Unit II Internet

Contents After reading this unit, you will be able to understand the following: Internet : Concepts Evolution of Internet Internet Tools Business use of Internet ISP Network Connections Setting Windows Environment for Dial-up Networks Search Engine Working with Netscape News Groups Tools: E-mail Web Browsers Working with Internet Explorer E-Commerce Interactive Marketing HTML & DHTML

INTERNET

WHAT IS INTERNET ? The Internet is a loose amalgam of thousands of computer networks reaching millions of people all over the world. Although its original purpose was to provide researchers with access to expensive hardware resources, the Internet has demonstrated such speed and effectiveness as a communications medium that it has transcended the original mission. It has, in recent years, grown so large and powerful that it is now an information and communication tool you cannot afford to ignore. Today the Internet is being used by all sorts of people and organizationsnewspapers, publishers, TV stations, celebrities, teachers, librarians, hobbyists, and business peoplefor a variety of purposes, from communicating with one another to accessing valuable services and resources. You can hardly pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading about how the Internet is playing a part in someone's life or project or discovery. WHEN IT CAME The Internet universe was created by an unassuming bang in 1969 with the birth of ARPANET, an experimental project of the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It had a humble mission, to explore experimental networking technologies that would link researchers with remote resources such as large computer systems and databases. The success of ARPANET helped cultivate numerous other networking initiatives, which grew up intertwined; 25 years later, these have evolved into an ever expanding, complex organism comprising tens of millions of people and tens of thousands of networks. Most users describe the Internet (or the "Net") as a "network of networks"; it appears to stretch forever. It doesn't just connect you and another computer; it connects you and all other Internet-connected computers. Don't think of the Internet as just a bunch of computers, though. It is a perpetually expanding universe with its own geography, "weather," and dynamic cultures. In this cyber-sphere, people in geographically distant lands communicate across time zones without ever seeing each other, and information is available 24 hours a day from thousands of places.

The Success of the Internet It's hard to imagine how the Internet has grown so fast and been so successful without some ambitious organization or individual managing the project. Yet no one has a monopoly on access to or use of the Internet; there's no monolithic empire called Internet, Inc., controlling accounts and application development or roping off the backstage parts of cyberspace. One of the reasons the Internet is so successful is the commitment of its developers to producing "open" standards. The specifications or rules that computers need to communicate are publicly and freely availablepublished so that everyone can obtain them. The standards that the Internet uses are known as the TCP/IP protocol suite. Cooperation is a major ingredient to interoperability. The Internet nervous system does not have a central brain, such as a powerful supercomputer that controls its operation by feeding it commands and directing its limbs to perform key functions. Rather, all the networks and computers act as peers in the exchange of information and communication. The technology that makes it happen is known as internetworking; it creates a universality among disparate systems, enabling the networks and computers to communicate. Fundamentally, the Internet revolves around the concept of a packet, a basic building block or a digital brick. All information and communication transmitted on the Internet are broken into packets, each of which is considered an independent entity. The packets are then individually routed from network to network until they reach their destination, where they are reassembled and presented to the user or computer process. This method of networking is very flexible and robust. It allows diverse computers and systems to communicate by means of networking software, not proprietary hardware. If a network goes "down" meaning it isn't available to transfer informationthe packets can be rerouted to other networks in many cases. This dynamic alternate routing of information creates a very "persistent" means of communication. Communication What distinguishes the Internet (and other global networks) from traditional communication technologies is the level of interaction and the speed at which users can broadcast their messages. No other medium gives every participant the capability to communicate instantly with thousands and thousands of people. Consider this: it is possible for you, on your very first net-surfing expedition, to send a message containing your thoughts to several thousand people. What other communication medium gives you that power? Instantaneously? Without prior editing?

Convergence: The emerging future of Internet The Internet is providing the common ground for information service providers to do business. It's also blurring the lines between what used to be separate and distinct applications. To understand what this convergence craze is all about, let's back up a bit and consider the different types of communication. Most televisions and telephones transmit information (your voice, the evening news, and so on) using an analog signal; that means the information is represented by a continuous signal of varying strength. Computers, on the other hand, work with binary digits, or bits. A bit is simply a 1 or a 0. That's it. Computer, or digital, information is simply represented by patterns of these ones and zeros. By digitizing communicationrepresenting everything in ones and zeroscomputers can deal with multimedia and data in the same way. Furthermore, if computers are connected to a network of some kind, they can enable interactive digital audio and video communication between people. Your computer can become an all-purpose communications appliance that combines the functions of a telephone and TV, and also lets you use applications like a word processor or electronic mail program. Digitizing multimedia technologies has the communications, broadcasting, and publishing industries all aflutter and ushers in the chaotic days of convergence mania. The traditional roles of the telephone, television network, and cable companies with which we're so familiar are rapidly ceasing to exist, and ultimately, all of these companies will be in the same business, either providing the contentent entertainment, interactive communication, and information servicesor access to these. The broadcast and entertainment industries have only just begun warming up by advertising possible new interactive services, while communication companies consider new alliances and mergers. The publishing industry is also repositioning itself. And through it all, the Internet has been a testing ground, in a sense amalgamating everything in its path by bringing technologies together and letting them play in a digital sandbox. The Internet may not be providing 500 TV channels, but it is possible today to participate in interactive video and audio conferencing from your computer, and to share the same "whiteboard" for illustrations and notes. You can listen to Internet radio shows while simultaneously downloading software. You can read online articles or books with hyperhooks that "mind-bind" you on-demand to text, video clips, still images, and audio. All of these applications have only recently been made available, but they're rapidly becoming more popular, and are making up a significant percentage of the traffic and use on the Internet.

Headquarters
Internet websites enable interactive marketing and electronic commerce and collaboration with customers, prospects and business partners Inventory Management Systems

Suppliers Extranets for electronic commerce enable suppliers to access inventory replenish stock and send documents via EDI over secure internet links.

THE INTERNET

Business Partners Business partners can use the internet for E-mail, file transfer, discussion forums, and extranet access to intranet resources.

Customers Customers can shop at Ecommerce websites for products and services with interactive service and support.

Remote Office Intranet links with remote employee sites connects virtual teams for interactive communication collaboration and computing.

Business Use of Internet One of the fastest-growing segments of the Internet today is commercial. The Internet is providing a wonderful environment in which to do business; Relatively small investment in connection costs to search the Internet for information, keep in contact with customers, or provide online services and operate virtual storefronts. Businesses that claim they listen to their customers' needs can now do so on the Internet.

 Companies exploring telecommuting options for their employees should definitely evaluate the Internet's capabilities. Because so many organizations are linked, with more being added every day, connecting to the Internet is a very attractive alternative to building a private network. Many companies justify joining the Internet to be more accessible to customers, and to have the ability to consult with experts around the world. Just providing Internet connectivity services, consulting, and training is a big business. A growing number of Internet providerslarge and smallare competing to connect businesses and schools to the Internet.

Demand for online interactive services is definitely heating up. The types of virtual
corporations that are emerging include online bookstores that let you peruse or download online books or order a hardcopy book.

There are services for record stores and online magazines. An online florist service lets
customers first view an arrangement and then click a button to order. Other companies and individuals are selling jewelry, music, software, and support, and providing consulting and training, all online. Not only can you use the Internet to provide a service or distribute a product, but you can also use it to find out the latest business news.

THE FUTURE Future will be gigabit-per-second speeds. For example, an entire encyclopedia could be transferred in a few seconds on a gigabit-per-second network. The encyclopedia metric is often used to describe how fast the network will be, but it's important to realize that although some advanced applications, such as video conferencing, will require high speeds, this increased capacity will also be used to handle the growing number of people who will be using the network. We will need to widen the road, especially if the Internet continues to grow at its present rate (and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down). It's estimated that in a few short years, there will be 100 million people interconnected via the Internet. Most likely, they will be communicating with one another by using interactive video and audio applications or email that incorporates multimedia; already there are such applications being used in schools, universities, research labs, and some businesses.

Who Runs The Internet? Who controls this web, this cloud, this network of networks? Well, no one, really. The Internet seems to be both institutional and anti-institutional at the same time, massive and intimate, organized and chaotic. In a sense the Internet is an international cooperative endeavor, with its member networks kicking in money, hardware, maintenance, and technical expertise. The U.S. government has had a big influence on the federally funded parts of the Internet. The National Science Foundation (NSF), as mentioned, initiated the NSFNET in the mid 1980s, a nationwide backbone in the United States that connected many mid-level networks, which in turn connected universities and other organizations. At the time of this writing, the NSFNET production backbone is being phased out and connectivity will be offered by other providers, including commercial networks, in the near future. But you may still hear people refer to the NSF and its influence on the Internet. The Internet Society The standards process of the Internet is more centralized, but no less exciting. Development and improvement of TCP/IP protocols is sanctioned by the Internet Society (ISOC), a nonprofit professional organization run by its members (both individuals and organizations in various communities, including academic, scientific, and engineering). ISOC is dedicated to encouraging cooperation among computer networks to enable a global research communications infrastructure. The society sponsors several groups that determine the needs of the Internet and propose solutions to meet them. One of these groups is the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which provides direction to two principal task forces: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). The IETF is concerned with operational and technical issues of the Internet, and the IRTF is involved in research and development matters. Anyone interested in promoting the Internet can become involved in ISOC. Similarly, anyone with great ideas for protocol development and improvement can join the IETF. All you need is desire, the ability to travel to meetings three times a year, and the willingness to volunteer your time in working groups.

Internet Concepts Names and Addresses Each computer, or host, has a name and a numerical address (both unique), just as most of us can be located by our names or numerically by our phone numbers An Internet addresstechnically an IP addressis four numbers also separated by periods, for example, 161.44.128.70. When you're saying these names and addresses out loud, you should substitute "dot" for "period" to sound as though you belong. This is known as dotspeak, and there's a whole lot of it in the Internet. In the examples above, you would say "planet10 dot yoyodyne dot com" and "161 dot 44 dot 128 dot 70." Domain Name System. There's actually a method to these names and addressesa naming system known as the Domain Name System, or DNS. The DNS is also the worldwide system of distributed databases of names and addresses. These databases provide the "translation" from names to numbers and vice versa, a sort of international Who's Who of computers. DNS names are constructed in a hierarchical naming fashion, which you can think of as a worldwide organization chart. At the top of this chart are top-level specifications, such as EDU (educational), COM (commercial), GOV (government), MIL (military), ORG (organizations), and NET (networks), and also two-letter country codes, such as US for the United States and CH for Switzerland. An organization can register for a domain name, selecting one of the top-level specifications mentioned above that describes it best, and then preceding it with a recognizable version of its name. For example, the Yoyodyne Software Systems company will have a domain name like yoyodyne.com. Once you understand how this naming system works, you can remember names more easily, and you can also tell things about a computer, such as to what organization it belongs. Many U.S. organizations and companies use the three-letter designations mentioned above (for example, EDU, COM, and ORG). Communicating With People Online communication, perhaps the ultimate in democratic exchange of information, eliminates barriers. You can't make judgments about whom you're "talking" to based on appearance, or even on voice. On the Internet, people can communicate asynchronously and in real time. Translation? Asynchronous (Greek for "not at the same time") communication means that someone can type in a message and send it off, but the recipient doesn't have to be around to receive it. This type of communication has some real benefits. You can send messages whenever you want to, they reach their destination quickly, and the recipients can read and respond when they want to. Answering machines and voice mail are everyday examples of asynchronous communication. Real-time, interactive communication (such as the Internet

Relay Chat), in contrast, means that as someone is "talking" that is, typingyou see it on your screen as it is typed. Real-time audio and video conferencing is starting to become more prevalent on the Internet too.

