Getting on the Internet and
Keeping Your Sense of Humor Intact

So ... you want to be on the Internet ... well, here are some tips. I hope they help.

Access to the Internet - there are essentially two ways to get on the Internet, and utilize the World Wide Web with its full graphics.

The first is to use an Internet Service Provider.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - the folks who bring a direct connection to the Internet to you and me. The ISPs are the direct connection between your computer and all the locations world-wide on the Internet including the use of e-mail, the World Wide Web (part of the Internet), File Transfer Protocol, Newsgroups, et.al. What's the advantage of using an ISP? Well, two things: 1) you get to drive the bus, so to speak, because you are directly connected to the Internet; and 2) the cost. Once you pay the monthly access charge, that's it. Actually there's more to what you get ... a good ISP today offers technical support. My ISPs support has responded to my questions with well thought out answers, and they have provided good text files on set up, configurations, etc.

How does an ISP provide this direct connection? The ISP leases dedicated, high bandwidth lines to "backbone" connections for internet access, and then provides you with a local number that your computer modem can call without incurring additional toll charges (usually). The ISP then charges you some rate based on use time over a month, or a flat fee, or some combination. If you live in a particularly remote area, or you travel frequently, the ISP may provide you with an 800 dial-up number for which you pay an additional fee. The better ISPs offer other services as well: high speed modem connections, high speed servers, technical support, and an operational philosophy that encourages continuous upgrades in equipment, all of which is aimed at providing you the best connection possible. Beware of cheap ISPs. Slow or interrupted connections and poor technical support are tiresome, frustrating, and ultimately expensive.

What's the catch? Installing the various elements of software on your computer that allows Internet access, that's the catch. Remember, if you're connected to the Internet through a "commercial gateway" (described next), all the connectivity software lives on their server, not on your computer. But, if you are going to use an Internet Service Provider, you will need a browser, TCP/IP stack, dialer, e-mail program, etc. because all of the software must be installed on your computer. Today, the ISP is likely to provide all that software on a floppy (licensed, in many cases, through the ISP), with a printed installation manual. The software may be dated, but it won't cost you anything, and it will put you on the net, then you can begin to learn how to download the upgrades (cute). The really good news is that you only have to go through this configuring process once.

The second is to use a Commercial Gateway.

The better known commercial gateways include America On-Line, Compuserve, Prodigy et.al. If you use a commercial gateway, all you need is its proprietary software (usually supplied on a diskette that they give you free), and a modem on your computer to connect. That's it. A commercial gateway provides the user (you and me) with a great deal of proprietary content, plus e-mail, varying degrees of Internet access, and all without you having to worry about installing the software because it lives on their servers, not your computer. Commercial gateways usually charge a low monthly base fee for access, but usually charge an extra fee for some of the more specialized services offered. A commercial gateway will be more expensive in the long run, but is generally easier to use. Commercial gateways typically provide local "dial-up" access in most metro areas so that your modem connection is a local call. So, a commercial gateway can make it easier, but, watch the fees. There are hybrids that fit somewhere between the commercial gateway and the ISP. One that comes to mind is NetCom. NetCom is set up like an ISP, but has it's own proprietary browser, e-mail program, TCP/IP dialer, all of which is installed on your computer, and it offers local dial-up connections. Currently, the browser, NetCruiser, is not as flexible or as easy to use as NetScape Navigator.

Either way, you need a modem - a device that is in, or connected to, your computer that allows communication between your computer and another computer via a telephone line (at this time, anyway). Your modem takes the digital signal from your computer and "modulates" that to an analog signal for transmission over the analog telephone lines. The modem on the other end "demodulates" the analog signal to a digital signal that the connecting computer can understand. So, we get modulate/demodulate as the name of this device. The higher the speed (currently 28.8 kilobytes per second) the faster the connection, and the less time you have to wait for a page to load on your browser. Why doesn't the 28.8 modem always connect at 28.8Kbps? Because when the modems "handshake" (the pig squealing sounds you hear after the modems connect), they negotiate the speed based on the condition of the telephone line - noise and other stuff that can compromise the accuracy of the connection - they settle at the highest speed at which they can transmit data accurately. As cable connections and faster telephone connections (T-1s, ISDNs) become more commonly available, the connection description may change. But for now, you want a 28.8 kbps modem. It will cost about $50 more than a 14.4 kbps version, but you'll make that up in access charges in a very short period. Oh yes, the frustration level is greatly reduced with higher access speed.

