Surfing the Web

• Introduction to the Internet
• The Nuts & Bolts of Browsers
• Basic Browsing Safety Hints
• Searching the Web- Information Literacy
• Your Role in Staying Safe Online
• Internet FAQs
• Resources

Introduction to the internet

The Internet offers the college student vast amounts of resources for learning. To use the Internet safely and effectively there are few things that you will need to know. In the next few sections we will answer the following questions: What is the Internet?” What is a “URL”? What is “HTTP”? What is a “browser”?  How can I focus my searches to find relevant information? What is a “keyword”?  What are “cookies”? What is a bookmark? What is a pop up blocker?

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community.

The Nuts & Bolts of browsers

What is a Web browser?

A Web browser is a software program used to access the Internet services and resources available through the World Wide Web (www.)

Choosing a Browser

There was a day when your choice in web browsers was extremely limited. That day is no more, however, as the options available to you are plentiful. With all these browsers to choose from, it can be a daunting task deciding which one is right for you. In addition, some browsers available may perform differently depending on the platform being used. Here we primarily talk about 2 browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox, two versions of IE: 7.0 and 8.0 and Firefox versions 3.6 and 3.6.3- Version 3.6.4 is still in Beta. These browsers have been tested and work best with a variety of application software that you will use. So let us take a closer look …

Internet Explorer 7.0

Features Windows XP 

Favorites Center
The Favorites Center button quickly displays a pane with your saved web sites.

Add to Favorites
The Add to Favorites button lets you add websites to your “Favorites”.

Tabs
Tabbed browsing allows you to open only one browser window to view multiple web pages. The New Tab button opens blank pages for browsing.

Feeds
The Feeds (turns orange-activates only when you visit a site with RSS feeds) button makes it easy to view and subscribe to RSS feeds.

Search
With Search, you can search the Internet from your current window. Microsoft’s Bing is the default Search, but you can add more providers (e.g., Google and Yahoo) and set your own default.

Internet Explorer 8 includes the same features as IE 7 and a number of new ones…

IE 8 Features- Windows 7

Blog This

The Blog This option opens Windows Live Writer. This blog feature makes it easy for the user to share photos and videos on most blog services such as: Windows Live, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and many more.

Web Slice Gallery

Web Slices let you know when things change on a website so you don’t have to search    for updates. When you spot the green Web Slice icon on a site, click it. If something    changes on that site, the Web Slices icon in your Favorites bar lights up. Point to the   glowing icon to see what’s changed.

Safety

• InPrivate Browsing option helps prevent IE from storing data about your browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data. Toolbars and extensions are disabled by default.
• InPrivate Filtering option helps to control which providers receive information about the websites you visit. If you choose to block your information from being shared, some content on the websites you visit might not be available.
• The SmartScreen Filter option allows the user to check the website for safety. It also offers an option to the user to report unsafe websites.

Firefox 3.6 and 3.6.3

Figure 4 Firefox 3.6.3 Windows XP

Firefox 3.6 and 3.6.3 offer a myriad of features, so we will take a brief look at a few of them:

Bookmarking

One click on the star icon at the end of the location bar bookmarks a site. Two clicks and you can choose where to save it and whether to tag it. File bookmarked sites in folders and organize according to theme. Find your bookmarked sites by entering the tag, page or bookmark name into the location bar. The more you use your tags and bookmark names in the location bar, the more the system will adapt to your preferences.

Private Browsing

Firefox 3.6 users can surf the web without leaving any traces. When Private Browsing mode is activated, all your browsing history, cookies and data is stored temporarily and as soon as the session ends, everything is flushed so no trace is left behind.

To set up Private Browsing: Open the Tools menu and click on ‘Start Private Browsing’ or use [Shift + Control + P]; a popup will ask you to confirm your decision, click on ‘Start Private Browsing’ again; to end the session, simply go to the Tools menu and click on ‘End Private Browsing’.

