Newbie Guides Top Tips and Tricks Internet Tips

Useful guides for high power readers looking for Internet tips and tricks.

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Internet Tips and Tricks - Part 1

103. Keep A Log As you surf the World Wide Web you are bound to subscribe to various newsletters, bulletin boards, chat forums, or sign up for several free email accounts. Many of these services require that you register and get a user name and password. You’ll need these each time you log on. Even though you can tell your computer to remember these keywords, sometimes they get erased as a result of a power failure or unexpected crash. Therefore, it is essential that you keep a log with your various user names and passwords handy. Each time you sign up for an online service simply jot down your key words.

104. Free Email With so many free email services offered on the World Wide Web, it might be wise to have several accounts. It is becoming more common for information gatherers to ask for your email address along with your other vital statistics such as name, address, telephone number etc. Recently I was offered 15 percent off my next purchase at one of the major book retailers just for giving them my email address. Email is often used for various promotions and solicitations just as snail mail is. To avoid having your personal email box cluttered with commercial offers, why not have one of your free email accounts bear the brunt of the promotions that are sure to come as you become more active online.

105. Basic Search Engine Among its many functions, the Internet has to be the world’s most comprehensive library. Whenever a question comes up, get in the habit of using this wonderful resource. One of the more popular search engines should help you in your quest for knowledge. Simply type in your question or keyword and hit the send button. Chances are good you’ll end up with an answer.

106. Free Home Page Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide some disk space on their servers so clients can create a Web page or two. Check with yours to see if this is an option and what you need to do to get your pageup if it is.

107. Time Tracking It’s easy to become distracted during a fun or productive online computer session. Sometimes you’ll open several programs and forget about the Web while working. All the while, time is ticking away. That’s not much of a problem if the arrangement you have with your ISP allows for unlimited use. But if you are being charged by the hour, precious time could be wasting.

108. Setting Up Internet Explorer Setting up a computer to connect to the Internet sends fear into the hearts of some people, but not those with the proper resources. Actually, setting up Microsoft Internet Explorer is as easy as following some very simple instructions. Let’s walk through it.

1. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, and Communications.
2. Select Internet Connection Wizard and click. If Connection Wizard isn’t there see step 12.
3. Here you’ll find three options. The first two will assume your computer has a modem installed and a phone line is connected.

a. sign up for a new Internet Account.
b. transfer an existing account
c. connect manually or through a network.

4. Select one of these options. (Most people will choose from the first two) Click Next.
5. Enter the number your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has given you as the dial-up connection. Click Next.
6. Enter your user name and user password. You’ve probably agreed on a user name and password when you first contacted your ISP, if not, call them for instructions. Sometimes you can simply enter the name and password you intend to use and your ISP will make note of them when you enter all of the information.
7. Type the name of your ISP.

Your Email Account

8. Now set up an email account. You’ll need to enter your name, user name, and email address. Often, but not always, it will be your user name. If you have a common user name, it’s likely to already be in use by someone else. If this is the case, choose another. For example you might pick, scotsmist@talk21.com.
9. Check with your ISP for the mail server question or try entering “mail” and the provider’s name. In our example it would be mail.talk21.com.
10. Finally, enter your account name, scotsmist, and your password where requested. You can logon to the Internet automatically (without stopping to enter your user name and password each time) by checking the Remember password box. There should be no need to check the Secure Password Authentication box unless instructed
to do so by your ISP.
11. Click Finish.
12. If the Internet Connection Wizard wasn’t on the Communication panel in Accessories, go to your desktop and right click on the Internet Explorer icon, choose Properties, click on the Connections tab, and press Setup. Then follow instructions 3 through 11.

109. Change Your Homepage To set, or change the Home page (the Web page that first displays when you log onto the Internet) in Internet Explorer, logon to the Web and go to the page you want to use as Home. Click Tools in the menu bar and select Internet Options. Click on Use Current. From then on, that will be the first page you see when logging on. There is always more than one way to accomplish something with Windows. If you know the URL of the page you want to set as Home, go to the desktop, right click on the Internet Explorer icon, and select Properties. This will take you to the same dialogue box you found in the previous example. Now you can simply type in the URL and click OK.

110. Connection Options The method you use to connect to the Internet will often determine the speed of your connection. Most people use the 56 Kbs (kilobits per second) modem that came with their computer to connect via a telephone line. However there are a couple of alternatives to phone modems. First there’s the cable modem. This uses the same type of coaxial cable as your television but isn't available in many UK areas. It allows you to connect using an additional cable jack and will not interfere with your television. Connection speeds vary from 300 Kbs to 1 Mbs (megabits per second). Then there’s Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) a high-speed connection available almost everywhere in the UK. It works with your telephone line but allows you to use the phone while online. Connection speeds are as high as 1.5 Mbs.

111. Finding Online Freebies There are so many free offers available on the Internet it can sometimes become overwhelming. With a few mouse clicks you can find everything from clipart and coffee, to magazines, voicemail, email, and Web pages. Why is there so much free stuff in cyberspace? In the meantime, go to any major search engine, type in “free offers” or simply “free stuff” and get your freebies now.

