If this is your first encounter with the Internet, you are in for an awesome experience. The purpose of this section is to help you learn the basic skills and acquire the software needed to truly enjoy the Internet.
For basic background information concerning the Internet, we suggest you use the tutorial located at
LearningThe Net or the Web tutorial at Microsoft.
If you are logging in for the first time you will probably want to download some additional software.
ZIP Utility: This should be your first download. Many of the programs you will download on the Internet are in the form of "zip" files. A zip file contains all the files a particular
application uses, compressed into a single file. Before you install the program, you will need to "unzip" it into its component files. A great utility for this purpose is WinZip.
E-Mail:Electronic mail has been one of the most used applications of the Internet from the very beginning. We recommend Outlook Express™which is part of the basic Internet Explorer™ installation.
FTP: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP programs are used for uploading and downloading files from FTP sites around the world. If you plan to build your own
web page or web site, you will need one of these programs to send files
to your home directory on our server. While many FTP programs are available on the Internet, we recommend WS-FTP.
Browsers: The browser recomended by EZ Networks is Microsoft Internet Explorer™ version 5.5 or higher. It is an excellent browser, but you might prefer to download another browser more appropriate to your computer's operating system or to your personal preferences. The two heavyweights in the browser battle at this time are from Microsoft
and Netscape.
Everything Else: There are many, many types of software available to do different tasks over the Internet. Rather than re-create the wheel and list them all here, we have decided to let you pick and choose for yourself. Two incredible software sites are Stroud's Consumate Winsock Apps and TUCOWS.
Happy browsing, and may the EZ InterNet be with you!
