I'm totally new to the Internet...where do I begin?

What is the Web?

The World-Wide Web is one of the most useful and flexible applications the Internet has to offer. The World-Wide Web is made of individual web "pages" stored on different computers through out the world. Web pages are "hypertext" documents, which means they contain links to other documents. By clicking on a link, you can retrieve another page. Pages may contain text, pictures, sounds, or even video clips. Each web page has its own unique address, known as a URL, which identifies it. You may have seen them referred to on television, read about them in newspapers, or heard of them on radio advertisements. "Come see our web page at http:/\ /www.something.something".

To view a web page, you need software known as a web browser. Your web browser will contact each computer you want a page from, request the page, and decode the HTML language that pages are written in. It will then download all the pictures and place them in their proper locations on the page.

There is competition currently going on between the many designers of web browsers. Each designer is attempting to create features for the web that only their own browser can use. Enhancements such as page backgrounds, frames and others have evolved out of this battle. Depending on the browser you use, you effects. However, the actual content of the pages is usually the same.

How do I use my web browser with VTel Internet?

We suggest that you set your browser to automatically load the VTel Internet home page upon starting. Not only is it regularly updated with important information about your Internet service, but it's a great place to get started, and will provide you with links to the most valuable local pages and world-wide resources. Setting your default page is different for each web browser, but is usually fairly obvious.

Some browsers have the ability to read email and Usenet news. If your browser has a news reader, set the NNTP host to news.vermontel.net. If your browser has an email reader, set the POP3 host to pop.vermontel.net, and the SMTP host to smtp.vermontel.net.

Within most web pages, there are hypertext links (sometimes "hyperlinks"). They are usually shown as blue, underlined text. A hypertext link refers or "points" to other web pages. Pictures within home pages are also sometimes used as links to other web pages. Just click on the link, and your browser will connect to the computer storing the linked page, and automatically download that page. This usually happens within a few seconds, although it may take longer to download large files such as pictures or sounds.

All web pages, have a unique address on the Internet known as a uniform resource locator or URL. A typical URL looks like this: http://www.vermontel.net/. In this case, the address means this: http:// (hyper text protocol document), www (the name of the computer the page is located on), vermontel (the domain name where the document resides) com (the domain is a commercial site). Some domains end with .edu (educational facility), .net (a network), .gov (a government organization), or .org (non-profit organization).