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Surfing the Net


In the minds of some people, the Internet has become the singles bar of the 90s—a place to meet new people and exchange ideas. The media certainly has done nothing to discourage this idea; if anything, they encourage the idea by publishing the names of Internet sites helter-skelter. Just look at your television set. During one evening, a friend and I saw that no less than 80 percent of the new television shows include an Internet address as part of their programming. A few shows even depend on the Internet as a primary source of entertainment information. Of course, television isn't the only entertainment industry making using of the Internet. Many games and other products now include Internet capabilities of one sort or another as standard fare. Suffice it to say that entertainment's certainly one way to view the Internet, but not the only one by a long shot.

An equally interesting idea is that the Internet is some kind of a remote communications magic carpet. The trade press has recently filled its pages with the term Intranet—a viable term when used in the right way. The problem is that if you read any three people's opinion on what this term means, you'll come away with three equally different definitions. The true meaning behind Intranet is something different than most people expect. I normally reserve this term for an extended form of wide area network (WAN), a business tool that allows employees to share information, even when they're on the road.

Consider all the other uses for the Internet as well. One magazine that I looked at recently suggested that artists use the Internet in place of a gallery to show previews of their art for sale. I've also seen some articles that talk about how the fashion industry uses the Internet to tell people about new trends. Obviously, there are some of the more mundane uses as well. You'll find a number of news groups on the Internet and more than a few people use it for research purposes, for example. In fact, the Internet started as a means for government and educational organizations to exchange information.

The Internet certainly fulfills some part of all these ideas. You can use it as an extremely valuable research tool. Exchanging ideas with other people has always been a part of the Internet. The idea that you can create a Web site for your employees at remote sites to check into is a possibility too. However, none of these uses for the Internet really tells you what it's all about and how you can use it to your best advantage. That's what this chapter is all about. I'm going to spend some time telling you about the foundations of the Internet and the tools you can use to explore it.

What you should come away with is a new appreciation for what the Internet's really all about. I think you'll find that it's a lot more than what you've been told. Surfing the net should be an experience that helps you meet specific goals and broadens your horizons. The problem is, with such a large number of items on the menu, you could easily get lost.

A Little History


Some people are laboring under the misconception that the Internet is a relatively new technology. Actually, it's older than the technology in your PC. The first rumblings of the Internet started in the 1960s when computer scientists saw the need to connect their computers together to exchange information. They weren't the only ones to see a need, though. The U.S. government saw that allowing researchers to communicate through a computer network would also advance the projects they were working on. The Department of Defense (DoD) was the first group on the bandwagon with an Internet predecessor known as ARPANet (U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). Finally, educators saw a need to exchange information as well. Not only would a nationwide computer network help them keep up to date with current technology, but it would add another educational opportunity for students as well. What came of all this discussion was something known as NSFNet (National Science Foundation Network).

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, though. Let's take a look at some of the decisions behind these networks. Remember that at this time there wasn't anything like a local area network (LAN) around to look to for ideas, and WANs weren't even a glimmer in someone's eye yet. People were used to connecting dumb terminals to mainframes within a specific location; the idea of outside communication wasn't very common at all. For the most part, mainframes didn't even speak the same language—connecting one network to another was physically impossible in all but a few cases. The combination of proprietary mainframe architectures and lack of connections must have seemed like nearly impossible hurdles to overcome.

So, given the environment in the 1960s, how do you create a nationwide (and soon an international) network? Well, the first thing you've got to do is figure out a way to get all of those computers talking to each other. That's where TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) comes into play. This is still the common language of the Internet today. TCP/IP allows computers to talk with one another even if their architectures are totally different. The TCP portion of the protocol tells the computers how to talk to each other, while the IP portion could be compared to an envelope used to transfer messages from one computer to the other. Two computers would establish communication and then exchange data. The only requirement for the data itself was that it appear in an IP envelope. If you think about it in the form of an envelope, the idea of the IP protocol is a lot easier to understand. I'll go into more details about the exact workings of TCP/IP in the "Understanding the OSI Model" section of Chapter 21, "Peer-to-Peer Networking."

After computers had a common communication method, it was possible to start allowing user access to data. The mainframe interfaces of the time were less than user friendly, however. To give users something they could interact with, the developers of ARPANet starting putting together some of the services we take for granted today. The very first Internet services included FTP (file transfer protocol), e-mail (electronic mail), and remote login (Telnet). These services worked together to provide a front end—a user interface. Even though these utilities are still around today, you'll find that they've changed a great deal from the time they were created. Suffice it to say that today's interface is both friendlier and easier to use.

Now that we've got a common language and a method for accessing the data a server contains, you might think we have everything needed to create the Internet. A wide area network like the Internet can't function without one additional feature. You need a method for adding and removing computers from the network in a way that doesn't disrupt communications. That was one of the main goals of the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency. They combined TCP/IP, the user interface, and the modularity to allow computers to connect and disconnect from the network with ease into something called ARPANet. That was the first name for the Internet as we know it today.