Electronic Mail Electronic mail is the most popular application on the Internet today. It's a very powerful tool that's simple to use and easy to understand. Email is sometimes compared to fax, but there are some fundamental differences: I. A fax is a graphic image that is digitized and sent over regular telephone lines using modems. Electronic mail on the Internet is, for the most part, text that can be sent over a variety of network linkseverything from dial-up to fiber-optic lines. II. It usually costs the same to send email to one person as it does to send it to a group of people, while it would cost more (in time and maybe paper) to send a fax to those same people, especially if they're a long-distance call away. III. Both are asynchronous forms of communication, eliminating "telephone tag"that is, it's not required for the recipient to be present to receive either electronic mail or a fax. Internet email is starting to branch out with some implementations, including the ability to query distributed directory databases (an online directory service for people's email addresses), encode/decode messages for privacy purposes and send formats other than just text, such as graphic images, sounds, and different character sets (Asian language text, for example) using Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions, commonly referred to as MIME. The reason you need something like MIME is that the current Internet email system cannot transfer a nontext file (such as a picture) without doing something special to itthere are funny characters in these files that can mess up their transfer. If you have a need to transfer non-text documents via email, be sure to inquire whether or not your provider's email application offers MIME support. If it does, you can "attach" sounds, word- processed files, or software, and send them off. The only catch is that the recipient of your message must have MIME capability to receive your attachments. And unfortunately, it's still not available everywhere.

Sending Email Email is really fastit is sent and received in seconds, minutes at the most. Postal mail is often called snail mail in comparison. Sending email is easy, too. All you need is access to the Internet, an email program, and the email address of the person with whom you wish to communicate. Email Programs. You'll need an email program that will run on your own microcomputer or on whatever computer you're using. Most large systems and public-access computers offer several email programs (sometimes called email readers or user agents). Some commercial Internet service providers will supply programs to load on your PC or Mac. A common characteristic of email programs is that they let you compose and send email, and then read and organize the email you receive. There are many different email programs; some of the more popular ones are listed below. Your choice of a program will depend on how you're accessing the Internet. If you aren't sure what's available, ask your system gurus for assistance. Email Addresses An email address contains all the necessary information needed to deliver a message to someone. Internet email addresses are, in fact, very simple. They consist of a local part and a host part. The username refers to the mailbox, login name, or userid of the recipient on that computer. For example, if your friend kapil logs in on his computer as kapil, then that's his username. The host part of the address should be recognizable to youa series of words separated by dots, as discussed in the domain. The local part and host part of an email address are separated by an "@" sign: username@hostname Sending It Off. Once you have an email program and know the recipient's email address, you're ready to send a message. You will need to specify that you want to send a message, either by typing send, clicking a send button, or by performing some other wonderful computer incantation. The email program will prompt you for information, asking for the recipient's email address, the key piece of information the program needs to send the message to the recipient. It will also ask for the subject of your messageusually a summary, title, or brief description. The subject is optional, but you should get into the practice of including it. The program may give you the option of sending a "carbon copy" (cc) message. If there's someone else you think would be interested in the message, here's a chance to include his or her address. (You can send

carbon copies to more than one recipient.) If you have the disk space, it's a good idea to send a copy to yourself so you'll have a record of your outgoing messages. (Or your email program may automatically save outgoing messages for you.) After you've answered all the email program prompts, you can compose your message, using your email program's editor, which may or may not be similar to the word processor with which you're familiar. Anatomy of an Email Message An email message has two basic parts: I. The "header" information II. The body of the message. These pieces are separated by a blank line. In most cases, you'll be interested only in the body, or the actual text, of the message. The headers contain items such as "Date:", "cc:", "From:", and "Subject:". Receiving and Keeping Up with the Mail Receiving email requires less effort than sending it. Incoming messages are stored in your inbox. When you fire up your email program, it fetches your mail from an online mailbox (if there's anything in it), and then usually displays a one-line summary for each message in there. This summary will include information such as the message number, the date the message was sent, the sender, and the subject. You can select which message you want to read by typing the corresponding number, or by selecting it with your mouse. Replying to Email Email programs usually have some kind of "reply" feature to make responding quick and easy. For your part, this involves typing reply, or clicking a reply button with your mouse. The reply feature takes care of filling in the address and subject fields (using information in the original message's header), and puts you in the email message composer. Bounced Email and Other Errors Sometimes an email message may not actually reach its destination because of an incorrect address or some other error. You may get a bounced message back wrapped in an error message that gives you some clues as to what went wrong. Most often the problem is something you've mistyped in the address. One common error message is User unknown: the message is received by the computer specified in the address, but the local part, or username, doesn't match any username or mailbox on the computer. Most often, the cause is a typo or a misspelling, but if you think you typed it correctly, then you should contact the person you're trying to reach by other means to find out the correct username.

Another common error is Host unknown; in this case, the hostname is wrong. Again, check for typos first. Sometimes parts of the name are missing. Other bounced messagessuch as Network unreachable, (the computer) Can't send for several days, Connection timed out or Connection refused, and Bad file numberusually have something to do with problems on the network or at the destination computer. These problems are usually beyond your control.

Finding Email Addresses Probably the most frequent burning question from new users is how to find out someone's email address. Unfortunately, there's no comprehensive Internet-wide directory assistance available at this time, as there is for finding out telephone numbers in many countries. There are ways, though, to find email addresses, and the more proficient you become in using the Internet, the more tricks you'll be able to use. There's no law, of course, that prevents you from just calling someone and asking. In fact, if you are clueless, this is probably the first thing you should do to save yourself some time!

Network News USENET is a worldwide conferencing system, encompassing all sorts of organizations (universities, commercial enterprises, government agencies, even home computers) and supporting one servicenews. USENET is divided into newsgroups. Devoted to a certain topic, each newsgroup is made up of articles or postings that look like email messages (each has a header and a message body). There are thousands of different newsgroups on USENET, but not every computer or site gets all of these in its USENET feed. USENET newsgroups are similar to email lists, but there are a few differences. With Internet email lists, every message is sent to each person who has explicitly requested to be a participant. On USENET, every newsgroup article is received and stored on each participating USENET computer, instead of being sent to each user. Even when you're not participating in a newsgroup, all of its articles are still stored on the computer, so you have easy access to any you want. It's difficult to know how many people participate or lurk in each newsgroup. Something you say might be read by as few as five people, or by as many as 100,000.

USENET Hierarchy and Newsgroup Names. Newsgroups are organized in a hierarchical structure; their names have dots in them, just like Internet domain names. The top-level (left-most) word in the

newsgroup name specifies the newsgroup's category. There are seven major USENET top-level categories, and a scattering of alternative categories, as shown below. Knowing what these categories mean can help you figure out what each newsgroup is about.

Major Usenet Hierarchy Categories comp: Computer hardware, software, and protocol discussions. misc: Topics that don't fit anywhere else, such as job hunting, investments, real estate, and fitness. news: Groups that deal with USENET software, network administration, and informative documents and announcements. rec: Recreational subjects and hobbies, such as aviation, games, music, and cooking. sci: Topics in the established sciences, such as space research, logic, mathematics, and physics. soc: Groups for socializing or discussing social issues or world culture. talk: Lengthy debates and discussions on various current events and issuespolitics, religion, the environment, and so forth. SOME ALTERNATIVE HIERARCHIES alt: Alternative group of discussionsnot carried by all USENET sites. Some are controversial; others are "lite." Not considered a regular part of the USENET hierarchy. Alt newsgroups generate a lot of traffic. bionet: Topics of interest to biologists. biz: Business-related groups. clari: Commercial news services gateway'ed to USENET by the ClariNet Communications Corporation. k12: Conferences devoted to K-12 education. relcom: Russian language newsgroups. A Sampling Of Newsgroups rec.food.cooking alt.internet.services rec.humor.funny soc.men comp.society news.announce.newsgroups biz.jobs.offered alt.exotic-music

rec.motorcycles soc.culture.french sci.energy

News Readers. In order to read or post news, you need to have a news reader program. There are thousands of newsgroups, and you don't want to have to sift through every one of them. A news reader will let you select which newsgroups you want to participate in by allowing you to "subscribe" to them (without having to send email to an administrator). The reader program will organize the newsgroups, display the articles for you to read, and allow you to post articles. Just as there are many email programs, there are many news readers. Some are user-friendly, while others use terse commands and are difficult to learn. NETWORK CONNECTIONS Types of Connections Basically there are four types of connections to the Internet: 1. Dial-up Connection 2. ISDN Connection 3. Leased Line Connection 4. Cable Modem The most popular type of connection for an individual is the dial-up connection as it is easily available and economical.

Dial-Up Connection As the name suggests, dial-up link means you have to dial into a modem over a telephone line before you can get connected to the internet. A modem (modulator demodulator) is a device which converts digital signals emitting from the computer into analog signals so that the data is easily transmitted over analog telephone lines. At the receiving end, there is another modem which converts these transmitted analog signals back to the digital form which are received by the target computer.

For this type of connection you require: 1. A computer whose configuration could be 80486 but the best is Pentium-III or above. 2. Communication software, like dialer which the Internet connection provider will give. 3. A telephone line. 4. A modem (optimal speed is 36.6 kbps). These days we use modems of speeds up to 56 kbps. 5. Software like a browser, e-mail programme, FTP software, Newsgroup reader, Eudora, Outlook Express, etc. Outlook Express is one of the software which helps to read news and mail offline once they have been collected online. There are 3 major ways by which you can get linked to the Internet using a dial- up conncetion, namely; A. Host terminal connection B. Individual computer C. Dial-Up or on demand through the LAN. A. Host Terminal Connection (Terminal Emulation)

In case of host terminal connection, a PC is connected to some Internet host via modem and a terminal emulation programme is run. In other words, you are connected to a large computer which is connected to the Internet. Thus if want to download a file, the file is downloaded to the host and not your computer. To download a file from their host to your computer you need to have some specific software. In this type of connection you can download only text but not graphics. Hence, a host terminal connection is also referred to as a shell account. This account is best suitable for : 1. Students whose budget is low and their requirement is limited to text. 2. Users who connect via Telnet programmes. 3. Users whose frequency to use the Internet is low. 4. users who want to use the Internet to access the network of their workplace from their home place (personal account). Such users could connect via Telnet. 5. Jobs where multi-tasking is not required. This connection permits only one task at a time, eg., the user cannot read the news as well as download a file.

B. Individual Computer Here your computer can work as an Internet Host, I.e., direct downloading of files and mails can be done when connected to the internet. This kind of link is a little more costly than the host terminal

connection as you have to pay a monthly fees to the service provider or sometimes even a flat charge for a fixed period of time. Here you can have one or both the following account ; 1. Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) 2. Point to Point Protocol (PPP)

1. Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) . In case of SLIP data is sent in packets under speeds of
9600 bps on telephone lines using data compression protocols.

2. Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). In case of PPP data is sent over telephone lines via modem.
Double checking is done at the destination to see if data packets have arrived intact. This is better than SLIP as it allows authentification of users. These days PPP connections are more common. Again, speed of data transfer in PPP is faster than in SLIP. This type of connection is good for people who: 1. Use Graphics. 2. Download files often. 3. Use direct e-mail or any other online service. 4. Use Internet regularly though for limited hours. The limitations are few, such as , people may not be able to access the Internet easily if the disk space is limited or if the line is slow (i.e., speeds below 28.8 kbps will not be accessible by other people). C. Dial-Up or On-Demand through the LAN In this case there is a dial up link from the LAN to which you are connected to. This type of connection is favourable for small business houses and educational institutes. Here the server, on demand, dials up for a connection and once the connection is established everybody logged on to the LAN can access the Internet. In such a situation if there is any file downloaded from the Internet then like any other file, this file will be accessible to all LAN clients. The only problem here is that the more the number of users logged onto the LAN and working on the Internet, the slower will be the Internet connect6ion. However, this is successful if you have a very fast server software along with a very fast line. Again extra software like proxy servers are also required to serve the needs of various individual LAN users with one Internet connection. Integrated Services Digital Network Connection (ISDN) This is a very high speed connection to the Internet over normal telephone line. It combines both voice and digital information in a single medium, making it possible to provide the customers with digital as

well as voice connections. In ISDN connection, the information which is sent from your computer to the Internet is digital. Here we do not use a normal modem. As no conversion from analog to digital or vice versa is required, so we use an ISDN modem which is merely a terminal adapter. Another differences lies in the fact that the ISDN lines, in order to work, require power from outside. When there is a power shutdown, ISDN lines will not work. Apart from voice, many value added services are also being offered like : 1. Telephones will soon have the facility to display name, address, and telephone number of the caller while the telephone rings. 2. When the telephone gets connected to the computer, the callers database record is displayed on the computer. 3. Call forwarding facility 4. Remote electricity meter reading services. 5. Smoke alarms that automatically call up the hospital, fire station or police station. ISDN follows recommendations laid down by CCITT(Comite Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique) which is a body that lays down rules for data communication and telephones. Advantages of using ISDN: 1. Allows high speed access, i.e., 128 kbps. 2. No special laying down of wires. The existing copper telephone cables work fine. 3. Can be used for voice, data, graphics, full motion video as data transfer speed is high. The only disadvantage of using ISDN is that it proves to be an expensive affair as special equipment is required for it and the tariff is also high. Leased Line Connection (Dedicated Connection) As the name suggests, a leased line connection is a permanent connection laid down between you and a modem. As it is permanently lined, you have a 24 hour access to the Internet, seven days in a week. A leased line connection is very useful especially when frequent information has to be accessed from the Internet and also when the volume of data transfer is high. It is also useful if the Internet is to be used for more than 12 hours a day. This type of connection is the most reliable and has high speed. The only issue behind this connection is its cost. The cost includes : 1. One time installation (laying down of physical line upto your site). 2. Yearly/periodically maintenance charge. 3. Annual tariff.

4. The necessary one time hardware, software and set up charges. Cable Modem In case of cable modem the Internet can be accessed through the normal coaxial television cables with the help of cable modems. Speed of cable modems is 10 to 100 times faster than normal dial-up connection modems. The only catch is that the local cable operator should have the capability to access the Internet over cable TV wires and that cable modems are slightly more expensive than normal modems. One advantage of cable modem connection is that you need not have a telephone line if you want this type of connection to the Internet. Internet Service Provider (ISPs) An ISP sells monthly/hourly connections to the Internet. Initially, VSNL was the only ISP in India but as surfing the Internet became popular, many Indian companies have come forward. Some popular Indian ISPs are : Table: Cable Modem Connection S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Name of ISP Satyam Online Dishnet DSL Cal Tiger Pacific Internet Power Surfer BPL Net Roltanet Net 4 India Zee Next Now MTNL VSNL URL www.sify.com www.ddsl.net www.caltiger.com www.pacific.co.in www.powersurfer.net www.bplnet.com www.roltanet.com www.net4india.com www.zeenext.com www.now.com www.mtnl.com www.vsnl.com

The registration forms are available on the Internet itself on the websites of the ISPs. There are a number of factors to be considered before selecting an ISP, a few of them are as follows : 1. What type of account is being offered ? 2. What is the reputation of that ISP? 3. What is the fixed monthly charge, if any? 4. For what time period and for how many hours is the connection being given? For example, an ISP may be giving you 100 hours of Internet access time to be used within six months. 5. What kind of support is given by that ISP, i.e., does he help in troubleshooting problems with respect to Internet? 6. How reliable is the connection and how many lines are available, i.e., does the user has to struggle in order to get a connection or there are many numbers, so that if one telephone line is busy the user can try another? 7. If a user decides to continue with same ISP after his time period has elapsed or the number of hours have expired, then what benefits does he get? 8. Now in order to use the Internet, first install the TCP/IP protocol and then configure it. After that test the connection.

INTERNET PHONE Internet telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP) refers to communication services like voice, fax and voicemessaging applications, that are transported via the Internet, rather than the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). IP Telephony enables telephone voice calls to be received over the Internet and other networks based on it. What is IP Telephony IP telephony is the conveyance of voice, fax and related services, partially or wholly, over packetswitched IP-based networks. There are basically four ways by which you can make a call : a. PC to PC : This telephony works only if both parties use Internet Phone Software.

b. PC to Phone : Many software developers now offer PC telephone software but, these days gateway servers are emerging to act as an interface between the Internet and the PSTN. These are equipped with voice-processing cards, therefore users can communicate over normal standard phones c Phone to PC : A call goes over the local PSTN network to the nearest gateway server, which digitizes the analog voice signal, compresses it into IP packets, and moves it onto the Internet for transport to a gateway at the receiving end. d. Phone to Phone : A call goes over the local PSTN network to the gateway server, which, in turn, is connected to the Internet which forwards it to the gateway server of the called party. This is then forwarded to the PSTN Network of the called party, which, in turn, forwards the call to the called party In other words IP Telephony will enable telephone voice calls to be received over the Internet and other network based on it. Configuration of PC for VoIP Minimum configuration required for VoIP is a Pentium machine (Figure ) equipped with the following : 1. Audio Card 2. Video Card 3. Speakers 4. Microphone 5. Modem 6. CD ROM Factors which have Led to the Growth of IP Telephony 1. Development of modern packet based networks has led to : a. Efficient bandwidth utilization. b. Concurrent transfer of data, voice, video etc. 2. Convergence of conventional telephone traffic with data networks. 3. Many flavours of IP telephony exist depending on the nature of use. Certain products have to be installed if VoIP has to be set up on an existing PBX installation as it could be that existing equipment is incompatible. Technical Barriers for IP Telephony 1. Low bandwidth limits the sound quality and reliability Loss of packets leads to gaps in conversation and abrupt speech ending.

2. The increasingly heavy use of the Internets limited bandwidth often results in congestion which, in turn, can cause delays in packet transmission. Such network delays mean packets are lost or discarded. 3. Since packets travel over different paths it also increases the chances of packet loss. 4. Different vendors have used different protocols. Therefore, many IP telephony products developed by different companies may not be able to interact with each other. 5. Since a variety of speech-compression protocols and speech coding algorithms are used, having different bit rates and mechanisms for reconstructing voice packets and handling delays produces varying levels of intelligibility and fidelity in sound transmitted over the Internet. IP Telephony Standards The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has given the H.323 specification (a set of recommendations) which defines how voice, data and video will travel over IP based LANs. This standard looks into 3 aspects. 1. The Audio Codec : Adoption of audio codec standard will improve reliability and the quality of sound over IP network. 2. The Transport Protocols : The RTP protocol has control mechanism to synchronise different traffic streams. 3. The Directory Services : Directories are required to ensure interoperability between the Internet and the PSTN phones. Opportunities And Benefits Due To IP Telephony 1. Lower costs to consumers particulary on long distance international calls as cost is independent of distance. 2. Facilitation of introduction of newer technologies as IP based networks cost less. 3. Creation of many opportunities, especially for telephone operators. Difficulties Which Have Resulted Due To IP Telephony 1. Due to lower costs involved in IP telephony, domestic conventional circuit switched networks are the major sufferers as they face stiff competition from their counterparts. 2. Reduction in revenues, specially from international calls, leading to reduction in funds to be used for the extension of domestic network. 3. The shift from PSTN networks to IP networks has also reduced in allocating substantial resources to human resource development.

Acceptance of IP Telephony Government have adopted different approaches towards IP telephony. Some have licensed it, some have prohibited it, and some do not regulate it all. The following table shows a study of the status of IP telephony in six countries :

Summary IP telephony, also known as Voice over IP, has taken a firm hold in markets all over the world. It can generally be offered to customers at prices that are much below those offered by conventional circuitswitched networks, particularly on long-distance and international calls because traffic pricing on IPbased networks is largely independent of distance. It is estimated that around four billion minutes of voice and fax were carried internationally over IP-based networks in the year 2000

Web Browsers A Web browser contains the basic software you need in order to find, retrieve, view, and send information over the Internet. This includes software that lets you:

Send and receive electronic-mail (or e-mail) messages worldwide nearly instantaneously. Read messages from newsgroups (or forums) about thousands of topics in which users share

information and opinions.

Browse the World Wide Web (or Web) where you can find a rich variety of text, graphics, and

interactive information. Browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 include additional Internet-related software. For example, with Internet Explorer 6, you also get:

Outlook Express messaging and collaboration client Microsoft Windows Media Player NetMeeting conferencing software ActiveX controls Chat DirectX application programming interface Subscriptions for automatic Web page updates Dynamic hypertext markup language (HTML)

Outlook Express This is a versatile, full-featured e-mail program to send and receive e-mail, and participate in Internet Newsgroups. A simple setup wizard helps you get started and if you're switching from another e-mail program, the import function lets you transfer your address book and messages. Windows Media Player This allows you to see and hear live and recorded broadcastssuch as concerts or breaking news with synchronized audio, graphics, video, uniform resource locators (URLs), and script commands. And streaming technology allows you to see or hear the information as it arrives instead of having to wait for the entire file to download. NetMeeting conferencing software With a sound card, speakers, and a microphone, you can talk to others worldwidefrom family to colleaguesusing NetMeeting. Add a Windows operating system-compatible video capture card and/or camera to see them, too. Exchange pictures and draw diagrams on an electronic whiteboard, communicate with text-based chat, transfer files, and share applications. ActiveX controls ActiveX technology (first developed for Internet Explorer 3.0) allows authors to develop innovative, highly interactive Web sites. ActiveX controls are the software components that run behind the scenes in Internet Explorer so that these sites come alive for you. MSN Messenger

This program lets you converse online in real time with one or more people. You decide how your message is displayedtext only or text with graphics. You can send and receive sounds, files, and links of e-mail addresses, Web pages, and newsgroups. You can even "whisper" to another person in a group chat. Use it for your next online family reunion. DirectX application programming interface DirectX allows you to experience television-quality video and CD-quality audio, while minimizing file size and download time compared with other video and audio formats. With DirectX, what you experience with your computer is better 3-D graphics and impressive music and audio effects. Subscriptions This feature delivers preferred information straight to your desktop, when you want it, in the way you want itfor free (Internet connect charges may apply). To subscribe to a Web site, select the site and specify when you want the information updated and how you want to be notified, such as through an email message. Internet Explorer does the rest. Then you can browse the content offline. Dynamic HTML Internet Explorer 6 supports this programming language, which makes enticing, unique, fun, and fastdownloading Web pages possible. The pages download quickly because they are created using lightweight HTML instead of heavy-duty graphics. Round-trips to the server are minimized, which means faster browser performance on your desktop computer. What is a URL?

A URL (or uniform resource locator) is the address of an Internet page on a Web site. Usually it consists of four parts: protocol, server (or domain), path, and filename. Often, when you go to the very first page of a Web site, called the home page, there's no path or filename. Here's an example: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.asp

http is the protocol

www.microsoft.com is the server windows/ is the path default.asp is the filename of the page on the site

Working with Internet Explorer Spot the links You can tell whether an item on a page is a link by moving the mouse pointer over the item. If the pointer changes to a hand, then the item is a link. A link can be a picture, a three-dimensional image, or colored text. Click any link on a Web page to go to another page within that site or another site. Display all Web pages faster To display Web pages faster:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options. 2. Click the Advanced tab. 3. In the Multimedia area, clear one or more of the Show pictures, Play animations, Play videos, or
Play Sounds check boxes.

4. If the Show Pictures or Play Videos check box is cleared, you can still display an individual
picture or animation on a Web page by right-clicking its icon and then clicking Show Picture.

5. If the pictures on the current page are still visible after you clear the Show pictures check box, you
can hide them by clicking the View menu and then clicking Refresh.

Display previously viewed pages faster To display previously viewed pages faster:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options. 2. On the General tab, click Settings.
3. To create more space to store pages temporarily, move the slider to the right.

