, SSL, IP, DNS, and so on.

Have you wondered how does a song play? How does a picture load on a website? How does font become bigger or small? How are you able to send and receive a text message across the ocean?

All of this and more are answered in this 8-part video series.

This is the first video, "what is the internet?"

And to watch the rest of the series, click on this link for the playlist.

To get a copy of the glossary of common terms of online marketing and the internet, visit this website.

Question 2

What are Algorithms?

Accepted Answer

This video is an introduction to the basic ideas of algorithms. It explains how computers, websites and digital products need instructions that answer the question “what should I do next?” in order to complete tasks, serve customers and gather information. It teaches:

Why algorithms are similar to offline customer service
How to think about and visualize an algorithm
Why algorithms run our favorite websites
How a popular music website might use algorithms

Video Transcript:

When you visit your local coffee shop, it’s a nice feeling when they recognize you.

You don’t see it, but you can imagine the barista following a set of simple instructions in their mind when you walk in.

It may go like this: A new person arrived. Do I recognize them? If no, say “Hi!” If yes, go to the next step. Do I remember their name? If no, say “Welcome back.” If yes, address them by name.

Every day, this process repeats and customers experience great service. For a coffee shop, it works well because the baristas remember dozens of regular customers.

When we use things like websites and computers, a similar process happens. These technologies rely on instructions that are programmed to make decisions like the barista in our coffee shop.

These sets of instructions are called algorithms and they are a part of nearly everything we do in the digital world.

For example, when we take a digital photo, move a mouse, or type a word in the real world,

But on the web is where you’re likely to see the magic of algorithms in action. Whether it’s search results, your news feed, or your favorite app, algorithms are working behind the scenes to figure out what to show you next.

For example, a popular website may have algorithms that, in a blink of an eye, go through thousands of steps for millions of visitors every day.

Consider a music website that must always account for new music, changing user tastes and their business. Designing better algorithms can be a big way that they make their website better.

Here, algorithms help them understand who their visitors are,

It’s going through steps like these and thousands of others that are the building blocks of algorithms on popular websites. And they matter. Teams of people are constantly designing and updating algorithms to reflect changes over time.

When they’re working as designed, they can make your favorite websites feel more personal and useful.

You may even start to feel like the website knows you better than your local barista.

This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai as a free resource to help beginners understand the online world.

Eran is the founder of Dot Com Truths, a membership that helps entrepreneurs solve every day problems without the marketing hype or high ticket prices.

Eran lives off passive income thanks to affiliate marketing, his membership and freelance business where helps course creators and membership site owners with their software and technology challenges through 1:1 done-with-you services and information products.

Eran has a free Facebook group you can join. By answering the questions upon entry, you'll be given automatic access and an email with a free mini-course on how to start an online business. (keep an eye out for an email within the hour or requesting to join the Facebook group).

Question 3

What are the benefits of Investing Money?

Accepted Answer

What it teaches:

This video introduces the potential benefits of investing money in the context of taking risks. It describes multiple types of investing and what they all have in common, including:

Comparing saving and investing in the context of risk
Being prepared to lose money
Examples of investing in business, stock market and antiques
How to know if investing is right for you

Video Transcript:

Most of us look forward to a comfortable future. To get there, you’ve got to be smart about using your money to make more money.

We know that putting money in savings helps you make more money over time thanks to interest. It’s predictable and based on an interest rate. However, there are ways to make more money if you’re ready to take risks.

Consider this. You’re here and you want to be here. You have a choice between two options: going around the mountain, which usually takes 5 hours. It’s very predictable. Or going over the mountain, which can shorten the trip to two hours. It may seem like an easy choice. You can get there 3 hours earlier by going over, but there’s a catch. You might get stuck in the snow, which is a risk that can make the trip even longer than going around the mountain.

The best way to deal with risk is to be informed. If you do your homework, like checking the weather reports, you’ll have a better chance of making a smart decision.

Now, of course I’m not talking about getting from town to town, but reaching your financial goals. Having a savings account is predictable. It grows steadily with interest. Investing, on the other hand, can grow your money much faster, but there’s also a chance you could lose some of it.

There are many ways to invest. Let’s say your friend is opening a coffee shop. She needs money to buy the beans and supplies. Because she can’t afford everything, she asks people like you to be investors. You can see that this is a big risk, but you do the research and find that a new coffee shop could do very well.

