Help 

This page will help you navigate in the Web without getting lost. This page will give you all the hints that you need in order to make use of the Internet in a fast and safe way. It will take about 5 minutes to go through the complete Internet Help Guide. Enjoy it!

The Internet is the first Global Network. It has its roots from Europe but in a matter of years have expand itself to the rest of the world. This expansion have made possible for people to have access to all kind of information that you can imagine. In order to obtain this information you must know how to look for it and never get lost.

First of all you need a Fax Modem. This is a device (hardware) that is plugged into your computer either internally or externally, that means inside or outside your computer case. To take advantage of the Internet you it is recommended to have a 14,4 BPS or 28,8 BPS fax modem. Those numbers are the speed of the modems the most common ones are the 28,8 BPS. The faster they are the faster your information will appear on the monitor.

Second of all you need a Browser. A Browser is the software that will permit you to view the pages as they were meant to be seen. For example in order to see this page you are probably using one now. The two most popular Web Browsers are Netscape Navigator 2.x and Microsoft Internet Explorer ver. 3.0. They were made by different companies but their functions are basically the same if not identical.

Last but not least you need to have an Internet Provider. An Internet Provider is a company that will give you the connection that you need between your computer and the Internet. Internet Providers are mostly located in an area near were you are calling from, therefore the connection calls are often at a local phone call rate. One of the most important features that a Internet Provider should carry, besides its location, is the speed of their servers. No matter how fast your fax modem is if their servers are slows the information will take a little longer to show up, so to those servers just give them time.

For any page that you would like to visit you need their internet address or (URL). Usually starting with http (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). For example the address for this web site is:

http://www.pccc.cc.nj.us

Internet vary depending on the servers or the sites, that's why you need a Location bar on your browser and a Bookmark to save them with a Name that you will remember. The letters www after the (http://) stand for World Wide Web. This is a term that you will hear from now on almost every day. The words after (WWW) are the name of the Domain. Here is a list of the most common domains:

www.domain.com	Profit Organizations
www.domain.gov	Government organizations
www.domain.net	Internet Providers
www.domain.edu	Educational Web Sites

It is very important to remember these extensions and make sure you have them when copying an address.

In order to go to any address you need to type them in your Location bar. Ask the person in charge of the Computers to show you where it is. Usually is on the top area of the browser below the Toolbars. In Navigator Netscape you call the Address Locator by pressing the control key (CTRL) and Letter (L) at the same time, then type the location and finally press (ENTER). On the Internet Explorer is basically the same the only thing that change is the combination. For the Internet Explorer is (CTRL) and letter (O).

After visiting a page (other than PCCC's) you can go to the toolbars of the browser and click on "GO" and then "HOME" and you will come back to the PCCC home page, that if the browser is set up to open PCCC as main page or home page.

If by any chance you have just advance one page or more outside the PCCC web site you can also use the "ALT + the left arrow) to go back one page an so on.

One short key to do this is to click outside pictures or linked text on a web page, in other words click on the background with the right button of your mouse and a menu will appear and with the left one click on Back and you will be moved one page before. For forward is the same procedures if you would like to advance one page that you have seen already during the actual session.

* For any question that you may have that was not included in this guide refer to the Comments page to send me a question that you may have. You can find it also in the Home Page of PCCC.