Carondelet Area
Community School
Introduction to the Internet
Lesson 3
Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Glossary
Let's try downloading a game. Before you do though, ask yourself:
If you need to refer back to last week's lesson for this, do so.
Remember the download manager software is going to ask you where you want to put your downloaded zip file. This will go in your Temporary Folder. Then, when you go to unzip it, the zip software will ask you where you want to "extract" the files to. This will be your games folder.
Let's download a game. Go to this site. Go to the bottom of the page and select your "OS" (operating system-Windows95 or Windows98) and then choose "free" in the next selection box. After that hit the update button. This will filter the selections to just the games that are free to download. Choose a game that interests you and click on it. On the next page, click on the dowload now button.
After you've downloaded
you'll still need to install it. First, you'll have to "un-zip" it.
Double click on the zip file and this will bring up your zip program. Then you'll
select extract from the tool bar and the program will ask where do you
want to extract it to. Select your new games folder. After you close
your zip program, open the games folder. For the most part you'll always see
a file with an extension of ".exe" -in other words, the file
would look something like nameofgame.exe
This ".exe" means that this is the file that "executes"
the program. In this case we're looking to execute the installation of the program
first. After you've extracted your zip files into your games directory you will
see an exe file. Double click on it to begin the installation. Usually you will
get instructions on what to do from this point. It's fairly safe to follow them
completely. They are simply asking you where you want to put your new game.
It best to let it create it's own folder (directory) as that keeps your files
organized. When it has finished installing itself, it probably has created a
few item on your start menu and possibly some new icons. Of course, you can
add or remove items from your menu at will. And, after you've done all this
you can delete the zip file and the files in your games directory. There, wasn't
that easy!
Let's talk a bit about e-mail. E-mail is probably the most popular use of the Internet. It's usually one of the main reasons people initially get on the Internet. It is quite simple to use, but if you're new to it, just like anything else, you need to spend time getting acquainted with it. For the most part, when I say "learning e-mail" we can translate that into "learning your e-mail program." There are many e-mail programs out there. If you've purchased a new computer recently, you most likely have a good program that was shipped with your computer. Also, both of the popular browsers come with good e-mail programs. On Microsoft's Explorer it's called Outlook Express and on Netscape's Communicator I'm not sure it has a name but it comes with the browser and is easily accessed from there.
Keep in mind that which ever e-mail program you choose that one then becomes what is called your "e-mail client." This program has to be "configured" to work with your computer system and your Internet Access Provider (or your mail provider,which could be different-more on that later.) Usually, your ISP will supply you with the information you need to set this all up. You will need:
Once you've familiarized yourself with these functions, you can explore the different e-mail programs on your own to see which one you like best. Much of this will depend on what you use your e-mail for and how many people you communicate with.
All e-mail software come with "address books" that you input the names and addresses of all your contacts. They also have space for lots of other information about the contacts such as work and home phone numbers, personal information etc.
The trick with e-mail is simply learning how to manage your own file system. This is a recurring theme, I know, but it's true. For example, one of the more useful things of e-mail is your ability to "attatch" a file to the e-mail. This file could be anything. It typically is a letter of some sort, maybe a business document. But it could be a picture or even a video or audio file. And, this is very simple to do assuming you have a handle on your personel file system.
For example: you've created a resume on your word processor with all the formatting that took you all night to look just right. In other words, in needs to be in this format, not in what is called "plain text" which is what e-mail is. So, you want to attatch it to an e-mail and send it. Most e-mail programs make it simple to attatch a file, but the first thing it's going to want from you is the location of this file. Where did you save this resume? And could you navigate to it? So, you see, this idea of managing your file system is very important.
I found a good tutorial on e-mail (from Autralia of all places!) so, read through this if you need to. Click here for that.
Chat
A very popular use of the Internet today is called "Chatting." It is defined as communicating with your keyboard in "real time" over the Internet with one or more people. A bit a software is nescessary for this little trick, the most popular these days being AOL's Instant Messenger.These are fairly small pieces of software and quick to download. You can download Instant Messenger here. (Or from Netscape's Home Page.) There are many others, some much more complicated, but for our purposes we'll just stick with the AOL Instant Messenger. I've joined AIM just for this class to illustrate it's uses. My screen name is CACS101. After you've signed up for AIM you can invite me in for a chat. All you need is a screen name for yourself and you need to know the screen name of the person or persons you want to chat with. You type in their name and invite them in. If they are not online at that time it will you so. If they are, they will reciece a message something like, "Screen-name-bob would like to invite to chat. Accept or Refuse?" You can also ignore the message if you like. You can also configure the software to deal with each person differently. For example if you never wanted to hear from screen-name-bob again you could set the program to not let him through.
Newsgroups
Newsgroups are defined groups of people that form what you might think of as clubs. These clubs are devoted to one subject and one subject only. Not only can you join or form a group of your choosing, you can search the e-mail archives of these groups without joining. The most popular site for newsgroups is called Dejanews. Check this site out, read the FAQ. Try choosing a subject your interested in for a search. It takes a little practice but it can be rewarding. It can be most useful if you're looking for something very specific. For example, lets say your computer gave you a message that read something like "cannot find runtime v.2" You're thinking "eh?" You have no idea what this means right? Well, out there somewhere, is a newsgroup discussing a subject close to this and someone is asking the question "what does it mean when my computer says cannot find runtime v.2?" Then you view the one or more replies to this message and quite possibly get your answer. As far as your own hobbies and interests go, there is certainly a groups out there devoted to it already. Search for the group or "forum" from dejanews' home page and read some of the messages.