In today's world, the Internet is much more a part of computer users' lives than ever before. When Windows 95 was introduced in late 1995, even Microsoft underestimated the Internet's impact. The company soon released Internet Explorer, an Internet browser that lets you access the Internet from within Windows 95.
If you don't have Internet Explorer, Microsoft lets you download the program free of charge from its Web site (www.microsoft.com). Of course, if you have no Internet access available to you, how can you download the file? Fortunately, Microsoft does sell Internet Explorer in stores and through mail-order outlets at a low cost if you have no access to the program and already have Windows 95 without Internet Explorer.
This hour winds down the book's 24-hour clock by giving you a crash Internet course and by teaching you some of the ways Windows 95 integrates with the Internet. In addition, you'll learn how to use Internet Explorer. Microsoft has promised to integrate Internet Explorer even more completely into subsequent Windows 95 updates by making Internet Explorer a part of the Windows 95 interface--at which point, Microsoft may rename Windows 95 to something else.
The highlights of this hour include:
The Internet is a world-wide system of interconnected computers. Whereas your desktop computer is a stand-alone machine, and a network of computers is tied together by wires, the Internet is a world-wide on-line network of computers connected as well to stand-alone computers through modems. Hardly anyone understands the Internet because the Internet is not one system but a conglomeration of systems.
The Internet began as a government and university-linked system of computers,
but it has now grown to a business and personal system that contains almost an infinite
amount
of information. The Internet is so vast that nobody would be able to access all of
its information today.
JUST A MINUTE: There is no central Internet computer anywhere. Instead, the Internet is a system of connected computers. Internet is the term given to the entire system. The term Web is given to the interconnected system of Internet information pages that you can access to read specific information, as described throughout this hour.
TIME SAVER: For an in-depth look at the Internet, you might want to read The Internet Unleashed 1997 (ISBN 1-57521-185-8) published by Sams.net.
The Internet's vastness almost caused its downfall. How does one access or find
infor-
mation on the Internet? Fortunately, Internet technicians began standardizing Internet
information when it became apparent that the Internet was growing and becoming a
major information provider.
The WWW, or World Wide Web, or just Web, is a collection
of Internet pages of information. Web pages can contain text, graphics, sound, and
video. Figure 24.1 shows a sample Web page. As you can see, the Web page's graphics
and text organize information into a magazine-like readable and appealing format.
Figure 24.1.
Web pages provide Internet information in a nice format.
Generally, a Web site might contain more information than will fit easily on a single
Web page. Therefore, many Web pages contain links to several additional extended
pages, as well as other linked Web pages that may be related to the original topic.
The first page you view is called the home page, and from the home page you
can view other pages of information.
JUST A MINUTE: Each Web page has a unique location that includes the source computer and the location on that computer but such locations would be difficult to keep track of. Therefore, the Internet has standardized Web page locations with a series of addresses called URLs, or Uniform Resource Locator addresses. You can view any Web page if you know its URL. If you do not know the URL, the Internet provides several search engines that find Web pages when you search for topics.
TIME SAVER: Surely you've run across computer addresses that look like this: www.microsoft.com and www.mcp.com; these are URLs that access the Web pages for Microsoft Corporation and Macmillan Computer Publishing.
Before you can access and view Web information, you need a program that can display Web page information including text, graphics, audio, and video. The program you need is called a Web browser--or just a browser. Although several companies offer browsers, Windows 95 integrates one of the best Web browsing programs, called Internet Explorer.
In many Windows 95 installations, Windows 95 comes with the Internet Explorer browser program. Again, if you don't have Internet Explorer, you'll have to get it before you can follow these examples. If you've installed another vendor's browser, such as Netscape Navigator, you can use that browser from Windows 95 to access Web pages. This hour's figures and tasks use Internet Explorer because it integrates so nicely with Windows 95 and because newer Windows 95 installations include Internet Explorer.
JUST A MINUTE: Remember that Microsoft developers have stated they plan to integrate Internet Explorer more and more into the Windows 95 environment. Perhaps Microsoft will even do away with Explorer in future operating systems and will use a form of Internet Explorer to browse both Internet pages and files on your computer.
