Newbie Guides Top Tips and Tricks Internet Tips Part 2

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

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Internet Tips and Tricks - Part 2

128. Finding Plug-Ins To find out what plug-ins came with Netscape Navigator type “about: plugins” without the quotes in the address field. A list of plug-ins included in the version you are using will be listed.

129. Getting Around The Web Need to change your address? Your Web address I mean. To type in a new domain name you have two options. You can single click your mouse in the address field. This will highlight (select) the current address. Now just type in the new URL. If you’re more of a keyboard person, you can select the address field by pressing Alt and D.

130. Radio Anyone? In Internet Explorer 5 you can listen to international radio while working. Just right click on any unoccupied space on the Toolbar in the browser, and click Radio. The Microsoft Media directory will open. Click on Radio Stations, then Radio Station Guide. You can also click on Station Finder to select stations according to the band on which they broadcast such as AM, FM, etc. You’ll find choices for radio broadcasts from all over the world. To exit radio mode, right click again on any unused spot on the Toolbar and deselect Radio. To remove the Media page simply hit the Back button.

131. History Lesson Forget where you’ve been on the Web? Sure, you found a site that was so good you were sure you’d never forget it, but now you have. You can get back to it if you were there recently. Just click on the History button in your browser’s toolbar. History not there you say? Bring it down by right clicking on the Toolbar and clicking Customise. A menu will appear showing all of Explorer’s available tools. Select History and click Add. You can now access the sites you’ve recently visited by double clicking on them.

132. More History If you’d like to keep pages you’ve visited in the History Folder longer than 20 days (the default setting), click Tools, and Internet Options. Under the General tab you’ll find History. Look for “Days to keep in history,” and make the appropriate adjustments. You can also clear all of the pages from the History folder here.

133. Search Engine Folder If you plan to use the World Wide Web as an information resource, you’ll need to get good at using search engines. Though the principles are the same, each search engine seeks out information a bit differently. Why not create a folder in Favourites containing the top search engines so you’ll always have them close at hand.

134. Safeguarding Your Favourites Don’t know what you’d do without your Internet Explorer Favourites Folder? Why not save it? You can export a single file or the entire folder to a location on your hard drive or to disk. It’s easy to do. With the browser open, click on File. From the pop down menu, click on Import and Export. The Import/Export Wizard will appear. When prompted, select Export Favourites and click Next. Your Favourites folder will be selected (if you wanted to select a single file, you’d simply click on the desired one), click Next. By default, the next prompt will offer to send the Favourites folder to the My Documents folder, stored on the (C:) Drive. If this is okay, click Next, if not select Browse. A window will appear titled Select Bookmark File. Click on the small arrow in the upper address field. This will offer you many destination options. If you want to store the folder on a zip or floppy, select the appropriate one and click Save. You’ve now got your Favourites backed up for safekeeping.

135. Rush Hour Just like the freeway system, the Information Superhighway experiences congestion. Perhaps you’ve noticed a decrease in navigation speed at certain times. It seems to happen in the late afternoon and early evening when many people decide to get online and surf. If you have important work to do, avoid frustration and try to keep from going online during rush hour.

136. Simple Searching Aside from being a fun place to hang out, the Internet is loaded with useful information. Whenever you want to find out about a new product, or locate even the most obscure information, simply go to your favourite search engine, type in a word or phrase, and chances are, you’ve found what you were looking for.

137. Who’s The Boss? Another way to find out who owns a particular domain name is to type http://www.networksolutions.com into your browser’s address field. This will bring you to a page where you’ll need to click on the whois link at the top right of the page. Another window opens with a box for you to enter the domain name. The behind the scenes information will be displayed.

138. Web Routing You can actually trace the route and identify the servers routing any Web address to your computer. First, you’ll need to open a DOS window. Press the Start key, go to Programs and click on MS DOS Prompt. Next to the flashing cursor type “tracert” without the quotes and the domain name. For example, tracert www.blueyonder.co.uk. You’ll need to be online to do this.