Instant Web Site ID

Want to be extra sure about a site’s legitimacy before you make a purchase? Click on a site “favicon” for an instant identity overview.  Another click digs deeper:

Firefox 3.6.3- Instant Web Site ID

How many times have you visited? Are your passwords saved? Check up on suspicious sites, avoid Web forgeries and make sure a site is what it claims to be.

RSS Feed Reader

You can read feeds using an online Web service, a client-side feed reader or by creating a Firefox Live Bookmark. So there’s no need to comb the Web for the latest news and updates. See the latest headlines in the toolbar or menu and go directly to the articles that catch your eye.

Tabbed browsing

Tabbed browsing lets you open several web pages within a single Firefox window, each displaying in its own tab. This frees up space on your desktop since you don’t have to have a window open for every web page you’re currently visiting. You can open, close, and reload web pages conveniently in one place without having to switch to another window. For more info, see Tabbed browsing.

Basic Browsing Safety Hints

When you are browsing the Internet, your web browser leaves a trail of where you’ve been, what you’ve typed, what you’ve seen, and the various information you’ve been entering into web forms.

For example:  IE 8 remembers the state of you browser so that if it crashes, you can be restored to the last state of your browsing activity.  Now think about who could potentially see this if you are using a public computer or a shared computer! This is an identity theft scenario just waiting to happen.

In Internet Explorer 8 click on the Safety menu in the upper right, click Delete Browsing History; deselect (i.e., uncheck) Preserve Favorites website data, and select (i.e., check) Temporary Internet files, Cookies, and History; click Delete.

To erase your browsing and download history in Firefox 3.6, clear your cache and delete your cookies in a single click. Go to Tools → Clear Recent History. Or, go to Tools → Options → Privacy, select “Always clear my private data when I close Firefox” option.

Your Role in Staying Safe Online

If you are a college student, you are probably immersed in the world of information and communications technology. That makes you a digital citizen, with both rights and responsibilities for staying safe online and helping to keep others safe as well.

When you begin college, you are probably on your own for the first time. You are taking on new responsibilities, making your own decisions, and becoming part of the campus community. There is an important role that you can play in your college’s cybersecurity efforts that combines these elements of responsibility, decision-making, and community.

You use your computer almost daily, for homework, research, social networking, online purchases, and more. The Internet is an amazing tool that provides both opportunities and risks. It is a source of endless information, but must be used with good judgment. When you log on to the campus network (or any network), what you do online could have impact not only on your one computer but other students and the network as well. By combining up-to-date security tools with good judgment, you and your college community are much less likely to encounter a security violation, loss of data, or system problems.

Staying safe online is not just about protecting information and reputations. Sometimes it’s about protecting yourself or others physically as well. People you meet online and people you already know in “real life” can use cyberspace as a tool to perpetrate abuse, harassment, and stalking. In many cases, people who commit “cyber stalking” and “cyber bullying” do not confine their actions to the cyber world, but use a mix of online and in-person techniques to cause their victims fear, embarrassment, and other emotional and sometimes physical harm.

To minimize your risk of being harmed by a cyber stalker or cyber bully, use both tools, like the core protections and behaviors, such as taking online relationships into the real world only with caution, meeting online acquaintances in public places and letting friends know where you are and when you’ll be back.

For more information on Internet Security go to the Internet Safety page .

Searching the web-information literacy

What is Information Literacy?

Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research techniques.

Since the World Wide Web is ever evolving, methods on how to best search the web also change with its evolution. Here are a few resources to learn how to make your searches more effective and to answer some of the following questions:

How can I focus my searches to find relevant information? How can I determine whether the information is accurate? How do I interpret and make meaning of the information?

Field Searching

Most search engines and databases search “words anywhere” or “keywords” automatically unless you select another type of search.

Keyword searching finds matches for your terms in any field of a record or any part of a Web page, so you will typically retrieve more information with less precision. This is known as “recall” searching because it focuses on recalling as much information as possible.

Your Search Strategy

Here are some tips if you found too much information, too little information, or the wrong information in your search.

