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BasicsMoving about the web You move about the Internet and World Wide Web by url addresses. The main way to visit a url address is by either typing the address into your borwser or by clicking on a hyperlinks. Hyperlinks Hyperlinks are found on website pages and direct you to a url. There are two types of hyperlinks,
You use the hyperlink by simply clicking on it with your mouse. For example, a typical text hyperlink is made up of http://www.microsoft.com/ provides the following information:
Keyboard Commands
Errors loading a web page The most common mistake is not typing the URL into the address box correctly. A url can start with with either http:// or www or just the domain name such mysite.com. The URL will usually end with either .htm, .html, .php, .asp. But there are more obscure extensions. Another common mistake is typing the slash "/" character at the end of a domain. Other errors could be either authorization or a dns errors. DNS Errors As you surf the Net, you will find at times you can't access certain websites. The different errors are,
SearchingWhere to search The two main search engines currently are Yahoo and Google. Most other portals on the web such as Alta Vista and Aol are currently using one of these search results. However MSN are now also developed their own search results to compete against Yahoo and Google. You can try smaller search websites such as Askjeeves who use Teoma search results. PPC search engines PPC (pay per click) search engines such as Overture and Espotting are not free for inclusion. You have to pay for every click / visit they generate to your website. This click can cost from 1p upto £1 depending on the term. Search terms such as "loans" and "credit cards" usually cost the most to bid on. PPC (pay per click) search engines such as Overture also provide results for search engines such as Yahoo also. The quality of PPC search results are usually of low quality and mostly commercial. Internal Search on Web Sites Many websites have their own search engines. There are several options available, depending on the size and complexity of your web site. For larger sites you will probably require a script with a website crawler. For smaller personal web sites, or a small business web site Google offer a free site search feature that you can have up and running on your site in five minutes. Otherwise there are many search scripts available with easy setup features. Submitting to the Search Engines It's very simple to submit to search such as Google and Yahoo, However when you submit for free search engines cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when or if your website will appear. Only the page such as "http://www.webfaq.co.uk" from a host is necessary; you do not need to submit each individual page (this can cause more harm). Advice Currently you don't even need to sbmit your website to search engines to get it listed. What you need is a link from another listed website. The search engine crawler will then find your website. The idea of submitting your site repeatedly is now a myth, it used to be an essential part of getting your site listed but not anymore. So the best way to get your site crawled quickly is get a listing in human-edited directories (like Yahoo!, DMOZ, JoeAnt and GoGuides). Resubmitting There is also no need to resubmit if you site has dropped in search engine ranking or has disappeared. This indicates that your website has either, been on error when the crawler visited, the search engine has experienced a glitch or your webite has broken some of the search engines submission rules. If your site has dropped in ranking then it's probably due to a change in the search engine algorithm. Search Tips Be Specific Choose your words carefully and always try to be as specific as possible such as,
" + " Searches If a search word is essential to your search, you can make sures it's included by typing a plus sign + in front of it. " - " Searches If you want to exclude a word from your search put a minus sign ("-") in front of the term you want to avoid. "OR" Searches If you're equally interested in two terms, use OR in capital letters. For example, search for "new zealand rugby OR union" Boolean Searching AND - Search on Term1 AND Term2 OR - Search on Term1 OR Term2 NOT - Search on Term1 but NOT Term2 Google Search Tips Domain Restrict You can restrict your search to only one website / domain in Google by doing this,
This means Google will only search for the term "email" from the website www.webfaq.co.uk. Search for Images, Groups, News, Froogle You can also search google for only images, google newsgroups, news articles or shopping items in froogle. Just click on of the search links above the Google search box. Advanced Search If you are dissatified with the quality of the results returned by a search engine it may be best to try their advanced search facility. Both Yahoo and Google have one. Advanced searches may result in a more accurate result set. Advanced search on Google allows you to search by,