112. No Banners Tired of banner advertising popping up when navigating the Web? Want to do something to stop it? Several companies make software that block banner ads. Many of these programs are free. To evaluate which one is best for your needs, go to your favourite search engine, type “Block Banner Ads” in the query field, and take your pick from the many offered.

113. Censored The best way to keep children from straying to Websites you’d rather they didn’t visit, is to monitor their use of the computer. Of course, that isn’t totally practical for most parents. The alternative is to employ filtering software such as Net Nanny. When activated, this program keeps users from accessing inappropriate material. It can also deny unauthorised individuals the use of personal information.

114. Free Software Among the many useful free things you’ll find on the Web are software programs. They’re easy to download when you know how. Simply follow the instructions on the Website you’re downloading from. Just before you receive the download, the computer will ask you where you want to put the file. You should have a folder where you keep all of your downloaded files ready before you start. To create a folder, on the desktop, click My Computer and select (C:). From here right click on any empty space. A menu will appear. Select New. Another menu will appear with several choices. Select Folder. Give this folder a name like “Web Downloads” or something similar. Now you’ve got a place to store your Web files. When the dialogue box appears asking where you want to store your download, it will ask, Save As? Click on My Computer, select (C:). Here you will find your new Web Downloads folder. Select it and the program will be stored there for easy future
access.

115. IE Toolbar Goodies To view the many shortcuts available in Internet Explorer, right click on an empty space in the toolbar and select Customise. This will bring up a menu allowing you to add or delete tools.

116. Check Connection Speed To check the speed of your Internet connection, place the mouse cursor over the connection icon in the Taskbar. The connection speed will be displayed. For more information, right click on the icon. This will tell you how long you’ve been online, the amount of data received, and a button for disconnecting.

117. Add A Favourite A quick way to add a Web page to your favourites file is to press the Ctrl and D keys together. If the page belongs in an existing folder, you can go back later and drag and drop it into the destination folder.

118. Another Search Basic Search engines can be extremely useful in finding information on the Web, but each one has its own little quirks. Before using a search engine, check out the Help section most offer. Here you can learn methods for maximising your search with that particular engine. If you have trouble locating information on one engine, try another.

119. Find The Boss Ever visit a Website and find absolutely no reference to the owner of the site. You can learn the registered owner of a domain name rather easily. You’ll need to log onto the Internet and go to http://www.whois.co.uk. Near the top of the page on you’ll find a text box labelled "search name".” Type in the domain name that has aroused your curiosity select the extension from the drop down list and then click go. The registered owner will be displayed.

120. Check The FAQ FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs are almost standard operating equipment on most Websites, chat and bulletin boards these days. Before posting a question or mailing a busy webmaster, go to the FAQ page and read through it. Chances are, your question is posted there along with a satisfactory answer. It can be considered bad netiquette to ask redundant questions.

121. Page With A View The View option in Microsoft Internet Explorer offers useful and convenient assistance for your Web surfing pleasure. Inside of View, under Toolbars, you can add and remove a wide range of useful tools allowing you to scroll backward and forward to pages, easily cut and paste, refresh the page, access email or print what’s onscreen. You can look at a log of previously visited pages in History, and enlarge the page you’re viewing. The pop up menu found under Explore Bar splits the screen into two windows allowing you to access MSN for a Web search of people, places, and things; it can display your Favourites folder or History as you surf; provide access to many discussion boards, and offers a computer or Web related Tip of the Day, courtesy of MSN network.

122. Setting Browser Font Size Internet Explorer allows you to set the size of the text you see on Web pages, from very small to very large. Go to View and select Text Size. A pop up menu will appear with a several choices for text settings. Experiment until you find one you like.

123. No Cookies Thank You Cookies are messages sent to your browser by some of the Websites you visit. They are designed to identify you based on information collected from previous visits and customise future content, sometimes offering you specific products and services. Some people feel this is a breach of privacy. You can easily disable cookies. In Internet Explorer go to Tools and select Internet options. Select Security, and scroll down to Cookies. From here you can choose to receive a prompt each time a cookie is launched so you can decide whether or not to accept it. Or, you can disable cookies from being stored in your browser as well as stopping cookies during each online session. Simply check the box you require.

124. Save Results Have you ever hit the jackpot when using a search engine? You’ve typed in your keyword and the results were all right on target. Why not add the “results” page to your Favourites for future use?

125. E-Z Web Search When using Internet Explorer 5, searching for information can be a breeze. Type a word or phrase into the address field and press Enter. You’ll get a list of possible hits displayed on the left of your screen. If your search word actually points to a Web page, the browser will bring it up.

126. More Like This? Found a site with interesting information? Wish there were more like it? There probably are. In Internet Explorer go to Tools in the menu bar and click on Show Related Links. You’ll get a list of hyperlinks pointing to similar sites.

127. Browser Navigating When using Netscape Navigator as your Web browser you can press Alt and the left arrow key to go back to the previous page. Alt and the Right arrow will take you forward.

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