4. To prevent Internet Explorer from updating pages in the Temporary Internet Files folder, click
Never.

Change how page colors are displayed To change how page colors are displayed:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options.

2. Change the settings as needed.

Display text in a different font To display text in a different font:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options. 2. On the General tab, click Fonts.
3. In the Proportional and Fixed-width font lists, click the fonts you want.

Specify which font and color setting to always use To specify which font and color settings to always use:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options. 2. On the General tab, click Accessibility.
3. Change the settings as needed.

Display text larger or smaller On the View menu, point to Text Size, and then click the size you want. View Web pages in a different language Some Web sites offer their content in several languages. You can add languages to your list of languages in Internet Explorer so that you can view these sites in your preferred language. To view Web pages written in a different language:

1. On the Tools menu in the browser, click Internet Options.

2. On the General tab, click Languages. 3. Click Add.

4. Select the language you want to add.
o

If you speak several languages, you can arrange them in order of priority. If a Web site

offers multiple languages, it will supply content in the language with the highest priority.
o

Adding languages does not guarantee that you have a font that can display Web pages in

your preferred languages. Add A Page To Your Favorites To add a page to your collection of favorite pages: 1. Go to the page that you want to add to your collection of favorite pages.

2. On the Favorites menu, click Add to Favorites.

3. Type a new name for the page if you want to.
o

To open one of your favorite pages, click the Favorites button on the toolbar and then

click the page you want to open.

o

To keep track of your favorite pages, you can organize them into folders. Click the

Create In button in the Add to Favorites dialog box.

Add Microsoft Product Insider to your Favorites To make sure you always have access to the latest Internet news, software updates, and tips and tricks for using Internet Explorer and other Microsoft products, why not add the Microsoft Product Insider site to your Favorites list now? To add Product Insider to your Favorites list, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu of your Internet Explorer toolbar, point to New and click Window so you don't
lose your place in this guide.

2. On

the

File

menu

in

the

new

window,

click

Open,

and

then

type

http://www.microsoft.com/insider/ in the address box.

3. Click OK.

4. When the Microsoft Product Insider home page has finished loading, on the Favorites menu, click
Add to Favorites, and click OK. 5. Close the new window.

Organize your Favorites into folders To organize your favorite pages into folders:

1. On the Favorites menu, click Organize Favorites. 2. Click Create Folder, type a name for the folder, and then press ENTER.
3. Drag the shortcuts in the list to the appropriate folders.
o

You might want to organize your pages by topic. For example, you could create a folder

named Art for storing information about art exhibits and reviews.
o

If the number of shortcuts or folders makes dragging impractical, you can use the Move

button instead.

Find Favorites more quickly in an overloaded Favorites menu To scan a large Favorites menu more quickly:

1. On the Windows Start menu, point to Find and click Files or Folders. Windows will display a
Find: All Files dialog box.

2. In the Look in dropdown box, type c:\windows\favorites, or browse to this directory. 3. In the Named dropdown box, type the filename you are looking for and click the Find Now
button. Windows will display all the Favorites that match your query and list information about each. 4. If there are multiple results, you can click the column information title and sort the results by name, date, and so on.

Edit Favorites You can do a lot more with your Favorites folder list in Internet Explorer 6 than you can with other browsers. Remember these tips:

You can drag a Favorite or folder to different areas to reorganize. By going to the Start menu, pointing to Find, and clicking on Files or Folders, you can select a

Favorite or folder from the list box and drag it to your desktop.

Right-click a Favorite or folder to display a pop-up menu that lets you perform functions like Edit

(in the Microsoft FrontPage Web site creation and management tool), Subscribe, Copy, and Delete.

You can click the Send To option to send the Favorite to a floppy disk, create a shortcut on the

desktop, or attach the shortcut to an e-mail message.

Change your home page To change your home page: 1. Go to the page that you want to appear when you first start Internet Explorer.

2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. 3. Click the General tab. 4. In the Home Page area, click Use Current (to restore your original home page, click Use Default).

Save text and graphics from the Web When you see text or graphics on a Web page that you like or want to refer to later, you can save them on your computer's hard disk. Later, you can open the saved file and review it offline. To save a text or source file:

1. On the toolbar, click File, and then click Save As. 2. Click Save to save the file.
To save a graphic: 1. Right-click the graphic.

2. On the shortcut menu that appears, click Save Picture As.

3. Browse to the folder where you would like to save the file.

4. Click Save to save the file.

To open a saved file, double-click it from the folder where you've saved it. Internet Explorer will start automatically, and your saved file will appear in the browser window. Add a page to your Links bar To add a page to your Links bar:

Drag the icon for the page from your Address bar to your Links bar. Drag a link from a Web page to your Links bar. Drag a link to the Links folder in your Favorites list. You can drag it directly to the Favorites

menu and then into the Links folder, or you can drag it to the Links folder when displaying your Favorites in the Explorer bar. You also can organize your links by dragging them to a different location on the Links bar. Create a desktop shortcut to the current page Right-click the page, and then click Create Shortcut. If the Internet Explorer window is not maximized, you also can create a shortcut by dragging a link from the Internet Explorer window to the location you want, such as your desktop or a folder. Return to a Web page you've already seen There are several ways to return to a previously viewed Web page:

To return to the last page you viewed, you can click the Back button on the toolbar or press the

BACKSPACE key.

To see a list of the last few pages you visited, click the small down arrow beside the Back or

Forward button. Then click the page you want.

If you want to view one of the last five pages you visited in this session, click the File menu and

click the page that you want to go to. This list is started fresh every time you start Internet Explorer.

To view more pages, including pages you visited in previous sessions, click the History button on

the toolbar and then click the appropriate folder.

Change the appearance of the toolbar To change the appearance of the toolbar:

You can move or resize the Address bar and Links bar by dragging them up, down, left, or right.

You can even move them into the menu bar. If they won't move, right-click on the bar and uncheck

Lock the Toolbars, then left-click on the word Address or Links and drag the bar where you want it to go.

To make more room on your screen, you can hide toolbar button labels. Just right-click the

toolbar, click Customize, and select No text labels from the Text options dropdown list.

You can hide the Address bar or Links section of the toolbar by right-clicking the toolbar and

clearing the check mark for each item you want to hide.

You can add items to the Links bar by dragging the icon from the Address bar or dragging a link

from a page.

You can rearrange items on the Links bar by dragging them to a new location on the bar. You can use smaller Microsoft Office-style toolbar buttons. On the View menu in a browser

window, select Toolbars, then select Customize. Under Icon options, choose the size you want.

Use pop-up menus for quick access Internet Explorer 6 features pop-up shortcuts to functions like Save As, Open, and Copy. To access a popup menu: 1. Place the mouse cursor on a hypertext link, graphic image, or Web page, and right-click. 2. Internet Explorer will display one of three pop-up menus you can use to quickly perform the desired function. Pop-up menu functions include: Add to Favorites AltaVista Home AV Translate Back Copy Background Copy Shortcut Create Shortcut E-mail Picture Encoding Forward Go to My Pictures Open Link Open Link in New Window

Print Picture Print Target Properties Refresh Save Background Save Picture As Save Target As Select All Set as Background Set as Desktop Item Show Picture View Source The Cache and Toolbar You've arrived at this page, so you already know something about how to use a Web browser. Just in case you haven't yet used some of the features of Microsoft Internet Explorer, here's a guide to them. Cache When you explore the World Wide Web, your browser keeps track of the pages you've visited and saves them on your hard disk so they'll load faster when you return to them. This saves you time and money because you can view the saved pages without being connected to the Internet. The saved files, your "Temporary Internet Files", are stored in your disk cache.

To empty your disk cache When you browse, your disk cache can fill up with files you no longer need. Here's how to empty your Internet Explorer disk cache. For Internet Explorer 6:

1. On the Tools menu of your Internet Explorer toolbar, click Internet Options. 2. Click the General tab. 3. In the Temporary Internet Files area, click Delete Files, and then click OK. 4. Click OK to close Internet Options.

To change the size of your Internet Explorer disk cache You can change the amount of hard-disk space reserved for your disk cache. A larger disk cache may display previously visited pages faster, but it will decrease the amount of hard-disk space available for other files. Here's how to set the size of your disk cache. For Internet Explorer 6:

1. On the Tools menu of your Internet Explorer toolbar, click Internet Options. 2. Click the General tab. 3. In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings. 4. In the Temporary Internet Files Folder section, drag the arrow on the Amount of Disk Space to
Use slider to the percentage of disk space you want designated for your disk cache, and click OK.

5. Click OK to close Internet Options.

Toolbar The Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbar consists of buttons that are shortcuts for menu commands. They make browsing faster and easier. Click any button on the toolbar below to find out its function.

Back. Lets you return to pages you've viewed, beginning with the most recent. With Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, right-click the Back button and select from a list of recently visited sites. Forward. Lets you move forward through pages you've viewed using the Back button. With Internet Explorer 6, right-click the Forward button and select from a list of recently visited sites. Stop. Halts the process of downloading a Web page. Click this if you want to stop downloading a page for any reasonfor example, if you're having trouble downloading it or if you don't want to wait for it to download. Then try downloading it again or browse elsewhere.

Refresh. Updates any Web page stored in your disk cache with the latest content. When you return to a page that you've visited, your browser displays the file stored in your disk cache, rather than the current page on the World Wide Web. This saves download time. Home. Returns you to your home page. You can designate any Web page as your home page. Search. Displays a choice of popular Internet search engines in the left pane. Your search results appear in the left pane, too. When you click a link, the page appears in the right pane, so you don't lose sight of your search results. Favorites. Displays a list of the sitesand, with Internet Explorer 6, the folders, files, and serversthat you've saved as Favorites. Click any item in the list to jump to it. Media. Displays a list of audio and video media options. History. Shows a list of Web sites you've visited. Mail. Connects you to the Microsoft Outlook Express messaging and collaboration client so you can read e-mail and newsgroup messages. Print. Prints the page you're viewing. This is one way to save information from the Internet so that you don't have to reconnect to view it again. You can even print the URL associated with each hyperlink, making it easy to navigate to the site later. Edit. Opens a file in the Microsoft Word word processor that contains the HTML code for the page you're viewing so you can see and even edit it. Messenger. Opens Windows Messenger. Working with Netscape Understanding pages and frames Knowing that every page has a unique URL Finding, starting and stopping links Linking via buttons and menu items Using history and bookmark lists Choosing the screen look Changing styles, fonts, and colors

Selecting a home page Viewing inline images Viewing external images Filling in forms Setting up email and news Receiving and sending email Using the Mail window Using the Message Composition window Receiving and sending news Using the News window Exploring Usenet news Saving pages Printing and finding Identifying secure information Understanding public key technology

Understanding Pages And Frames You're probably comfortable with the idea that information on the Internet is presented on pages you see on the screen. Even the navigational concepts are pretty easy:

You start with a home page. You click on highlighted words (colored or underlined) in a page to bring another page of related information to your screen.

You click on arrow buttons to go back (or forward) to a page you have previously seen.

Plus, you can go directly to pages that interest you by choosing menu items:

History items in the Go menu display pages you have viewed before. Bookmarks items in the Bookmarks menu display pages you have designated as worthy of easy access.

Directory items in the Directory menu display pages that help you use Netscape and Internet features.

Ideally, the act of finding pages becomes secondary to what you really care about: the page's content. Like pages of a magazine, you'll want to flip from one screen page to another, sometimes to continue with the same article and other times to begin a new article. But you can't hold screen pages in your hands like you can a magazine. Screen pages are rarely uniform in length and, displayed one page at a time, don't provide intuitive feedback on where the information begins and ends.

