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Internet brokers get the market minnow... Epic tale of love, rivalry and stock opt... Amazing merger of man and machin... Apple aims to reclaim its special place ... The Net prepares to virtually raise the ... Big crackdown on counterfeit softwar... Hi-tech bid to beat mosquito diseas... Who cares if it's never used - bloatware... What to do when upgrade fever strike... Bogus e-mail on the Interne... Believe it or not, Porsche has style but... New CD holds 800 times more dat... Torture chambers and grisly assassinatio... Tips and tweaks to help you to the roo... Learning to have some serious fu... Helping children improve maths spee... The cutting edge of fashion technolog... E-mail that will make you sit up and lis... Mobile PC users get performance boos... Everything you need to get connecte... Helping you to get started on the Intern... |
From previous story
Helping you to get started on the Internetto-modem ratio. This has a direct impact on the speed of your access, and also on whether you'll get a busy signal when you try to log on at busy times of the day. A 15:1 ratio is considered acceptable. The average monthly charge for Internet access through an Internet service provider is around R85. In addition to this, any ISP worth its salt will provide you with a starter kit or software bundle containing everything you need to dial their PoP number and access the Net. As a bare minimum, you should expect the starter kit to include a Web browser (either Netscape Navigator of Microsoft's Internet Explorer) and an e-mail program. Most ISPs will throw in a free month's Net access as well, plus some games and trial software. If they don't, you can get lots of free and trial software directly from a software source on the Internet, such as the indispensable Tucows (http://www.tucows.co.za). Just choose the software you're interested in, click on "Download Now", and it will be copied onto your computer's hard drive.
E-mail and surfing the Net So you've got your computer, you've got your modem, and you've decided on an ISP. What do you do now? Why not send an e-mail? Electronic mail or e-mail is a procedure for sending messages to other Internet users. Messages are virtually instantaneous, taking only a few seconds to reach their destination, so it's an excellent way of staying in touch with friends from around the world. What's more, it's much cheaper and more reliable than sending a letter or a fax. You can also attach pictures, files and other documents to your message. If the person you're writing to isn't on line when you send your message, your message waits patiently in their e-mail box until they're ready to collect it. But the real fun starts when you start browsing the World Wide Web, or "surfing the Net", as it's popularly known. Which brings us to jargon - you are likely to come across a fair amount of it as you navigate your way around the Net. NetLingo is an excellent on-line dictionary that contains definitions of hundreds of words that are emerging in the new vocabulary of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Look it up at http://www.netlingo.com/
Searching the Net The Internet is interactive - if you want information you must go and find it. But there is so much information out there that it's easy to sit staring at your computer screen with your mouth hanging open and your eyes frozen on a flicking cursor, brain turned to mush. Enter the handy search engine. There are lots of very useful search engines on the Web. Local ones, such as Ananzi (http://www. ananzi.co.za) and Zebra (http://www.zebra.co. za) can save you time by letting you narrow your search to South African sites only. Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo. com) which was one of the first search engines on the Web, is a massive searchable catalogue of sites that is compiled by Yahoo! staff as they exhaustively surf the Web. Directory search engines like Infoseek (http://www.infoseek. com) and Excite (http://www.excite. com) work in a similar way. AltaVista (http:// www.altavista.com) works a little differently, sending out software "robots" to search for relevant documents. These robots constantly trawl the Web for new sites and continually add them to their database. There are different ways to search too, using certain "separators" and symbols to help you narrow your search. All the main search engines have a section on their Web site that give tips and advice on searching effectively. Searching effectively will help you save time and money on the Internet.
So you've got your computer, you've got your modem, you've chosen an ISP and you're ready to roll. Welcome to the Internet!
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