ARPANet wasn't an immediate success. As with any government project, by the time ARPANet was ready to go, there were already a lot of proprietary connections in place. What we had was a mishmash of disjointed connections that worked, but not very well. ARPANet did provide a central server for all these computers as they added TCP/IP to their list of connection types, however. Remember, too, that there were few reasons for anyone to get too excited about ARPANet because access was still limited to defense contractors and associated research facilities. ARPANet still managed to grow, though mainly because these defense-oriented agencies needed to share information.

By the early 1980s, ARPANet became something less of a large single network. It closely resembled what we now call a backbone. A backbone on a network is the connection between major network sites—it's like the relationship between a freeway and city streets. Now you had a lot of local area networks (the city streets) connected to one major network (the freeway). Something else happened during this time as well. The last of the computer systems on the network converted to full TCP/IP support in 1983. When this last piece of the puzzle dropped into place, the Internet was born. You now had a lot of computer networks connected to a single backbone called ARPANet—essentially the same thing we're using today.

OK, so now I've covered the basic single network history of the physical Internet, but that still doesn't give you access to it or explain why there are so many networks in existence today. Something else had to happen before the average person would gain access to the government's networked computer system. One of those events was the emergence of supercomputing centers in the mid 1980s. The National Science Foundation (NSF) established these centers around the country at larger universities. There were only five centers in the beginning, because supercomputers are extremely expensive to build. The fact that this kind of computing power wasn't available to most people at the time meant that everyone wanted to use them. The NSF needed some way to connect universities and other educational centers without supercomputers to these centers. Just think about it for a second and you'll figure out that ARPANet provided a nearly perfect solution.

Unfortunately, connecting everyone directly to ARPANet didn't work out very well. The problem for the NSF was that ARPANet suffered from staffing problems and the usual amount of bureaucracy. The DoD didn't want just anyone connecting to their secure network. On the other hand, the ARPANet concept provided one of the few ways of connecting computers together without too many problems. In the end, the NSF funded a backbone network called NSFNet to connect these supercomputer centers together. Eventually, NSFNet and ARPANet were connected together even though they were managed separately (starting one of the basic principles of the Internet today—multi-network support).

By the late 1980s, the Internet (as it was now officially called) had grown too large for the NSF to administer. One of the problems was that the Internet provided an easy way for people to exchange ideas. The fact that everyone was using the Internet for things other than supercomputer center traffic didn't help matters much. To keep things under control, the NSF awarded a contract to a private company called Merit Inc. It was Merit's responsibility to manage and upgrade the Internet so that everyone could continue to exchange ideas and still use the supercomputing centers. Merit is actually a consortium of educational organizations in Michigan. They worked with MCI and IBM to get the upgrade completed.

One of the big differences between NSFNet and ARPANet is that the NSF actually promoted the idea of spreading Internet access around (because the other network was defense specific, access was understandably limited to folks who actually needed it). A university or other educational facility could gain access to the Internet only if they had a plan to spread that access around to their staff and students. A few years after most universities got access to the Internet, there were already plans underway to connect primary and secondary schools. In addition, people who graduated from colleges and universities that were connected to the Internet told their employers about what kind of data was available. Now those companies wanted access as well.

All these requests for access prompted another contract award by the NSF in April of 1993. That's when a consortium of companies formed something called InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center). They were assigned to manage the daily running of the Internet. If you want to build a server and want to add it to the Internet, for example, then you have to contact InterNIC to get an IP address and register a domain name. So, why is this management needed? Think about it this way: The IP address is equivalent to your mailing address. If your mailing address weren't unique, then the postal department would have a difficult time delivering your mail. The domain name has to be unique as well. A domain name is the first step in finding a particular resource on the Internet using a browser (more on this topic later).

In the early 1990s, Merit proposed that the Internet be made public so that everyone could participate. At first, the NSF was reluctant to make something designed for educational use available to the public; however, after a lot of conversation, Merit and NSF reached an agreement. A commercial concern could access the network if they agreed to pay network usage fees. These fees would provide funds for NSF-sponsored projects and the upkeep of the network itself. That's how you get access. Your Internet service provider pays fees to access the network and you pay the service provider for your share of that access.

By now, you know that the Internet has also grown much larger than just ARPANet or NSFNet. Such a large network needs management. Here's where two other groups come into play. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is the head honcho of network management. They're the ones who approve new network standards and protocols. Essentially, the IAB is a consortium of all the service providers on the Internet. Under the IAB are several committees. The most important committee from a user perspective is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It's composed of scientists and engineers who design new Internet technology. I'll describe this group in more detail as the chapter progresses.

What is the Internet?


I've already pursued the question of what the Internet is all about from a historical point of view. However, history only gives you a part of the picture—it tells you why some things are they way they are today. It's time to look at the Internet today—what you can expect to see when you log on. There isn't any way that I can cover all the specifics in two chapters that some authors take an entire book to cover. What we'll look at is going to be very specific to what you, as the user, need to know.

I'll begin with a discussion of one very important Internet topic—uniform resource locators (URLs). You can't get anywhere on the Internet without knowing something of this topic, yet very few texts really tell you much about them. I'm going to give you an overview of URLs from the layman's point of view: how they are put together and what you need to know to use them.

Another important topic is protocols. If you read through the history section of this chapter, you'll see that the Internet was founded on several different protocols like TCP/IP and FTP—one is used for communications purposes, and the other is used for the purpose of exchanging information. Today's computing is more complex, and the protocols you'll use have to provide more in the way of flexibility to keep up.



Note: From this point on in the chapter, I'm going to use Microsoft Network (MSN) as my Internet service provider. If you've decided to use another service provider, your screens and addresses will probably differ from mine. The principles I'm trying to get across are the same, though, so don't worry about the differences too much. I'll also use Internet Explorer 2.0 as my browser. There are a lot of other browsers on the market. I'm not saying that Internet Explorer 2.0 is better or worse than they are—it just happens to be the one supplied with Windows NT.


Understanding Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)


The URL is the basis for movement on the Internet, so it's important to understand how it works. Let's begin by looking at the default Internet Explorer home page address—that's where you'll check in before exploring the rest of the Internet:


http://www.msn.com/

At first, you might think that it's all gibberish, but there are some very definite standards for putting these site locations together.

Actually, this is a very typical URL that identifies a particular server and clues you in about its capabilities. Let's begin with the http:// portion of the URL. This tells you what kind of data exchange protocol you'll be using the access the server. In this case, you'll use hypertext transfer protocol. I describe the two major data transfer protocols (HTTP and FTP) in the next section. There are other data transfer protocols as well, like Gopher and Archie, but I'll leave them for you to explore at your leisure. Knowing the data transfer protocol tells you a lot about what to expect from the server. An FTP site, for example, isn't going to provide much in the way of user-friendly graphics.

The next section contains the domain name system (DNS) address for the site you want to visit—in this case, www.msn.com/. There are three sections to every DNS address. (There's a fourth section in some DNS addresses that contains the computer name, but you won't see it very often.) The first section of the DNS address tells you about the service (or, as some books call it, the subdomain). We're going to visit the World Wide Web (WWW) in this case. WWW sites almost always provide some type of graphical presentation.

The second section of the DNS address contains the domain name itself. In this case, it's MSN for Microsoft Network. You'll find that most domain names are acronyms for the organization—some of which can get quite convoluted. The Internet site has to register the domain name with InterNIC. It's the unique identifier you use in place of an IP address. Imagine having to try to remember 32-bit numbers for each site you want visit in place of a convenient name.

The third section of the DNS address is the domain identifier. Table 19.1 shows the basis for this part of the DNS address. InterNIC simply picks the one that fits the organization best.

Table 19.1. Common Internet domain identifiers.

Identifier Description
.com Any kind of commercial company like Microsoft or CompuServe. Most on-line service Internet access providers will have a .com domain identifier.
.edu Educational institutions use this domain identifier as long as they represent a not-for-profit site.
.gov All government agencies use this domain identifier. If you see it, you know that you're dealing with someone from the United States government.
.mil The United States military uses this special domain identifier to keep it separated from the rest of the government.
.net Normally, this is reserved for Internet access providers using this domain identifier. The exception to the rule is if the access provider is a commercial concern. In that case, it normally uses the .com domain identifier.
.org There are some sites that fall outside of these other designations. They use the .org domain identifier.

OK, that's all there is to a basic URL. Some URLs are a lot longer than the one that I showed, however. What does the rest of the information mean? Let's look at another example. In this case, we'll look at a page for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA):


http://www.gsh.org/NSTA_SSandC/nses_home.htm

Part of this address should already be familiar, so I won't cover it again. Let's start looking at the section after the domain name.

In this case, we're looking at an organization that has rented space on someone else's server. The NSTA SSC (Scope, Sequence, and Coordination Project)—/NSTA_SSandC—actually exists within a subdirectory on the gsh server. Think of those forward slashes in the same way you would subdirectories in a DOS path and you'll be miles ahead.

We're in a particular area of the NSTA SSC site—in this case, the /nses_home page that contains National Science Education Standards information. Notice the .htm extension here. Some browsers extend this to .html; Explorer 2.0 doesn't. HTML stands for hypertext markup language. I'll describe it more in the next section. For right now, all you need to know is that when you see this extension, you're looking at a page that has been graphically formatted by your browser.

There is one other form of the URL that I want to talk about, and it concerns e-mail addresses. Understanding how these work is really easy if you understand a basic URL. You'll normally see something like this: johnm@msn.com. The first part of the address is the person you want to contact—in this case, johnm. The @ (at) sign separates the receiver's name from the DNS address of the server used to hold the message. We've already covered how to decipher the DNS address, so I won't cover that again.

A Quick View of Protocols


The basis for conversation on the Internet is the protocol. Just as the name implies, a protocol is a formal set of rules. Protocols define the way that we conduct business as humans. You can break them down in a number of ways, both formal and informal. A formal rule might be one that says you have to be in the office by a certain time to begin work. An informal rule could be as simple as not making disparaging remarks about someone's new haircut or clothes.

Computers need rules as well. You'll never run into some of them because they affect really esoteric things like the distance between nodes on a network. Others, like those used for Internet communication, might become very important to you. There are literally thousands of rules that affect Internet communications in one way or another, but I want to concentrate on some of the protocols that you'll see as a user. Table 19.2 shows some of the newer (and older) protocols that you'll run into while you're surfing the net.

Table 19.2 Common Internet protocols.

Acronym Full Name Description
CGI Common Gateway Interface This is a special method for accessing an application from a Web page. When a vendor asks you to enter information on a form, for example, you're using CGI. The most common use for CGI is database applications. This is the only Web server to background application standard currently supported by the IETF (I'll talk about them in a bit). Two other proposed methods are ISAPI and NSAPI.
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture You won't see this technology today. It may appear in a Java application that you see tomorrow, however. The purpose of this protocol is to describe data and application code in a way that a variety of computer types can use. It'll eventually allow you to goapplication to a Web page and download a mini-(applet) as part of that page. This is the Object Management Group's (OMG) alternative to Microsoft's ActiveX. CORBA was originally designed by IBM for inclusion with OS/2, but other companies like Sun Microsystems support this standard now as well. You can see an alpha version of CORBA at http://splash.javasoft.com/pages/intro.html.
DCOM Distributed Common Object Model this discussion). It's Microsoft's latest experiment in distributed mini-applications (applets). The real story here is that you'll be able to use OLE over the Internet in a new way. The applets that you'll see will provide all of the features we covered in the OLE chapter of the book. The big difference is that you'll be able to use these features over the Internet. ActiveX applications will require Explorer 3.0. You can download a copy of Explorer 3.0 at:


http://www.microsoft.com/ie/appdev/controls/default.htm.


The same site will allow you to see some ActiveX controls in action.
FTP File Transfer Protocol We've already talked about this particular protocol to a certain extent. It represents one of the earliest forms of communication that the Internet recognized. There aren't any graphics to speak of at an FTP site—just files to download. This is the only file download protocol currently supported by the IETF. The limitations of this particular protocol have prompted other standards like CORBA and DCOM.
HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol Whenever you go to a Web site that begins with http:, you're using this protocol. It's the technology that enables you to download an HTML (hypertext markup language) document—the kind that includes fancy graphics and buttons. Essentially, HTTP allows you to download an HTML script—a document containing commands instead of actual graphics. Your browser reads these script commands and displays buttons, text, graphics, or other objects accordingly. That's why the capabilities of your browser are so important (and also the reason why you'll need a new browser if you want to use any of the new protocols I've mentioned in this table). However, some vendors are already complaining that the IETF standard versions of both HTTP and HTML are old and less than optimal for tomorrow's needs. That's why there's such a proliferation of other protocol standards and associated HTML script commands on the Internet today; people are looking for better ways of making information accessible.
INFS Internet Network File System Think of this protocol as you would the file system on your own computer. Whether you use NTFS, HPFS, or VFAT, they all represent a way to organize the information on your drive and provide fast access to it. This file system does essentially the same thing for Internet files. However, it has to have a connection to the data. That's done with TCP/IP—the networking standard we've talked about in the past.
ISAPI Internet Server Application Programming Interface This is another Microsoft protocol. We've talked about other types of application programming interfaces in the past. ISAPI does the same thing for an Internet server—it allows you to access the features that the server has to offer. In this case, a programmer would use ISAPI to allow you to access a host application through an Internet server. You'll probably see ISAPI restricted to database and e-mail applications at first, but I already see other application types on the horizon. You might see it used as part of a turn-based game or even an on-line word processor, for example.
NSAPI Netscape Application Programming Interface Not to be outdone by Microsoft (see ISAPI), Netscape came up with its own API for connecting Web servers to background applications. As with ISAPI, NSAPI will allow you to write a data entry (or other) application for the Internet using advanced HTML scripting commands and allow it to interact with applications on your network. As with Microsoft's offering, the major application that I see for this API right now is some type of data entry or e-mail system.
ODSI Open Directory Services Interface The Microsoft Network (MSN) provides a somewhat better interface to the Internet than most of the other on-line services I've tried. At least it's faster than most. ODSI is part of the reason for this added speed. It provides a common naming convention API that'll eventually allow you to treat an Internet Web site just like any other folder in Explorer.

I really haven't begun to scratch the surface of all the things you'll see out there on the Internet. It's probably better to look at Table 19.2 as a sampling of some of the more interesting technologies that you'll use. The problem with all this new technology is that they aren't standardized. As I mentioned before, the Internet has its own standards committee called the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). They're the ones responsible for providing a standard set of HTML script commands. The problem with all these new protocols is that they introduce new scripting commands that could cause problems in the future. How can a browser handle a propriety script command? In most cases, it will ignore it, but you can't be sure. Even if the browser does ignore the foreign command, you'll be stuck without access to some of the features on a given Web page. There are other problems with the current trend as well. What if a vendor simply modifies an existing script command? A browser won't know to ignore it in this case, and you could end up with a frozen machine as a result. I think you can start to see my point about the need for standards.

