INTERNET SKILLS

INTERNET SKILLS

A computer network, or simply a network,  is a collection of computers and other hardware components interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.^[1] Where at least one process in one device is able to send/receive data to/from at least one process residing in a remote device, then the two devices are said to be in a network. Simply, more than one computer interconnected through a communication medium for information interchange is called a computer network.

Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics, such as the medium used to transport the data, communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope.

LAN - Local Area Network

A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings. In TCP/IP networking, a LAN is often but not always implemented as a single IP subnet.

In addition to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring.

WAN - Wide Area Network

As the term implies, a WAN spans a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth.

A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. A network device called a router connects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address.

A WAN differs from a LAN in several important ways. Most WANs (like the Internet) are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management. WANs tend to use technology like ATM, Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity over the longer distances.

LAN, WAN and Home Networking

Residences typically employ one LAN and connect to the Internet WAN via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) using a broadband modem. The ISP provides a WAN IP address to the modem, and all of the computers on the home network use LAN (so-called private) IP addresses. All computers on the home LAN can communicate directly with each other but must go through a central gateway, typically a broadband router, to reach the ISP.

Other Types of Area Networks

While LAN and WAN are by far the most popular network types mentioned, you may also commonly see references to these others:

• Wireless Local Area Network - a LAN based on WiFi wireless network technology
• Metropolitan Area Network - a network spanning a physical area larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN, such as a city. A MAN is typically owned an operated by a single entity such as a government body or large corporation.
• Campus Area Network - a network spanning multiple LANs but smaller than a MAN, such as on a university or local business campus.
• Storage Area Network - connects servers to data storage devices through a technology like Fibre Channel.
• System Area Network - links high-performance computers with high-speed connections in a cluster configuration. Also known as Cluster Area Network.

Internetwork

An internetwork is the connection of multiple computer networks via a common routing technology using routers. The Internet is an aggregation of many connected internetworks spanning the Earth.

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected governmental, academic, corporate, public, and private computer networks. It is based on the networking technologies of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is the successor of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) developed by DARPA of the United States Department of Defense. The Internet is also the communications backbone underlying the World Wide Web (WWW).

Participants in the Internet use a diverse array of methods of several hundred documented, and often standardized, protocols compatible with the Internet Protocol Suite and an addressing system (IP addresses) administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and address registries. Service providers and large enterprises exchange information about the reachability of their address spaces through the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), forming a redundant worldwide mesh of transmission paths.

What is a Network Protocol?

Network protocols defines a language of rules and conventions for communication between network devices.

Internet Protocols

Protocol: Is a formal definition of a language that two computers use

to communicate. This definition describes acceptable messages and

outlines the rules that two computers must follow to exchange those

messages.

The Internet Protocol family contains a set of related (and among the most widely used network protocols. Besides Internet Protocol (IP) itself, higher-level protocols like TCP, UDP, HTTP, and FTP all integrate with IP to provide additional capabilities. Similarly, lower-level Internet Protocols like ARP and ICMP also co-exist with IP. These higher level protocols interact more closely with applications like Web browsers while lower-level protocols interact with network adapters and other computer hardware.

Transmission Control Protocol: Is the major transport protocol in

the Internet Protocol suite. It provides reliable communication between

two computers in the network.

Internet protocol: It is the network protocol in the Internet. IP

provides a best effort to deliver an IP packet between two networks on

the Internet.

Routing Protocols

Routing protocols are special-purpose protocols designed specifically for use by network routers on the Internet. Common routing protocols include EIGRP, OSPF and BGP.

The Internet, often referred to as ‘the Net’, consists of a complex network of computers connected by a high-speed communications system.

It allows easy access to a vast amount of information stored at many different sites around the world. No one ‘owns’ or controls the Internet, and each organisation, company or government is responsible for maintaining its own part of the network.

The Internet is used mainly for Communication; Finding Information; Publishing; Commerce; and for On-line Learning.

The most widely used facilities on the Internet are:

The World Wide Web (WWW)

Electronic Mail (e-mail)

Newsgroups

Chat

Publishing

How can I get access to the Internet? 

How can I get connected at home?

Are there other ways to get connected?

What is a Web site?

What can I find on the Web?

What is a Web address?

What is a Web Browser?

 To get connected at home the minimum you will need is:

An Internet Compatible Computer
Most recent computers have this capability.

A Modem

Computers which don't already have an Internal Modem can be connected with an External Modem with one cable plugged into your computer and another into a telephone socket.

A Telephone Line

An Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An ISP is a company which provides you with access to the Internet. This can easily be arranged through a telephone company, such as BT, or you can choose from many others. You can normally choose to pay for the duration of your connection to the Internet, or opt for a monthly payment which gives you unlimited access at any time. So remember to shop around for the method which suits you best.

Internet Software
The special Browser and E-mail software which allows your computer to connect to the internet should already be on your computer. Most Internet Service Providers also include this free of charge with your subscription.
Note: It's best to keep this software up-to-date to enable you to have the best browsing experience and to minimise security risks.

Yes, one which is becoming more popular is Broadband, which is more costly but provides a much faster connection speed.

