1 Introduction	8
1.1 Other guides	9
2 The Internet	9
2.1 Some history	9
2.2 How it works, and why it sometimes doesn't	10
2.3 Domain names	10
2.3.1 What's in a domain name?	11
2.3.2 How domain names are allocated	11
2.3.3 Understanding domain names	11
2.3.4 More information	12
2.4 Software and services currently supported by the Internet	12
2.4.1 Email	13
2.4.2 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)	13
2.4.3 Telnet	13
2.4.4 News, or UseNet	13
2.4.5 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)	14
2.4.6 The http protocol (the Web!)	14
2.4.7 Other services	14
2.5 Software and services "coming soon" to the Internet	14
2.5.1 Smart agents	14
2.5.2 "Search" technologies	14
2.5.3 "push" technologies	15
2.5.4 Internet Telephones	15
2.6 Security and privacy	15
2.7 Getting access to the Internet	16
2.8 Response times/loading	16
2.9 Commerce on the Net	17
2.10 Intranet	17
3 Net Culture	18
3.1 Jargon	18
3.1.1 Computer Jargon	18
3.1.2 Internet slang	18
3.2 Netiquette	19
3.2.1 What to do	19
3.2.2 What not to do	19
3.2.3 What to beware of	20
3.3 Expressing yourself in text	20
3.3.1 Emphasis	21
3.3.1.1 Adding emphasis to words	21
3.3.1.2 Smiling, grinning, frowning	21
3.3.1.3 SHOUTING	21
3.3.2 Quoting	21
3.4 Demographics and language	22
4 Email	22
4.1 Email addresses	22
4.1.1 What does my email address mean?	22
4.1.2 How do I find people's email addresses?	23
4.2 How to use email	23
4.2.1 Composing email	24
4.2.2 Getting your mail	24
4.2.3 Reading your mail	25
4.2.4 Replying to your mail	25
4.2.5 Forwarding your mail	25
4.2.6 Organising your email	25
4.2.6.1 Mail Folders	26
4.2.6.2 Address books	26
4.2.6.3 Deleting old mails	26
4.2.6.4 Compressing your mail files	26
4.3 Email services	26
4.3.1 mailing lists	26
4.3.2 Netmind	27
4.3.3 FTP	27
4.4 Subject lines	27
4.5 How to deal with spam and junk mail	27
5 Browsers	28
5.1 Overview	28
5.2 What all browsers do	29
5.3 What all browsers don't do	29
5.4 Understanding Web addresses	30
5.5 Using web browsers	31
5.5.1 surfing	31
5.5.2 Search engines	31
5.5.3 Sending email	32
5.5.4 Downloading files	32
5.5.5 Bookmarking popular sites	33
5.5.6 Taking a local copy	33
5.5.7 Viewing HTML source	33
5.5.8 Tricks for using browsers	34
5.6 Extending your browser's capabilities	34
5.6.1 Change browser or get a newer version	34
5.6.2 Install some Plug-ins	34
5.6.3 Enable active content	35
5.6.3.1 Animated .GIFs	35
5.6.3.2 Java and ActiveX	35
5.6.3.3 Javascript and other scripting languages	36
5.7 Common Errors	36
5.7.1 The dreaded 404	36
5.7.2 DNS lookup error	36
5.7.3 Access denied	36
5.7.4 URL case sensitivity	36
5.8 Cookies	37
6 USENET and Newsgroups	37
6.1 What they are	37
6.2 How they are organised	38
6.2.1 Newsgroup hierarchies	38
6.2.2 NEWS distribution	38
6.2.3 .Answers groups	39
6.2.4 Moderated newsgroups	39
6.2.5 Binary groups	39
6.3 How to use newsgroups	40
6.3.1 Using a newsreader	40
6.3.2 In a browser	40
6.3.3 Using DejaNews	41
6.4 Usenet Conventions	41
6.4.1 Subject lines	41
6.4.2 Signatures	41
6.5 Usenet related sites	41
6.5.1 Locating useful resources by newsgroup	41
6.5.2 Getting statistics on Usenet group usage	41
6.5.3 DejaNews	42
6.6 Other on-line news sources	42
6.6.1 Service provider forums	42
6.6.2 More conventional NEWS sites	42
7 Sites you should know about	42
7.1 Altavista	43
7.1.1 Using Altavista	43
7.1.2 Special searches	43
7.1.3 Translating web pages	43
7.2 Dejanews	43
7.2.1 Finding postings	44
7.2.2 Finding newsgroups	44
7.2.3 Getting author profiles	44
7.3 RTFM	44
7.3.1 Reading the FAQ's	45
7.3.2 Finding people's email addresses.	45
7.4 Other search engines	45
7.4.1 Yahoo	45
7.4.2 Infoseek	45
7.4.3 Excite	45
7.4.4 WebCrawler	46
7.4.5 HotBot	46
7.4.6 MetaCrawler	46
7.5 The Internet movie database	46
7.6 Other sites	46
8 Creating your own web pages	46
8.1 What exactly is HTML?	47
8.1.1 The overall structure of an HTML page	47
8.1.2 The HTML standard	48
8.1.3 Some common and useful tags	48
8.1.3.1 <TITLE> ... </TITLE> tags	48
8.1.3.2 Bold, Italics and underline tags	48
8.1.3.3 Strong and emphasis tags	48
8.1.3.4 <BR> line break tags	48
8.1.3.5 <P> ... </P> Paragraph markers	48
8.1.3.6 <HR> Horizontal rule tags	48
8.1.3.7 Anchor (hyperlink) tags	48
8.1.3.8 <IMG> image tags	49
8.1.4 HTML extensions	49
8.1.5 Adding hyperlinks to web pages	50
8.1.6 Adding colour to web pages	51
8.2 Composing web pages	52
8.2.1 HTML editors	52
8.2.2 Testing your pages	52
8.3 How to teach yourself HTML	53
8.3.1 Find an HTML reference site	53
8.3.2 Buy an HTML book	53
8.3.3 Learn to view local files	53
8.3.4 Learn to write "correct" HTML	54
8.3.5 Learn from bad examples	54
8.4 Learning more advanced HTML	55
8.4.1 Tables	55
8.4.2 Forms	55
8.4.3 Frames	55
8.4.4 CGI scripts	56
8.5 Things to bear in mind	56
8.5.1 Different browsers	56
8.5.2 Different screen sizes	56
8.5.3 Links links links	56
8.5.4 Graphics switched off	57
8.5.5 Tables/frames/java	57
8.5.6 Don't keep multiple copies	57
8.5.7 Keep it fresh	57
8.5.8 Don't over emphasize "under construction"	57
8.6 Publishing web pages	57
8.7 Getting people to view your page	58
8.7.1 Link to it	58
8.7.2 Tell your friends	58
8.7.3 Announce it	58
8.7.4 Index it	58
8.7.4.1 How to submit your URL	59
8.7.4.2 Submitting URL's to lots of search engines	59
8.7.4.3 How your URL is Indexed	60
8.7.4.4 How to get a better rating in the index	60
8.8 Monitoring visits to your web page	61
8.8.1 Invite feedback	61
8.8.2 Add a counter	61
8.8.3 Checking the server log	62
8.8.4 Use a monitoring service	62
9 The Internet's future	62
10 Glossary	63
ActiveX	63
AFAIK	63
Altavista	64
AOLer	64
ATM	64
Bandwidth	64
BBS or bulletin boards	65
Bookmarks or hot lists	65
BTW	65
CFV	65
CGI Scripts	65
CSS	65
De-lurking	65
Digests	66
Domain name	66
Emoticon	66
FAQS	66
Firewall	66
Flames	66
Followups	67
Freeware	67
FTP	67
FWIW	67
Ctrl-H (^H)	67
Headers	67
Helper applications and plug-ins	67
HTH	68
HTML	68
Hyperlinks	68
IRC	68
IIRC	68
IP or Internet Protocol	68
IMHO, IMO	69
Information Super Highway	69
InfoBahn	69
Intranet	69
ISP	69
ISTR	69
Java	69
JavaScript	69
Junk mail	70
LOL	70
Lurking	70
Mailing lists	70
META tags	70
Me too	71
Mirror site	71
Moderation	71
Nerd	72
Netiquette	72
Newsgroups	72
Newbie	72
On-line and off-line	72
Postcardware	73
Posting	73
Postmaster or webmaster	73
Portals	73
Quoting	74
Robot	74
ROFL	74
RFC	74
RTFM	74
RTFFAQ	75
Shareware	75
Signal to Noise ratio	75
Signatures	75
Smiley	75
Snail mail	76
Spam	76
Surfing	76
Thread	76
Trolling	77
Uploads and downloads	77
URL	77
Usenet	77
Web	78
Webmaster	78
WYSIWYG	78
Yahoo	78
YMMV	78
Zip files	78
 
1 Introduction
This document gives a guide to how to get the most out of access to the Internet. It gives a brief history of the Net, an overview of its major features, and hints and instructions on how to use the software available for the Net. 
This document was originally written in support of a seminar given by the author at Hong Kong University. 
The text version of this document will be converted into HTML using the author's own [h:AscToHTM] conversion tool. The HTML version of this document will contain hyperlinks to additional sources of information. 
The last major revision of this document was in May '97. The last minor revision date is shown in the footer. 

1.1 Other guides
There are many, many detailed guides available on all aspects of the Internet. For example 
http://www.library.unt.edu/webintro/howto.html
The Big Dummy's guide to the Internet is a rich source of information and can be found at 
http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_toc.html
Of course you can search for lists of search engines. Here's two that I've found 
http://www.rcch.com/hotlist/search.htmhttp://www.med.harvard.edu/countway/webref/inet.html

2 The Internet

2.1 Some history
The Internet is actually a child of the Cold War. Faced with the prospect of a Nuclear war, a resilient network was required such that, should one communications centre be destroyed, messages would automatically re-route themselves to ensure they could still get from A to B. 
This led to ARPANET which became an American Universities network, and ultimately the Internet of today. 
In the early days, sending information via this network was neither particularly rapid nor easy. At this time you had to be fairly technically minded and working at a university or major research to use the Net. 
But over time, more and more useful utilities and tools were being developed, and as computer hardware dropped in price and commerce became interested, the Net began to spread, and really hasn't stopped since. 
The "half-life" of the Internet is around 10 months, that is 10 months ago it will have been half the size it is now. This growth has been going on for years now, and still looks to continue until, in a few years from now, almost every computer in the world will access the Net. This process itself is encouraging computer ownership, to the extent that "getting on the Internet" is now a major reason for purchasing a computer for home use. 
For a brief summary of the Internet's growth, visit http://www.nw.com/zone/host-count-history or http://www.weyrich.com/web_business/www_history.html
For surveys of who is using the web and how, visit http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/
The real breakthrough for the Internet was the invention of the World Wide Web with the introduction of the Mosaic hypertext browser developed at CERN. 
This coincided with affordable graphics-capable home computers and almost overnight the Net went from a text-based [Nerd]'s paradise, to the user friendly click and point world we know today. 
Did I say user friendly? Well almost... read on... 

2.2 How it works, and why it sometimes doesn't
The Internet works by breaking up information into packets of data. Each packet of data is given an address and sent off on its merry way. When the packets are received at the other end, they are reassembled to give a faithful copy of the original data. 
The Internet consists of a network of computers all passing messages to and fro. Each packet gets passed by a machine to its neighbours which then decide to pass it on, or pass it back. This trial and error approach is both the Internet's greatest strength and weakest. 
It's a strength because if a Internet node goes down (and this happens even without nuclear strikes), the messages simply divert round the missing node. This may mean taking a detour via a satellite link over the Indian Ocean, or travelling via optical fibre via America. It really doesn't matter to you, the Internet sorts it all out. 
It's a weakness because you usually need all your packets to reassemble the original message, and if one takes a detour this may delay your whole message. If one gets lost, it will usually prevent you getting the rest of the message. 
You can see this in a browser sometimes when a link stalls for no good reason and then after a while carries on. Most likely one of your packets just took the tourist route. 
In summary, the Internet is flexible, but may as a result not be all that fast. 

2.3 Domain names
Each internet node is given its own [IP] or IP address. This is a series of four numbers such as 
176.5.120.34 
and is unique. Most internet nodes also choose to make this number correspond to a Domain name, that is a text name that is more comprehensible to users. The translation between names and IP addresses is performed by Domain Name Servers, and failure to convert a name to an ID gives the dreaded [Section:DNS error] or error 404. 

2.3.1 What's in a domain name?
Domain names form part of your email addresses, web addresses, ftp addresses etc. 
In the case of email, the domain name is that part of the email address afterthe "@". 
The part of your email address before the "@" depends on the administration of email on your Internet node. 

2.3.2 How domain names are allocated
The way it works is broadly speaking as follows. The IP address space (in the form nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn, all numbers) is carved up into smaller chunks, which are then administered by different organisations. This carving up is all done behind the scenes by some IP committee somewhere. 
In the early days reserving names of well known companies used to be quite lucrative, as the named company would eventually have to buy the name off you. There is still some competition for "good names". 
In order for 194.159.108.2 to be understood as http://www.yrl.co.uk/, someone on the Internet backbone has to act as a domain name server, i.e. they know how to match a name with an ID. 
These organisations, often ISPs, can sub-let parts of domain space, and arrange the allocation within their own space. 
Thus extensions like .ac.uk (uk academic establishments) are run by appropriate bodies. Each body is free to charge for this service, and in the commercial areas there is usually a fee in the £100/year region. 
There may be further rules within each domain. For example an .ac.uk domain name won't be allowed unless you're a recognised university. 

2.3.3 Understanding domain names
Domain names are similar to postal addresses, in that the last part of the address is most likely to be familiar to you. Each domain name reads roughly as follows 
[machine name].[organisation name].[domain type] 
Reading this backwards we have the domain type which is always present. The main domain types include 

.com	-	commercial	
.org	-	organisation	
.edu	-	education	
.net	-	network provider	
.mil	-	military	

Since the Internet evolved in America, most of these apply mostly to American (or multi-national) organisations. Other countries append a (usually) 2-letter country code, and most reproduce the above structure in some way. Thus in the UK we have 

.co.uk	-	UK commercial	
.ac.uk	-	UK academic	
.org.uk	-	UK organisations	

Other countries have slightly different organisations. 
In front of the domain type is the organisation name. This must be present and unique within the domain type. Thus "ftp://microsoft.co.uk/" and "microsoft.com" are both allowed (and both exist). 
In front of the organisation name is the machine name. For Web access this is commonly just "www". Thus the web address of Microsoft is 
http://www.microsoft.com/
indicating that this is the web access for the American company Microsoft. Knowing this naming structure you allows you to frequently guess correctly what the [URL] of a desired site might be. 

