The World Wide Web (also called WWW or the Web) has worked its way into virtually every aspect of modern life, an astounding fact considering that just a short decade ago it was nothing more than an idea living inside a computer scientist's head. That scientist was Tim Berners-Lee, who, while working at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (or CERN, from its original name, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), needed to devise a way in which scientific data could easily be shared simultaneously with physicists around the world. Along with Robert Cailliau, he designed the first Web browser in 1990 to allow scientists to access information remotely without the need to reformat the data.
This new communications technology developed by Berners-Lee and Cailliau transmitted data to viewers via the Internet, which by the early 1990s already existed as a global network linking numerous educational and government institutions worldwide. The Internet served for decades as a means for exchanging electronic mail (email), transferring files, and holding virtual conversations in newsgroups, although data shared online was typically static and text only. The new idea provided data in hypertext format, which made it easier for far-removed scientists to view the electronic library at CERN's information server. The hypertext data could even incorporate graphics and other file formats, a practice virtually unknown to Internet users of the time.
Despite a relatively small initial audience, the hypertext concept quickly caught on and by 1993 more than 50 hypertext information servers were available on the Internet. That year also saw the development of Mosaic, the first modern and truly user-friendly hypertext browser. Mosaic was produced by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois with versions for the X Window System, PC, and Macintosh. Mosaic served as the basis for a number of browsers produced by commercial software developers, with Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer eventually becoming Mosaic's best-known offspring.
The world was eager when the first commercial Web sites began appearing in 1994. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore had already popularized the idea of an “information superhighway” during their 1992 political campaign, and by the next year it seemed that everyone wanted to get online and see what this new World Wide Web of information had to offer. A high level of media coverage meant that by 1995 most of the general public knew what the World Wide Web was, and they wanted to be part of it.
The rest, as they say, is history. In its current form, the Web exists on hundreds of thousands of servers around the world. The system of naming and addressing Web sites is implemented by a number of private registrars contracted by the United States Government. Today you can go shopping, play games, conduct research, download tax forms, check the status of a shipment, find directions to a new restaurant, get advice, or just plain goof off on the World Wide Web.
The hypertext concept has grown as well, even outside the confines of the Internet. These days, Microsoft structures much of the Windows interface in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format. This makes interfacing with the Web more seamless and allows you to use the same program—in this case, Internet Explorer 6—to browse the World Wide Web, your company's intranet, the contents of your own computer, the online Help system, Control Panel, and other network resources.
If you have used Internet Explorer 5, IE6 will be very familiar to you. Some of its new features are behind-the-scenes, not readily apparent but designed to make IE run more smoothly. Others are enhancements that you will see:
The Integrated Web searching tool formerly called the Search Assistant has been spiffed up and is now called the Search Companion. You'll notice some changes in the interface, but it works essentially the same way. (See “Effectively Searching the Web,” later in this chapter.)
The Media button on the Explorer Bar is new. Click on it to bring up the Radio Guide and your music and video folders in a side-pane. The media player control buttons are also included in the pane for ease of use.
A new pop-up menu for images makes it simpler to save or email them. (For more about this tool, see “Dealing with Multimedia Browsing and Downloading,” later in this chapter.
Playback support for Flash and Shockwave files is built into IE6.
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The Department of Justice Consent Decree has brought about some changes in the way that middleware applications are handled. As of SP1, you can configure your computer to show only Microsoft middleware applications (Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, and so on), to show only non-Microsoft middleware applications (Netscape Navigator, Eudora, and so forth), or to show some combination of both. See Chapter 24, “Configuration via Control Panel Applets,” for more information on how to make these changes to your Windows XP computer.
Web browsers have become so ubiquitous that we'll assume here that you are already comfortable with the basics of Web browsing. And because many Windows XP elements such as Windows Explorer, the Control Panel, and My Network Places use the background code of IE6, you are probably already familiar with the location of common toolbar buttons, menus, and other screen elements.
Still, IE6 does have some new features, so an overview of how to use some of them is provided here. This overview will be especially useful if you are switching from an even earlier version of Internet Explorer or another Web browser such as Netscape Navigator.
Note
→ You must have a connection to the Internet configured on your computer before you can connect to the Web. See “Configuring Your Internet Connection,” p. 291.
You can begin browsing the Internet by launching Internet Explorer from the Start Menu.
If you connect to the Internet via a dial-up connection, you may be prompted to connect. When the connection is established, Internet Explorer probably opens, by default, to the MSN (The Microsoft Network) home page, as shown in Figure 9.1. Some PC manufacturers—such as Compaq—customize IE before delivery so that you see their home page instead.
Note
→ To change the home page so that you see a personal favorite when IE opens, see “Customizing the Browser and Setting Internet Options,” p. 337.
As you probably know, Web pages change frequently, so the page you see will almost certainly look different from Figure 9.1. The general layout of the IE6 window might also be somewhat different from what is shown here, although if you have performed a standard installation of Windows XP and have not done any customizations, it should look like this.
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Want even more space to view Web pages? Press F11 to change the view to get rid of some screen elements and make more room for Web documents. If you don't like what you see, press F11 again to toggle back.
Consider creating buttons for the Web pages you visit most frequently on the Links bar. To see the Links bar more fully, you must first unlock the toolbars, by going to View, Toolbars, and unchecking Lock the Toolbars. Then, click and drag the Links bar to a more visible position on the screen. It should look something like Figure 9.2. Before you customize the Links bar, keep these tips in mind:
The Customize Links button merely takes you to a Microsoft-hosted Web page that provides instructions on how to do what is already described here. Consider removing that button to make room for your own favorites.
You can remove unwanted Links buttons by right-clicking them and choosing Delete from the menu that appears.
Make space for more Links by right-clicking an existing Links button and choosing Rename from the menu that appears. Type in a shorter name or abbreviation and click OK.
To save more room, reduce the length of your Address bar and move it to share a “line” with another toolbar. (The main toolbar, on the top line, is a good place for the address bar.) Experiment with the placement of all the toolbars so that you have as much space as possible to view Web pages.
The easiest way to add a Web page to the Links bar is to drag the icon for the page from the Address bar and drop it onto the Links bar. Figure 9.2 demonstrates this technique.
As you probably know, you can navigate around the Internet by typing Web addresses into the Address bar or by clicking hyperlinks on a page. The mouse pointer changes from an arrow into a hand whenever it is over a link. Among the most useful features of the IE6 interface are the Back and Forward buttons. When you click the Back button, you return to the previously visited page. Clicking Forward moves you ahead once again. (To move around even faster, Alt + back arrow and Alt + forward arrow have the same function, and if you have a new mouse, it may have special Back and Forward buttons on it.)
Notice that next to both the Back and Forward buttons are downward-pointing arrows. If you have been browsing through several Web pages, click the down arrow next to the Back button. A menu similar to that shown in Figure 9.3 should appear showing a backward progression of the Web pages you have visited. Click a listing to move back several pages simultaneously rather than one at a time.
Figure 9.3. To move several Web pages instead of to the previous one, click the down arrow next to the Back button.
Every Web document you view in IE6 is identified by a unique address called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). When you visit a Web page, for example, the URL for that page appears in the Address bar of Internet Explorer. URLs for links usually also appear in the status bar when you hover the mouse pointer over a hyperlink, although more and more Web site designers are setting up scripts so that an advertisement or other message appears in the status bar instead.
URLs are broken down into three main components. To illustrate, consider these URLs:
http://www.irs.treas.gov/formspubs/index.html
http://store.yahoo.com/brainsville/index.html
Each of the listed addresses conforms to this scheme:
protocol://domain/path
The protocol for all World Wide Web documents is http, short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The protocol is followed by a colon, two forward slashes and the domain name. The domain often—but not always—starts with www. Following the domain is the path to a specific document file. You may notice that the first URL listed here does not actually show a path; this is usually okay because Internet Explorer automatically looks for a file called default.htm, index.htm, home.html, or something along those lines in the root directory of the domain.
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If you get an error message when trying to visit a URL, remove the path from the address and try again. Although the exact link may have changed, it's quite possible that the main page for the site still exists and that you will be able to find the information you seek there.
When you type a URL into the IE Address bar, a built-in feature automatically reviews your browsing history and presents a number of possible matches. A list appears directly under the Address bar and shrinks as you type more characters, narrowing the search. If you see a desired URL appear in the list, click it to go directly to that page. This feature, called AutoComplete, can save keystrokes, but it can also be incriminating if others use your computer and user profile. I mean, do you really want your boss or a coworker to know you visited howtomakebandanasfrombananas.com? AutoComplete works with Web form data as well, which means that others could see your user IDs, passwords, and other sensitive data for various sites.
