How do you connect to the
internet and display a page.

For many computer users

An internet connection is the main reason for buying a PC, This isn't surprising, from surfing to shopping to staying in touch, the internet is an amazing tool, and it's one that is becoming ever more integral to the way in which we live. The following paragraphs cover the basics getting online, surfing, searching and using email. If you want to know more check out this book "The Rough Guide to the Internet" you can even buy it online. Don,t forget if you have children surfing the internet, use The ParentalControl Bar
Google also have a useful "booklet" titled " 20 things I learned about Browsers and the web"" which can explain some of the basic principles of using the Internet.

Modems and Network Interface Cards

Modem, a piece of hardware that lets your computer communicate with other computers via a phone line. Now more modern PC,s may be equipped with other hardware such as Network Interface Cards, and don,t come with a modem. These are used to connect broadband to a PC, which means the internet is usually on permanently, and no need to disconnect, unlike dial up.

ISPInternet Service Provider, A company that will provide you with an Internet connection. i.e. Eircom and IOL. Shop around when choosing an ISP, Package deals usually work out more economical, check Internet magazines for reviews. Callcost is a good site to compare the cost of personal/non-business mobile, home phone and broadband price plans.

The majority of broadband subscriptions in Ireland are still over the old-fashioned phone line. But other technologies are catching up fast. Here's a summary of what those technologies are, where they are available and how much they typically cost.

Fixed line DSL

This is the most common type of broadband usually for business and it comes through your copper telephone line. Speeds vary from one megabit per second (1Mbs) to almost 20Mbs, although the highest speeds are only available in a very small number of urban areas. Most fixed line DSL services are now bundled with telephone services. An entry-level bundle typically costs about 40 per month, including line rental. Providers include HomeVision (mostly Dublin based) , UPC & UTVInternet Ireland etc.

3G mobile broadband

This is the fastest growing form of broadband in the country. It works using the mobile phone network. You buy a USB stick or a dongle from one of the mobile phone operators ( Vodafone , Meteor, O2 , Three.ie & eMobile) and insert it into your laptop USB port. The stick picks up the mobile broadband signal and connects you to the internet. 3G broadband speeds vary from about 0.3Mbs to about 3Mbs, although operators often claim they are capable of up to 7.2Mbs. A 3G broadband service costs around 20e per month and can be used on a bill-pay or pay-as-you-go basis (check table below for PAYG Rates). The service is available in all cities, large towns and suburban areas . Another option is the increased data plan some of the mobile operators are providing to their customers smartphones. The phone, such as any Android or Symbian smartphone, can be used as a wifi hotspot to connect up to 3 or 4 laptops or computers to. No cables or Bluetooth are necessary for the software promises a one click experience for Internet connectivity

Fixed wireless broadband

Many towns and cities can now receive wireless broadband services from companies such as Irish Broadband , Permanet & Aptus , Westnet etc.( depends on your area), and often include telephone service as well. This service works by placing an antenna on top of your house. The antenna receives a wireless broadband signal from a nearby mast. Speeds vary from 1Mbs to 6Mbs. The service costs from 23.89 a month.

Cable broadband

Both NTL and Chorus (which are part of the same company, UPC) offer broadband services. These range from 1Mbs to 20Mbs and are usually part of a bundle with telephone and television services. Over half of NTL/Chorus customers can receive this broadband. The service costs from 22e per month.

Data caps: a limit on your downloads
Most broadband services have a monthly limit (or data cap) on the amount of information or files that you can download each month. Most people will never exceed these data caps, which are typically 10 or 20 gigabytes. However, if you wish to download videos and films, you might reach this data cap quickly: an average film takes about 0.7 gigabytes of space to download. Once a data cap is breached, the operator will slow your broadband service down until the next month begins. This is to discourage further heavy downloading.

Browser: to display Web pages. Examples of browsers: Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox , and the new Google Chrome. Most Windows Operating Systems usually comes with Internet Explorer installed. One surfing technique that can come in very useful is to hold down Shift on your keyboard while you click on a link. This will open the page that the link leads to in a new window.

Search Engines : they are huge databases that index millions of Web pages, allowing you to search quickly and conveniently for the item your want.You go to the Website,type in a word or phrase and after a couple of seconds you'll be presented with a list of links to websites that contain your text. There are loads of search Engines out there-On the top right are a list of a few of the best.

Surfing

A Web browser is the only piece of software you need to surf the internet. it's the program through which you view websites and navigate between them. I have already mention the different browsers on the introduction to this page, but because Internet Explorer comes pre-installed in Windows its as good as any. It,s easy to use, and looks and works in a similar way to the Windows Explorer program that you employ to browse through your files and folders. To open Internet Explorer , click its blue e icon, which you'll find on the Taskbar, in the Start menu or on the Desktop. When you do this, Windows will probably open the connection panel for your ISP and ask you to enter your password. Do this, and press Connect (this can be ticked in a checkbox so it can come on automatically every time you open Explorer).

