The internet, a new and exciting way of communicating, learning and sharing information. It was first created by the US Government back in 1950's
for military use. The internet has grown in leaps and bounds since and in the last five years or so,
more and more home computers users are hooking up to the internet and discovering a whole new world of information.
On this page we hope to give you some tips to make your internet time more enjoyable.
1. 'Search Engines' a great way of finding information you need on the internet.
It is a common misconception to type a name or a topic, followed by a .com into the 'address bar' and then wonder why a 'page not found'
error appears. The 'address bar' is used only if you know the full Web-site address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator). For example if you were looking for Us, you would not
find us by typing 'computerhelp.com'. You might find a website, but it wont be us!! To find us using the 'address Bar' you would have to type, ( http://www.coastpc.info )
If you only want to search for a particular 'topic', you will need to use a 'search engine'. The easiest way to get to
a search engine is to type the name of the search engine into the 'address bar'. Try it now:-
Type:- http://www.google.com into your address bar and you will be taken to the 'Google Search Engine'. Now it is only a matter of typing
a short description of what you are looking for and you will be shown many Web pages that relate to your topic.
2. Sending Web-Pages:- One of the first things you want to do when we find something cool on the internet is send it to our friends.
Just because it is a 'web page', doesn't mean we can not pass it on. All you have to do is go to the 'file' menu
in your browser, click send, add the email address of your friend and away it goes.
3. Word Search:- Another cool tip, when you are looking for a particular word or phrase on a web page that you may be looking at,
just press the 'control' and 'F' keys and a little window pops up asking you to type in the words you are looking for.
This little tool is very helpful for long, information filled web pages.(Try it now, just click the control and F keys together.)
If you find a good link on a page you are currently looking at, and don't want to lose the current page, just hold the 'shift' key down
as you click the 'link' with your mouse and the link will open up in a new window.
4. The 'address bar' at the top of your web browser is editable. Many new users are not aware of this and miss out on
a lot of cool websites. If you get sent a web-site address, just type it into the 'address bar', press enter and you will be taken to the website.
Please note:- Just as when you send a letter, if you put the wrong address, it will go to the wrong house.
The same applies to Web addresses, take note of the Capitals, Back slashes, dots or underscores as the Web addresses have
to be typed into the 'address bar' precisely and accurately.
5. Search MSN:- There is also built in search in the 'address bar' too. Type the words 'go find' and the word or prase you want,
click enter and the 'MSN Search Engine' will give you a list of sites relevant to the word or phrase you typed in.
6. Call Waiting:- Does your internet keep dropping out?, do you have to keep redialing? It may be that you have call waiting enabled which means that whenever someone rings you
while you are on the net this will interfere and disconnect you. This is easily fixed by disenabling call waiting,(see phone manual).
7. Changing Your Homepage:- When you join a internet service provider (ISP) for your internet access, they always, by default put their home page, as the start up page
when you first log onto the internet. You may have no interest in it but it stills pops up every time.
You can easily change this by clicking 'Start', 'Settings', 'Control panel', scrolling down till you see internet options,
and you will see the current home page highlighted. Type in the address of the page you want to see and click apply. A good start page is
http://www.coastpc.info.
8.Attachments:- Sending e-mails is very easy in your e-mail program but you can also send pictures or web pages by e-mail as well.
When you want to add an attachment simply open a new message go to insert in the 'top menu bar' click file attachment and you will be able to find the file
on your computers hard drive by the menu. (Caution:-
Be aware of the file sizes that you are trying to send. The bigger the file the longer it is to down load
which means the longer the receiver has to wait).
9. Translate A Web-Page:- Sometimes you will visit a web page which was written in a different language.
There is a web page that will translate this page for you into English. Try it Here.
10. Your IP Address:- When you use the internet you are assigned a specific IP Address
(Internet Protocol Address) that identifies your computer and sets it apart from all the other computers. This is
their way of seeing where you have been and what you have been up to. SEE YOUR IP ADDRESS
11. Emails:- Be very cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, no matter of who sent them.
These files could have virus in them or hacking software that automatically installs on to your computer, which could send your personal information over the internet. These are know as unsolicited emails,
(which means you don't know who sent them to you), it doesn't matter how good the offer sounds or what they promise don't open these emails or it could be a major risk.
12. Error Pages:- Sometimes when your are surfing around you come across a error page.
This can mean a number of things such as, you may have typed in the wrong url or web site address ( you may have miss spelt a word). It could also mean that the website you are trying to find doesn't exits anymore.
Another reason could be that the website is currently unavailable. Whenever you see one of these error pages, check all the above suggestions before going on to another site.
The internet, a new and exciting way of communicating, learning and sharing information. It was first created by the US Government back in 1950's
for military use. The internet has grown in leaps and bounds since and in the last five years or so,
more and more home computers users are hooking up to the internet and discovering a whole new world of information.
On this page we hope to give you some tips to make your internet time more enjoyable.