If you are concerned about others viewing your data, disable AutoComplete by doing the following:
Choose Tools, Internet Options.
Click the Content tab to bring it to the front, and then click AutoComplete.
Remove check marks next to the items you do not want affected by AutoComplete.
You can further safeguard existing information by clicking either of the two Clear buttons in the AutoComplete Settings dialog box. Click OK when you are finished.
To prevent existing Web URLs from being compromised, select the General tab in the Internet Options dialog box, and click Clear History. Click OK to finish.
If you have a permanent Internet connection that is never interrupted or shut off, consider yourself fortunate. A permanent connection—such as what you might have through your company's network—allows you a great deal of flexibility in terms of what and when you download from the World Wide Web.
Alas, not all users have this sort of flexibility in their daily computing, so IE offers you the ability to download Web pages into a cache for offline viewing. This feature can be useful in a variety of situations. For example, you can set up IE to download specific Web sites in the background every time you go online. You can also download Web sites onto your portable computer so that you can view them later—while you're on the plane, for example.
NOTE
Internet Explorer works just fine whether or not an Internet connection is available. However, if no connection is available, it can view only files stored on the local computer or other available network resources. The IE6 status bar displays this icon when you are working offline.
The process of downloading a Web site for offline browsing is fairly simple. Your first step, obviously, is to browse to the Web site you want to make available offline. For best results, open the main or index page of the Web site first. Now try the following:
Choose Favorites, Add to Favorites.
In the Add Favorite dialog box, place a check mark next to Make Available Offline, as shown in Figure 9.4. You can also change the name so that you will be able to easily identify the page. The name entered here is what will be shown in your Favorites list.
To set up offline browsing options, click Customize to start the Offline Favorite Wizard. Click Next in the introductory dialog box to open the window shown in Figure 9.5. Depending on the layout of the site, this screen could contain the most important options that you will set.
Usually, you will want to choose Yes when asked whether you want to download pages that are linked to the one you are making available offline. For example, if the main page is a list of news stories, the next level of links probably contains the actual stories. Viewing a list of headlines won't do you much good without also being able to read the stories!
If you chose Yes in the preceding step, select the number of levels you want to download. The exact number will depend on the layout of the site.
Click Next after you have chosen how many link levels you want to download. In the next window, you must choose between downloading the pages manually or automatically. If you will browse offline only occasionally—say, on a laptop—choose the first option, Only when I Choose Synchronize from the Tools Menu, and skip to step 8. Otherwise, select the second option, I Would Like to Create a New Schedule, and click Next to create a schedule for downloads.
Select a schedule to synchronize the download process. You may want to set a schedule that will download the pages when the computer is least likely to be in use. You can also choose to have the computer automatically connect to the Internet for you if the computer is not connected at synchronization time.
Click Next when you are finished setting your schedule. If the Web site requires a username and password, you must enter it in the last window of the wizard. Click Finish. If the Add Favorite dialog box is still open, click OK to close it.
Now that you've set up a schedule and have downloaded some pages for offline viewing, you are ready to actually read them offline. To do so:
Open Internet Explorer.
If you are prompted to establish an Internet connection, click the Cancel button. Internet Explorer may load a copy of your home page from cache, so it could appear as if you are online even though you are not. On the other hand, IE may open with a message that says “The page cannot be displayed.” If so, go to File and click Work Offline.
To view a synchronized offline page you have set up and downloaded, click Favorites and choose the page's listing from the Favorites menu. You can view the page and click links that have been downloaded.
Notice that if you move the mouse pointer over a link that has not been downloaded, this “not available” symbol will appear.
If you click a link that has not been downloaded, you will be asked whether you want to connect or remain in offline mode. If you do not or cannot connect, you cannot open the link.
There are times when you'll want to save only a single Web page, not a whole site, for offline viewing. Say you want to just reference a page, defer the reading of a page, save a page that shows proof of an online purchase, or you want to print it later when you're offline. Here's how:
In IE, choose File, Save As.
In the Save as type section of the dialog box, choose Web page, complete.
Then choose the folder, name the file and click Save.
What happens now depends on your page. The Web page itself (the HTML file) will be stored in the folder you specified. If there are images, scripts, and other supporting files on the page, IE will create a folder just under the target folder and put those items in it. Then IE modifies the HTML code in the HTML page to point to that subfolder instead of across the Web. This lets you open the Web page without being online, and it should still look correct.
It's important to understand that by default, the HTML file and its subfolder are linked and act as a single entity. Moving one or the other will move of them. This is to prevent the entity from becoming nonfunctional if you move them around separately.
If you have Microsoft Office installed, you'll have three options for altering this linkage behavior.
Open a Windows Explorer window and choose Tools, Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Scroll down to Managing pairs of Web pages and folders. Double click it if it's not showing three options below. The options are
Show and manage the pair as a single file (default setting)
Show both parts and manage them independently
Show both parts but manage them as a single file
When the World Wide Web first debuted as a method for sharing scientific data among physicists, the hypertext format of the data was specifically chosen to lend itself to sharing information in many different formats. For early Internet users, the ability to download pictures and other graphics in conjunction with Web pages was both exciting and profound.
Today, Web pages with pictures in them are commonplace. Web developers continue to push the multimedia horizon, with many sites now featuring audio and video. You can even listen to radio stations and watch other broadcasts live over the Web.
In addition to multimedia-rich Web sites, you'll find that the Web is a good place to download software. You can find many places to download freeware, shareware, software updates, and sites to purchase and download full versions of programs.
Believe it or not, graphics-rich Web sites used to be controversial. Some people believed that graphics would put too much of a strain on the bandwidth capacity of the Internet, but those gloom-and-doom predictions have not come to pass. Backbone improvements have helped the Net keep pace with the ever-growing appetite for multimedia on the Web, and images are now both commonplace and expected.
Internet Explorer supports three basic graphics formats used in Web pages:
JPEG—. Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, this format allows pictures to be compressed significantly (reducing download time and bandwidth, but also image quality) so it is used often for photos on Web pages.
GIF—. Short for Graphical Interchange Format, this format is often used for buttons and other simple icons used on Web pages.
PNG—. Short for Portable Network Graphics, was developed to help images load faster and to enable them to look the same on different platforms.
The exact format used for each image is not apparent when you view the page. Usually, the specific format used is not important unless you plan to copy the graphics and use them for some other purpose. For Web use, the formats are essentially interchangeable.
By default, IE6 displays graphics used in Web pages. Although the idea of disabling this feature to allow speedier downloads might seem appealing, many Web pages now rely so heavily on graphics that they do not include text links. This means you cannot navigate the site without the images. Don't disable this feature unless you deem it absolutely necessary.
You can do a variety of things with online graphics. You will notice a new feature in IE6: When you mouse-over a graphic, a pop-up window will appear. Click the appropriate icon if you'd like to save the image to your hard drive, print it, email it, or just open the My Pictures folder. If you find this toolbar annoying, disable it by going to Tools, Internet Options. Under the Advanced tab, scroll down to Multimedia and deselect Enable Image Toolbar. Click OK to save and close the window.
You'll also notice a little square with four arrows on it, in the lower right-hand corner of some pictures. This only happens on pictures that, if shown full size, wouldn't fit on the screen. IE6 thoughtfully auto-sizes such pictures so that you can see the whole image at once. Click on the little box and the image will scale up to its full size, in higher resolution. Once full size, click on the little box again, and the image you're viewing returns to the compressed size.
A growing number of Web sites offer audio or video content in addition to standard text and graphics. The terms audio and video when used in conjunction with Web content can mean a few different things:
Basic audio files—such as MIDI music files—that play in the background while you view a Web page.
Video files on Web sites that download and play automatically or play when you click a Play button.
Video media that plays using the Windows Media Player.
Animated GIFs that give the appearance of a video signal but with a significantly reduced bandwidth requirement. They display a series of static GIF frames that simulate video and are often used in logos.
Flash movies that also appear to be video but are actually vector-based instructions requiring very little bandwidth. Vector-based simply means that they have small mathematical descriptions (much the same way fonts do in Windows) that can be manipulated to animate the objects.
Streaming audio or video that you choose to open and listen to or watch.
You might have noticed that, when you visit certain Web sites, a song starts to play while you read the page. Audio isn't nearly as common as graphics in Web pages because some people find it annoying. If you come across a Web page that contains a song you would rather not hear, the most obvious solution is to simply turn your speaker volume down or mute the Windows volume control. If you're listening to music on your computer (such as from a CD or MP3 file) and don't want to can your entire audio experience by turning off the speakers, see the note below.