The problem's more severe that you might think. There are new Internet technologies cropping up that don't have any old standards to follow. Just about every vendor out there has their own form of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), for example. Without a standard way to access this feature, you might find support for your browser spotty at best.

It's frustrating to think about the way protocols will affect your ability to surf the net in the future. However, I think the problem is going to be short term. I'm often reminded of the problems with graphic adapters when IBM decided to introduce the 8514 adapter instead of upgrading VGA. Sure, we'll probably go through several years of trying to figure out what standards are best, but in the long run, some technologies will win out and we'll eventually end up with a standard. The trick for right now is to figure out which technologies are going to gain market share and stick with them.

Taking the Mystery Out of Intranets


Intranets are the next phase of Internet development for many companies. A recent survey showed that about 48 percent of the medium- to large-size companies out there are planning some kind of Intranet strategy. This includes everything from a company BBS (71 percent of those implementing an Intranet) and database access (53 percent) to discussion groups (40 percent) and training (34 percent). Obviously, most of these companies plan to use their Intranet for more than one purpose.

Let's take a quick step back before we look at why this is important to you. PC interconnections started with LANs. Essentially, they provided the means to connect a group of people in the same physical location together so that they could share resources like printers and files. Next came WANs. This version of the network allowed companies to connect people in different physical locations together. In this case, the need to share physical resources was less pronounced. A WAN typically allows its users to share a variety of files, with database and e-mail topping the list.

It might seem at first that everyone's needs would be met by either a LAN or a WAN (or some combination thereof), but they aren't. A LAN is fairly low cost, but it won't allow people in different areas—say, in two different countries—to talk with each other. On the other hand, a WAN can get to be very expensive. The problem is getting all the required connections together. Each company has to define a separate set of connections. Every time you want to expand the WAN, you have to define yet another set of connections. Intranets rely on the connections already established for the Internet; the only requirements for adding a new connection are a computer, an Internet account, and a modem. Instead of looking at a very inflexible solution of a WAN, Intranets add much needed flexibility without too much additional work.

It doesn't take too long to realize that WANs suffer from another problem as well. Consider the cost of temporarily adding a connection for someone outside the company or of providing service to someone on the road. Dial-up networks take care of part of this need, but now you're looking at long-distance expenses and a loss of security. An Intranet can provide very low-cost connectivity to a company network today. Vendors are working on solutions that will make security as airtight as possible, although you won't see those solutions today. Best of all, a user with high-speed communications needs can access the Internet through something other than a standard telephone line. For example, T1 and ISDN are both viable solutions for permanent sites today. ISDN may become a viable solution for the remote user in the future.

Companies definitely recognize the potential of an Intranet over the current solution of WANs. Of the companies that plan to implement an Intranet solution, 79 percent cited ease of use as their main reason for doing so. Another 69 percent saw that ease of availability was also a good reason for using this solution. The two surprising numbers (although they shouldn't be much of a surprise) are that 51 percent of the respondents saw cost as the major reason to use an Intranet and another 65 percent saw using the existing Internet structure as a real advantage. Suffice it to say that Intranets are going to be in a lot of people's futures.

The bottom line? Intranets won't solve every need. You'll still experience some problems—the greatest of which are security and speed. Of the two, security is the most pressing problem (42 percent of the companies in our previous survey said that security was the major reason they didn't have an Intranet solution today). Will WANs and LANs go away? I don't think so. Each of these network structures serve specific needs. However, of the two, WANs will be most affected by the Intranet solution.



Tip: You don't necessarily need an Internet connection to implement an Intranet. A company could use an Internet server and browser on a closed local network to act as an office bulletin board or the front end to a database, for example. They could also put an HTML copy of a users manual where everyone could use it. This also offers a degree of platform independence, because there are servers and browsers for most software platforms.


Using the Internet Explorer


Now that we've gotten some the basics out of the way, let's take a look at what you need to do to get going on the Internet. Microsoft makes the task very easy if you go the route that they've set up for you. That includes using Internet Explorer as a browser and MSN as an Internet service provider. You could easily substitute your own choice for Internet service provider or use a different browser. I simply chose these options because they're easy to set up with Windows NT and don't cost you a penny to implement (obviously, you'll have to pay connections fees for MSN). The next three sections cover installation, basic usage, and some Internet search techniques.

Installation


Windows NT doesn't automatically install the Internet software for you. However, installation couldn't be easier; Windows NT does most of it for you. Make sure that you install MSN (or whatever other service provider you intend to use) first, and then install the Internet Explorer using the following procedure.



Note: You'll need to install the Microsoft Network (MSN) before you can use this procedure. We looked at the procedure for installing this support in "The Microsoft Network" section of Chapter 18, "Talking to the Outside World."

  1. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. You'll see an Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 19.1 (your list of programs will probably differ from mine). This is where you'll start most of your program installation—Internet Explorer is no different. We're going to add it using the standard application method on the Install/Uninstall page, however, rather than using the Windows Setup page.

