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| The internet is a network of large computers linked together around the
world. Each computer can hold information for any number of companies,
businesses, organizations, individuals, etc. Each hosting computer has a
unique address and each entity within that computer has a local and
unique address. Think of these computers as cities in cyberspace and the
individual entity as an address (website) in that city. These
cities are connected through combinations of telephone lines, satellites
and cables. Because hosting computers need to have very fast full-time connections with each other, they're rather expensive to maintain. So, each individual home or small business can't afford to be a hosting computer. Instead, we pay an internet company to provide such a service by subscribing to a dial-up or DSL (broadband) ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as AOL, Earthlink, etc. These ISP's then connect us to the other hosting computers throughout cyberspace. To view the contents of the websites on the internet, a universal software known as the browser is needed. There are several free browsers available such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc. It's a matter of opinion and preference as to which browser is the best. Toward the top of each browser is the address window where website names can be typed in. The website names (aka URL) are actually a series of numbers (22.462.34.5 etc. known as IP addresses) Since names are easier to remember and type, the browsers allow us to type in the website names which are then translated into the numerical IP addresses automatically. Each web page also contain links that will take us to another page or website by clicking on them. If we want to visit a particular page or website frequently, we can add it to the "favorite" or "Bookmark" (depending on which browser you're using). Surfing through web pages have been made easy to encourage us to do so. For a lot of people, email is one of the best feature of the internet. When we sign up for internet service, the service provider gives us email boxes. Our email address is usually a personal ID (our name or derivative) followed by @ and the ISP's name. We can have multiple email addresses so we can source where our emails are coming from. For example, we can use one for family only; one for shopping online; one for business; etc. The problem with using email boxes provided by the service provider is having to change our email address when we decide to switch ISP. As an alternative, we can sign up for free email addresses at Yahoo, Google, MSN (hotmail), etc. Once established, we can keep the addresses permanently. So, while we need a service provider to connect to the internet, we don't have to use their email service. Of course, they'd prefer that we do, so we'd think twice before switching to another ISP. |
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| Security concerns regarding the internet fall into 2 main categories:
Viruses, spywares, trojans, worms, etc., that sneak into our computer
(generally referred to as malwares); and parental control or
blocking out undesirable websites (generally referred to as filtering).
A good antivirus software is generally all you need for malware
protection. I use Avast for all my computers. You can check out this free
Avast Home Edition at
www.Avast.com.
For filtering, each web browser has security settings that can be
customized to meet your individual needs. Additionally, Windows
Vista features good parental control options. Each website we visit puts a cookie (it's ID) on our computer. (I'm not sure why it's called a cookie.) These cookies stay on our computer until we delete them. When spywares get into our computer, they report to their creators what websites we've visited, how much time we stayed on each page, and how often we return. From the information compiled by these cookies, our preferences and surfing habits are profiled. Our email address(es) are then sold to whoever's interested in sending us solicitations. To erase my internet trails and other similar history of my computer usage, I use a free cleaner available at www.Ccleaner.com. It's very effective, easy and fast. Best of all, it's free! Ccleaner also cleans other junk files on our computers that can slow computers down. Using it frequently can help your computer perform near peak efficiency. |
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For
other useful freeware and links to some great websites,
click here.
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