And, if you use an ISP, you need a browser - a browser is a software program that is designed to give you access to the web, and all of its graphics, sounds, etc. It is also the 'window" that you see on your screen when you are on the web. And, it provides you with most, if not all, the tools you need to cruise the web. We'll get into installing and configuring browsers later. There are about 25 browsers on the market. Some are very good, many are mediocre.

Then, if you use an ISP, you need a TCP/IP dialer - this is the software that runs the modem, and establishes the necessary protocols for Internet access. For text-only Internet access, standard modem software dialing into your ISP works fine because you will be using the TCP/IP stack and software on the ISP's servers for Internet access. Modem software by companies like Procomm, etc. work just fine, even on an XT! But, for graphic interface connections on the web - all the pretty pictures - a TCP/IP dialer and "stack" on your computer is required. TCP stands for Transfer Control Protocol and IP stands for Internet Protocol - these are the two guys that make it possible for my PC to communicate with Lee's Mac, or someone else's UNIX machine, or OS/2 system. You cannot get onto the Web without a TCP/IP stack somewhere between you and the Internet. This is the cornerstone to connectivity on the Internet (more on TCP/IP later). There are many TCP/IP dialers out there - some browsers work better with some than with others. Usually you can check with the company that made the browser to find out the preferences for compatibility.

Finally, if you use an ISP, you need an e-mail program - the Internet community is still trying to figure out the spelling - to be safe, "e-mail" with the hyphen, will be accepted anywhere. E-mail is described as "asynchronous" communication, which means you and the recipient don't have to be connected at the same time as you would in a telephone conversation. Sound familiar? Try "letter writing", a lost art. The beauty of e-mail is that, not only do you and the recipient not have to be connected at the same time with similar instruments, but you can write e-mail whenever the mood strikes. And, you don't have to put the "letter" in an envelope, address it, lick the stamp, then get it to the post office. You just load your dialer, click on the "send" button, and, not only is it done, it arrives within minutes (after you have the software configured, that is. So, be sure to read the section on "configuring software" later).

So, how does this work? I don't actually know. But, I do know that when e-mail is sent to you, it arrives at your access provider's mail server where it waits until you "check mail" with your e-mail program. When you click on "check mail" (or equivalent language), the messages addressed to you are sent to your computer, where you click on the message and read it (off line - remember those access charges!). Once you have read the message, you can put it into the trash, or into a previously set-up mailbox for that correspondent so you can refer to it later, you can reply to it immediately, or you can forward it to somebody else right then. Pretty neat.

E-mail programs are either bought, downloaded, or provided by your ISP. In the last two cases, they are likely to be "shareware" that, if downloaded by you, will require you to pay a registration fee (typically done on-line), or, if provided by your ISP, will have the fees paid. But, even if you download, that's ok, the fees are nominal, usually in the $25 to $35 range. The software itself can be excellent and, after you register it, you will have access to tech support, which can be pretty good. In the excellent category, is an e-mail program by the name of "Eudora-Pro" Qualcomm. Eudora comes in two versions, one called Eudora Lite which is free but still excellent, and Eudora Pro which is shareware and includes niceties like a spell checker. Qualcomm will even send you via postal service the manual (which I couldn't get along without).Then you need to figure out that particular software's version of mailboxes, recipients, and all the stuff to set the thing up to work easily. For those of you whose past experience says that shareware is, at best, unsophisticated - not true anymore.

