The World Wide Web, commonly WWW or just "the Web", is a way of collecting, organizing, and accessing the enormous amount of information on the Internet. Most popular Web viewers, or "browsers", are graphically based and not only allow you to obtain text, but pictures, sounds, and even movies as well.
The basic analogy is one of a book. Information is stored on "pages," and "hotlinks" connect you to other "pages" across the Internet. Once you get started, you will soon realize that the Web is much more than a huge computerized book -- you can check the latest stock market information, download a recent software update, make reservations for an upcoming ski vacation, purchase a last minute birthday gift, look for a new job, and even "listen" to a morning radio show.
Turning to a webpage requires a bit more than a page number, however. Webpages are located by their address, or URL which stands for Uniform/Universal Resource Locator. A typical URL of a webpage looks something like this:
http://www.hawaii.edu/help/software.html
Although it looks intimidating, once you break it down it's not so bad.
Internet Explorer (IE) is a program written by Microsoft that allows you to explore and browse the Internet through the World Wide Web. IE is a commercial software package, and is available without charge. Please read the License Agreement for more information.
This document will help you get started with Internet Explorer 5.5/6.0 for Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows XP. For more detailed information, consult the online Internet Explorer Help discussed later in this document.
Internet Explorer 6.0 features the same security as 5.5SP2 with new multimedia features. For more information on the new features please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/ie/reskit/ie6/part1/c01ie6rk.asp
Note: these features do require more system resources so older systems may want to stay with 5.5SP2.
If your computer is running Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000, that means IE5 is already installed. Windows XP already includes Internet Explorer 6.0.
To determine which version of Windows your computer is running, follow the procedures below.
Select Properties in the pop-up window, and you should be able to find out what version of Windows you are using.
You may go to http://www.microsoft.com/ windows/ie/default.htm to download and install the latest version of Internet Explorer.
System Requirements
Before you download Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 for Windows, make sure that your computer meets or exceeds the following requirements:
| Processor: | 133 MHz Pentium |
| Operating System: | Windows 95, Window 98, or Windows NT SP6, Windows 2000, Windows XP |
| Memory Requirements: | 16 MB minimum on Win95/98, 32MB minimum on Windows NT, 64MB minimum on Windows 2000 (128+MB recommended) |
Note: If you plan to use additional movie, imaging, and sound utilities, more RAM is needed. |
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| Disk Space Required for Installation: | 100 MB free on hard drive |
Please note: amount of disk space required includes the setup files and the amount of space necessary to run installation. |
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IE Helper Applications
Other recommended utilities to run with IE are:
| Description: | Download site: |
| Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 | http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/768 |
| Other Applications | |
Always check to see if your system meets the requirements for these additional helper applications.
Plug-Ins
Plug-Ins are software programs that add more functionality to IE. For example, there are plug-ins to enhance sound and video if your PC supports it. Additional plug-ins may be found at http://home.netscape.com/plugins/ Some of these plug-ins may work only with the Netscape browser.
After starting your computer you will see the following icons at the bottom of your screen:
You may also see the following icon on your desktop:
Double click on the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop or click on the IE icon next to the Start menu.
or
You should now see the following screen:
This is called a "homepage". A homepage is like an introductory page or a table of contents. Most homepages consist of a bit of information about the page and its contents and also contain links to other pages on the Web.
Most of the customized settings for Internet Explorer can be done from the View menu.
View Toolbars Standard Buttons - The toolbar allows you to do various functions with the click of a button:
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Takes you back a page. |
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Takes you forward a page. |
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Stops whatever process is currently executing. |
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Reloads a page into memory. |
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Takes you to the designated homepage (the website that Internet Explorer accesses when it is first opened). |
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Search the Internet. |
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Displays your collection of favorite pages. |
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Revisit previously viewed pages. |
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Displays a menu for performing email and news-related activities. |
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Prints current page. |
Status Bar - The status bar displays the status of a page as it loaded into Internet Explorer:
Explorer Bar - Displays Search, Favorites, History, Search, and Folders tabs. You can also get the Tip of the day.
Go To - Allows you to navigate forward, back, to your homepage, or any page that you previously visited.
Text size - Increase or decrease the text size displayed on the webpage.
Encoding - Change the language and character set displayed on the webpage.
Source - View the html codes used to create the current webpage.
Full Screen - Toggle between full screen and regular view of the browser window.
Select Internet Options... from the Tools menu. To edit a different set of options, click on the appropriate tab folders (in this example, it is General).
Generally, you can use the default settings without any problems. The following are exceptions:
Mail and News
By default Internet Explorer uses Outlook Express to browse news groups or send electronic mail. You may need to configure the News and Mail servers in order to use Outlook Express for news reading and electronic mail. To set up an Internet connection, under the Tools menu select Internet Options.... Click on the Connections tab, then click on Setup....
You will be prompted with a series of questions. This will allow you to configure your news and email servers.
The UH news server is news.hawaii.edu. The UH mail server is mail.hawaii.edu.
To read news:
Many Web pages allow you to email questions or comments to the creator of the page. To use the mail function you must first set up an Internet connection, under the Tools menu select Internet Options.... Click on the Connections tab, then click on Setup....
The default mail program for Internet Explorer is Microsoft Outlook Express. Please see the following URL for more information:
http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/771
Eudora is another supported email client. For more information please check the website:
http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/769
Moving around the Web is quite easy. Linked items are shown in blue (by default) and when you move your pointer over a linked item, the arrow will change into a finger and the URL of the link will be displayed at the bottom of your window. To actually travel to that page, just click on the item. Linked items can be text or graphics. Previously followed links are shown in a different color, usually green (by default).
If you know the URL (address) of a page, highlight the URL in the Address: box, type in the new address and hit return.
Or
The best place to obtain more information about the Web is on the Web. If you want a more detailed look at IE and how to configure it, you can use the online help by selecting Contents and Index from the Help menu. You can also jump to other information pages from the Help menu.
Here are some other interesting Web pages:
If you discover pages on the Web that you want to remember, you can add them to your "Favorites" page.
If you did it correctly you should see the titles of the pages you marked:
Message:
What to Do:
There are several reasons why this message could appear.
Message:
What to Do:
This is a security warning. Any information that you submit can be seen by someone else. Do not send personal information like credit card numbers or social security numbers if you receive this message. To be safe, leave this alert unchecked. It is good to be reminded when you are sending insecure information.
Message:
What to Do:
This message means that you are connecting to a secure web server. Leave this box unchecked to continue receiving these security warnings.
Message:
What to Do:
This message usually appears when you connect from a secure web server to an unsecure web server. Leave this box unchecked to continue to receive these security warnings.
Under the Help menu, there's additional ways to obtain more help.
To get on-line help, click on Contents and Index. For the basics click on Tour. The Tour is found in IE5, and is not available in IE6. If interested, the Tour can also be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie5/tour/
To find out what version of IE you're running click on About Internet Explorer.
For more help on Internet Explorer, contact the Information Technology Services (ITS) Help Desk at 956-8883, (800) 558-2669 toll free on the neighbor islands, or send email to help@hawaii.edu.
Two other ITS documents you may find helpful are:
