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™ Doing a theses in Masters on "Self-sufficiency in the Modern World" , Communication skills for OAP and mobility restricted adults. So any new links to interesing topics will be put up here for anyone's benefit.
"The internet creates excellent opportunities for seniors to meet people, conduct business, plan travel, access records, stay in touch with friends and family, and support hobbies and entertainment interests. You can learn how to take advantage of the opportunities without falling prey to predators so you can have peace of mind when you go online." Came across this on my travels and think it could be interesting
and a pretty useful tutorial for anyone who is not comfortable with things like "Double Clicking, Drag and Drop and Copy and Paste using a PC Mouse. Here is the Link to the website that has the download link on it.
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.
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.
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.
Disconnecting a dial-up connection
( Applies to Dial up only) Though the Internet is addictive, at some point you have to disconnect, especially if
you're paying by the minute for access. To do this, close all your Internet Explorer Windows and you'll probably be
presented with a dialogue box prompting you either to stay online or disconnect. Click the Disconnect
button and your PC will sever its connection. If you don't receive this prompt, it probably means that your Internet
Explorer Auto Disconnect feature has been disabled. To switch it back on, run Internet Explorer, open the
Tools menu and select Internet Options. In the box that will pop up choose the Connections
tab, select your dial-up connection from the list and click Settings. Another box will pop up, in which you
should click the advanced button. You'll now see a final dialogue box in which you can check the
Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed box. Another way to disconnect is by right clicking the
Connections icon generally a graphic of two connected PC's, that appears in the Notification area of your
Taskbar when you're online, From the options that appear, click Disconnect. When you're disconnected, the
icon will either vanish entirely or be obscured by a red cross.
How do you spot the fakes?
A number of web sites exist to expose fake sites and frauds.
If you are unsure if a site is genuine then check these sites to see if it is listed there as a fake. A quick search here could save you a lot of embarrassment!
Snopes is a really great site for checking out anything you think might be an urban legend, hoax or scam. It keeps a huge archive of examples of urban legends, myths and hoaxes - so if you do have suspicions about an email check this site to see if it is a hoax. Office of Fair Trading: Advice on Scams gives the official line on what to do if you become a victim of Internet fraud and has good advice on how to spot scams and frauds. Scambusters gives information about how to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, or of frauds such as pyramid selling, or money laundering scams.
Urban legends
Urban legends can be harmless but only if you realise they are not actually true!
What are urban legends? They are stories or rumours that have been circulated from person to person. In the past they were spread by word of mouth but now are often spread via email or web sites. Some may originally have contained elements of truth, but have become distorted by mistakes being made in the retelling. Others have been complete fabrications from the start.
Warning: if an email contains a phrase like: "Please, send this message to as many people possible!!!!" it should alert you to the idea that you may be looking at an urban legend and so the last thing you should do is forward the email to anyone.
The Internet is awash with false information, which people endlessly forward on to others believing it to be true. They become SPAM that clogs up the networks and peoples' email, misinforms them and wastes their valuable time.
Phishing:
Many Internet fraudsters use a technique called "phishing" - sending out hoax emails, which look like they have come from your Bank or other online account such as Ebay Paypal. often say that there has been a problem with unauthorised access to your account, or that you need to reconfirm your details for security reasons. Links in the email would take you to a page that could look like it belongs to your bank, where you will be asked to enter your passwords and personal information. If you followed these instructions and entered your details you would be enabling the fraudsters to access your accounts. It might be safer to use a search engine to find the web site of your bank than a link in an unverifiable email.
Internet Explorer and Firefox Tips:
Favourites and Bookmarks
Look at the top of the Internet Explorer window and you'll see a Favourites menu. This is where you can
store links to Websites you intend to come back to, whether they're sites that you visit frequently or pages that
you've stumbled across and don't want to forget about. To add a site to your Favourites list, simply go to the
relevant site and click the Add to Favourites option in the Favourites menu of your browser's menu bar. A box will
come up win which you can rename the link if you wish. Then click OK and the page will be added to the
bottom of the Favourites menu. When you want to visit the site again, simply go to the menu and click the
appropriate item, in Mozilla Firefox its the same thing but its called Bookmarks..easy.
Internet Explorer Tips
A short and sweet tip to make reading easier. Hold down the ctrl key and press - to zoom out or + to zoom in to any Web page. Alternatively, you can use the alt key to select the toggle option and use the up and down arrows to select the right size for you.
Firefox Tips
To grab files off a Web page that has been protected or just can't, just right-click on the page, choose View Page Info, then the Media tab. Find the file you're looking for from the list and click on Save..
To start downloads instantly, instead of right-clicking on a download link, choosing Save to Target and pressing enter, just drag the download link to the downloads icon in the toobar. The download will start automatically. If you can't see the downloads icon:
CLICK View>>Toolbars>>Customise
FIND the download icon
DRAG it into the toolbar
Found a sweet software especially for Mozilla Firefox users. Can't keep track of all those pass words?? when using mozella it automatically saves the passwords which is great but what happens when we forget the password and all we see are asterisk .!!!! Well here is a FREE program for Mozella users that will list out all the passwords that Mozella had saved. Then click edit, select all and save the file as a text fill in a safe place.
Deleting visited URLs: When you drop down the box underneath the address bar, you can see your recent browsing history. But what if you want to remove one URL from that list? Maybe you've been shopping for your loved one online and you want to keep it a secret? Just drop down the URL box, highlight the URL you want to zap then press Delete. The URL will then be removed from the list.
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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
