Introduction To The Internet

Lutz F.
Krebs
Introduction to the
Internet
© 2001 – 2002 Universiteit Maastricht.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any
form or by any means, without prior, written permission from the publisher.
PICTURE CREDITS
Section cover background: size-isnt-everything.co.uk
TYPEFACES
Headlines are set in TheSansCorrespondence © TheTypes b.v., Lucas de
Groot. Function calls are set in Arial Narrow © The Monotype Corporation
plc. Image components and Google Output are labeled in Arial © The
Monotype Corporation plc. Body text and side notes are set in Times New
Roman © The Monotype Corporation plc. Keys are set in RatCaps 3D PC
and RatKeys 3D PC © Quadrat Communications, David Vereschagin. Email
quotes are set in Courier New © The Monotype Corporation plc.
TRADEMARKS
Product names, logos, designs, titles, words or phrases mentioned in this
publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of companies
or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions or
internationally.
DISCLAIMER
WE HAVE USED EXCEPTIONAL CARE IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.
NONETHELESS, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO CLAIMS OR
WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR
COMPLETENESS OF THE BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM
ANY WARRANTIES REGARDING THE USEFULNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES EXCEPT
THOSE GRANTED HERE. THE ADVICE GIVEN IN THIS
PUBLICATION IS NOT GUARANTEED TO PRODUCE ANY
PARTICULAR RESULTS AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY
INDIVIDUAL OR UNDER PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES.
NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE
FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL
DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following for their continued support:
Dirk Tempelaar. The computer whiz kids at ACO and ICTS. Andreas van
Rienen and Carsten Sturmann. Christiane Arndt.
FEEDBACK
We are happy to hear from you. You can contact the author directly at
l.krebs@ke.unimaas.nl.
Version 1.2 – 28/07/02
Maastricht University
P.O. Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands
CONTENTS
A. GENERAL TOPICS
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
1. Introduction 3
2. Getting Hooked Up 9
B. THE WORLD WIDE WEB

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
3. Using the WWW 17

4. Finding Information on the Web 27
5. Security on the Internet 33
C. EMAIL
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
6. Setting Up Your Email Account 41

7. Sending & Receiving Emails 45
8. Advanced Topics 53
APPENDIX
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
A. Useful Websites 59
Image: size-isnt-everything.co.uk
GENERAL TOPICS
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
1. INTRODUCTION
The Internet ranks highly among the most important inventions of the
last century. While initially a military network designed to withstand a
nuclear war, it was soon championed by American academics. With the
debut of the World Wide Web in 1991, the Internet has found its way
into the common household. Today, the Internet is quickly becoming as
ubiquitous as the telephone, first and foremost in commercial and
academic settings but also in households.1 The two most commonly used
services are the WWW (‘world wide web’, also known as the web or the
‘world wide wait’) and email.
An Overview
This book is meant as an introduction to the Internet. In the first section,
we will start off with some general remarks and we will help you to
connect your PC to the Internet.
Once you are there, you will want to check out the Web, which is
basically an information retrieval service. Anyone can leave documents
on the Internet for others to see, a feature which has made information
on almost every imaginable subject easily accessible. We will discuss
this feature of the Internet in detail in the second section of this guide.
Finally, we turn to the other big feature of the Internet, electronic mail
(or email). The third section tells you how it works and how you can
send and receive email using Microsoft’s Outlook 2000 program.
What You Need to Get Started

Before you can connect to the Internet, you need some basic ingredients.
If you want to access the Internet from home, you obviously need a
computer of some sort. In the following, we assume that you have a PC
that is using some version of Microsoft Windows. Besides a computer,
you need some way to connect it to the outside world. This would
Modem
Device that sends and receives
usually be some type of modem. (We’ll go into the details in chapter 2.)
computer signals over ordinary Once you have these gizmos, you are theoretically able to access the
telephone lines. Internet.
Browser However, you will also need some software that tells the computer how
Computer program that allows to access the Internet: a browser that allows you to see the world wide
you to see the world wide web.
web, and an email client that enables you to send and receive email. At
Email Client Maastricht University, we have opted for a combination of Microsoft’s
Computer program used to send Internet Explorer and Outlook 2000.
and receive emails.
1
In a world were 75% of the population does not have a telephone, any remarks regarding the ubiquitousness of the
Internet obviously apply only to the richer countries.
4 Introduction to the Internet
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is currently the dominant browser and it is

available for free from Microsoft. It is already present on most PCs using
Microsoft Windows, so you will not have to worry about it.
Outlook, however, is a commercial program, which implies that you

have to pay money to get it. The cheapest way to get Outlook is to buy
Microsoft Office 2000 Professional from the ICT Service Center. Office
2000 Pro costs 25 €2 for students and includes a number of programs that
you will find useful for your study, such as Microsoft Word (for writing
assignments and projects), Microsoft Excel (for assignments in statistics
and mathematics), Microsoft PowerPoint (for preparing presentations),
as well as Microsoft Outlook.
THE ICT SERVICE CENTER
ADDRESS Looiersgracht 14, Room 0.011

PHONE (043) 388 35 64
EMAIL servicedesk@icts.unimaas.nl
WEBSITE www.icts.unimaas.nl
OFFICE HOURS Phone/Email Walk in

Weekdays 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. 8.30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturdays 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. closed
If you do not want to buy Microsoft Outlook, there is no reason to

despair: you can still use Outlook Express, its tiny brother. Outlook
Express comes for free with the Internet Explorer. In the following, we
focus on Outlook 2000 because it is the software used in the computer
labs of our faculty, but Outlook Express behaves more or less like
Outlook when it comes to emails.
Public Computer Terminals

If you do no own a computer yet, you can still use the faculty’s computer
SMR (Studenten Micro Ruimte) labs (or SMRs as they are called at our university). There are two SMRs
Synonym for computer lab at our at the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, and both are located
university.
in the main building at Tongersestraat 53. To use a PC there, you need
your student ID number and a password that will be or has been mailed
to you together with your student ID card.
2
These prices are sharply reduced in comparison to normal retail prices, because Maastricht University (in cooperation
with other Dutch universities) buys large quantities of educational licenses.
General Topics: Introduction 5
●●●●●●●●●●●●
THE COMPUTER ROOMS
SMR 1 SMR 2
LOCATION Rooms 3.047 – 3.061 Rooms 0.012 – 0.014
NUMBER OF PCS 120 60
OPENING HOURS
Mon – Thu 9 a.m. – 10 p.m. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Fridays 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Weekends closed closed
MORE INFO www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/smr/
In general, the SMRs should only be used for study related activities,
e.g. downloading and reviewing lecture notes, writing papers, registering
for courses etc. If you want to write personal emails or surf the web for
fun, you are asked to restrict yourself to the early morning (9 – 10 a.m.)
or the evening (after 5 p.m.). Even with these rules in place, the SMRs
tend to get crowded often.
When the SMRs are closed, you can walk over to the library, which
offers a small computer room of its own. Be aware that other faculties
also use this computer room – you may have to wait (possibly a long
time) for a PC to become available. If you know in advance that you
need a PC for a study related reason, you can make a reservation for up
to two hours per day.
THE LIBRARY
ADDRESS Bonnefantenstraat 2
PHONE (043) 388 34 27
WEBSITE www.ub.unimaas.nl
OPENING HOURS
Mon – Thu 8.30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Fridays 8.30 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Saturdays 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sundays 12 a.m. – 5 p.m.
On the Use of this Book

In this book, we assume that you have access to a PC with the necessary
equipment to get onto the Internet. We also presume that you know in
general how to operate a Windows-based PC. We will take it from there.
This manual is not meant to be all-encompassing. It is meant as an

introduction and as a guide. We will focus on getting you started, and in
doing so will ignore a number of useful advanced features. You are
encouraged to go beyond the contents of this book and explore the tools
●●●●●●●●●●●●
that you are working with, as Internet Explorer and Outlook. If you feel
that you need further guidance, there are a number of excellent printed
resources. Personally, we find the jargon-free language and useful hints
of the ‘For Dummies’ series to be particularly appealing, but there are
certainly many other useful and well-written computer books out there.
There is also a lot of helpful information on the web, and we will show
you how to find it in chapter 4.
This book focuses on showing you how to accomplish certain tasks in

Internet Explorer and Outlook. Be aware that there are usually several
ways to get things done. We will endeavor to show you as many of them
as possible. In doing so, we will use the following conventions:
· Buttons on toolbars that initiate a certain function are usually

A toolbar. displayed in the margin together with a brief description of what
the button does.
· If you need to press a button, we will indicate this by printing the

button, e.g. / implies that you need to push the ‘enter’ key.
Frequently, key combinations are used to accomplish tasks. An
example of such a key combination would be c + P, which
means that you should press and hold the ‘ctrl’ key while
pressing ‘p’.
· When you need to enter more than a few characters, we will not
print the individual keys, because that would be space consuming
and hard to read. Instead, we will indicate the text using a special
font, as demonstrated here: ‘enter this’.
· Some of the options cannot be initiated using a keyboard shortcut

or an on-screen button. Such options can usually be found in the
menu bar. If we want you to select an option from the menu bar,
we will list the names of the options in chronological order. E.g.
‘File’, ‘Print’ would imply that you click on ‘File’ in the menu
A menu bar. bar, and then select ‘Print’ from the menu that appears. Instead of
clicking on the items, you can also use your keyboard: press a
and the underlined letter, in our example a + F. Once the
menu is open, simply pressing the underlined letter is sufficient.
E.g. after pressing a + F, pressing P will be enough to take
you to the print menu.
· Finally, we will use a similar notation when you need to select

options from the Start menu, e.g. ‘Start’, ‘Programs’, ‘Internet
Explorer’ will launch Internet Explorer. Once again, you can use
keyboard shortcuts: press the Windows key (ÿ), followed by the
The Start menu. underlined letters.
General Topics: Introduction 7
●●●●●●●●●●●●
If you are stuck…

If you cannot find the answer here, there are still a number of ways to
get help.
If you are stuck using a certain program, the first thing you can try is
pressing the 1 key. Pressing 1 is like asking the computer for help.
In most cases, the appropriate program will then give you additional
information on whatever you are currently doing.
There are, however, cases when your computer does not understand your
problem (because the persons that built the software did not foresee it) or
when your PC is not able to help you (because it is malfunctioning). In
such cases, you may want to check out a helpful website, Tech24
SelfHelp at www.tech24inc.com/help.html. Tech 24 offers self-help
links that are sorted by category (e.g. ‘Internet’, ‘Email’, ‘Outlook’).
They also offer live support from certified technicians.
You can also try contacting the producer directly. If you have trouble
with Outlook, Outlook Express or the Internet Explorer, you might want
to visit www.microsoft.com to see if they know the answer to your
question. However, some producers do not offer a lot of support or
charge money for it.
Another option is to call or email the computer whiz kids at the ICT
service center of our university. They offer support for the software used
throughout the university, which includes among others Windows,
Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and the McAfee virus scanner. (See
the info box on p. 4 for their contact information.)
Finally, befriending a geek may be the best solution. Geeks are by nature
friendly, helpful and extremely well versed in all things computer. If you
can count one of them as your friend, he (or in rare cases she) probably
won’t mind dropping by and helping you out when you are having
trouble with your PC. An invitation to dinner or to the movies in return
won’t hurt either.
We wish you success in working with the Internet!

