How to Navigate the World Wide Web

How to Navigate the World Wide Web

Not understanding how to Use the World Wide Web doesn't make you stupid. It just means you need exposure and a little help to get you started. That's the reason I have put together this tutorial, so anyone can use the internet to find what they need.

If you are reading this chapter, I assume that you already have an internet connection. If not, then you will need to get one. If this is the case, then please read my other report on obtaining free lifetime internet access, or if you prefer, contact AOL, MSN or find another provider of your choice. There are over 250,000 dial up providers, so they're not hard to find. If you want high speed access, call your local cable provider and see if they are offering cable access in your area.

Lesson Overview:

1.Some Terms.

2.Let's Get Microsoft Internet Explorer!

3.Let's Get Netscape Navigator!

4.Configuring your Mail Settings for your browser

5.Let's Surf!

5a.www.garvinweb.com

5b.www.altavista.com

5c.www.deja.com

5d.www.whitehouse.gov

5e.www.stpt.com

5f.www.hotmail.com

6.Practice

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1.Some Terms.

ISP - This stands for Internet Service Provider. Another term for them is a "Dial-Up Provider". Once you have a Computer, Modem and Phone Receptacle Installed, it is your ISP that provides this "Pipeline" or Connection" to the internet. Once this is done, you will have access to the World Wide Web.

Netizen - Someone just like you using the internet.

Default Browser - A Default Browser is the browser you would use to send and receive mail in. You would configure your mail settings in this browser, something which will be explained very shortly. It is also the browser you would use to surf the internet with.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - This term is just a fancy way to name any internet address on the World Wide Web. http://www.garvinweb.com is an URL. http://www.palis.com/galore is another URL.

Links - Links on a Website will take you from one page to another on the same site, or even from your site to someone else's site. Links are usually blue, but can be any color. Once you roll your mouse over a link, or Hypertext link as it is sometime called, your mouse will change to a hand. This way you'll know you've found a link. You can just left click a link to "follow the link". The same principle applies if you roll your mouse over a button or an image. If you see your mouse change to that hand, be prepared to take a trip somewhere else!

Browser - A browser is a client used to access a remote server on the internet. Simply put, Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are both Browsers, and are the two most popular ones. They are both available for free download off the internet. It is best to have Both MSIE and Netscape Communicator installed on your system. The reason is that different Websites display differently, and you might want to view some Webpages in both browsers. This will help you develop a preference and help you decide which one you will use most.

Download - For purposes of this tutorial, the process of transferring an ".exe" or a ".zip" file and transferring it from a remote site, just as Microsoft's site to your hard drive. Most sites that provide downloads also provide instructions for downloading that can be printed and followed as you are going through the download process.

Surfing the Web - This is just another way of saying that you will be navigating through different pages on the World Wide Web. This term jointly refers to navigating pages on one Website, or on many Websites.

2.Lets Get Microsoft Internet Explorer.

If you have Windows 98, then you will already have a working copy of MSIE 4.0 on your computer. Bill Gates made sure of this! If not, then you will need to download it. This is sort of a catch 22 because you can't download anything if you don't have the browser installed in the first place, can you? Here's a couple of solutions:

1.Contact Microsoft and ask how much it would be to have the latest version of MSIE sent to you on CD-ROM or set of floppies.

2.Contact your ISP and see if they will provide you with this. Some do, some don't.

3.Go to Comp USA or other computer store. You should be able to purchase the MSIE 4.0 CD with complete instructions for under $40.00.

If you have the netscape browser installed already, just type http://www.microsoft.com in the location box at the top of the browser, and this should take you to Microsoft's Website. Once your there, you will find a link that says "Internet Explorer, Download it free" or something similar. Follow the instructions given at their Website to complete the download.

3.Let's Get Netscape Navigator!