Before you can access the Internet's Web pages, you'll need to get Internet access
through an ISP, or Internet Service Provider. One of the easiest ways
to get access is through the Microsoft Network, which has access programs that are
available with all Windows 95 installations. If you want Internet access through
another ISP, such as a local Internet provider, your provider will tell you how to
use Internet Explorer or another Web browser to access the ISP's Internet system.
Task 24.1: Starting Internet Explorer
Step 1: Description
Internet Explorer is easy to start. You literally can access the Internet with one
or two clicks by running Internet Explorer. This task explains how to start Internet
Explorer. You must already have Internet access through the Microsoft Network or
another provider and you must know the phone number to that provider. (Your provider
will have to give you the specific access and setup details.)
Step 2: Action
Figure 24.2.
You may need to log into the Microsoft Network to use Internet Explorer.
JUST A MINUTE: Internet Explorer's toolbar button labeled Home displays your start page. You can return to Internet Explorer's start page by clicking the Home button. You can change your start page address by entering a new start page within the View | Options dialog box's Navigation page. When you enter a new start page address, Internet Explorer will return to that page whenever you click the Home toolbar button or start Internet Explorer in a subsequent session.
Step 3: Review
Using Internet Explorer to access the Internet and Web pages requires just one or
two clicks. Internet Explorer automatically displays an initial start Web page from
which you then can access additional Web pages and surf the Internet!
Task 24.2: Managing the Internet Explorer Screen
Step 1: Description
Internet Explorer makes it easy to navigate Web pages. Before looking at a lot of
Internet information, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the Internet
Explorer screen.
Step 2: Action
Figure 24.3.
Learn the Internet Explorer screen so that you can maximize the Internet
Explorer browser.
Figure 24.4.
Although you can gain more screen room, you'll probably miss the toolbar
and status bar.
Step 3: Review
Familiarize yourself with Internet Explorer's screen elements. As you traverse the
Internet, Internet Explorer will aid you--as you'll see throughout the rest of this
chapter. By adjusting the screen's elements, you can see more or less of large Web
pages you encounter.
Remember that the Internet's Web is a collection of inter-connected Web pages. Almost every Web page contains links to other sites. These links (often called hot links or hypertext links) are often underlined. You'll be able to locate these links by moving your mouse cursor over the underlined description. If the mouse cursor changes to a hand, you can click the hand to move to that page. After a brief pause, your Web browser will display the page.
TIME SAVER: A link is nothing more than a URL address to the other Web site. The link often displays a description and not a technical URL address. (As you move your mouse cursor over a link, your Web browser's status bar displays the actual URL address to the link.) Therefore, you can traverse related Web pages without worrying about addresses; just click link descriptions to move to those sites.
Suppose you view the home page of your financial broker. The page might include links to other related pages, such as stock quotation pages, company financial informational pages, and order-entry pages in which you can enter your own stock purchase requests.
One of the most useful features of Internet Explorer and every other Web browser is the browser's ability to return to sites you've visited both in the current session and in former sessions. The toolbar's Back button takes you back to a site you just visited and you can keep clicking the Back button to return to pages you've visited this session. The Forward toolbar button returns you to pages from where you've backed up.
At any point, you can click the Address dropdown listbox to see a list of URL
addresses you've visited. (See Figure 24.5.) You'll find addresses from the current
as well as previous Internet Explorer Web sessions.
Figure 24.5.
Internet Explorer keeps track of recent Web page addresses you've visited.
If you know the address of a Web site you want to view, you can type the site's address
directly in the Address textbox. When you press Enter, Internet Explorer takes you
to that site and displays the Web page. In addition, you can select File |
Open to display Figure 24.6's dialog box and enter an address in the dialog
box. When you click OK, Internet Explorer displays the page associated with that
address.
Figure 24.6.
You can enter a Web address in this Open dialog box.
JUST A MINUTE: As discussed previously, Microsoft will probably integrate Internet Explorer more fully into Windows 95 and Windows 95 applications. Most of the Office 97 products, for example, include an Internet Explorer-like interface in many areas, and they link directly to Internet Explorer when you perform certain Internet-related tasks from within an Office 97 product. In some cases, you can bypass Explorer when you want a file listing or when you want to view a file while surfing the Internet Web pages. Select File | Open to display the Open dialog box (refer to Figure 24.6). Instead of entering a URL address, type a disk, pathname, and filename. If Internet Explorer recognizes the file's registered type, you'll see the file's contents, from within the Internet Explorer browser, as shown in Figure 24.7.