Note
→ To disable audio, video, or other multimedia from automatically downloading when you visit a Web site, see “Customizing the Browser and Setting Internet Options,” p. 337. By disabling these “features,” you also might notice that Web pages will load faster. Note that some Web pages use media playback programs that IE settings won't touch. For example, if a page has a RealMedia or QuickTime sound or video file in it, auto-playback of those files will commence regardless of IE settings.
Likewise, some Web sites contain video files and animations set to download and play automatically. MPEG and AVI video files are usually very large, and if you have restricted bandwidth capacity, you might want to consider disabling them.
Web-based video seems to be improving almost daily, but most broadcasts are still lower in quality than that produced by a plain old television set. Whereas a broadcast TV signal typically delivers about 30 frames per second (fps), typical Web-based streaming videos provide just 5 to 15fps. In contrast to streaming, many sites will give you the option of downloading a video clip before playing it. Usually the clip in this format is much larger and of a higher quality than the streaming video. Once the entire clip has been downloaded, it can be played and may appear as a high-quality image, depending on how it was produced. Playback will typically be in the Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, or RealPlayer. The ranges of file sizes, frame sizes, and compression techniques all of which affect the quality of the picture, abounds. Unlike the TV standard we are all accustomed to, the Web is the wild, wild West of video non-standards.
Note
→ To learn more about using the Windows XP audio controls, see “Volume Control,” p. 178.
By default, MPEG, AVI, and WMV (Windows Media Video) files are played using Windows Media Player. Windows Media formats are sort of the new kid on the block and are Microsoft's attempt to be a big player in the Internet multimedia market. Just as movies encoded in Apple's QuickTime format or RealNetworks' RealPlayer format require those companies' proprietary player, Microsoft's proprietary format only plays in their player.
Note
→ Windows Media Player is covered in depth in Chapter 7, “Multimedia and Imaging,” but because how you deal with online video is relevant to mastering Web browsing, I'll briefly mention its use in this context. Be sure to check Chapter 7 for more about the Media Player.
Most Web pages featuring videos online will give you links for Real, QuickTime, or Media Player, letting you choose, such as the one in Figure 9.6. Some sites will give you links for downloading MPEG or AVI files. These don't stream, and must first download. Depending on your connection speed, downloading could take awhile. These files tend to be very large. Just be prepared for a long download, especially if using a dial-up connection.
You might notice that Media Player opens as soon as you click the link. Earlier versions of Media Player (prior to ver. 8) would remain blank, however, until the entire file was downloaded. Now with some types of files such as .MWV (Windows Media Video), movies can start playing more quickly even though they are not technically streaming. (See the next section to read about streaming.) Instead, they are doing a progressive download. This is less reliable than streaming, but at least you don't have to wait until the movie is completely downloaded before you start seeing it. It might hang up a few times, though, if your connection speed is slow. QuickTime movies have had this feature for some time. Now Media Player does too.
If you click on the Media button in the toolbar, a miniature version of the Media Player will open in the left pane of your IE window, along with a bunch of links for supposedly interesting media. When you click on a Web page link for an audio or video file, you'll be asked if you want it to play in this tiny Media Player or you'd rather it open in a regular Media Player window. The choice is up to you. The advantage of its opening in the small window is that it lets you neatly play some tunes, or movie trailers or whatever, over in the left pane while you continue your Web surfing.
As mentioned earlier, another type of sound or video you might play over the Internet is streaming audio or streaming video. Streaming audio/video is a format in which a signal “plays” over your Internet connection starting after a few seconds after you click, instead of playing from a file that was first downloaded to your hard drive.
When you first click a streaming signal, a portion of the signal is buffered in RAM on your computer. This buffer helps provide a steady feed if connection quality wavers. If the signal is received faster than it can be played, the additional data is buffered. However, if your connection deteriorates significantly, the video may not play smoothly. Streaming broadcasts are not written to the disk, so retrieving the signal later from your own PC will be impossible.
Although the minimum requirement of many streaming audio signals is typically 56K these days, a quicker connection is desirable. A lower speed delivers a lower-quality broadcast, skipping and jumping of video, or stopping altogether.
Streaming audio signals are often used to play various types of audio signals over the Web. For example, most online music retailers offer you the ability to listen to sample audio tracks from many of the CDs they sell. Also, you can listen to many radio stations and programs—such as those on National Public Radio (www.npr.org)—over your Internet connection instead of a radio.
Streaming video is used by a number of information providers to send newscasts and other broadcasts across the Web. Many news sites, such as www.cnn.com, allow you to watch news stories online. You'll notice that you can continue to surf the Web while a current audio or video is playing.
MSN (windowsmedia.msn.com) provides links to a number of online video resources, streaming and otherwise.
To access streaming audio or video signals, you need to have an appropriate plug-in program for IE6, such as the RealPlayer from Real Broadcast Network (www.real.com), QuickTime from Apple (www.apple.com/quicktime/), or Windows Media Player, included with Windows XP. After you have downloaded and installed the appropriate streaming player (following the installation instructions provided by the player's publisher), you can access the streaming signals over the Web.
Although the Windows Media Player can handle many formats, most broadcasts require a specific player. Check the Web site that hosts the streaming media you want to play for specific requirements. Some Web sites offer a choice of player formats, and often, the Web site will have a convenient link for downloading the necessary freeware. RealPlayer is a common application used for streaming audio, and QuickTime is used by many streaming video providers.
Although the look may be different due to custom “skins” used on flashier sites, the basic functions are similar. You'll be able to tell whether it's Windows Media Player, Real Player, QuickTime, or another player if you look closely. Sometimes you'll have to wait for the file to download, and sometimes it will stream right away. QuickTime gives you the choice to download the entire file first so you can avoid glitches when you watch it. Notice that the play slider can go at a different rate than the progress bar, which indicates how much of the file has been downloaded. When it's downloaded, you can play the clip easily again and again without interruption. Note that the Windows Media Player can be encoded right into a Web page these days, so the video might just play with little ado when you hit a particular URL.
Note
→ To learn about downloading programs from the Web, see “Downloading Programs,” p. 330.
To use a streaming media player, follow these steps:
Locate a link to an audio clip or video signal you want to access, and click it.
Your streaming media player should open automatically. RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and Apple QuickTime include standard Play, Pause, and Stop buttons.
When you are finished listening to the streaming signal, click the Close (x) button for the player.
When you access a streaming signal from the Web, notice the bandwidth requirements. Many signal providers provide scaling of signals from as low as 14.4Kbps up to 300Kbps and higher. Choosing a signal that is scaled higher will only provide a higher quality broadcast if your connection can handle it. If you choose a larger signal than you have bandwidth for, the signal will arrive too fragmented to use. For example, suppose you use a dial-up connection that typically runs at 24Kbps to 26Kbps, and the broadcaster offers signals in either 14.4 or 28.8 flavors. Although you might be tempted to opt for the 28.8Kbps signal because your connection is almost up to it, you will probably find that the 14.4Kbps broadcast provides a more usable signal.
MP3 is an audio file format whose name refers to files using MPEG Audio Layer 3, an encoding scheme for audio tracks. MP3 files are small (about one-twelfth the size of CD audio tracks) but they maintain a high sound quality. One minute of CD-quality MP3 music requires only 1MB of storage space.
Controversy has surrounded MP3 since its introduction. The small size of MP3 files makes it easier for people to slide behind copyright laws, pirate music, and illegally distribute it over the Internet. These days, authorities are working on ways of controlling this. However, this had only lead to Napster spinoffs that are harder to control and much more difficult to track down or prosecute. It will be interesting to see how the Justice Department handles the impending and unavoidable new age of intellectual property protection.
The bottom line is this: Distributing or downloading MP3 files from any artist without permission is, well, technically, a violation of the law. Although there are artists (particularly new artists) who willingly provide audio tracks for free download as a means for building a fan base, many MP3 sites contain audio files that have been pirated. If you have questions about the legality of MP3 files you find on the Internet, you'll have to be the judge. Probably the most ethical thing for you to do is not to download them, but I don't want to sound like a prude. As I say, it's a brave new world out there in copyright protection. I believe that free music on the Web probably drives the purchase of new CDs and of concert ticket sales. I'm a musician myself, and while I would want my music (and my books) protected, I wouldn't mind more people becoming acquainted with my works, either. It could pay off in the long run. In any case, you might want to be careful about sharing your MP3s of other people's music on the Web, since it could be a little bit dicey, legally.
The MP3 format has become extremely popular, with tiny portable players (such as the iPod from Apple) available that can contain endless hours of music. It is possible to load all of your music into your computer, and create your very own jukebox. Software for recording and organizing your music is available at www.real.com/player/, www.itunes.com, www.winamp.com, and www.musicmatch.com to name a few. MP3 files can be played by many different applications, including Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and QuickTime. A number of consumer electronics companies are also now producing devices that allow you to play MP3 files away from your computer. Samsung makes a single device (called a Digimax) that functions as three: a digital camera, a PC camera to use for video conferencing, and an MP3 player. A wide variety of MP3 players are available, with varying storage capacities—some units as small as a pen. You can transfer MP3 files to the player's storage via a Universal Serial Bus (USB), parallel, or serial port connection.