So even though Internet pages bring information to you rather gloriously, there is something distinctly uncomfortable about content that continues over numerous links to pages of varying lengths. Anyone who has witnessed a slide show of a neighbor's family vacation can identify with the queasy sensation of boundlessness. Readers of electronic pages need tools to keep track of pages. The Netscape text fields, toolbar buttons, and menu items provide you with the ability to manage pages of information that might otherwise leave you feeling overwhelmed and unfocused. Each time you open the Netscape window (you can have multiple Netscape windows open concurrently), you begin a new session of Internet interaction. The author of a page supplies the content you initially see. Sometimes the content is presented as a single unit taking up the entire content area of the window. Other times the content is displayed in multiple rectangular frames that, together, form a patchwork of individual pages that fills the content area. Each frame can contain scroll bars to let you view more information. Netscape allows you to resize any frame by positioning the mouse in the borders between frames (the cursor changes shape), then dragging the frame to a new size. A frame within a page is, in essence, a smaller page within a large patchwork page. Each frame has characteristics of a page. Together, the frames form a top-level page (also called a frameset). For example, clicking on a link within a frame can bring new information within the frame or to a different frame. Likewise, a link can bring an entirely new top-level page replacing all the frames. When your link updates frames on a page, clicking the Back button returns the frame in its previous state. If you are viewing the original top-level frameset, clicking the Back button returns the previous whole page. When viewing a page with frames, certain menu items change to reflect that actions affect only a selected frame's page and not the set of pages in the top-level page. The Mail Document, Save as, and Print menu items change to Mail Frame, Save Frame as, and Print Frame, respectively. When you select a frame by clicking within it, other functions such as keyboard shortcuts affect only the contents of the frame. Some pages and frames have the capability to automatically update themselves. Pages that have serverpush and client-pull capabilities contain instructions that allow multiple interactions with the server computers. You can always terminate these automatic actions by going to another page or otherwise exiting the page.

To open a new Netscape window, choose the File|New Web Browser menu item. The new window brings another copy of your home page to screen in a fully functional and independent Netscape window. You can have simultaneous network connections. Knowing that every page has a unique URL To understand how a single page is kept distinct in a world of electronic pages, you should recognize its URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator. Every page has a unique URL just like every person has a unique palm print. (Arguments persist as to which is more cryptic.) Not only does each page have a unique URL, but also each image and frame on a page. You can access a page, an image, or an individual frame by supplying its URL. A URL is text used for identifying and addressing an item in a computer network. In short, a URL provides location information and Netscape displays a URL in the location field. Most often you don't need to know a page's URL because the location information is included as part of a highlighted link; Netscape already knows the URL when you click on highlighted text, press an arrow button, or select a menu item. But sometimes you won't have an automatic link and instead have only the text of the URL (perhaps from a friend or a newspaper article). Netscape gives you the opportunity to type a URL directly into the location text field (or the URL dialog box produced by the File|Open Location menu item. Using the URL, Netscape will bring you the specified page just as if you had clicked on an automatic link. Notice that the label on the location field says Location after you bring a page (or Netsite for pages from Netscape servers), or Go to as soon as you edit the field. As a shortcut, you can omit the prefix http:// and Netscape automatically uses full URL to complete the search. Here are some sample URLs: http://home.netscape.com/index.html ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/ news:news.announce.newusers On Windows, the location text field offers a pull-down menu to the right of the text. The menu contains up to 10 URLs of pages whose locations you've most recently typed into the field and viewed. Choosing a

URL item from this menu brings the page to your screen again. The URLs are retained in the menu across your Netscape sessions. Netscape uses the URL text to find a particular item, such as a page, among all the computers connected to the Internet. Within the URL text are components that specify the protocol, server, and pathname of an item. Notice in the URL http://home.netscape.com/index.html that the protocol is followed by a colon (http:), the server is preceded by two slashes (//home.netscape.com), and each segment of the pathname (only one here) is preceded by a single slash (/index.html). The first component, the protocol, identifies a manner for interpreting computer information. Many Internet pages use HTTP (short for HyperText Transfer Protocol). Other common protocols you might come across include file (also known as ftp, which is short for File Transfer Protocol), news (the protocol used by Usenet news groups), and gopher (an alternative transfer protocol). The second component, the server, identifies the computer system that stores the information you seek (such as home.netscape.com). Each server on the Internet has a unique address name whose text refers to the organization maintaining the server. The last component, the pathname, identifies the location of an item on the server. For example, a pathname usually specifies the name of the file comprising the page (such as /welcome.html), possibly preceded by one or more directory names (folder names) that contain the file (such as /home/welcome.html). Some pathnames use special characters. If you are typing a URL into the location field, you'll need to enter the characters that exactly match the URL. For example, some pathnames contain the tilde character (~) which designates a particular home directory on a server.

Finding, Starting And Stopping Links A link is a connection from one page to another. You find a link by looking for one or more words highlighted with color, underlining, or both in the content area of a page. Images and icons with colored borders also serve as links. When the mouse cursor points over a link, the URL location of the link appears in the status field. A link within a page that contains frames can be a connection that brings one or more new pages within frames, or an entirely new top-level page replacing all frames.

You can bring a linked page to your screen by clicking once on the highlighted text, image, or icon. Clicking on a link transfers page content from a server location to your location. After you click on a link, the Netscape status indicator animates to show you that the transfer of the page to your computer is in progress. You can stop a transfer in progress by pressing the Stop button or choosing the Go|Stop Loading menu item. An unfollowed link is a connection to a page that you have not yet viewed; a followed link is one you have. By default, unfollowed links are blue and followed links are purple. (On Windows and Macintosh, you can change the colors used to denote unfollowed and followed links from the Options|General| Colors menu item. On UNIX, modify your .Xdefaults file outside of the application.) If you have a black and white monitor, unfollowed and followed links are highlighted only with underlining and not differentiated. You can stop a transfer in progress whenever the transfer takes longer than you like. This might happen if the content of the page is large or if the server computer is sluggish. Sometimes the page specified by a link just isn't available. You'll usually get a message if a connection was not made or a page not found. Examine the status field and progress bar to receive feedback about the progress of a transfer. When you bring a page to your screen, you'll see the whole page or, if the content is extensive, only a portion. (Scroll bars let you see the rest.) Often the portion you see is the beginning of the page, but sometimes a link brings you content from the page's middle or end. A link can display a new page or display a different portion of the same page (in effect, automatically scrolling for you). For example, the beginning of a page might include a table of contents that links each chapter title to its respective content further down the page. Yet another kind of link doesn't bring a page at all. A mailto link whose URL begins with mailto:, produces the Message Composition window for sending email (with the recipient's address automatically filled in). Linking Via Buttons And Menu Items In addition to links in the content area, you can also access links using Netscape buttons and menu items. Many of the links controlled by buttons and menu items bring pages you have viewed at least once before. Button links are particularly useful for going back and forth among recently viewed pages. Menu item links directly access a wide range of pages such as a history list of pages you have viewed or a bookmark list of pages you (or others) have personally selected as noteworthy.

The toolbar offers the following button links:

Back displays the previous page in the history list. The history list is a reference to pages you have viewed.

Forward displays the next page in the history list. (Available only after using the Back command or a history menu item.)

Home displays the home page designated in your preferences. Open displays a dialog box where you can enter any URL.

Once you have brought a page to screen, you can view (and store, if you wish) its URL. Every page is distinguished by its URL. Linking to a page via highlighted content, toolbar buttons, or menu items is a shortcut that enables you to display the page without having to explicitly request the page's URL. When no built-in link is available, you can display a page by entering the URL in the location field, then pressing the Enter (Return) key. (The label of the location field changes to Go to when you edit the field.) Alternatively, you can choose the File Open Location menu item, enter the URL in the dialog box, then press the Open button. Menu items offer each of the links available through toolbar buttons plus many more. The Netscape application keeps track of pages you have seen, lets you create easy-access lists of favorite pages, and points you to pages with current information about Netscape and the Internet. The page's title is displayed as the menu item.

History items from the Go menu display previously viewed pages. The Netscape application automatically appends the title of a page you have viewed as the topmost menu item in the history list. The View History menu item shows you how the history lineage is maintained.

Bookmark items from the Bookmarks menu display pages of your choice. You can add a bookmark menu item for the page you are viewing by choosing Bookmarks|Add Bookmark. The Window|Bookmarks menu item lets you establish lists of bookmarks for yourself and to share with others.

Items from the Directory and Help menus display pages with up-to-date information on Netscape software and Internet exploration. A pop-up menu offers utility features and a shortcut for certain links. On Windows and UNIX, you can click on the right mouse button to produce the pop-up menu (on Macintosh, press and

hold down the mouse button). When the mouse button is pressed over a link or image, pop-up menu items let you go to pages, view individual images, save files onto your disk, copy locations to the clipboard, and perform other tasks. On the Windows 95 version, the pop-up menu item Internet Shortcut lets you create Internet shortcut icons that you can place on the desktop or in any folder. Clicking on an Internet shortcut icon automatically opens the Netscape application and loads a particular page. Using History And Bookmark Lists When you pull down a menu that contains history or bookmark items, you see a list of page titles. To bring a page to your screen, choose the title of the page. History items let you quickly retrieve pages that you've recently viewed in your current session. Only a single lineage of history items is displayed. For example, a series of pages containing maps might show you increasing detail as you click on links. If you view consecutively linked pages with titles North America, United States, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, you'll see all four items appear in the history list with Philadelphia topmost in the list. Furthermore, if you back up to the United States page, then view pages of California and San Francisco, California and San Francisco automatically replace Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. The new line of links replaces the old line of links. Bookmarks items offer a more permanent means of page retrieval. Once you add a bookmark to your list, the title stays until you remove it or change lists. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks make them invaluable for personalizing your Internet access. Because bookmarks offer such ease of retrieval, the Netscape application offers many options for creating a bookmark list. Basic options let you add access to a page through a menu item. More advanced options let you create hierarchical menus, partial menu displays, multiple and shared bookmark files, list descriptions, and list searches. The Bookmarks window, displayed by choosing the Window|Bookmarks menu item, gives you tools to manage bookmark lists. These tools might differ slightly depending on the platform you are using.

You'll find bookmarks and folders (a folder represents a hierarchical menu header) arranged like files and folders on your hard disk. You can double-click bookmarks to access pages, drag-and-drop icons to arrange your bookmarks, and use bookmark menu items to create new bookmark items and manipulate bookmark lists. For example, to create a hierarchical menu, choose Item|Insert Folder from the Bookmarks window, give the folder (header) a name in the dialog box, close the dialog, then drag a bookmark into the resulting folder. Don't let the advanced features dissuade you from the basic functionality of bookmarks. At its simplest, you can choose the Bookmarks|Add Bookmarks menu item to add the current page to your bookmark list, giving you direct access to your favorite pages. Choosing The Screen Look You can tailor the look of the Netscape application by showing or hiding certain graphical elements on the screen. You'll find the basic alternatives listed in the Options menu. The default settings show the toolbar, location field, and directory buttons. These graphical elements provide simplified access to links, commands, and page location information. By hiding any or all of these graphical elements, you increase the amount of screen real estate available for page content.

Checking the Show Toolbar item displays a row of easily accessible buttons that substitute for widely used menu items.

Checking the Show Location item displays URL information that's useful for tracking a page's whereabouts or requesting a new page.

Checking the Show Directory Buttons item displays a row of handy buttons that substitute for some Directory and Help menu items.

Other items in the Options menu affect the presentation of information. Auto Load Images lets you designate whether to display inline graphics automatically. Document Encoding allows for the display of different language character sets. Choosing one of the preferences menu items General, Mail and News, Network, or Security produces a tabbed dialog box (or pop-up menu). Each preferences menu item provides access to specific preferences panels.