2.3.4 More information
·	The ruling body for domain names is, or rather was, the [h:IAHC]. (This body was dissolved on May 1, 1997 and now refers you to http://www.gtld-mou.org) 
·	A full list of existing domains can be found at http://www.itu.int/intreg/dns.html
·	A list survey of domains and how many hosts they have can be found at http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/dist-byname.html where this analysis is repeated every 6 months. 
·	Plans are under way to introduce new domains e.g. .firm, .nom etc. See the discussion at http://www.netfact.com/iahc/
·	There are some sites that will translate domain names into real company names, often as an aid to choosing your own domain name and making sure it doesn't conflict with an existing name. See http://www.namesnet.co.uk/ for example

2.4 Software and services currently supported by the Internet
Using the Internet as a communications network an increasing number of protocols have evolved to allow different types of information to be distributed. Many of these services were originally text-based and unfriendly to use. As such, they have been superseded by the Web, but we mention them here for completeness. 

2.4.1 Email
Email is one of the earliest and still popular and enduring uses made of the Net. Reflecting this, there are a large number of free and commercial email packages of increasing sophistication. 
Email is almost enough justification in itself for seeking Internet access, especially since these days all sorts of information can be sent this way. 
See the chapter on [Section:email] for a fuller discussion. 

2.4.2 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
FTP is a means by which users can transfer files between computers. A typical use of FTP is to set up a file server onto which users can login and download software and other files. 
Although increasingly integrated with Web browser software, there are still a number of very useful FTP sites that cannot be accessed by "anonymous login" See http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_137.html for details on how to use FTP outside a browser. 
Used inside a browser, FTP appears just like a directory listing, and you can simply navigate up and down the directory tree. 
Useful sites include [SIte:RTFM] which lists all the FAQ's by usenet group, for example 
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/ftp/pub/usenet-by-group/alt.games.tiddlywinks/
contains the tiddlywinks FAQ (posted monthly). 
Also sites like 
http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/ftpsearch/
can help you find the FTP site that holds the resource you're looking for. 

2.4.3 Telnet
Telnet allows you to log-in to another machine over the Internet. 
For more details see http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_93.html

2.4.4 News, or UseNet
Usenet or News is a set (21,000 and rising) of public discussion groups. Messages are [posted] to the [newsgroup], and distributed to all who read the group. 
These are an unrivalled means of communication with your peers and a rich source of information. They are discussed fully in the chapter on [Section:News] 

2.4.5 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
Internet Relay Chat allows you to "chat" interactively with one or more people. To do this you need IRC software installed, and you need to join a "discussion room". These rooms are arranged by subject, so in principle you should be able to find someone to talk to about something. 
For more details see http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_230.html

2.4.6 The http protocol (the Web!)
The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) marks the arrival of the Web proper. It is discussed fully in the chapters on [Section:Browsers] and [Section:WebPages]. 

2.4.7 Other services
Other services of less interest here include 
·	Gopher
·	Archie
·	Veronica
·	finger

2.5 Software and services "coming soon" to the Internet
2.5.1 Smart agents
Software is already starting to appear that will search the Net intelligently sniffing out information that you want. It's difficult to see where this will lead, but an often quoted example is that software could search all the news web sites to construct a daily "newspaper" containing only articles known to be of interest to you. 

2.5.2 "Search" technologies
Search technologies are already here, but expect them to get smarter and smarter. For example, [Site:Altavista] have recently added something called Live Topics, which analyses and categorizes your search results to help you fine tune your results further. 
[h:Oil_Change] is software that will analyse your PC, and search the Web for any software upgrades available, offering to [download] and apply any updates it finds. 

2.5.3 "push" technologies
The whole way software is purchased is changing to be increasingly through the Internet. New technologies such as [h:Castanet] and [Java] allow you to have software that will automatically update itself each time you connect to the Internet. 
Windows '98 is likely to feature this technology in the guise of "channels" that you can "tune into" to receive regular updates of news and software etc. 

2.5.4 Internet Telephones
Again, already here. You can now make International telephone calls from computer to computer via the Internet at a fraction of existing prices. Only bandwidth and protected interests are stopping this taking off now. 

2.6 Security and privacy
Security and privacy were never high on the list of design objectives when the Internet was first designed. Although probably not as big a problem as newspaper headlines might suggest, you should be aware of the following. points. 
·	Messages can get lost. Thus you cannot rely on message always getting through, or getting through on time.
If a message is vital, make sure you get a reply. 
·	Messages pass through many other nodes, thus they can in principle be read in transit. This means that you should be very wary about offering sensitive information on the Net or in Emails.
If in doubt, don't do it. Use the Net to get a voice phone or fax number and use that instead. 
·	Because Email is sent as plain text, there is some risk of it being intercepted. You can get round this by using various encryption techniques, but these are illegal in certain countries. 
·	Email is easily faked. Particularly if you don't read the headers (which many packages hide). This means that you cannot always be sure that the person who apparently sent a message did.
If you want to check, try sending a mail to the person. If that fails, or if you get a "not me" reply, then it may have been faked. 
·	If you [download] software onto your machine you run the risk of introducing a virus into your system.
This is a tricky one. The simplest solution is don't do it. If you must do it, only download from trusted sites, and use a virus checker. However, even this is no guarantee as software downloaded from Microsoft has been infected in the past. 
·	If your browser is ActiveX or Java enabled you may download software without realising it. Although both these systems are supposed to be secure, there has been much discussion over the extent to which this is true.
If in doubt, disable these features in your browser. 
·	If you post to a newsgroup, your email address will get captured and used for [Spam].
This is the Net equivalent of junk mail, and is simply a fact of life. 
Note, most of these risks are no different to those you run using paper mail, cordless phones, mail order catalogues, or software off a bulletin board. 
The difference is that you will be doing this electronically, more frequently and more publicly than before. 
Common sense will get you past most problems. 

2.7 Getting access to the Internet
Access to the Internet is usually though either the academic or commercial organisation you work for, or from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) contacted from home. 
At work you are likely to have permanent access through a high-[bandwidth] link. 
At home you are likely to have sporadic dial-up access through a modem. 
Modem access is usually at local telephone rates, which is free in some countries, but by no means all. Additionally modem access can be relatively slow, making it proportionally more expensive. 
This usually means that private users are less enamoured of high graphics content on web pages, are less inclined to download large software programs, and won't / can't afford to touch video content with a bargepole. 
Many web page designers forget this simple fact. 

2.8 Response times/loading
The response time on the Internet varies according to a large number of factors, most of which are simply the consequences of its success and phenomenal growth rate. 
Factors include: 
·	What type of access you have. Are you on a modem, or a high bandwidth network link. 
·	What time of day it is. The demographics of the Net are largely American, thus when America sleeps access to American resources may be easier... unless the rest of the world has the same idea. 
·	What day of the week it is. Most commercial access occurs during working hours. So does most recreational. Since most people have access "at work", things are often quieter at the weekend. 
·	Where you are trying to get to. At one time access from England to France went via America because there was no direct link. At that time accessing American sites was easier and faster that accessing geographically closer sites in France. 
·	How many other people is your service provider serving. In extreme cases this can translate into "can I even connect to my ISP". If your local server is carrying too much traffic it will slow things down.
This behaviour usually alternates as service gets so bad that people leave and new resources are commissioned. This used to happen for the whole UK's access to the US, but is more consistent now. 
·	How many other people are accessing the same site. Microsoft has a very powerful site, and it's always slow. I have a very weak one, and it's seldom slow :) 
·	What technologies have been released. Each new technology requires more bandwidth than the last, images, animated images, Internet telephones, video on demand. Each has threatened to grind the Internet to a halt... but it hasn't happened yet.

2.9 Commerce on the Net
Commerce on the Internet has not fully developed yet. Whilst few companies or organisation these days do no have a presence on the Internet, it's still early days for commerce via the Net, though the predictions are quite astounding. 
What is true is that searching for items via the net and advertising via the net are certainly here to stay. What is missing is a reliable, secure and international method of paying for services. 
However, fear not, for it's on its way. For example see Digital's plan for [h:Millicent], a proposal to allow microcash to be charged each time you click on a particular service on a web page. 
The days of free Internet services such as electronic newspapers may be limited. 

2.10 Intranet
So successful has the Internet been, that it's spawned a child - the Intranet. Intranet is the term used to describe the adoption of Internet technologies such as IP networks, email and browsers for the internal networking needs of an organisation. 
One sign of this process is the increased use of HTML to produce Web-like documentation, and the distinction between [on-line] and [off-line] software and services begins to blur when documents reference on-line source material and are even capable of being updated automatically via the Internet when accessible. 
This adoption of Internet technology is attractive because the software is cheap or free (due to its mass appeal), and familiar (also due to its mass appeal). 
Equally the browser software that has made the Internet so popular with users is felt by many to be more intuitive than many traditional software interfaces. 
This last point has been particularly taken on board by Microsoft, who are increasingly making browser Internet Explorer into a larger and more central part of their future operating systems. 

3 Net Culture
As the Internet has grown it has developed its own jargon, slang and rules of accepted behaviour. If you don't know who your [ISP] is, have never read any [FAQ] and have no idea if you're being [Trolled], then chances are you're a [newbie] and it shows. 
There's nothing wrong with this, but whilst you're soaking up the culture you'll be stepping on people's toes, and you're going to get [flamed] 

3.1 Jargon

3.1.1 Computer Jargon
Being based on computers, the Internet is full of Jargon. What is worse is that the pace of change means that newer, fresher Jargon is always being added meaning that there's always new scope for impressing/confusing people. 
As the Internet has become more popular, the language has become more flowery so that where once terse acronyms such as [IP], [FTP] and [IRC] were common, these days semi-meaningless phrases are place names such as Cool Talk, Live Topics, Marimba and [Java] are all the rage. 
It's all still jargon unfortunately. 
We've supplied a [Section:glossary] which you should browse, but it will soon become out of date. 

3.1.2 Internet slang
As the Internet has offered people a new medium by which to communicate, so too it has developed its own slang and terminology. This is particularly true in email and newsgroups which are conversational by nature, and is less true on Web pages which are of comparatively fixed content. 
Most of the slang has evolved to describe activities that just don't happen outside the Internet such as [trolling], [flaming], [spam] and of course the ever-present [smileys] that have actually crossed over into non-Internet culture. 
Again, we've tried to give you a flavour in the [Section:glossary]. 

3.2 Netiquette
Netiquette is, unsurprisingly, short for Net-etiquette. As with etiquette there are no hard and fast rules, but there is a broad consensus of what the dos and donts should be. 

3.2.1 What to do
Here are some guidelines :- 
·	Be courteous. Unless you are convinced that someone has deliberately said something to annoy you, you should give people the benefit of the doubt. 
·	Remember that many people are not writing in their first language. So try to be a little tolerant of spelling and grammar. The exception to this is in the newsgroup alt.usage.english. 
·	Bear in mind that each part of the Internet has its own local customs, just like countries do. Try to observe and discover what these are before diving in. What this often means is [lurk] for a while, and if possible read the [FAQ].
You can read a set of guidelines on how to use News at http://sasun4.epfl.ch/News/Document

3.2.2 What not to do
Some don'ts :- 
·	A good example of what not to do is given by the famous Emily postnews (for example at http://scwww.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/Emily/). Read this advice and ignore it :) 
·	Don't use up [bandwidth] by posting binary files where they are not wanted. Usually there are accepted places to post such files, and the usual practice is to post the binary in the acceptable location, and to post a pointer to it in other relevant locations. 
·	Don't steal other people's art work/web pages. 
·	Don't cross-post news articles to too many newsgroups (see [spam]) 
·	DO NOT PASS ON ANY "MAKE MONEY FAST" SCHEMES. This is serious, as people complain about this and it is common to lose Internet access for doing this. More seriously this can sometime be construed as mail fraud in the States. 
·	When responding to a email or news article try not to "quote" the whole original. [Quoting] is accepted good practice, but you should limit your quotes to only the relevant parts.

3.2.3 What to beware of
There are a number of well-known scams on the Net. Because of the high [Newbie] quotient of the Net, there are always people ready to try them out or fall for them. You'll soon see a series of sheepish "I'm sorry, I didn't realise" posts. 
The ones to avoid are 
·	"Make money fast". There are no end of pyramid letters on the net. They don't work. If you do the sums you soon realise that if they did work you'd never see anything but these messages on the Net. Although it may seem like it at times, this is not the case.
If you're not convinced, visit http://ga.to/mmf/ and see people who've tried it ridiculed and their "success" examined in detail. 
People react angrily to these irritating posts, complaining to the [postmaster] involved, and frequently succeeding in getting the offending poster dropped form their Internet account. 
In many parts of the world such posts are illegal. 
Knowing all this, some people use bulk email software and a fake email address to send these messages out. Needless to say such people are best avoided. 
Unless you know the correct complaints procedure, just ignore these mails and posts. 

·	The "Good Times Virus". This is a scare that does the rounds every few months stating that a virus is going round that is spread via email with the subject line "Good times".
Needless to say this was impossible, and also needless to say some jokers sent out mails with the subject line "Good times". 
It's impossible to say that any such warnings in the future may not be true. Whilst it's unlikely that an email message would contain a virus itself because emails are intrinsically passive, email are increasingly used to send files around, and it is possible to embed a macro virus in a Word documents. 
The moral is take everything you hear with a pinch of salt, but don't dismiss it out of hand. If in doubt, seek a more authoritative opinion for confirmation, for example http://www.av.ibm.com/. 
A site discussing "hoax" viruses can be found at http://kumite.com/myths/

3.3 Expressing yourself in text
Although the Internet is increasingly lending itself to multimedia communication such as graphics, audio and video, the written word is still far and away the dominant form of communication used. 
Furthermore, a number of factors combine to make the written word on the Internet different from their paper-based equivalent. These include 
·	the speed of communication that email and newsgroups have. Often only minutes from one side of the globe to the other. 
·	the many different languages that people speak. English is the dominant language on the Net, but a large proportion of people do not speak it as a first language. 
·	the greater variety of backgrounds people on the net have. 
·	the demographics of the Net.
These factors combine to make the Internet far more conversational and less formal than traditional forms of written communication. 