Figure 24.7.
Internet Explorer displays files as well as Web page contents.
If you find a location you really like, save that location in Internet Explorer's
Favorites list. (Often, these Favorites lists are called browser bookmarks.)
For example, if you run across a site that discusses your favorite television show
and you want to return to that site again quickly, click the Favorites toolbar button
and add the site to your Favorites list. The Address history does not keep track
of a lot of recently visited addresses; you can, however, store your favorite sites
in the Favorites folders so that you can quickly access them during another Internet
session.
TIME SAVER: Many non-browser products, such as Microsoft Office 97, let you add Web links to non-Internet documents such as Word documents. When you type a URL address in Word, Word will underline the address. If you--or someone who reads your document from within Word--clicks on the URL link, Word automatically starts Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you use); as soon as Internet Explorer locates the page, it appears on-screen.
Task 24.3: Moving Between Pages
Step 1: Description
This task lets you practice using the Internet Explorer browser to move between Web
pages. After you visit a site, you can return to that site very simply.
Step 2: Action
CAUTION: Often, you'll see Web addresses prefaced with the text http://. This prefix lets you and your browser both know that the address to the right of the second slash is a Web page's URL address. Be sure to type forward slashes and not the MS-DOS backslashes you are used to typing on PCs.
Figure 24.8.
Macmillan Publishing's home page.
JUST A MINUTE: Internet Explorer (as well as most browsers) keeps a history of Web page content in memory and on your disk. Therefore, if you revisit a Web site that you've recently viewed, your browser will most likely still have that site in its storage buffer. Instead of waiting for a long download once again, the page appears quickly because your browser actually reloads the page from memory and not from the original site.
Step 3: Review
The toolbar makes it easy to visit and revisit Web sites that interest you. You can
return to previous sites and move forward once again. The Favorites toolbar button
lets you add descriptions to your favorite Web sites so that you can return to those
sites by clicking your mouse over the site's description in the Favorites list.
If you add too many favorites, your favorites list might become unmanageable. When
you add to your favorites list, you'll be able to create folders from the Add to
Favorites dialog box's Create In button. By setting up a series of named folders
named by subjects, you can group your favorite Web sites by subject.
TIME SAVER: Visit Microsoft's site often. Microsoft will give you advanced information on Windows 95 correction files available, as well as information on future products and helpful tips you can use to make your life with Windows 95 better.
You'll find that some Web pages take a long time to display. Often, Web pages contain a lot of text and graphics and that data takes time to arrive on your computer. Therefore, you might click to a favorite Web site but have to wait a minute or longer to see the entire site.
To speed things, Internet Explorer will attempt to show as much of the page as
possible, especially the text on the page, before downloading the graphic images.
Internet Explorer puts placeholders where the graphic images will appear. For example,
Figure 24.9 shows a Web page with placeholders. This page appears quickly. If you
view this page for a few moments, the placeholders' images begin to appear until
the final page displays in its entirety, as in Figure 24.10.
Figure 24.9.
Placeholders let you see the overall Web page design and text.
Figure 24.10. After the images all arrive, the placeholders turn into graphic images.
Task 24.4: Refreshing and Stopping the Display
Step 1: Description
As you saw in the previous task, Internet Explorer saves recent Web page contents
in a memory buffer. Therefore, even if a Web page contains lots of information and
requires a minute or longer to load, if you return to that page in a subsequent session,
your browser will often display the in-memory Web page. Although the memory buffer
speeds things up, you may not want to see the buffer's Web page. You might, instead,
want to see the original page in case the site has changed since your last visit.
Step 2: Action
Step 3: Review
Use the Stop and Refresh buttons to control the loading of Web pages. The Stop button
keeps Web pages from fully loading. You can click Stop as soon as you see as much
of the page as you want to see. Click Refresh if you view a Web page from your memory
buffer but want to reload the page from its URL address. If you suspect that a Web
page has been updated since you last visited the page, click Refresh so that you
can be assured you've seen the most recent version.
How can you expect to find any information on a vast network of networks such as the Internet? Web pages offer linked sites in an appealing format that lets you comfortably view information and see related pages, but you must know the location of one of the site's pages before the links can help.
Fortunately, Internet Explorer (as well as most Internet Web browsers) offers a searching mechanism that helps you locate information on the Web. By clicking the Search toolbar button, you can access the Microsoft Web page shown in Figure 24.11.
