BROWSER BASICS

The most important thing to know about the Internet is how to get around in it. An Internet user, such as yourself, must move through the various sections of the Internet (called web sites) by using a program called a browser. A browser is something that allow web sites to be downloaded and displayed on your screen.

There are currently two major web browsers - Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Communicator (the old version of Netscape's browser was called Netscape Navigator). Currently, the most recent version of Microsoft's browser is version 5 and the most recent version of Netscape's is version 4.61.

If you use either Microsoft's or Netscape's browser, it is strongly recommended that you always have the most recent version as the older versions can either have bugs (errors) in them or they might not support some of the new technologies that make up the Internet. In fact, some of those technologies have been used to make this web site and you may find that after upgrading your browser the site starts to look a lot nicer. If you do not have the most recent web browser or are not sure which browser you have, then you can click on the link below to check the version and make of you r browser and upgrade if necessary.

If you are reading this, then it is fairly safe to assume that you are using a web browser of some kind or other. Although different versions and makes of browsers are technologically very different, the general appearance of most modern browsers is usually the same. The following buttons can be found near the top of the screen on nearly all popular browsers:

• A Back button
• A Forward button
• A Stop button
• A Refresh button
• A Home button

It is also very likely that whichever browser you are using also has many other buttons up at the top of the screen with those mentioned above. These five buttons make up the essential tools of web browsing, however. On the following pages, you will find a description of what each of the buttons does. Click on the "Forward to" link to continue with this tutorial, or the "Back to" link to go back a page.