Domain NamesWhat's a Url ? URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. It's basically like the address of your house, except a URL directs you to a place on the Internet. Some common types are,
Anatomy of a URL http:// www.webfaq.co.uk /index.html http:// - short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol www. - page on the World Wide Web webfaq.co.uk - the domain name index.html - This is the web page inside the folder. Extensions
Whois Domain Name Search A whois search allows users to see the register of a website name. When someone registers a domain they do not actually own that domain but secures the right to use the domain. You usually pay to use a domain name for 2 years, after this you must again pay the registration fee. Otherwise someone else has the right to use the domain. If you search for whois on Google you can soon find a website with a whois search facility Finger The finger command, shows information about each user that's currently logged in. This command also has extensions for use over the Internet, as well. Under normal circumstances, the command is simply finger for a summary of who's logged into the local system, or finger username for specific information about a user. Some accounts, however, are not fingerable. This is because:
Ping The ping command allows the user to check if another server / website is currently ``up'' and running. Many implementations of ping also include an option to let you see how fast a link is running . For example: Ping 217.12.3.11 Round
trip time to 217.12.3.11: 107 ms
Ping also shows you the speed of the connection to a server / website. Parking Domain Parking programs allow you to register domain names without needing to develop your own site. URLs are Case Sensitive When entering a website url remember that on some sysetems urls are case sensitive. This means if you want to visit yahoo you must type www.yahoo.co.uk and not WWW.YAHOO.CO.UK. Otherwise you may get a "404 Not Found" message. Transferring A Domain It's very easy to transfer domain names between hosts. You will just have to give your current host some information about your new hosts such as,
IP address An Internet address, or IP address, is a unique identifier that defines a system's location on the Internet. IP addresses are 32-bit designations consisting of four numbers from 1 to 255 separated by dots (.), for example, 156.21.50.1. Each IP address is also represented by a unique name. For example, the IP address 156.21.50.1 maps to the computer named superserv.ipswitch.com. HTMLBasics HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the language used for creating and translating Web documents. HTML is simple to learn and to create. To view html code with Internet Explorer go to the top menu, click view and then source. You can create a html document in a simple text editor such as Microsoft Notepad or with a sophicated program such as Macromedia Dreamweaver. A simple HTML would look something like this, <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <table
width="760" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
align="center"> As you can see there isn't much to it. Some common elements / tags are,
Headings There are six different heading levels that can be used to place headings within your documents body section.
Text Styles These tags render text in html in different styles,
BBCode BBCode is a special implementation of HTML (found in message boards for example). BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML: tags are enclosed in square braces [ and ] rather than < and > and it offers greater control over what and how something is displayed. Lists You can create unordered lists such,
and ordered lists in html,
To create an unordered list use these tags, <ul><li> </li></ul> <ul> To create an ordered list use these tags, <ol><li></li></ol> <ol> Tables The table tag in html is, <table>
</table> And you can format the table with these options,
An example of a formatted table is thus, <table width="760"
border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center"> Internet ExplorerBasics Below are some common elements in Internet Explorer,
Restoring default settings For windows,
Turn off images on web pages From Internet
Explorer,
Keyboard Shortcuts
AutoComplete You can configure AutoComplete to save and suggest only the information you want. You can choose whether to use AutoComplete for Web addresses, forms, and passwords, or not use it all. You can also clear the history for any of these.