You may also have access to a Cable connection. Then there is ISDN and Satellite, both of which are expensive. All these other methods require additional special equipment which your provider will advise you upon.

Connection through the Mobile Phone Network is also possible and other options will become available as technology progresses.

A Web Site may contain from just one to an unlimited number of inter-connecting pages.

Most pages have links (hyperlinks) to help you find your way around (navigate) the web site.

Links are often images or highlighted or underlined words(hypertext). When you move the mouse pointer over a link it will change to a pointing hand and when you click your mouse button your computer will be sent a fresh page to display.

You can find all kinds of information on the Web, e.g. the weather forecast, train timetables, a holiday destination, a favourite TV programme or football team, or advice about housing, benefits, or health matters. You can also shop, buy an airline ticket, pay a bill, or report an out of action streetlamp to your council - the list is endless!

There are millions of Web sites available on the Internet, you are sure to find something that interests you.

Every Web site has its own unique address, called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). If you want to visit a site, you need to type in its address, in the address bar of your browser as shown.

Each URL is divided into the following sections:

http:// – is short for hypertext transfer protocol and means that the file is a Web page. You do not need to type this part in as it will be automatically inserted by your browser it.
www – denotes the World Wide Web
bbc – indicates the company name
.co – shows the type of organisation (company).
.in – states the location of the organisation

The organisation and location of the address of the address is known as the domain name.

A Web browser is a software program that allows you to view, navigate and interact with the World Wide Web.

One of the most commonly used web browsers is Microsoft Internet Explorer but there are several others, including those for the visually impaired.

Opening your Browser

Double-click on the Internet Explorer shortcut icon on your desktop. The program will launch and a browser window will open.

To be able to navigate around the multitude of web sites available on the World Wide Web, each web site has its own unique address, called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

A Web Address or URL consists of three parts:

1: http://www - is short for hypertext transfer protocol and indicates the file is a Web page and is located on the World Wide Web.

2: Domain Name - this is usually a company or product name, e.g. bbc.

3: Suffix or Global Domain - Shows the type of organisation using the address and may also indicate the country of origin, e.g. The suffix .co.uk indicates a company in the UK.

Most web sites have links to help you view information and find your way around, or navigate. These 'hyperlinks', may connect to related topics within a web site, or to different web sites.

A Text Link (hypertext) may appear as an underlined word or phrase, or be in a different colour to the rest of the text.

A Graphic Link may appear as a button, or some other image.

The World Wide Web is an ideal resource for finding information on any topic. There are two basic tools you can use to help you find information, Search Engines and Search Directories.

Search Engines

A Search Engine consists of a vast index of web addresses, which is created and regularly updated by a computer program known as a robot, spider or crawler.

When you enter a word (keyword) or phrase in the search bar, the search engine will look through its database of web sites and provide you with a list of sites, or 'hits' that contain the keyword(s), together with a brief summary of each site.

There are many different Search Engines available on the Web. Each has its own database, search capabilities and methods of displaying results.

Some popular Search Engines include:

Alta Vista	www.altavista.com
Excite	www.excite.com
Google	www.google.com
Alltheweb	www.alltheweb.com
Ixquick	www.ixquick.com
Saving useful web pages to your computer can often be advantageous, including being able to view them later without having to be connected to the internet. You can save them either as complete web pages, or as text files as shown in the following Activities: Saving a Web Page You are now going to locate a Web page containing information about Computer Viruses, then you will save it. Open your browser application. Enter the URL of a Search Engine of your choice into the address bar and press the Return key. Key the following into its Search bar: computers + viruses From the results which your Search Engine has found, browse through the links until you find a suitable page that you would like to save. With the page displayed, open your browser's File Menu and select Save As... to open the Save Web Page dialogue box.

With the Save Web Page dialogue box now displayed, do the following:

• Select Save in: to choose the Location, where you wish your file to be stored. • Key in a File Name, or use the default. • Select Save as type: Web Page Complete (*.htm *.html) • Click Save

Exit your Web Browser application.File Type Save as... options explained: Web Page, complete (*.html) - Saves files separately. Web Archive, single file (*.mht) - Combines all files. Web Page, HTML (*.html) - Saves only the HTML. Text File (*.txt) - Saves only the text of the page.

When printing a web page, you can choose to print a few lines; one or more pages; a single frame; or even a list of links from your selected page.

Printing a Web Page

In this Activity, you are going to print a 'hard copy' of a crossword from the Web site of The Herald newpaper.

	Open your browser application.
	Enter www.theherald.co.uk into the address bar.
	Or from the Logintolearn site follow: Useful Links > Current Affairs > National Newspapers > The Herald
	On The Herald's home page, click on the link Crosswords.
	On the page which appears, click on the Printable link. (Note: The 'Interactive' alternative)
	With the Crossword displayed on your screen, Press the Print icon on the browser Toolbar.
	When you are ready, close the site and exit your browser.

You can also use a Search Engine to search for pictures or images.

Searching for Pictures using Google

In this Activity, you are going to search for pictures of Sydney Opera House and from the musical 'Cats'. You will receive fewer, but more accurate 'hits' by using a phrased search.

