|
||
 |
||
|
| Configuring & Setting Up Web Browsers |
 Email This
 Print ThisView My Personal Library |
|
Getting Started January 2000 • Vol.6 Issue 1 |
Configuring & Setting Up Web Browsers Follow Our Guidelines To Make Your Online Excursions Run Smoothly | ||
 Just because you own a computer and have Internet access doesn't necessarily mean you know everything about downloading and installing a Web browser (software used to navigate the Internet through a graphical interface). Still, chances are, you use or have heard of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator. Most new computers come with one or both of these popular browsers. If not, you can download either browser from the manufacturer's Web site at no charge. You'll find Explorer at Microsoft Corp.'s Web site (http://www.microsoft.com) and Communicator at the Netscape Communications site (http://home.netscape.com). Although these two browsers dominate the market and are the largest and most capable of the bunch, Explorer and Communicator are by no means the only browsers available; there are dozens of smaller browsers that you might want to consider, as well. Search engines such as Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com) or Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) are a big help in finding some of these lesser-known candidates. The list of browsers they generate generally includes a sentence description about each product. You can then go to that product's Web site to learn more about its features and download the software. Opera (http://www.opera.com) is a popular browser that receives rave reviews for its speed and user-friendly features. For instance, it has the ability to cascade and tile windows horizontally or vertically, thereby allowing users to navigate several pages at once. Users can also define the setting for each window. NetCaptor's (http://www.netcaptor.com) claim to fame is its ability to display multiple sites on separate browser tabs. NeoPlanet (http://www.neoplanet.com) integrates a browser, Web directory, search engine, instant messaging, chat, and an e-mail component into one application. Whatever your need or preference, there's a browser for you.  Downloading & Installing Downloading is different with each browser, but thanks to on-screen instructions, the process is relatively simple. Because Explorer and Communicator are the most popular browsers, we've included a few instructions for their installation. Internet Explorer. To download Explorer for the first time or upgrade to version 5.0, start by using whichever browser you have to open Microsoft's start page (http://www.microsoft.com) and clicking Downloads. Select the product you wish to download, as well as the appropriate platform and operating system, and then click Find It. Microsoft displays a table listing Internet Explorer 5.0, along with other related programs. Choose Internet Explorer 5.0. In Step 1, choose either English or Other and click Next. Step 2 instructs you to open or run the program from the current location. Click Next. When you're asked whether to save it "to disk" or run it from the current location, choose to run it from the current location. Finally, specify where the executable file should be saved.
If you're concerned about having more than one browser on your computer, don't be. Simply decide which one you want as the default browser. Every time you open Internet Explorer when you have more than one browser on your system, you'll be asked if you want to make it the default browser (until you direct it otherwise). Choose Yes or No. If you later decide that you don't want more than one browser, see "How To . . . Uninstall Your Browser" in this issue. Netscape Communicator. Use the Web browser you currently have to access Netscape's start page (http://home.netscape.com), and choose the Browsers link. On the next page, you'll see the full download option for Communicator 4.7. Beneath that, click the option for Windows 95/98/NT. Step 1 is to select a download location. Click Download in Step 2. If you're using Explorer to download Communicator, the File Download dialog box might appear, asking you whether you want to run it from the current location or save it "to disk." Make your selection (it's probably easier to just run it from the current location), and click OK. The computer then downloads an executable file that it later uses to download and install Communicator. When the Save As dialog box appears, tell the computer to save the file on your Desktop and use the name it's already been given. When the process is complete, close the dialog box and minimize the browser, but stay online. Click the new .EXE file on the Desktop to begin Netscape's SmartDownload process. When you're told that the download was successful, click Install to begin the setup. Make sure all Windows programs are closed. Read and accept the license agreement, choose the type of installation you want (probably Typical), and select a destination directory for the file. Click Next. Select or deselect a few Netscape Desktop preferences, watch the setup add program icons to the program folder, and click Install. Accept or decline an offer to read a ReadMe file, and