An About.com Web Search Guide:

Web Search 101 – A Beginners Guide to Web Search

Learn how to search the Web, search more of the Web, basic Boolean search, common search mistakes, web search tips and tricks, how to develop a search plan, basic search math, searching for phrases, and more.

Searching the web in Firefox 3.6 and 3.6.3

Searching for web pages on a particular topic is as easy as typing a few words into Firefox’s Search Bar.

For example, if you want to find information about the world cup:

1. Click in the Search Bar.
2. Type the phrase world cup. The typing replaces text currently in the search bar.
3. Hit EnterReturn to search. Search results for “world cup” appear in the Firefox window.

Selecting search engine

You can switch the search engine by clicking on its icon and selecting the search engine of your choice. Some search engines, like Google, search the whole web; others, like Amazon.com, only search specific sites.

Searching the web in Internet Explorer 7 or 8

The Internet contains a vast collection of information, but finding what you are looking for can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to help you search the web more effectively.

This information applies to Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

Use the search box

In the Internet Explorer search box, type a keyword or phrase and then press ENTER (or press ALT+ENTER to display the search results in a new tab).

Use the Address bar

In the Internet Explorer Address bar, type Find, Go, or “?”, followed by a keyword, website name, or phrase, and then press ENTER. If you want the search results to display in a new tab, press ALT+ENTER after typing the phrase.

Internet FAQs

What is a “URL”?

“URL” is the abbreviation for the Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.

The first part of the address is called a protocol identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, the second part is called a resource name and it specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located. The protocol identifier and the resource name are separated by a colon and two forward slashes.

What is “HTTP”?

Short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page.

What is “HTML”?

The other main standard that controls how the World Wide Web works is HTML, which covers how Web pages are formatted and displayed.   Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document

by using a variety of tags and attributes.

What is a cookie?

A Cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site. The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned.

How do I control Cookies?

Internet Explorer 8.0

1. choose Tools and then Internet Options
2. click the Privacy tab
3. move the slider to choose your preferred settings

For more specialized cookie settings click on Advanced, check the ‘Override cookie handling’ button and modify the settings to suit your requirement.

Internet Explorer 7.0

1. choose Tools and then Internet Options
2. click the Privacy tab
3. move the slider to choose your preferred settings

The default setting is medium- the menu allows you to select the level of “filtering” on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.

For more specialized cookie settings click on Advanced.

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and 3.6.3

1. click on Tools, then Options
2. select Privacy
3. select Cookies
4. Choose your preferred settings-You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies.

What are “Pop-ups”?

Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new web browser window to display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by other means as well.

How do I block “pop-ups”?

In IE 7 and IE 8 Pop-up Blocker is turned on by default. To turn it off or to turn it on again, if you’ve already turned it off, follow these steps:

1. Click the Tools button, and then click Pop-up Blocker.
2. Do one of the following:

• o To turn off Pop-up Blocker, click Turn Off Pop-up Blocker.
• o To turn on Pop-up Blocker, click Turn On Pop-up Blocker.

In Firefox 3.6 and 3.6.3

To access the Pop-up Blocker settings in FirefoxOn the menu bar, click on the ToolsFirefoxEdit menu, and select Options…Preferences….Select the Content panel:

1. Block pop-up windows: De-select this optionpreference to disable the pop-up blocker.
   1. Exceptions: This is a list of sites that you want to allow to display pop-ups.
      The dialog has the following choices: Allow-Click to add a website to the exceptions list; Remove Site- Click to remove a website from the exceptions list; Remove All Sites-Click to remove all of the websites in the exceptions list.

Note: Blocking pop-ups may not always work and may interfere with some websites.

What is a bookmark?

Bookmarks let you save links to websites you’ve visited without having to remember their web addresses. Bookmarks are also known as Favorites in some browsers.

What is a search engine?

Basically, a search engine is a software program that searches for sites based on the words that you designate as search terms. Search engines look through their own databases of information in order to find what it is that you are looking for.

What is a keyword?

A keyword is a word or phrase that describes the main concepts of a topic. Before you start searching it is a good idea to brainstorm synonyms and combinations of terms. This will increase your chances of finding information on a topic.