Okay I'm connected, now what do I do?

The absolute best advice anyone can give you about navigating through cyberspace is: "Keep your eyes open, watch the road, and read the roadsigns". In most instances, when learning to access a new resource, there will be adequate new user documentation to get you started. These documents are called FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). But you must look for it and you must read it. Bear in mind the Internet has no governing body, no central authority to ask questions of or complain to when something doesn't go your way. This is what happened when thousands of bulletin board users were suddenly released on the net a couple of years ago. Instead of looking and digging for the information themselves, they wanted someone to hold their hands and explain it gently to them in a soft voice.

One of the first things you will want to do is find a document on proper net etiquette, or Netiquette. In general, be polite, use common sense, and above all don't be caught dead "wasting bandwidth". Wasting bandwidth is a term used to describe what happens when you suddenly decide that rather than find out the proper Usenet newsgroup to post your article about "Cheese, the natural Laxative", you decide to post it to all the newsgroups with a world-wide distribution! This is a definite no-no folks.

Traditionally the internet has been peopled by researchers, academia, and computer nerds. To stereotype: these people are in general good-natured, friendly and helpful, but have better things to do than waste their time with someone not willing to spend some time in reading and learning to use a new system.

You will occasionally run across the inevitable "Mrs. Grundy" or "Mr. Wilson", grumpy, irrascible, or even downright insulting. The best you can do is ignore such lowlife, they thrive on the "flame", and are the worst form of all bandwidth wasters. Don't confuse this type with the "Here's some info to get you started, but you might . . . um . . . read the FAQ :-)", these are the good guys and they far outnumber the aforementioned types.

Now forewarned and forearmed get ready to hit the net! Here's a list of the best new-user guides and net tours I have come across.

Good luck, and happy surfing,

• by Internet Literacy Consultants for Global Village Communication
• Zen and the Art of the Internet - Table of Contents
• A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email - style guide
• Wide Web.
• Glossary of Internet Terms
• Internet training workshop.
• Personal IP - pointers to many points of info on how to set up your PC or Mac to connect via PPP/SLIP/CSLIP to the internet.
• connection. Also includes www home page set up instructions