	Open your browser application.
	Enter www.google.com into the address bar.
	Select the Images tab.
	Enter the following phrase into the search bar and press Google Search.
	"sydney opera house"
	In the Results window, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to display further details.

Searching for Pictures using Google

	Return to the Search Bar, Delete the previous entry and key in the following:
	"cats" + musical
	In the Results window, Click on an image to enlarge it and to obtain the image details.
	Now try conducting an image search of your own: a favourite football team; musical; film star or pop group perhaps - the choice is endless!
	When you are ready, exit your browser.

Now that you are familiar with using a Web Browser and searching for information, the following Activities will introduce you to some of the other features made possible by the World Wide Web.

These include: Sending or receiving information by using On-line or Interactive forms; On-line Shopping and On-line Learning.

On-line Forms: Rail Journey

A number of Web sites allow you to request or provide specific information by using on-line interactive forms. These forms usually include a series of blank boxes, known as 'fields' into which you type information. Often there can be buttons and check boxes to enable you to make selections. Once the form is complete you press a Submit button for your information to be sent.

In this Activity, imagine that you wish to travel by rail to London tomorrow morning, leaving from Glasgow at around 10.00am and returning a week later leaving London around 2.00pm.

	Open your browser application.
	Enter www.networkrail.co.uk into the address bar.
	Select the Timetables link.
	The National Rail Enquiries Web site should appear on screen.
	Press the Maximise  button to enlarge the window if required.
	Key in the details as outlined.
	Click Get train times and your Timetable result should shortly appear on screen.
	Press the View details button to see the detailed options available for your proposed journey.
	Print the details of your journey by clicking on the Print this page link, then click Print when your Print Dialogue Box appears.
	Now, Click onto the New Journey link and request some details about a journey of your choice to any rail destination in the UK.
	When you are ready, close the site and exit your browser.

Shopping on the Internet is a bit like having a huge mail order catalogue with an overwhelming amount of goods that can be purchased online.

In the first Activity, you are going to visit the Yahoo shopping directory to introduce you to some of the shopping sites available in the UK. The second Activity will provide you with an opportunity to browse and order online.

Shopping using Yahoo

	Open your browser application.
	Enter www.yahoo.co.uk into the address bar.
	Note: We are using .co.uk to allow us to search suppliers in the UK.
	Click on the Shopping link as shown to display the Shopping page.
	In the Search bar key in laptops then press the Search button.
	The search will produce a list of products in various stores.
	Note: There is a useful option to narrow your search according to price range.
	If laptop computers are of interest to you, try opening some of the links from the list of results.
	Click onto the link Shopping Home to return to the Yahoo Shopping Home Page
	With the Shopping Home Page displayed, scroll down to the directory and browse around the categories displayed. Open any of the links that are of interest to you.
	To find out more about On-line Shopping, open the User Resources links.
	When you are ready, close down any sites and exit your browser.

Using Electronic Mail (E-mail)

This section will introduce you to E-mail, one of the most widely used facilities of the Internet, and guide you through composing, sending and receiving mail.

You will learn how to set-up your own e-mail account using the popular web-based e-mail provider Yahoo. This will enable you to use e-mail on any computer with Internet access.

Information will also be provided on Microsoft Outlook Express, which is widely used by those who have access to a computer at home.

Electronic mail, or E-mail as it is more widely known, is a method of sending messages from one computer to another.

It has revolutionised communication in workplaces and homes throughout the world, enabling individuals, organisations and businesses to send messages to any recipient's E-mail Address.

What are the advantages of e-mail?

• It's fast - Messages can be sent anywhere in an instant
• It's cheap - Transmission can cost nothing or very little
• It's simple - Easy to use, after initial set-up
• It's efficient - Sending to a group can be done in one action.
• It's versatile - Pictures or other files can be sent too

Are there any disadvantages?

The very convenience of e-mail can make it easy for unscrupulous businesses to send you unsolicited messages (commonly known as 'Spam'). It's the electronic equivalent of the 'junk mail' you receive through your letterbox, except in this case it may also contain messages which are offensive or distasteful to some.

Spam is best avoided, by revealing your e-mail address only to carefully chosen recipients. And never respond to any of it, as the unscrupulous businesses will just take it as confirmation that your e-mail address is 'live' and likely subject you to even more!

Virus Alert and Tips to Avoid Infection

Computer viruses are frequently and rapidly spread by users unwittingly opening infected e-mail attachments. A malicious program may then send the rogue attachment to every address in your e-mail program's address book and so on.

Always be Vigilant

To avoid contamination do not open attachments unless you are expecting them and they come from a recognised sender. Always ensure you use anti-virus software that is updated on a regular basis to help minimise the risk of contamination.

Web-based e-mail requires you to be connected to the Internet whilst managing your mail, as well as for sending or receiving. The advantages include: being free to set-up; and being able to access your emails from any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet - whether it's from a friend's house; an Internet Café; an airport; hotel, or public library. There are many web-based e-mail providers including: Yahoo www.yahoo.com gMail www.mail.google.com rediff www.rediff.com

Creating a GMAIL Account

Before you start your employment searches you may want to load some free tools onto your computer. The reason for this is to stress to you that there are ple

Get a Free Gmail Account

Go to Google and create a Gmail account. These accounts will really be helpful to you for your job or career search.

