ACCESSING THE INTERNET FROM THE KEYBOARD BY JOHN WILSON Volume 1 Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS (To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 6" to find that section. Include the greater than sign (>( immediately prior to the words Section 6, so that you will only stop on that main heading instead of any earlier reference to that section. The > sign is found on the capitalised full stop. Type the string "internet service provider details" or type the specific paragraph number of "12.3." to find that subheading. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.) Foreword and Restrictions Available Manual Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Reading of this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction 1.1. What is the Internet and How do Visually Impaired People Access it? 1.2. General and Specific Talking Screenreaders for Web Browsing 1.2.1. JAWS for Browsing the Internet 1.2.2. Window-Eyes for Browsing the Internet 1.2.3. HAL for Browsing the Internet 1.2.4. PWwebspeak for Browsing the Internet 1.2.5. Wemedia for Browsing the Internet 1.2.6. Home Page Reader for Browsing the Internet 1.2.7. Webbie for Browsing the Internet 1.3. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys 1.3.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 1.3.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 1.3.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 1.3.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts 1.4. More Advanced Surfing 1.5. Free Virus-Checkers, Firewalls, Spyware and Spam removers 1.5.1. AVG Free Edition Versions 6 and 7 1.5.2. Sygate, Zone Alarm and Windows XP Free Firewalls 1.5.3. Ad-Aware Free Spyware Remover Version 6 1.5.4. Mail Washer Free Spam Remover 1.5.5. Spybot Search&Destroy Section 2: Helpful Tips and Customisation for Visually Impaired Users 2.1. Eighteen Configuration, Customisation and other Helpful Tips Section 3: Using the Internet via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 3.1. Types of ISPs 3.2. What you need to Get connected with a Standard or BroadBand MODEM 3.3. Getting Your Windows PC Set Up for a PPP Connection 3.4. Connecting to Your ISP 3.5. Making Changes to or creating a new Internet Connection 3.6. Solid Step-by-Step Example of Subscribing to a Pay-As-You-Go ISP Service and Creating a Desktop Shortcut to it--The UK2 ISP Service 3.7. List of UK Dial-Up Services (non-broadband) 3.8. List of UK Broadband Providers 3.9. Broadband Over the Mains Provider 3.10. Changing Your Broadband Provider Section 4: Internet Explorer Versions 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 4.1. Internet Protocols, Server Names and File Paths 4.2. Launching Internet Explorer 4.2.1. Launching Internet Explorer from its Executable File on Your Hard Disk 4.2.2. Creating a Shortcut and Launching Internet Explorer from It 4.2.3. Other Methods of Launching Internet Explorer 4.2.4. Starting Internet Explorer with a Blank Page or Starting it with a Specific Home Page Automatically Loading 4.3. Internet Explorer Temp File Cache Size 4.4. What are Web Pages and How are They Read 4.5. Reading Web Pages Offline 4.6. E-Mail Links on a Web Page 4.7. The Internet Explorer Favourites Folder 4.7.1. Using the Favourites Folder and Adding More Favourites to It 4.7.2. Viewing the Contents of Your Favourites Folder 4.7.3. Creating Folders and Sub-Folders within Favourites 4.7.4. Organising, Deleting, renaming, Printing Out and making other Modifications to favourites 4.7.5. Saving and Exporting a copy of Your Favourites Folder and of Your Cookies for Safe Keeping or for Use on Another Computer 4.8. Saving a Page or Opened file in Internet Explorer 4.9. Downloading a File from the Net or Opening it Online 4.10. Doing Two Things at Once in Internet Explorer 4.11. Sending a Copy of a Web Page or Link to Someone Else 4.12. Setting Privacy Levels and Obtaining a Report of a Website's Privacy Policy 4.12.1. Setting Privacy Levels 4.12.2. Obtaining a Privacy Report of the Current Site 4.13. Manually Completing Forms 4.14. Roboform Automatic Forms Completion Software 4.15. Quick and Easy Web Access with Microsoft Powertoys 4.16. VIPS Accessability Gateway 4.17. Testing the Accessability of a Website 4.18. Quick Commands Context Menu for a Link 4.19. Turning On or Off Automatic Disconnection to Your ISP 4.20. Ensuring that Your Online Transaction Details are Not Automatically Saved to Disk 4.21. Viewing the History List of Already Visited Web Pages and their Contents 4.22. The Internet Explorer Help System Section 5: Taster Sites to Find Files and Programs 5.1. Website Walk-Through Example Section 6: Web Search Engines 6.1. Starting a Search Engine 6.2. Standard search Engines 6.2.1. Yahoo! 6.2.2. Altavista 6.2.3. Raging 6.2.4. Ask Jeeves 6.2.5. MSN Search 6.2.6. CD Wizard 6.2.7. UK-Based Specific Search Facilities 6.2.8. Accessible Result Specialist Search Engine 6.2.9. UK Traders and Shops Search Engine 6.3. Meta-Search Engines 6.3.1. Google and its Family of Utilities 6.3.1.1. Using Google with a Screenreader and Availability of Scripts 6.3.1.2. Narrowing Searches Down in Google 6.3.1.3. Using the Google Advanced Search facility 6.3.1.4. The Google Image Search Feature 6.3.1.5. Google's Goods Catalogue Searching Feature 6.3.1.6. Google's International News Search feature 6.3.1.7. Google's Print Book Search Facility 6.3.1.8. Google's E-Mail and Website Service 6.3.1.9. Google Desktop Search 6.3.1.10. Google Scholar Scientific and Academic Specialist Research Searching Feature 6.3.2. Alltheweb 6.3.3. Seti-Search 6.3.4. Dogpile 6.3.5. Astalavista 6.3.6. YouSearched 6.3.7. Vivisimo 6.4. Finding Companies 6.5. Finding People 6.6. Finding News and Public Records 6.7. The Outlook Express Quick People Search Facility Section 7: E-Mailing Overview 7.1. E-Mail Address Components 7.2. Web-Based E-Mail Providers 7.3. 1-Step--Voice E-Mail Section 8: E-Mailing with Microsoft Outlook Express Versions 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 8.1. Pen-Picture of the Outlook Express Screen 8.2. Outlook Express E-Mailing Options and Customisation for Visually Impaired People 8.3. Composing and Sending E-Mail 8.4. Sending or Forwarding Multiple E-Mails Simultaneously 8.5. Undelivered E-Mail 8.6. Receiving and Reading E-Mail 8.7. Finding an E-Mail Message 8.8. Deleting E-Mail Messages 8.8.1. Deleting Single Messages or Whole Folders of Messages 8.8.2. Deleting Groups of Messages by Conversation/Subject 8.9. Viewing Only Specific Mail and News Messages 8.10. Replying to E-Mail 8.10.1. Replying to the E-mail Sender Only 8.10.2. Replying to all Recipients of an E-Mail 8.11. Forwarding E-Mail to Other People 8.12. The Outlook Express Address Book 8.12.1. What is the Address Book and what can you do with it? 8.12.2. Quickly Inserting a Contact's E-Mail Address into the "To" Header if you Cannot Remember It 8.12.3. Manually Adding Someone to your Address Book/Contacts List 8.12.4. Moving to the Address Book and Finding an Entry 8.12.5. Using the Address Book Find People Feature 8.13. E-Mail Address Groups (Distribution Lists) 8.14. Saving and Moving E-Mail 8.15. Importing and Exporting 8.15.1. Importing Messages, Address Books and Account Settings 8.15.2. Exporting Messages, Address Book Details, Account Settings and Other Files 8.15.3. Where Outlook Express Keeps its Data Files and How to Save them and Move them Elsewhere 8.16. Dealing with File Attachments 8.16.1. Attaching a File 8.16.2. Opening and Saving an Attachment 8.17. Inserting Text into an E-Mail Message 8.18. Jump to Links in E-mail 8.18.1. Jumping from E-Mail to a Website 8.18.2. Inserting Jump to Links into your E-Mail 8.19. Sender's E-Mail Address Identification 8.20. Obtaining a Received Message Verification Receipt 8.21. Blocking and Unblocking Specific E-Mail Messages 8.22. Using Message Rules to Sort and Reply to Messages 8.22.1. Step-by-Step Example 1: Filtering Specific Messages into a Newly Created E-mail Folder 8.22.2. Step-by-Step Example 2: Automatically Replying to E-mail Messages when Away From Home or the Office 8.23. Obtaining Website Content by E-Mail 8.24. Using shorthand Emoticons in Your E-mails 8.25. Shortcut Menus 8.26. Sending Coloured Business-Type HTML Formatted E-Mails with Pictures or Sounds 8.27. Accessing your E-mail Whilst Away from Home 8.27.1. Accessing E-Mail whilst Abroad 8.27.2. Accessing E-Mail whilst elsewhere in Your Own Country 8.28. Breaking Large Messages into Smaller blocks for E-Mailing 8.29. Setting up an Hotmail or other Account 8.30. Using Imap to Manipulate Your E-Mail Section 9: Joining Mail Lists and News Lists 9.1. The Listserv Server Section 10: Usenet Newsgroups 10.1. What are Usenet Newsgroups? 10.2. component Parts of Newsgroup Names and What They Mean Section 11: Reading Newsgroups with Outlook Express Versions 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 11.1. Launching Outlook Express as a News Reader 11.2. Subscribing to Newsgroups 11.3. Deleting a Newsgroup 11.4. Pen-picture of the Outlook express Screen 11.5. Basic Online News Reading 11.6. Filtering News Messages 11.7. Deleting Messages and Headers 11.8. Responding to an Article with Outlook Express 11.9. Introducing a New Topic Section 12: Reading Newsgroups with Forte Agent and Free Agent Versions 1.92 12.1. Downloading Agent and Free Agent 12.2. Installing Agent or Free Agent and downloading Newsgroups 12.3. Internet Service Provider Details 12.4. Launching Agent and Free Agent 12.5.Pen-Picture of the Free Agent Screen 12.6. Online versus Offline News Reading 12.7. Subscribing to Newsgroups 12.8. Navigation in Free Agent 12.9. Changing Preferences 12.10. Keeping News Messages 12.11. Deleting News Messages 12.12. Responding to an Article with Free Agent 12.13. Sorting News Messages 12.14. Getting More Help 12.15. Some More Free Agent Keyboard Shortcuts Section 13: Downloading Files and Programs from the Net 13.1. FTP File Downloads 13.2. HTTP File Downloads 13.3. File Download Steps 13.4. X:Drive Free Web Disk Space 13.5. FTP by E-Mail Section 14: How to Find People and Places on the Internet 14.1. Search Engines 14.2. Contacting the Domain Postmaster 14.3. Searching through Usenet Newsgroups 14.4. Searching Online Directories Section 15: Different Ways of Connecting to Accounts 15.1. PPP/SLIP Programs 15.2. E-Mail Programs 15.3. Newsgroup Readers 15.4. FTP Up- and Download Programs 15.4.1. General Overview 15.4.2. Step by Step Example of how to use FTP Explorer 15.4.2.1. General 15.4.2.2. Set-Up and Protocols 15.4.2.3. Uploading and Downloading Files 15.4.2.4. Configuration Tips 15.5. Chat Programs Appendix 1: Where to Find More Internet Information 16.1. From the Internet Itself 16.2. In Braille 16.3. On Cassette 16.4. By E-Mail Appendix 2: List of E-Mail Lists Dealing with Particular Topics of Visual Impairment 17.1. List of VI-Related Lists and Examples of How to Subscribe to Them Appendix 3: List of Hundreds of General Websites of Interest 18.1. Recommended Sites to Visit 18.2. Website Resources Accessible by E-Mail Appendix 4: Keyboard Shortcuts in Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Free Agent 19.1. Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 and 6 19.2. Outlook express 5, 5.5 and 6 19.3. Free Agent 1.92 Appendix 5: Glossary of Terms 20.1. Glossary Appendix 6: Other Tutorials Available from this Author. 21.1. List of and Brief Description of Other Tutorials Complimentary Close ******** Foreword and Restrictions I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Visually impaired computer users are the target group for this manual. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. The manual is more likely to be useful to the Internet starter who already knows something about Windows keystroke methods and is already connected to the Internet, rather than the complete novice. It should take the user from little or no knowledge about the Internet to a position well into intermediate stage usage, but it is not envisaged that it will be of much use to the seasoned Net user who already comfortably uses up-to-date Microsoft Internet Windows software, other than as a reference resource. Nor does it attempt to teach basic Windows operating system competencies. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this manual, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) is suggested to go into the "Tools" menu and run the "Options" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "Tools" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Options" line is spoken, then press ENTER. All individual and conbinations of keys you actually have to press during a procedure which have been referred to have been put in capital letters so that they stand out to anyone reading this tutorial visually, e.g. to bring up the Open dialogue box press CONTROL O. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Reading of this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain an overview of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >Section 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. What is the Internet and how do Visually Impaired People Access it? The Internet is a worldwide, interconnected network of computers. It is also known as the "Information Superhighway" and "surfing the Web" is the process of jumping from one Web page to another anywhere in the world. The World Wide Web is not another name for the Internet. The World Wide Web lives on the Internet and is a system of interlinked information pages on the Net. I have written this manual chiefly in respect of Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 and other Microsoft programs running on IBM-clone computers. Where other programs are described in detail, it is because they are accessible and may do the job better than their Microsoft equivalent from a screenreader and keyboard point of view. Additionally, screenreaders are more likely to have set files or script files written for well-known programs than for more obscure ones, so they should be easier to use. Internet Explorer Version 4.0 was not very user-friendly to visually impaired "Web Surfers" but the advent of Version 5 with its accompanying utilities and the work of screenreader makers has overcome most of these problems. Some Websites are more user-friendly to screenreader and keyboard users than others. The problem is the extensive use of images and graphics (pictures) on Web pages, some of which do not have text titles attached to them. It is essential that the visually impaired surfer gets to know his/her own screenreader Internet commands and special shortcut keys thoroughly to minimise time loss and frustration when on the Net. Studying the screenreader's own manual to master any of its special Internet commands prior to connecting will more than pay dividends and could make the difference between using the Internet being viewed as a tedious thing and feeling that it is, in fact, a valuable and enjoyable tool for blind people. This publication does not instruct the user in how to use any particular screenreader (although some screenreader special shortcuts are occasionally exemplified in the step by step instructions) but instead concentrates on the general keystrokes provided by MS Windows to get things done. In this way the visually impaired computer user should be able to reasonably function on the Net irrespective of the screenreader which is on the computer they are currently using--something which would not be possible if you only learned the special keystrokes which come with a given screenreader package to achieve your goals. The most common screenreader specific keyboard shortcuts, however, are given in a sub-section below for JAWS, Window-Eyes and HAL to refresh your memory. One thing you must keep in mind is that the Internet is continually in flux, growing and changing. Some Internet sites and pages you accessed and viewed last week will no longer exist this week, others will have come into existence within the last few hours and yet others will still be there but will have been altered in their construction and general appearance. Therefore, whilst at the time of writing the keystrokes given herein were the ones to use to acheive a given end result, This tutorial aims not so much to get you to follow precise keystrokes on particular sites only but rather to give you a general grasp of what the changing Internet is like and the confidence to use it even if some sites and web pages have changed since both I and you last frequented them. The reader may wish to work through this manual section by section or jump to a particular section which interests them first. Whichever way you approach this, I would recommend that you quickly read through it to get an overview of its contents and decide which approach is best for you in respect of how the manual is written and layed out. Some readers will find, after reading Sections 1 and 2, that they might like to jump to Sections 7 and 8 about e-mailing to get a quick flavour of what going on line is like and to do something positive on the Net sooner rather than later. E-mailing, once your PC is set up for this, is one of the most useful and easier things to do on the Internet. 1.2. General and Specific Talking Screenreaders for Web Browsing Some general screenreaders which deal well with Windows and the Internet plus a number of specific talking Web browsers are mentioned below. 1.2.1. JAWS for Browsing the Internet You can obtain a demo or purchase a copy of the general screenreader JAWS for Windows from Freedom Scientific at: www.freedomscientific.com and they also sell a cheaper, cut-down version for specific use on the Net. JAWS automatically renders Web pages into a word- processor-style document type of layout to make navigating them easier and more familiar. Tips on how to use this screenreader will be regularly demonstrated in forthcoming sections and the next section features a list of JAWS most useful hot keys for use on the Net. 1.2.2. Window-Eyes for Browsing the Internet You can buy or get a demo of the general Window-Eyes screenreader by GW Micro at: www.gwmicro.com Window-Eyes automatically renders Web pages into a word- processor-style document type of layout to make navigating them easier and more familiar. Tips on how to use this screenreader will be regularly demonstrated in forthcoming sections and the next section features a list of Window-Eyes most useful hot keys for use on the Net. 1.2.3. HAL for Browsing the Internet Dolphin's HAL general screenreader can navigate Web pages and a copy can be purchased from or a demo downloaded from: www.dolphinuk.co.uk HAl is able to navigate Web pages as they appear natively and you can use HALs "Links List" to render links and frames on Web pages into easier to find and sift through lists. Tips on how to use this screenreader will be regularly demonstrated in forthcoming sections and the next section features a list of HALs most useful hot keys for use on the Net. 1.2.4. PWwebspeak for Browsing the Internet There is also a Windows 95 Internet specialist World Wide Web browser available called PWWebspeak by the Productivity Works in America at: www.prodworks.com This specialist browser comes with its own speech engine which will work through a synthesiser or via a standard 16-bit sound card and basic computer speakers. However, it cannot deal with JAVA-based sites. PWwebspeak was withdrawn from sale in 2002 but has now been made avalable as a free download. It may be optainable from several sites but one which has the 6.3 Mb program for download is: www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm 1.2.5. Wemedia for Browsing the Internet Another specialist Web browser, which came out in the first quarter of 2001, is from WeMedia and can be downloaded as freeware directly from: www.webtalkster.com/wemediatb.exe This free browser is said to be operable with only six keystrokes, after you have experience with it. It has its own text-to-speech engine and interactive help system. In addition to keyboard command operation, the browser can be operated with spoken commands via a microphone. Users of this browser also have easy access to a chat room which it provides and it will soon be fitted with its own VI-friendly e-mail capability. This program may be a little too verbose for experienced Web surfers but this will probably be an advantage to learners. It works with all current Microsoft operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows 2000 and ME. 1.2.6. Home Page Reader for Browsing the Internet A further specialist Web browser, again with its own speech in- built, which is the IBM Viavoice speech engine, is called Home Page Reader. A demo copy for evaluation can be downloaded from: www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html From Version 3.0 (but not with earlier versions) this browser is able to deal with sites which adopt Java content. 1.2.7. Webbie for Browsing the Internet More recently a freely downlodable Web page rendering program called Webbie has become available, which you would use along side a less advanced or older screenreader. It is available from: www.webbie.org or www.screenreader.co.uk The executable file which downloads will be called something like "webbie263installer.exe" and you should find and press ENTER on this to perform a Windows-type standard, straightforward program installation. It will have downloaded to your Desktop by default or anywhere else you have specified such downloads from the Net to go. After installing Webbie, you load it to use it before going onto the Internet from: Press Windows key, then P (for Programs) and then W several times (for Webbie) and press ENTER once or twice on the "Webbie" option to launch it. Alternatively, place a shortcut on your Desktop from which to quickly launch Webbie. Webbie is only around 3 Mb in size and works by presenting Web pages just like word-processors present information. You can then easily navigate such as forms and bring up links lists to work on. for Webbie to work optimally, you will have to have Internet Explorer 6 installed on your PC. Whilst users of more advanced, up-to-date screenreaders such as JAWS 4.5, HAL 6 and Window-Eyes 4.21 would not require such an add-on Web page converter, users of such as HAL 4X and earlier and Lookout screenreaders could benefit greatly from such a specialist Web page browsing add-on. Webbie has four main areas on screen: a Menu Bar, a Toolbar, an Address Bar and the main screen where the Web pages display, which is the display area. You move from the display area to the Address Bar by pressing ALT D and from the Address Bar back to the display area by pressing ALT T. It also has a standard Windows-type menu structure which you get into by pressing the ALT key as usual. 