So, you give her company money and you become an owner in a tiny part of the company. That bit of ownership represents the money you invested. If the coffee shop business is slow, your investment may shrink. But if the coffee shop is successful, your investment could grow with the company. It may take time to see the outcome, but you’ve bet that your money would grow faster in an investment than the modest earnings in a savings account. That’s what makes it risky. It’s hard to know how an investment will do over time.

The same is true for the stock market. When you buy stocks, you’re buying a tiny portion of a large business and betting that the business will do well over time, increasing the value of your investment.

Now, the stock market and private businesses aren’t the only kinds of investing. Let’s say you’d like to invest $500. You find antiques that you believe will be worth more in the future. If you’re right, you may be selling them for $750 in a few years. If you’re wrong they may be worth only $400. By investing you’re taking a risk, and you have to be ready for both outcomes.

Whether it’s a friend’s coffee shop, the stock market, or antiques, the big ideas are the same. Savings accounts are predictable and may be a good choice. But if you’re ready to take the risk that you might lose money, you could put your money into an investment that has the potential for a much bigger payoff.

Investing is serious business, and every investment comes with different risks. Do your homework, and discuss your plans with a financial professional before getting involved. If you plan for the long term, you may find that a comfortable future isn’t too many years away.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here:https://www.dotcomtruths.com/

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 4

What  is Privacy Online?

Accepted Answer

This video helps students understand the reality of using the Internet today in terms of privacy. It explains how our actions online are tracked and used. It teaches:

Why privacy online is different than it is in the real world
How nearly everything we do online is documented and analyzed by companies
Why our data is important to the success of online companies
How our data enables websites to be free
What we can do to understand how our data is being used and make choices to protect it.

Video Transcript:

In the real world, privacy feels like a choice. We can close our blinds. We can choose to keep quiet or stay inside. And even when we’re in public buying groceries or talking with a friend, privacy feels like the default. No one’s analyzing our every move.

It might also feel private when we go online and use websites and apps to have discussions, to share photos, and schedule appointments.

You might ask: Does anyone really care about my location, my purchases or what photos I liked on the Web?

The answer is likely “yes”. Many of the websites we use everyday depend on knowing as much as they can about us. The more they know about our actions, preferences, connections and data, the more their service can be tailored to serving our needs - and that is part of what keeps us coming back.

But our information is also valuable for their business. If a company knows the connections and preferences of millions of their users, they can use it to improve their advertising or may even sell this information to other companies.

This, and money from targeted advertising are big reasons many social networking sites are free to use.

So, unlike the real world, privacy is not the default online because websites depend on tracking and remembering information about us.

And this is not necessarily bad. In most cases, we are just one of many millions of users and our data is used as a group and not individually.

But the fact remains that nearly everything we do online is documented somewhere, which brings up important questions like - Who has access to my information? Do I have any choice? Can I see the information a company has about me and how it's being used?

To be more informed about online privacy, here’s what each one of us can do:

Second, every major website has a policy that states how our information is being used and what choices we have. Read them.

Third, find out if those websites have privacy settings that we can manage.

Fourth, learn about settings on our computers, web browsers and devices that can increase our privacy.

Part of being happy and productive online often means sharing some personal information. Before you share too much, take the time to understand your options and how your information can be used in the future.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 5

What is Encryption on the Web?

Accepted Answer

Encryption is fundamental part of using the Internet securely, but it is mostly invisible to the user. This video explains the basic idea of encryption and specifically the two types of keys that are used online: symmetric and public. It teaches:

Why encryption matters on the Web
An example of encryption used in history
The basics of private key encryption
The basics of public key encryption
How public key encryption works when using a bank website

Video Transcript:

These days we use the Web to communicate more than ever - and much of what we say is sensitive. From private email messages to bank transactions - we need ways to use the web with confidence. Encryption, which makes online communication unreadable, is what helps give us this confidence.

Encryption is an old idea. For millennia soldiers have needed a way to send messages that couldn’t be read by the enemy. Instead of writing a message using normal words, they substituted letters in a systematic and secret way.

This is called a key. This key for example, is “three letters” which means moving the alphabet over by three letters. And by knowing the secret key, the message could be decoded.

This basic idea is what keeps our communications secure on the Web today. Instead of using the alphabet, this encryption involves computers and serious math, so the code is nearly impossible to break.