They have great built in Spam protection.

GMAIL Sign up Form

Click to Sign up for Gmail. You will need a secondary email to complete your application.

Filling in the Gmail Registration Form

You may have to keep choosing a username or email address until you find one that is available.

Choose your Gmail Password

1. Choose a password, while watching the password strength to make sure your account stays secure.
2. Re-enter your password.
3. Choose a Security question. This is used in case you forget your password and need it reset. Write this down.
4. Put your Security question answer here. Write it down.
5. Here is where you put your secondary email. This is an email that Gmail can mail should you forget your password.

The completed Gmail Form

This is the Gmail application form completed. You then click the "I accept. Create my account" button.

Welcome to Gmail

After reviewing the screen and some of the valuable tools you receive with Gmail, you would then click that you are ready.

The Gmail Dashboard

For now we are done. We will add some other features that you will need to be changing later.

Since you are here also sign up for a Google Reader account. This will be important in our strategy to help us with our Career and Job searches.

Welcome to the Google Reader

Now that you are signed up to the Google Reader you do not need to do anything else here. This will be used later for RSS feeds. Do not worry that you do not know what they are, we will be learning about them shortly.

1 Introduction

Just as the Internet has changed the way Canadians buy music, organize vacations, and research school projects, it has also affected how they interact socially. Through the use of social media, people can exchange photos and videos, post their thoughts on blogs, and participate in discussions hosted by online forums. Social media also allow individuals, companies, organizations, governments, and parliamentarians to reach large numbers of people.

2 What are Social Media?

The term “social media” refers to the wide range of Internet-based and mobile services that allow users to participate in online exchanges, contribute user-created content, or join online communities. A related term is “Web 2.0,” which Industry Canada defines as referring collectively “to many websites, tools and technologies that enable online interactivity, networking, sharing and collaboration.”1

The kinds of Internet services commonly associated with social media include the following:

• Blogs. Short for “web log,” a blog is an online journal in which pages are usually displayed in reverse chronological order.2 Blogs can be hosted for free on websites such as WordPress and Blogger.3
• Wikis. A wiki is “a collective website where any participant is allowed to modify any page or create a new page using her Web browser.”4 One well-known example is Wikipedia,5 a free online encyclopedia that makes use of wiki technology
• Social bookmarking. Social bookmarking sites allow users to organize and share links to websites. Examples include Delicious, Digg, and reddit.6
• Social network sites. These have been defined as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.”7 Among the most popular in Canada are Facebook, MySpace and Windows Live Spaces.8
• Status-update services. Also known as microblogging services, status-update services such as Twitter9 allow people to share short updates about themselves and to see updates about others.10
• Virtual world content. These sites offer game-like virtual environments in which users interact. One example is the imaginary world constructed in Second Life,11 in which users create avatars (a virtual representation of the user) that interact with others.12
• Media-sharing sites. These sites allow users to post videos or photographs. Popular examples include YouTube and Flickr.13

These categories overlap to some degree. Twitter, for example, is a social network site as well as a status-update service. Likewise, users of the social network sites Facebook and MySpace can share photographs, and users of the media-sharing site Flickr can create lists of contacts.

3 The Evolution of Social Media

In the late 1990s, as broadband14 Internet became more popular, websites that allowed users to create and upload content began to appear.15 The first social network site (SixDegrees.com) appeared in 1997. From 2002 onward, a large number of social network sites were launched. Some – such as Friendster – enjoyed a surge of popularity, only to fade. Others developed niche communities: MySpace, for example, appealed to teenaged music aficionados.16

By the late 2000s, social media had gained widespread acceptance. For example, in December 2009 Facebook announced it had over 350 million users worldwide,17 of which at least 12 million were in Canada.18 That same month, survey findings indicated that four out of five Canadians who used the Internet were also using social media, and that 57% participated in these media at least once a month, making Canadians the most active social media users in the world.19

Online social networks facilitate connections between people based on shared interests, values, membership in particular groups (i.e., friends, professional colleagues), etc. They make it easier for people to find and communicate with individuals who are in their networks using the Web as the interface.

By some definitions, just about all Web 2.0 tools are a form of social networking, but for this module we’re going to focus on “ego-centric” social networks, those that are focused on individuals, as opposed to networks that build up around objects, such as Delicious, Flickr, Slideshare, etc. (Note you can learn more about the concept of ego-centric vs object-centric networks here ).

There are several different online social networks, but for our purposes, we’ll focus on the three that tend to be used the most by learning professionals–Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning. Each of these networks has its own unique style, functionality and patterns of usage. You will also find that different people are active in these different networks.

LinkedIn is primarily a professional network, designed to facilitate linkages between people who are wanting to connect for work-related purposes. It is more “buttoned-down” than Facebook with a more formal culture of relationships and connections. It is also the network of choice for most professionals.

