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    Internet Tools

    - Allen Hebenthal

    There are many tools available to help you find what you're looking for on the internet. These range anywhere from web-based search engines to complete software applications.

    A search engine is basically a web page and a database of web sites. A few of the largest are Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com), and Alta Vista (http://altavista.digital.com). They all operate in the same manner. At the top of the page, there's an area to type in "keywords" that describe the topic that you are looking for information on. Some search engines also provide a "directory" of the sites in their database. To use this, you would click on a main topic (such as "computers") and narrow your search by going to various sub-topics (such as "computers" / "software" / "Windows 95").

    A good tool to use to find search engines and related sites is "Launcher 2000", which is accessed via a link from our homepage. Note: You need either Netscape Navigator 3.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0 to use Launcher 2000.

    If you happen to be running Windows 95, you can also download a program called "Internet FastFind" from Symantec(R) that allows you to query multiple search engines at once, search for a particular file, and perform other search functions. You can download at trial version of Internet FastFind from http://www.symantec.com/iff/index.html.

    There are also software applications available off of the internet to allow you to access portions of the internet other than the world wide web. Most of them are "shareware". This means that you try the program for a while, and if you like it, you pay a registration fee to continue using it.

    If you're looking for software, you can download a shareware application called "CuteFTP" to retrieve the files you're looking for. It is available at http://www.cuteftp.com. To use it, you need to type in the address of the site that the file is on. You would usually get this address from a search engine. Most sites are set up to accept anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This means that instead of logging into the site with a username and password, you would use "anonymous" as your username, and your e-mail address as your password. You would then simply "drag-and-drop" the files from the site to your computer.

    If it's a good chat session you're looking for, then try TWD Chat (http://chat.twd.net), or use IRC (Internet Relay Chat). A good IRC program for Windows (called "mIRC") is available as shareware off of the internet. You can find more info on IRC at http://www.neosoft.com/~biscuits/index.html.

    These tools will help you quickly find what you're looking for on the internet.