File Transfer Protocol (ftp) is one of the many different ways to transfer information (text, software, photos, video, sound, movies) across the Internet. Each one of these means of transfer is called a "Protocol" simply because each one refers to different steps, procedures, and rules that must be followed for it to work. You don't have to worry about this, just understand that an "ftp" site is one from which you can download files, pictures, video, and sound. And, you don't really have to do anything because your browser or FTP software program will take care of everything.

Other Internet Software:

News Readers - Yes, there is news on the Internet, and there are also individuals who contribute information to groups in forums called News Groups. These are also referred to as UseNets. Many of the newer versions of browsers can read newsgroups, and there are a number of stand alone News Reader software packages as well. A newsreader, like a browser, needs the TCP/IP running, and a "news-server" configuration (see below) from your ISP in order to work.

Telnet - This used to be the key to using the Internet for gathering information. In basic terms, Telnet is software (on your computer) that allows you, the client, to connect to someone else's computer, like in a library, and peruse their files. You essentially are driving the remote computer, or host, from your computer. Conversely, your computer is now nothing more than a terminal to the host computer. If you have a pentium machine, it's kind of a funny concept to think of it as a dumb terminal, but that's just about it. Incidentally, when we use the words "terminal" and "terminal screen" we are referring to your monitor (and keyboard). And, when your monitor is in "terminal" mode, its screen is in a monochrome, text only, mode - just like the days before color monitors - and that, as much as anything, dates and describes Telnet. Today most of the telnet sites have been translated to Web sites, so web browsers now do most of the work.

Getting "Configured" - This refers to the server addresses, modem baud rates, and some other numbers that will probably remain meaningless to you and me, but have to be entered into setup files and user-preference files in your software. Browsers, e-mail programs, News Readers, Telnet software, FTP software and TCP/IP programs all need to be configured to your ISP's servers, your e-mail address, etc. And, the "etc." is a big one. This stuff is not intuitive.

Your ISP, either in a "new account" packet, or through tech support ( a phone call, and usually a long wait), will be able to supply you with all the configuration information. Plan to be on the phone with your computer running and be able to launch all the software so you can fill in the blanks on the spot. If you only have one telephone line available to you (you and your modem can't both use it at the same time), run any of the programs that will run without being "on-line", print out the configuration screens, then get on the phone and fill in the blanks manually.

Unfortunately, many of the browsers, ftp programs and other Internet software will not let you fiddle with them unless they have a live TCP/IP connection running, so tell the tech folks what brand browser you are using, what version, and they should have the appropriate information to give you so you can fill in the blanks later, after you have your successfully configured TCP/IP dialer up and running. Usually, e-mail programs run without being on line (if you have the other kind, switch - you don't want to be reading and composing e-mail while you're paying those access charges!), and obviously the TCP/IP dialer has to be able to run prior to dialing, so it doesn't have to be on line to be configured. With Windows95, the dial-up connection includes a TCP/IP stack, so when you have that configured, you're on your way. You can use Microsoft's Explorer for e-mail as well as a browser, so much of the duplicated configuring is eliminated.

Tech Support? What is all this stuff about technical support? Back in the days of DOS programs, you got the software, you got the manual, you were pretty well set. Today, the software is coming on the market so fast, and it is so much more powerful (read "complex" or "unfinished") that written manuals are too expensive, and would be too technical to be usable. So, the major software and hardware manufacturers and distributors have chosen "technical support" as the answer. Like a lot of the computer/Internet infrastructure today, some of it is very good, some of it is not, and all of it takes a while to get to.

What comes first? Provided that your computer has a modem, your access is provided through an ISP, you're using Windows 3.1 through 3.11 Windows for Workgroups, and you have gathered enough information from your ISP to decide you are going to access the Internet,

1. Get the appropriate software from your ISP (or find a different Provider). Or, contact a friend or associate who does have access or the ability to download the stuff. You need these four:

A. Trumpet/Winsock (TCP/IP stack and dialer).

B. Netscape Navigator (web browser).

C. Eudora (e-mail program).

D. PKZIP/PKUNZIP (opens compressed files that have an extension of .zip).

(Or, if your computer has a minimum of 8 megs of ram, upgrade to Windows95 and start with the tools provided, then add the PKZIP/PKUNZIP files. See Lee Lasson's Windows 95 Internet Access Setup for step-by-step configuration details)

2. Get the ISP to give you a printout of the instructions you will need to configure this software, or get your friend to print out the installation instructions from the web site from which the software was downloaded.