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
In this chapter, we will help you
connect your PC to the Internet.
2. GETTING HOOKED UP
If you do not own a PC or do not
plan to connect it to the Internet, At Maastricht University, there are two ways to connect to the Internet.
you can safely ignore this You can establish a temporary connection over the telephone network or
chapter. you can apply for an ‘always-on’ connection. The two options differ in
their cost and in the speed with which you can exchange information
with the Internet. Also, the second option may is only available in
Maastricht and some of the surrounding Dutch communities.
Connecting over the telephone network

ISP (Internet Service Provider) Most people do not need an Internet connection that is always active.
A company or institution that has Instead, they only want to connect to the Internet sometimes, e.g. to
a connection to the Internet and check their mail or to use the WWW. This is where Internet Service
allows private individuals to use
that connection whenever they
Providers come in: they have connections that are always active, and
need it. they allow people like you and me to use them when we need them.
Modem To connect to such an ISP over the telephone network, you need a
A modem is a device that regular telephone connection and a modem. The vast majority of
translates the electrical signals
from your computer into audible
computers sold today already comes with a modem installed, so we will
sounds so they can be skip the physical installation procedure. If you do not own a modem, you
transmitted over a telephone line. can buy one from a local electronics or computer store. Please consult
This process is known as your modem’s manual for installation advice.
modulation. It also translates the
incoming sounds into electrical
signals for your computer;
You also need the phone number of the ISP (the so-called ‘dial-up
demodulation in computer-lingo.number’) and a name and password to identify you. The latter is
The term modem is simply an necessary because most ISPs either charge a certain fee or restrict access
abbreviation of to a certain group of people. Our university belongs to the second group:
modulator/demodulator. you do not pay anything to use the ISP of our university, but they want
Dial-up connection
to make sure that only our own students and staff can use the network.
A connection between computers By the way, you still pay for the telephone connection to the ISP, which
that is established over a is usually a local call.
telephone line.
In the following, we will describe how to set up a connection over the

phone line. While the process is the same no matter where you live,
some of the details depend on your location. After the general
description, we therefore turn to the specific cases of students living in
the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Please be aware that the
information provided here is subject to change. All information is up-to-
date as of July 1, 2001.
The general procedure

‘Start’ „ ‘Programs’ „
‘Accessories’ „ In the Start menu, click on ‘Programs’, ‘Accessories’,
‘Communications’ „ ‘Dial-up ‘Communications’, ‘Dial-Up Networking’. In the window that opens,
Networking’ click on ‘Make New Connection’. You will then be guided through the
process of setting up a new connection.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
In the first step, enter a name for the Internet connection. This would
usually be the name of the ISP, such as ‘Maastricht University’ or
‘Enertel’ if you live in the Netherlands. (More info in the region-specific
sections below.)
In the same step, you will need to select the device that you want to use
for the connection. If your modem is properly installed, it will be
automatically selected and you will not need to do anything.
In the second step, you will need to enter the area code and telephone
number of the ISP. If you live in the Netherlands, then the area code is
‘06760’ and the telephone number is ‘88029’. Finally, select the country
you are currently residing in for the country code.
The third step only confirms what you have entered. That’s it, you are
done.
You will now see a new icon in the dial-up networking window with the
name you have given your Internet connection. Double-click on it to test
whether the Internet connection works. A window will appear to ask you
for your username and password.
Both depend on the ISP you are using and can vary a great deal. Please
see the region-specific section below for further details. If you are the
only one using your PC or if you trust the other persons in your
household, you can tick ‘save password’. If you don’t, you will have to
enter your password every time you want to connect to the Internet, but
you keep anyone else from using the Internet on your account. Finally,
quickly check whether the phone number displayed in the window is
correct.
If you are in the Netherlands, it should say ‘06760 88029’. Once you are
done, click on ‘Connect’.
Your PC will now try to establish an Internet connection. If anything

goes wrong, you will see an error message. Possible problem causes are:
General Topics: Getting Hooked Up 11
●●●●●●●●●●●●
· the modem is not plugged into your telephone connection (see

the modem’s manual for instructions), or
· someone else is currently using the phone (you cannot use the
Internet and the telephone at the same time unless you have more
than one telephone line or ISDN).
If you are still experiencing difficulties connecting to the net, go back to

the dial-up networking window and right-click on the appropriate
connection. In the appearing window, switch to the category ‘Server
Types’ and check the settings. The dial-up server must be set to ‘PPP:
Internet, Windows NT Server, Windows 98’. Of the options listed
below, only two should be ticked: ‘enable software compression’ and
‘TCP/IP’. Make sure that they are selected. If any of the other options
are ticked, unselect them. Finally, click on the button ‘TCP/IP settings’
and check whether the options ‘server assigned IP address’, ‘server
assigned name server address’, ‘use IP header compression’ and ‘use
default gateway on remote network’ are selected. If not, make the
necessary changes. Close all windows by clicking on the ‘ok’ buttons
and try again to establish an Internet connection.
Hopefully, everything went well the first time. In that case, Windows
This icon indicates an active will let you know that it has successfully established an Internet
Internet connection. connection, and it will add an icon for the connection to your system
tray. As long as this icon is present in the tray, you are connected to the
Internet.
Just to remind you: the Internet connection we have just set up works
like a normal phone call and you are paying some sort of telephone fee
for it. 3 Because you are paying for the connection, you should only keep
it active as long as you need it. To disconnect from the Internet, right-
click on the icon in the system tray and select ‘disconnect’.
In the following, we describe the region-specific details regarding

Internet connections.
Students living in the Netherlands

The University of Maastricht has a contract with Enertel (an ISP) that
allows us to offer Internet access all across the Netherlands. There is a
common dial-up that enables you to connect to the Internet at the cost of
a discounted phone call: you pay 10% less than the cost of a local call,
no matter where you are calling from. This keeps your phone bill low.
The dial-up number for the Netherlands is (06760) 88029.
You will also need a user name and password to identify yourself when
dialing in. Your user name is of the format Ixxxxxx@student.unimaas.nl,
where ‘xxxxxx’ represents your six-digit ID number. So if your ID
number happens to be 1234, your username would be
3
The actual fee depends on where you live and which ISP you use. Usually, the charge should be equal to or less than the
normal rate for a local telephone call
●●●●●●●●●●●●
I001234@student.unimaas.nl. Your password is a four-digit code that

will be or has been mailed to you together with your student ID card.
Obviously, there are other ISPs in the Netherlands that offer the same
Intranet service. Unfortunately, some of the services of our faculty require that
A network that functions like the
Internet, but that is accessible
you are directly connected to their network. Geeks say that this
only to authorized persons that information is not available on the Internet, but on the Intranet. To use
are directly connected to it. these services, you need to use Enertel or a PC in the SMR.
Students living in Belgium

Instead of dialing in to the Dutch phone number (which is rather
expensive), you have two options. The UM has a partnership with the
Limburgs Universitair Centrum in Diepenbeek to offer our students a
local dial-up. However, this service is rather limited and slow, and you
need to sign up for it. To learn more, you need to log on to the Internet
and fill out the form at
„ http://www.ica.unimaas.nl/projecten/dialup/aanvraagbelgie.html
The second option is to use another provider. There are quite a number
of ISPs available that you can reach throughout Belgium at the cost of a
local phone call (or less). However, the quality of each provider is
difficult to gauge and their service changes over time. It is therefore best
if you take the time to sign up with several ISPs. In all cases, signing up
is free and if you have trouble reaching a particular provider, you can
always use another one. Each provider will tell you which phone
number, user name and password to use once you have signed up.
Below, we list some of the most popular ISPs in Belgium, together with
their WWW address. Please be aware that the telephone charges can
differ between the providers. For the most recent information, see their
websites.
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS IN BELGIUM
Tiscali Free www.tiscali.be

VT 4.net www.vt4.net
Tijd.be services.tijd.com
Planet Freedom Go www.planetinternet.be
Intranet Note: unfortunately, some of the services of our faculty require that you
A network that functions like the are directly connected to their network. Geeks say that this information
only to authorized persons that
is not available on the Internet, but on the Intranet. To use these
are directly connected to it. services, you will need to use a PC in the SMR.
General Topics: Getting Hooked Up 13
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Students living in Germany

The University of Maastricht does not have any specific arrangements
for students living in Germany. However, there is a plethora of ISPs in
Germany that are available to the public at very competitive rates.
Least-Cost Router Probably the best solution is to download the Web.de SmartSurfer. This
A tool that automatically program is a so-called least-cost router: it finds the cheapest ISP that is
connects you to the least
expensive service currently
currently available and connects you to it. To install SmartSurfer, visit
available. www.web.de, click on ‘SmartSurfer’ and download the program.4 You
can then install this program on your computer at home.
Intranet Note: unfortunately, some of the services of our faculty require that you
A network that functions like the are directly connected to their network. Geeks say that this information
only to authorized persons that
is not available on the Internet, but on the Intranet. To use these
are directly connected to it. services, you will need to use a PC in the SMR.
Internet by cable (“Campus@Home”)

Finally, if you already know that you will spend a lot of time on the
Internet or if you desire a very fast connection (e.g. for viewing
multimedia content or to engage in videoconferencing) you can apply for
Internet by cable. This is a service offered by the University of
Maastricht in cooperation with the local utility Nutsbedrijven Maastricht.
Due to the technical requirements, this service is only available to
households in Maastricht and a number of other communities in Dutch
Limburg. (See the address below for more information.) It is also
required that you have a cable TV connection in your household. If that
is the case, you can have an Internet connection installed that is always
on and rather fast. 5 Beyond the initial installation charge, you pay 23 €
per month (including a price subsidy from the university) and you can
share your connection with up to three more students. This is a flat rate:
no matter how often, how long and how intensively you use the Internet,
you will only pay this price.
To be able to use this connection, your PC needs a network card, but no

modem. If you do not have a network card, you can either buy one in a
local store, or buy one from the utility.6 If you plan to use the connection
together with other students, they too will need a network card and you
will also need a hub, which you will have to buy separately. Please
contact the ICT Service Center for additional information. Once
everything is set up and your computer is connected to the hub or the
cable modem, your Internet connection will be available as soon as you
switch on your PC, every time.
4
The program is small enough to fit on a floppy disk, so you can easily download it elsewhere and transfer it to your PC.
5
For the geeks, the guaranteed minimum speed is 256 kpbs, four times the speed of an ISDN line.
6
Nutsbedrijven Maastricht offers a network card for 24 € (80 € for laptops) and will install the card for you on the day the
connection is set up.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
For additional information, please visit the following web site. In order
to sign up, you must be connected directly to the university network,
either by using a PC in the SMR or by dialing in through Enertel as
described under “Connecting over the telephone network: Students
living in the Netherlands”.
„ http://www.ica.unimaas.nl/projecten/campus/campus.html
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
THE WORLD WIDE WEB

