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Welcome to INTRONET! Scroll through this document at will, or click on the following shortcuts for quick access to just the information you need.

The Basics - An overview of the 'Net experience

The Search - Finding where you want to go

Navigation - What to do once you get there

The Art of Browsing - Tips and hints to help shorten your learning curve

The Basics

The Faces of the Internet are many. Among these, the World Wide Web ("The Web," or WWW for short) has become the undisputed champion of popularity. Today, nearly anything on the 'Net can be accessed through the Web, from shareware programs to environmental impact reports and from fine arts galleries to rock band fan clubs. What you are viewing right now is a web page, and that term refers to everything from the absolute top to the absolute bottom of this document (use the scroll bar at right to see the rest). Web pages are grouped together in what are called web sites. The terms "web page" and "web site" are often used synonymously, though, a carry-over from the formative days when few people had the resources to have more than a single page of space on the Web. You will also often hear the term "homepage," which refers to the first page of a multi-page web site.

Another way of accessing the 'Net is through FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol. Unlike web sites, however, FTP destinations are non-graphical, plain-vanilla directory tree structures which allow you to access and download files from another person's or company's computer. You will usually find freeware and shareware programs, pictures and large text files on FTP sites. Luckily for beginners, many FTP sites are being upgraded with web page "front ends," allowing you to find and extract the files you want in a much easier manner.

Email (Electronic mail) is how people generally talk over the Internet. It is works very much like the normal postal system, except letters are written on the computer and sent electronically. As an added plus, you never need to use a stamp.

Usenet (the collective newsgroup system) consists of a vast variety of public areas where people leave messages and hold ongoing conversations. There is a newsgroup area for nearly every topic imaginable, and when the need arises, new newsgroups are formed.

Gopher sites are a dying breed. They are much like FTP sites, but generally contain nothing more than plain text. Many government institutions and large universities still use these antiquated information systems, but are slowly updating to the Web.

Telnet allows you to actually log in to certain computers. This is most commonly used for accessing library or government database catalogs. How you must use a telnet site depends on which one you go on, and instructions are generally provided on-screen.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) works like telephone conferencing, except words are exchanged by typing instead of talking. In specific IRC conferences, known as "rooms" or "channels," you talk in real-time with other 'Net users, and the topic of discussion depends on what channel you are tuned in to.

Getting on board the Internet is easy; you sign up with a company that provides Internet access, dial them up with your modem, launch a piece of software and voilla! You're in the maze. Now what do you do? If you have plenty of time to spare, you can just click every which where, up here and over there, completely aimlessly until you eventually get the hang of things through trial and error. Not all of us can afford that luxury, though. Since most of your 'Net travels will be on the Web, let's examine some of the nuances of its use...

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Navigation

The most important aspect of the Web is the use of links. Links are specially-designed images and/or selections of text which, when clicked on with your mouse, send you information or take you do a different location on the page, to a different page in the site, or to a different site altogether. By using ("following") links, you can access vast amounts of information and travel far and away with minimal effort. The following are examples of links (but don't click any of them yet!):

You use links to move around, generally in a forward direction, but often you want to be able to go back to from whence you came. Look in the upper left-hand corner of this window, below the File menu. There you should see a button which has either a left-facing arrow, text that says "Back," or both. Whenever you click on a link and move to another location, you can use this Back button to retrace your steps, one at a time. If you do not see such a button and you are using NETSCAPE Navigator, you access the same function by going into the Go menu and clicking on Back from there. If you are using another browser, read your manual or use the program's help files to find its "Back" feature.

Try it!

Go to the above list of links and click on link #2, "Station One Homepage." You'll be taken to a completely separate page on this site. Then click on "Back" as described above. In an instant, you'll be brought back to this page.

You can always identify a link by the fact that your mouse cursor turns into the shape of a hand. Additionally, linked text always appears underlined. The color of a link also has a significance. Default link text is blue, but turns purple after it has been clicked on. Depending on your browser's settings, it will change back to blue after a set number of days. This is helpful if you are following many links and don't want to go risk going in a circle of links that always bring you back to the same spot. On the other hand, you may wish to keep a lookout for purple links to help you get back on track in case you get "lost." Many sites, however, such as the one you are on now, use non-standard color schemes, so be on the lookout for what colors are used on any specific site you visit.