then restart your computer. To upgrade to Communicator 4.7, go to the Browser section of the Netscape site, but instead of selecting the full download, find the Fast Update for Communicator 4.0 or newer. Click the SmartUpdate link. In Step 1, select Communicator 4.7 and any other software components you want from several different categories. Review your selections in Step 2. Register or sign in for Netcenter during Step 3 by giving a username, password, e-mail address, name, physical address, and age. At Step 4, click the name of the software you want to download. This opens the Small Download Manager window where you can view the information in an eligibility statement. SmartUpdate then begins downloading your selections. When the download progress box closes, it's time for installation. Restart your computer after the installation is complete. Figuring Out Configuration Configuring your browser enables you to personalize its settings and use it to its fullest potential. Each browser configures differently, so we've included information about personalizing both Explorer and Communicator. Internet Explorer. Choose Internet Options from the Tools menu. The dialog box that appears has six different tabs under which different tasks may be configured: General, Security, Content, Connections, Programs, and Advanced. Under General, you can specify the page you want to display when Explorer opens. If you don't want its default home page or a blank page, simply display a Web page that you like, and choose Use Current to select that page. Temporary Internet files store the Web pages you've visited in a file for easy viewing later. You can delete these files, change their location, or specify a maximum allowable size. History files store links to recently visited sites. Click the small arrow at the right of the Location field to open a drop-down menu listing the sites you've accessed (these sites are part of your history file). To remove these links, click the Clear button. You can also set the number of days you want Explorer to keep an address. Along the bottom are buttons for Color, Fonts, Languages, and Accessibility. Explorer lets you select colors for text, visited links, and unvisited links, and it allows you to choose fonts that the browser will use when pages don't already have a specified text font. You can even choose the language in which you prefer to read pages. Click the Accessibility button to tell Explorer to ignore colors, fonts, and font sizes built into pages and use your color and font preferences instead. Under Security, you can adjust the level of security for various sites, using different zones in which to categorize sites. For instance, in the "restricted zone," you can list the sites that could potentially damage your computer or data and set a high level of security for these sites. Approved sites are categorized in the "trusted zone" and given a low level of security. All other sites are automatically placed in the "Internet zone," where Explorer recommends medium security. With a higher level of security, you'll receive more warnings and may not be allowed to run certain active content or download certain items. The Content Advisor under Content helps you set up ratings to control what Internet content can be viewed on your computer. The Certificates section helps you positively identify yourself. It can also require secure Web sites to send you their certificates of security before you send them something confidential, such as your credit card number. In the Personal Information section, configure the AutoComplete feature (Explorer recognizes Web addresses you've visited before, and as you type an address, it suggests possible matches), the Microsoft Wallet feature (stores information needed for online shopping), and the Microsoft Profile Assistant (stores personal profile information that you can share when a Web site requests it). Configure your Internet connections within the Connections area. You can easily create, remove, or edit connections; set a connection as a default; and perform other related tasks. In addition, access the Programs area to specify what programs you want used for Internet services, e-mail correspondence, newsgroups, or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, the language used to create Web pages) editing. You shouldn't have to change any configurations under Advanced, but if you need to activate or deactivate advanced settings for accessibility, browsing, printing, multimedia, security, and similar areas, the Advanced tab is where you make these changes. Netscape Communicator. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu and, along the left side of the dialog box, you'll see seven groups: Appearance, Navigator, Mail And Newsgroups, Roaming Access, Composer, Offline, and Advanced. Expand each group to reveal the categories beneath it, and select the name of a group or category to begin setting the related preferences. Below Appearance is where you'll find the Fonts and Colors categories. Choose Appearance to specify whether to launch Navigator, Messenger, Composer, or Calendar upon startup and whether to show the toolbar commands as pictures, text, or both. When you select Fonts, you'll see where you can choose the encoding you want (probably Western), the default fixed and variable width fonts you can change, and if you want the fonts used for all Web pages (even if the pages that are written with different fonts). Click the Colors category to name colors for text, backgrounds, visited links, and unvisited links. You can choose to use these colors instead of a page's real colors in order to make on-screen viewing easier on your eyes. The Navigator group contains categories for Languages, Applications, and Smart Browsing. Click Navigator to assign a home page (such as blank, Netscape home page, or last page visited), clear the list of previously visited sites from the Location bar drop-down menu, delete the stored files of previously visited pages, and specify how many days those pages will be stored on your computer. Opt to view pages in a different language by accessing the Languages category. Navigator can handle most file types, but for some (such as videos), it launches a "helper" application. Under Applications, you can tell Navigator which applications to use for which types of files. Even so, this is preconfigured, so you probably won't need to change anything. Smart Browsing is where you enable or disable the What's Related feature. Navigator generates a list of universal resource locators (URLs, or Web addresses) for sites related to whatever site your browser is displaying. You can also activate the Internet Keywords feature that allows users to type brand names or common words instead of URLs in the Location field. Mail And Newsgroups is the largest group. It includes Identity, Mail Servers, Newsgroup Servers, Addressing, Messages, Window Settings, Copies And Folders, Formatting, Return Receipts, and Disk Space as categories. You can customize the style, size, and color of plain quoted text and choose to display plain text messages and newsgroup articles with fixed or variable width fonts. In addition, you can configure Mail And Newsgroups in other ways, such as telling it to play a sound when mail arrives. Select the Identity option to set up which name, e-mail address, and return address to use when sending messages. The attachment of a signature or a personal card can also be configured here. Users can add, remove, or edit properties for incoming and outgoing mail and newsgroup servers in the Mail Servers and Newsgroup Servers categories. Configure your targeted mail servers to remember passwords and check for mail at given intervals. Plus, specify where newsgroup servers can download messages and whether to limit the number of messages copied to your computer.
Windows Settings is where you specify how windows are used for messages, folders, and newsgroups. Choose the type of three-pane layout you want and whether selected newsgroups, folders, or messages should open into new or existing windows. Open Copies And Folders to designate where copies of outgoing messages are stored, whether to send blind carbon copies, and where to store drafts. Under Formatting, decide if you want to use a plain text or HTML editor when composing messages and specify what to do when recipients can't receive HTML messages. In the Return Receipts category, you can request delivery and/or read receipts, as well as tell Communicator what to do when senders request receipts. The Disk Space category lets you determine the maximum message size you can download, when to compact folders, and how long to store old newsgroup messages. The Roaming Access group, with its Server Information and Item Selection categories, contains the settings for retrieving your user information from other computers that are networked with yours. Unless you are networked, however, you won't need to access this group. If you ever need to set your general preferences for authoring and publishing Web pages, you'll need to configure the options within the Publisher category of the Composer group. Choose the Offline group to specify whether to start Communicator in an online or offline mode. Determine how to handle unsent messages and decide if you want a "prompt notice" so you can synchronize before exiting. Open the Download category to configure settings for downloading messages to read offline. Enabling or disabling features in the Advanced group affects the speed at which Web pages download and display in your browser window. Choose whether to automatically download all images, use Java or JavaScript, or use the author's style sheets. In this area, you can also decide how you want to handle cookies. Your computer's cache stores copies of pages frequently accessed in order to save time downloading them. Under the Cache category, decide how large the cache can become, where to locate it, and how often Navigator should update it. Don't worry about the settings in the next category, Proxies, if you have a direct connection to the Internet at your home. The last category, SmartUpdate, is where you can enable or disable SmartUpdate so that software can automatically and securely install. Now, after all that, you're ready for some serious browsing!  by Hannah Henry |
|
Home Copyright & Legal Information Privacy Policy Site Map Contact Us