3.3.1 Emphasis
3.3.1.1 Adding emphasis to words
Emphasis can be added to words or phrases by adding an asterisk (*) either side. Sometimes other characters are used such as "/". In addition to this you occasionally see an underscore either side when quoting the title of something. This is because not all computers handle inverted commas the same way. 
Examples : 
This **used** to work okay. 
I'm /really/ happy about that. 
I enjoyed reading Alice in Wonderland
Writing words in capitals is taken as shouting (see below) and shouldn't be used unless that's the effect you wish to convey. 
3.3.1.2 Smiling, grinning, frowning
You can add "mood" to your words by via [smileys] or [emoticons]. These can be used to defuse apparently critical sentences, or to re-inforce the mood of the written word. 
Example 
You shouldn't have done that :-) 
3.3.1.3 SHOUTING
Writing in CAPITALS is read as SHOUTING on the Net. If you post an entire article with your caps lock on don't be surprised if people complain about being deafened by you. 

3.3.2 Quoting
The conversational nature of email is highlighted by the practice of [Quoting] from the item to which you are replying. 

3.4 Demographics and language
Be aware that the Internet community does not share the same demographics as the "real world". This is inevitable because of its history and makeup. 
As an illustration, look at the number of sites in each country listed in http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/dist-byname.html. Those countries without Internet access reads like a who's who of the third world and repressive regimes around the world. 
Currently the Internet Community is 
·	Young. Almost all students in the Western world have access, whilst very few of their parents do. 
·	Largely American. America dominates the Net, with the rest of the first world catching up fast. 
·	Electronic. This means that you can find information on almost anything that happened in the last 5-10 years, and you can find - through [h:Project_Gutenburg] - electronic copies of classic books such as Alice in Wonderland, the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible that are out of copyright, but you won't find much 20-30 year old stuff that is still in copyright. 
·	Computer literate. Historically only those who understood computers could access the Net.
It's worth stating that all of these characteristics are being normalised as the Net gains in popularity. That is the Internet community is getting older, less American, less computer literate (as computers get easier to use), and more and more "traditional" content is finding its way onto the web. 
A useful site that produces surveys of these trends can be found at http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/

4 Email

4.1 Email addresses

4.1.1 What does my email address mean?
Email addresses come in the form 
<local user name>@<Internet domain name> 
The domain name describes the Internet node your mail should be addressed to (see [Section:Domain Names]). The local user name determines how the mail is addressed within your Internet node, and will depend on either 
a)	The machine you run mail on, and more particularly the mail protocol used.
or 
b)	The Internet service provider you use to gain access to the Internet.
Some providers, such as AOL, basically give you an account and web space on their machine. You therefore get a specified number of usernames and it's a safe bet that your name (e.g. "paul") will have been used. This explains the many odd AOL user names you see. 
In this case, mail addressed to your machine is delivered to you, and it's down to your machine's mail software to determine what address before the "@" it supports. 
However, this is usually more work than most people wish to get involved in, and careful choice of ISP will usually allow you to find a suitable email address such as 
my.name@wherever.somewhere.uk 

4.1.2 How do I find people's email addresses?
Apart from being told someone's address and writing it on a Post-it sticker (don't knock it... this works!), there are a number of ways of attempting to find the email address of someone you want to contact. 
In the most part these rely either on the person having registered their address, or it being "captured" by one of the Internet search engines that exist. This last technique will only work if the person has taken an "active" role on the Internet such as posting to a newsgroup. 
People who have dormant accounts (i.e. never used publicly) are virtually impossible to find. In such cases you're as well to ring them up and ask. 
Other techniques include 
·	Use an email address finding service. There are several of these e.g. http://www.four11.com and in fact Netscape has access to the address finders such as [h:InfoseekPeople] built into its menu structure (Directory ... Internet Search) 
·	Search the [Site:RTFM] email address database. 
·	Use a search engine. For example [Altavista] and [Site:Dejanews] will both allow you to search Usenet for name. However this will only find "active" users, who will probably already be captured in the above databases. 
·	Read the "How to find people's Email" FAQ at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html

4.2 How to use email
The details of using email will depend largely on the software package and computer that you use. The following discussions are just about general usage. 

4.2.1 Composing email
Normally you compose a new mail either by selecting "new message" in your mail package, or by selecting a "mailto" link in your browser in email. The latter is discussed in [Section:Browsemail]. 
When creating an email you will have to supply an email address to send to, and can then optionally supply 
·	Subject. What's it all about (Alfie) ? 
·	The message itself. Depending on the package you're using and the editor it provides, the text you type in may automatically "wrap" (start on a new line). However, not all packages send messages as they appear on screen, and many send entire paragraphs as a single line.
This is bad news as some computers have a limit on how large a line can be, and in such cases the last part of each paragraph is lost. 
To avoid this either 
a)	Manually add line breaks every so often. 
b)	Configure your mailer to do this for you.
If in doubt, stick to (a). 
·	CC address. An email address the message is to be copied to. You can enter your own email address, though it is normal to use the options of the email package to state if you always want a copy of outgoing messages. 
·	Attachments. Increasingly these days it is possible to "attach" files to your message. This is often denoted by a paper clip icon (signifying attachment).
When adding attachments you will normally be asked for the name of the file to attach. Depending on the file type you may also be asked whether you want the file sent as plain text or encoded in some way (e.g. mime encoded). Encoding is a way of splitting files into text that is safe to pass through the email system. Binary files have to be encoded. 
Some mail readers cannot process attachments. If you're sending to such a person (or don't know), you may be wise to select "attach as text" if the option arises. This won't be an option for binary files. 

4.2.2 Getting your mail
How mail gets to you depends on what type of internet access you have. If you work for a large organisation you probably have a permanent connection to the internet, and mail will simply arrive in your inbox. 
If you have a home account, you may need to get your modem to dial up your [ISP] and check for new mail. This can be done manually or semi-automatically. 
Either way, when you next start your mail program it will tell you you have new mail, and will list the messages available. 
You simply select the message(s) you want to read, and view them. 

4.2.3 Reading your mail
Reading your mail is normally done in a edit-style window. Depending on the mail software you're using you will normally be able to read the message, and scroll up and down through it. You probably won't be able to edit it. 
Usually once you've read the message it remains in a [Section:Mail folder]. If you wish you can re-read the message at any time by selecting it from the folder. 

4.2.4 Replying to your mail
It's common to reply to incoming mail. Usually your software will offer a reply option (e.g. an icon or button) from inside your read window. This will normally launch a window like the one used for mail except that 
·	The "To" address will already be set to the name of the person the mail is from. 
·	The "Subject" will be set to "RE:" plus the original subject. The "RE:" signals that this is a reply on the same subject. 
·	The body of the original message may be placed in the edit buffer. This is to facilitate [Quoting] of the original message, and many packages will insert the quote character (usually, but not always, ">") in front of each line.
Note, [Netiquette] decrees that it is bad practice to keep all this text in the reply, instead you should delete all bar those parts you genuinely wish to quote and respond to in your reply. 

4.2.5 Forwarding your mail
Forwarding takes two forms: 
a)	You wish to forward your mail to another address (e.g. whilst you're on holiday). This can usually be done by playing with the configuration options available in your software package. 
b)	You wish to forward a particular mail to a third party who might be interested. This can usually be done via a "Forward" option (or icon or button) available whilst you have the message selected.
Depending on the software, you may or may not be allowed to edit or add to the original message, and it may add "FWD:" to the subject line to signal that the message has been forwarded. 

4.2.6 Organising your email
After using email for a while you'll start to accumulate a large amount of mail and contacts which you'll need to start organising. 
4.2.6.1 Mail Folders
Most email software allows you to organise your mail into folders, and to move mail between folders. 
Some packages allow you to have subfolders as well. 
Another common feature is for "deleted" mail to be placed in a wastebasket folder, from where it can be retrieved. In such cases you should make sure you understand how and when (or if!) this folder gets empty before relying on being able to retrieve such mail. For example the wastebasket will often be emptied once you exit the email software. 
4.2.6.2 Address books
Some email packages will allow you to store email addresses in an "address book". This will usually allow you to give commonly used addresses a nickname, shortcut or alias that will allow you to type in "John" when sending mail, rather than a somewhat less memorable email address. 
4.2.6.3 Deleting old mails
Every so often you should delete any old, unwanted mail. Depending on your software you may be able to automate this, e.g. for mails over a certain age to be deleted. 
4.2.6.4 Compressing your mail files
Depending on the computer system and software package you may need to "compress" your mail files ever so often. Read the help for you software for details. 

4.3 Email services
There are a number of services that are available via email. 

4.3.1 mailing lists
The commonest use of email. Mailing lists are organised for discussion round a single topic. Topics range from rock band fan clubs, to self-help groups for all sorts of medical conditions. 
Mailing lists usually have two mail addresses, one you use to join and leave the list, and one you send actual posts for the list to. 
When you join a list you will normally be sent a lengthy message describing 
·	How to leave the list. This is IMPORTANT as many people join lists for a short time, and leaving the list can be automated if you keep the instructions. 
·	How to post to the list 
·	What the do's and don't of the list are. Often a list will have a charter and you should stick to this.
When you post mail to the list a copy is forwarded to all recipients of the list. Equally any replies to the list are sent to you. In some cases all posts have to be accepted by a list [moderator], although more commonly the list will simply have an administrator responsible for list maintenance, rather than content. 
To help you distinguish email from a list from other mail, some lists put some common text on the subject line. 
Where a mailing list has higher volume, it may offer the list in [digest] form. These are single mails containing several posts to the list. Digests are sometimes easier to manage. 
Depending on how the list is organised, old mails may be archived, allowing you to read back through discussions previously held on the list. 
Contact your list administrator for details. 
For a searchable directory of mailing lists, visit http://www.liszt.com/

4.3.2 Netmind
Netmind is a free email service that allows you to monitor when web pages are updated. Visit http://www.netmind.com/ for more details. 

4.3.3 FTP
It is possible to FTP files via email. This is mainly of interest when accessing files on slow sites, and over an expensive modem link. 

4.4 Subject lines
In order to help people better anticipate the contents of an email some conventions have evolved on use of subject lines. These conventions are basically a subset of the conventions used in newsgroups. 
See [Section:Subject lines] for details. 

4.5 How to deal with spam and junk mail
In the context of Email, [Spam] means any unsolicited emails, usually of a commercial nature. These are the "junk mail" of the Net, and can become quite irritating. 
You'll start getting these as soon as your email address becomes known. This can happen without you even realising it, most commonly once you [delurk] in USENET. 
Spammers are the scum of the earth, often using fake email addresses so that you can't reply to them (they'll give a telephone number or [snail mail] address for that). 
There are a number of counter-measures you can use. 
·	Don't let your true email address get out. People sometimes set up their return address to have extra, obviously spurious characters like "nospam" in it. They then put details in their [signature] on how to undo this. This will deter some, but I suspect the commercial spammers will soon get round this. 
·	Complain to the site that mailed you, by mailing a user called "abuse" (e.g. abuse@cyberpromo.com) at that site. Not all sites have such a user. Your message should include all the junk mail's headers to aid proper diagnosis. Often spammers have accounts with ISPs which prohibit such behaviour, and it is fairly common for these people to lose their accounts in enough people complain. Before you send the complaint, make sure the junk mail's headers confirm the origin of the mail first. Spammers are notorious for using fake email addresses.
A useful site that discusses a lot of the issues and techniques involved can be found at 
http://www.junkbusters.com/
There is also an [FAQ] on email abuse which can be found at 
http://members.aol.com/emailfaq/emailfaq.html

5 Browsers

5.1 Overview
Browsers were developed to use the HyperText Transport Protocol (http). A browser views a page written in [HTML]. HTML is a language that describes in abstract terms how a page should be laid out. It also allows [hyperlinks] to be defined. It is this feature that allows browsers to go from page to page, and essentially defines the web. 
The standards body for the HTML language is the W3 consortium. Their web site (http://www.w3.org/) remains one of the major definitive sites for information on HTML. 
The first browser was developed at CERN, given away free, and became known as Mosaic. Since then more commercial browsers have been invented (some still free) whilst Mosaic itself has fallen behind and is no longer under development. 
The exponential growth of the Internet has allowed companies like Netscape to come from nowhere to having a turnover measured in 100's of millions of dollars. 
At present the main browsers in use are 
·	Netscape. Originally given away free, but now a commercial product. Netscape's browser gained in popularity because it added a lot of new features to HTML. In doing so it made HTML non-standard though a lot of the Netscape extensions have since been accepted into standard HTML. One of the major Netscape extensions was [Javascript]. 
·	Internet Explorer. Microsoft's (rather late) response to Netscape. Not yet as popular, but being free and ubiquitous may fix that in a few years. As with Netscape, IE has also extended HTML in its own way. 
·	Hotjava. Not that popular at the moment, but supplied by the people (Sun) who supply the Java programming language and environment that is likely to play a large part in making web pages more interactive. 
·	Mosaic. Still in use, but showing its age, and no longer being developed. 
·	Lynx. This is a text-based browser that is remarkably popular despite (or because of) this fact. Lynx can be a very fast and effective way of browsing the net, if only because it dispenses with all the time-consuming graphics. 
·	Opera. New kid on the block. Given good reviews primarily for its reputation for being fast (especially since the big 2 went to version 4 and became unweildly). Probably not as "fully featured" as some others.

5.2 What all browsers do
Actually, people will be amazed at how little all browsers do. The basic browser displays text, shows text hyperlinks, and allows those links to be selected. 
You only need to bear this in mind if you're putting your own pages on the web. 

5.3 What all browsers don't do
Over time more and more features have been added to browsers. These changes have arisen through 
·	Official and unofficial changes to the HTML standard. Later versions of a browser usually support newer features of the HTML. Changes in HTML over the years have included 
·	Use of TABLES
·	Use of Frames
·	Use of Cascading Style Sheets ([CSS]). 
·	Introduction of [Javascript] and other scripting languages 
·	Introduction of [Java], [ActiveX] and other interactive software 
·	Introduction of plug-ins and add-ons. Plug-ins are commonly required to handle special file types (e.g. audio and video files)
Whether or your browser can do any or all of these things depends on 
·	Which browser you are using. For example there is great rivalry between Netscape and Microsoft, with the former favoring Java and Javascript and the latter favoring ActiveX and trying to introduce Visual Basic Script.
This is one reason that you sometimes see a "best viewed in XXXX" logo 
·	Which version of the browser you are using. Older versions do less.
This is another reason that you sometimes see a "best viewed in XXXX" logo. In these cases it usually states a version number of both main browsers and may offer an alternative version (e.g. a non-frames version) 
·	Whether or not you have the requisite features "switched on". For example use of Java and Javascript can be switched off in the options of those browsers that support these features. This is because of possible security worries related to these features.
This is why you may see a "use a java-enabled browser" type message on a page. 
·	Whether or not you have have the requisite add-ons and plug-ins.
Normally a page that requires such an extension will point you to where it can be got from. 
Incidently, one of the major reasons you'll see a "best viewed in XXXX" logo, is that XXXX will have offered free software to the web page author. 