1.3. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys Here I list, as a memory jogger, the main JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Web page hot keys when using Internet Explorer 5 and later as of March 2005. 1.3.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 Most of the below JAWS hot keys work with versions of JAWS from 4.0 onwards but a few will only work if you have upgraded to later versions which have included extra hot keys. If you press one of these single hot keys and nothing happens, it is likely that this hot key does not exist in your copy of JAWS, otherwise you would get some kind of feedback as JAWS would at least report, for example, "no more divisions found" if you press Z and your version of JAWS does not feature this particular recent addition to its range of single hot keys. Please note that the large INSERT key at the bottom left-hand side of the number pad is also frequently referred to as the JAWS key. I will only call it the INSERT key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name when the number pad is turned off. It is often used in conjunction with other number pad and main keyboard keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Press A: To jump to the next anchor on a page. Press B: To move to the next button on a page. Press C: To get the current column read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between comboboxes. Press D: to skip to the next different element on a page, e.g. from a link to an editfield and then, perhaps, to another link or combobox. Press E: to skip past the next element on a Web page. This changes to skipping to the next editfield on a page from JAWS 6. Press F: to skip to the next form (editfield) control on a Web page. Press G: To jump to the next graphic on a page. Press H: to jump to the next heading on a Web page. Press I: To skip to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press J: To jump to any line in the JAWS virtual buffer after entering the line's number. You use SHIFT J to return to the starting point before the jump. Press K: To jump to the next place marker on a Web page if you have previously inserted markers on that page. Press L: to go directly to the next list on a Web page. Press M: to move to the next frame on a Web page. Press N: To skip past links on a Web page. Press O: To go to the next object tag on a page. Press P: To move to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press R: To get the current row read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between radio buttons. Press S: to jump to the next same element on a Web page, e.g. from edit field to editfield. Press T: To jump to the next Table on a page. Press U: To go to the next unvisited link on a Web page. Press V: To go to the next already visited link on a Web page. Press X: To go to the next checkbox on a page. Press Z: To jump to the next division on a page. Press >: To step past the next element on a Web page. Press <: To step to the element before the prior element on a page. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with any of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: From JAWS 6 you can hold down the CONTROL key and the INSERT key together and then press any of the above single letter keys to obtain a list of that particular element, e.g. CONTROL INSERT Z will bring up a list of the divisions on the current Web page. Press ENTER: to turn MSAA mode off when on a form editing field to be able to type text in. Pressing Numpad + (the PC cursor) turns MSAA mode back on. INSERT F1: Obtains screen sensitive help. INSERT F1 twice: Obtains JAWS help for a specific application. INSERT A: Reads the contents of the Address Bar. INSERT W: Provides tips on general Windows shortcut keystrokes. CONTROL UP or DOWN ARROW: Moves you from one text paragraph to another on a Web page. INSERT F6: Places the headings on a Web page into a structured hierarchical order to quickly ARROW through and press ENTER on any one to jump there (but only if the page has been written using HTML structured heading tags, e.g. H1, H2, etc). Before JAWS 4.01 this command simply took you to the Desktop minimised. CONTROL INSERT HOME: Takes you to the first form field on a page, if JAWS has not automatically placed you there already. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off and forms mode on before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Moves you to the previous form field. CONTROL INSERT END: Takes you to the last form field on a page. INSERT ENTER: Jumps you to the next instance of text with no associated link to read that text. INSERT F7: Invokes a links list so that you can ARROW up or down the links on a page or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. You can also select between A-Z or Z-A order, have them in the original page TAB order, have only unvisited links displayed, only visited links displayed, etc. Pressing ENTER on one of these links will activate it. INSERT F9: Provides you with a frames list of the same type as the above links list. INSERT F5: From Version 5 onwards, displays a listbox with all of the controls and forms on the current Web page similar to the above two list features. INSERT Z: Toggles the virtual PC cursor on and off. CONTROL INSERT F: goes into the JAWS Find dialogue to type text in to jump to this. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you from the current form field to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Same as the above but backwards through form fields. Press INSERT DELETE: To route the virtual cursor to the location of the PC cursor. Press SPACEBAR: To toggle checkboxes, select radio buttons and activate buttons without entering forms mode from Version 4.51 onwards. Press ALT DELETE: To obtain information about how much of an online document you have already read as a percentage of the whole text. ALT CONTROL NumPad 5: Reads the cell in a table which has focus. ALT CONTROL left or right ARROW: Moves you left or right through table columns and cells on a Web page. ALT CONTROL up or down ARROW: Moves you up or down a cell in a table. ALT CONTROL HOME OR END: Moves you to the first or last cell in a table respectively. WINDOWS KEY down ARROW: Moves to the next row in a table. WINDOWS KEY up ARROW: Moves to the previous row in a table. WINDOWS KEY .: Reads the current collum in a table. WINDOWS KEY ,: Reads the current row in a table. CONTROL J: Is the jump to cell in a table hot key. Pressing the main keyboard numbers 1 to 6: Jumps you from one heading to another heading on a Web page, e.g. pressing 1 repeatedly keeps moving you through heading 1 level headings, pressing 2 repeatedly keeps moving you through level 2 headings, etc. In this way you can quickly move between headings at the same level and between different levels of headings. A new concept introduced from JAWS 5.0 is the place marker insertion, jump to and list dialogue box. You can insert up to 10 place markers on any Web page and give them individual names. You can cycle through these place markers by pressing the K key and you can open up the place marker dialogue and view the list of your markers, add new markers, name them, move them in the list, remove them and jump to any one you like. You can do this whilst on a Web page online on the Net or on a Web page held on your hard disk without being online. There are only three essential hot key commands involved, as listed below. Press CONTROL SHIFT K: To open the place marker dialogue box when on a Web page to insert a permanent marker or make a temporary marker permanent. Press K: to jump forward through markers. Press SHIFT K: to jump backwards through markers. In practice, what you do with place markers is: 1. Whilst on a Web page with your cursor at the desired place you want a marker to be inserted, press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers dialogue box to permanently add, name, move, remove, change the name of or jump to any place marker. 2. Now TAB to "Add" and press ENTER. 3. Next type a meaning full name into the editfield you are in such as "phone number for Webmaster" and press ENTER, and you have now finished inserting and naming your marker. 4. You can now jump to these markers with the above-mentioned K and SHIFT K commands or you can again press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers' dialogue and then ARROW to any marker by its meaningful name and press ENTER on it to jump to it. The place marker feature has a few other non-essential hot keys which you may also wish to try, as follows: Press CONTROL k: to insert a single temporary marker at the cursor position on a page. Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 through 0: To get the name of any of the 10 markers on a page spoken to you (this hot key failed to work for me but perhaps it will work for you). Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 to 0 quickly twice: To move straight to the marker associated with that marker number, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT 5 twice to jump to marker number 5. 1.3.