The Internet For Dummies^®, 7th Edition

by John R. Levine; Carol Baroudi; Margaret Levine Young

• ISBN13: 9780764528194
• ISBN10: 076452819X
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

ISPs. URLs. DSL. If you're new to the Internet, all that technobabble can be confusing. Relax! With the friendly advice and plain-English explanations in this bestselling guide, you'll soon be swapping e-mails, sending instant messages, surfing the Web, managing your money online ... and maybe even creating your own personal Web page!

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 1
How to Use This Book	p. 2
Who Are You?	p. 3
How This Book Is Organized	p. 3
Icons Used in This Book	p. 4
What Now?	p. 5
Feedback, Please	p. 5
Welcome to the Internet	p. 7
What Is the Internet, and Why Do You Care?	p. 9
Okay, So What Is the Internet?	p. 10
So What's All the Hoopla?	p. 11
A Few Real-Life Stories	p. 12
Why Is This Medium Different from Any Other Medium?	p. 14
Some Thoughts about Safety and Privacy	p. 18
Is the Internet Safe? Viruses, Spyware, Spam, and Other Yucky Stuff	p. 21
What People Can Learn about You	p. 22
How People Can Take Over Your PC	p. 27
Spam, Bacon, Spam, Eggs, and Spam	p. 31
What's the Secret Word, Mr. Potter?	p. 33
Keeping Yourself and Your Family Safe	p. 34
Kids and the Net	p. 35
Can We Talk?	p. 35
Internet Resources for Kids	p. 47
The Internet in Schools	p. 49
Internet, Here I Come!	p. 51
Climbing onto the Net: What Do You Need to Go Online?	p. 53
What Kind of Computer Do You Need?	p. 54
Types of Internet Connections	p. 57
Essential Software to Keep Your System Safe	p. 74
Our Favorite Internet Setup	p. 78
You're Connected - Now What?	p. 78
Sharing Your Internet Connection	p. 79
Don't Limit Your Internet Access to One Computer	p. 79
First, Make a LAN	p. 81
Forget the Wires! Go WiFi	p. 86
Using Your Laptop at Home and Away	p. 89
Web Mania	p. 93
Welcome to the Wild, Wonderful, Wacky Web	p. 95
What Is the Web?	p. 95
Browsing Off for Points Unknown	p. 98
Surfing with Your Browser	p. 99
Getting and Installing a Browser	p. 104
Taking Your Browser for a Spin	p. 105
Saving Stuff from the Web	p. 105
Printing Pages from the Web	p. 107
Filling in Forms	p. 107
Using Secure Web Pages	p. 109
Letting Your Browser Keep Track of Your Passwords	p. 109
Viewing Lots of Web Pages at the Same Time	p. 111
A Few of Your Favorite Things	p. 114
Customizing Your Browser	p. 118
Controlling Cookies	p. 123
Blocking Popup Windows	p. 126
Getting Plugged In with Plug-Ins	p. 127
Needles and Haystacks: Finding Almost Anything on the Net	p. 129
Your Basic Search Strategy	p. 130
Doing a Search-a-Roo	p. 132
ODP: It's open, it's big, and it's freeeeee	p. 141
For real facts, try Wikipedia first	p. 142
The Usual Suspects: Other Useful Search Engines	p. 143
Finding People	p. 145
We're from Your Browser, and We're Here to Help You	p. 147
Music and Video on the Web	p. 149
Five Ways to Get Media and One Way Not To	p. 150
What Are You Listening With?	p. 153
Okay, How About Some Real Music?	p. 156
Internet Radio	p. 159
Peering at Peer-to-Peer	p. 159
Movies on the Net	p. 160
More Shopping, Less Dropping	p. 161
Shopping Online: Pros and Cons	p. 161
The Credit Card Question	p. 162
Paying at the Store	p. 164
Up, Up, and Away	p. 167
Even More Places to Shop	p. 170
The Shopping Update	p. 174
Banking, Bill-Paying, and Investing Online	p. 175
Going to the Bank without Ever Leaving Home	p. 176
Dealing with Credit Cards	p. 182
Paying Your Pals with PayPal	p. 183
Investing Your Money Online	p. 185