5.4 Understanding Web addresses
Web addresses are a special type of [URL]. They take the form 
http:// [Internet node] / [resource name] ? [extra data] 
The "Internet node" can either be an IP address or a [domain name], unless you are browsing your organisation's [Intranet], in which case it will be some local machine name. 
The "resource name" will normally look like a Unix file or directory name. For example. These look like Windows 95 filenames, with the slash the other way round. 
/index.html
/pub/
/pub/download/file.txt 
Directory names should end in a "/". If they don't the remote server will normally have to add this for you, incurring an extra delay. 
Resource names are often case sensitive (depending on the host machine), so you should usually match the case of the URL as you're given it. 
Sometimes you'll see a tilde (~) at the start of the resource name. This often points to files belonging to a user of the machine you're visiting, e.g. 
/~jaf/jafs_file.html 
Knowing that the resource name often corresponds to real files and directories on the target machine can sometimes be useful, as it allows you to work out which directory the file is in, and to attempt to look at that directory, or the one above it. In the above case if you want to see what other files use Jaf has, you could try 
/~jaf/ 
However, if the user doesn't want you to see the directory contents, they can create a file (usually called index.html) which the server will search for first. If such a file exists then this is what you'll be shown. 
"Extra data" is usually only required when passing information to software at the other end such as a search engine. The format will depend on the resource being accessed. You almost never type this part in manually, rather it is added automatically by your browser in response to data you have typed in. 
A fuller description of URLs can be found in [RFC] 1738, e.g. at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1738.html

5.5 Using web browsers
5.5.1 surfing
Browsers are easy to use... that's their attraction. Normally you simply enter the [URL] of the page you want to visit, and away you go. There are several ways of going to new pages :- 
·	Type in another URL 
·	Click on a text or picture [hyperlink] 
·	Select a URL that you've added to your [bookmark] list.
The hardest part is deciding what URLs you want to visit in the first place. For this you'll need to use search engines, and to bookmark useful starting points. Increasingly people are advertising URLs in non-Internet locations such as newspapers, magazines and on television. 
Another possibility is to find a site that regularly compiles lists of interesting sites to visit. Taking this approach one stage further leads to a site such as [h:Web_soup] that compiles lists of lists of people's recommendations. If you really want to surf at random, start here. 

5.5.2 Search engines
Search engines are an invaluable aid in locating pages that are of interest. 
The Internet is so large that locating good quality information is both possible and hard work. Search engines make this task much easier. 
The basic idea is that the search engine will have visited and documented a large number of web pages whose details it will store in a database. 
You simply visit the search engine, enter a request, and all the URLs that match your request are shown, often ranked in some order of suitability. 
There are universal search engines such as [Altavista] and [Site:Dejanews] that allow you to search the entire Internet or [Usenet], and subject-specific search engines 
So popular (and necessary) have search engines become, that many sites offer search engines for just the web pages on their site. Search engine technology is forever improving, to the extent that Digital now license their AltaVista technology to other companies, have developed the LiveTopics feature of AltaVista to help you more intelligently search for data, and even offer a version for use on PC's to search all your own documents. 
A site dedicated to monitoring search engine development can be found at 
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/index.html
This is more dedicated to discussing and monitoring the preformance of various search engines. At the same sime is a page dedicated to listing specialist search engines 
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/specialty.html

5.5.3 Sending email
Most modern browsers allow you to send email. Usually this is invoked whenever you click on a "mailto" hyperlink, or whenever you select a mail option from menu. In essence this is no different to sending email normally, but you should be aware of the following: 
·	Often the mail software inside your browser is completely independent of any other mail software you have. Because of this it will need to be configured independently to make sure that it behaves the same as normal mail. In particular you won't get a copy of any mail you send unless you set it up correctly. 
·	If you share a PC with other users, it may be inconvenient to keep changing the return address etc. 
·	You usually have a "mail document" option. This usually sends a copy of the HTML file you're looking at. If you merely wanted to send the URL this can be a bit wasteful, so check for attachments before you send

5.5.4 Downloading files
It's quite common now to download files using browsers. In many ways this has replaced the older [FTP] software which required you to supply a username and password in order to access files, although there are still many resources that are only accessible this way. 
Downloading a file usually through the FTP protocol by clicking on a URL that starts ftp:, or by selecting a http: link with a known download filetype such as .zip. 
When file download is selected, you will be prompted for a location on your computer to save it to. The file will then download. In older browsers you can't continue browsing whilst the download is occurring, in newer browsers you can. In most cases a status bar may give some indication as to how long the transfer still has to go. 
When downloading at peak times, or from busy sites, this process can become quite slow, so don't be surprised it the time remaining increases occasionally or states "2 seconds" for over 10 minutes. 
What happens once the file download is complete depends on what you've downloaded, and how your machine and browser are set up. 
In some cases nothing happens, and it's up to you to make use of the file in whatever way suits. 
In other cases a [helper application] is launched to "play" the newly downloaded file, be it a piece of music, some video of just a special document type. 

5.5.5 Bookmarking popular sites
All browsers allow you to bookmark sites that you want to go back to time and time again. However, depending of the browser used this list could be called the Hotlist, Favourites or Bookmarks. 
In most cases you can group these URLs together into folders forming a hierarchy of links like files and directories on your hard disk. 

5.5.6 Taking a local copy
Most browsers will allow you to view HTML files stored on your own hard disk. This being so, they also offer the ability to save the page currently on display to your hard disk for later viewing, e.g. once you are no longer connected to the Internet. 
This is usually an option on the File menu, and is sometimes an option on a pop-up menu if you right click on the main body of the page. 
You can usually copy images by right clicking on them and selecting save. 
Taking a local copy can give you faster access and [off-line] access to a page, but there are a number of issues to be aware of 
·	The saved page has all its links, but not the pages referenced by those links. Consequently, if viewed [off-line] you may find all the images missing, and all the hyperlinks to pages other than this one won't work. 
·	By viewing the copy, rather than the original, you lose the ability to view any changes or other information the original author would want you to see. 
·	If you reuse or redistribute the page in anyway, you are breaching any copyright the original author has on the page.
Generally it's fine to take a copy for personal use and convenience. 

5.5.7 Viewing HTML source
Most browsers will allow you to view the HTML source of the page (or frame) being viewed. 
This is an invaluable aid when debugging your own pages, and for learning how other people have put theirs together. 
It can sometimes give you additional information, though most of the information the author wanted you to see is already on screen. 

5.5.8 Tricks for using browsers
Here are a few miscellaneous tricks 
·	If you want to view a page that has changed, press reload or refresh. Sometimes to force this, hold down the shift key at the same time. 
·	Most browsers will store the data they download in a local cache so that next time you ask for the same data it can retrieve the local copy, giving a faster draw.
You should check your set-up options to understand what caching you have, and be aware that by being served a local copy you may not see any changes immediately. 
·	Browsers have lots and lots of options. You should look though the menus to ascertain what there is, but only play with the ones you understand. 
·	If you want faster downloads, try switching images off. In this mode you only get the text, which naturally comes much faster. You can always click on the missing picture, or switch the option back on and reload should you decide you want to see the pictures again.
However this can make some pages unnavigable, as people over-rely on graphic image maps (pictures where you click on the bit you want). 

5.6 Extending your browser's capabilities
Over time more and more functionality has become available over the Internet. Inevitably this means that the time will come when you are missing out because your browser if not up to it. There are a number of ways of enhancing your browser. 

5.6.1 Change browser or get a newer version
This is the "throw it away and get a new one" approach. Depending what you change to this may cost you money. Make sure your computer is powerful enough for any new version you decide to get. 
When you install the new version, it might be useful (if you can afford the disk space) to keep the old one just in case. 
You may be able to try out the new version free for a while to see if it's what you want. 
Finally, be aware that adding any new software to your system can cause unexpected changes to your systems configuration. Internet explorer is particularly keen to set itself up as your default browser should you install it. 

5.6.2 Install some Plug-ins
Netscape were the first to develop the idea of helper applications and plug-ins. The idea behind plug-ins is that rather than produce an enormous, resource-hungry piece of software that does everything, why not instead make a slimline browser to which you can add only those extras you need. 
You'll know you need a plug-in when you keep coming to a site that tells you what you need. Normally you can simply download the plug-in by following the link and downloading and installing the software as instructed. 
Plug-ins commonly handle a particular file type, often a new type invented for use on the Internet by the manufacturers of the plug-in itself. 
Some plug-ins are free, others are not. Often the plug-in required to read or play back a given file type is free, whilst the software required to author such files is not. This is a payment model frequently used, as it ensures maximum take-up of a new file structure. 

5.6.3 Enable active content
HTML as originally devised was a fairly "passive" language. That is, it could define a page that one could view, but not interact with. 
Nowadays there are several ways in which web pages are being made more and more interactive. In most cases you need a browser capable of interfacing with the new content types, and you the need to choose to have these features enabled, usually by searching though network or security options. 
5.6.3.1 Animated .GIFs
Animated .GIFs are basically animated pictures. Their most common use is in advertising. In content terms these are passive in that you can't interact with them, but they can make a page more lively. 
The problem with animated .GIFs is that they are, of necessity, many times larger than a static picture the same size. Consequently they can greatly increase the time a page takes to draw. 
5.6.3.2 Java and ActiveX
Java and ActiveX are both methods of allowing programs to be downloaded automatically and run "inside" your web page. In this way they can effectively give you software you can interact with on a web page. 
These programs are temporary in the sense that once you exit your browser the program no longer exists on your machine (in fact, once you back out of the web page its gone). 
In the case of Java an area of screen is reserved for an "applet" to run in, and this applet is downloaded and run locally on your computer. The Applet isn't stored on your computer, and is designed to run in a way that cannot contaminate your hard disk or computer memory. 
ActiveX is Microsoft's response to Java, but unlike Java it only runs on Windows machines, and is allegedly less secure than Java. 
5.6.3.3 Javascript and other scripting languages
Javascript was developed by Netscape as an attempt to make web pages more interactive. It pre-dates Java with which, confusingly, it has nothing in common. 
Javascript code is written into the HTML source files themselves. This code is interpreted by your browser as it reads the HTML page. The code can tell the browser what to do when you click on certain buttons, or move your mouse to a certain location. 
The language allows messages to be displayed, and can manipulate the contents of the web page (something Java cannot do... it is restricted to the reserved applet box). 
Microsoft are hoping to make their popular Visual Basic the basis of their own scripting language. As ever, the two browser companies continue to battle it out. 

5.7 Common Errors
5.7.1 The dreaded 404
This is the commonest error. It simply means "file not found". This is usually because the file has been moved, and you have followed an old link. 

5.7.2 DNS lookup error
A Domain Name Server lookup error has occurred. What this means is that the Internet [domain name] you have specified cannot currently be translated into a valid IP node number. 
This could mean the machine doesn't exist anymore, but sometimes trying a second time, or a day later solves the problem. 

5.7.3 Access denied
The machine you have accessed is choosing to deny access to the particular resource requested. This is either because you've asked for something you shouldn't have, or the remote machine has undergone a change of configuration or is undergoing some maintenance. 

5.7.4 URL case sensitivity
Be aware the URLs are - in theory at least - case sensitive. This means you should always type in a URL exactly as you see it. 
Whether or not a particular URL is case sensitive will usually depend on the type of computer the server is, and the sort of server software that it runs. 

5.8 Cookies
Cookies are tiny nuggets of data that a web server can get a browser to write to your computer. This nugget of data can only be passed back by your browser to the same web server. 
This device allows servers to keep some context information on each visitor to their site. For example a search engine could use this to remember what topics you were interested in last time you visited a few weeks ago. 
This technique is becoming increasingly popular as a means to customize the way a particular site works for you. Because of this access to some sites is dependent on being able to accept cookies. 
Not all browsers accept cookies, and those that do can usually be configured to show alerts each time someone tries to set one. 
Whether you allow cookies to be set is a matter of personal preference. 

6 USENET and Newsgroups

6.1 What they are
Usenet is a set of bulletin boards or newsgroups made available via the Internet. Each newsgroup is dedicated to an area of interest and people [post] articles or "posts" on different subjects within the area of interest. 
People can choose to write on a new topic, or to post a [followup] on an existing topic. Followups traditionally have the same subject line with the letters "RE:" inserted at the start. 
The combination of the original article and all its subsequent followups is known as a [thread]. All news-reading software allows you to read news by thread, and to choose to follow or ignore particular threads. 
A good set of (text) documents describing NEWS can be found at http://sasun4.epfl.ch/News/Document

6.2 How they are organised
6.2.1 Newsgroup hierarchies
Newsgroups are organised into a fairly loose set of hierarchies. There are a number of standard hierarchies, and any number of local hierarchies, for example most of the main ISPs have their own groups, some of which are made publicly available. 
The main hierarchies are 

alt...	Alternative. Anything goes.
biz...	Business
comp...	Computers
news...	Administrative for News generally
rec...	Recreational.
sci...	Science
soc...	Society

Of these the alt... hierarchy is largely unregulated, whilst the other hierarchies are more controlled. There are more alt... groups and they are easier to create, but correspondingly the [signal to noise ratio] is much lower in these groups, and the language is sometimes less formal. 
In addition to the above this many counties and regions have their own hierarchies, as do some collaborations, e.g. 
uk...
fr...
ruhr...
bionet... 
The current list of newsgroups stands at around 17,000. You should contact your service provider to see what groups they make available. 

6.2.2 NEWS distribution
NEWS is distributed round the globe by being passed from Internet node to Internet node. Each internet node is free to decide which groups they will or won't take. This is one place where censorship starts to enter the Internet. 
Some ISPs only get a core set of groups to which they will happily add any newsgroup a customer requests. This is usually an attempt to save bandwidth. 
Some ISPs choose to refuse certain groups on the grounds that they give offence, or contravene the prevailing laws in their territory. This is especially true of providers looking to meet "family" needs. 
Other ISPs choose to refuse binary groups on the grounds that these take up far too much bandwidth, and besides, they contain the bulk of the pornography floating round the Net. 
Yet more ISPs declare that in the interests of free speech they will take a "full feed" and make this available to their customers. These providers are the ones most frequently being taken to court. 
You should be aware that depending on who you get your news from you may well not be getting a full feed. 
You should also be aware that given the genuinely unsavory content in some parts of Usenet, you may not want a full feed. 

6.2.3 .Answers groups
Many newsgroups have [FAQs] associated with them. These FAQs are posted regularly to the newsgroup concerned, [Site:RTFM], and often to the .answers newsgroup in the same hierarchy. 
Thus comp.answers contains many useful posts of computer related FAQs, whilst rec.answers contains FAQs on every type of hobby. 
Many of these are additionally posted to news.answers. 