Because LinkedIn is designed for professional networking, there’s a greater emphasis on building a reputation and connecting to employment and business opportunities. LinkedIn Questions and Answers is a way for people to ask questions and receive expert advice. Answers can be rated and people who do this well can improve their LinkedIn reputation. There are also employment listings and an ability to receive recommendations from your connections that then become part of your profile. You can also create and join groups.

Facebook was originally developed for college students to connect, so it has a more informal, social air than you find on LinkedIn. Now open to anyone, you will still find that Facebook is the preferred network for Millenials who see the encroachment of Boomers and, to a lesser extent, Gen X into the network as cause for some alarm.

Facebook combines the personal and the professional. Members can play games, join groups, share photos, and send each other virtual “gifts.” This is the network where you’re most likely to see both pictures of someone’s weekend activities, as well as a link to their online portfolio or professional website. Many companies are using Facebook as a recruitment tool for Gen Y, while college and university professors are exploring it’s use for their classes.

Ning is what’s referred to as a “white label” network–anyone can use the Ning platform to create their own social network related to a particular topic or area of interest. We are operating this class on the Ning platform  As a learning professional, you will want to think of Ning in two ways. First, there are a number of Ning networks related to various topics of interest to learning professionals that you could join. In addition, because Ning allows you to create your own network from scratch, you can also use it to facilitate learning events or activities. Therefore Ning offers opportunities for you to be both a joiner/collector and a creator.

One great advantage of Ning for learning is that it allows you set up your own private space that can only be accessed by members. It also offers great functionality, including allowing members to write blogs and engage in forum discussions.

A short message on owning your data

Open source gives you something extra though, and that is the ability to take the whole application, source code and all, and move it or even modify it. For instance, this website is on WordPress, an open source blogging platform. If I am not satisfied with my host, I can take the whole application and set it up somewhere else. I cannot do that with Gmail or Skype or Ning. Therefore, I own my data and the application that makes my data available to my readers. With almost 2,000 posts on this blog, these data are becoming quite important to me as my knowledge base. The decision to use an OS system as well as an OS database gives me a certain amount of flexibility, evidenced by my switch from Drupal to WordPress. My only costs were labour. I could not have taken my data out of a proprietary system (like Ning) as easily.

Common Features of Social Networks

The ability to create a Profile page–this is your main “home” on the network. Different networks offer varying abilities to personalize your page in terms of look and feel. They may also differ in terms of the types of information you would include, such as name, location, education, etc. Facebook, for example, asks for your relationship status (because it’s more “social”), while on LinkedIn, which is primarily for professional use, does not.

A way to find and link to “friends” or connections–The purpose of a network is connections, so facilitating a members’ ability to find and connect to other people is important. Each network offers different types of search capabilities and once you’ve located a potential friend, you must send an “invitation” to invite them into your personal network.

Privacy Controls–In most networks, your ability to access more detailed information about a person is based on their status as one of your connections; “friends” can see much more information than those who are not your “friends.” You can control who is actually in your personal network by effectively managing who you invite into your network and whose invitations you accept.

The ability to send public and private messages–In Ning and Facebook, you can communicate with your connections either by sending a private message or “writing on their wall.” On LinkedIn, you communicate via person-to-person messages. Ning also provides Forums where members can interact with one another on specific topics (you’re reading this in one of the Ning forums).

Ability to share various digital objects and information–Both Ning and Facebook allow members to share various online items, including photos, videos and RSS feeds. LinkedIn offers some ability to share links, although it’s multimedia capacities are nothing like what you find on Facebook or Ning.

Creating a blog might seem like a daunting task, and you might not know where to begin. Truth be told, it's very easy to create a blog (for free), and you can do it in under an hour by following these four simple steps. What are you waiting for? Join the blogosphere today!

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Less Than 30 Minutes

Here's How:

1. Step 1: Choose a free blogging software.

Read these articles from About.com Web Logs to help you choose the best blogging software for you:

2. Step 2: Register for an account and create your blog

These articles from About.com Web Logs provide step-by-step instructions to help you start a blog with either of the two most popular free blogging softwares - Blogger.com and Wordpress.com.

3. Step 3: Select Your Domain, Theme and Other Options.

During the registration process for your new blog account, you'll need to choose a domain name and blog theme. You also might want to take a few minutes before you actually start blogging to customize some of the other preferences for your blog that your blogging software allows you to modify such as the author name, comment moderation process, and so on. However, you're not required to do any customization before you start publishing blog posts.

4. Step 4: Start blogging.

Once you've completed steps 1-3, you're ready to join the blogosphere and start publishing content on your blog. There are many more ways you can customize your blog with plug-ins, feeds, blogrolls, and more, but these four easy steps are all you need to follow in order to start a simple blog.

Scanners

A scanner is an electronic device that scans printed or handwritten text documents, images, or a particular object to convert them into a digital file format. Most of the scanners use CCD, (charge-coupled device) or CIS, (Contact Image Sensor) as the image sensors. The common types of scanners we see today are flatbed scanners, handheld scanners, sheetfed scanners, etc.