Adding bookmarks or favorites You can create a shortcut to your most visited web pages by using the favorites button in Internet Explorer or bookmark button in netscape navigator, or the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer. Both browsers allow you to edit your bookmarks. Adding bookmarks can save you browsing time. Downloading images, programs and mulitmedia files To download images, programs and mulitmedia files right click on the link if you're using windows. A menu will appear that will allow you to "Download" or "Save" the file to disk. Cookies Cookies are small files that a website can store on your hard disk containing whatever data the site chooses. This means that when you revisit say a website forum and you entered member information it will be saved. This can save. The only downside some people see is that cookies can be used to help track where you go and what you do online. Enable or disable cookies To disable cookies, scroll down to your version of Internet Explorer and follow the steps provided: Internet Explorer 5.0 and
Internet Explorer 5.5: Disabling cookies will prevent you from viewing some Web sites such as forums and many ecommerce websites. How to delete cookies If you want to view and delete the list of cookies stored on your PC from Web sites you've visited, you can do so via Internet Explorer, as follows: To view or delete cookies stored on your computer:
How to delete web browser history Internet Explorer automatically keeps a 'history' of all Web sites you've visited recently. If you wish to delete this list of Web sites for privacy reasons, you can do so as follows: To delete your Web browser history: Problems loading a web page Sometimes you can have problems loading a website page,
due to it loading very slow or not at all. Most times this is the fault of the
actual website in question. But if it isn't then the best thing you can do is
press stop in you browser, then control and refresh together. Close all programs Windows 2000 and Windows XP: 1. Hold down
the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously on the keyboard and press the Delete key.
This will open the Windows Task Manager screen which will list all the programs
running on the computer. Ensure you are on the 'Applications' tab.
1. Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously
on the keyboard and press the Delete key. This will open the Close Program screen
which will list all the programs running on the computer. Repair Internet Explorer If Internet Explorer is corrupted, it can cause problems accessing Web sites. It is not always possible to repair Internet Explorer but you could try the following steps to see if it helps: Instructions for most windows versions of Explorer, 1. Close all programs down then click
Start, Settings and Control Panel. If this does not work, fails to repair or the option to repair is not available, you could try reinstalling Internet Explorer from your Windows CD-ROM. Can't access a secure website This error message may appear if you have previously set up Microsoft Content Advisor. This is a built-in feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer, designed to let you control the type of Web sites that can be accessed from your computer. Disable Content Advisor 1. Click on Start,
Settings and Control Panel. (Windows XP users, click Start and Control Panel.) Broken images on web pages If an image doesn't load on a webpage, it will come up as a broken graphic in most web browsers. The only solution to this in Internet Explorer is right click with your mouse and then view image. If this fails then it's the websites problem. View a website offline Using Microsoft Internet Explorer it's possible to view Web pages when you're disconnected from the Internet. For full instructions on how to do this: 1. Double-click the Internet Explorer icon on your Windows
desktop (also available by clicking on your Windows Start button, then Programs). Translate web pages Google and the major search engines now offer a web page translation service. Google's language tools provide a way to translate any web page between any of several languages. Machine translation is difficult to do well and tends not to be as clear as human translation. But it can give you the gist of what the website has written on it's pages. Blocking websites For windows,
Specify fonts for websites For Internet Explorer,
How does it work? When you send an email the following actions are taken:
POP3 Short for Post Office Protocol, POP3 is a protocol that allows mail clients to retrieve mail from a mailbox on a mail server. The POP protocol is most commonly used by client programs such as Outlook Express. IMAP Short for Internet Message
Access Protocol, IMAP is a protocol that allows mail clients to retrieve mail
from a mailbox on a mail server. The latest version, IMAP4, is similar to POP3
but supports some additional features. It allows a mailbox to have several subfolders,
and it also allows a mail client to receive a list of the mails. What Are Attachments? These are files added to an email, which could be an image, a text document, a zip file etc. There will usually be a limit to the file size of any attachments you make, as most email services should not be used as an extension of your hard disk. To attach a file to a new post, simply click the button at the bottom of the post composition page, and locate the file that you want to attach from your local hard drive. Sometimes only certain types of files may be attached: these are the valid file extensions for files to be attached such as gif jpg png txt zip bmp jpeg. After emailing, the attachment will show up in the body of your message. To view the contents of the attachment (if it is not already displayed) simply click the filename link that appears next to the attachment icon . Address Book An email 'Address Book' is an online contact manager similar to a paper or desktop address book but with many more features and functions. Use it to store all of your contact information about individuals and companies. Because it's online, you can access it with an Internet connection from anywhere in the world. In addition to being fully searchable, most email Address Books lets you group your contacts into categories, making it quick and easy to find a specific contact or view a subset of your records. Adding address to Outlook Express (IE 5) Outlook Express allows you to add a new email account to your existing profile.