Swiping Files from the Net	p. 187
What Is Downloading?	p. 187
Downloading Pictures	p. 188
Downloading Programs	p. 189
Downloading Other Types of Files	p. 196
About Face! Uploading You Go!	p. 197
E-mail, Chat, and Other Ways to Hang Out Online	p. 199
It's in the Mail: Sending and Receiving E-Mail	p. 201
What's My Address?	p. 201
My Mail Is Where?	p. 206
So Many E-Mail Programs to Choose From	p. 207
Setting Up Your E-Mail Program	p. 209
Sending Mail Is Easy	p. 215
Mail Coming Your Way	p. 219
A Few Words from the Etiquette Ladies	p. 221
How Private Is E-Mail?	p. 223
To Whom Do I Write?	p. 224
Safe Mail: Viruses, Spam, and Secure Mail over WiFi	p. 227
I Think I've Got a Virus	p. 227
Get This Spam Outta Here!	p. 232
Secure That Mail	p. 244
Putting Your Mail in Its Place	p. 247
Deleting Mail	p. 247
Back to You, Sam: Replying to Mail	p. 248
Keeping Track of Your Friends	p. 249
Hot Potatoes: Forwarding Mail	p. 252
Cold Potatoes: Saving Mail	p. 254
Exotic Mail and Mail Attachments	p. 257
Your Own Personal Mail Manager	p. 259
Typing and Talking on the Net	p. 261
The Next Best Thing to Being There	p. 262
Adding Voices and Faces	p. 267
Around the Virtual Town Pump	p. 269
Look Who's Chatting	p. 278
Your First Chat Room	p. 280
Let's Chat	p. 284
Networking Communities	p. 288
Internet Phones and Voice Chat	p. 289
Advanced Internet Activities	p. 291
Setting Up a Web Site	p. 293
Creating a Web Site: The Big Picture	p. 293
Getting Mozilla Composer	p. 297
Making Your First Web Page	p. 299
Pictures to Go: Adding Images to Your Web Page	p. 302
Linking to Other Pages	p. 306
Good Page Design	p. 306
Putting Your Page on the Web	p. 308
Be Master of Your Domain	p. 312
Blog City	p. 313
Wonderful Wacky Wikis	p. 313
Open a Store Online	p. 314
Shout It Out: Getting Your Web Site Found	p. 315
All the World's a Blog	p. 317
What's in a Blog?	p. 317
How to Read a Blog	p. 319
How to Deal with All the Blogs	p. 320
Writing Your Own Blog	p. 325
Lights, Action, Weblog!	p. 327
The Part of Tens	p. 329
Ten Problems and Ten Solutions	p. 331
My Computer Takes Forever to Boot Up, Popup Ads Have Taken Over My Screen, and It's Really Slow	p. 332
This Nice Free Program Won't Run If I Turn Off the Ads	p. 334
I Can't Send Large E-Mail Attachments	p. 334
I'm Worried about ID Theft	p. 335
I Can't Remember All My Web Site Passwords	p. 336
I Get Messages Telling Me E-Mail That I Never Sent Is Undeliverable	p. 337
People Seem to Know a Lot about Me	p. 337
I Can't Get My Kids, Spouse, or Significant Other Off the Computer	p. 338
When I Click a Link, My Browser Says "404 Page Not Found"	p. 339
I Want to Include My E-Mail Address on My Web Page	p. 339
Ten Kinds of Files and What to Do with Them	p. 341
How Many Kinds of Files Are There?	p. 341
Just Plain Text	p. 343
Any Last Requests Before We Execute You?	p. 343
Packing It In	p. 344
For the Artistically Inclined	p. 346
Sound Off!	p. 348
A Trip to the Movies	p. 349
Animation in a Flash	p. 349
None of the Above Files	p. 349
Ten Fun Things You Can Do Online	p. 351
Sharing Pictures with Your Friends and Family	p. 351
Editing an Encyclopedia	p. 352
Watching Short Movies and TV Ads	p. 352
Listening to Current and Classic Radio Programs	p. 353
Playing Checkers	p. 353
Watching the World Go By	p. 354
Journaling Online with Blogs	p. 354
Visiting Art Museums around the World	p. 355
Building Your Own World	p. 355
Touring the Solar System	p. 356
Searching for Extraterrestrial Life or Curing Cancer	p. 356
Adopting a Kid	p. 357
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