For a good resource, free downloads, and to learn a bit more about the MP3 format, go to www.mp3.com. After you have downloaded an MP3 file, you can play it using the Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, QuickTime, or any other MP3-compatible player.
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Sound quality is affected not only by your hardware, but also by the player application. Experiment with several different programs to find the one that works best for you.
When you click a Web page link for an MP3 file, your default MP3 application will probably open. It may or may not be the application you want to use. Also, the MP3 file will be inconveniently saved in IE's cache. You can exercise more control over the process by following these steps:
When you see a link for an MP3 file, right-click the link and choose Save Target As.
Select the location in which you'd like to save the file download.
When the download is complete, open the desired player application manually, and choose File, Open to listen to the file. If you click Open in the File Download dialog box, your default MP3 player will open.
Although the World Wide Web is most often thought of as a source of information and entertainment, it is also an excellent place to obtain new software or updates for existing programs.
You can find numerous excellent resources for downloading free or trial versions of software. Good sources are www.tucows.com and www.download.com. It is necessary to follow the specific instructions for installation provided by the software publisher (and offered on most download sites), but when you're downloading, these general rules apply:
Some Web sites require you to choose from a number of “mirror sites” for your download. Mirror sites are servers in different parts of the world that have the same files on them. The redundancy prevents traffic jams on a single server when many people hit it for the same program downloads. You are asked to select a location that is geographically close to you, but you're usually free to choose any site you want. The closer ones are sometimes faster, but not always. Sometimes I'll download from a mirror site in another country whose citizens are sleeping, and I get quicker downloads.
To begin the download, typically you just click on a link that says something like “Download Now.” This should open a dialog box asking you if you want to Open or Save the file. Choose to Save. Select a location that you will remember for saving the download files —it is a good idea to create a “downloads” folder. Within the Downloads file, I create a new folder with the name of the program, then switch to that and save the program there. This way, all my downloads are organized, and I know where each one is.
Check with your network administrator before installing any new software to find out what your company policies are.
Scan all downloads with virus-scanning software before you install them.
Many downloads come in a compressed .ZIP format. If you download such a file, you can run it easily in XP, because ZIP files are supported without having to install a Zip program such as WinZIP or TurboZIP. Just double-click the Zip file and it will open in a folder window. Then, examine the contents. You'll probably double-click the installer or Setup program to begin installing the program into XP.
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Downloads are fastest when Internet traffic is low, such as late at night. If you are given a choice of mirror sites for a download, keep in mind the local time for each site and choose a server located where current traffic is likely to be lower.
During the download process, a window appears showing the download progress and an estimation of the time remaining in the download. The estimates are helpful, but due to fluctuating transfer speeds, these estimates can be extremely unreliable. You might want to watch the window for a moment to see if the estimate changes in your favor. If you can't wait that long, click Cancel and try again later.
In addition to downloading new software, you can also download updates to software you already own. Check the manufacturer's Web site from time to time to see whether new updates, patches, or bug fixes are available (this is especially important for entertainment software).
As of SP2, a new feature in IE helps protect your computer from potentially malicious software. When you use Internet Explorer to download a file, a message may appear in the information bar just below the Address bar saying:
To help protect your security, Internet Explorer blocked this site from downloading files to your computer. Click here for options.
Clicking on the information bar opens a drop-down list of options (see Figure 9.7).
If you choose to allow the page to download a program, then you'll see another dialog box warning you about downloaded programs and asking if you want to run the program from its remote location across the Web, or save it to your hard disk, as you see in Figure 9.8.
Figure 9.8. Once you decide to accept downloads from that page, you'll see another warning and some options at the bottom of the dialog.
If you choose to Run the program from the site, rather than Save it, you're likely to see the dialog shown in Figure 9.9. All executable files that are downloaded are checked for publisher information, using a scheme called Authenticode. Authenticode checks a database of known good software publishers, checks this against the digital signature of the file you are downloading, and gives you some advice about the file. After being presented with the information you can then make a more informed decision about running the file.
Figure 9.9. If a publisher is not verified, you will be prompted thusly if you try to run the program from the Web page.
Some publishers of programs have been “black listed” and are prevented from running in your PC, under Windows XP. Executable files with blocked publishers are not allowed to run.
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You can unblock a publisher by using Manage Add-ons in Internet Explorer. This is explained later in this chapter, in the section “Viewing and Managing IE Add-ons.”
A recurring cause of instability in Windows machines is attributable to what's sometimes called drive-by downloads from the Web. How many times have you visited a Web site, only to see a pop-up dialog box saying you need to install some software for the Web site to work on your browser? Sometimes it's clearly stated why this is necessary (for playing a video, a proprietary sound file, or Flash animation for example), and other times, the reason is not so clear at all. All you know is that you are faced with the decision of letting some (typically) unknown source install some software on your computer so you can enjoy the Web page, or opt out and move on. Maybe you assume it can do no harm because it's only an addition to IE and not to your operating system per se. But since IE is often the back door through which viruses, adware, spyware, and Trojan horses infect your computer, being cautious at this juncture is extremely important.
These spur-of-the-moment additions that Web sites can push at you are called IE add-ons, and are typically ActiveX controls, though not all are. ActiveX controls and active script (sometimes called script or JavaScript) are small programs used extensively on the Internet. Without scripts, Web sites would be much more static and boring. Script and ActiveX controls allow all sorts of animation and other entertaining features on the Internet. Web sites become more interactive by offering customized content based on information about your computer, your browser, and so on. Common add-ons include extra toolbars, animated mouse pointers, stock tickers, and pop-up ad blockers.
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IE now has its own pop-up blocker, by the way. See later in this chapter, under “Blocking Pop-ups and Pop-unders.”
Add-ons can be installed from a variety of locations and in several ways, including
Download and installation while viewing Web pages.
Installation by the user by way of an executable program.
As pre-installed components of the operating system.
As pre-installed add-ons that come with the operating system.
The down side is that these programs can also be used to collect information from your computer for harmful purposes. After six months or a year of cruising the Web with IE, many users don't recall what add-ons they authorized, and what those might be doing to compromise the stability of their systems.
Unbeknownst to you, you could have many add-ons installed. This can happen if you previously gave permission for all downloads from a particular Web site, or because the add-on was part of another program that you installed. Some add-ons are installed with Microsoft Windows.
Post SP2, you'll sometimes be given more information about potentially damaging add-ons so you can make an informed decision about installing one. Some add-ons have digital signatures that verify who wrote them. This is called a certificate. IE verifies a signature and can tell you if it's valid. If a signature is reported as invalid, you definitely shouldn't trust the publisher as asserting a truthful identity. Allowing installation of ActiveX controls that have invalid signatures obviously is not recommended and introduces additional risk to your computer.
Internet Explorer will block file downloads in these circumstances when you are using the default security settings:
When a file has an invalid signature on its certificate.
When a file has no signature on its certificate.
When you or someone else who uses your computer has blocked the source of the file.
Even if an add-on has a legitimate certificate, it doesn't mean the program won't mess up your computer. In the end, whether you choose to install an add-on or not is your choice.
Make the decision based on whether you know the source to be trustworthy. If, after installing an add-on, your system or IE becomes unstable, use the information in the following section to track and remove the add-on.
NOTE
Certificates are explained in more detail, in the section “Using Encryption” later in this chapter.
Some add-ons are known to be bad and have been blocked by Microsoft intentionally. You can't install or run add-ons from blocked publishers on the computer. If you really want to, you can force the use of an add-on that has an invalid signature:
In Internet Explorer, Choose Tools, Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.
In the Security level for this zone box, click Custom Level.
Scroll down to Download unsigned ActiveX controls and choose Enable or Prompt.
Another approach is to unblock a specific publisher. This is a safer approach, obviously, because it doesn't open you up to all invalidated signatures. To do this:
You can review all your add-ons, update selected ones, choose ones to ditch, and if you've been having IE crashes, potentially see which one was responsible for your last IE crash. (Crashing can happen if the add-on was poorly built or created for an earlier version of IE.) You work with your add-ons using the IE Add-on Manager. The Add-on Manager even shows the presence of some add-ons that were previously not shown and could be very difficult to detect.
To see all add-ons for Internet Explorer:
Choose View, Manager Add-ons. You'll see the Manage Add-ons window, as shown in Figure 9.10.
In the Show box, click the set of add-ons you want to see.