The panels contain settings that determine how the Netscape application operates. Many settings affect the look of graphical elements and content. After you are finished changing any values, click the OK button to accept the new panel settings or click the Cancel button to close the dialog box without accepting changes. Changing Styles, Fonts, And Colors To see options affecting general styles, fonts, and colors, choose the Options|General menu item. The dialog box contains tabs to different panel settings. For options affecting the styles, font, and colors of mail and news, choose the Options|Mail and News menu item. In the General|Appearance panel, one set of radio buttons let you display the toolbar with Pictures, Text, or Pictures and Text. You can check whether to also underline colored links. With a black and white display, you must check this box to underline links so the links are visible. Another set of radio buttons lets you designate the number of days before the color of a followed link reverts back to the color of a unfollowed link. For example, if you specify 7 days, the color indicator for a followed link expires after 7 days and reverts to the unfollowed link color. If you choose Never, followed links never revert to the unfollowed color. Pressing the Now button causes all followed links to immediately revert to the color of unfollowed links. The default value specifies that followed links expire after 30 days. On Windows and Macintosh, you can select colors for links, text, and background in the Colors panel . Click the Custom check boxes, then press the Choose Color buttons (on Macintosh, click the colored boxes). If the check box is unchecked, default settings display unfollowed links in blue, followed links in purple, text in black, and background in white. For background, you can also choose an image file. On Windows and UNIX, the Images panel lets you choose how to display an image's colors to most closely match the computer's available colors. In the Fonts panel, a set of pull-down menus lets you choose the font and font size for each of the two types of fonts that pages use to display text: Proportional and Fixed. Most text uses a proportional font. Text in editable fields and certain paragraphs preformatted by the author of a page typically use a fixed font.

Also in the Fonts panel, you can use the For the Encoding pull-down menu to choose the character set encoding that's associated with each proportional and fixed font pair. Netscape lets you choose encodings in order to accommodate the character symbols of numerous languages. You can view or modify the fonts associated with any encoding by choosing the encoding name from the menu, then choosing items from the proportional and fixed font pull-down menus. For example, for the default encoding Latin1, you can choose to display proportional font text in 12 point Times and fixed font text in 10 point Courier. Note that to apply a particular encoding to a page, choose from the Options|Document Encoding hierarchical menu. Selecting A Home Page You can designate your own home page (the page the Netscape application first brings to the screen each time you open a new window) by supplying a URL as a preferences panel item. The home page designated initially with Netscape software (the default) has this URL: http://home.netscape.com/index.html You can change your home page (and change back to the default) clicking the radio button Home Page Location in Options|General|Appearance, then typing the URL of the new home page you want. Alternatively, you can check the radio button Blank Page if you want the home page to be empty of content. Each time you ask the Netscape application to open a new window, the designated home page is brought to screen. The URL can designate a page from a remote computer or one on your hard disk. To get the URL of a page on your hard disk, choose File|Open File. Then select the page (file) on your hard disk (for example, you can choose your bookmarks file). After the page opens, you'll see its URL in the location field. You can select and copy the URL, then paste it into the Home Page Location text field in your preferences. At first, you probably won't have any pages stored on your hard disk. But later, you might want quick and sure access to certain pages, such as one with valuable links or one you've created for yourself. Viewing Inline Images Ideally, pages on the screen should present images (or other multimedia effects) as simply and efficiently as text. However, images (and sounds and movies) are relatively larger in byte size than text and can take

considerable time to transport from remote computers (servers) to your computer. The length of time needed to bring a page with images depends on several factors, most prominently the speed of the modem or direct link connecting you with a remote server. To compensate for the potential lethargy of transmitting images, Netscape software offers features that let you manipulate how images are handled. The Netscape application loads images into pages automatically. If the author of a page has designed the page with inline images, the images are displayed when you bring the page to your screen. You have the option to turn off automatic image loading by unchecking the Options|Auto Load Images menu item. When this menu item is unchecked, the images in pages are replaced by small icons. In addition, the small replacement icon is sometimes accompanied by alternative text. Also called ALT text, alternative text is shown only as a substitution when an image is not loaded. On some platforms, ALT text is also shown temporarily within a rectangular border as an image is loading. You can view these images at a later time. To manually load all images that are represented by icons, you can press the Images button in the toolbar or select the View|Load Images menu item. To manually load an individual image, click on the image's icon. The advantage of unchecking Auto Load Images is that pages are brought to screen faster. The disadvantage is that you can't view the images until you specify that you want the images loaded. The Auto Load Images item affects subsequent links and not the current contents of a page. However, if you choose the View|Reload menu item or press the Reload button on the toolbar, you bring the current page back again, this time with the Auto Load Image option active. You also have the option of displaying an image incrementally as the image is transmitted or in a single burst after the transmission. Typically, the While Loading option provides more satisfying feedback. However, on a fast network, the After Loading option may complete the load slightly faster. To set this option, choose the Options|General|Images menu item, then select one of the two radio buttons: While Loading or After Loading. Like highlighted text, an inline image can be linked to another page, another position on the same page, or any type of external file such as an external image. As with all links, pointing the mouse button over a link puts the URL location of the prospective link in the status field.

Viewing External Images External images (unlike inline images) are displayed in their own windows. You can view an external image by clicking on a link to the image. The Netscape application can open external images stored in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), and XBM (X Bit Map) file formats. Other file formats require that you have a suitable helper application available on your hard disk (and referenced in the Helpers panel). Links to external images work like links to pages. An external image file has a unique URL just like an ordinary page. External images are not automatically loaded in their full representation even if the Auto Load Images item is checked. You can click on highlighted text, an image icon, or an inline image to bring an external image into a separate window on the screen. Netscape or the external application opens and presents the image in a separate window. You must click back into the Netscape window to continue working with the Netscape application. Pages that present large or detailed images often have inline snapshot images (also called thumbnail images) inserted into pages that serve as links to external images. Unlike the icon replacements, these snapshots provide an approximate view of the actual image, yet are still much smaller and faster to transport than the full image. You can expand the snapshot into the full image by clicking once on the snapshot.

Filling In Forms You can do more than read Netscape pages; you can write on them. Pages can contain forms for you to enter and send information. For example, a page might have a form with fields for you to enter a name and address next to a button that sends the information to the page's author. Forms can offer editable fields with or without default text, check boxes, radio buttons, pull-down menus, selection lists, and buttons to send or clear the information you enter. The content you enter into a form doesn't permanently alter the page (you don't modify the source page at its location), yet the form gives you the ability to conveniently transmit a response. To send ordinary email, you fill in fields to supply the content of your message, the subject summary, and the email address of the intended recipient. Pages with forms let you reply to information you read in the

page. To send a form, you fill in one or more fields embedded within a page, usually labeled with instructions and configured with a button that sends the form's contents to the recipient without requiring you to provide any email address. The author of a page determines the layout of a form. A page can contain multiple forms, each form capable of sending fields independently of another form on the page. Fields in a form can restrict the kind or range of text you enter (such as numbers only) to help you fill in the form as desired. Typically, forms give you a fast and easy way to make a request or send back a response regarding the page you are reading. Forms can supply an interface to databases with fields that let you query for information and perform Internet searches. The Usenet news pages, designed for people to communicate with each other on special interests, contain forms for you to enter messages and subscribe to newsgroups. The Netscape software has built-in links to pages with forms for you to comment about the Netscape application, and request product information.

Setting Up Email And News This section gives you some background about Internet protocols and the preference items you use to set up your email and news services. Upcoming sections describe mail and news services in more detail. Before you can exchange email or access any newsgroup news, you need to tell the Netscape application how to make the appropriate connection to the server computer handling various protocol. Where your World Wide Web server uses uses the HTTP protocol to transport page information, your outgoing and incoming Internet mail servers use mail protocols (SMTP and POP3) and your Usenet news server uses a news protocol (NNTP). Do you know the name of your email servers and news server? If not, you will have to find out from your service provider, systems administrator, or resident know-it-all. After specifying the names of these servers as preference items in the Servers panel, Netscape software lets you send and receive email and newsgroup postings. Here are some of the preferences you can set in the Options|Mail and News panels.

In the Servers panel, specify your mail server names in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server field and the Incoming Mail (POP3) Server field. You should specify local mail servers, if available.

Often, the same server name is appropriate for both fields and the name can be as simple as mail. You should also enter your email id (the part of your email address to the left of the @ symbol; not the entire address and without the @ symbol) in the POP User Name field.

In the Servers panel, specify your news server name in the News (NNTP) Server field. You should specify a local news server, if available. Often, the name can be as simple as news.

In the Identity panel, specify your name, email address (the entire address including the @ symbol), and your reply-to address (if you want mail replies sent to a different address than your email address) in the designated fields. This and other information provided in the panel establishes your identity to those who receive your mail and news messages.

In the Organization panel, specify whether you want mail and news messages threaded and the method messages are sorted. By default, news messages are threaded and mail messages are not. When messages are threaded, replies are displayed adjacent to the original message and other replies to the original message. When messages are unthreaded (the box unchecked), replies are displayed according to the sorting order without regard to the position of the original message or other replies.

In the Appearance panel, specify font characteristics of your message text and quoted text. By default, when you reply to a message, the original text is quoted (restated) with each line preceded by the > symbol. You can specify the style and size of the quoted text in your messages. You can also specify the layout of the window panes.

In the Composition panel, specify whether you want your replies to automatically quote the original message, and whether you want a copy of your messages automatically sent to yourself, sent to another email address, or stored on a disk file.

Receiving And Sending Email To display the Mail window and access email features, choose Window|Netscape Mail. Or, as a shortcut, you can click on the mail icon (the small envelope in the bottom-right of the Netscape and News windows). When you open the Mail window, Netscape checks the server and retrieves any new mail. To receive mail, you'll have to enter your email password each session (or specify in the Mail and News| Organization panel that your password be remembered across sessions).

After Netscape has initially checked the mail server for messages, Netscape can periodically recheck the server and inform you if any new messages have arrived. However, Netscape does not automatically retrieve these additional messages from the mail server. To retrieve new messages, press the Get Mail toolbar button or click the mail icon. A setting in the Mail and News|Servers panel determines how often Netscape automatically checks the mail server for new messages. You can also click on the mail icon from the Mail window to manually check the server and retrieve new messages. Netscape informs you of the availability of new messages using the mail icon.

Before you've checked for mail (for example, before you've opened the Mail window or if you haven't supplied your password), you'll see a question mark (?) adjacent to the envelope. This indicates Netscape cannot automatically check the status of the mail server.

After you've check for mail, you'll see the envelope alone. This indicates there are no new messages for you.

Subsequently, when Netscape automatically checks the mail server and finds new messages for you, you'll see an exclamation point (!) adjacent to the envelope. This indicates that new messages are available for retrieval. On Macintosh, you'll also be notified of new messages by a mail icon flashing in the menu bar.

The Mail window contains three panes: a mailbox pane, a message header pane, and a message pane. Click on an item in the mailbox pane (such as the Inbox) to display the mailbox contents in the message header pane. Click on an item in the message header field to display the message contents in the message pane. Occasionally, you'll want to select multiple message headings, for example, to move messages to the trash. To select multiple, contiguous message headings, hold down the Shift key as you click on an item. To select multiple, noncontiguous message headings, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on an item. (On Macintosh, use the Shift key to select noncontiguous items). When two or more message headings are selected, the message pane is empty. The Mail window and the Message Composition window, described in subsequent sections, contain menu items, toolbar buttons, and clickable icons to let you compose, view, organize, store, and deliver your mail in varied ways. Menu items offer the full set of features. Toolbar buttons provide basic mail features such as getting mail, deleting mail, composing mail, replying to mail, and displaying your messages.

