Usually, the provider of an individual account will also provide new-user documentation that describes the basics of using the Internet. You can use the World Wide Web (WWW) and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to access a wealth of information on many subjects, including Internet connectivity. If you don't know how to use FTP, see "Retrieving Files With Anonymous FTP" for a short tutorial. How you access the Web depends on what Web browser you're using. Most Web browsers have online help available.
The InterNIC has produced a series of information bulletins called FYIs. Especially notable is FYI 16, entitled Connecting to the Internet ---What Connecting Institutions Should Anticipate. While this is aimed primarily at U.S. educational institutions, it remains one of the better pieces of documentation on establishing a site on the Internet. The FYI documents are available by WWW and FTP from the InterNIC and from RIPE.
WWW: http://www.isoc.org/
FTP: ftp.isoc.org
When ftp connects with the remote system, it prompts you for a login name. Use the login name "anonymous":ftp ftp.ds.internic.net
Connected to ftp.ds.internic.net. Name (ftp.ds.internic.net:guest): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. Password:Many systems allow any password and request that the password you choose is your user ID. If this fails, the generic password is usually "guest."
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp>Once connected and logged in, you can use ftp's cd and ls commands to look at the files available on the remote system. To obtain a file from the remote system, use the get command. The get command copies one file from the remote system to your local system. To obtain multiple files from the remote system, use the mget command.
ftp> cd fyi 250 CWD command successful. ftp> get fyi6.txt local: fyi6.txt remote: fyi6.txt 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for fyi6.txt (3459 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. 3459 bytes received in 0.46 seconds (7.34 Kbytes/s) ftp>