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The Internet For Dummies
Published:
March 2, 2015
Overview
Get up and running on the Internet—the fast and easy way
If you're an Internet newcomer and want to get up to speed without all the intimidating technical jargon, The Internet For Dummies has you covered. With over 5,000,000 copies sold*, The Internet For Dummies is the #1 choice for Internet newcomers.
Inside, you'll discover how to make the most of the Internet, get accustomed to popular sites, find the information and items you need fast, and stay away from the bad stuff floating around online.
- Catches you up on the latest online trends, from social networking sites to blogs and more
- Includes the latest on Google Chrome, getting good search
results, and sharing files
Now in its 14th edition, The Internet For Dummies covers the latest social networking tools, browser features, connection options, safety features, and so much more. Starting out with the basics, it walks you through getting online, picking an Internet provider, getting to know the different web browsers, dealing with e-mail and connecting with friends, finding the hottest sites to share photos and videos—and everything in between.
*Includes all formats and all editions
Over the last 20 years, surfing the internet, browsing the web, emailing, and online chat have become part of everyday life. Here are pointers for browsing the web, signing up for email, and understanding what people are saying once you are online.Web browsing basicsThe web is the public face of the internet, with billions of web pages you can read about everything from comics to news to medical information to TV shows.
About The Author
John R. Levine is a recognized technology expert and consumer advocate who works against online fraud and email spam. Margaret Levine Young is a technology author who has written on topics ranging from the Internet to Windows to Access.
Articles From The Book
3 results
Internet Basics
Articles
You can use the internet in hundreds of ways for work and profit. Here are a few things you can do on the web if you are just looking for a fun way to spend your afternoon.
Share pictures and videos with your friends and family
Email attachments are an excellent way to ship snapshots anywhere in the world for free.
Internet Basics
Articles
Using the internet is exciting. But sometimes things get so fouled up that you want to push your computer out the window and go back to the communication methods our ancestors used, like newspapers, telephones, and smoke signals. Don’t give up just yet.
My PC takes forever to boot up, and pop-up ads took over the screen
Slow start-up, sluggish operation, and annoying pop-ups all suggest that your computer is infested with malware, sneaky programs that do bad things to your computer, including spyware (which arrives by way of your web browser), viruses (which arrive by email), and worms (which arrive all by themselves).
Internet Basics
Articles
The internet lets you make the world a better place, by working directly on projects or making it possible for other people to do so. Check out these 10 ways you can help improve the world.
Feed the hungry
Free Rice asks you to match words with their meanings. For every correct answer you give, the site donates ten grains of rice to an international food relief organization.
Internet Basics
Articles
The internet has lots of options for getting the media you want. You can get your media fix in approximately ten zillion different programs and formats. Fortunately, they fall into a modest number of categories: free, streaming, purchased, shared, and rental.
Receiving media as a gift
The simplest approach is to download media offered for free and then play it.
Internet Basics
Articles
You can post information on the internet in lots of different ways. Some require more start-up effort than others. Here’s an overview of the best methods for putting your own information online:
Join a social network: Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace started as glorified personal ads and have expanded to include photos, video, email, blogs, polls — you name it.
Internet Basics
Articles
If you use computers, sooner or later your computer or hard disk will go west and you'll lose a ton of work, photos, email messages, or whatever else you hold dear. Learn this lesson before it's too late: Make backups! Better yet, make backups that are stored somewhere other than at your home or office, so your files will be safe in case of fire or flood.
Internet Basics
Articles
Lots of services will host your website for free or a modest fee. Here are some important considerations for you to think about when choosing a website hosting service:
Reliability: Will the service be around for a while? If it’s completely free, consider how likely they are to survive the helter-skelter of Internet startups and ecommerce.
Internet Basics
Articles
The internet and the web were originally designed for educational and governmental purposes, not for selling stuff, although that’s hard to believe now. Even in this era of ecommerce, lots of free stuff is available.
You can watch tons of video for free on YouTube and other video-sharing sites. You can also try TED talks – short, informative lectures on technology, education, and design.
Internet Basics
Articles
Sometimes an internet search just doesn’t find what you’re looking for. Coming up with the right search terms can be tricky if no specific word or phrase sums up what you want to know. This is the moment to try a web directory. If you know in general but not in detail what you’re looking for, clicking up and down through directory pages is a good way to narrow your search and find pages of interest.