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 Please note that, with HAL 6 onwards, the CAPSLOCK key at the left-hand side of the keyboard is also frequently referred to as the Dolphin key. I will only call it the CAPSLOCK key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name. It is often used in conjunction with other keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Please also note that, when either the CONTROL or SHIFT keys are mentioned in the below list of hot keys, it is the left key which should be pressed. Pressing the right CONTROL or SHIFT key may not work or may achieve a different result. The following hot keys are available in HAL: F1: Provides context-sensitive help for the control or other element which focus is currently on. F3: Activates HALs find feature to jump to a given word or words on a Web page. You type the word(s) in and press ENTER to get the first occurrence of the word found. F4: This is the find next occurrence of a word hot key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. F2: Is the find previous occurrence of a word key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. SPACEBAR: Activates (left clicks on) a link, rather than pressing ENTER as with earlier versions of HAL. ENTER (return or carriage return key): Puts you into forms mode whilst on an editfield on a Web page. You can then type information into an editfield. You may have to press ENTER each time you encounter such an editfield to type text in. From HAL Version 6.03 you enter forms mode by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER and HAL should then automatically change from forms editing mode to reading mode and back again without you having to do anything more. NumPad +: Starts and stops continuous document read. INSERT: Is the left click simulation key. To left click and change to live focus press the A key and to left double click press the U key. DELETE: Is the right click simulation key. To right click and change to live focus press the D key and to right double click press the E key. Left CONTROL PAGE UP or DOWN: Moves you upwards or downwards through any elements of a page which are not links, e.g. buttons, checkboxes, editfields, etc. Left CONTROL SHIFT PAGE DOWN or PAGE UP: Moves you from frame to frame on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT HOME: Jumps you to the first form editfield on a page. Left CONTROL shift right ARROW: Moves you to the next occurrence of text which is not associated with a link. Left CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW: Opposite of above. Left CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Skips you downwards through links on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. Left SHIFT Numpad 0: Gives you the URL of a link which is not entitled or which has a meaningless title, such as "Click Here". ALT T (for Tools) then ARROW down to "Dolphin Links Navigator" and press ENTER: Loads the Links Navigator to format the links on a page in a row to ARROW through in A-Z, Z-A or Tab order or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. Pressing ENTER will activate the link. With the introduction of HAL 5.20 and later versions, the Links Navigator is replaced by what is known as the Dolphin List Utility, to do the same links listing and selecting job but more efficiently and it also lists frames and HTML headings. You can use it for complex Web pages and for finding your way around HTML help files. With HAL 6, you also have hot keys of CAPSLOCK 1 to list links on a Web page, CAPSLOCK 2 to list headings, CAPSLOCK 3 to list frames and capslock 4 to list what is in the System Tray. CAPSLOCK ENTER: From HAL 6.03 only, invokes HALs new forms mode to make such as online shopping sites easier to work on. After pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER, As you move through a Web page, HAL intuitively automatically switches out of auto-virtual focus mode into live mode every time it comes across an editfield or other similar control to which live mode is appropriate. It will also automatically return to auto-virtual focus mode when required to do so in order to allow you to continue reading the Web page to be able to do things such as activate links. CAPSLOCK Numpad 7: In HAL 6.03 onwards, speaks the name of a form label to the left of an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. CAPSLOCK Numpad 8: In HAL 6.03 only, speaks the name of a form label above an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. Note: With HAL 5X the general Windows commands of ALT left and right ARROWS to take you to your last visited Web page backwards or forwards respectively do not work. 1.3.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 Most of the below hot keys apply to all versions of Window-Eyes from Version 4.0 on Web pages but the hot keys for using Window- Eyes in MSAA mode to navigate Web pages immediately below apply before version 4.5. for those which apply from Version 4.5, see the new list beneath this first one. CONTROL SHIFT F1: Brings up WE help but this is not context sensitive. CONTROL SHIFT F: Enables the WE find feature. Pressing INSERT F will continue the search in the same direction. ALT U: Reads the URL for the current page. CONTROL INSERT S: Reads the status line, which may have useful Web page download details. CONTROL SHIFT A: Toggles MSAA mode on and off whilst MSAA mode is in automatic loading mode. INSERT A: Toggles automatic loading of MSAA mode on or off. CONTROL SHIFT R: Will read a Web page from the cursor to its end. CONTROL SHIFT S: Provides information about how many lines are in the current page and what line the cursor is presently on, plus advice about whether the page has frames. ALT SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Moves you through links only on a page, missing out any other elements or controls, such as editfields, buttons, checkboxes, etc. ALT SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of the above. ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next element on a page, e.g. a link, an editfield, a button, etc, but it takes you to another type of control which is not the same as the one you left, e.g. if you were in a textbox you would not go to another textbox but to something else such as a button, a link, etc. ALT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. INSERT ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next text-only block skipping all other controls. ALT CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Takes you to a previously visited link on a page skipping all other elements and unvisited links. ALT CONTROL DOWN ARROW: Moves you straight to the first control on a page which is not a link or text line, typically a form field such as a search box, but you must do this from the top of the page. Another press takes you to the next control on the page. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. ALT CONTROL UP ARROW: Jumps you to the last control on a page from the bottom of the page. ALT CONTROL HOME: Takes you to your last position on a page or to the place you were before you moved to a subsequent page if moving back to the first page does not land you there automatically. INSERT TAB: Invokes the Window-Eyes vertical controls list from where you can choose to view and ARROW through lists of frames, tables or links in A-Z, Z-A or to view links in their original Web page TAB order, etc. Pressing ENTER on a link will activate it. F6: Takes you to the attachments list in an e-mail. ALT CONTROL TAB: Takes you to the first table on a page, when you then use CONTROL + to enter table mode. CONTROL - leaves table mode. Pressing ALT CONTROL TAB again will take you to the next instance of a table on the Web page if there is one. ALT CONTROL SHIFT TAB: Moves you backwards through tables on a page. CONTROL SHIFT H: Lets you cycle through several ways WE will give you table information, e.g. announce top headings as well as cell co-ordinates and contents, side headings as well as cell co- ordinates, etc. INSERT right, left, up and down ARROWS: Move you one cell at a time through a table on a Web page right, left, up and down respectively. CONTROL INSERT right or left ARROW: Moves you to the end or start of a row in a table. CONTROL INSERT up or down ARROW: Moves you to the top or bottom of a column in a table. With the advent of Window-Eyes 4.5 and later versions, the hot keys for working with Web pages in MSAA mode have changed to those shown below but, of course, many of the above hot keys of general use on Web pages still work: Press A: to skip to the next anchor on a Web page. Press C: To jump to the next control on a Web page. Press E: to jump to the next fieldset. Press F: To skip to the next form on a page. Press H: to move to the next heading on a page. Press I: to jump to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press L: To jump to the next link on a Web page. Press P: To jump to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press S: to skip to the next list on a Web page. Press T: To jump to the next table on a page. Press V: To jump to the next already visited link. Press X: to jump to the next instance of a text field on a Web page. Press left BRACKET F: To go to the beginning of the current form. Press right BRACKET F: To go to the end of the current form. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with most of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: Your screenreader may have fewer, more or even none of the above single key shortcuts, depending on its version. However, slightly earlier versions than those mentioned here should have most of them and slightly later versions should have them plus a few more. You should consult the hot keys section of the online help which comes with your screenreader version. Press INSERT V: To bring up the MSAA verbosity settings list, where you can control how much information WE provides you with on Web pages in respect of listboxes, forms, tables, lists and other Web page elements. Press CONTROL Numpad +: To enter table mode. Press CONTROL Numpad -: to leave table mode. 1.3.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts. To view these, see Section 4 below, "What are Web Pages and How are They Read". 1.4. More Advanced Surfing This tutorial (Volume 1 of Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard the Windows Way) takes the Internet learner through the more commonly used programs and features pertaining to the Internet. Once you have mastered these, you may wish to venture into more advanced surfing waters by freely downloading Volume 2 of this Internet tutorial from my Webssite. Volume 2 contains sections including: * The "Helpful Tips and Customisation" section. * "Internet Shopping". * "Online Auctions". * "REALAUDIO RADIO, NEWS AND VIDEO". * "DOWNLOAD MANAGERS, ADVERTISEMENT BANNER REMOVERS AND COOKIE CRUNCHERS". * "INTERNET BANKING". * "INTERNET CHAT ROOMS". * All seven of the appendices which you also get in Volume 1. 