Basic Internet Tutorial 1

Introduction
How Does the Internet Work?
What Kinds of Information are Available?
How Do People Use the Internet?
The Sum of Many Parts
A Quick Tour of a Typical Website
Definitions

Internet Explorer 7
Getting Started
To launch Internet Explorer
To turn on the Menu Bar
Tabbed browsing overview
To change your home page

Loading and Saving Web pages

To empty the Temporary Internet Files folder (cache)
To clear the browsing history
To save a picture from a webpage

Bookmarks
To create bookmarks (favorites)
To view and use bookmarks (favorites)
To organize your bookmarks (favorites)
Introduction

It seems like everyone's talking about the Internet these days. But
what is it
really? How does it work? How do you access it? And most
important, what
can it do for you at work or at home?
Fortunately, accessing and using the Internet is fairly simple. Let
this tutorial
be your guide to the Internet as you connect for the first time and
explore the
network's vast and useful resources.

How Does the Internet Work?

The Internet is a worldwide collection of computer networks,

cooperating with
each other to exchange data using a common software standard.
Through
telephone wires and satellite links, Internet users can share
information in a
variety of forms. The size, scope and design of the Internet allows
users to:

• connect easily through ordinary personal computers and local

phone
numbers;
• exchange electronic mail (E-mail) with friends and colleagues with
accounts on the Internet;
• post information for others to access, and update it frequently;
• access multimedia information that includes sound, photographic
images and even video; and
• access diverse perspectives from around the world.

What Kinds of Information are Available?

In addition to text documents, the Internet makes available graphics

files
(digitized photographs and artwork), and even files that contain
digitized
sound and video. Through the Internet, you can download software,
participate
in interactive forums where users post and respond to public
messages, and
even join "chats," in which you and other users type (and, in some
cases,
speak) messages that are received by the chat participants
instantly.

How Do People Use the Internet?

Obviously, the Internet can bring you a whole host of capabilities.

But how
can they be put to practical use?
Among the ways that users like yourself are taking advantage of the
Internet
are:
• Sharing research and business data among colleagues and like-
minded
individuals.
• Communicating with others and transmitting files via E-mail.
• Requesting and providing assistance with problems and questions.
• Marketing and publicizing products and services.
• Gathering valuable feedback and suggestions from customers and
business partners.
The Internet's potential is limited only by users' vision and
creativity. And as
the Internet grows, new and innovative uses will surely follow.

The Sum of Many Parts

Unlike many computer networks, the Internet consists of not one but
multiple
data systems that were developed independently. The most popular
and
important systems are:

• E-mail, for exchange of electronic mail messages.

•USENET newsgroups, for posting and responding to public
"bulletin
board" messages.

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a system for storing and retrieving

data
files on large computer systems.

• TELNET, a way of connecting directly to computer systems on the

Internet.

•Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a system for sending public and

private
messages to other users in "real time"—that is, your message
appears
on the recipient's screen as soon as you type it.

• CU-SeeMe, a videoconferencing system that allows users to send

and
receive sound and pictures simultaneously over the Internet.

• The World Wide Web.

A Quick Tour of a Typical Web Site

A Web site may consist of a single Web page, or may comprise

multiple,
interconnected pages. The following is a view of how the Scenic Rim
Regional Council homepage appears through a popular browser:
1. Browser tools help you navigate around the Web. These vary
among
browsers, but most include tools for moving back and forth between
pages, saving data to your hard disk, and controlling how Web
pages
will appear on your screen.

2. A "Bookmark" list, "favorites" list or "hotlist" lets you save

the
names and locations of favorite sites for easy reference (usually
accessible through pull-down menus).

3. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the address of a Web

site.
URLs for Web pages begin with the code http:// ("http" stands for
hypertext transfer protocol).

4. Some Web pages contain special graphic buttons that, when

clicked,
take you to another resource as would a regular hotlink.

5. Hypertext hotlinks are connections to other pages and

resources. To
access, just click on them with your mouse or trackball. Most pages
contain hotlinks throughout the text, as well as lists of links to other
sites judged by the author/sponsor to be of particular interest. Some
sites contain hotlinks to places where you can download software,
listen to a sound file, or view a video clip.

6. CenterSpan uses several applets, or small program segments

run by
Java, ActiveX or some other protocol. Applets are downloaded when
you access a Web site, and run only as long as you remain at that
location. Applets can perform a variety of functions; the applet on
the
CenterSpan home page generates a scrolling banner.
If your browser does not have the capability to display Java applets,
you will not be able to see this banner.

