This page is intended as a brief introduction to using the internet.

 

Internet Service Providers | Connecting | email | newsgroups | FTP | WWW | Search Engines | Links

  

It is so easy to be connected from home, work or even in public spaces that people find they are using something they know very little about. This is fine up until the point you have a problem, or you want to do more than the system you are using seems to allow. When this happens you are likely to find yourself asking for help from a knowledgeable friend or colleague or from the professionals who hooked you up to the net, the latter often costing you money as well as time.

I would always advise someone who is using a computer and then the internet, to invest a bit of their time in learning the basics - researching what they are becoming involved in. A computer is built to run applications, respond to instructions but ultimately it is under your control and how you use the software for the task at hand. If you do not know how to work the software, the computer will not function as you may wish. The problem is companies have developed systems that try to make things easy, allowing you to instantly achieve things with no previous experience. This can create ways-of-working that control you, making you work they way the software demands.

Don't be afraid of finding out more. There are many books, videos, TV programmes, web-sites, that can explain things to you. A small amount of research can open many doors and improve the internet experience.

Below are some specific areas to consider about using the internet, plus links to other sites that can offer further advice.

 

The ISP (Internet Service Provider) are the company that connect you to the internet. They will give you either software and information that you input on your computer or a CDRom that installs everything for you. The information that is used here is all to do with the address of your machine and theirs, how you connect and at what speed. Your computer needs to configure itself with this information in order to talk with the ISP's computers. It is always a good idea to find out what the details are and write them down. The most common problems when connecting for the first time will be to do with this data.

Choosing an ISP is now harder than ever with special offers, free access etc. This is where a small amount of research is advisable:

Check to see if the ISP offers telephone support services and how much they cost. Many of the free ISP's charge expensive per minute rates for this facility whereas pay ISP's may offer it free, 24hrs a day. You should expect to need their help.

Can you access your email from anywhere other than your registered computer. Some ISP's only recognise your access to mail via the phone number you provided on registration. You may find you want to collect mail when on holiday or from work.

Does the ISP own the computers and connections to the internet. Many ISP's are resellers of facilities provided by big communication companies and may share support services with other providers. The quality of service and access speed/time to the internet may be affected by being part of a much bigger supplier with many more users than they advertise.

A good place to find out more is in magazines such as the Internet Magazine, which provide performance tables for all UK ISP's with detail of their progress over the last six months.

Read the small print carefully when signing up to an ISP.

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Connecting. Your computer and modem are the main elements that affect your experience of the internet. The ability to run the latest Browser software, email and newsgroup utilities will depend on the operating system of your machine - Windows 95, 98 or NT; MacOS etc. - as new versions are created they rely on the facilities that the operating system provides. The amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) that your computer has is also vital. This is the area that holds information that you are using so the more you have the more you can look at, play, interact with and the faster things will seem. RAM is now quite cheap to buy and most computers allow you to upgrade easily - ask the people you bought the machine from.

The speed of your modem is also important. There are many factors that govern how quickly information is delivered to you from the internet - the speed of the connection from the ISP to the main internet highway; the number of people using your ISP at the same time; the number of people that are using the sites you are visiting, transferring files, sending messages - and at the end of all this the quality of the line to your computer and the modem on the end. The best you can do is make sure your modem is as fast as you can afford to get the best from your ISP. Check with them what they recommend you use they may even tell you how to update the facilities of your existing one. However if you want to experience all those things that the www seems to offer - live audio, video, interactive games and video conferencing you will either have to wait until your telephone company installs fast broad bandwidth connections for everyone or you invest in ISDN which requires a different kind of modem and has installation cost implications. Again your ISP should advise you on the most efficient way of connecting to them.

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Once you have a connection to the internet what can you access? Many people see the internet as just the World Wide Web and that all information is available on web-sites. But this is not the case and the www is a fairly recent addition to the network.

 

Email was one of the first developments and has now become a very popular form of communication. Not only does it allow direct communication through words, it also supports the sending of pictures sounds or any file that can be digitised. You can also subscribe to mailing lists that automatically send you news or information on a subject you are interested in.

 

Usenet Newsgroups, have also been around a long time. These are discussion forums that you sign up to. You can then post messages on a specific subject and read replies, follow other discussions and generally put yourself in touch with like-minded people from around the world. Nearly anything you can imagine has a dedicated newsgroup somewhere on the internet.

Your ISP may or may not give you access to news groups. If they do you can obtain free software to help you use them.

These are extremely useful places to go and have been around longer then the web. If you want to find out something specific try a newsgroup.

 

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the means by which you can access a remote computer, go through its database of files and download the ones you want to your computer. Many big mainframe computers allow anonymous access through ftp and have areas full of information and software, free to use. Ftp has been incorporated into www browsers but dedicated ftp software is still the best approach when looking to just obtain files for downloading and such software is available free.

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The world wide web has probably been the most important factor in the explosion of internet activity over the last decade. This is due to it allowing pictures, text, sound and moving-images to be presented together on any type of computer that has access to the internet. Whereas ftp and email allows you to get hold of these elements they may not necessarily be usable on the make of computer you have. The web however uses a language known as HTML (hyper-text mark-up language) which is basically a text file that instructs a viewing software, browser, where to find images etc, and how to organise them on the page. As more and more people started to create web-sites the demand for greater facilities, interaction and commercial uses saw the development of additions to html led by the creators of the browsers. So now you can have helper-applications and plug-ins that can do things that text instructions cannot. You will also notice Java and JavaScript mentioned around the internet. These are powerful scripting languages that can be run on your own machine as long as your browser lets it. This means you can interact more and view design features on sites that need computing power at your end.

The two main browsers in use today are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. They both can offer all the latest features, supporting lots of new script possibilities plus they can provide linked email and newsgroup reading facilities. The best thing to try to do is keep upgrading your browser to get the best out of the web. If you are really into surfing then you should get both types of browser as they have some unique features that make some sites work better.

 

Search Engines have become some of the most important sites on the www. Simply put, they allow you to search a vast database of web pages using keywords or questions and provide you with links to all pages that include the elements of your search. Their value is obvious. However take time to read the advanced search options as they will help you narrow down your possibilities. Also consider trying to locate something by searching for a related organisation or subject. For example if you were looking for information on music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, rather than typing his name in and getting thousands of pages that may only briefly refer to him you might start by searching for the British Music Information Centre (BMIC) which will almost definitely have details of specific web-sites or Publishers details. By thinking around a topic this way you can save a lot of time wading through vague links.

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Some useful sites:

What is - has explanations of most terminology you will come across on computers and the internet

Infoseek - search engine

AltaVista - search engine

Yahoo - search engine

Lycos - search engine

BMIC - great starting point for anything to do with British Music

Becta -

VTC - government based Virtual Teacher's Centre

Internet Magazine - find out about those ISPs

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