Netscape doesn't come with Windows, and you will need to install it. Here are your installation options:

1.Contact Netscape and ask how much it would be to have the latest version of Netscape Communicator sent to you on CD-ROM or set of floppies. You may also go to their Website at http://www.netscape.com

2.Contact your ISP and see if they will provide you with this. Some do, some don't.

3.Go to Comp USA or other computer store. You should be able to purchase the Netscape Communicator CD with complete instructions for under $40.00.

If you have the MSIE browser installed already, just type http://www.netscape.com in the address box at the top of the browser, and this should take you to Netscape's Website. Once your there, you will find a link that says "Browsers" or something similar. Follow the instructions given at their Website to complete the download.

4.Configuring your Mail Settings for your browser

Before you do anything, you will need to obtain certain information from your Internet Service Provider. You can either read the technical documentation that came with your Dialup Connection, or contact their technical support center for it:

a.Your full email address

b.Username

c.Password

d.Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server

e.Incoming Mail Server

f.Mail Server Type (POP3 or IMAP)

Once you have obtained this information, here's what you need to do:

From your Netscape browser, select Preferences from the Edit menu. There will be a white box on the left side of the Preferences Dialog Box. Single Click the plus sign to the left of the Mail & Groups Category and you should see more options pop out in a tree like form. Now, click the 'identity' tab and make sure it's blue. This way, you'll know it's selected.

Now regarding the text boxes displayed at the right, enter:

1. Your name in the name field

2. Your email address in the email address field (This needs to be the one your ISP provided you with.

3. Your email address once again in the reply to field (Use the same one unless you went to Hotmail or are using your domain name "e.g: info@garvinweb.com" and wish to use that

4. Leave the Organization field blank unless you want to enter your companies contact information here.

5. In the 'signature file' box, just create a ".txt" file in Notepad and put whatever you want on it and save it as ".sig.txt". Remember where you saved it. Here's an example of a sig file:

-----------------------------------------------

Increase Profits from your Website

http://www.palis.com/galore

Sign up in advance for a new affiliate program

-----------------------------------------------

Just use your browse button to the right of the text box and navigate through your directories to call up this file. Once this is done, every time you send an email in Netscape, the information inside the ".txt" file (that you can edit anytime) will automatically be displayed at the bottom of every email message you send. See the power in this? You don't have to manually type in your company contact information anymore every time you send a message, or remind them to sign your guest roster. With a sig file, it's done automatically!

Now, go back to the Category Box and click on the mail server tab and enter in the following data:

1.Enter your username where it says "Mail Server User Name"

2.Enter the Outgoing SMTP mail server with info your ISP gave you (e.g. smtp.aol.com)

3.Enter the Incoming mail server with info your ISP gave you (e.g. mail.aol.com)

4.Click the appropriate radio button, either POP3 or IMAP depending on what you were told. you had by your ISP.

This should complete the configuration on your Mail Settings in Netscape Communicator. With MSIE, just select Mail from the Go Menu. Follow thier installation instructions and that should do it.

5.Let's Surf!

In the last part of this lesson, we will surf through a couple of websites, just so you'll get some practice in. You will be very comfortable doing this after a few weeks or so. It will probably be a little awkward at first, but don't let that shy you away from your main objective, surfing the web!

These 5 sites I will illustrate in Netscape, but you can always perform this in Explorer as well.

5a.www.garvinweb.com

First, connect to the internet using the Dialup software your ISP gave you. Next, fire up Netscape Communicator. In the location box, type in http://www.garvinweb.com Many people don't know this, but you could also type in http://garvinweb.com or even http://GARvinWEB.com and it will still display my Website.

Once you've done this, it takes time for the page to load. Please be patient. What's happening now is that the graphics are just decompressing (downloading). Now is where the fun starts. Notice the buttons on the left hand side of the screen. Try rolling your mouse over the 'products' button or the 'services' button. See what happens? The tip of the mouse changes to a hand. This means that when you left click the mouse button, you will be taken to another webpage. Try it. Voila! Wasn't that fun?