Add-ons are sorted into two groups in the Show box. Installed add-ons are a complete list and include all of the add-ons that reside on your computer. Loaded add-ons are only those that were needed for the current Web page or a recently viewed Web page.
Some add-ons can crash your IE session. If you notice this after you've installed an add-on, you have three options:
Update it—. If the add-on is an ActiveX control, you should check to see if the item has been updated. You can use the Manage Add-ons dialog to update an add-on if an update is available. Click the Show arrow, and then click Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer. In the list of add-ons, click the add-on you want to update, and then click Update ActiveX. Windows searches for an update at the location where the original control was found. If a newer version is found at that location, Internet Explorer attempts to install the update.
Disable it—. If an add-on causes repeated problems, you can disable the add-on. Click the add-on you want to disable and then click Disable. Some Web pages, or Internet Explorer, might not display properly if an add-on is disabled. It is recommended that you only disable an add-on if it repeatedly causes Internet Explorer to close. Add-ons can be disabled but not easily removed.
Report it—. When prompted, you might want to report the glitch to Microsoft. This is completely anonymous and requires nothing from you but permission. Microsoft claims the info is used improve their products and to encourage other companies to update and improve theirs.
Internet Explorer Add-on Crash Detection attempts to detect crashes in Internet Explorer that are related to an add-on. When the add-on is successfully identified, you'll be informed of it. You then have the option of disabling add-ons to diagnose crashes and improve the overall stability of IE.
One of the most important features of Internet Explorer is the capability to tailor it to your own specific needs. Every user sets up IE differently based on programs used, favorite Web sites, bandwidth capability, security needs, and so on.
You can make most customizations in the Internet Options dialog box, which you can access either through the Windows Control Panel or by choosing Tools, Internet Options in IE6. The dialog box contains seven tabs, each holding a number of unique preference settings. Figure 9.11 shows the General tab.
Figure 9.11. On the General tab, you can set general preferences for your home page, temporary cache files, history, and browser view options.
Check each tab in the dialog box to customize your own IE6 settings. Table 9.1 describes some of the key preference settings you can change.
Table 9.1. Important Internet Options
Tab | Option | Description |
|---|---|---|
General | Home Page | The home page is the first page that appears when you open Internet Explorer. It is probably set to MSN or has been customized by your PC's manufacturer. Consider changing this page to your company's home page or something else you find more useful. |
Temporary Internet Files | When you view a Web page, the files for the page are saved on your hard drive as Temporary Internet Files (also called cache). You can clear all files from the cache or change the amount of disk space they are allowed to consume. | |
History | A record of the Web sites you have visited is maintained by IE6. You can change the length of time these records are kept or clear the history altogether. | |
Colors, Fonts, and so on | You can customize default colors, fonts, and languages, and set accessibility options here. | |
Security | Zones and Levels | You can set security options for IE6. See “Setting Security and Privacy Preferences” later in this chapter. |
Privacy | Settings and Web Sites | This area allows you to determine how and under what conditions cookies are sent. See “Setting Security and Privacy Preferences” later in this chapter. See “Controlling Objectionable Content” later in this chapter. |
Certificates | When a Web page tries to run a script or install a piece of software on your computer, you can accept certificates from the publisher to authenticate their identity and trustworthiness. See “Setting Security Preferences” later in this chapter. | |
AutoComplete | You can enable or disable AutoComplete when typing Web URLs, email addresses, or form data. | |
My Profile | You can create a profile for yourself in the Microsoft Address Book. | |
Connections | You can set up preferences for your Internet connection, whether it be through a dial-up or network connection. | |
Programs | You can select default programs for various actions. See “Setting Default Mail, News, and HTML Editor Programs” next. | |
Advanced | You can set various (but obscure) options for browsing, multimedia, printing Web pages, searching from the address bar, and security. | |
Multimedia | This is where you can disable automatic downloading of graphics, videos, audio, and more. |
Using the Programs tab of the Internet Options dialog box, you can decide some default programs for a variety of Internet-related tasks. If you have not installed any other Internet software packages, you probably won't have too many choices here, but if you use different programs, these options can be useful. Figure 9.12 shows the default program settings you can make on the Programs tab, and Table 9.2 describes the various options you can set.
Figure 9.12. On the Programs tab, you can choose the default programs for the various Internet tasks you perform.
Table 9.2. Default Internet Programs
Program | Description |
|---|---|
HTML Editor | If you are a Web developer, make sure the correct editor is listed here. This will simplify editing during your testing process. The list might include Word, Notepad, FrontPage, or another installed editor. |
This program will open when you click the Mail button on the IE6 toolbar or when you click an email link on a Web page. | |
Newsgroups | If you link to or open a newsgroup URL, the reader listed here will open. |
Internet Call | Microsoft NetMeeting is the default Internet Call client, but if you have another call program, you can select it here. |
Calendar | If you have a calendar program such as Outlook, you can set it here. |
Contact List | The default list is the Microsoft Address Book. You should set this to the Address Book used by your favorite email and calendar program. |
In many ways, the World Wide Web is a safer place than the “real” world, but it does present its own unique dangers as well. The greatest hazards involve sensitive and private information about you or your company being compromised, or in having your computer infected with a software virus. IE6 incorporates a number of security features to protect you from these hazards, and those features can be customized to suit your own needs, browsing habits, and company policies.
Begin by opening the Internet Options dialog box from the IE6 Tools menu, and click the Security tab to bring it to the front. Click Default Level in the lower-right corner of the dialog box to show the slider as seen in Figure 9.13 that allows you to set a security level for each zone.
You first need to select a zone for which you want to customize settings. The four zones are shown in Figure 9.13.
Internet | This zone applies to all resources outside your LAN or intranet. |
Local Intranet | This zone applies to pages available on your company's intranet. They are usually more trustworthy and can justify less restrictive settings. |
Trusted Sites | You manually designate these sites as trusted. To designate a trusted site, browse to the site, open this dialog box, select the Trusted Sites zone, and click Sites. Here, you can add the site to your Trusted Sites zone list. Trusted sites usually allow lighter security. |
Restricted Sites | Designated in the same manner as Trusted Sites, Web sites listed here are ones you specifically find untrustworthy. They should have the strictest security settings. |
CAUTION
Before you designate a Web page as trusted, try to remember that even the most diligently maintained sites can be compromised. Recent “hacker” attacks at Web sites of the FBI, U.S. Army, and others make the practice of designating any Web site as “trustworthy” questionable.
Each zone has its own security preferences, which you set. The easiest way to set preferences is to choose one of the four basic levels offered in the dialog box. The default level is Medium, and for most Web users, this setting works best because it provides a good balance of security and usability. The High setting offers the greatest possible security, but you might find that the level is so restrictive that it's difficult to browse your favorite Web sites.
Likewise, the Low and Medium-Low levels make browsing much easier because you aren't presented with dialog boxes and warnings every time a potentially hazardous activity begins. Because these two levels leave too many doors open to virus infection and other dangers, they are not advisable in most situations.
Besides setting a basic security level, you can customize individual settings. First, choose a basic level (such as Medium), and then try these steps:
Click Custom Level to open the Security Settings dialog box, as shown in Figure 9.14.
Browse through the list of options, and apply custom settings as you see fit.
Click OK when you're finished. A warning dialog box appears, asking whether you really want to apply the changes. Choose Yes.
The items in the Security Settings dialog box that most deserve your attention are those pertaining to ActiveX controls and Java applets. Review these settings carefully, especially those for ActiveX controls, because of the unique hazards they can present. The ActiveX standard contains loopholes, so unsigned controls can run virtually any OLE-compliant operation on your system. Java, on the other hand, is relatively—but not entirely—secure.
You should also consider what level of cookie security you are willing to live with. A cookie is a small text file that some Web sites can leave on your computer in cache. Because cookies are text only, they cannot contain a virus or other harmful content. However, they can contain personal information such as a record of Web pages you have visited, how long you spent at a page, how many times you have visited, personal preferences for a Web page, and even user IDs and passwords. It is for these reasons that cookies are regarded by many people as an invasion of privacy.
You can disable cookies, or you can choose to have IE prompt you every time a site attempts to leave a cookie in your cache. However, keep in mind that some Web sites make such heavy use of cookies that you could find it difficult—if not impossible—to browse the Web normally.
To set your cookie preferences, go to Tools, Internet Options, and click on the Privacy tab. The Settings area enables you to determine how and under what conditions cookies are sent. Choose a level you are comfortable with, or click the Advanced button to always accept, block, or prompt you before enabling first-party or third-party cookies. (For more on first-party and third-party cookies, see “Getting a Passport to Microsoft Country” later in this chapter.)