1.5. Free Virus-Checkers, Firewalls and Spyware Removers These days, especially if you are on the Internet, you must deploy at least a good virus-checker and a good spyware remover. You will probably also want to regularly run a good firewall, particularly if you are on an online all of the time broadband connection to the Net. 1.5.1. AVG Free Edition Versions 6 and 7 It is advisable to obtain a virus-checker as soon as practicably possible to ensure that you do not contract any viruses from the Internet in general or as downloads with your e-mail. A virus is simply a malicious piece of computer code written by someone to do anything from be annoying on your PC or play a joke on you to being outright destructive and rendering your computer unusable. A virus-checker should detect such viruses before they can do any damage and get rid of them for you. There are many commercially available virus-checkers, such as Dr Solomon's, Mcafee, Fprot, Norton Antivirus, etc, and prices can vary considerably. However, there are also some free ones which are quite good and you can obtain such a freeware virus-checker if you live in the US or UK from: www.grisoft.com but you will have to navigate through several pages and many links until you get to a "Download AVG Free Edition" button. Basically, the links you are looking for to press ENTER on in order are: "Go to Free Download Page", "Download AVG Free Edition", "Download AVG Free Edition" button, "Yes, I Agree" (at the bottom of the licence agreement page, then complete the registration form and press ENTER on the "Continue" button. The last two steps are where you have to press ENTER on "Please click Here to Start the Download Process" followed by pressing ENTER on the "Start Download" button. You will be left on a "Cancel" button whilst the download is taking place and if you decide to stop the download, just press ENTER. Alternatively, for as long as nothing changes, you may find it easier to download AVG from: http://free.grisoft.com This is Version six of AVG which can scan CD-ROM and floppy disks, your hard disks, your incoming e-mail and will automatically take you online and download and install updates to your virus database every week or whenever you like. It is not free for the rest of Europe! You will, of course, want to go further into this manual and learn more about the Internet and downloading and installing programs before you tackle this particular download and installation but this software is very usable with a screenreader. I only mention virus-checkers at this early stage because the sooner you can get one working on your system the better. From September 2003, AVG 7 became available but you will have to pay for this. It is more advanced than the free version 6 and probably worth the money for the extra features and esspecially the extra automation and ease of use. You can obtain a 30-day trial copy from the first-mentioned above Grisoft site. It is important that you also download updates to what is known as the "data" or "signature" files for your virus-checker. These keep its ability to detect new viruses up to date so that it does not become obsolete. You can download these via the "Service" menu of AVG and these are updated around every three days. Note: from 31 December 2004 AVG 6 free edition is no longer available or updatable with data files but by then AVG 7 free edition will be downloadable from the above Websites. In fact, AVG 7 free edition became available from November 2004. 1.5.2. Sygate, Zone Alarm and Windows XP Free Firewalls In addition to a virus-checker, if you are to invest in a broadband Internet connection instead of using a standard 56K MODEM, you will need to deploy a good "firewall". You may even wish to use a firewall with a 56K modem connection as well if you use the Net frequently. A firewall is an additional piece of software which is running all of the time you are connected to the Internet--which will be all of the time you have your Pc switched on with a broadband connection. Whereas a virus-checker detects and repairs or disables software or intercepts e-mails with viruses, a firewall monitors what is coming into your computer from the Net whilst you are connected to it and will alert you if any unauthorised person, such as a hacker, tries to gain access to your computer, plus a number of other safeguards. Some firewalls are more screenreader-friendly than others and one which has been found to be usable and is free for download is called Sygate Personal Firewall from: www.sygate.com or www.whitestick.co.uk/download.html Another free firewall which you may wish to try is called Zone Alarm from: www.zonealarms.com Windows XP also has its own in-built firewall but this is limited in how it works, because it only monitors what comes into your PC from the Internet, not what may be able to get onto your hard disk via such as a dodgy CD. In other words, it only does half of a job, because if some undesirable small program is transferred to your computer from a CD which can then send messages from your PC whilst you are online to unauthorised people, Windows XP will not stop this or warn you about it. I would therefore recommend that you use one of the above two firewalls instead of the Windows XP offering. If you want a really top class and very screenreader-friendly firewall and do not mind paying for it, try Look'N'Stop from: www.looknstop.com/en/faq.htm 1.5.3. Ad-Aware Free Spyware Remover Version 6 Spyware is software which some Internet sites and disks you may access puts onto your computer hard disk without your knowledge so that it can then do such as track and record your movements on the Net and possibly even record your every keystroke on your PC and relay this information back to a Website or e-mail address maintained by unscrupulous persons. This could lead to others finding out your purchasing preferences and targeting you with e-mail ads or, much worse, finding out the passwords and credit card numbers which you use when paying for goods on the net. You can download the Ad-Aware spyware remover from: www.lavasoftusa.com Again, as previously advised, find out more about downloading and using this type of software in the forthcoming sections before you tackle this download and configuration. Note that many people use at least two different spyware removal programs side by side on their PCs because they are not all capable of detecting all spyware files and what one misses the other should deal with, e.g. a combination of use of Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy is a common pair of programs to use. If you have the appropriate sub-version of Ad-Aware 6 and JAWS, you can download some Ad-Aware Jaws scripts from: www.jfwlite.com and, after installing them as usual into the jaws\settings\enu folder, you can automate the running of Ad-Aware with the following Jaws hot keys: 1. Start Ad-Aware. 2. Press CONTROL S to initialise the "Scan Now" button. 3. Now press CONTROL N to activate the "Next" button. 4. Wait for the scan to finish and, if you hear the system noise which alerts you to the fact that you have some spyware on your PC, press CONTROL M to mark all of the spyware detected. 5. Press CONTROL N for "Next" and you will be asked whether or not you wish to delete the files. Press ENTER on the "OK" button to finish and delete them. From the summer of 2005 another sub-version of Ad-Aware became available, which is Ad-Aware 6.06. You can obtain this from the above Lavasoft Website or you can download it and also obtain some updated JAWS 4.51 to JAWS 6 script files for it from: www.accessibleprograms.com These scripts have their own help file with usage instructions (press CONTROL H) to hear these and work basically the same as with the above earlier version as far as the steps and hot keys are concerned. The basic steps and hot keys are: 1. Start Ad-Aware. 2. Press CONTROL S to initialise the "Scan Now" button. 3. ARROW down to the scan mode you want, e.g. smart scan or complete scan. 4. Now press CONTROL N to activate the "Next" button. 5. Wait for the scan to finish and, if you hear the system noise which alerts you to the fact that you have some spyware on your PC, press CONTROL N to move to the next screen and then ARROW right on to the "Critical Objects" tab. 6. Now press CONTROL M to mark all of the found objects in the critical objects list for deletion. 7. Lastly, press CONTROL N for "Next" and you will be asked whether or not you wish to delete the files. Press ENTER on the "OK" button to finish and delete them. Alternatively, if you do not have the correct version of Ad-Aware 6 installed or are using a screenreader other than Jaws, you can achieve all of the above using your screenreader's mouse simulation hot keys to navigate and effect left and right clicks, as follows: 1. Launch Ad-Aware. 2. Using JAWS/mouse/navigation mode all of the time, come up from the bottom of the screen to the "Start" button and left click on it. 3. Again, in mouse mode, now locate the "Next" button and left click on it if you are not already on it, which you should be. 4. Wait for the scan to finish and, if you hear the system noise which alerts you to the fact that you have some spyware on your PC, locate another "Next" button, which you should already be on, and left click it. 5. You now, again using mouse mode, on the "Results" page you will currently be on, ARROW to and locate the virtical list of objects (such as unwanted registry entries and/or tracker cookie files) found and right click on any of them to open up a Context menu. In this menu you should ARROW down to the "Select All" command and press ENTER. 6. Again you have to locate and left click on another "Next" button followed by finding the "OK" button to left click on to complete the whole procedure. Warning: Whilst Ad-Aware is a good spyware remover from the perspective of its ability to find and destroy unwanted spyware, it is not particularly friendly from a screenreader point of view. Having said this, nor are most of the other spyware removers. What you must remember is that, at step 5 above, when your spyware files have been detected and are in the vertical list ready for selecting and removal, you must take this first opportunity to remove them. If you allow this list of spyware files to close or do not delete them immediately but go back later and try to do this, then it is unlikely that the vertical list of unwanted files will become available again for selection, so you will not be able to get rid of them. You will only be able to remove them in future if you later contract other new spyware files to add to the list of unwanted files, when it will then display again for you to select all unwanted files and get rid of both the new and old spyware together. Tip: You can find instructions for manually removing many of the more common spyware programs at: www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml and you can read reviews of several anti-spyware programs at: www.firewallguide.com/spyware.htm 1.5.4. Mail Washer Free Spam Remover As will be apparent, spam filters remove or highlight spam e- mails for you, so that you can automatically or individually remove them. With the free version of Mail Washer you can also view the contents of your mailbox on your ISP's server and delete any suspicious messages so that they never get onto your computer if you like. You can download Mail Washer from: www.mailwasher.com 1.5.5. Spybot Search&Destroy Spybot Search&Destroy can find and remove tracker cookies, trojans and other kinds of malicious spyware code. It is downloadable from: www.safer-networking.org or www.spybot.com and is around a 5 Mb download. ******** >SECTION 2 HELPFUL TIPS AND CUSTOMISATION FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED USERS You may wish to make some of these refinements to your programs immediately or wait until later when you are more familiar with the programs mentioned in this guide. Whichever way you approach this, it is nonetheless a good idea to glance through this section before you move on. 2.1. Eighteen Configuration, Customisation and other Helpful Tips 1. You may, if your phone line provider is BT and provided that they do not start to deny people the option of doing this, wish to opt for the BT Friends and Relatives service in order to register your Internet Service Provider's phone number as your best friend number to obtain a 20 per cent discount; otherwise, register it for a 10 per cent discount. 