Once your PC has connected to the Internet, a Website, probably your ISP's, will appear in the main section of your browser, To visit a different site, simply enter its address or URL such as www.google.com in the address bar and then either press the GO button to the right of the address bar or hit Enter on the keyboard. If you using an older version of the Explorer program, you may have to put http:// before each www address, But newer versions don't require you to do so. After a few seconds, the page should start to appear in the window. It's as easy as that. Move your mouse around and over a Web page and you'll probably notice that at various times, when your pointer is hovering over some underlined text, for example, it turns into a little hand. This means you're pointing to a link , which can be clicked to trigger your browser either to download a new page or to take you to another part of the current one. Click with the mouse and you'll go to the new location.
This is what surfing is all about, browsing from page to page by clicking links. Using the back button or forward buttons on the toolbar will return you to a page that you've just backtracked from.

Home page

Once you're set up with an ISP, you'll probably find that every time you start Internet Explore you'll be magically transported to their own website, a cunning ploy to increase the value of their advertising space, which is calculated by the number of visitors. however unwilling. If this happens, its means that they set their site as your home page . But this isn't a permanent fixture, and you can make any site you like your home page, a news provider , perhaps, or your favourite search engine . Or you could choose not to have a home page, so that you get a blank window waiting for instructions instantly when you open your browser. To set or delete your home page, open Internet Explorer and select Internet Options from the Tools menu. Enter the address of your desired home page, or click the Use Blank button, and click OK

Email

EMail, short for electronic mail has become the standard way by which business communicate, over seas friends and family stay in touch and office employees chat to their peers instead of doing any work. For the uninitiated, it may seem like a simple, perhaps even silly, concept, you type a message on one computer and send it to another instead of simply picking up the phone and talking in person.

But as anyone who has tried email will tell you, it's not only a great deal of fun but brings about a whole different mode of communication, as informal and instantaneous as a phone call but will all the benefits of good old-fashioned letter writing. It also lets you do lots of clever stuff, send one message to lots of people, forward a message you received to someone else, attach documents and pictures to a message so that the recipient can open them on their machine, the list goes on. To receive email you need an email address, which like a real address is what the sender adds to their message to direct it to you. An email address always looks something like this. myname@myISPorcompany.com.

When you sign up with an ISP you'll automatically be given an email account and asked to choose one or more email addresses. Email accounts like these, which are called POP3(Post Office Protocol 3) accounts, require an email program a piece of software for writing, sending , receiving, storing and managing your mail. Your ISP may provide you with an email program when you sign up. but a good one, called Outlook Express is built into Windows. A new email account may either set itself up for use with Outlook Express automatically, or by means of a self-explanatory wizard.

TIP: Other free Desktop Email programs are: IncrediMail, and Thunderbird 2. Want to configure your favorite Desktop Email program to access GMail? Click Here. .

Web-based email

An alternative to using a POP3 account is to use a Web-based email account from one of the many free online providers such as Google, Yahoo and Hotmail , of all these three, i have found the Google gmail account the best for storage, junk mail filtering with out any pop up adverts. Tip: If your Irish and rather get a " yahoo.ie" than a " yahoo.co.uk " email address click here. With these accounts, you don't use an email program, but simply visit the Website of the provider, http://www.yahoo.ie or http://www.hotmail.com, or http:www.googlemail.com enter your username and password, which you'll be given when you open the account, then send, receive, store and manage your emails online. The advantage of Web-based accounts is that you can easily check your mail on any computer in the world that's connected to the internet, and you can delete unwanted emails without having to wait for them to download. However, they do have their drawbacks, some have quite bad security records, you can only store a certain amount of mail at any one time, you can't view your mail without going online, and everything takes longer, especially if you have a slow dial up connection. The best option is to open a Web-based account gmail as well as your normal POP3 account. They don't cost anything and can come in very handy, because you can access them from anywhere if you travel a lot.


Googling With The New Google Chrome!

It is official you can now Google within googles very own web browser, called Google Chrome. . Google chrome has many advantages to it and these advantages may be more than enough to convince internet users all over the globe, to make Google Chrome their default browser. It is extremely fast and one slow site won't drag your browsing down, which is what we are commonly customised to. It is great as with Google Chrome you can grab a tab and literally drag it out onto its own independent window. You are also able to use web apps without opening your browser, as well as being able to see your downloads status at the bottom of your current browser. With Chrome you barely notice it is there, the majority of your screen space is devoted to the site you are visiting, so there is nothing hogging space. There are various new features and advantages to Google Chrome making it officially the latest and greatest new web browser around. Guys at Google claim that Google Chrome is apart from other browsers as it creates a new process for every tab opened. Spyware in one website/tab will not be able to affect other tabs. Google Chrome boasts of very high security with minimal browser features.

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Last updated: April 15th, 2011
Created Sept 6th, 2006