Task

Details

Internet connections

 Phone lines:  approximately $20 per month for unlimited use plus any charges for non-local calls if the access number is not local; ties up the phone; call waiting can be disabled; requires signup with an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

DSL:  digital subscriber line; fast Internet connection offered by telephone companies in some areas; phone can be used for regular phone calls while connected to the Internet; no Internet Service Provider is needed.  About $50 per month.

cable:  fast connection to the Internet provided by cable companies; does not tie up phone lines; requires a special cable modem; no other Internet Service Provider required; can be as much as 170 times faster than a telephone connection for downloads and 14 times faster for uploads.

What is an ISP?

Internet Service Provider--a local or national company which provides access to the Internet for area residents.

Web page

a specially formatted page consisting of text, graphics, audio and video.  Hyperlinks consist of text or graphics which will move the user to another Web page.

Web server

The computer that has the Web pages stored.  When you connect to another site, you are accessing files on that site's Web server.

home page

The main page for a site OR the first page when you open your browser.  Set the home page in your browser by selecting Tools - Internet Preferences - General in Internet Explorer.  Return to the browser's home page at any time, by clicking the Home icon.

Web browser

Software used to view Web pages, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator

HTML

Hypertext markup language.  The language used to write Web pages.  Consists of sets of tags which specify how the elements on a Web page will display.  The HTML code behind a Web page can be seen in FrontPage by clicking HTML when a file is open or by selecting View - Source when the browser is open.

browser extensions or plug-ins

Programs required to properly view a Web page.  Sometimes documents, animations, special video or audio components are included on a Web page and in order to view them properly a plug-in program is required.  Often there will be a link on such a page to allow the viewer to download the plug-ins for free.

Common plug-ins:

Acrobat Reader (to open pdf files)
RealPlayer (streams audio and video over the Internet)
QuickTime (to play movies with a .mov extension)
Shockwave (to play movies, animations, interactive games, slide shows, streaming audio, background music)
Cosmo (to enable virtual reality environments)

Web addresses or URLs

A URL (uniform resource locator) is the location of a Web page on the Internet such as http://www.ursuline.edu/computerservices/facsup/index.html.  Http signifies the transfer protocol or set of rules used by computers to move files from one computer to another on the Internet.  www.ursuline.edu is the domain name which identifies the Web server (or domain name server).  computerservices and facsup are folders located on this Web server.  Index.html is the filename of the Web page.

The last part (e.g. edu) of a domain name (www.ursuline.edu) is the top-level domain and identifies the group to which a server or site belongs:

com:  business and other commercial enterprises
edu:  postsecondary educational institutions
gov:  U.S. government agency, bureau, or department
int: international organizations
mil:  U.S. military unit or agency
net:  network service provider or resource
org:  other organizations, usually charitable or not-for-profit
us:  sometimes used by K-12 schools or state and local governments in the US

Internet host computers outside the U.S. often use two-letter country domains:  de (Germany), au (Australia)....

Address box

Click on the down arrow to the right of the address box and select sites for which you have typed in a URL.  If you type a URL into the address box, and it matches an address typed in before, the drop-down list opens automatically to let you choose an address instead of continuing typing it.

cookies

A text file which contains information about your preferences based on your selections while visiting a site.  This cookie is exchanged with the Web site you're visiting and is then saved on your computer.  The next time you visit the site, you can be targeted with sales information and ads (for example, you've purchased a book and similar books will be suggested to you in the future).

The use of cookies can be monitored by changing the browser security preferences:

Internet Explorer:  Tools - Internet Options - Security - Custom Level
Netscape Navigator:  Edit - Preferences - Advanced

save a Web page

Internet Explorer:  Select File - Save As Web Page to save the text and graphics.  If you select .mht as the file type, you will get one file as a result (as opposed to a page and a folder.  Any graphics on the page could be saved by right-clicking them and selecting Save Picture As or Save Image As.

Text from a Web page can be highlighted and copied to a word processor.

save graphics

Internet Explorer:  Right-click a graphic and select Save Picture As.  Find the location for saving the graphic, and click OK.

print Web pages

Click on the Print icon or select File - Print.  Tip:  Select some text on the page to make sure that the desired frame will print.

NOTE:  Some Web pages disable the print command.

File - Print permits the printing of selected portions of a Web page.  If a Web page consists of frames (independent, separate areas of a Web page--such as a table of contents on the left side of the browser window or an advertisement or banner at the top of the Web page), it is sometimes possible to print frames individually.

File – Print – Options – Print Table of Links provides you with a list of all the URLs on the page.

It is helpful to set up some special options when printing Web pages:  date, URL, Web page title and page number.   Black text ensures that light text on a dark background will be visible on the printed page.  Use the File - Page Setup dialog box to set these options.

For long Web pages, it is useful to reduce the font size by selecting Edit - Preferences - Fonts - Size.  For wide pages, change the paper orientation to landscape.

stop a Web page transfer

If a Web page is taking too long to download, click on the Stop button to interrupt the transfer.  Often a second or third try to get to the Web page will be significantly faster.

refresh or reload the Web page

A button on the icon bar which is used to return to a Web site and load a fresh copy of the Web page currently on display in the browser.  Used to ensure that the most current copy of the Web page is displayed.