139. Redial Weren’t able to get online on the first try? Why not set your computer to keep dialling until it does logon. Press Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, and click on Dial-up Networking. In the menu bar click on Connections and Settings. A check box will appear. Click in “Re-dial” to activate your choices. You can choose any number of re-dial attempts between 2 and 200 where it asks, “Before giving up retry.” You’ll probably want to set “Between tries wait,”__min.__sec. at zero.

140. Connection Check Does it seem to take forever before you get connected to the Net? To be sure you are connecting at optimal speed, try this: On your desktop double click My Computer and then double click on Dial-up Networking. Right click on your connection icon, and click Properties. From here, click on the Server Types tab. In the dialogue box that appears under Advanced Options, be sure that “Log on to Network” is unchecked. If it was, that’s what was slowing down your connection time.

141. Case Sensitive Email addresses are not case sensitive, so if you want to use capital letters, your message will still get there.

142. Email Access Many ISPs allow you to access your email directly from their Website. To see if yours does, log onto their site and look for an email icon or a link with the name email or simply mail and click on it. From here you’ll need to enter your username and password to get your mail. This comes in really handy when you’re away from home, and have access to the Internet.

143. Wingdings To dress up and add a little fun to email and other correspondence, select Format in the menu bar, then Fonts, and scroll down to Wingdings.

144. Email Test Have you ever had someone tell you they didn’t receive an email you sent? Maybe your email account isn’t properly set up. To test it you can open an email account with one of the many free email providers on the Web and send yourself a message. (MSN, Yahoo, and USAnet are just a few of the free providers of personal and business email accounts). If you get the message you’re okay; if you receive a message stating something like “Undeliverable,” you’ll need to check your account with your ISP.

145. Attachment Alert Email will not introduce viruses into a computer but opening attachments to email can. Therefore, before sending attachments like they were going out of style, be sure the recipients welcome them. A simple note (via email) to ask your friends how they feel about getting attachments is common courtesy. By the same token, be careful when opening attachments. It’s a good idea to know the sender. If you plan to open any email attachments, an up-to-date virus scan program should be in place.

146. Block Undesired Email Is there someone you’d rather not receive email from? You can easily block messages from selected senders. First select a message from the individual in question by single clicking on it in the Inbox. Then go to Message in the menu bar and select Block Sender from the drop down menu. A prompt will appear asking you if you want to block messages from this individual or company. Click Yes. Have a change of heart? Go to Tools and select Message Rules. From the pop up menu select Blocked Senders List. This will display a list of individuals you have blocked. To reinstate one or more, select the name by single clicking on it and press Remove. They are now able to send you mail again.

147. Email Return Request You know Outlook Express is working because of all the junk mail you’ve been getting, but why doesn’t anyone answer you? You can request that people receiving your messages notify you when they get your email. Go to Tools in Outlook Express, select Options and Receipts. Click in the check box requesting a Read Receipt.

148. Spell Checker Outlook Express, Microsoft’s email program will check your spelling before you fire off a message, if you want it to. Just click on Tools in the menu bar, select Options and the Spelling tab. From here you can set the program to check for misspelled words, suggest replacements, ignore certain types of words such as those spelled in uppercase letters, words including numbers, Web addresses, and more.

149. Your Address Book Outlook Express allows you to keep an email address book, and you don’t have to manually enter the names of all your contacts. Addresses can be automatically placed in the Address file by simply replying to an individual once. To set Outlook to do this, go to Tools, Options, and select Send. Here you’ll find several options concerning your mail. Select “Automatically put people I reply to in My Address Book,” along with any of the other useful options listed.

150. Customise Email You can customise your outgoing email by changing font size and style, and adding colourful backgrounds to messages. You can even include your business card. A great way to see how your custom mail appears is to send yourself several test messages at the free Web based email account of your choosing. Check with Yahoo or Hotmail to set up a free email account. To customise your mail go to Tools, Options, and select the Compose tab. Here you will find the Stationary Wizard.

151. Sending Copies Sending out birthday invitations by email? You can get the job done without having to write to everyone on your list individually. To mail the same message to a group of people, type the email addresses into the Cc (carbon copies) field. Be sure to place a comma between them. By putting the addresses here, all the recipients will be able to see the entire list. For complete anonymity, type the names into Bcc (blind carbon copy). Recipients of the message will not know who else is getting it.

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