How to Use the Internet

The Internet is a great tool that is quite easy to use. Many people, having heard some of the terminology that surrounds the Internet, have become intimidated. Words like browsers, search engines, URLs, domain names, ISPs, etc. make some people resist learning how to use the Internet because they fee it is too technical and they won't be able to learn.

However, using the Internet is an easy skill to learn. The Internet is really nothing more than millions of computers, located throughout the world, all linked together in a vast network in order to provide easy access to information. These computers are connected to each other via networks that operate much like a telephone network (in fact the Internet uses the telephone network) to connect people to computers containing the information they want. Just as you can pick up a telephone, dial a number of another telephone and have the telephone network connect you to that phone, so too, can you type in the address on your computer of a computer that contains information you want and be connected to it. Just as with a telephone you have to subscribe to a service to connect your telephone to the network in order to be able to call others, you have to subscribe to a service, in this case it is called an ISP, or Internet Service Provider, rather than a telephone company. Once connected to the network you have to have a means of identifying which of the millions of computers you wish to contact for information. Just as each telephone in the world has a unique telephone number, so too each computer on the Internet have a unique address known as a URL or Universal Resource Locater.

Now that you have a general idea as to how the Internet works, how can you use it to make your life easier? Here are 5 things for which you can use the Internet: email, shopping, finding information (a library at your fingertips), banking and travel planning. There are many more uses but these should be enough to introduce you to the capabilities of the Internet. Here is a brief overview of each, one at a time.

Email – this is a way to send written messages to anyone who has a computer and an email address. Getting an email account is easy. Your Internet Service Provider or ISP (AOL, Comcast, Net Zero, Cox Cable, etc.) probably includes email addresses as a part of your Internet service. There are numerous services that offer free email accounts – Yahoo.com, Netscape.com, Google.com (gmail), and Lycos.com all offer both free and premium email services. With email you can easily stay in touch with friends, family and local businesses twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week (24/7). Yes, you ask, but what about Spam? True, vendors and scam artists have found that this is a great way to reach millions of people at little or no cost other than some time. Given the very low cost, they can make a handsome profit if even one percent of the recipients buy the product. But Spam is nothing more than the electronic version of yesterday's junk mail with a couple of important differences. First, you can clean out Spam from your email box with the click of a mouse and not have to worry about overflowing your trash or adding to the landfill problem which is the case with junk mail. Second, Spam doesn't cost you anything while the Post Office subsidizes junk mail by charging third class bulk mailers less than the cost of delivery while making up the loss through tax dollars and higher fees for first class mail. Spam is also easier to control than junk mail since, in addition to filters which automatically filter Spam into separate areas of your email box, you can often avoid Spam by not giving your email address to vendors offering freebies on websites in exchange for your email address. Also, unlike regular mail, you can abandon an email account and open a new one if Spam becomes too much of a problem, whereas, it is more difficult and costly to move in order to avoid junk mail.

Shopping – the Internet is a huge shopping mall that gives you access to every type of store imaginable world wide. True, everything has to be shipped and you have to pay for shipping. However, with the whole world as a market and not having to worry about costly brick and mortar retail outlets allows vendors to offer products at a lower price. Further, while politicians are working overtime trying to figure out how to tax the Internet, it is still generally free of the ever rising sales taxes and lack of sales taxes generally offsets the shipping costs. Ah, but what about fraud and stealing of credit card numbers? Again, with a little common sense, you can make shopping on the Internet as safe or safer than shopping in person or by phone. So long as you make sure you are dealing with a reputable outfit, your credit information is actually safer on line rather than in a retail establishment. No one else sees your credit card, you are less likely to lose your credit card when shopping from home and your credit card number moves at the speed of light from your computer to the vendor's computer without human intervention which greatly reduces the threat of theft.

Finding Information – The Internet contains a wealth of information, most of which is free. Want to research a medical condition? Go to WebMd.com which is such a comprehensive source of medical information that many doctors also use it as a reference. Look up your medical insurance carrier's site and you will probably not only find medical information but access to discount medical supplies plus free diet and exercise planning tools and advice. Need a quick reference? You can subscribe to services like Encyclopedia Britannica on line or just go to Wikipedia.com for free. Want to research your family history, locate a long lost friend, find the best times to view meteor showers, etc.? All of this and more is on line somewhere and, more than likely, available for free. But what about misinformation? True there is a lot of wrong, out of date and deliberately misleading information on the Internet. But isn't this also true of the information in the tabloids by the checkout counter in the supermarket? And, if you take a close look at all of the books and magazines in a large bookstore or a large public or college library you will also find out of date information, incorrect information and deliberately misleading information. The Internet is bigger and offers faster access to information than more conventional sources, but information from both conventional sources and the Internet must be approached with a critical eye.

Banking – Remember when banks were only open from 9 to 3 Monday through Thursday and possibly 9 to 6 on Fridays (so people could cash their pay checks) and you had to wait in line to do your banking? Well, these days are long gone. Today you can do all of your banking on line Access your account balances, transfer money from one account to another or from an account at one bank to an account at another, pay your bills, check statements and even pull up a copy of the canceled check from last year to prove that you paid the bill a creditor is questioning. But what about fraud an identity theft? Studies have shown that most identity theft is the result of employees of the bank,or outside firms that have been contracted to do things like print checks or produce credit and ATM cards, stealing things like bank statements, new checks, new credit or ATM cards before they are mailed. Another big area for identity theft is thieves stealing things like bank and credit card statements, new checks, new credit cards, etc. from mail boxes or retrieving these things from the trash. However, if you handle everything on line there are no physical items to steal as it is all in the bank's computer. True, insiders or outside hackers can steal information from the computer but this is not only rare it also makes no difference whether you bank with paper or on line since all of the bank's records are in the computer. Finally, since people who bank on line view their account information frequently, they are more apt to become aware of fraud and theft sooner than those who still rely on traditional paper statements. With theft, the sooner the theft is discovered the more likely the thief is to be caught.

Travel Planning – Planning a trip? Whether you are going to a new doctor across town or planning a grand tour of the world the Internet can help. Yahoo.com and Google.com maps, both of which are free, ask you for a starting address and a destination address and then provide you with a map and directions. This can be across town or across the nation. With Google Earth you can even get a satellite view of your destination address and, for a small subscription fee get a very close view (these are frequently updated photos, not real time views so you cannot check from work to see if Junior is home mowing the lawn like you told him). Numerous travel services allow you to book hotel rooms, make airline and cruise reservations, rent cars and more. Yahoo and other services offer free sites where anyone can rate and leave comments about hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions.

These are just a few of the ways you can use the Internet to make your life simpler and easier. Try it, you will definitely like it.