History vs. Back/Forward Buttons

There are two ways to navigate back over pages already visited in an Internet session:

Using the Back button returns you to previous pages one at a time, sequentially.

Using History allows you to see all pages visited during a certain time period and lets you jump directly to the desired page.

organize favorite Web sites

Bookmarks or Favorites:  sites for which you'd like to retain the Web address in order to be able to return to it.  Both Netscape and Internet Explorer allow you to do that, in addition to organizing these Web addresses into folders.  Netscape saves bookmarks into a single file.  Internet Explorer saves favorites individually.  Both browsers let you organize favorites into folders.

Internet Explorer:

 

to add a page to favorites, go to the Web page and select Favorites - Add to Favorites on the IE menu.

 

this is also the place to organize your Favorites into folders

 

delete Internet files saved to the hard drive

Internet Explorer:  Select Tools - Preferences - General .  Also set Days to keep in History to as few as possible.

download files and programs

With a credit card purchase and sometimes for free, you can download software programs from Web sites.  Files can be large and downloading may take some time, especially if you are connected over a phone line.

Suggested sites for downloading software:

www.download.com 
www.tucows.com 
Microsoft
Egghead
 Adobe

conduct basic Web searches

 Search engines on the Web are special Web pages which permit searching through a very large number of other Web pages.  Each search engine only looks through its own indexed pages, so the results for the same criteria in different search engines will be different.  Some search engines permit a Web page author to submit a URL for inclusion in their database.

Each search engine looks at different parts of a page to store in its database.  This could include the page title, description or only the first part of a Web page.  Some search engines include the entire text of Web pages.

Web directories are organized listings of Web pages.  Such directories are created by human indexers and tend to yield more relevant pages.  An example of such a directory is Yahoo.

A hybrid search engine directory provides a search engine capability within a directory.  Yahoo provides both a directory and a search engine which can look through the entire Web or just the pages indexed in a certain category.

A meta-search engine is one which searches multiple other search engines and returns results from all of them.  Examples of meta-search engines are:  Dogpile, Researchville, ixquick, qbsearch, Infozoid, Dataware Query Server, MetaCrawler, Metor.  Search capabilities are limited here because the search statement can only be as complex as the simplest search engine it will be used in.

Other Web resources include resource lists, guides, clearinghouses, and virtual libraries.  These are very organized kinds of resources often focused on one area or specialty.  Examples of good resources are:  Argus Clearinghouse, Librarian's Index to the Internet, the Free Internet Encyclopedia, the Scout Report Signpost, and the Martindale Reference Desk (science).

Searches on the Web are conducted with Boolean expressions:

dessert AND chocolate (both terms must be included in the returned Web pages)
dessert OR chocolate (one or both terms can be included in the returned Web pages)
dessert NOT chocolate (desserts, but not including pages which contain chocolate)

Some complex searches are clearer if the precedence operator is used:

dessert AND (chocolate OR hazelnut)--looks for desserts with either chocolate or hazelnut or both

To find exact expressions or words that are closely related use the following:

"Chocolate Hazelnut Torte" would find that exact phrase
chocolate NEAR torte would find Web pages that contain these two words close to each other

A wildcard character, such as the *, allows you to omit part of the search term:

danc* would find dancer, dancing, dance

Many search engines provide advanced search capabilities, such as restricting searches to pages in certain languages (AltaVista), within certain dates (HotBot), or displaying pages in subject folders (Northern Light).

Some search engines hire indexers with expertise in certain areas (About.com).  Additional features on such site may include discussion areas and online newsletters for interested parties.  Google is a search engine that returns frequently accessed pages.  Ask Jeeves offers the ability to type a question in "natural language," offering an alternative to Boolean queries.

TIPS:

 

learn one or two search engines well (AltaVista, Yahoo, Google, Northern Light are top-rated)

 

if a URL doesn't work, try shortening it

 

enter proper names with capitals (some search engines are case-sensitive--capital letters match only caps--small letters match everything)

 

http:// is the default in both Internet Explorer and Netscape--you can leave it off when typing URLs in the address box

 

the case of URLs may be important

 

make online purchases

Suggested guidelines:

 

purchase only from reputable vendors if you are going to provide credit card information

 

purchase only from vendors who make secure servers available (the URL will start with https when you are on a secure server)

 

companies can track which pages you have clicked to in order to determine your preferences; based on this "click stream" certain ads might be directed at you

 

samples of useful Web resources

news:  CNN, BBC, NPR

CRAYON:  A free service for creating your own online newspaper, organized into traditional newspaper topic categories, consolidating news from dozens of online news sources.

weather: The Weather Channel 

driving directions: www.mapquest.com

maps:  satellite views from all over the world--TerraServer

images:   searchttp://www.lecteachers.com/admin/h engines may allow you to search for images by keyword; OhioLink has the entire Associated Press image database

reference:  refdesk.com, a single source for facts on the Internet

copyright issues

To be safe, assume that Web material is copyrighted, even if that is not specifically stated and observe copyright laws.

Citing Web resources

The Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) offer two standards for citing Web resources.