Introduction to the Internet
Carondelet Area Community School

Lesson 1

Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Glossary

Introduction to Windows and Browsers

You’re staring at your computer screen. What exactly are you looking at? You’re looking at the Windows95 "desktop." This is known as a "graphical user interface." It’s graphical because it uses pictures or icons to point to commands for your computer to follow. It’s an interface because it sits between you and those nasty little computer-commands so you don’t have to deal directly with them. And it’s all for the benefit of you, the user. The icons on your desktop point to programs (software) or certain files within a program. One of these icons probably points to a particular kind of software known as a "Browser." This piece of software is also a graphical user interface. It has a very specific function and that is to read the language of the Internet.

How do we access the Internet?

Some basic understanding of what’s happening when you "get on the Internet" will be very helpful to you as you learn more and more about it. You will be able to troubleshoot some simple problems for yourself and you be a real hero to all your friends and family too!

So, here are the basic components:

  1. The Windows95 desktop. Remember this is called a graphical user interface. This is the first thing that you see when you look at your computer.
  2. The first action you take is to start a little piece of software inside your computer called a "dialer." If you double click on your browser first, then it will initiate your dialer for you.
  3. Your dialer calls the phone number that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has given you. Once it has called through, then your ISP quickly checks your user name and password. Once these have cleared you are now "on the Internet."
  4. If you started your dialer with your browser, then your browser will finish loading and come up with whatever "home page" you have designated.
  5. If you started your dialer yourself, then you now double click on your browser and it will come up.

So, now you're on the Internet. What are you looking at? Well, that all depends on what your browser says is its "home page." If you received your browser through your Internet Access Provider, then it's probably set to their home page. In other words, if your ISP is AT&T then your browser is probably set to come up with the AT&T home page first. You can change this setting any time you want to with your Internet Options menu. On Microsoft Explorer, go to View/Internet Options. On Netscape go to Edit/Preferences. Here you'll find the menues you need to configure your home page.

A note to AOL users: Since America On Line is so popular today, chances are that some of you are using them as your Internet Access Provider. I, too used them when I first learned the Internet. They were very helpful in many ways. The reason I bring it up now, is that it can be very confusing trying to figure out all these different aspects of Internet use when using AOL. And, that is because they package everything together in a seamless whole. The dialer, browser, e-mail, chat software are all together seemingly as one. They are however, separate parts which show themselves when using other Internet Access Providers.

Getting control of your Browser. Here in class we’ll be using Netscape’s Navigator (or Communicator.) The other popular browser is Microsoft’s Explorer. They’re very similar in appearance and for the most part can do all the same things. While you’re at home you can experiment with all the different settings available to you with either browser. On Netscape click on Edit and then Preferences. For Explorer click on View and then Internet Options. These will then bring up some dialogue windows for lots of different options for you to choose from. Some of these are simple ones pertaining only to how your browser looks and others will dramatically change the way it behaves. You should only play around with these after you’ve gained some experience.

Clearing out unnecessary files that collect on your computer: On Microsoft's Explorer go to View-Internet Options.(On the top tool bar.) There, under the General Tab, you'll see a button to clear the History Folder and a button to clear the Temporary Internet Files. Keeping these both cleared out will help speed up your browsing. On Netscape's Communicator go to Edit-Preferences.(On the top tool bar.) On the left side of the window that comes up you'll see a expandable menu. First click on the word Navigator. Here you'll see a Clear History button. Click it to clear out this History Folder. Next click on the word Advanced. Then click on the little plus (+) sign next it in order to expand the menu. Then click on the word cache. Here you'll see two buttons to clear these folders. Click on both.

Go on to Lesson 2