6.2.4 Moderated newsgroups
Some newsgroups and mailing lists are "moderated". In these cases all articles posted to the group are checked by a Moderator. 
The moderator is free to 
·	reject the article. This is usually only done if the article violates the group's charter (e.g. is off-topic like [spam], or is too long) 
·	edit the article. This is relatively unusual, but the moderator may correct spelling, factual errors, or remove information supplied in a previous post. 
·	Accept the article. In this case the article is forwarded to the newsgroup and mailing list, and enters the public domain.
Moderation is a good way of improving the [Signal to Noise ratio] in a group, but is hard work for the moderators who frequently do the job voluntarily and are unpaid. 

6.2.5 Binary groups
It is possible to post binary files (such as pictures and software) to newgroups. However, such posts tend to be much larger than normal, and as such are unwelcome in most newsgroups. 
To get round this problem, there are a number of newsgroups dedicated to accepting binary posts. These are mostly the alt.binaries... groups. 
If you have a picture you'd like to share with people in a newsgroup, consider offering it via email, and first asking the group if they're interested. 
Next consider placing it on a web page. 
If enough people express an interest, find out which binary group is most suitable and post it there. Once you've done that, post an article to your normal newsgroup telling people what you've done, so that they can go and fetch it. 
Posting binaries usually entails converting them into ASCII files using some form of encoding. It's increasingly common these days for email packages to offer this. 
Often large binaries are split into a number of posts. This is because some parts of the Internet reject messages over a certain size. 
To reassemble the binary, you need to locate all parts of the original, reassemble the parts, and convert back to binary. 
Again, it's increasingly common for your newsreading software to be capable of doing this for you. 

6.3 How to use newsgroups
6.3.1 Using a newsreader
You normally access news using newsreader software. There are a variety of commercial and free packages available. 
Normally you "subscribe" to groups that are of interest to you. Then each time you start the software, it will get all the new articles in those groups. 
Some packages only get the message headers and subject lines. This allows you to pick which actual posts you're interested in, and which the newsreader should fetch the article bodies for. This is more efficient and saves [bandwidth] and time. 
Similarly some newsreaders set a limit of the maximum article size they will automatically fetch. 
Sometimes you can set up a "kill" file of threads and authors you don't want to see. The newsreader will then ignore any such posts. This can be useful for avoiding the "village idiot" posters that each group seems to have. 
If you are accessing the Internet from home or over a modem line, make sure you use a package that allows [off-line] reading. Such packages will fetch the articles you're interested in, and save them to your hard disk, thereby allowing the connection time to the Internet (and hence phone bills) to be minimized. 

6.3.2 In a browser
Increasingly it is possible to read news via your browser. At the time of writing these are not generally as good as dedicated newsreader software, particularly since they don't support [off-line] reading. 
However this is a good way of quickly dipping into a group you've just discovered, or have only a fleeting interest in. 

6.3.3 Using DejaNews
The [Site:Dejanews] site offers a search engine that allows all current and past news articles to be searched. 

6.4 Usenet Conventions
6.4.1 Subject lines
In order to help people better anticipate the contents of articles some conventions have evolved on use of subject lines. These conventions are mostly used in newsgroups, but you will see them occasionally in email. 
RE: - Signifies a reply. Most mail software does this for you FWD: - Signifies a forwarded message (email usually) 
FS: - For sale
WTB: - Want to buy 
In addition, the charter of some groups may define additional shorthand local to that group. 

6.4.2 Signatures
Many software packages will allow you to place a "signature" at the end of all your email and Usenet posts. This allows you to add contact information and witty comments. 
By convention the first line should be 2 dashes, and the whole signature should only be 4-5 lines long. Large signatures are considered bad [netiquette] and will attract criticism. 

6.5 Usenet related sites
6.5.1 Locating useful resources by newsgroup
One site that collects resources referenced in newsgroups, and lists them by the newsgroup name is http://www.phoaks.com/. This can be a useful way of locating FAQs or useful web pages relating to a USENET group. 

6.5.2 Getting statistics on Usenet group usage
The site http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/ offers various Usenet related services. 
This includes a list of newsgroups at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/ (this is a large file), and statistics for each newsgroup. 
Statistics are help for each newsgroup in a page below the "/groups-html" directory at this location. For example the statistics on comp.risks newsgroup are contained in a page at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/groups-html/comp.risks.html. 
How accurate of recent these pages are I couldn't say (they seem a little out of date to me), but it might give you a feel for the relativepopularity, availability and throughput of a newsgroup if nothing else. This could help you find the right forum for your announcements, or a quiet backwater in which to have a chat with like-minded souls. 

6.5.3 DejaNews
DejaNews is discussed more fully in section 7.2. 

6.6 Other on-line news sources
6.6.1 Service provider forums
Some of the larger service providers provide their own equivalent services for the benefit of their own customers. 
AOL and Compuserve in particular come to mind. 

6.6.2 More conventional NEWS sites
Most major news-gathering organisations (newspapers and TV) now have a presence on the Net. Simply seek out your favourite newspaper and search their small print for a web address. 
Particularly noteworthy are [h:CNN] and the [h:BBC]. 
Many of these news services are free, though how long that will continue is doubtful, given the way that most newspaper sites request subscription information and require a password to enter. 
A list of news services can be found at http://www.discover.co.uk/NET/NEWS/news.html

7 Sites you should know about

7.1 Altavista
Visit [h:Altavista] for full details. 
Altavista is one of the Net's best search engines, with over 40 million web pages indexed. 

7.1.1 Using Altavista
Using AltaVista is easy, simply type in some words that you want to search for. You should read the Help page for extra tips, and there is an Advanced Search function that allows you look for one word near another, and LiveTopics that will categorize the matches you've found to help you further select what you are interested in. 
Tricks to be aware of include :- 
·	Altavista will only match case if your word is in mixed or upper case. If in doubt, type it all in lower case. 
·	If you want to locate a phrase, place it in double quotes. 
·	a "+" in front of a word means that a web page must have that word in it. A "-" means that is must not. The latter is useful if refining a search by removing items you're not interested in.

7.1.2 Special searches
Altavista doesn't just index the text on a page, it also indexes the hyperlinks, titles etc. Thus typing the search string 
url:microsoft 
will find all web pages with the string microsoft in the URL. 
http://link:www.jafsoft.com/
finds all pages that have hyperlinks pointing at the http://www.jafsoft.com/ site, and 
title:Flamingo 
finds all pages with flamingo in the title. 

7.1.3 Translating web pages
Recently AltaVista has started offering to translate web pages on-line. This service is offered in the results of a search, but can also be used directly by going to 
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/

7.2 Dejanews
Visit [h:DejaNews] for full details. 
Dejanews has all the postings ever made in newsgroups in a searchable database. The database is divided into current and old. 

7.2.1 Finding postings
To find articles of interest, simply type in a few keywords. For each post found you can 
·	read the post itself. From here you can follow the [thread] this post belonged to. 
·	Get an author profile of the person who posted. 
·	post a followup to the article in the original newsgroups.

7.2.2 Finding newsgroups
Dejanews now has a search for newsgroups feature. Simply type in a few keywords and see a ranked list of newsgroups where Dejanews believes articles containing these words are posted. 
This is a perfect way of finding newsgroups that may be of interest to you. 

7.2.3 Getting author profiles
Dejanews offers you author profiles, that is a list of the posts a person has made to various newsgroups. This can give you a feel for the interests and character of a person, and is increasingly being used (as is the Internet generally) to discover what job applicants are like. 
This "Big brother" aspect of the Net is something you should be aware of. If you start posting to newsgroups and publishing web pages, you are placing that information in the public domain in a way that is easily archived and searched using modern technology. 

7.3 RTFM
RTFM stands for [Read the FM] which was basically an oft-repeated plea to [newbies] to read the [FAQ] before posting the same old questions and making the same old mistakes. 
Eventually one man decided to collect all the FAQs together so people could easily find them. This now vast repository can be found at [h:RTFM]. 

7.3.1 Reading the FAQ's
The RTFM archive is an FTP site. In a browser FTP files appear as folders and directories much like they do on a PC. You can navigate round these folders to find the FAQ for the newsgroup you are interested in. 
FAQ maintainers will normally update the copy on RTFM regularly, so this is a good place to start searching for such information. 
Start here [h:RTFM-usenet]. 

7.3.2 Finding people's email addresses.
RTFM has a complete directory listing people's email addresses. These can be searched, although there are now more user-friendly ways of doing this (see [Section:email addresses]). 
This database can be searched via email. For details send a message with the subject blank and the message set to 
send usenet-addresses/help
to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu 

7.4 Other search engines
7.4.1 Yahoo
Visit [h:Yahoo]. 
Yahoo is one of the oldest and largest Internet directories around. Yahoo attempt to place each site into a suitable category. By selecting the categories you are interested in you can get a concentrated list of suitable sites. 
All links in Yahoo are added by hand, which means it is difficult to get listed meaning their index is selective rather than comprehensive. 

7.4.2 Infoseek
Visit [h:Infoseek]. 
Another major search site. This site takes the same approach as Yahoo, namely putting sites into categories, but seems to offer more additional services such as finding people's email addresses. 

7.4.3 Excite
Visit [h:Excite] 
Excite is an up and coming search engine, which offer news services in addition to straight search engines. 

7.4.4 WebCrawler
Visit [h:WebCrawler] 

7.4.5 HotBot
Visit [h:HotBot] 
This search engine puts fairly advanced search options on its front page. Most search engines have these options, usually under "advanced search". 

7.4.6 MetaCrawler
Visit [h:MetaCrawler] 
MetaCrawler is an interesting search engine in that is uses the other search engines to match your request and then collates the results. 

7.5 The Internet movie database
If you're a film fan, visit [h:IMDB]. 

7.6 Other sites
Here's a list of interesting sites. I've tried to only list sites that will act as good starting points for finding various types of information, or that you would visit regularly. 

http://www.digital.com/info/rcfoc/	The rapidly changing face of technology. Discusses up and coming developments on the Net.
http://www.theonion.com/	Satirical newsletter
http://www.thepubliceye.com/	Allows you to check up on companies selling via the Net
http://www.virtualpromote.com/	Discusses promotion of web pages

8 Creating your own web pages
The braver amongst you may decide you want to create your own web pages. You can start this very easily, and these notes will help get you started and give you some pointers. However the whole subject is vast, and if you intend becoming expert at authoring Web pages I suggest you familiarise yourself with the subject and then buy a suitably expert book on the subject. 

8.1 What exactly is HTML?
Web pages are HTML documents. HTML stands for "HyperText Markup Language". That is, it is a language used to "mark-up" documents for display by a browser. One of the most important points to understand here is that each browser is free to implement or ignore a given mark-up as it sees best. 
Thus a "header" may be shown as larger and bolder on a PC, but on a text terminal it might be shown in reverse video. 
As an author of web pages it is crucial to remember that everyone is going to see you page slightly differently. 

8.1.1 The overall structure of an HTML page
HTML pages consist of normal text with "tags" added for the markup. Tags are key words contained between angle brackets. Often tags come in pairs with some text between the two tags. In such cases the closing tag has a slash character (/) after the opening angle bracket. The text between the two tags is thus effectively "marked-up" by the two tags. 
For example 
Some of this <b>is in bold</b> 
The end tag doesn't have to be on the same line, and generally browsers ignore the use of white space in the source document. Care should be taken to make sure that each tag has a matching end tag. Tag pairs can be nested, and it is good practice to place the end tags in reverse order that they are applied i.e. 
<b>Bold and in <i>italics</i> </b> 
instead of 
<b>Bold and in <i>italics </b> </i> 
You might get away with the second usage, but it's bad practice, and depends on the browser as to how it reacts. 
The overall structure of a HTML document should be 
<HTML>
<HEAD>
.

·	(other tags that belong in the header) . </HEAD> <BODY> .
·	(other tags and text that belongs in the main body) . </BODY> </HTML>

8.1.2 The HTML standard
The HTML standard is maintained by the W3 consortium. Visit [h:W3] for up to date chapter and verse on what HTML is. You'll also find definitive lists of standard HTML tags there. 

8.1.3 Some common and useful tags
Here is a brief list of the most commonly used markups. A fuller list can be found at (amongst others) http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html_ref.html
8.1.3.1 <TITLE> ... </TITLE> tags
These tags go in the <HEAD>...</HEAD> section of the document. The text marked up in this way becomes the document's title shown at the top of the window. 
8.1.3.2 Bold, Italics and underline tags
The <b>..</b> <i>..</i> and <u>..</u> markups produce bold, italics and underlining effects. Note, hyperlinks are underlined automatically. 
8.1.3.3 Strong and emphasis tags
Recently there has been a move away from the bold and italic tags to <strong>..</strong> and <em>..</em> markups. The former are known as physical markups since they describe physical characteristics. If a browser cannot do italics or bold, then those markups will be ignored. 
These newer markups are called "logical" markups as the tell the browser the degree of emphasis wanted. This leaves the browser free to choose how to achieve this effect. 
8.1.3.4 <BR> line break tags
Browsers ignore the use of white space in a source document, and this includes line breaks. This is to allow paragraphs of text to adjust as the browser window is resized. 
If you want a line break, the <BR> tag tells the browser to do just that. 
8.1.3.5 <P> ... </P> Paragraph markers
The <P>..</p> markup is used to mark up paragraphs. It is quite common for the </p> to be omitted, however as more arguments are added to the <p> tag it may become important to supply a </P> tag to mark the end of the specified effect. 
8.1.3.6 <HR> Horizontal rule tags
The <HR> tag puts a horizontal line across the page. 
8.1.3.7 Anchor (hyperlink) tags
The <A> .. </A> tags can be used to define anchor points and hypertext links. These tags always require extra arguments in the opening tag to define the link. 
This is discussed more fully in [Section:Hyperlinks] 
8.1.3.8 <IMG> image tags
The <IMG> tag can be used to add pictures to your page. The basic definition is something like 
<IMG ALT="text description" HEIGHT=size WIDTH=size SRC="URL"> 
The ALT attribute is a text description displayed whilst the image is loading. This helps to give the viewer an idea of what's coming before it arrives. It's a good idea to always include an ALT attribute for the following reasons 
·	It will be shown whilst the image is still loading
·	It will be shown even when the user switched images off
·	It can be understood by browsers used by the partially sighted
·	In recent browsers it is shown as a "tooltip" whenever the mouse is moved over the image.
The HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes specify the display size of the image in either pixels or percentage of screen size. This allows the browser to reserve space whilst the image downloads, allowing the text to be displayed faster. It won't make the download faster, but it will seem faster. It will also preserve the page layout if you switch images off. You don't need to supply both. 
If you don't do this, the browser either has to wait until it's got the image, or it has to completely redraw the page once the image arrives. Neither is particularly nice. 
Note, the HEIGHT and WIDTH need not be the original size of the image, and people sometimes think, wrongly, that they can speed up the download by making the HEIGHT and WIDTH smaller. In fact the download is just as slow, but it gets drawn smaller. If you want a page with small pictures it's usual to make smaller copies and link those to the larger originals. These small pictures are often called "thumbnails". 
You can get away with specifying just one of HEIGHT or WIDTH. The browser will set the other to scale. 
The SRC attribute gives the URL where the image file can be found. 
Only the SRC attribute is really needed, but supplying ALT, HEIGHT and WIDTH are good habits to get into. 

