What do you need to install on your computer to access the Internet?

Internet access requires the installation of browser software on your computer. To achieve broadband Internet access, in addition to the correct connection equipment, you also need to install "virtual dial-up" software on your computer. The essence of various virtual dial-up software is to implement the IP protocol.

A web browser (English: web browser), often referred to as a browser, is a An application for retrieving and displaying information resources on the World Wide Web. These information resources can be web pages, pictures, videos or other content, which are marked by uniform resource identifiers. Hyperlinks in information resources allow users to browse related information easily. (Recommended learning: web front-end video tutorial)

Although web browsers are mainly used to use the World Wide Web, they can also be used to obtain information from web servers in private networks or files in file systems.

Mainstream web browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

NCSA Mosaic enables the rapid development of the Internet. It was originally an image browser that only ran on Unix; it soon developed to run on Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Version 1.0 was released in September 1993. Marc Andreesen, head of the Mosaic project at NCSA, resigned and founded Netscape Communications.

Netscape released their flagship product Netscape Navigator in October 1994. But Netscape's advantage was eroded the next year. Microsoft, which missed the Internet wave, hastily purchased Spyglass's technology at this time and changed it into Internet Explorer, setting off a browser war between software giants Microsoft and Netscape. This also accelerated the development of the World Wide Web.

This war brought the Internet to millions of ordinary computer users, but also revealed how the commercialization of the Internet hindered the development of unified standards. Both Microsoft and Netscape added a lot of mutually incompatible HTML extension code to their products in an attempt to use these features to win.

The war ended in 1998 when Netscape admitted that its market share was irretrievable. One of the factors that allowed Microsoft to win was that it sold its browser along with its operating system (OEM, original equipment manufacturer); this also exposed it to antitrust lawsuits.

Netscape responded with open source code and created Mozilla, but this move failed to restore Netscape's market share. At the end of 1998 AOL acquired Netscape.

In its early days, the Mozilla Project struggled to attract developers; but by 2002, it had developed into a stable and powerful Internet suite.

The emergence of Mozilla 1.0 is regarded as its milestone. In the same year, Phoenix was derived (later renamed Firebird, and finally Firefox). Firefox 1.0 was released in 2004. By 2008, Mozilla and its derivatives accounted for approximately 20% of Internet traffic.

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