John R. Levine

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.

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.

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://.

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.