8.1.4 HTML extensions
Both Netscape and Microsoft have invented non-standard HTML tags to give their browsers added features. Some of these have subsequently been adopted into standard HTML. Generally it is a very bad idea to use these extensions as it means you are forcing your audience to use one browser over another. 
In the early days all the Netscape extensions became the de facto standard. This situation is very unlikely to occur again. 

8.1.5 Adding hyperlinks to web pages
Hyperlinks are added to web pages using the Anchor tags <A> .. </A>. There are two basic methods for using the anchor tag. One creates an "anchor point", that is a point that a hyperlink can jump to, and the other creates the hyperlink itself. 
For example 
<A NAME="AnchorPoint">This is an anchor point</A> 
creates an anchor point called "AnchorPoint" in the current document. The text between the <A>...</A> tags will appear as normal. 
By contrast the markup 
<A HREF="#AnchorPoint">Goto the Anchor point</A> 
creates the hyperlink that will take you to the first point. In this case anything between the <A> and </A> tag is highlighted, and may be selected to activate the link. This can include images. 
The HREF part of this tag is in fact a [URL]. In this context a URL is fully specified as 
<resource type>://<machine name>/<directory>/<filename>#<anchor point> 
where 

<resource type>	normally "http"
<machine name>	The internet node the resource is on. If omitted the current machine is assumed
<directory>	The directory path on the machine that the resource file lives in. If omitted the current directory is assumed.
<filename>	The file that is to be viewed. If omitted the current file is assumed.
<anchor point>	The location within the file that the browser is to go to. If omitted (or if invalid) the top of the file is assumed.

Note: 
·	If the machine and directory paths are omitted this is called a "relative link". HTML that uses relative links is a lot easier to move from machine to machine, as the relationships remain intact, even though the complete address has changed. 
·	Not all browsers support the use of anchor points. In such cases they are ignored and the browser goes to the top of the file. 
·	If an invalid anchor point is given, the browser goes to the top of the file. Anchor names can be case sensitive. 
·	Internet Explorer goes to the top of the file briefly before going to the anchor point. 
·	If a URL pointing to an anchor point in the same file is used, then some browsers will not bother to reload the page. This gives a faster re-draw.

8.1.6 Adding colour to web pages
In addition to adding images to your web pages, you can change the colours used on your web page by adding attributes to your <BODY> tag as follows; 
<BODY BGCOLOR="110000" LINK="009900" VLINK="0000CC" ALINK="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000"> 
Where 

BGCOLOR	Is the background colour of the page
TEXT	Is the colour of the text
LINK	Is the colour of an unused link
VLINK	Is the colour of a visited link
ALINK	Is the colour of a link as you visit it

In each case the colour is specified as a set of three hexadecimal numbers that express the red, green and blue component of the colour. 
In Hex digits can be 0..9,A..F, so for each colour you have a theoretical range of "00" to "FF" or 0-255 in real money. 
If you're not familiar with hexadecimal, think of "F0" as a two digit number, in which case you'll see that the sequence on numbers goes 
00, 01, 02... 09, 0A... 0F, 10, 11, ...1A...1F, 20.... ..... FF 
On this scale "F0" is pretty high, whilst "0F" is pretty low, that is it's the first digit that is most significant, just as it is in base 10. 
In the above case we have 

BGCOLOR	12 00 00	= (18,0,0) i.e. a dark red.	
LINK	00 9A 00	= (0,154,0) i.e. a medium green	
VLINK	00 00 CD	= (0,0,205) i.e. a bright blue	
ALINK	FF FF FF	= (255,255,255) i.e. brilliant white	
TEXT	00 00 00	= (0,0,0) i.e. dark black	

Be careful not to have two colours the same, as this will make something go invisible. 
There are plenty of colour palette's for you to use on the Net. For example visit http://www.concentric.net/~noree643/colors/contents.html

8.2 Composing web pages
8.2.1 HTML editors
There are an increasing number of web editing tools around. These usually offer ease of use and better graphics handling an [WYSIWYG] functions. 
However really simple web pages can be created with just a text editor and a small HTML reference book. 
You pays your money and takes your choice. 

8.2.2 Testing your pages
The quickest way to test the layout of your pages is to view them straight from your own hard disk. This will save you upload time to your server machine, and can be done to a large extent [off-line], disconnected from the Net. 
To do this save your file to disk, and open a browser window. Instead of entering a web URL, instead select a "open file in browser" option. The location of this option will vary according to the browser you are running. 
When you do this the location will be something like 
file:///c|/directory/ (whatever) 
instead of the usual http: address. If you are going to edit this frequently it will be a good idea to [bookmark] this location for future use. 
View the page as normal in your browser. You should be able to check the layout and appearance of the page, but you may not be able to test some of the links unless you are connected to the Internet. 
If necessary, go back to your editor and make any changes and save the file again. 
You can now view the changed version of your file by selecting the reload or refresh option in your browser. 
Note, you probably don't need to exit either your browser or your editor in doing this. This makes development a lot faster. In some cases the browser and editor are even part of the same software package. 
Once you are happy you should [upload] your new file(s) to the server. 
Note, when you upload your file you may find that some of your links that work on your own machine may not work when you've loaded the page onto the Internet. This is a really common fault, so make sure you always view your pages after uploading to the Internet, preferably from a different machine. 
The usual cause is that you've forgotten to also copy the files referenced (e.g. image files), or that the relative links used are invalid on the Web (e.g. files in sub-directories on your machine are in the same diretory when loaded to the Web). It is always a good idea to organize your local directories to exactly match the target configuration on the web. 

8.3 How to teach yourself HTML
8.3.1 Find an HTML reference site
There are lots and lots and lots of on-line web pages dedicated to teaching people HTML. I'm not even going to start to suggest one. 
Go to [h:Altavista] and type something like 
+learn +HTML +beginners 
and pick one of the 5000+ sites you find. You can refine your search by adding more keywords. 

8.3.2 Buy an HTML book
Similarly there are lots and lots and lots of computer books. However this is more problematical as computer related books tend to be large and expensive. 
HTML books come in several forms: 
·	Idiots guides. These try to talk in layman's terms about HTML, a fairly technical subject. Depending of what level you anticipate getting to its possible that you will work through this book once, and then never read it again. On the other hand, that may be all you want. 
·	Brief introductions. These books cover the basics in a relatively short time. They serve the same purpose as Idiots guides, but get there faster, and probably have a longer shelf life as reference manuals. 
·	Reference manuals. These contain complete specifications for a given version of HTML. These books can be very dry and of little use to someone learning, but are a great aid to the more advanced HTML author, and usually highlight the differences between the various HTML extensions made by Netscape and Microsoft.
One problem with such books is that they lose their edge when the next version of HTML comes out. 
·	Programming manuals. These are aimed more at the web professional, and will deal with topics like CGI scripts and other server-related subjects.
My advice would be attempt to struggle through an on-line course, and learn by example. Depending on how easy or hard you find that, choose an appropriate book. 

8.3.3 Learn to view local files
The best way to pick up tricks and learn a new (computer) language is to see how it's currently being used. Fortunately this is very easy in HTML as most browsers will have a View... Source... option, and some will have a save to disk option, allowing you to study the file at your leisure. 
If you see a web page with a feature you want to understand, try just looking at the source. 
Unfortunately as the language gets more and more sophisticated and more is done via HTML extensions this can be harder to do. Another fact working against you doing this is that more and more pages are written from HTML editing software, rather than "by hand". Such pages are harder to view sensibly because they use far too many features (special fonts etc), and create very long source lines. 
You should be aware that if you see <APPLET> or <SCRIPT>..</SCRIPT> tags then some active content is being supplied by means other than just HTML, namely Java and Javascript. 

8.3.4 Learn to write "correct" HTML
It's perfectly possible to write incorrect HTML and not be aware of it. This is because each browser can choose to handle errors as it sees fit. Which means that a page that looks okay in your browser will fail, or look bad in someone else's. 
To get round this problem is is a good idea to try to view your pages with as many different browsers and versions of browsers as you can. 
Another good idea is to run your page(s) through a HTML syntax checker. There are a number of these available, and there are even some freely available on-line. 
For example, visit the "Dr. HTML" site that will test your web pages for errors that might trip certain browsers up. 
http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/

The "horse's mouth" in standard HTML is the W3 consortium, e.g. 
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/
Another good guide to HTML is at 
http://werbach.com/barebones/barebone.html
If you want to ensure your web pages are accessible to those who are disabled (i.e. the visually impaired or blind), there are some guidelines and an on-line checker at 
http://www.cast.org/bobby/

8.3.5 Learn from bad examples
If you see a web site that you don't like, work out why (view source if need be). A lot of liking or disliking web pages is a matter of personal taste, but for a tutorial in what can go wrong, visit http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
This offers a tutorial on web page design by counter-example, showing all the things that (in the author's view) you shouldn't do. 
It's quite an interesting site, and makes several good points. 
Things to look out for include 
·	Colour contrast between foreground and background 
·	Blinking 
·	Over-use of animated .GIFs. Not only is this irritating, but it consumes too much [bandwidth] 
·	no longer valid links

8.4 Learning more advanced HTML
Learning more advanced HTML is beyond the scope of these notes. Here is a brief list of more advanced features supported by HTML that you may see referenced. 

8.4.1 Tables
More recent versions of HTML support the use of tables. This allows the author some control over the actual layout of elements on the screen relative to each other. 
One consequence of using tables is that the contents of the table won't usually be drawn until all the table data has been fetched (until then the table size may not be known). 
This can make tables appear slower. Whether or not they really are much slower I couldn't say. 

8.4.2 Forms
HTML supports the use of <FORM> and <INPUT> tags to allow the author to define data entry fields into which the user can type information. 
By themselves they are useless, but the http protocol allows this data to be "submitted" to a URL, typically a [CGI script] on the server from which the web page was downloaded. 
This was HTML's first step towards becoming interactive, and is the sort of technique used on all the search engine forms one uses. 
HTML does not allow error checking on the data entered into these fields, so that it would be possible to submit invalid data to the server. 
This is inefficient, and often you will find that a page uses [Javascript] to check all arguments before forwarding the request. 

8.4.3 Frames
Frames allows the browser to divide the screen into sections, with an HTML page in each section. A good use of frames is to place a navigation bar in a fixed frame, and use hyperlinks to update the contents of the rest of the screen. 
There are many bad uses of frames. 
One problem with frames is that the familiar "back" and "forward" functions in the browser can become ambiguous (which frame is to go back). 
Because of this frames are not as popular as one might otherwise have expected. 

8.4.4 CGI scripts
CGI scripts are programs that reside on a web server. Usually these handle particular requests "submitted" from an HTML form. The normal practice is to execute some calculation and dynamically construct a HTML page that is sent back to the client browser as a response. 
This is how search engines work. They receive your keywords as data entered into a form, use this to locate any entries in their database that match, and then construct a HTML page containing this data which is then sent back to the originator, often with an advert bundled in. 

8.5 Things to bear in mind
It's important to know your audience when composing a web page. If you don't cater for their needs and desires, no-one is going to view your pages and you're wasting your time. 

8.5.1 Different browsers
People use different browsers, and different versions of browsers. Try not to write web pages that will only work for one. If you do, consider placing a warning on the top page, and offering a low-tech alternative (e.g. a no-frames version, or a non-Java version). 

8.5.2 Different screen sizes
People have different size monitors with different resolutions. On top of this they resize their windows. 
Bear this in mind, try viewing your page in different sized windows both very large and small. 

8.5.3 Links links links
Always make sure a page has enough links. Don't go mad, but imagine the user has gone straight to this page and ask yourself what links you want to give them from here. 
It's no good saying "go back to my home page" if they haven't just come from there or "email me at the address on the previous page". Better is to provide a link back to the home page, and a "mailto" hyperlink. 

8.5.4 Graphics switched off
A lot of people view pages with no graphics. Either because they have a text only browser like Lynx, or because they are on a slow, costly modem link. 
View your page with graphics off. Make sure the page still makes sense, and that all the <IMG> tags have HEIGHT, WIDTH and ALT attributes. These are important even if the user has graphics on, as on a slow link they determine what the user sees whilst the images are still downloading. 

8.5.5 Tables/frames/java
If you use advanced features such as these, consider offering a low-tech equivalent or be prepared for people to turn their back on your page. 

8.5.6 Don't keep multiple copies
Unless you want to be a [mirror site] don't copy the same web page to many different locations. This is both inefficient and confusing, as the file gets updated in one place and not another. 
Instead keep it in one place and link to it form the others. That's what the web's there for after all. 

8.5.7 Keep it fresh
Keep revisiting your pages, and make sure they are kept up to date. People are not interested in pages that have clearly become out of date. 

8.5.8 Don't over emphasize "under construction"
All web sites are always under construction. So don't make a big deal of it, it irritates after a while. 

8.6 Publishing web pages
Normally Web pages are "published" by [uploading] them to your web server. The mechanics of this will depend on your site, and you'll need to contact you system administrator or [ISP] for advice. 
Often a limited form of [FTP] may be involved. 

8.7 Getting people to view your page
Okay, you've produced a wonderful web page, and put it on the Net. Now what? 

8.7.1 Link to it
Try to link it into the Web. This usually means at least linking it into your own pages (if you already have some), and hopefully persuading others that the content is sufficiently useful that should link to it. 

8.7.2 Tell your friends
This isn't as daft as it sounds. In the same way that you should tell people your telephone number and email address, so too you might wish to tell them your web address. People often link to their friends web pages, and daft as it sounds, sometimes people follow those links. 
At the very least, get someone you trust to view it and criticise it. 
If you have a business card, put your details on that if its suitable. 
Write it with your email address inside your christmas cards. Come January you may be surprised at the people who contact you. 

