The Internet, for those of you who have not yet connected to it at home or at work, is the name given to the networks of computers that allow machines to communicate with each other across the world. The two main uses you are likely to make of the Internet at work are to send and receive electronic messages (e-mails – covered in the next chapter), and to view pages of information.

These pages – web pages – make up the World Wide Web and can contain text, pictures, sounds or video clips. Most organisations nowadays publish their own Websites (a collection of linked web pages) to provide visitors with details of their products and services, and one of your tasks may involve keeping some of these pages updated. Programs known as content managers enable companies to manage their Websites and you will be trained in their use if you are asked to carry out this type of work.

Most of your time on the Web will probably involve using it as a vast encyclopaedia, finding specific information such as telephone numbers, contact addresses or locations of companies, carrying out research, checking prices, reading reports or even following an online training course. In some areas of work, material may be made available by practitioners in the field that you are welcome to make use of without charge, and there are sites where you can ask for advice or guidance on a wide range of technical and non-technical topics.

One disadvantage that comes with so much information now being available is that you may have to spend time each week or month keeping yourself up-to-date. Many organisations will no longer inform you by letter or in the press that changes have taken place to relevant legislation, syllabuses, systems or financial data but you will still be expected to be aware of the current position.

DOWNLOADING

Any web page that appears on your screen is actually saved temporarily onto your computer through a process known as downloading, but a further function of the Internet is to allow you to download whole programs that you might need to help you work more effectively. These are often made available at little or no cost by manufacturers or software companies. Your employer may be unhappy about you downloading programs as they can take up a large amount of space and can also be a way to introduce viruses, but sometimes it may be necessary if a utility is required. People commonly download file readers, trial image editing programs, up-to-date software controlling equipment such as digital cameras or scanners, the latest anti-virus software or an enhanced web viewer.

INTERNET V. INTRANET

Just to confuse you, there may be two different networks that you can connect to: the Internet and a smaller, local network known as an Intranet that is only available internally to members of staff. Intranets have now replaced the conventional notice board and newsletter as a way to keep staff up-to-date with developments within the organisation, and you will probably only be able to access it fully at your desk.

THE BROWSER WINDOW

The software that allows you to view web pages is called a browser, and you will usually find an icon for one of the two main browsers:Internet Explorer or, less commonly Netscape, on your desktop. You will probably find that your organisation remains connected to the Internet most of the time, so that opening the browser will download a web page straight away without any need to connect manually. If that is not the case, click a Connect button that will appear to first make the connection.

If you are new to the Web, the following image introduces the main elements of the view offered by your browser:

Links to pages within the same site, or on other relevant Websites, are built into each page, and your mouse pointer changes from an arrow to a hand whenever it is over a link. Clicking the hand will open the linked page. As you are likely to move backwards and forwards over a large number of web pages when searching for information, use the buttons on your toolbar to go back through the pages or move forward again, or return to your starting point, called your home page, by clicking the Home button .

SAVING WEB PAGES

When you find useful information that you want to store, you can click the Print button to print out a hard copy or you can save the page onto your computer by selecting File – Save As. Decide if you want to store the whole page including any image or sound files that are associated with it, just the page you see on your screen or simply the textual content, and choose your options from the Save as type: box.

SAVING PICTURES

To keep a copy of a photo, drawing or other image found on a web page that is not protected by copyright (which would prevent you using it without permission in any publications), right-click and select Save Picture As before saving as normal.

WEB ADDRESSES (URLs)

Web pages created by any organisation that has a Web presence are stored on dedicated computers and have a specific address known as the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). These computers may be provided by the organisation itself or they may be made available by a ‘hosting’ company. As each page has a specific address, typing this into your address box and pressing Enter or clicking a Go button will locate the page and download it onto your computer.

The address of any web page is made up of several parts:

http:// denotes that it has been published on the Web using accepted protocols; these characters appear automatically without you needing to type them into the address box;

www. shows that it is on the Web and the letters are included in most, but not all web page addresses;

bloggs.co.uk is the domain name, which includes the registered name of the organisation and an extension that indicates what type of business it is;

/products/laptops/mini.htm (or .html) indicates the individual web page you are viewing, showing its location within sub-folders on the Website and that it is written in Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) code.

Usually, when searching for information on the Web you will type in the general Website address e.g. www.bloggs.co.uk which will take you to the opening or welcome page. You can then use indexes or search boxes provided on the page to locate the actual piece of information you are looking for.

If you do not know the exact URL but want information about a company, educational establishment or charity etc., URLs follow certain conventions so the address is likely to take the form:

www.name.co.uk (British company)
www.name.com (International company)
www.name.org.uk (charity or public body)
www.name.gov.uk (local or national government)
www.name.ac.uk (British university or college)
www.name.edu (American educational establishment)

BASIC INFORMATION WEBSITES

As you gain experience searching for information, you will discover some Websites that are particularly useful. As well as the Websites of named organisations that you would obviously visit first of all for information about their own products or services, there are many sites that provide general types of information. Here are a few that I return to many times:

www.yell.co.uk – an online ‘Yellow Pages’ site for finding company details
www.streetmap.co.uk – find and print out a map for any postcode or street
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ – a dictionary to check meanings and spellings
http://asadz.com/thesaurus/ – alternative words for written work

www.howstuffworks.com/ – clear explanations for how most technical, computing and increasingly other things work
www.netdoctor.co.uk – medical advice and information
www.nationalrail.co.uk/ – for planning any journey by train
www.bookbrain.co.uk – search for the cheapest copy of any book
www.kelkoo.co.uk – compare the prices of items such as cameras or computers

SEARCH ENGINES

When you don’t know where to start in your search for information, you need the help of a type of Website known as a Search Engine. A button labelled Search on your Internet Explorer browser toolbar will offer MSN Search, but you may prefer to visit another site. These sites all hold vast databases of web pages and either match these to your chosen ‘keywords’ or provide more limited links to web pages classified under various headings and sub-headings.