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
This chapter is a basic
introduction to Internet Explorer.
3. USING THE WWW
If you have already worked with
Explorer, you may want to skip
ahead to the next chapter. What is the WWW?
Before we start to use the WWW, let us first discover what the World
Wide Web is all about. The World Wide Web is a vast collection of
information, which is intriguingly easy to use. In 1990, a computer
scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in
Bern thought it would be useful to link documents. Say, you are reading
an introductory text on economics on the WWW and you come across
the term ‘equilibrium’. The author of the textbook may have anticipated
that some of us have not come into contact with economics so far and
therefore do not know what the term means. To help these people, he
may have established a link between the term and another document that
explains it. In a large number of cases, links on the Internet are words
that are underlined and colored blue, like this example. If you see such a
word, it means that it is linked to another document, and if you use your
mouse to click on the word, this linked document will be displayed. So
the reader of our introductory economics text could click on the word
‘equilibrium’ and see a short explanation that the author has provided.
Once the reader has understood the term, he can then return to the
original text.
Obviously, links can be used for more than just the explanation of terms,
and over the last years, people have come up with a variety of interesting
uses. In this chapter, we will learn how to use a browser to read
Browser
information on the Internet, discuss what an address on the Internet
Computer program that allows
you to see the world wide web. looks like, and discover how you can navigate the Internet using
addresses and links. We will also see how we can keep track of the
addresses of interesting pages and finally talk about the necessities for
experiencing multimedia content on the net.
Using a browser
To retrieve information from the Internet and to display it on the screen,
your computer needs one essential piece of software, a browser. The
most popular browser to date is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer7 (a.k.a. IE,
or simply Explorer). Internet Explorer is available for free and it is
already installed on most Windows PCs, so you do not need to worry
about buying or installing the software.
7
The three main competitors of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are Netscape’s Navigator, which was the industry standard
during the early years of the WWW, Mozilla Organization’s Mozilla, a direct offspring of Navigator, and Opera Software’s
Opera. However, by now the majority of netizens uses Internet Explorer. Since there are (in some cases substantial)
differences between the products, we will stick to Microsoft’s product. If you want to learn more about the competitors,
visit home.netscape.com, www.mozilla.org and www.opera.com.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
You can open Internet Explorer in a variety of ways. Most probably,

there will be an icon on your desktop, which you need to double-click.
You can also start Explorer from the ‘Programs’ section of the Start
menu and from the quick launch bar. Once you launched Explorer, your
‘Start’ „ ‘Programs’ „ ‘Internet
Explorer’ screen will look more or less like this:
Note that there are a number of distinct areas on your screen:

· The menu bar allows you access to some basic functions, such as
saving and retrieving information from your PC, printing
documents, changing the settings of Explorer and accessing its
manual.
· The standard toolbar helps you in navigating the web. We will

discuss the functions of the individual buttons in detail later on.
· Below that is the address bar, which tells you where you
currently are. It also allows you to send Explorer to different
locations by entering their address.
· Next is the most prominent area, which in our case is blank. This
is where the actual Internet content will be displayed.
· Finally, there is a status bar that tells you what IE is doing at the
moment.
The World Wide Web: Using the WWW 19
●●●●●●●●●●●●
The organization of the web

Before we can start using Internet Explorer, we need to briefly discuss
the structure of the WWW. Information on the world wide web is
organized into pages. Each page on the web has an address so that you
URL Univ. Resource Locator
can find it. This address, also known as URL or Universal Resource
The address of pages on the web. Locator, will look something like this:
http://www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/ke/index.htm
and has several components:
The first part – http://

This part tells the computer how to retrieve the information. In this case,
it tells him to use the HyperText Transfer Protocol. Other frequently
used protocols are https, a more secure variant of http for use in online
banking and shopping, and ftp, the File Transfer Protocol for direct
access to files.
The second part – www.fdewb.unimaas.nl

This is the address of the computer. It has several subcomponents, which
are always separated by a dot and are read from right to left. In our case,
the first part is ‘nl’, which obviously stands for the Netherlands. It is
followed by ‘unimaas’, the nickname of our university, ‘fdewb’, the
acronym of our faculty, and finally ‘www’, which designates the
computer of our faculty that distributes information to the WWW.
The first part to the right (‘nl’) is also called the top-level domain. There
are two different types of top-level domains: a) top-level domains for
categories, and b) top-level domains for countries. The former consist of
· .com – originally meant for commercial operations, but now used
by almost everyone
· .net – originally meant for telecom network operators, but this
distinction is moot
· .org – for non-profit organizations
· .mil –for (American) military units
· .edu – for American educational institutions
Very recently, a whole new array of new domains has been added
because sensible names were becoming scarce. Among the new domains
are e.g. .info and .biz.
Country-specific domains use two-letter combinations for all countries

in the world. Besides .nl, there are .uk for England, .ie for Ireland, .fi for
Finland, .se for Sweden, .no for Norway, .dk for Denmark, .de for
Germany, .be for Belgium, .lu for Luxemburg, .fr for France, .at for
Austria, .ch for Switzerland, .es for Spain, .pt for Portugal, .it for Italy,
.gr for Greece, .pl for Poland, .ca for Canada, .au for Australia, .nz for
●●●●●●●●●●●●
New Zealand and so forth.8 Some countries were pretty fortunate when
they got their domains, such as Tuvalu, a tiny island nation in the south
pacific that sold its .tv domain name to an American business that
promotes TV shows.9 Also, in some cases domain names are given to
non-state actors. Palestinians obtained the domain .ps and the European
Union is currently trying to get their hands on .eu.
To further confuse matters, some countries combine both types, e.g.

Great Britain. These countries have addresses such as .co.uk for
commercial activities in England, or .ac.uk for academic web pages.
The remainder of the address, i.e. www.fdewb.unimaas in our example,

can be freely chosen by the organization that is maintaining the website.
Domain names are allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
The third part – /ke/index.htm

The last part of the address designates the exact page on the computer of
our faculty. It consists of the directory name ‘/ke’ and the filename
‘index.htm’.
Luckily, you will not need to remember all this when you surf the web.
First of all, the first part can be discarded when it says ‘http://’. If you
enter ‘www.unimaas.nl’ instead of ‘http://www.unimaas.nl’, your
computer will add the ‘http://’ for you. Also, if the address ends with
‘index.htm’ or ‘index.html’, you usually can discard that, too. You will
need to enter the beginning and end only if they differ from these values.
This way, our original address shrinks to www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/ke.
‘Surfing’ to a page on the web

So, how do you go about entering a web address? The most obvious way
is to move your mouse pointer up to the address bar and click once. The
current address will be highlighted, and if you start typing, it will be
automatically erased and replaced with the new address you are entering.
If you want to save yourself the effort of moving the mouse, you can just
c + O press c + O for ‘open’ and start typing away. Or you can use the
T key. This will not always work, but in most of the cases, you will be
able to enter the address after pressing the tab key once.
At this point, we feel that we need to remind you that computers are
‘stupid’: they do what you tell them. This means that you will have to
make sure you enter the address correctly. If just one letter or number is
wrong, the computer will not be able to find the page you are looking
for.
8
There is a domain for the U.S.A., .us, but it is almost never used.
9
They can use the money: if global warming does happen, Tuvalu will be among the first island nations to be submerged
by the rising oceans. The government is currently trying to buy land in Fiji and New Zealand for their inhabitants.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
However, this is not the only thing that can go wrong. Sometimes, the
remote computer to which you are surfing has been disconnected for
some reason. There may be a power failure, or its line to the Internet was
severed, or something else has gone wrong. Alternatively, someone may
have deleted the page from that particular computer. In the former case,
you can still hope to get your information when the computer has been
reconnected to the net. In the latter case, your only hope is to find the
same document elsewhere.
Does this all sound really complicated? Well, don’t worry: in most cases
you will not have to enter an address; instead you will be using links. We
talked about them before: they make navigating the net very easy. Most
commonly, a link will be a word or phrase, and when you click on it, it
will most likely take you directly to another page. This saves you from
actually entering the address of the next page.
Links can be many things: words or phrases, a picture or a part of a

picture, or a button. If they are a word or phrase, they are usually
highlighted in some way. Traditionally, the way to indicate a link was to
underline word and print it in blue color, like this phrase here.
Tons of links: the homepage of Yahoo!
However, some web pages prefer to give their links another appearance
so that they are more pleasing to the eye. In the vast majority of the
cases, you will be able to intuitively recognize the links on a page. It
may be a bit more difficult with pictures. Almost always, clickable
pictures will look just like ordinary pictures. However, there is another
Your mouse pointer turns into a telltale sign which indicates that you have found a link: your mouse
hand when it is above a link. pointer changes its shape so that it looks like a hand.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Why don’t you go and try it:

1) open the Internet Explorer,
2) click on the address bar and
3) enter www.yahoo.com.10
This will take you to Yahoo!, a famous directory of web sites. Here,
millions of pages on the WWW are sorted according to their category. If
you e.g. want to find out about a country, you would go to Yahoo, click
on ‘countries’ under the category ‘regional’, then select the country you
are interested in and take it from there.
Useful buttons
Internet Explorer has a number of functions to help you navigate the
Internet:
The ‘back’ and ‘forward’ button let you revisit pages that you just left.
The ‘back’ and ‘forward’ Let’s say you read an interesting article a couple of minutes ago, and you
buttons. want to go back to it to write down some information. You do not need
to remember the address; you can use the ‘back’ button to
chronologically revisit all the sites that you have just visited. You can
then use the ‘forward’ button to go back to the page that you are
currently reading.11
The ‘reload’ button causes Internet Explorer to download the current

The ‘reload’ button page again. This is useful when you suspect that the page has changed in
the meantime (e.g. because it contains news), or when the page did not
Cache load appropriately (e.g. some of the images are not displayed correctly
An archive of recently informa- etc.). It is also useful if your computer uses its cached copy of the page,
tion, so that the information does
not need to be downloaded from i.e. if he has archived the page and is using this archived copy instead of
the net again. Pro: fast access to the real page. Clicking ‘reload’ will cause your PC to forget the archived
information, con: may yield copy and display the current page from the Internet.
outdated information.
Not surprisingly, the ‘stop’ button forces IE to stop whatever it is
The ‘stop’ button currently doing.
Downloading information from the web

Links can do a number of things: besides taking you to a new page, their
second most frequent use is to transfer a file to your computer. This is
called downloading. Let’s assume that your statistics lecturer put the
slides from his last lecture “on the net”. In that case, you will be able to
get hold of them by visiting the course homepage and clicking on the
appropriate link. For most file types, your computer will ask you
whether you want to open the file or save it to a disk, and if you choose
the latter, it will also ask you where to save it.
10
If you are reading the electronic version of this document, you can simply click on the blue, underlined link. This will
accomplish all three steps for you without the need to lift another finger.
11
This will not work for sites that rely on your interaction. You will see an appropriate error message in such cases.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
In some cases, your computer may be a bit eager to open the file. This is
frequently the case with Microsoft Office files, such as Word documents
or Excel spreadsheets. For these files, simply clicking on their link will
not allow you to save the file. Instead, you need to right-click on the
link. A small menu will appear that features a ‘Save target as’ option.
A collection of your favorite websites

Now, let’s assume that you like a certain page a lot – you visit it
regularly to see if new content has been added, or you would like to keep
its address safe for future reference. In that case, you could obviously
write down its address (which you will find in the address bar) on a sheet
of paper and keep it in a safe place. However, some web addresses are
extremely long, and as we mentioned earlier, you must get them exactly
right. Physically writing them down may not be the most reliable way to
archive such addresses.
Fortunately, there is a better way: you can bookmark the page. To do so,
go to the page that you want to bookmark and use your mouse to click
‘Favorites’ „ ‘Add to
favorites…’
on ‘Favorites’ „‘Add to favorites’ on the menu bar. You will then have
the opportunity to enter a description for the page. Once you click ‘ok’,
Internet Explorer will save both your description and the address of your
web page for future reference.
You can always come back to it by clicking on ‘Favorites’ again,

locating the appropriate description and – you guessed it! – clicking on
it. Voilà!
There is only one caveat: because bookmarks are stored locally on the
PC that you are working on, you will only be able to use them reliably
on your own PC at home. If you create bookmarks on a PC in the SMR,
you would need to return to the same computer to retrieve them – and
even that does not guarantee success as all information on SMR PCs is
regularly deleted.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
A record of your recent discoveries

Finally, your browser also keeps a log of the websites that you visited.
You can access your browser’s history in two different ways. When you
start typing an address, a list of pages with similar addresses will be
displayed.
If you recognize the page you want, you do not need to type the whole
c + H address: once the page shows up in the list, click on its name.
If you no longer remember the address, but do remember the day you
saw the page, you can still find the page. Click on the ‘history’ button on
the toolbar, select the day you last visited that page, and Internet
Explorer will give you a complete list of all pages you saw that day.
Getting at the good stuff

Originally, web pages were rather boring things: they could include text,
pictures and links, but that was it. However, their advantage is that they
can also be a container for other types of media, such as animated
movies, live sound, interactive text or games. It is as if you could insert a
small TV screen into a book. However, your browser will not understand
these things on its own – you need to teach him how to use it by
‘plugging-in’ (or installing) the appropriate software.
Below, we provide you with a list of plug-ins that you can install from
the Internet for free. While the majority of web pages does not require
any of these goodies to be installed, it is usually the most entertaining
and informative websites that rely on them. If you want to do some
serious surfing on the net, be sure to install all of the following.
Shockwave & Flash

Both are tools that allow your computer to display interactive menus,
animated shows, and games. But be warned: if a web site offers you the
choice between HTML (regular Internet style) or Flash (interactive gee-
whiz style), the latter will usually take longer to download – if you are in
a hurry or have a slow connection to the Internet, you may want to opt
for HTML. Both Shockwave and Flash are definite must-haves, and on
some computers they are already preinstalled. Visit Macromedia’s
website to download the newest Shockwave player, which also includes
the most recent Flash player.
„ http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Real One Player, Windows Media Player and QuickTime

These three competing applications all serve to watch short movies or
live TV, listen to the radio over the Internet and play the now
omnipresent MP3s. While most of the bigger web sites will allow you to
choose which player you would like to use, smaller sites will not give
you this option. If you want to be prepared for any eventuality, make
sure that you have all three of them ready.
Real Player (choose the free ‘real one’ player) „ www.real.com
Windows Media Player

„ www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/
Apple Quicktime „ www.apple.com/quicktime/download
By the way, do not get your hopes up with regard to the quality of
Internet audio and video, especially if you connect to the Internet over a
phone line. Usually, the video that you will see will be small, rather
fuzzy and may sometimes look like a series of individual photos instead
of a real movie.
Adobe Acrobat Reader

Many publishers choose to post larger pieces of writing to the web in
Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). Not only are these
documents small in size and convenient to use, they also allow
publishers to safeguard them against improper use. Because it is usually
the most interesting documents that are published in PDF format, it pays
to install Acrobat Reader, a program that enables you to read these
documents. You can download it at
„ www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
WinZip
Downloads over the Internet take time – the larger the file, the longer
you will have to wait. Fortunately, it is possible to reduce the most file’s
size for their journey over the Internet. The leading software that allows
you to compress files before sending them and uncompress files after
receiving them is WinZip. You can download it here:
„ www.winzip.com/download.htm
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
In this chapter, we discuss two
ways of locating information on
4. FINDING INFORMATION ON
the web: directories and search
engines. THE WEB
The most obvious advantage of the Internet is that it contains so much
useful information. The two most obvious disadvantages are that it
contains even more useless information and that it is tricky to get at the
good stuff. If you ever hope to find anything on the Internet, you need to
know how to search for information efficiently.
To find something on the net, you can make use of two different types of
services: directories and search engines.
Directories
A directory works like the Yellow Pages: you browse through the
directory to find the category you are looking for. The directory will then
give you a listing of web sites with related information.
There are a number of different directories. Since their listings overlap

only partially, it may be useful to check more than one. The best-known
directory is probably Yahoo!, which by now is much more than just a
directory. Next to that, there are About.com, the Google Web Directory,
the Open Directory Project and the Digital Librarian. There also is a
directory aimed especially at the Dutch part of the Internet: NL-Menu.
INTERNET DIRECTORIES
Yahoo! www.yahoo.com
About.com www.about.com
Google Directory directory.google.com
Open Directory Project dmoz.org
Digital Librarian www.digital-librarian.com
NL-Menu www.nl-menu.nl
An example: let’s assume you want to plan your vacation to Toulon in

the southeast of France. To find more information, you might go to
www.yahoo.com and take the following path12:
1. You may start out by clicking on ‘countries’ (under the ‘regional’

heading).
@ 2. You would then select ‘France’. (There will be a number behind
is used and pronounced like the each name, indicating the total amount of sites in that category.)
word ‘at’.
3. Next, you could go for ‘travel’. (The @ behind the keyword tells
you that there will be further subcategories.)
12
There are several equally valid ways to get the information because several paths can lead to the same results.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
4. You could then go on by clicking on ‘regions’ and ‘Provences-

Alpes-Cote-d’Azur’ if that’s where you wanted to go.
You would then find information on car rentals, local guides,

information on lodging, maps, tour operators and the like.
Search Engines
There is a huge amount of Information on the WWW, which puts the
directories at a disadvantage: to categorize a web page, someone
working for Yahoo! or any of the other directories must actually go to
the page, read it and classify it. This is a gargantuan task and it is not
possible to cover more than a miniscule part of the web. Search engines
are better off: a search engine simply stores and indexes the content of
each web page that it finds. You can then go to the search engine and
type in the term that you look for. The leading search engine is Google.
There is competition, but using Google has one huge advantage: Google
uses a patented technique that ranks pages according to their popularity
on the WWW. In its search results, popular pages will be listed first,
which makes their search results more useful. By now, Google provides
its search engine to a number of other companies, among them Yahoo!
Because Google is by far the most useful search engine, we will focus on
it. Once you know how to work with Google, you should have no
problems using any of the other search engines, although their results
will be structured differently.
INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES
Google www.google.com
Teoma www.teoma.com
AltaVista www.altavista.com
Lycos www.lycos.com
WebCrawler www.webcrawler.com
HotBot www.hotbot.com
FAST www.alltheweb.com
Continuing our example from above, let’s assume that you are looking
for a cheap place to stay in Toulon or its surroundings. To find such
information, you would surf to www.google.com and enter an
appropriate expression in the text field.
You could e.g. search for a ‘youth hostel’, ‘hostel’, ‘lodging’,

‘backpackers’ or ‘bed and breakfast’ in ‘Toulon’, ‘Toulon surrounding’,
‘area Toulon’ or the ‘Cote d’Azur’. You could try any combination of
the above, such as ‘youth hostel Toulon’, or ‘lodging Cote d’Azur’, or
you could use any other terms you can think of. The effectiveness of
your search will vary greatly depending on your choice of words, so you
need to use words that are highly likely to show up on the web page that
you are looking for. E.g. it is highly likely that a youth hostel in Toulon
features the words ‘hostel’ and ‘Toulon’ on its web page. You might
The World Wide Web: Finding Information on the Web 29
●●●●●●●●●●●●
want to include French terms in your search, e.g. ‘auberge de jeunesse’

instead of ‘youth hostel’. Below, we have listed a number of different
queries, together with a short overview regarding the quantity and
quality of the results.
No. of
Query results Comments
lodging Toulon 2,310 Yields mostly hotels, not hostels
backpackers Toulon 11 Yields mostly travel reports, not
hostels
hostel Toulon 21 Yields mostly travel reports, not
surrounding hostels
youth hostel cote d'azur 201 Highly effective, yields a number of
accommodations in the area
bed and breakfast 5,780 Yields hostels, but surprisingly not in
southeast France France but in the US and Great
Britain
auberge de jeunesse 152 Highly effective, yields youth hostels
Toulon in a number of cities called Toulon
auberge de jeunesse cote 234 Highly effective for youth hostels in
d'azur the whole area, including hostels in
Toulon
As you can see, the difference in results can be quite big. Sometimes, the
results are clearly not what you are looking for. E.g. ‘backpackers
Toulon’ yields only a handful of web pages, and all of them are pretty
much useless for our purposes. ‘Lodging Toulon’ on the other hand
yields a large number of pages, and a youth hostel is not among the first
ones. It might be among the later entries, but who has the time to check
all 5,780 of them? In both cases, you would need to run a new search. In
the first case, you simply need to rephrase your search, while in the
second case you would have to narrow the results.
Now it is time to look at the results in greater detail. Let’s assume we

have searched for ‘auberge de jeunesse Toulon’, then the following
would have been Google’s reply:
Google Query ‘auberge de jeunesse Toulon’

●●●●●●●●●●●●
Google tells you several things. Directly under the header, it tells you
that “"de" is a very common word and was not included in your search”.
This will happen with any words that show up on almost all pages, such
as articles (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’), conjunctions (‘and’, ‘or’) and some of the
more common prepositions (such as ‘of’); this is obviously valid for all
major Internet languages. Try searching for ‘het’ or ‘und’ and you will
have plenty to read.13
Google then repeats what you wanted to search for: “Searched the web
for auberge de jeunesse Toulon”. Note that some of the words are links,
clicking on them will yield a dictionary definition of the word.
Google also tells you how many pages it found and which of them are
currently on your screen: “Results 1 - 10 of about 152.” Obviously,
Google will always show you the most relevant results first, but after
you have clicked on ‘next’ (page) for a couple of times, it may be useful
to know if you are looking at results 41-50 or 71-80. Also, the total
results may be a bit imprecise. Google usually tries to get the first three
digits right and replaces the rest with zeros.
Now comes the interesting part, the individual page results:

UNAT - Recherche par région - Bourgogne - [ Translate this page ]
... Beuvray, Yonne. Auberge de Jeunesse, Vezelay, centre vacances d'enfants. Saône-et-Loire.
Centre Jean Macé, Serrières, Marcel Poulain - VVL de Pierrefitte, Toulon-sur ...
www.unat.asso.fr/f/region/BOURGOGNE/infos.html - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
The blue part is the title of the page, clicking on it will take you to that
page.
If the page is in French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, you can

request an automated translation. The quality of the translation depends
on a number of factors and may vary a great deal, but you should be able
to understand what the page is all about.
What follows is a short excerpt from the page to show you where your
search terms were found. The words you were looking for are printed
boldface. Sometimes it is hard to make sense of the excerpt because it is
limited to only two lines. But in our case we can fathom that this
probably is not what we were looking for: it does not look like the
description of a youth hostel. Instead of going to the page, we would
check out some of the other results.
The address of the page is displayed in green.
Finally, there are two more options. If you tried to visit the page, but you
cannot get to the page (e.g. because it was deleted or because the server
is too slow), you can click on ‘cached’. ‘Cached’ means that Google has
kept a copy of the page from its last visit in its archive, the cache.
Clicking on ‘cached’ will then get you the (possibly outdated) copy from
13
For the curious: the former yields ca. 18,300,000 while the latter yields approximately 93,100,000 results.
The World Wide Web: Finding Information on the Web 31
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Google’s archive instead of the real page. The other option (‘similar
pages’) does exactly what it says. If that page was exactly what you were
looking for and you want more results like this, click on ‘similar pages’.
Now, if you are not entirely satisfied with the results of your search, you
may want to refine your search a bit. Here are a few tricks:
· By default, Google looks for each word individually. E.g. if you
search for ‘youth hostel’, it may find a document that says
‘youth’ somewhere and ‘hostel’ somewhere else. If you want to
force Google to look for ‘youth hostel’, but not for ‘youth’ and
‘hostel’ separately, enclose your search term in quotation marks:
"youth hostel".
· If Google refuses to search for a word because it is too common,

such as ‘de’ in ‘auberge de jeunesse’, you can force it to include
the word. To do so, place a plus-sign in front of the word:
auberge +de jeunesse.
· If you want to avoid pages containing a certain word, you can

force Google to kick them out. Remember that looking for ‘bed
and breakfast southeast France’ resulted in B&Bs in Great
Britain? Well, we can try to avoid this by writing bed and
breakfast southeast France -uk.
· Finally, if you want to refine your search further, visit the

advanced search page of Google at
„ http://www.google.com/advanced_search.html
Finally, if you are planning on doing some serious research using the
Internet, you might want to check out the following (free) tools.
The Google Toolbar

If you have this toolbar installed, you will not need to visit
www.google.com anymore: you can start your search wherever you are.
Also, you have easier access to some of their advanced functions.
„ www.google.com/options/toolbar.html
Copernic 2001
This handy little tool checks 80 different search engines simultaneously,
saving you a lot of time and effort. Duplicate results are removed and
results are ranked according to relevance.
„ http://www.copernic.com/products/copernic/basic/
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Cogitum Co-Citer
If you plan to use information from the Internet for a paper or essay, you
will need to provide accurate references. With this tool, you can keep
track of all the pages that you think are interesting and archive their
exact content, address, comments etc.
„ www.cogitum.com/co-tracker-text/
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
This chapter briefly discusses
three common security risks:
5. SECURITY ON THE INTERNET
loopholes in the security of your
browser, viruses and deliberate Security on the Internet is a big issue. A number of people have found
cracking attempts. Unsafe clever ways to damage or destroy data on your computer, of spying on
behavior is also discussed. you while you surf the net, and of committing various other forms of
Novices should familiarize
themselves with these issues. mischief. First, we discuss three common security problems: loopholes
in your browser, viruses and targeted intrusion attempts. We then discuss
‘unsafe’ behavior both at home and when using public Internet access.
Browser loopholes
Java & JavaScript

Java & its small brother JavaScript are programming languages in which
some of the interactive features of the Internet are written. Usually, this
would not need to concern you – but thanks to some loopholes it is also
possible to use these languages to create havoc on your PC. In the worst
case, this can affect the operation of your computer. While there is no
absolute security, you can avoid unnecessary problems by setting the
security settings of Internet Explorer to a high level (see below).
ActiveX
ActiveX components are basically programs for Microsoft Windows
PCs. They are more dangerous than e.g. JavaScript components because
they have a lot of rights: an ActiveX program could theoretically erase
your entire hard disk. To achieve at least a certain level of security, set
Internet Explorer to give you a warning when ActiveX components are
activated. This way, you can choose whether to stop the process or not.
Usually, sites will warn you if they use an ActiveX component, and they
will tell you what it is used for. If you encounter an ActiveX component
unexpectedly or if you do not trust the site, you should not run the
component.
Cookies
Cookies are small bits of information saved on your computer to identify
you. Usually, when you visit a website you are more or less anonymous
– there is no easy or cheap alternative for the other side to find out who
you are (unless of course you tell them). But using cookies, they have
the opportunity to save an identifying number on your computer. When
you visit the website again, the other side still does not know who you
are, but they do know that you have been there already and they may still
know what you did when you visited the last time. E.g. if you go to an
online bookstore, they may use a cookie and keep track of the books that
you apparently find interesting. The next time you drop by, they know a
little bit about your taste and may be able to give you better advice.
Some, however, do not like the idea that companies are “tracking their
●●●●●●●●●●●●
every move”. You can direct Internet Explorer not to use cookies (see
below), but some websites depend on them and will not work if you
switch them off.
Adjusting the Internet Explorer security settings

All of the above threats can be limited by making a few adjustments to
‘Tools’ „ ‘Internet Options…’ the security settings of your browser. To do so, select ‘Tools’ from the
menu bar, click on ‘Internet Options’ and switch from the ‘General’ tab
to the ‘Security’ tab. Now you can change the security settings for sites
in the Internet zone. This includes all sites on the Internet.
There are four default levels: high, medium, medium-low, and low. (If
you cannot see the slider, click on the ‘default level’ button.) The latter
two settings are not recommended under any circumstances; they are
meant for web sites that you absolutely trust. You should go either for
the medium or high security settings. When choosing your level of
security, you need to balance security and functionality: at higher
security settings, you will be able to enjoy less interactive features. The
medium setting probably offers the best tradeoff. You will still be able to
enjoy most of the sites, but you will be asked for permission when any
hazardous content is encountered, and ActiveX controls that have not
been reviewed by a certified authority will not be executed. The high-
security setting is usually only necessary when you are on a website
which you expect to have harmful content.
Viruses
Unfortunately, there are more hazards on the Internet. Among them are
viruses, which you probably know from the newspapers. Viruses are
computer programs that do harm to the data and programs on your
computer or abuse your PC in some other way. A typical virus might e.g.
delete your hard disk, causing you to lose all you documents and forcing
you to reinstall all software on your computer. Obviously, no one would
let a virus on his or her computer willingly, so they try to “sneak in”, e.g.
by hiding in other, useful computer programs. Particularly when you are
downloading data from the Internet, there is no way of knowing whether
the programs you are receiving are not possibly infected. So it is crucial
that do not simply start or open them once you have finished the
download. Instead, you need to check them for viruses.
The World Wide Web: Security on the Internet 35
●●●●●●●●●●●●
To do so, you need to get a virus scanner. Maastricht University has

licensed a well-known virus scanner for all its staff and students, so you
do not need to buy one. You can download your copy (which is
guaranteed to be virus-free) from the Internet. Just follow these steps:
1. Send your browser to http://licentie1.unimaas.nl
2. Read the license agreement and click on ‘I agree’
3. Select ‘virus detectie’ from the ‘type software’ category
4. In the list that shows up on your screen, select the version of
McAfee VirusScan with the highest version number that is
available for your operating system and click on the
corresponding ‘download’ link.
Do be able to do this, you need to be connected directly to the university

network: either dial in using Enertel or use a cable modem (see chapter
2). If you cannot do so, you can still obtain a copy of the virus scanner,
together with other useful software, on CD-ROM from the ICT service
center for 9 €.
Once you have installed the scanner, it is important to stay up to date

with the recent developments. New viruses are released every day, so to
keep protected you need to update your virus scanner regularly. Your
new virus scanner will update itself automatically right after the
installation, but you may need to update it manually afterwards. To
update your scanner, connect to the Internet and then go to ‘Programs’
on your Start menu. From there, select ‘Network Associates’, and then
‘VirusScan Console’. In the window that appears, there is a list of tasks,
one of them is labeled ‘AutoUpdate’. You can either update your
scanner once by right-clicking on AutoUpdate and then on ‘Start’ in the
list that appears, or you can ask it to update itself periodically. To do so,
click on AutoUpdate and then on the ‘Properties’ button. Select
‘Schedule’ in the window that appears, make sure that ‘Enable’ is ticked
and then select an interval for the periodic update. You should update it
at least once a month, but it may be a better idea to update your scanner
once a week – especially if you are frequently downloading information
from the net.
Cracking (more commonly known as hacking)

While you are on the Internet, some people may try to electronically
‘enter your computer’ in an effort to do harm. This danger is particularly
big for persons whose computer is connected to the Internet via a cable
modem, because these computers are always on the Internet and
therefore give potential intruders more time. To protect yourself from
such attempts, you can install a firewall on your computer. A firewall
acts like a guardian: it checks whether information sent to your computer
over the Internet is legitimate. It also restrains some forms of viruses or
‘spy software’ that may be trying to send information from your
computer without your consent.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Probably the best firewall available can be obtained for free from
Zonelabs. You can download it here:
„ www.zonelabs.com/products/za/
What can I do when I am not surfing at home?

When you are not using the Internet in the relative security of your own
home, you need to be aware of some additional risks. First of all, when
you happen to use certain email services such as Hotmail, always be sure
to ‘sign out’ when you are done reading your mails. After signing out,
close all windows Internet Explorer may have opened. The same holds
for online banking activities or anything of similar importance. Not
signing out and closing Internet Explorer may enable some people to
read your email, gain information from your bank account etc.
Beyond that, the largest risk comes from more mundane sources: simple
spying. Be aware that people may be reading what you are typing on the
screen. If you want to enter information that you would not want to be
publicly known, you should not use public computers. This holds
especially for information that is easily abused, such as credit card
numbers and the like.
What can I do when I am surfing at home?

Surfing at home gives you more privacy, however it does not protect you
from more elaborate attempts at spying. Because of the way the Internet
is built, information between your computer and e.g. Hotmail or the
computer of your bank is highly likely to travel through a number of
other computers owned by public and private organizations. When it
does, people at these organizations will be theoretically able to read this
information. That’s why sensitive information should be encoded. When
you are e.g. shopping on the Internet, make sure that you are sending
your payment details over an encrypted connection. Usually, Internet
shops will automatically switch on encryption, but some will let you
choose between unencoded transmission and encrypted transmission.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) The latter may be referred to as an SSL connection or SSL encryption.
A protocol that protects private You can check whether your information is really going over a secure
information by encrypting it.
connection by looking at the status bar of your Internet Explorer. If you
find a closed lock symbol displayed there, then your data is being
encoded before it is transmitted over the net.
Be aware that some forms of encryption are less safe than others, e.g. if
they use a rather simple code. You can check what kind of code your
Internet Explorer uses by clicking on ‘Help’ in the menu bar and then on
‘About Internet Explorer’.
The World Wide Web: Security on the Internet 37
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Internet Explorer will reveal the strength of the cipher used in the
encoding process in the window that appears. This value should be no
less than 128 bit, a reasonably safe value at the time this manual was
published (July 2002). If it is less than 128 bit, click on the ‘update
information’ link.
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
EMAIL
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
In this chapter, we will help you
set up your PC at home to send
6. SETTING UP YOUR EMAIL
and receive emails. If you do not
own a PC or if you do not intend
to use it for email, you can skip
ACCOUNT
this chapter.
Long before the WWW existed, people were already sending each other
electronic mails, or emails, over the Internet. Besides the world wide
web, email is the most useful service on the net. In some ways, it is
similar to the normal postal service, with the important difference that it
is much faster and decidedly cheaper.
In the following, we will first describe how you can enable your
computer to send and receive email. This chapter is only relevant for you
if you want to use your own computer at home to send emails.
Otherwise, you can skip ahead to the next chapter.
How does email work?

In one way, emails are just like normal letters: they require a mailbox.
Your mailman needs a place were he can deposit your mail in your
Mail account absence and so does the Internet. On the Internet, your mail account has
Your mailbox on the Internet. this function. It works very much like a P.O. box at your local post office
since your mail account is not on your private computer. Emails can be
sent to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year, and to
receive them, your mail account must be available around the clock. If it
were on your own computer, you could not switch your computer off
without running the risk of missing a few emails. This is why your mail
account, probably with hundreds or thousands of others, is located in a
Mail server powerful computer (called server) that is always available. The
A computer with a permanent
internet connection that
University of Maastricht operates several of these computers to take care
processes incoming and/or of the electronic mail of roughly 10,000 students and approximately
outgoing emails. 4,000 staff members.
The analogy does not end here: every time you feel like it, you can ‘drop
by’ your mail account to see if you have new mail, and while you are
there you can also mail the letters that you have written. Most of this is
completely automated: you only need to tell your computer once where
he can find your mail account and where he is supposed to post the
emails you have written.
Setting your PC up to receive email

In the following, we will walk you through the one-time installation
necessary to make your PC email-ready. Our university uses Microsoft
Outlook, and we will assume that you have Outlook installed on your
PC. Since Outlook is a commercial program, you will have to buy a
copy. (Unless of course Microsoft Outlook was included when you
bought your computer.) You can obtain a copy of Outlook at a steeply
●●●●●●●●●●●●
reduced price from the ICT service center. If you do not want to spend
money on software, you can use Microsoft Outlook Express, the tiny
brother of Microsoft Outlook. Outlook Express is available for free and
is automatically installed with any recent version of Microsoft Internet
Explorer – the overwhelming majority of PCs will already have a copy.
And while Outlook Express lacks most of the advanced functions that
come with Outlook, all general functions are pretty similar. Pretty much
everything that we are about to say about Outlook is also valid for
Outlook Express.
You can start Outlook by double-clicking on its icon on the desktop, or

Launch Microsoft Outlook.
if the icon was removed you will still be able to find Outlook in the
‘Programs’ section of the Start menu or in Windows’ quick launch bar.
‘Start’ „ ‘Programs’ „ If you are starting Outlook the very first time, it will automatically ask
‘Microsoft Outlook’ you whether you want to set up an email account. If you have used
Outlook before, you will need to click on ‘Tools’ on the menu bar, and
‘Tools’ „ ‘Accounts…’
then click on ‘Accounts’. In the following window, click on ‘Add’, then
‘Mail’.
Outlook will then guide you through the process of connecting to your
mail account. In the first step, you need to enter your own name.
When you send someone an email, he or she will see the name that you
enter here. In the second step, you need to type in your email address.
Your exact email address will be included in the letter that contains your
student ID card. Be sure to enter it exactly as it appears on this letter.
People that want to reply to your emails will automatically use this
address; they will not be able to reach you if it is incorrect.
Once you are done with your personal details, you need to tell Outlook
where to fetch your incoming mail, and where to post your outgoing
messages. This is done in the third step. The first question is what type
of server you are using: you will be using an IMAP server, not a POP
server.
The address for the incoming mail is mail012.unimaas.nl, the address for
outgoing mail is mail001.unimaas.nl.
In the fourth step, Outlook wants to know your username and password.
Email: Setting Up Your Email Account 43
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Both are included in the letter that accompanies your student ID card.
Keep your password safe to avoid abuse. If you are fairly confident that
no one will abuse your PC, tick ‘Remember password’. If you do this,
Outlook will be able to automatically collect your mail.
In the final step, you need to tell Outlook how you are connecting to the
Internet. If you use a modem and a phone line, choose ‘connect using my
phone line’; if you use a cable modem, choose ‘connect using my local
area network (LAN)’.
That’s it, you are done!

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
This chapter tells you everything
you need to know about sending
7. SENDING & RECEIVING
emails.
EMAILS
Sending emails
Now it is time to send your first email message. But before we start, a
quick warning: almost everything described below will work on almost
any PC that has an Internet connection. But there are some small, but
significant differences between your PC at home, PCs in the SMR and
other computers. These differences are described in the section ‘if you
are not using your own PC’ on p. 50. If you are not working on your
own PC, be sure to read up on that section.
To send your first email, click on the ‘new email’ button in the toolbar,
c + N or select ‘File’, ‘New’, ‘Mail message’ from the menu bar. If you are too
‘File’ „ ‘New’ „ ‘Mail lazy to use the mouse, you can also press c + N. A new window will
message’ open to receive your input. Besides the obligatory toolbar, it features
Creates a new message. three fields plus a large area for writing your message.
A window for writing new messages
‘To:’, the first field, is supposed to contain the address of the recipient.
For now, we assume that you know his email address. Email addresses
always have the same form:
j.smeets@ke.unimaas.nl
You will already be familiar with the latter part, ke.unimaas.nl, from
chapter 3. It is some computer on the Internet. The former part then
identifies the person you are contacting. The @ is pronounced ‘at’. To
@ translate this computer shorthand: you are writing to J. Smeets at the
is used and pronounced like the department of Quantitative Economics (Kwantitatieve Economie = KE),
word ‘at’. University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. It is crucial that you get the
email address right. Computers are not as smart as mailmen: if the
address is not exactly correct, the computer will simply return your mail
with ‘undeliverable’ stamped all over it.
In order to help you avoid mistakes, here are a few rules:

· Email addresses never contain any spaces, so it will always be
●●●●●●●●●●●●
‘someguy@somewhere.com’, instead of
‘some guy@somewhere.com’.
· Email addresses contain letters, numbers, dashes (‘-’),

underscores (‘_’) and dots (‘.’) – umlauts, accents and the like are
not accepted. It would be ‘Mr.Mueller@germany.de’, not
‘Mr.Müller@germany.de’.
· It does not matter whether the address is in upper- or lowercase.

‘THIS@someplace.net’ is the same as ‘this@someplace.net’.
· You will always find at least two bits of information after the @,
and they are separated by a dot. ‘j.smeets@unimaas.nl’ may be a
valid address, but ‘j.smeets@unimaas’, ‘j.smeets@nl’ and
‘j.smeets@unimaas_nl’ are not.
We will defer discussion of the ‘cc’-line for later and directly turn to the
‘subject’-line. In emails, just like in business letters, it is custom to
inform the recipient of the subject of the message before going into
detail. But this line is much more important when writing emails than
when writing letters: when the recipient gets your email, the only thing
he will see at first will be your name, the subject of your email and when
you wrote it. Based on this information, he will decide whether to open it
immediately, read it later or even delete it unread. If you want your
message to be treated well, make up a sensible subject-line.
The actual email goes into the big white space that covers most of the
window. Once you are done writing your mail, clicking on the ‘send’
button will, well, send the email. Actually, it will send the email if you
are connected to the Internet. If not, the email will be placed in the
outbox, where it will stay peacefully until you are hooked up to the net
again.
Some advanced concepts
Sending email to multiple recipients