Flatbed Scanners

Flatbed scanners will take up some desktop space but provide a lot of bang for the buck. They look like miniature printers with a flip-up cover protecting the glass platen. Depending on its size, a flatbed scanner can fit standard or legal-sized documents, and the flexible cover allows you to scan large items such as books. These scanners are great for scanning the occasional newspaper article, book chapter, or photograph; or for those who may need to scan or bulky items such as the cover of a DVD. Flatbed scanners are often built into multifunction printers (MFPs). You can find a decent flatbed scanner for $100 or less.

Photo Scanners

Scanning documents doesn’t require high resolution or color depth; but scanning photos does. Many all-purpose scanners can also scan photos, meaning that you don’t need a separate device to handle your photographs. But if you need a scanner primarily to digitize film negatives or slides, a photo scanner is a better deal (even if it is considerably more expensive than an all-purpose scanner). Photo scanners include specialized technology so that they can deal with slides and negatives; they also have built-in software to clean up old photos. Decent photo scanners will start at about $130 (and go way up from there). Here are my Top Picks.

Sheetfed Scanners

Sheetfed scanners are smaller than flatbed scanners; as the name implies, you feed a document or photo into the scanner rather than place it on top. You’ll win back some of that desktop space with a sheetfed scanner but you may sacrifice some resolution in the process. If you’re only scanning documents, however, it may be a worthwhile trade, especially if you’ve got a lot of them since you can feed them in bunches. With a flatbed scanner, you’ll have to scan one page at a time (unless it comes with an automatic document feeder). Sheetfed scanners start around $300.

Portable Scanners

Portable scanners are small enough to bring on the road. In fact, some are small enough to put in your pocket; pen scanners are just a bit bigger than fountain pens and can scan the text of a document line by line. Some are as wide as a page and roll easily down the page. They’re not going to give high-resolution scans and so aren’t good for scanning photographs or other applications where you need a high-quality result. Since they’re not cheaper than flatbed scanners, they’re probably only useful if you are a student, a researcher, or a spy. Figure on spending about $150 for one.

Scan a picture

Using Windows‌ Photo Gallery, you can scan, edit, and organize pictures. The scanned pictures are automatically stored in your Pictures folder, just like pictures that you might import from a camera.

You can also use Windows Fax and Scan to scan documents and pictures, and to fax or e‑mail scanned documents. For more information about using Windows Fax and Scan, which is only available on some versions of Windows, see Help and Support. To see how to scan and manage a picture by using another program, check the Help for that program.

To scan a picture using Windows Photo Gallery

Before you begin, make sure that you've installed your scanner on the computer and that the scanner is turned on.

1.      Open Windows Photo Gallery by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Photo Gallery.

2.      Click File, and then click Import from Camera or Scanner.

3.      In the Import Pictures and Videos window, click the scanner that you want to use, and then click Import.

4.      In the New Scan dialog box, click the Profile list, and then click Photo. The default settings for scanning a picture are automatically displayed.

5.      If you're using a scanner with a document feeder, click the Paper size list, and then click the size of the picture that you've placed on the scanner or click the size that most closely matches the picture.

6.      Click the Color format list, and then click the color format that you want the scanned file to display.

7.      Click the File type list, and then click the file type that you want to use to save the scanned file.

8.      Click the Resolution (DPI) list, and then click the resolution, in dots per inch, that you want to use.

9.      Adjust the brightness and contrast settings or type the values that you want to use.

10.  To see how the picture will appear when it is scanned, click Preview. If needed, modify the scan settings, and then preview the picture again. Repeat these steps until you're satisfied with the preview results. Some scanners might require you to place the picture in the document feeder each time that you scan.

11.  Click Scan. When the scan is complete, Windows Photo Gallery prompts you to tag the picture so that it's easier to organize or find later.

12.  In the Tag these pictures (optional) list, type a tag name, and then click Import. Windows Photo Gallery displays the picture so you can view, fix, or organize it.

Scan photos for e-mail and Web

Photos viewed only on a computer screen will look fine when scanned at lower resolutions.

Your pictures are meant to be shared. And scanning let's you share any photo easily. To ensure that your photo is easy to view in e-mail (and doesn't take forever to download), follow these guidelines:

• Choose a lower ppi (scanning resolution of 75 or 100 ppi) for images that you'll send via e-mail or post online.
• JPEGs are just fine for images you'll share via e-mail or online.

How to scan photos to e-mail

If you press the Scan button and the HP scanning software doesn’t open on your computer, make sure you have installed the software.

Most HP All-in-Ones and scanners, like the HP Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner, allow you to scan your photos directly to e-mail in a few short steps:

1. Place the original face down on the scanner glass.
2. Press the Scan button on your scanner. The HP scanning software will automatically open on your computer.
3. In the Scanning from… window that appears, select Picture to E-mail. Then click Scan.
4. In the next window, enter a destination e-mail address, subject, and message. Click OK.

That’s it! An e-mail with the attached scanned photo has been sent.

What is a Printer?

A printer is an electromechanical device which converts the text and graphical documents from electronic form to the physical form. Generally they are the external peripheral devices which are connected with the computers or laptops through a cable or wirelessly to receive input data and print them on the papers. A wide range of printers are available with a variety of features ranging from printing black and white text documents to high quality colored graphic images.