Search Tools - Now that you're on the "Net", or, more specifically, you're on the Web, you need to find stuff. Search tools may be the single most important tool to learn to use if the Web is to be of value to you.

You will notice that on the browser there are clickable buttons that use terms like "Search" or "Directory". Clicking on these buttons will send the browser to something that I'm going to call a "searchable directory". There are many of them, and they are all good search tools. Be aware that each directory uses slightly different criteria in the way it searches its own database. Some look for key-words in the page title only. Others search the entire page content for matches to the key-words. The results can be surprisingly different. Imagine doing a search for "Ford" and "cars" using Webcrawler, the one that searches just for titles. You will get maybe 50 web sites with the words Ford and cars in the page title. Now try it using "AltaVista" for your search. Alta Vista searches text content for the same words - you'll get a thousand documents that contain the words "ford", and "cars". Very different results!

Some of the more prominent directories that you will be able to use include: Yahoo, Lycos, Alta-Vista, A2Z, Excite, InfoSeek, and Magellan. Try each of them to find the ones that most closely match the way you work. There is a another set of search directories that have appeared in the last few months. These tend to be specific to a category of information. They are not well known to the casual browser, but they're out there, and probably worth learning to use.

There is another level of search tools. These are usually referred to as "Search Engines". In most cases you and I will use the search directories, and leave the search engines to others. But, just so you know, search engines include database programs like SLQ and Jet Engine, others have names like Gopher, which locates files on the Internet; Veronica, which locates titles of Gopher files; Jughead, which accesses a particular Gopher site; Archie, which locates ftp sites, and WAIS, Wide Area Information Servers which provide lists of databases containing the searched item. While you and I can use these search engines, you and I are not likely to. We'll probably stick to our favorite directories instead.

Many of the things you don't necessarily need to know about how the Internet works.

Internet terminology is largely borrowed from the normal English you and I grew up with. So, some of the terms need to be interpreted in a broader sense than we were exposed to. For instance: "protocol" used to mean the guidelines one head of state used in dealing with another head of state. The same word is used in "netspeak" to mean the rules, steps, and procedures required for one form or another of electronic communication to work correctly. Another element of Internet terminology is a fondness for the use of initials. In some cases these are acronyms, in some cases they are a combination of parts of several words, and in other instances they are just that, initials. With that introduction in mind, let's look at some of the more commonly used terms.

Home Page - A homey term that originally described a more or less single "page" on the Web. This is usually a "personal" page where the sponsor talks about who they are., what they do, why they're on the Web, etc. The term "home" is quickly losing favor since many, if not most, home pages have become a series of pages, which are more accurately described as a "web site". Still, the first page of a web site is often referred to as a "home" page even if it's about Honda cars.

Protocols - Remember the comments about protocols? Here are some doozies. TCP/IP (you remember this one) which is the key to Internet connectivity, and stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Anytime we talk about using tools to communicate on the Internet, those tools must use TCP/IP software at both ends of the communication link for the tools to work. Some of those tools that we use are also protocols, but they still need TCP/IP to communicate. They include Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (ftp), HyperText Transfer Protocol (http), Point to Point Protocol (ppp), Post Office Protocol (POP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), etc. You get the idea. Most of these protocols are of little concern to you or me because they live on the server to do work for us automatically. The only ones we are likely to become directly involved with are TCP/IP, which we've already talked about, and http, ftp and telnet.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator, nothing more than the address of a web site or home page. The address includes the protocol, some required symbols like any address, and then your location in web terms. A web URL technically starts with this: "http://". Other protocols start out the same way, but with their own language symbols. So ftp is "ftp://", Gopher is "gopher://", etc. There are parts of web addresses that are case sensitive and other protocols that are case sensitive as well, so it's best to try to use whatever case you originally see in the address. Ok, back to the web URL - "http" stands for hypertext transfer protocol which tells the Internet servers that you are looking for the protocol that uses web language which is hypertext markup language, or "html". Fortunately, html is not a language you or I need to know in order to use it. And, isn't that a break!

The complete address then can be something like this:

http://www.estes.on-line.com/epicug/

where "www" is used to describe the World Wide Web (a convention, not always required) "estes.on-line" is the name of the "secondary.tertiary" domain, and "com" (a commercial site) is the "primary", "top level", or "root" domain. Is this confusing or what? How can a root also be top level? Blame it on NetSpeak! Anyway, the top level domain describes organizational or geographical designations. Since Internet addresses are read right to left, "com", the top level domain, is where the search starts. The final "/epicug/" means that of all the files, folders, and directories under the domain "estes.on-line.com", "epicug" is the directory you want - and is where you would find your "presence".

These addresses are really no more than a reversed Postal address; i.e. Country/State/ City/ street/house/name. Incidentally, when you see a "period" used on the Internet, it's called "dot". I assume this is a verbal shortcut since dot is one syllable, and period is three. After all, the Internet is all about communication! So, the Estes Park Internet Computer Users Group address would be pronounced "http colon slash slash www dot estes dot on hyphen line dot com slash epicug".

Web Server - a computer located somewhere else that is trained to store and dispense information on demand on the World Wide Web. The web server can also be configured to administer electronic mail. This is not your computer. The web server is a remote computer, and often plays the role of a ...

Web Host - a computer located somewhere else (someone else's remote computer) that receives and acts on commands issued over the World Wide Web (Web, WWW, or W3) by a "client" computer (yours and mine). Yes, in the usual relationship between you and the Internet, a web host is always a web server, and no, a web server is not always a web host. However, in net-reality, often a host can be a client and vice-versa - go figure.

Web Presence - This is a little tricky. We're not into "virtual reality" yet, but it's a beginning. The "presence" referred to is an electronic version of something you and I could write or photograph or draw (or sound like, etc.) that has been translated to an electronic form that then can be stored on a - yes - Web Server, or Host. Obviously we're not personally in the box, but an electronic version of us, or something we intended to make available to the public, is in the box (the server).

System Fault Tolerance - This means that the guy who runs the server has built in enough redundant stuff that unless someone cuts the power to the building and blows up the backup generator, the web server will work 24-hours a day. It also means that he/she sleeps real close to the server.

Directory Presence - We already know what a "presence" is. So we can safely assume that if we have a "Directory Presence", we have put our "presence" under a "directory". Thus, the location of your presence has been placed on a directory under your Web Host's domain so that others can find you, even in the dark. Remember that a "directory presence" puts your page under someone else's registered web domain.

Domain Name - we were just talking about a "directory presence". So, using the URL example, the epicug page is a "directory" listing under the registered "domain name" of "estes.on-line". Having a domain name is not a big deal for most of us. But it can be for a user like a business, because a domain name is "portable" like 800 numbers became in the early 1990's - you could finally change long distance carriers without having to change your 800 number. In the same sense, you could change Internet Service Providers without having to change your URL because the domain name belongs to you, not the Provider. In other words, "estes.on-line" can use any provider in the world without having to change the URL. The reason for this is that the URL is registered with the "Internic", whose responsibility it is to make certain that no new URL duplicates any existing URL. Thus, every domain name is unique world wide. The Internic is the only body allowed to assign or approve domain names.

For the curious, there's a lot more to this. Like the difference between "upload" and "download", which eventually makes some sense. But the beauty of it is that you don't have to know all the details about the Internet and the associated machinery and software, terminology and names. And, that's the way it should be. I look forward to the day when all I need to do is click on one icon, and I'm there. I suspect that day is not very far away. In the mean time ... configure, configure, configure!

© Peter Marsh, pwm@csn.net, 1996