If you want to send the message to more than one person, you have two
choices. You can either enter all of the addresses in the ‘to’-line, in
which case you would need to separate them with a semicolon (‘;’). To
illustrate: ‘jan@hotmail.com; anneke@hotmail.com’.
CC (Carbon Copy) Alternatively, you can enter some of the addresses in the ‘cc’-line.
Persons in this field get a copy of Technically, it does not make a difference where you put the addresses.
the email, but are not the actual
addressees of an email.
The two lines are mainly used to differentiate between persons to whom
the email is addressed and any other persons that receive a copy for their
information only. So if you want to write an email to your tutor to
complain about unfair grading and you want your classmates to have a
copy, you would put your tutor’s address in the ‘to’-line and your
classmates’ addresses in the ‘cc’-line.
Email: Sending & Receiving Emails 47
●●●●●●●●●●●●
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) What most probably is not in your window is the ‘bcc’-line. You can get
In function just like the CC-field, it by selecting ‘View’ in your email window, and then clicking on ‘BCC
but the addresses listed here will
not be visible in the email.
Field’. The ‘bcc’-line has a special function: it creates blind copies.
People in this line will receive a copy, but their addresses will show up
‘View’ „ ‘BCC field’ nowhere. In our previous example: if you put the tutor’s address in the
‘to’-line and your classmates’ addresses in the ‘bcc’-line, then your tutor
will never know that everyone else in the group got a copy. To him, it
will look as if he was the only recipient. Sneaky!
Message sensitivity and priority

When you send an email, you may want to give the recipient some
additional information on how to deal with it. You can obviously
mention in the email that you urgently await a reply, but that
presupposes that the recipient reads to that point. What if she simply puts
your email aside, thinking that she will read it over the weekend? You
can avoid this by marking your email as urgent. This will usually ensure
This button marks your message
that your email is displayed more prominently on the computer of the
as urgent. recipient. The opposite is also possible: you can let the recipient know
that she can take her time. Marking the importance of your email is
simple: click on the button for low or high importance in the toolbar of
This button turns your email into your email. High importance is represented by a red exclamation mark
a low priority-message. while a blue, downward-pointing arrow represents low importance.
A similar mechanism exists for the sensitivity of a message. If you click

The advanced message settings on the ‘options’ button on the toolbar of your email, you can place your
can be found here… email in one of four categories: ‘normal’, ‘personal’, ‘private’ or
‘confidential’.
However, you should not rely on this tool too much: some email
applications do not display this information on the screen, or they
display it in such a way that the recipient may not see or recognize it. If
you feel that the information you are sending is confidential, you may
want to take other precautions as well.
Further delivery options

Let’s turn to the message options of your email again. (You can get there
by clicking the ‘options’ button in your email window.) One option
reads ‘have replies sent to’. You can use this e.g. if you are writing from
one email address, but the recipient should use another email address to
contact you.
Another option allows you to time the delivery of messages. You may
e.g. prepare a birthday email to a friend and ask the computer not to mail
it before the actual birth date.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
The next option conveys additional information to the recipient: if the

message contains information about a meeting on Wednesday evening,
the information will be useless by Thursday morning. In that case, you
can cause the message to expire on Thursday. Depending on the
computer of the recipient, the message may be automatically deleted on
Thursday, or it may be marked as being of low importance.
Finally, you may request a ‘read receipt’ for the message. In this case,
you ask the computer of the recipient to send you a confirmation when
your email has been opened.
However, you should not expect too much from this: most of the
computers do not process such requests. Those computers that do
process the request usually ask their user if he actually wants to send this
receipt. (Most people do not.) All in all, you will get a receipt in 5% of
the cases when the mail has been opened. Not getting a receipt therefore
does not imply that your email was not read. Conversely, getting a read
receipt only means that your email has been opened, but it does not
guarantee that the recipient actually read it.
Including files in your email

You may want to include files when you send an email, e.g. when you
email the minutes from the last group session to the rest of the group.
This is called ‘sending an attachment’, or ‘attaching’. To attach a file to
Insert files into your email using your email, click on the paperclip button. You will then be able to select
this button. the file or files that you want to send.
Before you start emailing files, consider this: the recipient will spend
considerable time downloading the files that you send him. Please make
sure that it is worth it by
1. keeping files as small as possible. If possible, compress files by
using WinZip (see p. 25) before sending them.
2. sending files only when necessary. Do not just send everything
that you like to all of your friends.
Also, you should describe what it is that you are sending. Many people
send emails saying “here’s the file” or “found something funny – have a
look!” This practice is not only annoying, it can also be dangerous.14
Receiving emails
Receiving emails is easy. Outlook will check your email account for new
messages in regular intervals (every 15 minutes by default; if you want
to speed up the process, click on the ‘send/receive’ button). If there are
14
There are viruses that spread themselves by sending equally non-committal emails. By sending files without a clear
description, make the viruses’ job easier.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
new messages, Outlook will notify you by making a sound and by

placing an icon depicting a letter in the system tray. To read such
messages, click on the ‘mail012.unimaas.nl - Inbox’ button in the
Outlook bar to go to your inbox. You will then be presented with a list of
Click on this icon to see a list
with your emails. all messages.
This list contains several bits of information:
· The importance of the message is indicated in the first column. A

red exclamation mark indicates important messages, a blue
arrow represents unimportant messages, all other messages are
rated ‘normal’.
· The second column tells you whether you already read that
particular message: if the envelope is closed, then this message is
new. Such messages will be displayed in bold in the list.
· Next is the download status of the message: has it already been

transferred to your hard drive? An icon displaying a full page
indicates that a copy of the message has been archived on your
computer. You do not need to be connected to the Internet to read
such messages. If the page is only partially visible in the icon,
then the message has not yet been transferred from your mailbox.
To read such messages, you need to connect to the Internet.
· Two further icons follow: the first one, a red flag , tells you that
a follow-up is required for that message. This feature is mostly
used by advanced users. The second icon, a paperclip , indicates
messages with attachments.
· Finally, the sender, subject and time of receipt are given for each
message.
To read messages, double-click on their listing. This will produce a

window with the message. Once you are done reading the email, there
are a number of things you could do:
· Reply to a message. Clicking on the ‘reply’ or ‘reply to all’

Sends a reply only to the author buttons will open a new window where you can enter your
of the message. response. This window already contains the necessary email
address(es), the same subject line as the original message as well
●●●●●●●●●●●●
as a copy of the old message. The only difference between the

Sends a reply to the author and two options is that ‘reply’ will generate a reply only to the author
all recipients of the original of the original message, while ‘reply to all’ generates a message
message. to the author and to everyone else who received the original
message. You should only use ‘reply to all’ when you are
completely certain that you want to send the message to
everyone.
· Forward the message. If you think that the message is interesting,

Allows you to send the current important or funny enough to share it with others, then you can
message to further recipients. forward the message to them. Clicking on the ‘forward’ button
will open a window for a new message and will insert the
original subject line and text. You can then enter the appropriate
email addresses and make any changes or additions to the subject
line and message.
· Delete the message. In this case, the email will be stricken from
Press this button to delete the the message list. Contrary to intuition, it will not actually delete
current message. the message in your mail account – you will still be able to go
back to the message and read it again. To actually delete the
message in your mail account, you will need to delete it using a
PC in the SMR or the webmail feature (see below).
· Read another message: you can use the blue arrows to read the
Previous Next previous or next message, saving you the work of manually
closing each message and opening the next one.
If you are not using your own PC

If you do not own a PC or if you are not at home, you can still access
your email. Fortunately, almost everything will work in exactly the same
way as it does when you are at home. There are however slight
differences, which we will describe below. We will distinguish two
cases: using a PC in the SMR and using any computer that has access to
the world wide web.
Using a PC in the SMR

Outlook is already installed on all PCs in our computer rooms. You can
‘Start’ „ ‘MaasNet Services’ „
start it by double-clicking on the Outlook icon on the desktop, or by
‘Student Email’ „ ‘Outlook’ clicking on ‘MaasNet Services’ „ ‘Student Email’ „ ‘Outlook’ in the
Launch Microsoft Outlook. Start menu.
Outlook automatically knows how to connect to your mailbox, so you

can immediately send and receive emails even when you are sitting in
front of this particular PC for the very first time. Sending and receiving
emails works just like it does at home, but you will find your emails in
the ‘inbox’, not listed under ‘mail012.unimaas.nl’. Also, deleting emails
on a PC in the SMR will have the effect you expect it to have: it will
delete the messages. You can still retrieve them from the deleted items
●●●●●●●●●●●●
folder until you close Outlook – then they are deleted for good.
Using a computer that is hooked up to the WWW

If you are at a friend’s place or traveling and you would like to check
your emails, you can surf to mail.unimaas.nl. Once you are there, you
will need to enter your ID number using the Ixxxxxx format. (xxxxxx
represents your ID number, so if your ID number is 1234, you need to
enter I001234.) You will then be asked for your ID number (again) and
for your password. Both your ID number and your password are listed
on the letter that accompanies your student ID card.
Once you have successfully logged in, you will be able to send and
receive emails right away. Be aware that the system does not
automatically tell you when you have new emails. To check, press the
Check for new mail. ‘collect new mail’ button every once in a while. Deleting messages will
result in the message being transferred to the deleted messages folder. If
you want to delete a message from the list, you need to tick the box next
Delete marked messages.
to it and then click on ‘delete marked items’. You can select several
messages at the same time. Deleted messages will stay in the recycle bin
Empty the recycle bin. until you remove them by clicking on ‘empty deleted items folder’. Once
you are done, make sure that you click on ‘log off’ and close all
windows of the browser you are using (probably Internet Explorer).
A general remark regarding your student account

Your student mail account can only hold a certain amount of messages.
Currently, the limit is set to 40 MB, which should last you a long time.
Still, you should clean up your mailbox every once in a while.
Remember that deleting messages from your home computer will not
have the desired effect. Instead, use a PC in the SMR or log on over the
WWW as described above.
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
COMING UP
In this chapter we learn how to
find and keep email addresses,
8. ADVANCED TOPICS
talk about internet etiquette and
discuss some email-related This chapter rounds up our discussion of email with a number of loosely
security issues. related topics. First, we will see how you can keep track of your friends’
email addresses and how you can find the email address of Maastricht
University staff and students. We will then briefly discuss what internet
citizens consider to be proper behavior and finish with a short discussion
of security issues.
Keeping track of email addresses

Remembering email addresses is like remembering phone numbers:
some people have a knack for it while others fail miserably. Some email
addresses are easy to remember, others you will have to look up every
time. The best solution is to keep a list of all your friends and of their
email addresses. Outlook enables you to do so. No matter whether you
are at home, in the SMR or logged on through the WWW, you can get
started by clicking on the ‘contact’ icon in the Outlook bar. Once you are
there, you can enter new acquaintances by clicking on the ‘new contact’
button. You will then be able to enter information on any person, such as
their mailing address, phone number, or email address. The advantage:
when you write an email to such a person, you do not need to enter their
email address in the address line. Simply writing their name will be
sufficient; Outlook will check your contacts and will fill in the necessary
information automatically. Please be aware that contact information
entered on your own PC will not be available when you are in the SMR
or logged on via the WWW, and vice versa, contacts entered through the
WWW or in the SMR will not be available on your home PC.
Finding people on the Internet