    Figure 19.1. The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box is the starting place for most program installation under Windows NT.

  2. Click the Install button. You'll see a dialog box telling you to insert the installation floppy or CD. Make sure that you insert your Windows NT CD into the appropriate drive.

  3. Click Next. Windows NT displays a Run Installation Program dialog box and searches the various drives. It'll eventually tell you that it found an installation program (in most cases, on the Windows NT CD). This isn't the one you're looking for. What you'll want to find is the Internet folder on the Windows NT CD.

  4. Click the Browse button. Use the Browse dialog box (it looks and acts like a standard File Open dialog box) to find the Internet folder. Within this folder are other folders—one for each type of machine that Windows NT support. Select the folder for your machine, and then look for the Internet Explorer setup program within. In most cases, this is going to be MSIE20.EXE.

  5. Click the Open button in the Browse dialog box. You'll return to the Run Installation Program dialog box.

  6. Click Finish to start running the Internet Explorer installation program. You'll see the Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 Installation Kit dialog box shown in Figure 19.2.

    Figure 19.2. The Internet Explorer Installation process starts with this dialog box.

  7. Click Yes. Windows NT copies the files to your disk and then displays the Internet Explorer License Agreement dialog box shown in Figure 19.3. You'll want to read through the text in this dialog box before proceeding. It tells you how Internet Explorer is licensed for use on your machine.

  8. Click I Agree. Windows NT displays the Browse for Folder dialog box shown in Figure 19.4 that asks you to select a parent directory for Internet Explorer. Essentially, all you need to do is select a drive unless you want to install Internet Explorer to a subdirectory on your machine. Some people may want to install Internet Explorer to the Programs folder on their Windows 95 drive.

    Figure 19.3. The Internet Explorer License Agreement is where you agree to Microsoft terms for using the product.

    Figure 19.4. The Browse for Folder dialog box allows you to choose where you want to install Internet Explorer.

  9. Select an Internet Explorer location and click OK. You'll see Windows NT copy some more files from the installation CD to your drive. It'll display a completion message when finished.

  10. Click OK to clear the completion dialog box. At this point, you should see a new icon on your desktop: The Internet. If not, shut down and reboot your machine. (Whether you have to reboot seems to depend on which network options you have installed; Internet Explorer required TCP/IP support.)


Setting Up Internet Explorer


Once you get Internet Explorer installed, you'll want to set it up for use. There are two routes to go here, but they're both essentially the same. What you need to do now is specify some type of Internet service provider. I used MSN in this case because it's already installed on the machine and seems to provide at least a tolerable level of support. You could also choose to use any other Internet service provider at this point—the only requirement is that you have the proper support installed for contacting them.



Tip: The first time you run Internet Explorer, you'll use the Internet Setup Wizard to install support for it. You can always rerun this program using the Internet Setup Wizard option in your Internet Tools folder. This folder normally appears in the Accessories folder in the Start menu. Always run the Wizard whenever you change Internet service providers or make some other major change to your Internet Explorer setup.

  1. Double-click the Internet Explorer icon on the Desktop if this is the first time you're running it. Otherwise, select the Internet Setup Wizard option from the Internet Tools folder (see Figure 19.5).

  2. Click Next. Your first decision is how you want to connect your machine to the Internet (see Figure 19.6). There are two choices: Locally using the telephone lines or remotely through a network. I selected the Connect Using My Phone Line option in this case because I wanted to use a local connection.

    Figure 19.5. The Internet Setup Wizard allows you to configure Internet Explorer for use.

    Figure 19.6. Your first decision in setting up Internet Explorer is how to make the connection.

  3. Click Next. Now you'll need to decide on a service provider, as shown in Figure 19.7. There are two choices: MSN or another Internet service provider. I chose the MSN option.

    Figure 19.7. If you want to use a local connection, you have to decide on an Internet service provider using this dialog box.



    Looking Ahead: We'll look at several Internet service provider options in Appendix B. You can scan through these choices if you decide not to go the MSN route. I've also included some helpful hints on choosing an Internet provider, including some trade-offs you'll make by going certain routes.

  4. Click Next. If you haven't already signed up for the Microsoft Network, you'll need to do so before you can complete the Internet setup. That's the purpose of the dialog box shown in Figure 19.8. Simply click Yes if you're already a member or No if you aren't. Because I'm already a member, I chose Yes. Before you can go much further, you'll have to configure your MSN connection for use. Even if you're already a member, you'll need to download some additional information and select a new telephone number for access. (The default number only provides MSN access; the new one will provide both MSN and Internet access.)

    Figure 19.8. You'll need to sign up with MSN before completing the Internet setup if you're not already a member.

  5. Click Next. You'll see the Microsoft Network dialog box. It contains some information about what kinds of services you can expect from MSN.

  6. Click OK. You'll see the telephone number entry dialog box shown in Figure 19.9. All you need to do here is enter your area code (if necessary) and the first three digits of your telephone number.

  7. Click OK. You'll see a dialog box similar to the one in Figure 19.10 right before MSN calls the local access point to download an updated set of Internet access numbers for you.

