GETTING STARTED
A. SELECTING A PROVIDER
Nothing could be done on the Internet without a provider. They specialize in Internet services. Here are some recommended providers:
(1) America Online
(2) Compuserve
(3) Microsoft Network
(4) Earthlink
(5) At & T worldnet
(6) Skannet
(7) Successdigestcybermall
(8) Yahoo
(9) Fastermail
(10) Hotmail
Generally, providers are referred to as Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They have sufficient resources and infrastructures for e-mail account/address provision, domain name registration and website hosting.
B. SELECTING A START UP PAGE
Once you enter a site, what first appears to you is a start-up page. It is otherwise known as a portal. Portals are peculiar to each website. The presentation, format, colour, design, menu and contents of website are never similar. Examples include:
www.ibms.org
www.herbmed.org
www.pubmed.com
www.indianpaediatrics.com
www.ifbmls.org
www.histosearch.com
www.ulst.ac.uk
www.hepnet.com
www.medicalmeals.com
The ten sites above are your golden keys to the Internet. Enter any of these URLs on your browser and see the amazing resources you could work with especially the LINK pages.
NOTE:
URL means Uniform Resource Locator (website address)
BROWSER is the software installed in your computer that gives you access to the Internet e.g. Internet Explorer and Mozilla Fox.
C. USING E-MAIL
The e-mail is simply an electronic or digital medium of information exchange. One can send and receive information through it. Messages are always sent through the computer system which must have a telephone connection. The telephone connection could be wireless or wired.
A server is also needed in addition to the two already mentioned which controls what comes in and goes out as mails. These are the essential must-have materials for running e-mail.
You need not have a personal computer system before you can run e-mail. All you need to do is to walk down into a cyber café nearest to you and you will be surprised how simple it is to learn and know.
TYPES OF E-MAIL
(1) Web mail
(2) E-mail program
The web mail is an Internet based e-mail which can be accessed from anywhere in the world. People using this kind of e-mail are not hindered whether in Nigeria, New York or Niger. They can access their mails no matter how far they travel form home. Example of web-based mail is MSN (Microsoft network)
The e-mail program is software, which enables computer users to run e-mail but messages cannot be received elsewhere except the same system. It is not web-base. A good example is Eudora.
READING E-MAIL ADDRESS
Generally, e-mail addresses have three major components:
USER NAME e.g. biodun2002
HOST NAME e.g. yahoo
UPPER LEVEL DOMAIN NAME e.g. .com (upper level domain names are always preceded by a dot).
An e-mail address from the above is therefore biodun2002@yahoo.com
Acronyms of upper level domain names are:
com(commercial)
edu (education)
org (organization)
net (network)
gov (government)
mil (military)
info (information)
biz (business)
co (company)
YOUR ID
The conventional identity card is often requested when our identity is to be ascertained in the real world. It could be used to give or deny us of our priviledges. This scenario is no less the same on the Internet. Before you could do anything, your identity must be known. The following terms are used to indicate you identity on the Internet:
(1) E-mail ID
(2) E-mail account
(3) E-mail address
No one shares your ID with you. It is peculiarly and exclusively yours. Without it, you cannot send or receive information on the Internet.
The process of creating an ID for you is simple. All you need to do is to write your name followed by @ and again by an ISP name of choice.
Name……….. benardsolomon
Special designation…….@
ISP……………yahoo.com
e-mail address is therefore…….benardsolomon@yahoo.com (note the absence of any space between the letters).
In some cases, people sharing the same name could be many already having an Internet presence. In such situations, alphabets, numbers or other keyboard character could be used to validate a distinct identity e.g. ademoyin2001@yahoo.com
SENDING AN E-MAIL
You can conveniently send mails through organization providing e-mail services. You pay them some money and they do it for you. It is as simple as that. You may need to scout around to get a better deal. In the alternative, your yahoo box is well customized to performing this task. Here are some simple steps for you to follow:
(1) Double-click on the internet explorer icon on your computer desktop.
(2) Type www.yahoo.com on the URL space provided and press the enter key
(3) Click on mails
(4) Type your address on the ID locator
(5) Type your password on the password locator
(6) Click on sign in (at this stage your box will open for you right there on the screen.)
(7) Click on compose at the left hand side of your box. An empty space will be opened for you to type the letter
LETTER FORMAT
Before writing a letter, you must have determined the purpose or subject of the letter and the destination of the letter. These two issues must be settled before writing any letter in the real world. On the Internet, the same rule holds. The moment your box displays an empty space for your letter, the following icons appear with it:
(1) TO… in this space, type the e-mail address of the receiver
(2) SUBJECT…in this space, type the subject or heading of your letter
(3) EDITING SPACE…. type your letter here and click on the send button after completing the work (in this case your letter).
If you are interested in saving the draft copy of your letter, click on the save draft button. You might want to send a letter to many recipients simultaneously. Just type their e-mail addresses on the CC (carbon copy button) before clicking on the send button
