A modem is responsible for getting a connection to the Internet Service Provider, ISP for short. A router enables multiple devices to get access to the internet Wirelessly. Often, the two devices will be combined into a ‘gateway’, and since the early days of router, the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Browser vs. Search Engine
A browser is a downloaded application that makes it possible to get on the Web, whereas a search engine is a website that makes it possible to access sites without knowing their exact address.
Html and CSS
Every website has at least one html file. These files contain text, with certain markers for how computers and/or people should read said text. Html offers features which can make text bold, italicized, underlined, stricken through, highlighted, large, small, linked, and quite a bit more. Html is the information itself while CSS, on the other hand, is used to modify the presentation of information. It can change the color, size, border, background, font, spacing, alignment, margins, et cetera of the text. These two languages, along with the programming language JavaScript, make up most of the content on the Web. (By the way, HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.)
TCP/IP
TCP/IP, short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, is the designated operation where computers on the internet send and receive information packets. The ‘TCP’ portion of the protocols is the program that collects and reassembles the received data. The ‘IP’ portion is responsible for ensuring that data goes to the right place.
Domain vs URL
The domain is sort of like the address of a site. It’s stored in what’s called the DNS (Domain Name System), which is utilized for computers to travel to all sites. There are two to three aspects of a domain. First the top level domain (TLD), which is the ‘.com’, ‘.edu’ ‘.gov’ portion of the name. Then the second level domain (2LD) would be what is considered the site name itself, like Google. The optional third level domain (3LD) would be pertaining to mainly regional variations of a site, like ‘en.wikipedia.org’. A URL, on the other hand, pertains to the thing that’s listed at the search bar. Standing for Uniform Resource Locator, it does contain the domain, but it also incorporates a transfer protocol (https://) and the site’s path (everything to the right of the domain). You’ve probably figured out that modifying the text in the search bar can take you to different areas of the site, like if you deleted the path, you’d end up on the home page.