Introduction

Welcome to The Internet For Dummies, 14th Edition. The Internet has become so interwoven in today’s life — work, school, politics, and play — that ignoring it is no longer an option. This book describes what you do to become an Internaut (someone who navigates the Internet with skill) — how to get started, what you need to know, and where to go for help. And, we describe it in plain old English.

When we first wrote The Internet For Dummies 21 years ago (yikes!), a typical Internet user was a student who connected from college or a technical worker who had access at the office. The World Wide Web was so new that it had only a few hundred Web pages and we only mentioned it in one chapter of the book. The Internet has grown like crazy to include a billion (dare we say it?) normal people, connecting from computers at home or work, along with students ranging from elementary school to adult education. This 14th edition focuses on what’s the most interesting to typical users — how to find things on the World Wide Web, download interesting things, send and receive electronic mail (email), and shop, invest, chat, and play games online.

About This Book

We don’t flatter ourselves to think you’re interested enough in the Internet to sit down and read the entire book (although it should be a fine book for the bathroom). When you run into a problem using the Internet (“Hmm, I thought that I knew how to find old TV shows online, but I don’t seem to remember”), just dip into the book long enough to solve your problem.

Pertinent sections include

• Understanding what the Internet is
• Staying safe online
• Getting your computer (or tablet or phone or whatever) connected to the Internet
• Climbing around the World Wide Web
• Finding people, places, and things
• Communicating by email
• Hanging out with friends using Facebook, instant messaging, and other methods
• Watching movies, listening to radio shows, shopping, and other fun online activities
• Putting your own stuff online with websites and social networks

How to Use This Book

To begin, please read the first two chapters. They give you an overview of the Internet and some important safety tips. If you have children or grandchildren, read Chapter 3, too. When you’re ready to get yourself on the Internet, turn to Part II and read Chapter 4. Chapter 6 describes how to use the web — you aren’t truly online until you can see a web page. Parts III through VI egg you on and provide extra support — they describe the web and email and other stuff you can do on the Internet.

Because the Internet is ever-changing, we put additional information online, which we can update more often than this book can be republished. We authors have a website with updates and history and other interesting articles, at net.gurus.org.

When you have to follow a complicated procedure, we spell it out step by step wherever possible. When you have to type something, it appears in the book in boldface. Type it just as it appears. Use the same capitalization we do — a few systems care deeply about CAPITAL and lowercase (small) letters. Then press the Enter key. The book tells you what should happen when you give each command and what your options are.

When you have to choose commands from menus, we use the ⇒ symbol. For example, we write File⇒Exit when we want you to choose the File command from the menu bar and then choose the Exit command from the menu that appears.

Who Are You?

In writing this book, we made a few assumptions about you:

• You have or would like to have access to the Internet.
• You want to get some work done online. (We consider the term work to include the concepts play and learn.)
• You aren’t interested in becoming the world’s next great Internet expert, at least not this week.

How This Book Is Organized

This book has six parts, and the parts stand on their own. Although you can begin reading wherever you like, you should at least skim Parts I and II first to become acquainted with some unavoidable Internet jargon and find out how to get your computer on the Internet.

Here are the parts of the book:

In Part I, “Welcome to the Internet,” you find out what the Internet is and why it’s interesting (at least why we think it’s interesting). Also, this part gives you vital terminology and explains concepts that help you as you read the later parts of the book. Part I discusses security and privacy issues and gives some thoughts about children’s use of the Internet.

For the nuts and bolts of getting online, read Part II, “Internet, Here I Come!” For most users, by far the most difficult part of the Internet is getting to that first connection, with software loaded, configuration configured, and modem modeming or broadband banding broadly. After that, it’s (relatively) smooth sailing. We also tell you how to use the World Wide Web, the most popular online application. You also get a briefing on avoiding and blocking online hazards, such as viruses and spam.

Part III, “Hanging Out with Friends Online,” looks at the important communication services: sending and receiving email, swapping instant messages, and chatting. You find out how to exchange email with people down the hall or on other continents, how to make the most of Internet-based phone and video conferencing programs, how to use instant messaging programs to chat with your online pals, how to get going with Facebook and Twitter (the ultimate answers to free time), and how to use email mailing lists to keep in touch with people of similar interests.

Part IV, “The Web Is Full of Cool Stuff,” dives into the web in more detail. We discuss how to get around on the web, how to find stuff (which isn’t as easy as it should be), and how to shop online. We also include chapters on listening to music, watching videos, shopping, and managing your finances on the Internet.

Part V, “Putting Your Own Stuff on the Web,” talks about how to post all kinds of material on the Internet. Putting your writing, photos, and videos online is easier than ever because of the range of free web services you can use, including blogs, which let anyone be an online journalist.

Part VI, “The Part of Tens,” is a compendium of ready references and useful facts (which, we suppose, suggests that the rest of the book is full of useless facts).

This book’s Cheat Sheet, which summarizes how to use the most important web browsers and email programs in the book, is online at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/internet.

Icons Used in This Book

Lets you know that some particularly nerdy, technoid information is coming up so that you can skip it, if you want. (On the other hand, you may want to read it.)

Indicates that a nifty little shortcut or timesaver is explained.

Gaack! We found out about this information the hard way! Don’t let it happen to you!

Indicates something to file away in your memory archives.

Beyond the Book

Understanding the Internet goes beyond these pages and onto the web, where you can access additional information. There’s a handy-dandy cheat sheet that reiterates the basics and web extras.

• Cheat Sheet: You can find this book’s online Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/internet. See the Cheat Sheet for Internet survival tips.
• Web Extras: Companion articles to this book’s content are available at www.dummies.com/extras/internet. The topics range from trading with villagers, building a dog army, and ten useful crafting recipes.
• Updates: If this book has any updates, they’ll be posted at www.dummies.com/extras/internet.

If you want to contact the authors directly, send Internet email to [email protected] (our friendly robot usually answers immediately; the human authors read all the email and answer as much as they can) or visit the authors’ website at net.gurus.org.