There might be certain Web sites for which you'd like to override your other cookies settings. If so, go to the Web Sites area of the Privacy tab and click the Edit button. In the text box, enter a complete Web site address, and enter it carefully. Then click the Block or Allow button to specify Web sites for which you want to never or always allow cookies.
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A major security hole in IE involves the option Allow Paste Operations via Script, which is enabled in all security levels but High. It allows any Web site to see the contents of your Windows Clipboard via a scripted Paste operation. If you have been working with sensitive information in another program and used a Copy or Cut command, that information could be compromised by unscrupulous Webmasters. To be on the safe side, change this setting to Disable or Prompt no matter which security level you use.
The Advanced tab of the Internet Options dialog box has a number of other security settings that deserve your attention. In particular, most of the security settings here deal with certificates. Certificates can be saved on your computer and serve to authenticate your identity or the identity of the server you are connected to. They also provide for secure encrypted communication over secure Web connections.
IE supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology developed by Netscape. It supports 128-bit encrypted SSL sessions, the highest level of data encryption available in the online world. SSL encryption works using a pair of encryption keys, one public and one private. One key is needed to decrypt the other. Certificates facilitate this use by including the following information:
The issuing authority, such as VeriSign
The identity of the person or organization for whom the certificate is issued
The public key
Time stamps
Thus, the certificate provides and authenticates the basis for an encrypted session. The identity is reverified, the private key is shared, and encryption is enabled.
Another encryption protocol supported by IE is Private Communication Technology (PCT), developed by Microsoft. PCT is similar to SSL encryption, except that it uses a separate key for identity authentication and data encryption. Thus, in theory, PCT should provide slightly enhanced security versus SSL.
Again, encryption protocols can be enabled or disabled on the Advanced tab of the Internet Options dialog box. If you disable a protocol, any page you try to access on a secure server that uses that protocol will not open in IE.
Note
→ Learn how to obtain a digital certificate for yourself in “Sending and Receiving Secure Messages,” p. 376.
Pop-up windows are an intrusive means for advertisers on the Web to ensure that you see their plug. We've all seen pop-up windows that come up unexpectedly, sometimes blaring music or flashing to catch our attention. Usually they pop up when you've clicked a link to go to another page. Another form of less intrusive though a little more insidious window is called the pop-under window. You don't discover it until you close the window you're looking at. This way, it's harder to tell which site actually spawned the pop-under, so you don't know who to blame.
Many power users have figured out ways to prevent pop-ups, such as by installing the Google toolbar or one of the many add-ins, or installing some other browser such as Opera that blocks pop-ups. AOL's browser does this, as do Netscape and Mozilla's Firefox. Oddly enough, 70% or more of Web surfing is done with IE, even though it hasn't until now had the modern nicety of pop-up blocking and still doesn't have “tabbed” browsers like Opera and some others do. The good news is that the latest IE now has a pop-up blocker built in.
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Tabbed browsers let you have any number of Web pages open at one time, all contained within a single browser window. You just click on tabs to switch between them. To add tabbing to IE, you might want to try Netcaptor, AvantBrowser, or Maxthon.
Without even having the latest version of IE (which includes a pop-up blocker), there's a quick solution to stop the pop-ups dead in their tracks: turn off Active Scripting (JavaScript). This works because pop-up windows require Active Scripting to launch. Even though other browser functions need Active Scripting as well, you can surf quite effectively on most sites without it. You can turn off Active Scripting by clicking Tools, Internet Options. Then select the Security tab, change your Internet security level to “High”, and click OK. Five quick steps, no pop-ups, and you haven't spent a dime on a blocker or have the latest version of IE. Of course, using the latest IE is a better idea, due to the improved security features and add-in management.
IE's pop-up blocker is turned on by default. When a pop-up window tries to launch, you'll see an indication of this in the IE yellow information bar (just below the Address bar). It will inform you that that a pop-up has been blocked and steps you can take to allow it through if you wish. Click on the information bar to see the Options (Figure 9.15).
Figure 9.15. IE now blocks pop-ups. When a pop-up is blocked, you can click on the information bar for options
Sometimes it's useful to see blocked pop-ups. Just follow these steps:
Suppose you want to see any and all pop-ups from the site you're on:
If you want to always allow pop-ups from one or more specific sites, you can authorize this. You just add those site(s) to an exception list, like this:
Sometimes the pop-up blocker won't be able to preclude a pop-up from appearing. There are several possible reasons for this. Firstly, you might have software on your computer that is launching pop-ups. To stop these pop-ups you'll have to identify the software and remove it or change its settings to stop launching pop-ups. Try installing an ad-ware and spy-ware sleuthing program such as Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-aware.
Second, some pop-ups are written cleverly enough that they can circumnavigate the IE pop-up blocker.
Third, Internet Explorer will not block pop-ups from Web sites that are in your Intranet or Trusted Sites zones. If you want to specifically remove such a site from your trusted zone, you can do that from the IE settings dialogs:
In IE, choose Tools, Internet Options, and then click Security.
Click the zone you want to remove a Web site from. Then click Sites.
Skip this step unless you chose Intranet zone in the last step. Click Advanced and then go to step 4.
In the Web sites box, click the Web site you want to remove, and then click Remove.
The World Wide Web holds the most diverse range of information and content of any library in the world. That diverse range includes a great deal of material that you might deem objectionable, and there is no perfect way of protecting yourself from it short of never going online. However, Internet Explorer incorporates a feature called the Content Advisor, a tool to help you screen out many of the things you or the other people using your computer would rather not see.
The Content Advisor evaluates Web content based on a rating system. The included rating system is developed by RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council on the Internet), but you can add others if you want.
You must enable the Content Advisor manually, but after it is set up, the Advisor can be password-protected so that only you can adjust the settings. To enable the Content Advisor, open the Internet Options dialog box, and perform the following:
Click the Content tab to bring it to the front, and click Enable to open the Content Advisor dialog box.
The Content Advisor dialog box contains four tabs, as shown in Figure 9.16. On the Ratings tab, you can move the slider back and forth to set a rating level in each of the four categories presented.
Click the Approved Sites tab to bring it to the front. List specific Web sites here to control access to them. Click Always to make it easily acceptable, or click Never to restrict access.
On the General tab, choose whether unrated sites can be viewed. Keep in mind that many objectionable sites will not be rated. You can also set a password to let people view unrated or restricted sites on a case-by-case basis, or you can add another rating system here.
Click the Advanced tab. If you plan to use a ratings bureau or PICSRules file you obtain from the Internet, your ISP, or another source, add it here. Click OK when you're finished.
RSACi and other organizations provide content rating systems based on the PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) system developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C (www.w3.org/PICS/). They work using meta tags in the code of a Web page. The tags are usually generated by the rating organization after a site developer follows a brief rating procedure. Developers can then place the PICS meta tag in the header of their HTML code, where it is identified by IE's Content Advisor when you try to open the page. The tag identifies the types and levels of content contained in the site, and the Content Advisor allows or disallows the site based on the content settings you have chosen. If you want to screen Web sites using a system other than RSACi's, you must install an appropriate PICSRules file provided by the rating organization.
Of course, rating is voluntary. Developers set the rating levels in the meta tags based on their own evaluation of the site content, so you never really get a surefire guarantee that the tag accurately represents the site. RSACi periodically audits rated sites, and Web developers generally try to rate their sites as accurately as possible. It is a voluntary system, after all, and providing inaccurate ratings defeats the purpose of voluntary rating in the first place.
Several other settings deserve your attention. On the Content tab of the Internet Options dialog box, check the AutoComplete option to make sure it does not contain information that you are concerned about being compromised. AutoComplete makes it easier to fill in data fields on forms and URLs in the Address bar, but if other people use your user identity, they could end up seeing your personal information because of these settings.
One setting you probably should not enable is the Print Background Colors and Images option. If a Web page uses anything but a plain white background, a printed copy of it will waste a considerable amount of printer ink and probably be harder to read.
Review the Search settings on the Advanced tab. In earlier versions of Internet Explorer, if you wanted to visit a Web site with a fairly simple URL like www.quehelp.com, all you had to type was quehelp and press Enter. Internet Explorer would assume the missing www. and .com and fill it in for you. But now, if you type only quehelp in the Address bar, IE6 opens a Search window in the Explorer bar. In theory, this is supposed to make searching easier, but if you've been using IE for a while, you might find it annoying.
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If you type Ctrl+Enter after typing a word in the Address bar, IE6 will assume that it is preceded by www. and followed by .com to create a URL.
You cannot completely restore the previous function of “assuming” the missing bits of the URL, but you can modify the way in which this feature works by altering settings under the Advanced tab. The different search options will have the following results:
Display results and go to the most likely site—. The default setting, this opens the Explorer bar search window. In some cases, the “most likely” site will also appear in the main window, but it may or may not be what you were hoping for.