7. To make it easy to contact the author or sponsor of a Web site,

most
contain one or more E-mail links. Clicking on such a link brings up
a
form where you can type an E-mail message to a pre-set address
(not
shown here).
Definitions

The Internet

The Internet is a worldwide network of computers, using a common

protocol (TCP/IP
or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) to communicate
with each other.
These computers possess software to provide or "serve" information
and/or to request
and see information. Academic, commercial, governmental, and
military networks are
part of the Internet.
No one owns the Internet. Each person 'owns' the part of the
Internet s/he uploads data
to.
When you connect your computer to the Internet you are a part of
the Internet.
The Internet offers a variety of services, mainly:
Electronic mail (E-mail) - allows the online exchange of mail.
FTP - allows you to access network locations of FTP resources and
save them
into your computer.
Telnet - allows your computer connect to another computer and
access its
files.
World Wide Web - is the graphical portion of the Internet.

The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web, the WWW, or the Web, is the largest, the
fastest growing,
and the most popular Internet service. In addition to text, it can
display images,
animations, sounds, and videos. To access the Web information you
need:
(1) A connection to the Internet and
(2) A Web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.

Web browser

A Web browser is a software program that allows you to view or

"browse" individual
pages on the Web. The computer running a Web browser is called a
client machine
(because it just requests and receives data) while the computer
called server provides
the data it stores.

Web page

A Web page is a single electronic document written in HTML. Web

pages vary in
content, design, and size, depending on the purpose.
You need to save (or upload) your HTML documents (or Web pages)
to a Web server,
so they can be viewed by users on the Web.

Web site

A Web site may have one or more related Web pages. The first
page one sees in a
Website is called the homepage. This page usually provides an
overview of what you
will find in the Web site and offers a list of items, which link to other
pages on the site
or to other Web sites.

Home Page

It is the web page that appears each time your Web browser
(internet explorer). You
can choose any page on the web to set as your home page.
HTML
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and it is the
standard computer
language used on the World Wide Web. The HTML code tells
browsers (such as

Explorer and Netscape) how Web pages should be presented. Web

browsers then let
you see the Web pages content.

Navigation Buttons

Allow you to move through information on the web (Back, Forward).

You can even
stop the transfer of a web page if it is taking a lot of time.
Hyperlinks

A web page contains a lot of text that is highlighted such that when
you click on it can
take you to another page. Hyperlinks allow you to move through a
vast number of
information on the internet by moving from one web page to
another.

URL
Each Web page has its own address, or URL (Uniform Resource
Locator). The URL
identifies the location of each file on the www.scenicrim.qld.gov.au

E-mail
The internet allows you to exchange electronic mail with people
around the world.
Electronic mail is fast, inexpensive, and saves paper. The most
popular web-based email
services are www.hotmail.com and www.yahoo.com.

Downloading software
Thousands of programs are available on the internet. The internet
offers you the
facility of downloading programs.

Information

The internet gives you access to information on any subject. You

can view magazines,
newspapers, academic papers, government documents, job listings,
and anything you
could possibly think of. You can search for anything you want by
logging on to
www.google.com or any other search engine.
Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 is a popular Microsoft web browsing tool

that allows you to explore and retrieve information from
websites and the Internet. World Wide Web documents can contain
text, images,
sounds, animation, and digital video. Though Internet Explorer 7 is
recommended,
some computers may still be using the older version, Internet
Explorer 6.

Getting Started

To launch Internet Explorer

On a Windows PC, double-click on the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop.
You can also click on the Start menu and go to All Programs to select Internet
Explorer.

To turn on the Menu Bar

Internet Explorer 7 does not display the Menu Bar by default.

1. Click on the Tools button on the upper right corner of the browser.
2. Then make sure Menu Bar is checked
 Using Internet Explorer 7 Overview

Below is a picture of the Internet Explorer window with important components

highlighted.
Note: If the Menu Bar (File, Edit, etc.) disappears completely, you can restore
the menu bar by clicking on the Tools button and making sure that the Menu
Bar is checked.

URL of
Reload/ Stop
View current page
loading page
Favourites,
History and Search
RSS feeds Tab Browsing Provider/
Features Engine

Return to
Home
Navigate Page
Backwards
and
Forwards
URL of current webpage

www.scenicrim.qld.gov.au

The Internet Explorer 7 window displays a home

page upon launch. The URL (Universal
Resource Locator) is the address of the webpage
being viewed. Each webpage has its own unique
URL. Some URLs are case-sensitive and all
have to be typed exactly, including spaces or
special symbols such as ~.

Navigate Backwards and

Forwards

The Back button lets you return to the last

webpage that you visited. If you click on the
downward facing triangle to the right of the
button, you can see a menu of web pages you
have visited.