CAUTION: The Web page you see may differ from the one in Figure 24.11 because Microsoft changes the page quite often.
The search Web page offers the benefit of multiple search engines. A search
engine is a Web program that lets you enter words and phrases to search for, and
then the search engine scans the vast information on the Web to locate sites that
contain the phrase. The accuracy of the search depends on the words and phrases you
enter, as well as the capability of the search engine. For example, some search engines
you can choose from will search only Web pages while others will search newsgroups
(discussion areas that hold files and messages related to topics).
Figure 24.11.
Select from one of several Web search engines.
TIME SAVER: If you find that one of the search engines locates information for you better than the others, you can make that search engine the default by clicking the Set Default command button. If you do not set a default search engine, Internet Explorer will select a different one from the list each time you visit the search site. Even if you don't set a default, you can select whatever search engine you want to use by clicking on it when the search page appears.
After the search page concludes the search, Internet Explorer displays from zero to several address links on which you can click to find information about your topic. For example, Figure 24.12 shows the result of one search. By scrolling down the page (and by clicking the additional pages of links if your search turns up a lot of sites), you can read the descriptions of the pages (the descriptions often contain the first few lines of the located Web page text).
Each search engine locates information differently and each search engine has its own rules for the words and phrases you enter. Keep in mind that the more specific your search phrase is, the more accurately the search engine can find information that will help you.
TIME SAVER: If your search failed to locate information you think is on the Web, or if the search turned up too many sites and you want to narrow the search, you can often click the site list's pages Options or More Information button to read the search criteria rules for that search engine.
Figure 24.12.
The results of a search might produce several pages of Web sites.
Generally, you can use these guidelines with most search engines:
Remember that these search criteria rules are only guidelines that often work. Some of the search engines follow slightly different rules and you'll have to look up that search engine page's help references for specific information if the previous rules do not seem to work the way you expect.
JUST A MINUTE: Most of the search engines are case sensitive when you mix uppercase and lowercase characters in your search; that is, you need to type words and phrases exactly as you expect them to appear if you want the search to match your search case exactly. Otherwise, if you enter a search criteria in all lowercase letters, the search engines generally do not base the match on case. Therefore, if you want to locate the city named Flint (in Michigan), enter Flint. Otherwise, if you enter the name in all lowercase letters, the search engine will probably search both for the city name as well as the rock.
This hour introduced you to the Internet. The Internet is a vast collection of inter-related computers all around the world. You can access the Internet as long as you have access through an Internet Service Provider. Although Internet information appears in many forms, the most useful Internet often appears on Web pages that contain text, graphics, sound, and video.
Windows 95 supports the Internet Explorer Web browser with which you can view Web pages. Internet Explorer includes searching tools as well as a history system that keeps track of recent Web pages. Not only can you view Web pages with Internet Explorer, but you can also view other kinds of files on your computer. As the Internet becomes more organized and as Internet access gets faster and cheaper, you will make the Web browser more and more of your daily computing routine. One day, you'll find that you do most of your work from Web browsing software such as Internet Explorer.
bookmarks Web sites you've stored in the Favorites area so that you can easily return to the sites without knowing their addresses.
browser Software that searches for, loads, and displays information from Internet Web pages. Browsers display the text, graphics, sound, and even video that appear on modern Web pages.
home page A Web site's foundational page from which all other pages connect. Often, your browser's start page will be the home page of a Web site such as Microsoft's home page.
hot links (Also called links and hypertext links) Web page items with descriptions that you can click to display other Web pages. Often, a Web page will contain several links to other sites that contain related information.
hypertext links See hot links.
Internet A collection of networked computer systems that you can dial into by using a modem that contains a vast assortment of information.
Internet Explorer The Web browsing software that Microsoft gives away to Windows 95 users.
search engine A program that locates information on the Web.
site The location of a Web page or set of related Web pages.
start page The page your Web browser initially shows when you first log onto the Internet.
URL address (Stands for Uniform Resource Locator) The technical address of a Web page's location. When you enter the URL address in your browser's Address textbox, the browser will locate that address's Web page and display the Web page's contents.
Web A system for formatting Internet information into readable and manageable
pages of text, graphics, video, and sound.
WWW (Stands for Wide World Web) See Web.