8.7.3 Announce it
If your page is likely to be of interest to a particular Internet community then announce it. 
This can be done by posting an article to appropriate [Usenet] newsgroups. Most newsgroups are reasonably tolerant of such announcements, but be honest with yourself in deciding whether or not other people will be interested. 
If your page is itself advertising some resource or product that you are making available, then there may be newsgroups dedicated to announcements of that type. You'll need to check out the hierarchy and locate a suitable ".announce" newsgroup. Such newsgroups are sometimes [moderated] and often don't welcome commercial posts, so it may be a good idea to check on the group's charter to check your announcement is allowed. 
Publicize it any way you think is legitimate and suitable. If it's a commercial page, add a URL to your normal advertising. This is already common practise. 
Add the URL it to the address portion of your stationary. 

8.7.4 Index it
Of course the real way of getting your page found is to add your URL to the same search engines that you use yourself to locate pages. 
8.7.4.1 How to submit your URL
Most search engines allow you to submit your URL for inclusion in their database. The normal sequence of events is 
a)	You type in your URL name. 
b)	The Search engine visits your page to check the URL you entered was correct 
c)	"Sometime later" The search engine revisits your page and indexes it. 
d)	"Finally" you appear in the index.
Most engines will tell you how long they expect "finally" will be. This can be from a few days to several weeks. 
Once you have been indexed, most engines will do some or all of the following 
·	Add you to their "what's new" section. Given pages are arriving at the rate of 1000's per hour, the chances may be that unless you pay it'll be a case of blink and you miss it. 
·	Periodically revisit your site to check it's still there and to reindex it (in case the content has changed).
This is important because in some cases (e.g. AltaVista) if the search engine doesn't find you page (e.g. because your server is down) it will remove you from the index. 
In this way you can "drop out" of an index, so it's worth checking periodically to make sure you're still there. 
·	Visit your site with a [Robot]. This robot will follow all links on your page, and all links on those pages. In this way the search engine will end up "crawling" over almost all the pages on your site, starting at the top page.
This is useful, as it means you need only submit the top page for the whole site to be indexed. 
However, the robot will only index your site if the robots policy file allows it to (this is for your site administrator to set up). 
Furthermore, the robot often lags weeks behind the main indexing process, so your submitted URL may appear in the index long before the rest of your site does. 
Note, some search engines read [Usenet] looking for URLs and start indexing and crawling over those sites. In this way you can sometimes be indexed without even having to submit your URL explicitly. This is another example of anything you post becoming knowledge in the public domain. 
8.7.4.2 Submitting URL's to lots of search engines
If you really want everyone to be able to find your page, you naturally want to submit it to as many search engines as possible. This is a service that can be bought commercially, though there are still a number of free services such as Submit-It (see http://www.submit-it.com/default.shtml ). 
In these services you typically have to fill in a form, and then go through the process of choosing the search engines you wish to submit to. Many search engines are geographically based or topic based, so you will need to be careful only to submit to appropriate locations. 
Unfortunately, you often have to categorize your URL for sites such as Yahoo, and each site has its own system. This can make the whole process time consuming and a bit daunting. This is presumably one of the reasons people charge for this service. 
8.7.4.3 How your URL is Indexed
This will vary from one search engine to another but basically the your web page will be indexed by content in a number of ways. Things that may get recorded are 
·	Words and phrases that occur in the title 
·	Words and phrases that occur in the description of the page, or near the top of the document 
·	Words and phrases that occur in the rest of the document. 
·	Any keywords associated with the document. 
·	Any text in the URL itself 
·	All the hyperlinks referenced in the document 
·	All the mail addresses referenced in links int the document 
·	The size of the document 
·	The modification date of the document.
When a user searches for a page, the information collected above will be matched against the search request. Usually the search engine will attempt to rank all matches in order. In some cases the user can specify what weights they wish to give to the different factors (e.g. date etc). 
8.7.4.4 How to get a better rating in the index
Most search engines can find thousands of entries to match simple queries, but will only show the first 10-50 and then the next 10-50 etc. 
Obviously, if your page isn't up there, no-ones going to select it. There are a number of tricks you can use to improve your rating. 
·	Choose a suitable title. Documents with the search keywords found in their title or near the start of the document are sometimes given a higher rating. 
·	Add keywords using the <[META]> tag. These words will be indexed in addition to words in the main body of the document. You can use this to match all the search words you would want to turn up your document.
Choosing the right keywords is a bit of an art. Try not to use inappropriate keywords as drawing people to your page for the wrong reasons will simply irritate them. 
·	Add a description using the <[META]> tag. AltaVista uses the first few words on a page as a description. Often this is unsuitable. By supplying a proper description, your entry looks better in a list and may also be ranked higher.
Keep the description below 20-odd words as this is all most search engines will show. 
You can measure how well you rate by visiting 
http://www.positionagent.com/free.htm
This searches the search engines to see what position (if any) your page comes in. 

8.8 Monitoring visits to your web page
Once your page is up and running it'd be nice to see who visits it. Nice, but sadly not normally possible. 

8.8.1 Invite feedback
You can, of course, invite feedback on your pages by supplying email hyperlinks or a form to fill in and send. I'm not sure how useful this is. Anyone moved to feedback is either going to be overly positive or negative. You're not likely to get a measured critique of your pages, though you will get some constructive criticism. 

8.8.2 Add a counter
Depending on who provides your Internet access, you may or may not be allowed to add a counter to your page. Counters are usually small graphics that are dynamically calculated by the web server. Typically your service provider will give you the URL to use as the image, and when displayed this will appear as a number. 
Web counters are nice (at least they give you a warm glow if they go up regularly), but they have their downside. For a start they are images. On a text based page this can often mean the last and slowest thing to load is the counter, which is a little self-defeating. 
Also you should be aware that your counters underestimate the number of visits, but includes your own visits. Undercounting occurs 
a)	Because people cache the page locally on their PC's, so don't need to reload it from your site each time 
b)	If you counter is graphical, it won't count people who have images switched off.
If you visit a site with a very large counter, remember that these things are not always started at zero. Even if you go back the next day, it's still possible that the increase has been artificially inflated. 
At best these things are only ever approximate, they are more use to you than to your visitors. 

8.8.3 Checking the server log
Most servers keep a log of all accesses to the site, though of necessity this information is discarded every so often. 
If you are technically minded and have access to this information, you can collate all sorts of stats, and get lists of which Internet Nodes visited which web pages. 
This can be quite interesting information, and often server managers will make this information available in the form of a statistical report. 
However, you still need to bear in mind that 
·	You can only ever get the IP address of the contacting Internet node. This will not tell you the user at that node who looked at your page. If the user was using an account with a large service provider such as AOL or compuserve, the information becomes useless 
·	The IP address you get will not always match a [domain name]. This is particularly true since in many cases the IP address will be that of a node into which to incoming access is allowed, and which therefore requires no public name
Still... it's still pretty interesting information for us [nerds]. 

8.8.4 Use a monitoring service
A number of monitoring services, free or otherwise, have started to appear. These usually entail adding some HTML to your page linking to their server. They then make reports to you on the hist. The comments made in 8.8.3 still apply, but if you don't have access to your server logs, or the time to analyse them this is something worth considering. 
An example can be found at 
http://www.freestats.com/

9 The Internet's future
I was going to write in some detail about the direction the Internet was heading. However, this section would age more rapidly than any other as predictions became reality or sad jokes. 
So here are some safe bets. 
·	The number of people will continue to grow. Historically the Internet has doubled in size every 10 months. This may slow down, but it's still doubling. 
·	More interactivity. People don't want static HTML pages any more. So more interactive pages will come, with audio, video and perhaps more usefully page animation. Expect pop-up menus and self-refreshing tables. 
·	More commerce. At the time of writing most people make money out of the internet through advertising. But sites are starting to sell product via the Net, with some like http://www.amazon.com/ becoming a serious rival to traditional outlets. 
·	Net cash. Some form of electronic cash will be necessary to trade Internationally. Paying a few percent on credit cards and foreign currency transactions will drive people to use a universal, Net-based electronic form of money. Millicent and Mondex are ones to watch. 
·	I was going to say the Net would become more ubiquitous. It already is. It's getting rare these days to see an ad in traditional media that doesn't offer a web address. Sell shares in any companies that don't :) 
·	Advertising. There's still more to come. Recent developments have included Geocities (one of many sites that offers free web pages) popping up windows with adverts to all visitors. This has been met with a certain hostility. 
·	Software services. All software services will be on the Net. End of story. 
·	Set-top boxes. Again a prediction that is now a reality. Web-TV offers a set-top box that turns your TV into an Internet browser. This makes home shopping even easier, as now you can enter your details into the Internet page without even having to call an operator. More and more services will be sold this way, with the "shopping basket" metaphor already well established on many sites. 
·	Software distribution. You buy your software over the Net. You download it over the Net. You get updates over the Net. If it's Microsoft or Netscape the help files are accessed over the Net (I hate that personally). You report errors over the Net. You read about patches and bug fixes on the Net, and you download these too over the Net. And if it's a game you play deathmatch with other people via a Net games server. 
·	Newspapers. Most newspapers have a Net presence. Increasingly there are newsletters, Gazettes and papers that are being created solely for the Net. The advantages are larger audiences, better targeted readers and the ability to customise the paper to contain only things that interest you. All this and you don't get ink on your hands, and it's as near as dammit free. Advertisers love that sort of profile.

10 Glossary
There are lots of glossaries on the Net, for example a similar list to this one can br found in the Big Dummy's guide at http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_271.html

ActiveX
Microsoft's rival to [Java]. ActiveX is a programming device that allows developers to add interactive content to Web pages. However, there are some doubts over its security, and it will only work on PCs. Not that either concern has prevented Microsoft's growth in the past. 
AFAIK
"As far as I know" 

Altavista
Probably the finest and most powerful search engine on the Web. Visit http://www.altavista.digital.com/ and try it. Read the advanced help on how to improve and refine your queries, and learn to use the recently added Live Topics to categorize your results. 

AOLer
A derogatory term for someone who's not too smart or Net-savvy. Rhymes with "loser". 
Derived from the fact that AOL offer cheap and simple to use Internet access, and consequently were amongst the first to introduce a large number of clueless [newbies] into the system, a feat they've managed for several years now :) 
Over time the term has been joined by other terms derived from ISPs who offer free email services (e.g. hotmail). 
ATM
"Asynchronous Transfer Mode". A up-and-coming standard for modems that receives faster than it transmits. Ideal for squeezing the last drop of [bandwidth] out of a home telephone line. 

Bandwidth
A term used to describe the amount of access one has to a given Internet resource by analogy to radio bandwidths. The more bandwidth available the faster a given amount of data can be transferred, and hence the greater the amount of data that can be transferred. 
As more graphics, audio and video arrive on the Net, so the demand for bandwidth increases. Consequently one of the few cardinal sins most frowned upon by the Internet community is to waste bandwidth, a resource scarcer than water in some parts. 
Private individuals on modem lines have the least available bandwidth. This means they are least likely to download graphics, large software packages etc. 
Universities often have the greatest access to bandwidth, and may think nothing of video lecturing over the Internet. 
When designing a web page, it is vital to bear in mind the bandwidth that your desired audience is likely to have. If you make your content too large, they are likely to literally switch off. This is one reason you will often see a text alternative offered for a site. 

BBS or bulletin boards
Not strictly part of the Internet. These are usually machines that you connect to via a modem line. Depending what is on offer it may be free, charge a membership fee, or use premium rate telephone lines. 

Bookmarks or hot lists
Most browsers allow you to bookmark a favorite URL in order that you can easily find it again next time you run the browser. 
BTW
"By the way" 

CFV
"Call for votes". New USENET newsgroups are often created through the process of stating a charter, and then calling for a vote on whether the newsgroup should be created. This is quite common when large newsgroups decide to split into smaller sub-groups. A certain minimum and majority are required for the group to become "official" and thus accepted by most news feeds. 

CGI Scripts
Special programs that reside on a web server. Usually these handle particular requests "submitted" from a HTML form. The normal practice is to execute some calculation and dynamically construct a HTML page that is sent back to the client browser as a response. 

CSS
"Cascading Style Sheets". These are web documents (usually with a .css extension) used to add styling to HTML documents. The basic idea is that HTML tags are used to markup the structure of a document, and a style sheet is used to layer fonts, colours etc onto the text associated with each tags. 
The idea is to separate form from content, and allow users and authors to specify their own preferred stylings. 
CSS is starting to be supported with the V4.0 browsers, although the support in those browsers is far from complete. Fuller support is expected in the V5.0 browsers 

De-lurking
See [Lurking]. 

Digests
Where a [mailing list] has high volume, it can become difficult to cope with the large number of posts that result. 
In such cases, you may be offered the mailing list in digest form, that is all the posts to the list are collated and sent to you as a single larger mail every so often. 

Domain name
A name given to an Internet node. Not all nodes have names. 
See [Section:domain names] for a fuller description. 

Emoticon
A "proper" name for [Smileys] 

FAQS
"Frequently Asked Questions", or rather, their answers. Because the ratio of [Newbies] to old hands is permanently high, people have taken to compiling lists of typical questions and their answers. The idea being that a newbie gets presented with the FAQ, reads it, and then doesn't ask the same questions again (which the old hands are sick of by this time). 
Most FAQ's are written by enthusiasts, and although their accuracy cannot be guaranteed, they are usually a veritable mine of information, well worth seeking out. 
Most FAQ's are released regularly on a fortnightly or weekly basis. In addition to this you can find them at [Site:RTFM] and in the various .answers newsgroups. 
Another location for finding FAQ's is http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu:80/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html

Firewall
A gateway between your machine(s) and the Internet. Commonly used by companies to limit or monitor external access to their machines and - on occasions - to control what their employees can access over the Net. 

Flames
The act of flaming someone is the act of responding in a highly critical sarcastic or ridiculing manner. The name presumably derives from "to shoot down in flames". Anyone who posts an offensive article can expect to get flamed, probably by more than one person. 
Vicious arguments between two or three sides often become know as flame wars. 

Followups
A followup is a [post] to a [newsgroup] in response to an existing article. The combination of the original article and all its subsequent followups is known as a [thread]. 

Freeware
Freeware is any software you can (legitimately) get for free. See also [shareware] and [postcardware] 

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. Originally a means of connecting to an Internet node and logging in to download files from a server. 
Nowadays FTP is commonly accessed via web browsers. See the section on [Section:FTP] for a fuller description. 
FWIW
"For what it's worth" 
Ctrl-H (^H)
This is the symbol for the Ctrl-H or backspace key. People use it (usually) humourously as if they started to say one thing, and changed it to something else (usually more polite). For example 
"I'll have to ask the drago^H^H^H^H^H wife." 

