Think of your browser as your window to the world. Almost everything you do on the Internet will revolve around the browser. It is the software program you need to graphically access the World Wide Web. The easy-to-use point-and-click browser, developed in the early 1990s, helped popularize the Web, although few imagined the incredible growth it would spur.
Although many different browsers are available, the two most popular ones are Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape's Navigator. Both companies' browsers are based on the first browser, Mosaic, developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. For a few years, Netscape dominated the browser world. Now Microsoft's browser thoroughly dominates the market. Both Microsoft and Netscape (now owned by AOL) have put so much money into the browser battle, few other companies want to compete. The intense, costly battle has prompted steady improvements to the browsers. Both companies provide free versions and if you have one, you should definitely check out the other as each has different features. There are differences between the Mac and Windows versions. In general though, they are similar and easy to learn. Microsoft and Netscape both offer help menus on their respective websites.
Browsers consume a lot of disk space, especially if you choose to load all the added accessories. They also use a lot of RAM and require a reasonably fast processor. PC users need at least a 486- speed processor with 16MB of RAM to get Internet Explorer to function under Windows 95, 98 and 3.x and even more under Windows NT, 2000, ME and XP. The Netscape browser is comparable. A third browser, called Opera, from a Norwegian company, was designed to be slim but extremely usable and has a version designed for cell phones and other mobile devices.
The first page that automatically loads onto your screen when you start your browser is the home page or start page and it is set to a default page by the manufacturer. This will be the page that will automatically open each time you start the application, so you may want to change it to a page you want to see every day (for example, your favorite website) or even set it to open to a blank page to begin with so you do not have to wait for a page to load before you can point your browser to your destination. To customize this, click on the "Tools" Internet options button on Explorer, or click on "Edit and Preferences" on Netscape and indicate which, if any, URL you would like it to open first.
At the top of both browsers, in the part known as the toolbar, there are several buttons designed to help you navigate your way around the Web. "Back" and "Forward" allow you to toggle between pages you have already looked at in the current session. "Home" takes you to the page you have designated as the start page (see the above question and answer). "Stop" will stop a page from continuing to download, and "Print" is a shortcut to send a page to your printer.
Two very important buttons are "Reload" and "Refresh" because when you download a web page, sometimes all of the elements of a page do not load the first time. When a page loads onto your screen, the data is cached (pronounced "cashed") - meaning it is temporarily stored in your computer's memory. The next time you go to that same exact page, your browser pulls it from its cache memory so that the page will load more quickly since you already have the text and image files sitting on your hard drive. The problem is that if it is a page that changes frequently, a news page for example, you will not get the most current information until you hit the reload button, which tells your computer to go and get the most recent page. Caching is also how other people (like your information technology department at the office) can see information you looked at on your computer.
If you find you do not like the caching feature, you can turn caching off, or change the rules of how your computer caches. In IE (Internet Explorer) go to "Tools," then "Internet Options" and click on the "General" tab. Go to the part called "Temporary Internet Files" and click the "Settings" button. Here you can tell it when you would like the computer to check for a new version (refresh) of a page. In Navigator go to "Edit," then "Preferences," and click on "Advanced," then "Cache." Here you will see an area for editing your caching preferences.
Both IE and Netscape have buttons that allow you to connect to directories and search tools on their websites. Do not do it. You will get limited versions of those search tools. Instead go to the dedicated search engines and directories as they will provide you with more options for searching.
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