On the Web today, most encryption in managed through two different types of keys. They are Symmetric and Public Key Encryption. A popular analogy goes like this…

Alice and Bob need to send private messages to one another using the postal service. They decide to use a box with a padlock and two identical keys, one for each person.

With the keys in place, they can send the box back and forth and open it with the keys. This is called symmetric encryption.

On the Internet this means that the exact same digital key must be used to encrypt and decrypt the message. And that’s a problem. If a key is lost or stolen, the whole system is compromised. And when more people need more identical keys, the risk goes up.

A more sophisticated way to share keys, especially on the Web, is to use Public Keys. In this example, Bob sends Alice an open padlock (or public key), and keeps his private key. She then uses it to lock (or encrypt) her box before sending it back. This way, when it arrives, Bob can open it without having to share his private key with anyone.

On the Internet, this means that a bank website can automatically provide a public key to your web browser.

With the key in place, banking information sent from your browser can be encrypted so the only thing that will unlock it is the bank’s private key.

Once it’s unlocked, and everything checks out, you can do business securely with the bank website.

It is this system, behind the scenes, that gives us confidence that information we share on the Web can be kept private and secure.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 6

What is an Open Source Software?

Accepted Answer

What it teaches:

This video follows the story of a software developer who created a new tool and is trying to figure out how the tool will be shared and supported in the future. It teaches:

Why open source makes sense for some types of software
How open source differs from closed source, or proprietary software
What motivates people to work on open source projects
How businesses work with open source software

Video Transcript:

Let’s say you’re a programmer and you’ve created what you think is an amazing tool for other programmers. It took you untold hours to develop the recipe for making it work and now you’re thinking about the future.

How will the tool reach people? How will it be supported and improved over time? What are your goals?

One popular option means keeping the recipe private, making a commercial product and competing with other tool makers. Here, you stay in control of the tool and have the potential of building a business around it.

When a tool like software is under the control of a single company or individual and the source code is private, it’s called closed source or proprietary software.

In most cases, the company puts restrictions on the tool’s use, keeps the source code secret and may maintain and support the software over time.

And this can work very well. But it also comes with risk. If you’re not able to make a profit, it may be difficult to support and maintain your product.

There is a fundamentally different way to think about the future of your tool. It’s called open source. Here, instead of controlling the source code, you license it in way that encourages sharing.

For example, an open source license may state that anyone can copy, modify and use the recipe as long as their contributions are also freely shared.

A big idea behind open source is that the best tools come from the free flow of feedback, ideas and modifications. By choosing to share the recipe as open source, your work becomes a starting point for anyone to access and improve it over time.

While open source projects vary, larger open source projects are often managed by volunteers around the world who are motivated by learning, experimentation and a sense of community.

While the source code can be free, some companies build businesses by customizing, supporting and maintaining the tool for others.

And it works. The Wordpress blogging platform, the Mozilla Firefox browser and Apache, the world’s most widely used web server software, are all open source projects.

The future of your new tool is up to you and there is no right or wrong direction. If you’re ready to accept the risk and work to build and maintain your proprietary tool, you could keep control of the source code and even build a business from your efforts.

But if you’re more motivated to see your tool improve in the hands of many people over time, open source could be the best option for you.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai

Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here:https://www.dotcomtruths.com/

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 7

What is a Computer Hardware?

Accepted Answer

What it teaches:

This video introduces three parts of computer hardware: hard drive, RAM, processor. The video uses a house metaphor to illustrate the role of each part, including:

The three common parts of all computers
Role of hardware to store information
Role of RAM to make some information easy to access
Role of the processor to keep them system working

**Video Transcript:

If you’re like most people, computers are becoming a part of your life, and it helps to know how they work. They seem complicated inside, but by understanding just a few parts, you can see a simpler side of computers.

You’ve seen them. They come in all shapes and sizes, but work pretty much in the same ways. In fact, if you could look inside these computers, they’d have the same basic parts. It’s these parts, the hardware, that do a lot of the work in computers.

To explain, let’s look at something you already know, a house. One of the great things about living in a house is that you have room for all of your stuff. In fact, many houses have basements that become the perfect place for storing things you want to use later. And the bigger the basement, the more you can store.