At the present time, the most popular search engine is www.google.co.uk but there are many others that people like to use such as www.yahoo.co.uk, www.altavista.com, www.megaspider.com (that lists search engine sites), www.ask.co.uk or www.hotbot.com.

They work as follows:

• 1.On the opening screen, decide whether you are looking for a web page, a picture or want to work through a category listing and click the appropriate button or tab.

• 2.For normal Website searches, type your search criteria into the search box, being as specific as possible to make sure you don’t get an endless list of barely relevant web pages.
  • a.For example, if you need to find suppliers of mosaic tiles to add to craft packs you are putting together for a promotion; don’t simply type ‘tile suppliers’. Make sure you include words such as ‘UK’ (or click a UK checkbox if available), ‘mosaic’, ‘hobby’ or ‘craft’ etc. before searching to cut out foreign suppliers or swimming pool or roof tile companies from the search list that will result.
  • b.Link two or more words inside quote marks to search for the full phrase e.g. ‘Handel’s Water Music’ displayed a list of 3,700 web pages whereas 17,000 were listed when the three words were typed separately. c. Type a complete question if you are unsure which key words to use, as the search engine will simply ignore extraneous words such as ‘and’, ‘in’ or ‘that’ and will still find relevant pages for you to visit.

• 3.Press Enter or click the Search or Go button to display the list of matching web pages. Each web page link displayed should show a little of the page contents, the URL or the date it was last updated. This will help you decide if the site is worth visiting.

• 4.Scroll down and click any titles to visit that particular page. Use your Back button to return to the list if the chosen page is not worth pursuing.

Finding the information

Some pages can be quite densely written, so that finding the particular data you are searching for is hard. Get help from the Edit menu by selecting Find (on this page). You can now jump from entry to entry matching your key words until you come to the appropriate section.

Directory search

For a category/directory search (e.g.more> – Directory in Google), click the top level heading and work down through the sub-headings you are offered. You will end up with a limited number of web page links to follow up.

FAVORITES

Having searched successfully for information, you may end up viewing a page that you would like to refer to again in the future. Save time by storing a link to the page in the filing system within your browser – Netscape’s Bookmarks or Internet Explorer’s Favorites – so that you can re-visit the page at any time by opening the folder and clicking the URL.

Adding

Some folders will already have been created in the Favorites menu, but add the URL of an open web page to the end of the list by holding Ctrl and pressing the letter D. Later, you can file it or just drag it to a new position on screen using the mouse.

To organise your ULR links more sensibly, click Add to Favorites. This opens a dialog box where you can file your new URL in an existing folder by clicking it in the list, or create a new one for it by clicking the New Folder button.

Change the entry in the Name box if it is too long, and click the Make available offline box if you want to store a copy of the page and view it in future without connecting to the Internet.

Visiting

To visit the page at any time, open the Favorites list in your browser window, open the selected folder and click the URL.

Organising

To re-organise your favourite links, you can right-click them on screen and select Delete or Rename from the menu. Otherwise, click Organize Favorites from the Favorites menu. In the window, locate any URLs and click the appropriate button e.g. to move them to different or new folders, rename or delete them altogether.

HISTORY

Sometimes, you visit a site earlier in the week, cannot remember much about it but know you want to visit it again. This is where the History function is so useful. Clicking the toolbar button will open a menu showing exactly which Websites you visited during the past few weeks. Click any day and you should be able to retrace your steps and find the recently visited page.

VIDEO CONFERENCING

Some years ago, a meeting in Coventry, Clapham or Cincinnati could entail long train or plane journeys and perhaps overnight accommodation. Nowadays, you can talk to those same people from your desk by means of a video conference which, in many instances but not all, involves using the Internet.

Although not yet in common use, video conferencing may be something you have to help organise or take part in – perhaps for a training session or to talk face to face with customers or colleagues in other parts of the country. It is therefore useful to know what is involved.

How it works

Video conferences take place either between individuals at desktop computers or in a specially equipped room where members have to gather together at a set time. Participants need a video camera, microphone and speakers that are usually mounted on a computer. As someone speaks at the distant location, you will see a live image of them. Their voice is carried over the network and received by your speakers, and images generated by their video camera appear in a window on your monitor. The system also allows you to work on documents together, sharing files or using a whiteboard.

There are various networks that can be used for transmitting sound and images: local networks; Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) phone lines that are usually specially installed; or the Internet. Here communication may be via a normal tele-phone line, Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL) or Broadband. Video conferencing uses compressed digital images, but at least a 128kbps connection (the bandwidth) is needed if the quality is to be of an acceptable standard.

Problems

Major difficulties occur when trying to hear people at the remote site if they are not near the microphone, or see them if they are seated at the periphery of the group or in a room that is poorly lit. In a dedicated room, it is therefore important that chairs, cameras and microphones are adjusted and tested so that the optimum conditions for video conferencing are achieved.

You may also suffer the annoyance of broken connections if using phone lines that drop out, and there is occasionally a slight delay in transmission so that you may miss a speaker’s first few words.