Do not search from the Address bar—. No search is made of any kind. Typing a single word in the Address bar will generally result in a
Page not availableerror.Just display the results in the main window—. No attempt is made to find a close match, nor is the Explorer bar opened. A search engine will open in the main window.
Just go to the most likely site—. In theory, this setting should work as in previous IE versions, but in practice it does not. It first looks for a match within the Microsoft Web domain and then tries to find a match at large. Select this option, and then type
quehelpin the Address bar to see what we mean.
Under Security, check Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser Is Closed to discard cache files you don't want others to see. This setting can also be useful if disk space is limited, but you shouldn't use it if you want to be able to view pages in offline mode later.
You've probably heard that you can find virtually anything on the Web, and if you've spent much time online, you're probably left wondering where it all is. Finding information on the World Wide Web is a fine art, but Internet Explorer 6 makes the process much simpler than it used to be.
The Search Companion (formerly Search Assistant) in IE6 can be a great help. Click the Search button on the IE toolbar to open the Search Companion in the Explorer bar on the left side of Internet Explorer, as shown in Figure 9.17.
Figure 9.17. The Search Companion opens and allows you to search for several different kinds of information.
To begin searching, enter a word, phrase, or even a question in the search text box, and click the Search button. If you type a single word—such as antiques—the search probably will yield a list of results too big to be useful. Using more words, and more descriptive words, will narrow your search. You probably will get better results by searching for “antique furniture” or “antique French furniture” instead. Search results are displayed in the main IE window, 15 at a time. You can click directly on a search result to link to that site, or you can click Next to see the next 15 results.
An advantage to using the Search Companion instead of the browser to go to individual search engines is its capability to easily search through several search engines for a single topic.
Notice that the Search Companion gives you more options and suggestions for helping you find what you're looking for. You can click on the options to Automatically Send Your Search to Other Search Engines or to Highlight Words on the Results Page, which is handy to locate the exact word you're looking for or to do a search within a page to which you navigated. When you click the option to go to other search engines, you will see a short list from which to choose. Click on one of them to conduct your search at that site. If you would like to reset your preferences so that the Search Companion always visits your favorite site first, click Change Preferences on the main Search Companion screen, and then click Change Internet Search Behavior. Select a default search engine from the list, and click OK.
To start a new search, click on Start a New Search, near the bottom of the Search Companion pane. If you'd like to go back to a previous option in the Search Companion, click the Back button near the bottom of the Search Companion pane. Clicking the Back button in the main IE window, however, will take you to the previous Web page.
The Search Companion will search for files and other resources on the local computer or network as well. Click Search This Computer for Files in the Search Companion pane to select categories for the local search. To return to Web searching, click Search the Internet.
When you're finished searching, close the Search Companion to get it out of the way. To revisit a previous search, click on the History button on the IE toolbar, and go to the search folders. Depending on the search engines you used, you could find information in folders labeled search.msn, search.yahoo, and northernlight. Another way to find previous search results is by clicking the Search button at the top of the History pane and entering a word to search among the pages you've visited recently.
As helpful as the Search Companion can be, when you've become familiar with the Internet, you are likely to discover your own favorite search engine. You could set the Search Companion to use it, as explained above, or you could add it to your Links bar for easy access. Many search engines have advanced options that allow you to perform a more directed search.
Try these helpful search engines, directly from a Web page:
www.hotbot.com (includes a drop-down list for more effective searching)
www.google.com (has a Web Directory that works much like Yellow Pages do in a phone book, and “Google Groups,” which searches newsgroups)
www.northernlight.com (categorizes search results into folders for ease in refining your search)
In that over 70% of Web surfing is done with IE (some say as much as 95%), Microsoft's browser has become the obvious target for hackers the world over. Since a large proportion of viruses and other malware can enter your computer through Web sites (typically through exploitation of Microsoft ActiveX controls), switching to a different browser may no longer be just a goofball suggestion your propeller-head Linux evangelist friends push on you. It may be a necessity.
Even though ActiveX was meant to extend the capability of IE in exciting ways, such as into the area of multimedia, it has instead become an enticing target for hackers. Due to this fact, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a partnership between the tech industry and the Department of Homeland Security, recently began advising computer users to consider switching browsers. Whether or not you do, US-CERT advises upping your Internet Explorer security settings.
It might take a little work to get a non-IE browser to properly display all the sites you want to view, but it may well be worth it. For example, you'll probably have to reinstall plug-ins for some sites, and install Sun's Java engine for viewing Java-powered sites.
In general, make sure you're switching to a browser that isn't simply a shell on top of IE. That will still leave you vulnerable. You'll want an entirely new browser, such as Firefox, Opera, or Maxthon.
In addition to Internet Explorer, Microsoft has included its new breed of Web browser in the XP package. Dubbed MSN Explorer, it is more personalized than IE6: To use it, you must have a Microsoft Passport or Hotmail address, which is covered in the next section.
Begin by opening MSN Explorer from the Start menu; click the butterfly icon. If you are online, a wizard will guide you through the procedure to set up MSN Explorer. You will need to do this only once: Signing on in the future will be simpler and can be automated.
After you are signed in to MSN Explorer, you will see a window similar to Figure 9.18. Notice that it is already customized somewhat, giving you a personal greeting tailored to your time zone. Information about the city in which you live (according to the ZIP code you gave when you signed up for Hotmail) is also prominent. The toolbar shows how many new Hotmail messages are waiting for you. Simply click the mail button to display your Web-based Hotmail inbox. If you have MSN Messenger buddies, a number next to the icon will show you how many of them are online. By clicking the icon, a drop-down list appears with Messenger options to connect you with your buddies.
The downside to all this customization is that you cannot choose your own home page in MSN Explorer. The home page is permanently set to http://www.msn.com, although you can personalize it by choosing the MSN features and news you want to see. In addition, if you are frustrated that a significant portion of the main MSN Explorer screen is used for tool and navigation bars, you can make a bit more room for viewing Web pages by minimizing the one on the left (see Figure 9.18).
Fans of Internet Explorer who open multiple IE windows while surfing the Web might be frustrated with the multiple-window format that MSN Explorer uses. The easiest way to open up additional windows is to type Ctrl+N within MSN Explorer. Or, you can click More Choices to the right of the address bar and select New Window from the drop-down list. Each new window that opens will be in a different format from the main MSN Explorer window—the My Stuff and main toolbars will not appear, leaving more room to view Web pages. It's all connected, more so than in other programs: Closing the main MSN Explorer window will close all its subwindows.
MSN Explorer does have its advantages: With personalized content and the possibilities of multiple users on a single computer, you can sign on and be sure to see all the information that you want to see. This includes email, an integrated calendar, your MSN buddy list, favorite Web sites, stock quotes, and more. Because the information is Web-based, it is particularly handy when traveling. You can sign on to MSN Explorer from any computer and have all your personalized settings at your disposal. The information about your home town will make it easier to keep in touch, get local weather forecasts and news, and possibly alleviate homesickness.
To add a user, click Add New User from the opening screen of MSN Explorer. (You will need to sign out if you are already signed in.) Each User chooses a unique picture, which is used as an identifying icon, making it easier to see who's who.
Using MSN Explorer is only one reason to get a Microsoft Passport. These days, Microsoft requires the use of the Passport to use several of their sites and services, including MSN Calendar, MSN Messenger, MSN Communities, MSN Wallet, and more. If you already have a Hotmail or MSN email address, you already have a Passport. If not, you can get a Microsoft Passport simply by signing up for a free Hotmail address at www.hotmail.com. Parents may be comforted to learn that a Kids Passport is also available, which can help parents protect the online identity of their children.
However, some might be understandably concerned that Passport is yet another way Microsoft is trying to invade our space and privacy to increase its profits. You can minimize the effect by entering the bare minimum of personal information when you sign up for a Passport. We were able to sign up using a single letter for a first name and last name. You also must enter a birth year and a ZIP code, but the Microsoft stormtroopers are not going to knock down your door in the middle of the night if you don't enter it truthfully. Personally, I'd avoid using Microsoft Wallet—I just don't want my credit card information floating around, regardless of how secure Microsoft says it is.