Reload and Stop Load Buttons

When displaying a webpage, IE transfers a copy

of the webpage from the Internet onto your
computer. Therefore if the webpage changes,
you can update the webpage in your browser
window by clicking the Reload button with the
green arrows. If the webpage is taking too long
to load, you can stop the process by clicking on
the Stop button with the red X. Click on the
Reload button to start the loading process again
from the beginning.

Home Button The Home button lets you return to the home
page that you set. You can change the home
page
Search Engine / Search Provider

You can type in a word or a phrase to search the

Internet. Putting a phrase in quotes will search
for that exact phrase. You can change the
default search engine to Google or something
else.

Favorites Buttons In order to save the webpage URL link for future
web browsing sessions, you must save it as a
bookmark by clicking on the Add Favorites
button . Clicking on the View Favorites
button , allows you to see all your favorites
you have saved. You can also export and
import bookmarks.

Tab Browsing Features The Tab Bar allows you to have multiple
webpages open at once in a single window. Each
webpage will appear under a separate tab and
you can simply click on the tab to access that
webpage.
Finally, click Add.
To change your home page
Your home page is displayed when Internet Explorer first opens or when you click
the Home button. You can choose any webpage to be your home page.
Option 1
1. Open Internet Explorer and go to the webpage you want to use as the
home page.
2. Click the down arrow to the right of the Home button , and then click
Add or Change home page.
3. In the Add or Change Home Page dialog box, click Use this webpage as
your only home page.
4. Click Yes to save your changes.
Option 2
1. Go to Tools and select Internet Options.
2. In the General tab, under the Home page category, type in the URL you
wish to be your home page (e.g. http://www.wellesley.edu).
3. Click Apply to save your changes. Click OK.

To add a new search provider (search engine)

1. Click the down arrow to the right of the Search Options button .
2. Click Find More Providers.
3. Click the search provider you want to add. The Add Search Provider
dialog box will appear.
4. If you want the provider that you just added to be used by default when
searching from the Address bar or search box, select the Make this my
default search provider check box.
5. Click Add Provider.

To remove a search provider (search engine)

1. Open Internet Explorer. Click the down arrow to the right of the Search
Options button.
2. Click Change Search Defaults.
3. Select the search provider you would like to remove. Click Remove and
then click OK.
Loading and Saving Web pages

To empty the Temporary Internet Files folder (cache)

Every time you visit a webpage, Internet Explorer saves a copy of the webpage to
a folder called Temporary Internet Files. If this folder gets too full, Internet
Explorer may run more slowly and behave in an unstable way. Also, if a webpage
is not loading correctly and shows an error message (such as "Range not
satisfiable..."), a common solution is to empty the cache. You should clear the
cache at least once a month.
1. In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet
Options.
2. In the General tab, under Browsing history, click Delete.
3. In the Temporary Internet Files category, click Delete files, and then
click Yes.
4. Click Close, and then click OK.

To clear the browsing history

The browsing history is a listing of all the recent websites you have visited within
a set period of time (e.g. two weeks). Clearing your history list does not affect
your bookmarks.
1. In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet
Options.
2. On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Delete.
3. In the History category, click Delete history , and then click Yes.
4. Click Close, and then click OK.

To save a picture from a webpage

1. In Internet Explorer, using the mouse, right-click the picture you want to
save.
2. Click Save Picture As.
3. In the Save Picture dialog box, browse to the folder where you want to
save the file, and then click Save.
Bookmarks

To create bookmarks (favorites)

1. Go to the webpage you want to bookmark.

2. Click on the Add to Favorites icon or go to the Favorites menu.
3. Then click on Add to Favorites.
4. Give the webpage a name (e.g. American Revolution Prints) or keep its
original name.
5. Select the folder you would like the bookmark to reside in.
6. Click Add.

To view and use bookmarks (favorites)

1. In Internet Explorer, click click on the View Favorites button and

select Favorites. (Another option is to click on the Favorites menu in
the main toolbar.)
2. From that list, click on the bookmark of the webpage you want to see.

To organize your bookmarks (favorites)

Internet Explorer lets you arrange your bookmarks in folders and change the
order in which they appear. You can also rename and delete your bookmarks.
1. In Internet Explorer, click on the Favorites menu and select Organize
Favorites.
2. The Organize Favorites window will let you create folders and place
bookmarks in those folders by using the New Folder and Move buttons.
You can delete and rename existing bookmarks by using the Delete and
Rename buttons. Dragging bookmarks around within the display window
will change the order in which they appear.
3. Click Close to save your changes.
Note: In the Favorites menu itself you may also drag bookmarks around to
change the order in which they appear or to move them into folders.
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