Now from the products page, try going to one of those blue links at the bottom of the page. Try clicking one of those. Once again, you're directed to another page on my Website. The only way to get the hang of surfing the web (which you are successfully doing now, congratulations :-) is to practice. Hang around my Website for an hour or so clicking links, and you'll get the hang of it rather quickly.

5b.www.altavista.com

Altavista is what they call a search engine. Search engines are very popular on the internet. What happens is that you enter a word, any word, and the search engine will do it's best to either find the word you entered or it's closest match. At the top of Altavista's Webpage, you'll see a long text box with a gray search button to the right of it.

Try typing in the word "reprints galore" WITH the quotes. Now hit the Gray Submit button to the right. Congratulations! You have just conducted your first search on the internet!

Here are a few things you will need to understand when doing searches. When you type a phrase with the quotes, the search engine will only find exact matches of that phrase. When you type a phrase without the quotes, the search engine will have more latitude and find the nearest matches. A cardinal rule of doing searches is always do your searches in lower case letters. The rationale here is that if you do a search in upper case, it won't find the lower case version of what your searching for. However if you do a search in lower case, it will still display the results of upper case findings.

Now practice by doing searches on your favorite hobby, your favorite actor, sports fan, your favorite recipe, etc.. Have some fun!

5c.www.deja.com

Want to get in on the latest internet gossip? Type this address in the location box of your browser: http://www.deja.com Dejanews is a huge forum for netizens to gather to discuss things on over 10,000+ topics from aardvark's to computer programming to zoology to aortic aneurism's. If you can think of it, someone has probably discussed it already.

In the text box at the top of the page, try typing in your favorite hobby. Once you've done this, click the grey find button to the right of the box. For Demonstration purposes, type Bill Clinton. You'll see the Top Forum results popup. Click the first link you see. You should find a thread (group) of many messages of netizens all speaking their piece of mind about Bill. Click the different messages and read them. Just Lurk around for a while. If something intrigues you, you can always post a message.

The Cardinal Rule of Newsgroups is No Blatant Advertising. I'm just warning you because they don't like that.

5d.www.whitehouse.gov

This is the official Website of the US Whitehouse! Type in http://www.whitehouse.gov . After navigating this site just a little bit, you will find out how to email the President of the United States.Try it! Just please make sure your mail settings are in place like we discussed earlier. Check out all the resources.

5e.www.stpt.com

Type in http://www.stpt.com . This Website is called Starting Point. It's main function is to act as a starting point to people that are new on the internet, so I thought it was a great addition to this particular lesson. From this Website, you can get free email, check the weather, get stock quotes, obtain maps and directions, browse the yellow pages and find people and much more. Spend about 1-2 hours at this site.

5f.www.hotmail.com

Hotmail offers Web Based Mail. This means that it's not sent via your browser, but over the internet like any other form you would fill out. Go here: http://www.hotmail.com Now let's get you a free lifetime email address, ok? The reason you shouldn't say no, I already have one with my ISP is because a web based address is great to keep a distance from certain people on the internet you don't want having your primary address issued by your ISP. This keeps a privacy barrier. Believe me, you will use it.

There should be a button called 'Sign Up Here' or something similar. Please click that and that will take you to a registration form. Just select a username and a password. Write both down, as you will need them to login in the future. Everything from here is self explanatory.

One point though. The application you will fill out with Hotmail is one of the interactive Web forms that you will be filling out quite often while you are on the Web. Filling out the application for a free email is a great way to get use to this process. Once the application is completed, go back to http://www.hotmail.com and type in your new username and password in the fields provided, and it should take you to your 'inbox'. From your inbox, you can check for mail, compose mail, send mail and even send pictures and files as attachments. An attachment is just a file that 'rides' along with an email message.

6.Practice

If you've gotten this far into this tutorial, then I'm sure that your starting to appreciate what the World Wide Web has to offer. I can't emphasize enough that practice makes perfect. Practice, Practice and Practice. Within a short time, you will be net savvy.