How do you surf the net? The paradox is that if you have found this site then you can already surf the net. Below you will find some specific information about using the internet. What is the INTERNET? In very simple terms the internet is the result of several major computer networks being connected into one all encompassing network. Webpages are hosted on computers all around the world permanently connected to the internet, called web servers.    All about browsers What is a browser? Browsers are the software programs which allow you to travel from page to page and site to site. A browser interprets all the data which makes up site's pages and puts them on the screen for you to use. All the information on the INTERNET is written in a language called HyperText Markup Language or HTML. A web browser is a software application which takes all this HTML and puts it onto your computer screen in a form you can understand. Where can I find a browser? There are two main browsers, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. Both of these are free and readily available. Explorer comes as part of windows and will already be on your computer. If Navigator isn't already on your computer then it can be easily downloaded from www.netscape.com/, as can Explorer from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ . Both are also almost always given away as bonuses on those CD-ROM's you get when you buy a computing magazine. How do I use my browser? Start by opening your browser by clicking on the appropriate icon on the desktop or in the program files menu. Internet Explorer Icon Netscape Navigator Icon The browser will load at a designated home page. Across the top of the screen will the main menu bar. Both navigator and explorer have pretty much the same features as can be seen below. features Internet Explorer Description Netscape Navigator Goes back one page Goes forward one page Goes to your start-up page Halts the loading process of the current page Loads the current page again Prints out the current page Gives the user a search engine menu screen Gives a list of web pages and websites which have been saved for future reference How to save webpages to your computer? A menu box where the user can type in a sites address All about URL's All about search engines A search engine works in conjunction with your browser. They are effectively a huge databases linking and organizing sites on a world wide basis. Search engines allow the user to enter a word, title or phrase. The search engine will then produce a list of matching pages. Each of these matches will have a link and a short description. Follow the link to go to the appropriate site. There are a number of different search engines to choose from. The major engines include Lycos, Excite, Altavista, Yahoo and Dogpile. Any of these are quite effective for our purposes.   All about URL's URL stands for Universal Resource Location. It tells the computer where to find a webpage. In simple terms it is the address.   How to save a webpage to your computer Any webpage may be save to your computer using either the Bookmark feature in Netscape, or the Favourites feature in Explorer. Open either of these feature by clicking on the icons and then follow the instruction to either add a bookmark or favourite. Once this has been done the webpage will appear on the list of favourites (or bookmark) The ability to save a page to your computer is a very useful feature in the school environment. You could easily save the page beforehand to a computer or even your schools server, thus avoiding students needing to access the INTERNET at all and giving you much greater control of their learning environment. This feature can be extended to allow a whole website consisting of a number of pages to be saved. The can be achieved by following the procedure below. Open Internet Explorer Click on Favourites Click on Add... Check the box marked Make available offline Click OK and then follow the instructions to decide how many pages will be saved   Cutting and pasting to a word processor Text, diagrams and pictures can all be copied from a webpage using your INTERNET browser. Simply highlight the text or other data by holding down the left button as you drag the mouse over it. Then click to open the edit menu and select copy. Open the word processor where you wish to put the information and open its edit menu and select paste. How to select, copy and paste information in Microsoft Word.   Links Return to the "How To..." page Return to the Resources page Researching facts using the INTERNET Making a word document