Adding address to Netscape Messenger 4 and higher
Spam Whats is spam ?
What are headers? Headers are in all e-mails and contain a record of the
route taken by the email. Every email comes with a header, but most people have
a basic header which says who the message is from, who the message is to, if anyone
was "Cc"ed the message, the Subject and the Date. A full header gives
you the record of information that the email took from to get to you. So it will
tell you where it came from. If you'd like to see the "Full Header",
then click on "Show Full Headers" when you're reading your message.
It's available in most email services. Web DesignActive Server Pages (ASP) Microsoft's ASP (Active Server Pages) is a way to combine HTML, scripts written in JavaScript or VBScript, and ActiveX controls to dynamically serve HTML. When a browser requests an ASP page from a Microsoft Web server, the server interprets the ASP code and sends the resulting HTML to the requesting browser. (The browser receives only HTML, not ASP code.) A block of ASP code begins with <% and ends with %>. ActiveX controls ActiveX controls (formerly known as OLE controls) are reusable
components, somewhat like miniature applications, that can act like browser plugins.
They run in Internet Explorer with Windows, but they don't run on the Macintosh
or in Netscape Navigator. FTPFile Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a means of transferring files over the Internet directly from one computer to another. "FTP sites" are public computer systems with large amounts of files such as software, games, pictures, etc. freely available for public download. Nowadays, many major download sites are also accessible via the Web , so usually the only time you'll need to use FTP directly is if you've created your own Web page and you want to upload it to your website host. ASCII Used for text file transferring. (The end-of-line character is different on different types of computers; using ASCII mode ensures that the end-of-line character is translated properly.). If you know that the FTP site you are transferring to or from is running the same operating system as your local system, you can always use binary mode and never use ASCII. ASCII Transfer Mode The ASCII transfer mode treats a file as text, and should be used for all ASCII (text) files. ASCII transfer mode translates the end-of-line characters during transfer so that the file can be read on the destination system. (ASCII mode contrasts with binary mode in which characters are not translated, but are transferred as exact duplicates of the original.) Chmod Basically CHMOD refers to setting the access privledges for a file. The chmod (UNIX) command appears only when one or more files or folders are selected in the Remote System list. When you select chmod, you see a dialog box where you can specify the most common UNIX file attributes. The two most common settings, are 755 and 777. You must have write permission on the FTP site and the site must support the "SITE chmod" command. This is normally valid only on UNIX-based systems. The selected items do not reflect the current permissions of the file. Passive Transfers Normally, when you connect to an FTP site, the site establishes the data connection to your PC (the client). However, if the site allows passive transfers, you can have your PC establish the data connection. Remote Host A remote system is the host computer, or FTP site, to which your PC connects; the remote system can be located in your office or somewhere else. Winsock DLL The Winsock (Windows Sockets) dynamic link library is a specification for the Microsoft Windows API (applications programming interface). Software providers useWinsock as a guideline for developing network software. To access FTP sites In
the Address bar, type the Internet address (URL) for the FTP site you want to
connect to. For example: Do one or more of
the following:
NetiquetteWhen posting on web forums or websites it is best to stick to these rules if you want to be liked,
Chat Abbreviations When chatting online by programs such as ICQ most prople use abbreviations, here are some common ones,
Emoticons When posting on forums and using chat programs many people use emotions, examples of these are below,
DownloadingHow to download Downloading is very simple, you either click the hyperlink download link or place your cursor over the hyperlink and save as. Macintosh users: Click and hold the mouse button until the pop-up box appears. Scanning Downloads Before downloading files from the Internet, it's always best to scan the file with a virus scanner. One of the common ways to be infected with a virus is from email attachments or downloads. Common download file types When downloading a file from the Internet there are many different types. The most common compressed files have these extensions,
The most common graphics file formats,
For video files, popular extensions are
The most popular sound file format are, these days is
GNU General Public License GNU General Public License has been developed to guarantee freedom to share and change free software.