The same thing is true for computers. Instead of boxes and bicycles, we need a place to store things like photos, music, documents, and software. In a computer, it’s not the basement, but a hard drive. A computer’s hard drive is where you keep all the things you want to use later. And like basements, the bigger the hard drive, the more you can store.

But basements aren’t perfect. Going to the basement takes too much time whenever you need something. Closets on the main floor can help. They’re small, and make things easier to access when you need them. You don’t need to go all the way downstairs.

It’s the same with computers. Some of the information stored on computers is hard for the computer to open quickly because it needs to take the long way. To solve this problem computers use RAM or Random Access Memory. It makes information easier for the computer to access. This means RAM makes computers faster. Plus, this kind of closet gets cleaned out every time you restart your computer.

Of course, houses have all kinds of parts that need to work together. It would help to have someone like a butler in the house making sure the house is always in working order. If it’s too hot, maybe the air conditioning needs adjustment. When it’s dark, lights are needed.

Computers need this too. Something has to make sure all the parts run smoothly. In computers, this is called the processor. It’s a tiny part that’s like the butler of the computer. It sends and receives information, completes tasks and puts the software to work. And the faster it can complete tasks, the faster your computer will be.

So, let’s review. The hard drive is like a basement. It stores all the things you need for later. RAM is like a closet on the main floor. It makes some information quick and easy to access. And the processor is like having a butler around always completing tasks and making things work together.

The next time you use a computer, think about what’s happening under the hood. Computer hardware is working together to help you get things done.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here:https://www.dotcomtruths.com/

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 8

What is Constructive Criticism / Feedback?

Accepted Answer

What it teaches:

The difference between constructive and destructive criticism
How to provide feedback that is helpful and useful
Why it is important to focus on a person’s work and not their personality
How a team can be successful using constructive criticism and feedback

Video Transcript:

Hello from the CC Robotics Competition. As the teams are diving into the challenge, we’re seeing that team communication helps solve problems and fill the gaps they need to reach their goal.

For example, Team Orange is struggling. They have skills and talent, but can’t seem to get along. The problem is that feedback often leads to hurt feelings and defensiveness. When Neil proposes a new idea, his teammates dismiss it and say it’s Neil’s fault the team is falling behind. This causes Neil to lose confidence and tune out. Without Neil’s help, they’ll never win.

Team Blue, on the other hand, has made amazing progress because of how they communicate. They’ve learned to provide feedback that feels respectful and productive.

Here we can see two two kinds of criticism: Constructive and Destructive. Team Orange’s approach is destructive because it points to problems without addressing how to fix them. It’s discouraging to team members. Team Blue’s criticism is constructive because it recognizes problems, but remains encouraging and focused on the work required to be successful.

Here’s how it works. Each team member is different. Khalid is quiet and diligent. Toshi has high energy. Carmen can get distracted. And Heather is assertive. The team recognizes that a person’s personality is different from the quality of their work. To win, they focus feedback and criticisms on the work and not the person. That’s part of what makes it constructive.

Khalid was nervous before presenting his design. The team was careful to focus on the design and not his personality or abilities. This helped him feel confident and motivated.

When it’s Carmen’s turn, it’s obvious she’s been distracted and falling behind. Her teammates are disappointed, but don’t want to discourage her. So, they focus on positive aspects of her work and provide specific steps she could take to help the team reach their goal.

Toshi is enthusiastic and sometimes becomes a distraction to others. Heather decides to help and chooses to speak with him privately so he’s not embarrassed in front of the team. She is careful to focus on his contribution to the project and specific examples of distraction that causes problems. To help, Heather also described a situation where she was a distraction to others and how it caused a problem.

This made Toshi feel better. He was thankful to hear the feedback privately and agreed to tone it down.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here:https://www.dotcomtruths.com/

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 9

What is a Computer Software

Accepted Answer

This video introduces the role of software in making computers useful. It focuses on different kinds of software and software's roles in computers and other tools we use every day, including:

The role of software as a translator
How operating systems cover the basics
How software programs help to customize computers
The role of software outside of computers

Video Transcript:

It’s easy to think of computers as just machinery – buttons, screens and parts that work together. But the magic of computers comes from something that makes them unique to you.

The problem with computers is that most of us don’t speak their language. We need a translator, something that can understand our needs and put the computer to work for us. The translator is called software and it makes computers useful.