2. World Wide Web addresses have the suffix "http://" but you do not need to type this in, as Web browsers fill this part of the address in for you automatically. Thus, this suffix has not been given when any website addresses have been indicated in this manual unless it is needed. 3. To print a Web page, with the page on screen, press CONTROL P. Pressing CONTROL S will save the page to disk. 4. A "link" on a Web page is a place where you can press the ENTER key to jump from one part of the page to another to obtain more information, or from one page to another on the same site or from one computer site on the Web to another computer anywhere else in the world. Web page links should be announced by your screenreader saying something like "link" but if this does not happen with your screenreader you should turn attributes (such as colour change and/or style change) on so that these changes will be announced to alert you to their whereabouts. Links are normally underlined and in blue text. Some of these links may be embedded in the middle of other text and form an integral part of the textual information. You have to navigate to links with the TAB key, the ARROW keys or your screenreader's special links list facility and then press ENTER. For example, to invoke the special links list feature, use INSERT F7 with JAWS, INSERT TAB with Window-Eyes or ALT T (for Tools) and then ARROW down to "Dolphin Links Navigator" and press ENTER with HAL 5. 5. You can copy links from a Web page to the Clipboard and then paste them into the address field in Internet Explorer rather than retyping them but be aware that this will not work if the link has been split onto more than one line. 6. If a Web page comes down scrambled, you can press CONTROL R to reload it or F5 to refresh the screen. 7. To obtain more screen space and not cause your screenreader to be distracted, in many Windows programs it is worth turning off the Toolbar by pressing ALT V, T, and unchecking any of the Toolbars which are checked but this is not essential, e.g. in Internet Explorer and Word. So, in Internet Explorer, you may wish to uncheck (by pressing ENTER on them) the "Standard Buttons" and "Radio" options but ensure that "Links" is checked on. However, if you are likely to want to use a toolbar to effect a command, do not do this, or turn Toolbars on and off as required. Ensure that "Status Bar" is also checked on in the View Menu. 8. In Internet Explorer, to speed up page downloading (if you do not use a monitor), press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options), CONTROL TAB to the "Advanced" property sheet and in the "Accessibility" list ARROW down this long list of options and uncheck (turn off by pressing SPACEBAR when on them) "Play Animations", "Play Videos", "Show Pictures" and "Smart Image Dithering". Ensure that the following are checked on: "Always Expand ALT Text for Images", "Notify When Downloads Complete" and "Play Sounds". It might also assist some screenreaders if you then CONTROL SHIFT TAB back to the "General" sheet, TAB to "Accessibility" and press ENTER, then ensure that "Ignore Colours Specified on Web Pages", "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" and "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" are all checked on; but "Format Documents Using My style Sheet" should be checked off. 9. In order to facilitate faster initial page loading and avoid the introductory advertisements which present themselves when you first load Internet Explorer, you can have it load with a blank page. To do this, with Internet Explorer running, press ALT T for Tools, O for Options, and in the "general" property sheet TAB forward to "Use Blank" and press ENTER. Then TAB on to OK and press ENTER. In future, when you start Internet Explorer, it will open with a blank page and your screenreader may announce the word "About". You just continue as normal (see Section 4 for how to launch Internet Explorer). 10. Some screenreaders may read what is on the screen better if you surf in "full screen" mode. All you have to do to obtain full screen mode is press the F11 key or press ALT V and arrow up to "Full Screen"and press ENTER. Pressing F11 again returns you to normal mode. Experiment to discover which view is best for you but be aware that full screen mode makes a program completely fill the screen, so title bars, menu bars, status lines, etc, will disappear. 11. To speed up connection to your ISP and make site connections and downloads quicker, go To "My Computer" on your Desktop and press ENTER. Then ARROW down (or right) to "Dialup Networking" and press ENTER. ARROW to and place the focus on your Internet provider, e.g. Onetel, Freeserve, BT Internet, etc, and then open up its context menu by pressing SHIFT F10. Now ARROW up to "Properties", press ENTER followed by pressing CONTROL TAB to the "Server Types" property sheet. Now TAB to "Advanced Options" and in here ARROW DOWN AND ensure that all of the following are unchecked: "Log Onto Network", "Enable Software Compression", "Require Encrypted Password", "Require Data Encryption" and "Record a Log File for this Connection". Then TAB to OK" and press ENTER to finish. 12. With Outlook Express 5.01 and later, upload and download time (especially with a slow PC/MODEM/ISP server) can be saved by turning off "Request a Read Receipt for all Sent Messages" and ensuring that "Never Send a Read Receipt" is selected in Tools, Options, Receipts (see Section 8, sub-heading "Obtaining a received Message Verification Receipt"). 13. If your MODEM is inexplicably disconnected from the Internet frequently it could be that your MODEM is too sensitive to signal lapses. To increase the time that your MODEM stays connected during lapses you may find that the following helps: A. Press Windows Logo key and then S (for Settings), followed by C (for Control Panel). B. Press M until MODEMS has focus and then press ENTER. C. TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. D. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB to "Advanced" and press ENTER. E. TAB to "Extra Settings" and type the following string in: s10=50 This is all you type if there is nothing else in this editfield. If some other information is already in there, you just leave a space at the end of the other details and type the s10=50 at the end of it. This will now mean that your signal can lapse for up to five seconds without your MODEM cutting off. F. To finish, now TAB to "OK", then to another "OK", followe by TABBING to "Cancel" and press ENTER on each of those buttons. G. Close the Control Panel by pressing ALT F4. 14. Whilst some screenreaders automatically make use of Microsoft's Active Accessibility facility (MSAA), others can only use it if it is specifically enabled. JFW and Window-Eyes automatically use MSAA but some versions of HAL require that you manually install MSAA. To enable MSAA for Windows 95 and 98, so that ALT tags and other special screenreader friendly features can be used with HAL: A. Press the Windows Logo key followed by F to open the Find facility, then press ENTER and type in the editfield which you will fall in "msaardk.exe". B. TAB to "Look In" and ensure that C: has focus--you may have to ARROW up and down to achieve this--then press ENTER. C. The msaa.exe file will be found, so just press CONTROL A to highlight this file followed by pressing ENTRE. D. You will then be told that MSAA will be installed, so press ENTER on the "Yes" button. After about 30 seconds you will be informed that installation is finished, so press ENTER on the "OK" button. E. When asked to restart the PC, TAB to "NO" and press ENTER. u return to the Find dialogue box, so press ALT F4 to close this down. F. You now have to enable MSAA in Hal's control panel by pressing CONTROL SPACEBAR, followed by CONTROL TAB to the "General Settings" property sheet. Then press ENTER. G. Now Press TAB until you reach "MSAA Detection" and select it by pressing the SPACEBAR. H. You finish by pressing ESC twice, when MSAA will be loaded and usable by Hal. All you now have to do is reboot the computer before going onto the Internet. 15. If, when using Outlook Express, you experience the system intermittently trying to take you back on line when you do not want this to happen, it may be that you are set up to check the existence of new messages periodically. If you wish to stop this: A. Press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for Options. B. You drop into the "General" property sheet, so TAB down to "Check for New Messages Every" and press SPACEBAR to unselect this. Otherwise, if you still want periodically taking on line to check for new messages but less frequently, just TAB once more to the next line and alter the figure in their to a larger one, e.g. type in 60 if you only want the system to check for new messages every 60 minutes. C. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 16. When running Outlook Express, the program may from time to time, without you requesting this, attempt to take you online. If this is an annoyance to you, you can stop it by: A. With Outlook Express running, press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for options. B. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB down to "Change" and press ENTER. C. Next TAB six times to "Always Dial My Default Connection" and ARROW down once to "Never Dial a Connection" and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. D. Now just TAB once more to another "OK" button and press ENTER to finish. 17. If you can make use of a monitor with Internet Explorer provided that the text on it is large enough, you can change the "Medium" size text on screen, which is the default (standard) way it is set up, by: A. Press ALT V (for View). B. Then press X (for Text). C. ARROW to "Large" or "Largest" and press ENTER. Conversely, if you do not use a monitor and this will not adversely affect anyone else using the same PC, you could select "Small " or "Smallest" to ensure that you get as much text onto the screen as possible. 18. If you are using JAWS 5.0 or later and you are having problems with Websites which employ Macromedia Flash, you can tell JAWS to ignore this and therefore view pages without such as unwanted frequent page refreshing, screenreader stammer, etc. You have to do this in the JAWS Configuration Manager by: A. Press INSERT F2 and then ENTER on "Configuration Manager". B. Press ALT S (for Set Options". C. ARROW down to "HTML Options" and press ENTER. D. Now hold down the CONTROL key and press the TAB key until you reach "Misc". E. On the "Misc" property sheet TAB down to "Ignore Flash on Web Pages" and press the SPACEBAR to check this off. F. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTRE. G. Lastly, leave the Configuration Manager and save your new settings by pressing CONTROL S and then ALT F4 if necessary. ******** >SECTION 3 USING THE INTERNET VIA AN INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP) 3.1. Types of ISPs You can connect to the Net by either signing up with an online service such as Compuserve, who charge a fee for their service; or by signing up with a provider for an Internet "Account", in which case you usually receive a PPP account, many of which are free, except for the cost of the phone calls. The rest of this section concentrates on PPP accounts. PPP stands for Point-to-Point Protocol and allows your PC to link up and fully integrate with the internet. All PPP accounts are in fact versions of IP (Internet Protocol) which is the underlying part of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), which is the way that all computers on the Net communicate with each other. Note: One of the main alternatives to a PPP account is a DOS "shell" connection but this is fast becoming obsolete and is less flexible than a PPP account, e.g. it cannot access online audio and it is unable to filter Web page content. To use a PPP account you need two types of programs: 1. a TCP/IP Stack (also known as an Internet dialler program) to get you connected to the account, e.g. DialUp Networking in Windows 95 and later Microsoft operating systems. 2. Client programs,such as e-mail programs and Newsgroup readers. Some well-known PPP/SLIP programs for Windows 95 and later operating systems which work with the standard Windows winsock.dll driver are: Netscape Navigator/Communicator and Internet Explorer--Web browsers. Realaudio and Shockwave--for sounds via the Net. Eudora, Pegasus and Outlook Express--for e-mail. Free Agent and Outlook Express--to read newsgroups. MIRC and Microsoft Chat--for Internet chatting. N.B.: Winsocs are programs which interface between (act like drivers) TCP/IP programs running in Windows and the Internet itself. 3.2. What You Need to Get Connected with a standard or BroadBand MODEM What you require to get connected is: 1. A fast MODEM, preferably 33.6 KBPS or faster, to connect your PC to the Internet via the phone socket. For slower computers such as 486-based machines, you will be better off using an external MODEM or internal "hardware" MODEM; whereas faster Pentium-based machines will not only work with both of the foregoing types of MODEMs but also with the more economical "software" internal MODEMs. It is also recommended that you obtain a V90 or higher standard MODEM to avoid compatibility problems with some ISPs. You can also rent a very much faster broadband permanent connection to the Nett via a cable provider, such as Onetel, NTL or Telewest in the UK. Other broadband options are provided via ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber link), such as that provided by BT, which uses the existing coper wire phone lines, but will require a more expensive ADSL modem, although BT have recently started to give these away if you sign up for their packages online. More recent broadband connection methods are via wireless and satellite, the former using microwaves received by an antenna on your roof, whereas the latter uses TV channels to transmit data like cable does but you still need a standard phone line to communicate with the satellite via your ISP. These four broadband options usually permit you a download speed of between 512 and 2048 KB per second, although some areas can achieve speeds of upto around 8,000 Kb per second. If you wish to run more than one computer via your phone line, you can employ a router instead of an ADSL modem. In either case, you will also require a micro filter for your phone wall sockets. In the UK, since the second half of 2003, you can, in some areas, even rent a fifth type of broadband connection. This is known as "BroadBand over the mains" and is a Symmetric DSL connection (SDSL), having both upload and download speeds currently at 1 megabit per second. Speeds of two or three times this are planned for next year. You need a special MODEM to run this, which simply plugs into your standard 3-pin mains socket. To clarify, broadband is defined by the official UK regulator (OFCOM) as an Internet connection which is always on and is at a minimum speed of 128 kilobits per second. 2. A cable from your computer into a standard phone socket on the wall. This usually comes with your MODEM. Warning 1: It is not advisable to use standard quality reel-type multi-strand phone extension wire to extend a MODEM cable to a far-off phone socket. It may work OK but is likely to cause your line to the Internet to be dropped more than would otherwise be the case. The wiring inside this type of extension, whilst fine for robust telephone communications, is not of good enough quality to transfer the delicate signals of many MODEMS. You should extend any cabling with single strand, copper cabling, which can be purchased from BT shops. Warning 2: What is known as the "gain" on a phone line is basically the speed at which or sensitivity with which a phone line carries messages. The standard gain on a BT phone line is set to zero. This is fine for robust telephone voice communications but often not good enough for sensitive MODEM signal transfer, particularly if the line to your nearest phone exchange is at a considerable distance. If you are experiencing frequent failed connections to your ISP or regular line cut-offs, you may be able to remedy or at least mitigate this problem by ringing BT and asking them to increase the gain on the line. I am advised by BT that the highest level that they can increase the gain to is 4, as a gain above level 4 is likely to cause echo on the line and thus result in the line getting worse rather than better. 3. A computer fast enough to run Windows 95 or a higher operating system. Fast computers will also permit you to multitask, e.g. listen to realaudio music at the same time as waiting for a large file to download from the Net. 4. A micro filter or splitter for each wall phone socket you intend to use for connecting to the Internet. These micro filters will allow you to use such a wall socket both for your Internet connection and also as a voice phone line connection simultaneously. 3.3. Getting your Windows PC set up for a PPP connection You should: 1. Arrange for a PPP account from a provider who only charges for calls at the local phone call rate. 2. Obtain a software disk from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) which contains the TCP/IP software and possibly a full browser such as Internet Explorer, e.g from NTL, Onetel, Dixon's/Pc World's Freeserve (comes with Internet Explorer), Waterstone's (comes with Internet Explorer), etc. All of these incur local phone call charges. One package which has no charges, not even for your online time, is Screaming Net run by the Tempo electrical and electronics retailers, but you have to sign up to have all of your regular phone calls routed via them at their call rates. One of their London branches is on 020 79375166. Their website is at: www.screaming.net but note that this company now seems to have been taken over by another, so their services and terms may have changed. 3. During the installation of the software, type in any passwords and other provider details that are requested. (This can be confusing and difficult for the beginner, so you may need to phone the newuser help line or, even better, recruit a friend with knowledge of such things.) You can get TCP/IP software by either buying it from a vendor, or phoning an ISP such as Freeserve and asking for a free disk or by persuading a friend already on the Internet to download a program from the Net. Note: Things move so fast in this industry that, since I wrote the first version of this manual in April 2000, Cable and Wireless has been bought out by NTL. To discuss NTLs offerings in respect of the Internet, which currently include free internet phone calls provided that you spend at least œ10 a month on standard voice phone calls with them, ring their Customer Services on 0800 0929001. 3.4. Connecting to Your ISP Windows 95/98, Me and XP comes with all the software you require to connect to a PPP account using "Dial-Up Networking". When you finish you can place a shortcut to Dial-Up Networking on your Start Menu or Desktop, or you can create a shortcut key conbination to launch it. This can be useful to use if you want to come offline from the Net at times when your client software has failed to take you off. Otherwise, if you have an always online broadband connection, you will already be online and will not need to use a dial-up facility. To call your account (using a dial-up connection rather than a broadband connection) you run the Dial-Up Network program an press ENTER on the "Connect" button. Do this by: 1. pressing ENTER on your Desktop shortcut (if you have one) or by navigating to Dial-Up Networking by pressing your Windows LOGO key (either side of the ALT keys), then pressing P for Program Files, then pressing A until you get to accessories (press ENTER), then C for Communications (press ENTER), followed by one or two presses of D to get to "Dial-Up Networking" and press ENTER. 2. Dial-Up Networking will run and you will be on the button to "Make New Connection", so ARROW down or right to the name of your current Internet service provider and press ENTER. 3. You will be presented with a list of editfields to complete, which should already be completed, so TAB to "Connect" and press ENTER. If you do not want to have to remember or input your password every time you go online, check (press SPACEBAR on) the "Save Password" option. 4. You will go online to your server within a few seconds (if it is not too busy). 5. You can then run Internet browsing client programs such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, PWWebspeak, Home Page Reader or what ever you choose to browse the Web with. Of course, if you elect to run these Net surfing programs first, they will automatically connect you to your ISP by grabbing Dial-Up Networking for you and connecting you. This, to some extent, makes the above explanation unnecessary, except for that it is worth knowing what is actually taking place when you go on line and you may also have to go into Dial-Up Networking from time to time to make configuration changes. Note: It is possible to have more than one e-mail account. If you set up more than one account, you can switch between accounts as and when you like. Similarly, you can have several internet service providers and use whichever you like at any time. You can simultaneously download e-mail from several e-mail account inboxes. 