Quality of printers is identified by its features like color quality, speed of printing, resolution etc. Modern printers come with multipurpose functions i.e. they are combination of printer, scanner, photocopier, fax, etc. To serve different needs there are variety of printers available that works on different types of technologies.

Types of Printers

Since the invention of the printing technology, a variety of technologies have been employed in computer printers. Broadly printers are categorized as impact and non impact printers. Impact printers are the type of printers in which a key strikes the paper to make a letter. The examples of Impact printers are Daisy wheel and Dot matrix printers. While non-impact printers do not operate by striking a head against a ribbon. Inkjet printers and laser printers are the non-impact printers. The most popular printers are described.

2.      Dot Matrix Printers

It is a popular computer printer that prints text and graphics on the paper by using tiny dots to form the desired shapes. It uses an array of metal pins known as printhead to strike an inked printer ribbon and produce dots on the paper. These combinations of dots form the desired shape on the paper. Generally they print with a speed of 50 to 500 characters per second as per the quality of the printing is desired. The quality of print is determined by the number of pins used (varying from 9 to 24).

The key component in the dot matrix printer is the ‘printhead’ which is about one inch long and contains a number of tiny pins aligned in a column varying from 9 to 24. The printhead is driven by several hammers which force each pin to make contact with the paper at the certain time. These hammers are pulled by small electromagnet (also called solenoids) which is energized at a specific time depending on the character to be printed. The timings of the signals sent to the solenoids are programmed in the printer for each character.

The printer receives the data from the computer and translates it to identify which character is to be printed and the print head runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints the dots on the paper.

3.      Inkjet printers

Inkjet printers are most popular printers for home and small scale offices as they have a reasonable cost and a good quality of printing as well. A typical inkjet printer can print with a resolution of more than 300 dpi and some good quality inkjet printers are able to produce full colored hard copies at 600 dpi.

An inkjet printer is made of the following parts:

·         Printhead – It is the heart of the printer which holds a series a nozzles which sprays the ink drops over the paper.

·         Ink cartridge – It is the part that contains the ink for printing. Generally monochrome (black & white) printers contain a black colored ink cartridges and a color printer contains two cartridges – one with black ink and other with primary colors (cyan, magenta and yellow).

·         Stepper motor – It is housed in the printer to move the printerhead and ink cartridges back and forth across the paper.

.       Stabilizer bar – A stabilizer bar is used in printer to ensure the movement of printhead is précised and controlled over the paper.

.      Belt – A belt is used to attach the printhead with the stepper motor.

.      Paper Tray – It is the place where papers are placed to be printed.

.      Rollers – Printers have a set of rollers that helps to pull paper from the tray for printing purpose.

.      Paper tray stepper motor- another stepper motor is used to rotate the rollers in order to pull the paper in the printer.

.    Control Circuitry – The control circuit takes the input from the computer and by decoding the input controls all mechanical operation of the printer.

Similar to other printers, inkjet printers have a ‘printhead’ as a key element. The printhead has many tiny nozzles also called as jets. When the printer receives the command to print something, the printhead starts spraying ink over the paper to form the characters and images.  There are mainly two technologies that are used to spray the ink by nozzles. These are:

·         Thermal Bubble – This technology is also known as bubble jet is used by various manufacturers like Canon and Hewlett Packard. When printer receives commands to print something, the current flows through a set of tiny resistors and they produce heat. This heat in turn vaporizes the ink to create a bubble. As the bubble expands, some of the ink moves out of the nozzle and gets deposited over the paper. Then the bubble collapses and due to the vacuum it pulls more ink from ink cartridge. There are generally 300 to 600 nozzles in a thermal printer head which can spray the ink simultaneously.

·         Piezoelectric – In the piezoelectric technology, a piezo crystal is situated at the end of the ink reservoir of a nozzle. When printer receives the command to print, an electric charge is applied to the crystal which in turn starts vibrating and a small amount of ink is pushed out of the nozzle. When the vibration stops the nozzle pulls some more ink from the cartridge to replace the ink sprayed out. This technology is patented by Seiko Epson Corporation. 

An inkjet printer can print 100 to several hundred papers depending on the nature of the hard copy before the ink cartridge need to be replaced.

4.      Laser Printers 

Laser printers are the most popular printers that are mainly used for large scale qualitative printing. They are among the most popularly used fastest printers available in the market. A laser printer uses a slight different approach for printing. It does not use ink like inkjet printers, instead it uses a very fine powder known as ‘Toner’. Componetns of a laser printer is shown in the following image:

The control circuitry is the part of the printer that talks with the computer and receives the printing data. A Raster Image Processor (RIP) converts the text and images in to a virtual matrix of dots. The photoconducting drum which is the key component of the laser printer has a special coating which receives the positive and negative charge from a charging roller. A rapidly switching laser beam scans the charged drum line by line. When the beam flashes on, it reverses the charge of tiny spots on the drum, respecting to the dots that are to be printed black. As soon the laser scans a line, a stepper motor moves the drum in order to scan the next line by the laser.