Sending emails is straightforward enough, but what do you do when you
do not know the recipient’s email address? Unfortunately, the best way
to get an email address still is asking the owner of the address. But at
least for students and staff at our university, there is a second way: the
UM directory server has a list of all email addresses in use at our
university. You can access it when you are connected to your email
account through the WWW (click on ‘find names’), when you surf to the
faculty website (click on ‘search for UM-mail addresses’ on the
students’ page) or on your home computer (select ‘Find’ and ‘People’
‘Start’ „ ‘Find’ „ ‘People…’ from the Start menu).
If you use the directory on the faculty website or the directory in your
email account on the web, you only need to enter the name of the person
you are looking for in the ‘screen name’ field.15
15
Do not use the ‘first name’ or ‘last name’ fields, they do not work.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Click on ‘find’, and you will be presented with a list of people with that
name. For each person, you will also learn with which institution he or
she is affiliated. For students, the faculty acronym will be listed, while
the department acronym is used for staff. Click on any of the persons to
learn more about them. In the window that opens, their email address
will be listed in the email addresses-section after ‘smtp:’.
‘Tools’ „ ‘Accounts’ „ ‘Add’ If you want to access the directory from your home PC, you will need to
„ ‘Directory Service’ set it up once. In Outlook, click on ‘Tools’, ‘Accounts’, then on ‘Add’
and finally on ‘Directory service’. In the first step, you will need to enter
the address of the LDAP server, which is ‘mail001.unimaas.nl’.
You are not required to log on to this server, so make sure that the
appropriate box is not ticked.
In the second step, enter that you do not want to check addresses using
this service. (This would cause your computer to check all email
addresses, even when you know them for sure.)
That’s it!
‘Start’ „ ‘Find’ „ ‘People…’ You will then be able to click on ‘Find’, ‘People’ in the Start menu.
Before you start your search, ensure that a) you are connected to the
Internet, and b) that the field ‘Look in:’ actually says
‘mail001.unimaas.nl’. Then fill in the name to find the person you are
looking for.
Once you have located the correct recipient, right-clicking on their name
will allow you to directly send an email to them: select ‘Action’ „ ‘Send
mail’ from the list that appears.
Netiquette
Everywhere, there is a certain standard of socially accepted behavior.
Email: Advanced Topics 55
●●●●●●●●●●●●
This is also true for the Internet. Here it is called network etiquette or
simply netiquette. Knowing about it may keep you from offending
someone unwittingly, or from taking offence when none was intended.
Below, we have summarized the netiquette in a few brief rules. For more
information, turn to Virginia Shea’s excellent guide Netiquette at
„ www.albion.com/netiquette/
· Remember that there is a human being at the other end. Also

remember that you cannot use the tone of your voice or mimic
and gestures to convey your message. Written words usually
sound much harsher than they were intended to be – what may be
meant as an ironic pun may come across as an insult. Take care
in choosing your words and use every courtesy that you would
use when talking to that individual in person.
· Respect everyone else’s time. With every email that you send,
you take up someone’s time – please make sure that it is worth it.
This is particularly true when forwarding funny emails and the
like: are you sure that the recipient is really interested in the
information that you are forwarding?
· Respect everyone else’s download time. If you are sending files,

make them as small as possible, e.g. use WinZip, and make sure
that the file needs to be sent. Remember that the other person
may spend significant time downloading the file from the
Internet.
· Forgive other people’s mistakes. Remember, everyone was new

to the Internet once.
The cardinal rule, as in any social environment, is to “do unto others as

you have them do unto you”.
Security issues
Just as for the WWW, using email is not entirely harmless. Probably the
largest danger stems from viruses that are sent to you as attachments.
This does not imply that the sender is actually trying to infect you on
purpose. Instead, it is usually the case that a virus has infected his or her
computer and that this virus is sending out infected emails without the
knowledge of the PC’s owner. So if you did not expect to receive an
attachment from a particular person, you should be suspicious and
inspect the file before using it. Doing so is pretty easy, presuming you
have the university’s virus scanner installed (see chapter 5). Instead of
opening the attachment by double-clicking on it, save it to your desktop
(or another place on your hard drive) by right-clicking on the attachment
and selecting ‘Save as’ from the menu that appears. Then right-click on
the file on your desktop and select ‘Scan for viruses’ – the rest will
happen automatically.
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Another problem are fake virus warnings. Here is an authentic example

of such a message:
From: [DELETED]
Sent: May 14, 2001 16:31
VIRUS COULD BE IN YOUR COMPUTER!
It will become activate on June 1st and will delete all

files and folders on the hard drive. No anti-virus
software can detect it because it doesn't become a VIRUS
until 1/6/2001. It travels through the e-mail and migrate
to your computer.
To find it please follow the following directions:

Go to "START" button
Go to "Find" or "Search"
Go to files and folders
Make sure to search in drive C (or all your fixed drives)
Type in: [DELETED]
Begin Search
If it finds it, highlight it and delete it
Close the dialogue box
Open the Recycle Bin
Find the file and delete it from the Recycle Bin
You should be safe.
The bad part is you need to contact everyone you sent ANY
e-mail to in the past few months. Many Major companies
have found this VIRUS on their computers. Whatever you do,
DO NOT open the file.
The problem with this message: it is a complete fabrication! Still, hardly

anyone knows enough about the intricate workings of PCs to verify
whether this is a genuine warning or not. For fear of the virus, most
recipients deleted the file specified in the email with possibly dire
consequences: the file was a part of Microsoft Windows! The person that
sent this email was tricking people into deleting important files on their
computer, and was thereby doing just as much damage as a regular
computer virus.
To protect yourself from similar mistakes, you should consult an expert

before committing any such action. The two leading producers of anti-
virus software, McAfee and Symantec, have information about almost
every virus on their website. If you get an email making claims about a
virus, visit www.mcafee.com or www.symantec.com to find out whether
those claims are true.
Also, please remember that virus scanners are able to detect (and in most
cases eradicate) viruses before they can do any harm! (Contrary to what
is claimed in these fake virus warnings.) The only thing you need to do
is keep your virus-scanner up to date. (See chapter 5 for instructions.)
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
APPENDIX
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
A. USEFUL WEBSITES
Official University & Faculty Sites
Faculty Homepage for Students
„ www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/studenten
Eleum
The electronic learning environment.
„ eleum.unimaas.nl
SurfYourself
The central information and service website for students.
„ www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/surfyourself
ISS Premium
Registration for courses and information on results.
„ www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/infopc/log_on.htm
UM Webmail
Access to your student email account.
„ mail.unimaas.nl
University Library Homepage
Library catalogue and electronic journals.
„ www.ub.unimaas.nl/fdewb/e-library/
ICT Service Center
Support for software & Internet facilities, sale of academic software
licenses.
„ www.icts.unimaas.nl
Student Services Center
General administration, student support and career advice.
„ www.ssc.unimaas.nl
Study Associations
AIESEC
Global organization for international work exchanges.
„ www.aiesec.nl
Argyris
Study association for organizational sciences, IT management and
consultancy.
„ www.argyris.nl
Criticonomics
Discussion forum for economics and ethics.
„ www.studver.unimaas.nl/critics/
COMAX
Study association for accountancy and controlling.
„ www.comax.nl
●●●●●●●●●●●●
Eloquent
Popular student magazine.
„ www.eloquent.nl
ESN Maastricht – Erasmus Student Network
Support for incoming exchange students.
„ www.esn-maastricht.nl
FIRST Maastricht
Study association for fiscal economics.
„ www.studver.unimaas.nl/first/
Integrand
Non-profit internship agency.
„ www.integrand.nl
Maastricht Marketing Association
Study association for marketing.
„ www.mma.nl
Ragweek Maastricht
Fun for a charitable purpose.
„ www.ragweek.unimaas.nl
Research Project Maastricht
Annual international research initiative for graduate students.
„ www.studver.unimaas.nl/research.project/
UniPartners Maastricht
Academic consultancy projects for graduate students.
„ www.studver.unimaas.nl/upm/
Vectum
For econometrics students.
„ www.vectum.nl
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Introduction To The Internet

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Оригинальное название

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Introduction To The Internet

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Lutz F.

Version 1.2 – 28/07/02

B. THE WORLD WIDE WEB

3. Using the WWW 17

6. Setting Up Your Email Account 41

What You Need to Get Started

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is currently the dominant browser and it is

Outlook, however, is a commercial program, which implies that you

THE ICT SERVICE CENTER

ADDRESS Looiersgracht 14, Room 0.011

OFFICE HOURS Phone/Email Walk in

If you do not want to buy Microsoft Outlook, there is no reason to

Public Computer Terminals

THE COMPUTER ROOMS

MORE INFO www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/smr/

On the Use of this Book

This manual is not meant to be all-encompassing. It is meant as an

This book focuses on showing you how to accomplish certain tasks in

· Buttons on toolbars that initiate a certain function are usually

· If you need to press a button, we will indicate this by printing the

· Some of the options cannot be initiated using a keyboard shortcut

· Finally, we will use a similar notation when you need to select

If you are stuck…

We wish you success in working with the Internet!

Connecting over the telephone network

In the following, we will describe how to set up a connection over the

The general procedure

Your PC will now try to establish an Internet connection. If anything

· the modem is not plugged into your telephone connection (see

If you are still experiencing difficulties connecting to the net, go back to

In the following, we describe the region-specific details regarding

Students living in the Netherlands

I001234@student.unimaas.nl. Your password is a four-digit code that

Students living in Belgium

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS IN BELGIUM

Tiscali Free www.tiscali.be

Students living in Germany

Internet by cable (“Campus@Home”)

To be able to use this connection, your PC needs a network card, but no

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

You can open Internet Explorer in a variety of ways. Most probably,

Note that there are a number of distinct areas on your screen:

· The standard toolbar helps you in navigating the web. We will

The organization of the web

The first part – http://

The second part – www.fdewb.unimaas.nl

Country-specific domains use two-letter combinations for all countries

To further confuse matters, some countries combine both types, e.g.

The remainder of the address, i.e. www.fdewb.unimaas in our example,

The third part – /ke/index.htm

‘Surfing’ to a page on the web

Links can be many things: words or phrases, a picture or a part of a

Tons of links: the homepage of Yahoo!

Why don’t you go and try it:

The ‘reload’ button causes Internet Explorer to download the current

Downloading information from the web

A collection of your favorite websites

You can always come back to it by clicking on ‘Favorites’ again,

A record of your recent discoveries

Getting at the good stuff

Shockwave & Flash

Real One Player, Windows Media Player and QuickTime

Real Player (choose the free ‘real one’ player) „ www.real.com