Internet Basics
Articles
The installer configures your computer to communicate with DSL or cable internet. Follow the instructions to connect to your account the first time; some DSL and cable modems come with a software CD you may need to use. Don’t let the installer leave until you’ve gotten online and you know the connection works.
Internet Basics
Articles
Chances are, a browser is already installed on your computer. If you use Internet Explorer, many think you’re better off installing either Firefox or Chrome, for speed and safety reasons. Fortunately, browser programs aren’t difficult to find and install, and Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are all free.
Even if you already have a browser, new versions come out every 20 minutes or so.
Internet Basics
Articles
To enhance your online experience, browser makers invented a type of special message, known as a cookie, that lets a website recognize you when you revisit that site. They thoughtfully store this info on your very own machine. You can control which sites can store cookies on your computer.
Usually, the website that sets a cookie is the only one that reads the cookie.
Internet Basics
Articles
The internet offers you a few options for sending money to your friends. Although you can use PayPal to send money to your friends, if you do it very often, it’s more convenient and usually cheaper to use peer payment systems such as Venmo and Dwolla.The good news is that they are really cheap, often free, but the bad news is that they don’t offer the buyer protection that credit cards and PayPal do.
Internet Basics
Articles
When you run your internet browser, it displays your start page. Unfortunately, the people who make browsers usually don’t pick pages that users particularly like. Why not tell your browser to start where you want to start?You may want to start on the Yahoo! page, or Google, or the home page of your local newspaper.
Internet Basics
Articles
Viber is a newish voice program that runs on smartphones, Windows, and Macs. It started out as audio only, and then added video. You have to have a cellphone number to use it.To download and install the Viber program onto your computer, click the Get Viber or Download button, and follow the directions. To install it on your phone, search the Apps Store or Google Play Store for “Viber.
Internet Basics
Articles
Selling stuff on the internet used to take hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of software and programming talent. A number of sites now let you create web stores for modest fees. Here are a few:
Amazon.com Marketplace is easy to set up. Sign in with an Amazon.com account (the same account you use if you buy books or other items on the site), click Your Account, and click Your Seller Account to find out how to set up a seller account.
Internet Basics
Articles
Many websites on the internet ask you to enter a username and password. If you’re buying an item from an online store, like Amazon, you create an account with a username and password that you enter every time you want to buy something. After you use the web for a while, you pile up a heap of usernames and passwords.
Internet Basics
Articles
Podcasts are audio magazines that deliver MP3 files of talk or music directly to your computer via the internet. The word podcast is a combination of iPod and broadcast, but you don’t need an iPod to listen to them — any computer, smartphone or MP3 player will do. Radio programs, companies, musicians, comedians, and just plain people produce podcasts about a huge variety of different subjects, everything from the latest movies and TV series to the stock market.
Internet Basics
Articles
If you’re interested in using the internet to chat with friends, you may want to check your microphone first. Almost every computer comes with speakers that produce the various noises that your programs make. All Mac laptops and many Windows laptops have built-in microphones, and most desktop computers also have jacks for microphones, or a microphone built right into the monitor.
Internet Basics
Articles
Web pages with text and pictures are old hat. Now, pages on the internet must have pictures that sing and dance or calendars that let you create events or games, such as chess, that play against you. Every month, new types of information appear on the web, and browsers have to keep up.You can extend your browser’s capabilities with plug-ins (also, plugins) — add-on programs that glue themselves to the browser and add even more features.
Internet Basics
Articles
A firewall is a barrier between your computer (or computers) and the internet. In big companies, the firewall may consist of a computer that does nothing but monitor the incoming and outgoing traffic, checking for bad stuff. At your home or office, you have two good options:
Use firewall software you already have
Here’s how to find it on a Windows:
Windows 8 or 8.
Internet Basics
Articles
A local area network (LAN) is just what it sounds like — a group of computers and other devices in the same general location that are connected together over a network. Often, this is within the same building, like an office or home.After you have the internet router set up, if you want to create a wired LAN, you need wires.
Internet Basics
Articles
You can download and install software directly over the internet, which is a useful feature. However, other people can also install programs on your computer without your permission, and this isn’t good for you or your computer.