Try it!

If you have not tried this before, click on the "Table of Contents" link above (it should be bright yellow if this is your first time here), and then click on "The Basics." You will be brought back to this section. Note that the link you originally clicked on is now a dim blue-green, showing you that you have used it.

Once you get the hang of using links, you will have mastered 80% of the skills you need to be a regular 'Net user. Links are not peculiar to web sites; FTP and Gopher destinations use them as well, though not as intuitively.

Try it!

Go ahead and play around for awhile.  If you use NETSCAPE Navigator, click on the image in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that looks like this:

Browse around. Test your understanding of links. When you think you have the hang of it, press Back until you return to this page.

If you the address of a web site on TV, in a magazine, or through a friend, of course, you may not be able to go to it by just clicking on a link, for there will be no link to click. Fear not. Look up, just below your menus and toolbar. You will see some text in a rectangular box. That is the address of this web site. If you know the address of a site you wish to travel to, click in there, type the address and hit Enter. Alternatively, press Ctrl-L, type in the address, and click Open. The desired web site will come up, if it exists. Just be sure you type the address exactly as it is given to you, and pay particular attention to capitalization (most of the Internet is case-sensitive).

Hopefully that was fun, but it probably didn't accomplish much. When you are browsing for something in particular, you have to realize that it won't just come to you on its own. You have to SEARCH for it.

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The Search

Unfortunately, there is no one place to go on the Internet to find everything, any more than there is one phone book with the numbers of all of the people and companies in the entire world. There are many sites on the Web, however, which provide categorized lists of numerous possible destinations, arranged by subject. The most popular, incidentally, is one of the oldest:

YAHOO!

YAHOO!, despite the corny name, is the perfect place to begin your quest for information. You can use it like a phone book, going from category to sub-category and finally to individual sites which meet your needs. It is also excellent for simply getting an overview of the types of sites you can find on the 'Net.

Alternately, you can click in the "Search" box to search its list of site descriptions by keywords. Be sure to check out the link that says "Search Tips," as well. When you type in words to search for on YAHOO!, it will display a list of matching sites which contain any one or more of the words you entered, if you entered words separated by spaces. If you want it to search for all of your keywords to appear in the descriptions of matching sites/categories, you must type "and" between each separate word.

Try it!

Too much talking, not enough doing!  Click on the YAHOO! link above and check out their great site. Be sure to come back!

WebCrawler^TM

When you get very serious about seaking out a specific piece of information, you will need a powerful searcher such as WebCrawler. This site searches not only web sites' descriptions, but their entire contents. It also allows provides advanced search features, by using boolean operators or searching for exact phrases by using double quotes around your search words. BEWARE! It is very easy to conduct a broad-based search here and come up with 1,000 or more matches! Use the Help feature, accessible on any of the WebCrawler pages, to learn how to narrow your search down.

Try it!

Use the WebCrawler link above to explore their site. Don't get lost; be sure to return here when you are through exploring.

NETSCAPE'S INTERNET SEARCH

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The above link takes you to a site with links to literally all of the major search sites on the 'Net. If you don't find something through one search site, try another. If none of them give you what you want, what you want probably doesn't exist.

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The Art of Browsing

Now you're an expert, right? If you answer "no" to that, don't feel bad. This is the Internet. This is the World. There are no real experts. There are no masters. Check out some of these tips of the trade, and maybe one day you will be able to at least claim to be an expert:

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Believe it or not, you're a 'Net user! Welcome to the club. Enjoy yourself. Lose sleep to browse around. Get in trouble for tying up the phone line. Go nearsighted from staring at the screen too long. It's fun! It's the Internet!!!

I hope you have enjoyed the this INTRONET page. Please drop me a line! Tell me what you think of this page or Station One as a whole, or just say hi! Whatever you do, have a safe, profitable and pleasurable time on the 'Net.

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