The Microsoft Passport is a simple way of making it easy to sign on and purchase items and services from a growing number of sites affiliated with (read “owned by”) Microsoft. Because people are so darned tired of having to remember tens of passwords (maybe even hundreds if you're a Web addict like me), the idea of using a simple MS Passport that stores your username, password, credit card, info, and so forth, and promises to effortlessly log you on to all kinds of Web sites and services might sound pretty alluring. I mean, I forget my passwords all the time, don't you? In fact, I keep a Notepad file on my computer of nothing but my passwords and other such stuff. If I don't have access to this file when I'm traveling and I want to, say, purchase a plane ticket, I'm out of luck, because I can't remember how to log in to Travelocity. (Of course, I keep this file in an encrypted file folder running under Windows XP, so it's not going to be easy for someone to liquidate my IRA. After the “substantial penalty for early withdrawal,” it's not going to amount to that much anyway!)
But I'll suggest to you that Passport isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, it's a lot less. In fact, if you were concerned about cookies, you'll really be scared of Passport. As mentioned earlier, there are these things called cookies, which are small text files stored locally on your computer used to store a bit of info about you. When you go to a Web site that uses cookies, the Web server and your computer agree to exchange a little information, based on what you do on the Web site. Suppose you set up an account at Jack's Pizza with your name and address, or just that you like pepperoni pizza. Only the information you give to that site, along with possibly when you viewed the site, what you purchased, and what server you were coming in from, will be stored in the cookie. The idea is to make it easier for the site to recognize you the next time you visit. This is why you can go to some sites and the Web page says “Hi Karen!” It simply looks in your cookie directory on your hard disk (the cookie jar) and looks for the one it stored there. It opens the cookie, and sees that your name is Karen (because you typed that into its site the last time you visited), and then displays it. It also knows that last time, you bought an extra-large pepperoni pizza and a bag of fries. This time it automatically suggests an extra-large pepperoni pizza and fries. Neat. Convenient. It's like going into your favorite restaurant, and the waiter knows what you like.
The important point to remember is this: The agreement is that this information is transacted only between you and the Web site you're visiting. You have some privacy of information. Jack's Pizza's Web server is not talking to Jill's Soda Pop Company's Web server and then generating email to you trying to sell you a soda to wash your pizza down with. (Okay, so maybe you want a soda with your pizza, so not a bad idea. But it can get out of hand. Keep reading.)
The idea of Passport is totally different. Although it contends otherwise, I don't think Microsoft is just trying to offer a better user experience on the Web by offering you a Passport to keep your passwords and stuff all tidy. With Passport, you sign on in one place, essentially Microsoft, even if you're clicking the Sign in Through Passport link on your favorite Web site. Really, you're signing in at Microsoft's Passport, which in turn links you back to the site you wanted. Then you start hopping around between sites. Although most of the Passport sites are now MS sites like Hotmail, they hope to entice other vendors to become Passport enabled. (With any luck on Microsoft's site, Jack and Jill will both fall down this slippery slope.) When that happens, the Web servers are linked to one another. Garnering lots of valuable customer information (such as your buying patterns, net worth, geographical location, age, sex, hobbies, medical history, and other such private info) can be more and more easily aggregated into one large database. Do you think that kind of information is valuable? You bet it is, and Microsoft knows it!
Let's consider some examples. Log in to Microsoft's Investor site (http://www.investor.com) and look in the upper-right corner. There's a logon button for Passport. Now, I'm not saying this is happening now, but it's possible. Suppose you're buying a house, refinancing your current one, or buying a new car through a Passport-affiliated site. It is possible using today's technology that the selling agent can determine your net worth by checking your portfolio on Investor.com and bargain harder with you. This kind of thing actually happened with Amazon, which raised its prices on DVDs for people who regularly bought DVDs from them. The practice was based only on cookies (and was stopped, by the way, after customers discovered what was going on).
If you want to read that story, here's a brief quote and URL: “Amazon customers on DVD Talk reported that certain DVDs had three different prices, depending on which so-called cookie a customer received from Amazon.” http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2703210.html?tag=st.ne.1002.tgif.ni.
But in essence, the idea of cookies being private is being circumnavigated by the Passport. What's particularly scary about all this is that there is one entry point (or gatekeeper) to all Passport sites—Microsoft. Over time, look to see more and more sites (and even IE itself) incorporating Passport. I think we should be wary of the aggregation of information about us, and allowing that information to be passed around freely between corporations. Even umpteen-page-long privacy statements can't protect you when a Web company goes bankrupt and the court orders sale of its valuable database with your buying patterns or other private information in it.
An error occurs when I try to visit a specific Web page.
Try clicking the Refresh button to reload the page. If you still don't have any luck, remove the path information (that would be everything after the domain name) from the URL in the Address bar, and press Enter.
When I click an email link, Outlook Express opens, but I prefer a different email program.
Choose Tools, Internet Options to open the Internet Options dialog box, and change the default mail program on the Programs tab. You should be able to select any installed email client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Mail, and so on) here.
Some pictures on a page don't open.
If the Web page contains many pictures—say, a dozen or more—the graphics at the bottom of the page often do not open. Right-click the placeholder boxes for the images that didn't download, and choose Show Picture from the menu that appears.
A Web page freezes Internet Explorer.
Scripts that try to detect the brand and version of browser you are using frequently cause this problem. Click the Stop button on the IE toolbar, and close and reopen the program if necessary. You can try disabling most scripting operations in the Security settings dialog box, but doing so might cause the offending Web page not to display properly. Read the section in this chapter called “Viewing and Managing Your IE Add-ons” to de-activate specific scripts.
I get a lot of Page not available errors, even on major commercial sites.
The most obvious suggestion is to check your Internet connection. Your server may also be having a temporary problem, or high Internet traffic is preventing your access. But another thing you should consider is whether the page you are trying to visit is on a secure Web server. Choose Tools, Internet Options, and click the Advanced tab to bring it to the front. Scroll down to the group of security settings, and see whether any of the encryption protocols supported by IE are disabled. If, for example, you are trying to visit a page that uses PCT encryption but Use PCT 1.0 is disabled, that page will not open.
Perhaps you saw the photograph on the cover of Time magazine a few years ago of Bill Gates in a forest, sitting atop a tree-sized stack of papers while holding a single compact disk in his hand, suggesting that digital information storage could save trees. It can, but it isn't easy.
The problem with digital documents is that, even with the best available technology, they are still not as easy to read as a paper book. Computer monitors put considerably more strain on your eyes, and even laptop PCs can be too bulky or clumsy to carry with you to a comfortable reading location. Furthermore, current digital storage technologies have a shorter shelf life than paper. Most CDs begin to deteriorate and lose their data after 10 to 20 years, but properly stored paper can last for centuries.
Still, digital documents have many advantages. First and foremost is cost: A single compact disc can contain hundreds of books yet cost less than $1 to manufacture. Printing the same amount of data on paper would cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Electronic books can be searched quickly, efficiently, and more thoroughly than printed ones. And, of course, digital documents are much easier to distribute.
One of the most popular methods for producing and distributing electronic books online is via PDF (Portable Document Format) files. PDF documents can be read using the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free program offered by Adobe Systems, Inc. (www.adobe.com). PDF books can have the appearance and properties of a paper book but without the paper. They also have the advantage of being compatible across many platforms, with versions of the Reader software available for Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, and various incarnations of Unix. A PDF document link on a Web page is usually identified by the PDF icon.
PDF is used for a wide range of documents:
It is used for government documents such as tax forms and educational materials.
Technology companies such as Intel distribute technical documents and white papers in PDF.
Private and commercial publishers produce and distribute electronic libraries of PDF books both on CD and the Web.
News agencies produce PDF weather maps and other news material.
You can obtain the Acrobat Reader from many sources. If you own any other Adobe software—such as Photoshop or PhotoDeluxe—the reader is probably already installed on your computer. Look for a program group called Adobe or Adobe Acrobat in your Start menu. You can also download it for free from the Adobe Web site.
Even if you find Adobe Acrobat on your computer, it's best to download the latest version of the Acrobat Reader. Later versions integrate nicely with Internet Explorer to read PDF documents directly over the Web, and include the Find feature. When you're choosing the version to download, click the box next to Include Option for Searching PDF Files and Accessibility Support. The file size is just a little larger, but the additional features are well worth it. Some features are dependent on the writer of the PDF file. For example, “bookmarks” only work with PDF documents that have been indexed.
Acrobat Reader works as a plug-in for Internet Explorer. When you click a link for a PDF document, it opens Acrobat Reader within IE, but the tool bars and menu will change, as you can see in Figure 9.19. Just click the back button to bring you back to the Web page you were viewing.
It is not uncommon to have problems with this whole procedure, although it does run more smoothly with the latest version. If you have trouble reading PDF documents over the Web, first save the PDF document to your hard drive. Instead of clicking the PDF link to open the file in a browser, right-click it and choose Save Target As from the shortcut menu that appears. After saving the document to the location you choose, open it manually using Acrobat Reader outside the IE session. Saving the PDF document in this manner has the added advantage of making the document easily available to you for future reference, and available offline.