Look at it this way. Like a typewriter, a computer without software is just a lifeless machine. By adding software, the computer becomes more alive, easy to use, and built for you. Most computers have two basic kinds: The operating system and software programs.

If you’ve ever used a computer, you’ve used an operating system. From saving files, to using a mouse or fixing problems, the operating system covers the basics. Operating systems come with all new computers and do a lot of same things. You’ve seen them called Windows, Mac and Linux.

But the operating system is only part of what we need. To make them personalized and more useful, we can add software programs. For example, if you need to edit a photo you can add a software program that is built for that purpose. If you need to design a house, you can add a software program that lets you see the house from all sides.

By adding and removing software programs, you can make the computer fit with exactly what you want to do. And adding most software programs is easy. You can get them from a computer store or download them from the Internet. No computer nerds required.

Once a program is on your computer, opening it is as easy as clicking an icon.

But what is a software program? What’s really happening when you open one? Think about it this way. Computers are really good at following instructions. And a software program is essentially a set of instructions that tells the computer exactly what to do.

When you open a program, the computer goes to work, completing the instructions until the program is ready for you to use. The ability to add and remove software programs means that everyone’s computer can be different and unique to them.

So, to review. We’ve talked about operating systems that take care of the basics, and software programs that make computers personalized. It’s this combination that makes computers so useful. But it’s not limited to computers on your desk.

Consider your cell phone. Just like a computer without software, it’s a lifeless machine that doesn’t speak our language. Thankfully, cell phones have software that bring them to life.

The same thing is true for many cameras, music players, and even our cars. Every day we rely on software to bring machines to life and make them personalized and useful.

The next time you use a computer or cell phone, think about software’s role in translating your needs into instructions that put the machine to work for you.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 10

What is DNS? How does DNS work?

Accepted Answer

DNS stands for Domain Name System. To answer this question, here is a short video that explains.

To complete this FAQ, here is the transcript of the video:

Hi there. In this video, you’ll learn about a crucial part of the Internet – the Domain Name System or DNS.

So what is DNS? Well, it’s a translation system that allows us humans to search the Internet using language we’re comfortable with. Without DNS, the Internet as we know it would not exist.

For example, you couldn’t do your shopping online; you’d have to drive to an actual store to buy your things. There would be no way to stream music or videos to your smartphone, and no way to video chat with a friend across the ocean, or even across the street. But what does DNS have to do with this?

The Internet is made up of computers that are set up in large networks around the world. These networks are connected by a web of underground and, in some cases, undersea wires.

Computers on the Internet communicate with each other using strings of numbers called Internet Protocol or IP addresses.

Now it’s one thing for computers to communicate using strings of numbers, but imagine if we humans had to memorize these seemingly random strings of numbers for every single website we wanted to find – not very realistic, huh? Well because of DNS, we don’t have to.

DNS translates the human-friendly domain names that we’re comfortable using, into the IP addresses that computers need to communicate with one another. The process starts with you and your web browser.

When you type a domain name into your web browser, your browser and computer determine if one of them already has the domain’s related IP address in their memory.

If it’s a domain you’ve visited recently – like the newspaper website you visit every morning, your browser may have stored the domain name and its IP address in memory, and can display the website in a split second.

If the domain isn’t hanging around in local memory, your computer takes the search out to the Internet, where it asks, or queries, a series of DNS servers, if they have the domain name in their memory or database.

The first DNS server that receives the query, checks its memory for the domain name. If it doesn’t find the domain name in its memory, it sends the query on to the next DNS server to see if it can help.

As soon as the domain name is found on a DNS server, that server returns the domain name and its associated IP address to the requesting DNS server, and on down the line until it arrives back at your computer.

Each time a requesting DNS server receives a domain name and IP address, the server stores the information in its memory, so any future requests for the domain name can be answered more quickly.

Once your computer has the IP address for the domain name, your browser knows where to find it on the Internet.

Your browser uses your computer to communicate with the server where the domain name is hosted and requests any associated files.The host server returns the files which then display your web browser.

Our ability to use domain names to quickly and easily retrieve websites and files from the Internet is entirely dependent on this tightly integrated and tiered line of communication.

So the next time you buy a pair of shoes online, listen to some music on your smartphone or video chat with a friend on another continent… remember, it’s not magic that lets you do things on the web – it’s DNS.