    Figure 19.9. MSN will try to find a local telephone number for you to use to download a full set of Internet telephone numbers.

    Figure 19.10. One of the MSN setup steps is to download an updated set of Internet access numbers.

  8. Click Connect. At this point, you'll see the familiar MSN Sign In dialog box that we've talked about in previous chapters.

  9. Enter your name and password (if necessary), and then click Connect to start downloading a set of MSN and Internet access numbers. MSN will send a new set of numbers to your computer. After the download process is complete, your computer automatically hangs up, and then Windows NT displays the dialog box shown in Figure 19.11. This is where you'll actually select the numbers you want to use to access the Internet. Notice that the Service Type field already has Internet and The Microsoft Network selected.

    Figure 19.11. Once you have a new set of telephone numbers to use, it's time to select a combination MSN and Internet access number.

  10. You'll need to select a primary access number as a minimum. Just click Change to display a list of numbers you can use. Select a number from the dialog box and then click OK to complete the process. As you can see in Figure 19.11, I selected a San Diego connection for my primary number.

  11. Click OK. You'll see another dialog box stating that Windows NT needs to copy some files to your hard drive.

  12. Click OK to start the file installation process. After the file installation process is complete, Windows NT spends some time reconfiguring your system's network support. For one thing, it adds some TCP/IP support. You'll also need a dial-up adapter—another feature that Windows NT automatically adds. You may want to take a look at the Network Properties dialog box after the installation is complete to see what changes actually took place (just right-click Network Neighborhood and select Properties from the context menu). Windows NT finally displays a dialog box telling you that it needs to restart the system.

  13. Click OK to restart the system. You'll have Internet access through MSN after you log back into your machine.

This procedure covered just one of three basic methods for gaining access to the Internet from Internet Explorer. I think it's the easiest method if you just want to look at what's available before you make any permanent decisions. Obviously, the LAN method that I didn't select in Step 2 is for those folks who need to access the Internet from a server. Step 3 also showed that you could access the Internet using a third-party service provider. If you decide to go either of these routes, you'll need to get some additional information from the service provider like your IP address.

Getting On-Line


By this point, you're wondering what else you'll have to do to get on-line. Actually, the setup and configuration are all done. All you need to do now is double-click the Internet icon on your desktop. You'll see a blank page like the one shown in Figure 19.12. Internet Explorer is looking for its home page. The waving flag in the upper right corner tells you that it's actively looking for something. After a few seconds, you'll see the familiar MSN Sign In dialog box that I've talked about in the past. Enter your name and password (if necessary) and click Connect to get started.

Figure 19.12. Your Internet session always begins with a blank page as Internet Explorer gets set up.

Normally, you'd see some MSN specific information at this point. The difference now is that you've reconfigured MSN to also act as your Internet service provider. You'll see an Internet home page like the one shown in Figure 19.13. (As with the other sections in this area, I'm using Internet Explorer with MSN. Your home page will look different if you're using another Internet service provider.)

Figure 19.13. Every Internet service provider supplies you with a home page—some are better equipped than others.

Now that we're on-line, let's start taking a look at some of your controls in more detail. Everything you'll need is on the toolbar. I don't think I've ever used the menu system in Internet Explorer except to see what it contained. (There's always an exception to the rule. In this case, it's the Favorites menu that I'll describe in the next section.) The following list gives you a quick overview of the various controls on the menu. I'll cover some of them in detail as the chapter progresses:



Tip: You can save your favorite Web pages on disk for future reference using the File | Save As command. The default save area is the desktop, making it easy for you to just double-click on a favorite Web page the next time you need to access it. Clicking on one of the hypertext links will open a connection. I use this feature to store the top-level page of places I visit on a regular basis, making it easier for me to find what I want in a pinch. If you don't want to clutter your desktop with a lot of Internet site locations, just stick them in a folder on your desktop. You'll still be able to find them quickly by opening the folder when needed.

Now that you've gotten an overview of the Internet Explorer connection features, let's take a more detailed view of specific features. The following sections give you a little more information about what I consider the essentials.

Favorite Places

Nothing is worse than finding precisely the Internet site you need to accomplish specific tasks and then not being able to find it again later. I gave you a tip in the previous section for placing Internet pages on the desktop. Obviously, that's one way to gobble up a lot of disk space fast. Saving specific Internet pages is something you should consider doing for sites that you visit a lot. What about those places that you need to visit, but not on a regular basis? That's where the Favorite Places menu and the Open Favorites/Add to Favorite Places speed buttons of Internet Explorer come into play.

Let's look first at the process for adding a favorite place. Let's say that you want to build a folder of product listings. How would you do it? Well, one of the product listing sites is sitting right in front of you when you're at the MSN home page. Just click the Microsoft Products icon and you'll see a display similar to the one shown in Figure 19.14.

Click the Add to Favorites button, and you'll see the Add to Favorites dialog box shown in Figure 19.15. Notice that Internet Explorer automatically suggests a location name for you. Just click Add for the moment to complete the process.

Figure 19.14. Always start out with a few easy entries when building your Favorite Places menu.