Small, clickable icons in the message header pane let you highlight individual messages as read or unread, and flagged or unflagged. Using The Mail Window The mailbox pane and message header pane are organized in columns. Columns in the mailbox pane state a mail folder name, the number of unread messages it contains, and the total number of messages it contains. Columns in the message header pane state the sender name, its flagged status, its read status, the subject line, and date. You can resize panes by positioning your mouse between two panes (the cursor changes shape) and dragging. You can click on column titles in the message heading pane to temporarily rearrange items according to Sender, Subject, or Date. You can also use the View|Sort hierarchical menu to sort or thread messages so that replies are positioned adjacent to original messages. To arrange messages to your preferred criteria by default (that is, every time you open up the Mail window), you must set the preference items in the Mail and News|Organization panel. You can resize columns by positioning your mouse between two column headings (the cursor changes shape) and dragging. It's best to adjust the leftmost column first, because resizing a column repositions all the columns to the right. On UNIX, choose Options|Save Options to retain changes. Choose File|New Folder to display a dialog for creating a folder in the mailbox pane. You can drag messages from the message heading pane into a folder in the mailbox pane. Alternatively, you can select a message, then use the Message|Move hierarchical menu item to put a message into a folder. The Message|Copy item lets you put a copy of a message into a folder without moving the original. The Edit menu contains items for deleting selected messages and folders. Deleted items are put into a Trash folder. Choose Empty Trash Folder to permanently delete the contents of the trash. Here are other basic features you'll find in the Mail window:

Searching in messages: Choose the Edit|Find menu item to search for text in the message header or content panes. When the first occurrence of matching text is found, the message is selected and displayed in the message field. Choose Edit|Find Again for additional occurrences.

Email addresses: Choose Message|Add to Address Book to insert the address of the sender of the selected message into your Address Book.

Marking messages: The Message menu also contains items that let you mark messages as read or unread, and flagged or unflagged. When you wish to mark or flag multiple selections, the menu item is more convenient than clicking on the small icons in the pane.

Navigation: The Go menu contains items for navigating among adjacent messages, unread messages, and flagged messages.

Viewing messages: The Options menu contains items that help determine the content of the message heading and message panes. You can specify that the message heading pane Show All Messages or Show Only Unread Messages. You can have header information displayed within each message by checking the Show All Headers item. Use the Document Encoding menu item if you wish to select alternative character sets. On Windows and Macintosh, menu changes are automatically preserved for subsequent sessions. On UNIX, choose Options|Save Options to preserve menu changes.

Using The Message Composition Window You create and send both email and newsgroup messages in the Message Composition window. Many different actions produce the Message Composition window and, when appropriate, the Netscape application fills in certain fields automatically. Sometimes you'll see highlighted links in the email and news messages you read. That's because the Netscape software automatically detects the text of a URL and converts the text to an HTML link. Any URL text you enter in the Message Composition window is automatically seen as a highlighted link by the recipient of your message.

Choose the File|New Mail Message menu item to display the empty Message Composition window. The window has its own menu items, clickable buttons, and fields for your message's address, headings, and content. You can set which fields are visible by checking items in the View menu.

Choose File|Mail Document (or File|Mail Frame) to display the Message Composition window with fields filled and the current page automatically attached. The Content field contains the

current page's URL, the Subject field contains the page title, and the Attachment field displays the file name of the attached page.

Choose a mail or news reply option to display the window with the address field filled in. You might also reply to pages and messages by clicking a mailto link or button.

Typically, you'll use the Send To field for the address of the primary recipient, the Cc field for additional recipients, the Subject field for briefly describing the message, and the Attachment field for including a page or disk file with the message. If you've specified a text file containing your signature in the Mail and News|Identity panel, your signature is appended to the message field in all of your mailings. You need to know the Internet mail address of where to send your email. Internet addresses typically contain a user name followed by the @ symbol (pronounced "at"), followed by mail server location name. For example, to send email to this company, enter info@netscape.com. You can create, edit, and store addresses, singly or in a folder list, in the Address Book window. Addresses are maintained in the Address Book window similarly to how bookmarks are maintained in the Bookmark window. Commonly, you'll send mail by replying to other mail. By default, the original text appears as quoted text (each line preceded by the > symbol), though you can turn this feature off in the Composition panel. You can also quote a message's text by choosing the Message Composition window's File|Include Original Text menu item or paste in a clipboard selection as quoted text by selecting Edit|Paste as Quotation. Pressing the Attach button produces a dialog box that lets you send email with a file attachment. An attachment is a separate document sent along with the email message. The dialog box buttons let you select a page URL or a file. You can choose to send a page as is (embedded with the HTML instructions that format Internet pages) or converted to plain text. After completing the dialog box (you can list multiple attachments), the attachment is ready to be sent along with your message. The Mail window offers options that let you send mail immediately or defer delivery. Typically, you'll want to send messages immediately if you're connected to the network. However, to reduce connection time, you can compose messages offline and defer sending mail until the next time you're connected. When the Mail window's Options|Immediate Delivery menu item is checked, the Message Composition window offers a Send Now toolbar button and menu item (Send button on Windows and UNIX). This

allows messages you've written to be sent over the network immediately. Press the Send Now button or choose File|Send Now to transmit the message and any attachments to the recipient. When the Mail window's Options|Deferred Delivery menu item is checked, the Message Composition window offers a Send Later toolbar button and menu item (Send button on Windows; Later button on UNIX). This allows messages you've written to be stored in your Outbox folder (deferred) until you explicitly specify that the contents of the Outbox be sent. Press the Send Later button or choose File| Send Later to store the current message in the Outbox folder on your disk for transmission at a later time. Choose File|Send Mail in Outbox to distribute deferred messages.

Receiving And Sending News To display the News window, choose Window|Netscape News. The News window operates similarly to the Mail window. If you skipped the previous pages on exchanging and composing mail, you might want to go back and read these now. Like mail, you create your news messages in the Message Composition window. People post messages (send their news) to newsgroups. Throughout the Internet, you'll find the newsgroup terms "message", "posting", and "article" used interchangeably. Newsgroups are organized by subject; each newsgroup has a name intended to reflect the topic of discussion for its messages. The Usenet is the collection of all newsgroups; it is the Internet's multifaceted bulletin board especially designed for people to communicate news with one another on special interest topics. The News window contains three panes: a newsgroup pane, a message header pane, and a message pane. Click on an item in the newsgroup pane to display a listing of messages in the message header pane. Click on an item in the message header field to display each message in the message pane. When you open the News window, the set of newsgroups you have specified in the Options menu is displayed in the newsgroup pane. You can choose the Show All Newsgroups menu item to see the broadest selection of available groups. However, the number of newsgroups is so large that you might prefer to limit your newsgroup pane to subscribed newsgroups.

You can quickly access your favorite newsgroups without searching through the thousands of available groups by subscribing to newsgroups. The easiest way to subscribe to a newsgroup is to, first, display all newsgroups (choose Options|Show All Newsgroups) in the newsgroup pane, then locate each newsgroup you want ready access to and check the Subscribe check box beside the newsgroup name. After you subscribe to your favorite newsgroups, you can choose the Options|Show Subscribed Newsgroups or Options|Show Active Newsgroups menu item so that, each time you open the News window, the newsgroup pane displays only your chosen newsgroups. Active newsgroups are subscribed newsgroups that contain new messages. There are alternative ways to subscribe if you know a newsgroup's URL. Each of the following displays the newsgroup name in the newsgroup pane.

Enter the newsgroup URL in the location field of the Netscape main window. Choose File|Add Newsgroup and type the newsgroup URL in a dialog box. Click on a link to a newsgroup or newsgroup message.

You still must check the Subscribe box if you want the newsgroup to be displayed in the pane in subsequent news sessions. Using The News Window The menu items, toolbar buttons, and clickable icons in the News window let you view and compose news messages in much the same way as you do mail messages. Here are the primary difference:

Organizing messages: Typically, you'll organize and store your mail messages on your hard disk in folders you create. News messages, on the other hand, are already organized and stored in newsgroups on remote servers. If you want to store news messages on your hard disk, you'll need to explicitly save news messages using the File|Save As menu item. The News window does not offer a mailbox/folder facility.

Multiple news hosts: You can have multiple news hosts (though most users only need and have one), each host supplying you with a set of newsgroups. Choose the File|Open News Host menu item to display a dialog box for specifying additional news hosts in your newsgroup pane.

Replying to messages: The News window has a unique set of toolbar buttons that include variations on how you can reply to messages (also available through the Message menu). You

can reply to news by sending a newsgroup message (Post Reply), an email message (Mail Reply), or both (Post and Mail Reply).

Threaded messages: By default, newsgroup messages are threaded (replies are positioned adjacent to original messages). Toolbar buttons allow you to mark a thread or entire newsgroup as read. Like mail, you can click in the message header pane to change the read or flagged status of individual messages.

Quantity and age of messages: Newsgroups often contain a large number of messages. Several commands help determine the quantity and age of messages that appear in the message header pane at a time. The default number of messages retrieved from the news server is set as a preference item in the Servers panel (maximum 3500). You can choose the File|Get More Messages menu item to display additional messages that do not exceed the maximum. From the Options menu, you can choose to Add from Newest Messages or Add from Oldest Messages to specify whether a batch of messages should begin with newer or older messages first. By default, newer messages are retrieved first.

Viewing messages: The Options menu lets you choose whether the message heading pane should Show All Messages or Show Only Unread Messages (the default). The default choice displays limits the message heading pane to displaying only messages you have not read.

Email addresses: Like mail, you can choose Message|Add to Address Book to insert the email address of the news message sender into your address book.

Exploring Usenet News The URLs of Usenet news are formatted similarly, but not identically, to other pages. For example, the URL news:alt.tv.northern-exp specifies the server protocol news: and the newsgroup alt.tv.northernexp. Unlike other Internet connections, the URL does not specify a server name and pathname with preceding slashes. Each newsgroup has a unique name, described with words separated by periods. Some words (like alt, short for alternative, or comp, short for computers) specify categories rather than a particular newsgroup. Note that not all news servers provide access to all newsgroups. Reading Usenet news can be as easy as reading any other Internet page: Click on a link and bring a Usenet news message to your screen. But newsgroup pages offer advantages (notably the ability to easily

publish your own writing to other newsgroup readers) and disadvantages (no images, weak formatting, and limited links). Typically, each newsgroup presents its messages along threads. A thread bundles a message with a response to the message. The grouping of a new topic with one or more responses to the topic (in indented outline form) presents messages in a topical context. A strictly chronological organization of every newsgroup contribution would create a discombobulated trail of messages less pleasant than reading Joyce in his later years. When you subscribe to a newsgroup, the name of the newsgroup is added to a list (a News file; also called a News RC or newsrc file), maintained by the Netscape software. On Windows and UNIX, you can specify the location of your News file in the Servers panel. On Macintosh, the News file is stored in the Netscape folder within your system's Preferences folder. The process for retrieving information from news servers has a significant difference than the process for retrieving information from World Wide Web servers. News messages are collected and automatically distributed at periodic intervals, en masse, among news servers throughout the Usenet. When you supply a URL to request newsgroup messages, your request is routed to the news server provided by your service provider, which has accumulated messages throughout the Usenet system. In contrast, when you supply a URL to request a particular Web page, your request is routed to the single Web site whose server distributes the page. Likewise, a news message that you send goes to your service provider's news server, whereupon the message is automatically distributed at periodic intervals to other participating Usenet news servers. Other Usenet readers can then access your news message from their local news server. This batch processing of Usenet news permits distribution efficiencies. For example, a popular Web site can get inundated with requests for pages. However, a popular newsgroup is broadly distributed by the entire network of participating news servers. Your request for either Web pages or news messages contains some identifying information about the requesting computer. With Web pages, request information is conveyed to Web site that serves a page. With news, request information is conveyed to your provider's news server.