Internet ConnectionsSetting up a dial-up connection (windows) Depending on your windows version you can setup a connection to the Internet, for xp
Other windows operating system versions will have a very similar setup process. Why is my connection so slow? Dialup First thing to check for is static on the line, BT offer a line checking /repair service. But today for a truly fast connection to the Internet, you should consider broadband connection. 56K connections for dialup connections are rare, because your phone line connection must be excellent. The best are about 45k.A "56K" modem is about 56,000 bits per second. That's 7,000 bytes per second. MP3 music files for example are several million bytes in size, can take close to ten minutes to download. Broadband Problems A network cable is unplugged If you are getting disconnected from broadband and getting the error "A network cable is unplugged", it usually means a problem with the BT Voyager 100 usb adsl modem. The solution is, To turn off your pc and then disconnect you adsl modem from your pc and the phone socket. Then reboot your machine and hopefully your connection will be fine. Otherwise contact your isp. Extensions If the adsl modem is too far away from the phone socket, you may need to use an extension. The maximum reliable distance from the main house socket would be 13 metres for broadband. Plug the extension cable into the filter. Do not plug the extension directly into the phone socket, always go through the filter. Then plug the extension cable directly into the broadband modem ForumsWhy should I register? The majority of forum administrators will require that you register as a member to do any of the following,
All you will need to do to register is provide a username, password and valid email address on the register form. Sometimes the registration process will finish at this stage, or only require you to respond to an activation email, but sometimes it will require a manual acceptance by the admin. Why have some of the words in my post been blanked-out? Certain words may have been censored by the administrator. If your posts contain any censored words, they will be blanked-out like this: ****. The same words are censored for all users, and censoring is done by a computer simply searching and replacing words. It is in no way 'intelligent'. Words blanked out are usually offensive words. What Are Moderators? Moderators oversee specific forums.
They generally have the ability to edit and delete posts, move threads, and perform
other manipulations. Becoming a moderator for a specific forum is usually rewarded
to users who are particularly helpful and knowledgeable in the subject of the
forum they are moderating. They are basically like policeman for online forums. What are message icons? Most forums have enabled message icons for new threads, posts and private messages. Message icons allow you to specify a small icon to accompany your posting, which is used to convey the emotion or content of a post at a glance. If you do not see a list of message icons when you are composing your message or post, the administrator has disabled the option. What are smilie? Smilies are small graphical icons which you can insert into your messages to convey an emotion or feeling, such as a joke or embarrassment. A smiley can easily portray if something was a joke, just simply insert the 'wink' smilie. If you have used email or internet chat systems such as MSN Messenger or ICQ, you will probably be familiar with the concept of smilies already. Certain combinations of text characters are converted into smilies. For example,:) is converted into a smiling face. To understand smilie codes, tilt your head to the left and look at the text: you will see that :) represents two eyes and a smiling mouth. Using Special Text Most forums allow special text, common code for this is,
What is a signature? A signature is something that will be displayed at the bottom of every post you make. You can change your signature on the profile page of most forum packages. Typical signatures are quotes from famous people such as, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing–that it was all started by a mouse.” - Walt Disney What are Announcements? Announcements often contain important information and you should read them as soon as possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. Whether or not you can post an announcement depends on the permissions required, which are set by the administrator. UsenetUsenet was created in 1979 and is the name for organisation of newsgroups. Usenet is the set of machines that exchange articles tagged with one or more universally-recognized labels, called newsgroups. You can newsgorups for just about any subject, but the main areas are,
Online forums for subjects - users-[2], discussion-[2] Summery Usenet "newsgroups" are the Internet equivalent of message boards. There are literally thousands of newsgroups, each devoted to a different topic. |