Figure 19.15. The Add to Favorites dialog box allows you to add a new favorite site to your Favorites menu.

If you look at your Favorites menu, you'll see a new entry—Microsoft Products—as shown in Figure 19.16. If you think about this menu for a few seconds, however, you'll come to realize that it doesn't take long to fill it with entries. What if you have a lot of favorite places that you need to categorize? Let's take another look at our favorite places.

Figure 19.16. Adding a favorite place using the Add to Favorites dialog box also adds it to the Favorites menu.

If you choose Open Favorites, you'll see a typical single pane Explorer view. You can add folders to that view just like you can to any other Explorer pane. Right-click within the pane and choose Folder from the New menu of the Context menu. In this case, I renamed the folder Product Listings because I plan to store all my product listings in it. All you need to do now is move the Favorite Place icon to the new folder. You'll end up with something like the display in Figure 19.17. The Microsoft Products favorite place icon appears within the Product Listings folder. How does this affect your Favorites menu? Close the two folders (Product Listings and Favorites) and then look at the Favorites menu. You'll see the Product Listings folder within the Favorites menu and the Microsoft Products icon as a submenu. As you can see, it's easy to arrange the various Favorite Places icons below the Favorites menu.

Figure 19.17. It's essential to organize your favorite places if you have a lot of them—use folders to get the job done.

Finding What You Need

If you do a lot of research on the Internet like I do, then you'll realize the benefit of finding what you need quickly. Internet Explorer provides you with some really handy tools in this regard. Let's look at the most basic tool first. Just click the Search the Internet speed button, and you'll see a display similar to the one shown in Figure 19.18.

Figure 19.18. Internet Explorer provides access to five different search sites on the Internet.

These entries actually provide hyperlinks to other locations on the Internet. You'll find that a lot of Web pages work this way, but this is the first time we're looking at such an obvious example. All you need to do to use this page is enter a keyword into a blank and click the associated Search button. Internet Explorer takes you to the appropriate search Web site and starts the search for you.

Let's try out a search. Type ActiveX in the Excite blank, and then click Search. You'll end up on a Web page like the one shown in Figure 19.19. There are a few things you should notice about this page. The first feature is that you can refine your search. Maybe a single keyword really didn't refine the search enough and you need to find something more specific. I haven't found a single search Web page that doesn't provide this ability in some form. In fact, many of them do provide very detailed search mechanisms.

Figure 19.19. A search Web page like Excite allows you to find specific information on the Internet.

There's something else you should notice. Each one of the result entries (also called a hit) contains a confidence level. This tells you how confident the search engine is about the results it found. Normally, the search engine uses a variety of criteria like the number of times the keyword appears in an article or other source of information to determine this number. Obviously, a Boolean search starts to make a confidence calculation more difficult. The method of determining a confidence factor is one of the things that will determine which search engines you use. I use a variety of them for different purposes (more on that in a bit).

Web search pages normally don't list every site that the search engine finds. Notice that Excite only lists 10 of them (other services will allow you to change the number of entries listed as part of the search criteria). You have to click the Next Documents button to see the next group of 10 on the list. The order in which you list the various hits determines which sites get listed first. Notice that Excite defaults to listing the sites it finds by confidence level. This makes sense because you want to find the best sites first. You can click the Sort by Site button if you want an alphabetical listing. Some search engines provide other sorting criteria. The Deja News site (I'll talk about it in a bit), for example, allows you to sort by author as well.

You might think that one search engine would be enough to fulfill your needs, but that simply isn't true. The problem with trying to come up with a "best fit" answer for any of these search engines is that each one works differently. A search engine that works fine for my needs may not work at all for you. I thought it important, therefore, to provide a list of some of the more common search engines and a quick overview of how they work. I'd encourage you to try them all to see what works best for you and in what situations. The following list talks about the search engines I use; fortunately, most of them are accessed through the Search the Internet button on Internet Explorer. I've provided URLs for those that you'll have to access directly. Just click the Open button on the toolbar and enter the URL shown to access the search engine page.


On Your Own


Install Internet Explorer using the instructions in this chapter. Try going on-line and looking around. The MSN home page is usually a good place to start, but don't limit your choices.

Try out another browser like the one provided for CompuServe. How does it differ from Internet Explorer? What about other browsers you may have used?

Try dismantling some of the URLs stored in your browser. What do these URLs tell you about the site that you've accessed using them? Spend some time on the Internet looking for various URL types.

Build a list of favorite Web sites. Don't forget to include Internet search sites like Lycos.

Spend some time learning about the various institutions that manage the Internet. You can visit the InterNIC site at FTP:\\ftp.internic.net or rnic.net">HTTP:\\www.internic.net for example. I've also included some of the other important sites in Appendix B. Just browse through the list in the section "Public Service Access."

Try out the various Web search engines using the same keyword to see how they differ. What kind of results did you get? Use various keywords to see how each of these search engines will help you in a particular area of research. Try refining the search to find very specific information. How do each of the search engines work when it comes to refining the results you get from a single keyword?

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