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| Q: Is there any way to
automatically connect to the Internet when I start Netscape? Right now I have to manually
login. |
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A: By itself Netscape will not automatically start your Internet
connection (i.e., login to your Internet Service provider), but there are a number of
third-party programs which can solve this problem for you. Two which immediately come to
mind are DUNCE and RAS +95. You can download both at either TUCOWS
http://www.tucows.com and C-Net's Download.Com
http://www.download.com. Both programs are Shareware
(please support independent developers) and both will allow you to automate your logins
with just a minimal amount of effort.
If you like downloading and trying new software (and who doesn't), here are a few other
sites you can visit:
C-Net's Shareware.Com -- http://www.shareware.com
Strouds's -- http://cws.internet.com
FileZ -- http://www.filez.com
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| Q: In your opinion, what is
the single most important thing a new Internet user should learn first? |
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A: Without a doubt the most important thing a new user, or for that
matter any user, should learn first is how to use a search engine. The Internet is about
information, and the information is pretty useless if you don't know how to find it. If
you feel a bit intimidated about using a search engine, then start with Yahoo. It is easy to use and very quick. When you feel
comfortable with Yahoo, then move on to one of the major search engines -- AltaVista, Lycos,
Excite, InfoSeek,
or HotBot. Begin by conducting searches on single word
topics. After you feel comfortable, then learn what syntax is required to conduct
multi-word searches, such as "solar system" (if you don't use the correct search
engine syntax, the search engine will conduct a search on "solar" and
"system" separately instead of on "solar system" together). From here
you can move on to conducting searches using "Boolean" operators (AND, OR, NOT,
etc.). Use each search engine's help section since the syntax will vary from search engine
to search engine.
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| Q: OK, what's the second most
important thing to learn? |
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A: Where to find good sports info. My first choice is the ESPN SportsZone. My second choice is CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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| Q: When I get email messages
with an attachment, sometimes the attachment says it is encoded using
"UUencoding" and sometimes it says encoded using "Base64". I know what
UUencoding is, but what is Base64? |
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A: Base64 is another encoding/decoding scheme and is the encoding
scheme defined by MIME. It is designed to be robust to all the transformations that a
message can experience as it traverses the Internet. It was specified in RFC 1421, which
refers to the PEM -- Privacy Enhanced Mail.
Every MIME capable mail client, including Netscape Messenger, can handle Base64, but, if
the attachment is not recognized by the recipient, the message must be saved as a file and
then decoded afterwards with a standalone decoder. If your copy of Netscape Messenger is
functioning properly you should not need to acquire a standalone Base64 decoder.
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| Q: I'm still working on a slow
PC (a 486). I know I can speed up Web page loading by setting Netscape to only load text
and not graphics. Is there anything else I can do until I can afford a faster PC? |
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A: Without physically examining your PC there's not much more I can
recommend. There is one little trick I can pass along if you are loading graphics and
text. A lot of Webmasters use animation, usually animated GIFs on their Web pages to add a
touch of pizzazz (guilty as charged) to their pages. Unfortunately, animated GIFs can also
take longer to load than non-animated GIFs. When the page begins to load, select View
| Stop Animations from the Netscape menu and the animated GIFs
will stop dead in their tracks. Unfortunately, this is not a permanent solution. Any page
you load which contains animation will have to be stopped manually each time you load the
page.
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| Q: Should I worry about
infecting my computer with a virus from downloading files from Web and FTP sites? I've
never met anyone who has encountered a virus from a downloaded file and I've heard a lot
of the "reported" problems are actually hoaxes. |
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A: It is true that many of the problems of viruses infecting files
on Web and FTP sites, and for that matter viruses attached to email messages, are merely
hoaxes, but don't think this is not a serious problem. One good solution to the problem I
use is to install an Anti-Virus program which will function with your browser. I use
version 4.0 of Norton Anti-Virus for Windows NT 4.0. When you install NAV 4.0 it will
check to see if you have a Web browser installed and will then install as a help app
(remember "helper apps" -- they preceded plug-ins). Then when you download a
file your browser and NAV will hold the file in a protected cache until the file can be
scanned for viruses. If the file is clean (virus-free) you can then save the file to your
hard disk.
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