A developer roller plays the vital role to paste the tonner on the paper. It is coated with charged tonner particles. As the drum touches the developer roller, the charged tonner particles cling to the discharged areas of the drum, reproducing your images and text reversely.  Meanwhile a paper is drawn from the paper tray with help of a belt. As the paper passes through a charging wire it applies a charge on it opposite to the toner’s charge. When the paper meets the drum, due to the opposite charge between the paper and toner particles, the toner particles are transferred to the paper. A cleaning blade then cleans the drum and the whole process runs smoothly continuously. Finally paper passes through the fuser which is a heat and presser roller, melts the toner and fixes on the paper perfectly.

Monochrome v/s Color Printers 

Color printers work on the same concept of monochrome printers. They use four color toners (ink cartridges in case of inkjet printers) instead of one black colored toner in the black and white printers. Typically the colors are –Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black that are used to print in full color. There are four different drums and each drum is associated with the separate color toner. When printer receives the printing data, the paper is charged corresponding to the different color drums. The paper passes through each drum and the corresponding color toner particles gets stuck on the paper. As the paper passes through all four drums, the desired colored shape gets printed on the paper. Since the paper passes through four drums, color printers are four times slower than the monochrome printers and several times expensive.

Printing in Excel is a bit different than printing in some other programs, such as a word processor. One of the main differences is that Excel has five locations in the program that contain print-related options.

The first, the Print button, is located on the standard toolbar. The other four of these are listed under the File menu:

• Print Preview
• Page Setup
• Print Area
• Print

·         Excel Printing using the Print button

·         If you want to quickly print out the worksheet that is open in the Excel screen, you can do so by using the Print button on the standard toolbar. Clicking on this button sends the active worksheet directly to the printer, using the current print settings.

·         Use this button when you want to print a single copy of a workbook. Just realize that, unless you have previously set a Print Area, you are going to get all the sheets in the workbook that contains data, not just the sheet that is on the screen.

Excel Printing Using Print Preview

Before printing all or part or an Excel spreadsheet, it might be a good idea to have a look at what is going to get printed – just in case it’s not what you expect – or really want. Print Preview displays the current worksheet in the preview window. It shows you how the worksheet will look when it is printed.

Print preview toolbar

Some of the more commonly used options on this toolbar are:

• Next and Previous buttons – Show you all the pages that will be printed.
• Zoom – Allows you to zoom in on specific parts of the worksheet.
• Setup – Opens the Page Setup dialog box,
• Print – Opens the Print dialog box.

Printing in Excel - Using the Page Setup Dialog Box

The page tab in the Page Setup Dialog Box has three areas of printing options.

1. Orientation – Allows you to print sheets sideways (Landscape view). Very useful for spreadsheets that are just a bit too wide to print using the default portrait view.
2. Scaling – Allows you to adjust the size of the worksheet you are printing. Most often used for shrinking an Excel worksheet to fit on fewer sheets or magnifying a small worksheet to make it easier to read.
3. Paper Size and Print Quality
• Paper size – is adjusted most often to accommodate larger worksheets such as changing from the default letter size (8 ½ X 11 inches) to legal size (8 ½ X 14 inches).
• Print quality – has to do with the number of dots per inch (dpi) of ink that are used in printing a page. The higher the dpi number, the higher the quality the print job will be.

The Sheet Tab of the Page Setup Dialog Box has four areas of printing options.

1. Print Area – Select a range of cells on the spreadsheet to print. Very useful if you are interested only in printing a small section of the worksheet.
2. Print Titles – Used for printing certain rows and columns on every page - usually headings or titles.
3. Print- The most commonly used options are -
• Draft quality – Prints a quick, low quality draft copy.
• Gridlines – For printing the worksheet gridlines – making it easier to read data on larger worksheets.
• Row and column headings – Prints the row numbers and the column letters down the side and across the top of a each worksheet.

4. Page order – Changes the order for printing pages on a multiple page spreadsheet. Normally Excel prints down the worksheet. If you change the option, it will print across.

Excel Printing - Setting and Clearing a Print Area

By default, Excel prints the entire worksheet. One way to stop this is to set a print area, which specifies the exact range of cells to print.

To set a print area –

1. Drag select the group of cells you want included in the print range.
2. Choose File > Print Area > Set Print Area from the menu.
3. Choose File > Print Preview from the menu to check that the print area is set correctly.

To remove a print area -

1. Choose File > Print Area > Clear Print Area from the menu.
2. Choose File > Print Preview from the menu to check that the print area has been cleared.

Excel Printing - The Print dialog box

The four main option areas in the Print dialog box are:

1. Printer – Allows you to choose which printer to print from. To change printers, click on the down arrow at the end of the printer name line in the dialog box and chose from the printers listed in the drop down menu.
2. Print range
• All – The default setting – refers only to pages in the workbook containing data.
• Pages – List the start and end page numbers for those pages to be printed.
3. Print what?
• Active Sheet – The default setting - prints the worksheet page that was on screen when the Print dialog box was opened.
• Selection – Prints a selected range on the active worksheet.
• Workbook – Prints pages in the workbook containing data.
4. Copies
• Number of copies – Set the number of copies to be printed.
• Collate – If printing more than one copy of a multi page workbook, you can choose to print copies in sequential order.