Headers
Each message sent over the Internet has a header. These are usually hidden from you, but in the case of email it can be useful to check these occasionally when you wish to check a message's authenticity. 

Helper applications and plug-ins
These are pieces of software that extend the capabilities of your browsers, usually by handling different file types. 
A helper application is an application launched independently from the browser. An example might be Word for windows which can be configured to "help" display .DOC files. 
A plug-in is a piece of software designed to integrate with the browser. Plug-ins are increasingly being used to handle audio and visual content of pages inside the browser. 

HTH
"Hope that helps" 

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. The language used to define web pages their layout, images to be shown, and hyperlinks. 
An introduction to this vast topic can be sound in [Section:WebPages] 

Hyperlinks
In a browser these are the highlighted link which, when selected, will cause the browser to go to the linked resource. These days links can be added to text or pictures. 
You probably got here by clicking on one :) 

IRC
"Internet Relay chat". A software program that allows you to "chat" to people over the Internet in real time. That is, you type a message in, and they see it as you type it. 

IIRC
"If I remember correctly" 

IP or Internet Protocol
The low-level protocol which makes up the backbone of the Internet. The IP allows messages to be routed from one node to another via whatever happens to be available at the time. It is this "pass-the-parcel" approach to networking that effectively makes Internet access so cheap. One simply needs to connect to the nearest point of contact, usually a local phone call away. 

IMHO, IMO
"In my (humble) opinion" 

Information Super Highway
The phrase coined by Al Gore to describe the Internet. 

InfoBahn
Another phrase coined to describe the Internet. 

Intranet
That's Intranet with an 'a', not Internet with an 'e'. 
The adoption of Internet software and standards to meet an organisation's internal networking needs. 
See the section on [Section:Intranet] for a fuller discussion. 

ISP
"Internet Service Provider". An organisation that provides some routing nodes for the internet, and sells access to the Internet, usually for a monthly or annual fee. 

ISTR
"I seem to recall" or "I seem to remember" 

Java
A programming language designed to run in a secure and platform-independent "Java virtual machine" (JVM). Such virtual machines can be embedded inside Internet browsers (amongst other things), making Java an ideal choice for programming software that can be distributed and run over the InterNet. 
Has since spawned a whole industry of Java-related puns. 
Often confused with [Javascript] 

JavaScript
A scripting language that is designed to make web pages more intelligent and interactive. Unlike [Java], Javascript can only run inside a Web browser, and this is its sole purpose in life. 
Originally developed by Netscape. Microsoft have tried to get Visual Basic script accepted as a rival scripting language. 

Junk mail
Unsolicited email. See also [Spam] 

LOL
"Laughs out loud". Used to signify amusement at something being [quoted]. 

Lurking
Lurking is the act of joining a [newsgroup] or [mailing list] and just listening without contributing. This is a perfectly respectable thing to do, and lurkers probably account for 90% of the readership in some cases. 
It's claimed that famous rock stars lurk on their fans mailing list to find out what people really think of them. TV script writers often do the same. 
The act of breaking one's silence in this context is called de-lurking. 

Mailing lists
Mailing lists are single-topic discussions carried out through email. As such they represent a less public and more universally accessible form of [Newsgroups] (since not everyone has access to news). 
See [Section:Mailing lists] for more details. 

META tags
The <META> tag can be used to simulate "header lines" when a HTML page is passed to a browser. These tags must be placed in the <HEAD>..</HEAD> portion of the page. 
The syntax is 
<HEAD> 
... 
<META name="some name" content="some value"> 
.... 
</HEAD> 
where "some name" is the header line you're emulating, and "some value" is the value you want it to have. 
An example might be: 
<HEAD> 
<META name="description" content="This is Fred Bloggs's page"> <META name="keywords" content="Fred,Bloggs,wholesale,butcher"> 
</HEAD> 
When indexed by a search engine the description you supply is used in preference to the normal showing of the first n lines of the page (which are not always so clear). 
Similarly the keywords you supply are used in indexing the page. 
Controlling these attributes increases your chances of being correctly found by someone using a search engine... the preferred method of browsing these days. 

Me too
The act of quoting an entire article just to add a one-line comment. So called because people used to quote lengthy articles just to add a "me too" to the opinion expressed in the original. 
This is seriously bad [Netiquette] as it is one of the purest wastes of [bandwidth] known to Netkind. 

Mirror site
A site that keeps exact copies of popular files for download. Mirror sites allow the pressure for these popular files to be spread geographically round the Internet and the globe. 

Moderation
Some newsgroups and mailing lists are "moderated". In these cases all articles posted to the group are checked by a Moderator. 
The moderator is free to 
·	reject the article. This is usually only done if the article violates the group's charter (e.g. is off-topic like [spam], or is too long) 
·	edit the article. This is relatively unusual, but the moderator may correct spelling, factual errors, or remove information supplied in a previous post. 
·	Accept the article. In this case the article is forwarded to the newsgroup and mailing list, and enters the public domain.
Moderation is a good way of improving the [Signal to Noise ratio] in a group, but is hard work for the moderators who frequently do the job voluntarily and are unpaid. 

Nerd
A derogatory term for someone who is keen on computer technology. In the early days, it was only the nerds who could drive the software. 

Netiquette
The Net-etiquette. Basically the dos and don'ts of Internet usage. See the section [Section:Netiquette] for a fuller description. 

Newsgroups
Newsgroups are like discussion groups dedicated to different areas of interest. 
See the chapter on [Section:News] for a fuller discussion. 

Newbie
A mildly derogatory term for anyone new to the Internet. 
By its very nature the Net always has a high proportion of "new" people. New people have the property of making all the mistakes that all us "old hands" made 18 months ago, and would never admit to. They're also cannon fodder for all the "get rich quick" pyramid letters that saturate the Net. 
However, they're not all bad. It's down to Newbies always asking the same questions, that forced people to create the various [FAQ]'s that exist. 
Newbies need know only two things... what [Netiquette] is (so they can avoid the mistakes we all made), and what [FAQ]s are (so they won't ask the same questions as we did). 

On-line and off-line
These terms describe whether or not you are currently connected to a remote machine. In the context of the Internet "online" means you are connected to the Internet, whilst "off-line" means you are not. 
These terms are more important when you use a modem to gain connection as being "online" usually entails an active telephone line which in many parts of the world costs money, and in all parts of the world reduces other people's chances of getting a connection. 
If you do connect in this way, then it is important to choose software that allows you to as much as possible off-line. Activities that take time and which are best done off-line if possible involve :- 
·	Composing email. Most email packages allow this. 
·	Reading Usenet posts. Many newsreaders can support this. 
·	Modifying your web pages. All editors will allow this.
Increasingly the term "on-line" is becoming synonymous with being available through the Internet. 

Postcardware
Postcardware is any software you can (legitimately) get for free, but the author would like to recieve a postcard in thanks. See also [shareware] and [freeware]. 
The author of this guide offers some of his own software as postcardware - see [h:AscToTab]. If you like this guide, feel free to send me a postcard at the address listed there. 

Posting
Posting is the act of adding an article to a newsgroup. Each article is known as a "post". Newsgroup articles are arranged into [threads] all on the same subject within the group. 
If an article is of interest to more than one group, it can be simultaneously posted to multiple groups. This is known as "cross-posting". 
Excessive cross-posting (i.e. posting to too many groups at once) is discouraged and borders on being [spam]. 

Postmaster or webmaster
Standard email names for people who are in charge of the email/web at a given site. With the rise of [spam], "abuse" has almost become another standard site address. 

Portals
Portal sites are sites that want you to use them as your start page whenever you start up your browser. Many of the older search emgines (My Yahoo, My Excite etc) are becoming portal sites. Other companies are setting up sites (e.g. http://www.netscape.net/ is a growing portal site helped along by the "My Netscape" button added to later copies of their popular browser) 
To attract you to use them they will offer free (sometimes web-based) email access, free web space, bookmark management as well as useful directory and search services. 
In return you get to read all the adverts they display. Advertising has proved to be the first big money spinner on the web for sites that can attract large enough traffic. 

Quoting
In email or newsgroup posts it is common practice to "quote" from the item you are replying to. This can help the reader understand what points in the original you are responding to. 
Quotes are signalled by placing a character in front of the quoted line, most commonly a ">". Some mail and news packages do this for you automatically. 
If you quote a quoted reply, this ends up with two characters in front e.g. 
>> What's the terminal velocity of a swallow?
>
> African or European?

African,
When quoting, only quote selected parts that are relevant. If nothing from the original is relevant, then don't quote anything. That way you avoid getting [flamed] for [me too] posts. 

Robot
Increasingly the Web is being searched by "robots". These are pieces of software that read a web page, process it in some way (usually by analysing the content to see if it's of interest), and then following the links from that page onto the next web page. 
This process is fully automated. Each site can set up a policy file (usually robots.txt in the top directory) indicating how the site wishes to restrict such access. Restrictions can be complete, or on a per-directory basis. 

ROFL
"Rolls on floor laughing". Signals great amusement at what has just been read. 

RFC
"Request For Comment". These are actually a (large) series of documents describing all aspects of the internet. In so much as the Internet has any fixed rules and standards, these are the documents that describe them. 
A full list of RFCs can be found at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/information/rfc.html amongst others 

RTFM
In NetSpeak "Read the F*****G manual". Directed at people who ask questions without first seeking answers. People new to the Net or a newsgroup should first acquaint themselves with the prevailing habits of the group or list they have just joined, and if at all possible read the [FAQ]. 
Then you can ask questions. 
The phrase RTFM has now spawned a web site, dedicated to keeping copies of all the "manuals" you should be reading. 
See the section on the [Site:RTFM] site for more details. 

RTFFAQ
Basically the same as [RTFM], but for [FAQS]. 

Shareware
Shareware is any software you can "try before you buy". Normally such software only works for a limited time, or has some features missing. The shareware is then distributed freely and widely so that as many people as possible can try it. 
Often shareware is much cheaper than straight commercial software. Sadly, not all shareware is of a good standard. However, there are some very good shareware programs, e.g. WinZip, Eudora, Forte's Free Agent etc. 
Once you decide you want to keep it, you register the software (usually by paying for it) and get a fully-featured version. 
This file is generated by the author's own shareware program [h:AscToHTM]. 
See also [freeware] and [postcardware]. 

Signal to Noise ratio
An old electrical engineering term, describing the ratio of desirable information (signal) to undesirable information (noise). It gets pretty low at times on the Net. 

Signatures
Most email and news-reading packages allow you to add a few lines at the end of your messages as a signature. 
See the [Section:Signatures] section for details. 

Smiley
Little text pictures used to add mood to your informal text. The standard smiley is :) To understand this, rotate your head 90 degrees to the left to see a smiling face. Get it :^) ? 
People also used to use <g> and <bg> to signal grin and big grin. This is less common these days. On the other hand, as HTML markup becomes better understood, people are using that style such as 
<smug> I told you so </smug> 
(In HTML tags appear in <>, and a / often signals the end of a markup. 
You can one of a number of unofficial smiley dictionaries at http://www.eff.org/papers/eegtti/eeg_286.html. This isn't definitive, but will give you a flavour. 

Snail mail
Ordinary postal mail in the "real" world. So called because it takes days to arrive compared to minutes in the case of email. 

Spam
Because of the Internet's popularity, junk mail, chain letters and other undesirable forms of (self-)advertising are common. 
Spamming is the act of spreading a message much wider than it would normally deserve to go. This usually takes the form of posting the same message to a (very) large number of newsgroups, or emailing it to a large number of people. 
Some low-volume groups become more spam that genuine content. There are a few counter measures you can take :- 
·	Try to find moderated as opposed to unmoderated newsgroups. These will ignore all spam messages, and will often be a guarantee of quality of posting. 
·	NEVER post a followup to a spam message. If the original message was posted to 100 newgroups, so will your followup be. If you must followup, trim the newsgroup list. 
·	Complain to the postmaster concerned. This is getting harder to do, as spammers now routinely fake their sending email address. 
·	Ignore it.

Surfing
The act of browsing the web, clinking on link-after-link, basically riding the wave of where your interest takes you. 

Thread
A series of email's or newsgroup postings on the same topic. Although the order in which articles are threaded can sometimes be approximate, following the thread is like following a discussion, and can be a very useful way of picking up arguments on a topic. 

Trolling
Trolling is the act of deliberately posting a contentious post in a newsgroup with the intention of provoking a hostile response and starting a long [thread] or [flame war]. 
These are sometimes very subtle and mischievous, but more often are simply offensive. It can be difficult at times to tell whether or not a post is a deliberate troll. 

Uploads and downloads
The process of transferring files from your computer to a remote computer that you are accessing. 
Downloads are when you transfer files "down" to your computer, usually because you want to take a copy of something. 
Uploads are the reverse, usually when you want to release something to a publically accessible location (such as a new version of your HTML files). 
See [Section:Downloading] and [Section:Publishing HTML] for more details 

URL
"Unique Resource Location" or "Uniform Resource Location". Basically this is an internet address and takes the form 
<Access Type>://<Domain address>/<resource address> 
Where access type is http:, ftp: etc, the domain address identifies the Internet node to be contacted, and the resource address is the identifier at that node for what you want. 
The actual details will vary according to the type of resource being accessed. 
A fuller description of URLs can be found in [RFC] 1738, e.g. at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1738.html

Usenet
The collective name given to all the Internet's [newsgroups] and the community of people that use them. 
Usenet itself has become such a rich source of material that search engines like [Altavista] and [Site:Dejanews] allow you to locate posts in it. 
Dejanews in particular is excellent for searching for old discussions. 
See [Section:Usenet] 

Web
A term used to describe the inter-linked resources on the Internet, usually all that is browser accessible. Largely interchangeable these days with the Internet itself. 

Webmaster
See [Postmaster] 

WYSIWYG
"What you see is what you get". A phrase usually applied to editors that attempt to present your data in a form identical to how it will appear to the user. 
There are a number of so-called WYSIWYG HTML editors, but since HTML browsers are free to layout screens as they see fit, the resultant HTML is often very rigid. 

Yahoo
A popular search engine that divides all its indexed pages into categories. 

YMMV
"Your mileage may vary" Used to indicate that the author has just expressed a possibly contentious opinion which they therefore feel you may wish to take a different view. 
For example, I find [Altavista] to be the best search engine on the Net, but YMMV. 

Zip files
A way of compressing several files into a single, compressed file. This makes passing software and other information around the Internet much simpler and more efficient (because the files are smaller). 
Sometimes the files are made into a self-extracting .exe file, but more usually you need special software to pack and unpack the .zip files 
Most people use Winzip which can be downloaded as [shareware] from http://www.winzip.com/