How viruses get to your computer
Computer viruses can spread in a number of ways, including, networks, email and text message attachments, internet file downloads, and social media scam links.
Internet Basics
Articles
Humans are better teachers than computers are. It’s not a good idea to stick a young child in front of the internet. How young is too young? There are many different opinions on this matter, but younger than age 5 is too young.
At young ages, kids benefit more from playing with balls, clay, crayons, paint, mud, monkey bars, bicycles, other kids, and especially older siblings.
Internet Basics
Articles
You may consider using a local area network (LAN) to connect to the internet. LANs come in two basic varieties: wired and wireless. In a wired network, a cable runs from each computer to a central box, whereas a wireless network uses radio signals rather than wires. Either way, you need a central box.
If all of your computers are in one room and you don’t move them (or you’re good at playing home electrician), a wired network is for you.
Internet Basics
Articles
Plug-ins are small software programs that you install on your computer to view or play some applications on the Web. Here are the most common browser plug-ins you'll probably need:
Flash: Plays both audio and video files as well as other types of animations
QuickTime: Plays video files as you download the
Internet Basics
Articles
As you browse the internet, you have probably come across some abbreviations. What are all these abbreviations people are dropping into email and chat? Here are some of the most common:
AFAIK: As far as I know
BTW: By the way
DR: Didn't read — write something shorter next time
FWIW: For what it’s worth
IANAL: I am not a lawyer, (but.
Internet Basics
Articles
Your laptop, tablet, or phone can probably connect wirelessly to the internet via Wi-Fi, which is available in many public places, like airports and coffee shops. Can you trust the Wi-Fi network? How do you know that the Wi-Fi network isn’t listening to what you type, including your passwords? You don’t, but there are ways to reduce the risk.
Internet Basics
Articles
Over the last 20 years, surfing the internet, browsing the web, emailing, and online chat have become part of everyday life. Here are pointers for browsing the web, signing up for email, and understanding what people are saying once you are online.Web browsing basicsThe web is the public face of the internet, with billions of web pages you can read about everything from comics to news to medical information to TV shows.
Internet Basics
Articles
There are multiple ways you can post things on the internet. But what if you need a little more? What if you need a website with a bunch of pages, with titles you choose, about topics you choose, and maybe even with your own domain name?
Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Maximkostenko
Page creators abound
You have (as usual) several ways to create a website, beyond using Facebook, photo sharing sites, and blogs.
Internet Basics
Articles
People buy lots of airline tickets online. Although the online travel sites aren’t as good as the very best human travel agents, the sites are now better than most agents and vastly better than bad travel agents.
Some airlines offer cheap fares on their own websites that aren’t available any other way. The airlines know that it costs them much less to let the web do the work, and they pay you (sometimes in the form of a hefty discount) to use their websites.
Internet Basics
Articles
Occasionally, you may find yourself faced with a wonky looking browser. Most of the time, there’s an easy fix for your problem. If your browser looks odd, try these tricks:
If the web page looks garbled, click the Reload or Refresh icon (the circular arrow in the website address field at the top of the browser page) to load the page again.
Internet Basics
Articles
When you're out and about, you can use an internet connection to chat with people thousands of miles away. The magic of Wi-Fi makes this possible, as many coffee shops and other businesses offer Wi-Fi hotspots for customers to use.The amount of effort needed to get online using Wi-Fi varies from none to way too much.
Internet Basics
Articles
Most people use Twitter to follow what’s going on in the world. But some use Twitter to get a message out to as many people as possible. If you are one of those people, here are tips for getting other people to retweet your message to their followers.
Don’t sound like an ad. No one will retweet a tweet that sounds like self-promotion or an advertisement.
Internet Basics
Articles
The web is the public face of the Internet, with billions of web pages you can read with everything from comics to news to medical information to TV shows. Here are the basic moves to make when you browse the web:
Go directly to a website: Type an address into the Address box and press Enter. (You can leave off the http://.
Internet Basics
Articles
Don’t use the mailbox that comes with your Internet connection, because if you change Internet providers you’ll lose your email address. Instead, sign up for a free mailbox with one of these webmail services:
Gmail is Google’s mail service. You also get a free Google ID that you can use for an online calendar and other services.