Internet Notes 2

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HOOKING UP

NEEDED FOR INTERNET CONNECTION
Computer -
faster the better - Your preference: Mac or PC ~ Desktop or Laptop ~ New or Used
Modem
preferably 56 kbps (kilo bits per second) altho many satellite connections are 28.8 kbps
Telephone Line or Cable Company Line
Cable is very fast and offers unlimited usage altho there is now MTS high speed service
ISP: Internet Service Provider
A company that connects you to the Internet (i.e. MTS)
Software ~ i.e. Windows, Browser (Netscape, Explorer, etc.)

OTHER HARDWARE THAT YOU WILL PROBABLY WANT TO ADD

HARD DISK
Most come with at least 100 MB storage now. You may need much more if you download a lot of graphics, sound and mult-media files.
MEMORY: RAM
or internal operating system memory which helps determine the speed and efficiency of your computer. At least 16MB-64MB.
MULTIMEDIA CAPABILITY:
This allows you to view webpages with sound and video clips and view downloaded movies.
CD-ROM or DVD: For loading programs or for mega storage capabilities if you install a CD burner (writer)
PRINTER: Necessary for printing out hardcopies of text or graphics.
BACK-UP DEVICE: Diskette drive (limited storage), an auxiliary hard drive, ZIP disk drive, CD-ROM

E-MAIL ADDRESSES

To send an e-mail to someone you need to know the address which usually consists of:

MAILBOX NAME: usually the user name of your account

@ SIGN

HOST NAME

i.e. buntep@msn.com

Mailbox names can contain the following elements:

LETTERS

NUMERALS

A FEW PUNCTUATION CHARACTERS: periods, underscores

Not allowed are: commas, spaces, parentheses

Capitalization normally doesn't matter but perhaps should be avoided

Email Account Sites
There are several sites on the web Internet will allow you to set up an email account on their system. Each of these has its own guidelines and offer a variety of free and/or low-cost email services.
AltaVista Email
http://altavista.iname.com/member/login.page
     AltaVista iName Email is a free or low-cost web-based e-mail account which allows you to access your e-mail from any computer in the world with a browser.
Yahoo! Mail
www.yahoo.com
http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=ym&.lg=us&.done=http%3a//edit.my.yahoo.com/config/mail%3f.intl=
     Provides a free e-mail account (xyz@yahoo.com). You access your mail using a web browser.
HotMail
http://www.hotmail.com/
     HotMail provides a free web-based email account. Includes provisions for folders to sort incoming mail messages.
BigFoot
http://www.bigfoot.com/
     BigFoot provides a permanent e-mail address that automatically forwards incoming mail to your current email address.

There are many sites on the web that will host your homepages free. They each have their guidelines and most of them have templates you can use to build your pages without knowing any html at all. Note that most sites insert some sort of advertizing into your page. They have to have some way of making money!

UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATORS (URLs) (Web addresses)

The most common are HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
Another is ftp (File Transfer Protocol) for transferring files between computers
URLs are usually long text strings consisting of three parts:
http://www = indicates that it is a hypertext document (Web page)
/mts.net = is the name of the host computer where the Web page is stored
/~hillmans/index.html = is the path and name of a file containing the pages main index

WEB PAGES
A personal World Wide Web home page is a document with its own URL. Reasons to have a Web page include:

Advertising a business or hobby

Publishing your ideas to the world

Telling friends what's happening in your life

Carving your initials on the Web for the fun of it

BUILDING YOUR WEB PAGE
Web pages are written in a computer language called
HTML: HYPER TEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE
There are a number of programs, web page editors, and word processor add-ons that enable you to create HTML documents. If you click on the VIEW menu of your browser and then click PAGE SOURCE, you can view the entire HTML code of this webpage. You will note that an HTML document consists of text that contains TAGS or CODE STRINGS surrounded by and open angle brace (<) and a closed angle brace (>).
These code strings tell the Web browser what to display. TAGS, once activated, must be turned off by another TAG wit the same code but preceded by a slash character (/).
Your Web page will be more effective if you follow these guidelines:

Keep it simple. Focus on essentials.

Make the loading of large image files optional.

Make sure that visitors have something to read while they wait for graphics to appear.

Content counts. Make a visit worthwhile: solid info, good art, entertaining stories, etc.

Check out the page on different browsers and computer systems.

Register your site with as many search engines as you can to promote traffic.

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