Saving Pages Netscape software gives you the opportunity to save a page as a file on your computer. You can do this after or instead of bringing the page to your screen. Some links, for example those that transport software, sound, or movie files, don't transmit pages. You can often identify these links by noticing a URL that begins with ftp or ends with a file-type suffix such as au or mpeg. Clicking on these links can automatically download (save) a file to disk and launch helper applications that support the file's format. Most links, however, point to pages that you can bring to your screen or specifically save on your disk. The File|Save as menu item produces a dialog box that lets you save the current page as a source (HTML) file or a text file on your disk. (On UNIX, you can also save in PostScript format.) A file saved in HTML source format retains the formatting of the original page. A file saved in text format is presented as plain text. You can save an image file, but not a page's inline images. When you view a page containing frames, the File|Save Frame as menu item replaces File|Save as and lets you save only the page of a currently selected frame. The dialog box options for saving the page are unchanged. By using a pop-up menu item, you can save a page as a disk file instead of bringing the page to the screen. While pointing over a link, click on the right mouse button (on Macintosh, hold down the mouse button) to pop up the menu. The Save this Link as item saves to disk (instead of bringing to screen) the page whose link you are clicking on. The Save this Image as item saves to disk (instead of bringing to screen) the image whose link you are clicking on. Saving to disk is particularly useful for retrieving a nonformatted page (such as a data file) not intended for viewing. You can also produce the dialog box for saving a page to disk by clicking on a link with the Shift key held down (option key on Macintosh). Other pop-up menu items let you copy page and image locations (URLs) to the clipboard. After saving a file to disk, you can use the File|Open File menu item to display the local file as a Netscape page. (A file on your disk is a local file; a file out on the network is a remote file.) For GIF, JPEG, or other nontext files to appear as available files in the Open File dialog, make sure to select "All Files" as the file type (on Macintosh, hold down the Option key while selecting the Open File menu item).

The View|Document Source menu item lets you view the current page in HTML source format. By default, source text is displayed in a window. On Windows and Macintosh, you can override the default source viewer by specifying a supporting text application (such as your word processor) in the View Source field of the General|Applications panel. Subsequently, when you choose View|Document Source, the HTML text appears in a window of your selected application. The File|Mail Document menu item produces a window that lets you send the current page URL along with an email attachment of the page. The Window|Bookmarks menu item produces a window that lets you save page links in a file. Note: Netscape software works on several computer platforms and reserves the use of a few special characters to help interpret URLs. To avoid problems, don't use the following characters when you create a file name:

slash (/) colon (:) number symbol (#)

Printing And Finding Many of the File and Edit menu items in the Netscape application work as they do on other applications. To print the contents of the current page, choose File|Print or press the Print button in the toolbar. A Print dialog box lets you select printing options and begin printing. On Windows, you can choose File| Print Preview to see a screen display of a printed page. When you view a page containing frames, you'll see the File|Print Frame menu item in place of File| Print. The command lets you print only the page of a currently selected frame. The dialog box options for printing the page are unchanged. When printing a page, the Netscape application formats content according to the size of the printed page rather than the size of the onscreen window. The print command rearranges the page layout (text is wordwrapped and graphics are repositioned) in order to accommodate paper size. To set up the page for printing, choose File|Page Setup. You can use this command to choose landscape printing (across the long side of paper) instead of the more common portrait orientation.

To cut, copy, and paste, choose the respective items from the Edit menu. Note that Cut and Paste items are only effective in certain editable fields. The content area is a read-only field that only enables you to select and copy text for use elsewhere. To find a word or phrase within a page, choose <BEDIT|FIND< b>or press the Find button in the toolbar. A Find dialog box lets you enter the string of characters you wish to find. Check the Match case radio button (Case Sensitive on the Macintosh and UNIX) to require capital letters to match. On Windows, check the Up or Down radio button to direct the search toward the beginning or end of the document. If there is a current selection, the search begins at the selection and does not wrap around. On Macintosh and UNIX, check the Find Backwards check box to start the search from the beginning or end of the document. To find the same word or phrase again, choose Edit|Find Again. Identifying Secure Information Netscape software allows computers to transfer information in a secure way that prevents the forms you send or the pages you receive from being misappropriated. Security issues arise because information travelling on the Internet usually take a circuitous route through several intermediary computers to reach any destination computer. The actual route your information takes to reach its destination is not under your control. As your information travels on Internet computers, any intermediary computer has the potential to eavesdrop and make copies. An intermediary computer could even deceive you and exchange information with you by misrepresenting itself as your intended destination. These possibilities make the transfer of confidential information such as passwords or credit card numbers susceptible to abuse. The Netscape application and Netscape server use patented RSA public key cryptographic technology and custom software to allow you to send and receive information securely. The security protocols are open. Only your computer and the server can encrypt and decrypt your information. In transit, the information is an unreadable jumble. An intermediary can continue to route the data, and even make copies of it, but the information cannot be decrypted and remains private and safely communicated.

As part of the cryptographic technology, the Netscape application and Netscape server are able to authenticate Internet servers. This prevents an intermediary computer from posing as your destination. Not all exchanges of information are secure. Netscape uses graphical elements and dialog boxes to inform you when you are interacting with secure and insecure server sites.

A URL that begins with https:// (instead of http://) indicates that a document comes from a secure server. Similarly, a news URL that begins with snews: (instead of news:) indicates that a document comes from a secure news server. To access news servers other than the default news server, use two slashes (//) after the colon (:).

To the left of the status message, a doorkey icon on a blue background indicates a secure document (a document is a slightly broader term for a page and its contents); a document with a broken doorkey icon on a gray background indicates an insecure document. Clicking on a doorkey icon displays information on the security status of a document.

Above the content area, a blue colorbar indicates a secure document; a gray colorbar indicates an insecure document.

Dialog boxes alert you to changes in security status among the documents you bring to screen. You can choose to bypass security dialogs by setting preference items in the Security|General panel.

You can examine the security qualifications of a document in more detail by choosing View|Document Info. The resulting dialog box tells you about encryption grade and server certification. You can view information about a particular site certificate or certificate authority in the Security|Site Certificate panel. Understanding Public Key Technology The public key technology working within the Netscape application and Netscape server is often described with unfamiliar security terminology. You might find the explanation of how public keys works an interesting supplement to your knowledge of Internet security. A computer's security key is a file. You don't open a key (file) like you open a document or a word processor application. Keys are more like magnetic badges with powerful encryption and decryption capabilities.

There are two kinds of keys, private and public, and you need both. A private key sits on your computer and you never give it out. A public key you can make as many copies of it as you wish and give it out to everybody. You need both kinds of keys because they are fundamentally linked. (Like a pair of pants, you always buy both legs.) You can pass your public key around to whomever you wish, but in order for any key to perform its decryption duty, it must be matched back to its linked key partner. Both public and private keys have the ability to encrypt and (as a set) decrypt information. Keys work in two primary ways: 1. Other users can encrypt information with your public key (the key you've distributed freely) and send the information securely to you. Only you, with your private key, can decrypt their message. The sender can be sure that the message is read only by you (encrypted for privacy) and has not been altered. 2. You can encrypt information with your private key and send the information securely over the network. Anyone on the network who has your public key (the key you've distributed freely) can decrypt your message. The recipient can be sure that the message came only from you (authenticated with your digital signature) and has not be altered. In summary, your public and private key (files) are linked by a powerful cryptographic algorithm that would require major computer resources to crack. No one else's keys can decipher messages to you encrypted with your public key. And no one else's keys can be used to pose as you by sending messages encrypted with your private key.

Introduction To Electronic Commerce E-commerce encompasses the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing, and paying for products and services purchased by inter-networked, global virtual communities

of customers, with the support of a worldwide network of business partners. Electronic commerce systems rely on the resources of the Internet, intranets, extranets, and other computer networks to support every step of this process. E-commerce is changing how companies do business both internally and externally with their customers, suppliers, and other business partners. How companies apply E-commerce to their business is also subject to change as their managers confront a variety of E-commerce alternatives. The applications of Ecommerce by many companies have gone through several major stages as E-commerce matures in the world of business. For example, E-commerce between businesses and consumers (B2C) moved from merely offering multimedia company information at corporate websites (brochure ware), to offering products and services at Web storefront sites via electronic catalogs and online sales transactions. B2B Ecommerce, on the other hand, started with website support to help business customers serve themselves, and then moved toward automating intranet and extranet procurement systems

Electronic Data Interchange Data representing a variety of business transaction documents (such as purchase orders, invoices, requests for quotations, and shipping notices) are automatically exchanged between computers using standard document message formats. Typically, EDI software is used to convert a company's own document formats into standardized EDI formats as specified by various industry and international protocols. Thus, EDI is an example of the almost complete automation of an E-commerce supply chain process. And EDI over the Internet, using secure virtual private networks, is a growing B2B E-commerce application. The Internet, intranets, and extranets provide vital electronic commerce links between the components of a business and its customers, suppliers, and other business partners. There are three basic categories of electronic commerce applications:

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Business-to-Business (B2B) Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)

Business-to-Business E-Commerce This category of electronic commerce involves both electronic business marketplaces and direct market links between businesses. For example, many companies offer the business community a variety of marketing and product information on the World Wide Web. Others also rely on electronic data interchange (EDI) via the Internet or extranets for direct computer-to-computer exchange of business transaction documents with their business customers and suppliers. Business-to-business electronic commerce is the wholesale side of the commercial process. For example, let's suppose a company wants to build and sell a product to other businesses. Then it must buy raw materials and a variety of contracted services from other companies. The interrelationships with other businesses needed to build and sell a product make up a network of business relationships that is called the supply chain. Electronic commerce systems like electronic data inter- change (EDI), and business management processes like supplying chain management, seek to reengineer and streamline traditional supply chain processes. Business-to-Consumer E-commerce E-commerce applications that focus on the consumer share an important goal: to attract potential buyers, transact goods and services, and build customer loyalty through individual courteous treatment and engaging community features. In this form of electronic commerce, businesses must develop attractive electronic marketplaces to entice and sell products and services to consumers. For example, companies may offer multimedia web sites that provide virtual storefronts and virtual shopping malls, interactive order processing, and secure electronic payment systems. Electronic commerce on the Internet between businesses and consumers is accelerating the impact of information technology on consumer behavior and business processes and markets. So the wide-open economic model of the Internet and the fast pace of change in Internet technologies are fundamental contributors to the development of electronic commerce applications between businesses and consumers. An example can be thought of retailing on web. Consumer-to-Consumer E-Commerce

The huge success of online auctions like e-Bay, where consumers (as well as businesses) can buy and sell with each other in an auction process at an auction website, makes this E-commerce model an important E-commerce business strategy. Thus, participating in or sponsoring consumer or business auctions is an important E-commerce alternative for B2C or B2B E-commerce. Electronic personal advertising of products or services to buy or sell by consumers at electronic newspaper sites, consumer E-commerce portals, or personal websites is also an important form of C2C E-commerce.

Marketing Systems The business function of marketing is concerned with the planning, promotion, and sale of existing products in existing markets, and the development of new products and new markets to better serve present and potential customers. Thus, marketing performs a vital function in the operation of a business enterprise. Business firms have increasingly turned to computers to help them perform vital marketing functions in the face of the rapid changes of today's environment. Computers have been a catalyst in the development of marketing information systems that integrate the information flows required by many marketing activities. Interactive Marketing The explosive growth of the Internet has had a major impact on the marketing function. The term interactive marketing has been coined to describe a type of marketing that is based on using the Internet, extranets, and other networks to enable two-way interaction between a business and its customers or potential customers. The goal of interactive marketing is to enable a company to profitably use those networks to attract and keep customers who will become partners with the business in creating, purchasing, and improving products and services. The Internet has become the primary distribution channel of the new online marketing environment. Customers are not just passive participants who receive media advertising prior to purchase, but are actively engaged in a network-enabled proactive and interactive process.

Interactive marketing views prospective customers as belonging to many distinct market segments that must be approached differently online. Interactive marketing also encourages customers to become involved in product development, delivery, and service issues. This is enabled by various Internet technologies, including Usenet discussion groups, Web forms and questionnaires, and E-mail correspondence. Finally, the expected outcomes of interactive marketing are a rich mixture of vital marketing data, new product ideas, volume sales, and strong customer relationships.