3.5. Making Changes to or creating a new Internet Connection If you need to change some of your Dialup Networking details, such as your password, username (log-in name), the phone number used to ring your current ISP, etc, or if you want to set up a completely new ISP connection, you should: 1. Go into Dial-Up Networking as described in 1 above. 2. You will land in a list of your current ISPs, on the "Make New Connection" option. You would press ENTER on this if you wanted to subscribe to a new ISP (see the next sub-section for a solid, real-live, step-by-step new ISP sign up) . On the other hand, if you wanted to make minor changes to your current ISP details, you would ARROW up or down or right or left until the name of it has focus, e.g. BT Internet, Onetel, etc, and then press ENTER. 3. You will now have several titles with editfields which you can complete or change the details in after BACKSPACING out what might already be in their first, e.g. Your ISPs phone number, Username (this is your log-in name), your password (which will be replaced with asterisks so no one can see it), etc. 4. If you press ENTER on "Dial Properties" you can view (and change, if necessary) such things as the number Dialup Networking rings to access your ISP, your own town's area code, the country you are living in, select between "Tone Dialling" and "Pulse Dialling", whichever your home phone uses, then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 5. You will return to the first dialogue you were in, so either TAB to "Connect" and press ENTER to go on line with your new ISP or your old one but with the changed details, e.g. a new phone number for them if they have changed it, or just press ALT F4 to leave the Dialup Networking program altogether. If at 4 above you had been trying to set up a new ISP connection, rather than just adjusting the settings or phone number, etc, for your current ISP, you would have had to type in a name for your new ISP, go to the "Next" button, complete each set of information editfields as they come up until all the information is provided. There is also a "Configure" button if you need to enter this multi-page set of property sheets to make adjustments to your MODEM's internal speed, bit rate, etc, but this should not normally be necessary. 3.6. Solid Step-by-Step Example of Subscribing to a Pay-As-You-Go ISP Service and Creating a Desktop Shortcut to it--The UK2 ISP Service If you are a UK resident and f you currently have all the components you need to get online via an ISP but are not yet connected and only want a basic connection or you want to set up a second ISP connection as an alternative to your current one, try the following UK2 ISP service. Set it up simply as follows: 1. Go to Dial-Up Networking by pressing Windows key, then P (for Programs), then press ENTER on "Accessories", followed by C (for Communications) and ENTER and, lastly, press D (for Dial-Up Networking). 2. You will fall on the "Make New Connection" button, so press SPACEBAR and then ENTER on this to open up the new connection dialogue. 3. In the editfield you come into, type over what is in their with the name of the new ISP you wish to set up or any other name you want to have this known by, e.g. since this is to be set up with the UK2 provider, why not just type in here "UK2". 4. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 5. You now come into the "Area Code" editfield and, since the whole phone number for the UK2 connection is 0845 6091370, you just type the area code of 0845 in here. 6. Next TAB once to the "Telephone Number" field and type the remaining main phone number of 6091370 in here. 7. TAB once again to the Country or Region Code" editfield and, if it is not already on United Kingdom , press the first letter of the country you want until it is highlighted, e.g. press U to eventually get to United Kingdom. 8. Then again TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 9. You should now be told that you have successfully created a new dial up connection called UK2 (or whatever you called it) and you should now TAB to the "Finish" button and press ENTER to complete the procedure. 10. You can, of course, access this new ISP service the long way round via Program Files, Accessories, etc, as mentioned above and get onto the Internet in this way or you can create a Desktop shortcut to it for quick and easy connection and disconnection to the UK2 ISP. To create a Desktop shortcut what you would do is: A. If you have left the Dial-Up Networking dialogue box, Go back to it by pressing Windows key, then P (for Programs), then pressing ENTER on "Accessories", followed by C (for Communications) and, lastly, press D (for Dial-Up Networking). However, if you did not leave the Dial-Up Networking dialogue after step 10 above, you will be able to simply continue as below. B. Move from the "Make New Connection" button you will now be on to the name of the provider you gave above, such as UK2, by ARROWING up, down, left or right to it. C. Now open up a Context Menu by pressing SHIFT F10 and ARROW up to the "Create Shortcut" option and press ENTER. D. You will receive a message saying that you cannot create a shortcut here but offering you to create one on the Desktop instead, so just press Y (for yes) to achieve this. E. Now press ALT F4 to close the Dial-Up Networking dialogue box. F. Now press Windows key M or D to get to the Desktop and then press S until the "shortcut to UK2 shortcut icon is reached. To change this shortcut name to something a little more sensible, just press the F2 key to open up the renaming editfield and then type the name you want the shortcut to be known as in here and press ENTER, e.g. "UK2 Dial-Up". 11. To go on line either: A. In future, to go online to the Internet via this new UK2 Internet service provider, all you have to do is go to this UK2 Dial-Up shortcut on your Desktop and press ENTER on it, when the UK2 0845 6091370 phone number will be dialled and you will be taken online to surf the Net. However, before you get onto the Internet, you will be in the connection dialogue box and will be asked for a username and a password, which are both completed with the word "UK2" before pressing ENTER to go online. Once online, just open your Web browser, such as Internet Explorer, as usual (see the next section for how to do this). or B. Alternatively, you can go onto the Net by launching Internet Explorer first then type into the Address Bar the URL (Web address) you want to go to and then press ENTER. You will be taken to the dial-up dialogue box to select which ISP you want to use to go online with, e.g. if your main ISP is Onetel, this will be selected as the ISP to be used by default (as standard) but if you want to use your newly created UK2 ISP connection, just ARROW down the list of ISPs to "UK2" and then TAB on to "Connect" and press ENTER. 12. To come offline and therefore disconnect from your Internet service all you have to do is launch the dial-up ISP connection again, whether it be UK2 or any other ISP, e.g. via your Desktop shortcut, and then TAB once to the "Disconnect" button and press ENTER. Note that with some ISPs going to the shortcut to Dial-UP Networking on your Desktop is not necessary, as the ISP itself, after you close down your browser, will offer you the options of staying on line or closing your phone line connection. The latter usually happens with the UK2 ISP. Note 1: At the time I added the above sub-section (December 2004), the cost of using the UK2 ISP service was 4p per minute during the day and 1p after 6 p.m. and at weekends, with a minimum of 5p charged for the first 1 to 5 minutes of surfing, which is the same as or very similar to usual 0845 numbers. If you are wondering how you pay for this type of service, what happens is that the cost of online surfing time is added to your BT bill. The UK2 ISP company receives a cut of your online spending for providing the ISP service and BT also receives a cut of expenditure for providing the phone line and the means of billing. Note 2: As an alternative to getting to the Dial-Up Networking utility via your Desktop shortcut or the Windows key and Program Files path, you can also access it by pressing Windows key and E to open Windows Explorer and then press TAB once to a list view before ARROWING down a list of drives/icons/shortcuts to your several drives and a number of useful utilities including Dial-UP Networking, printers, Control Panel, etc. Just press ENTER on any of them to access it. 3.7. List of UK Dial-Up Services (non-broadband) The below Providers supply varying services such as a free ISP with 1p a minute pay-as-you-go for online telephone time. Others will charge the standard local charge for phone calls, the amount you pay depending on whether you go online at peak or off-peak times. Yet other suppliers will provide a package at a monthly charge with either free call charges all of the time or perhaps just after certain times of day and at weekends. Some provide Website space of varying amounts and others may also give you e- mail addresses to use. Technical support call charges can vary greatly from being free (e.g. Global.Net) to up to œ1 per minute (e.g. Virgin.net). Others charge for support at local or national rates. Beeb.net: Tel 0808 1004950. Global.Net: Tel 0870 9098000. BT Internet: Tel 0800 800001. Clarinet: Tel 0845 355100. Freeserve: Tel 0990 500049. MSN Network: Tel 0870 6011000. Onetel: Tel 0800 9570700. Telewest: Tel 0800 9535383. UK Online: Tel 0800 0534500. Virgin.net: Tel 0500 558800. 3.8. List of UK Broadband Providers The below are all either broadband or cable providers. Their download speeds vary from 128 to 2048 Kbit/s (kilobits-per- second) and some work even faster. The most common download speed is 2048 Kbit/s. UPload speeds may vary from 128 to 3072 Kbit/s (an eighth of a Gb to 3 Gb) but this will improve year on year. Connection fees can range from nothing to over œ200. Some of them provide no Website space for you to create your own Website in, whilst others include up to 500 Mb of Web space. Some provide no e-mail addresses and others provide several addresses. BT Openworld: Tel 0800 800001. Clarinet: Tel 0845 3551000. Freeserve: Tel 0870 0102462. Nildram: Tel 0800 0260950. NTL: Tel 0800 831234. Onetel: Tel 0845 2720052. Pipex: Tel 0870 6004454. Plusnet: Tel 0845 1400200. Telewest: Tel 0800 9530454. Tiscali: Tel 0800 5421717. Zen Internet: Tel 0870 6000971. Lixxus: Website www.lixxus.co.uk. This provider has both monthly payment and pay-as-you go broadband offerings. Note: If you want to make a preliminary check as to whether your phone line/exchange are able to provide you with a broadband ADSL connection, you can do this by phoning the BT check line service. Just ring 17070 and then choose options 3, then 1 and lastly 2 and replace the receiver. In a few seconds you will be phoned back to tell you if your line is or is not suitable. 3.9. Broadband Over the Mains Provider Since the second half of 2003, you have been able, in some areas, to obtain a broadband over the mains Internet connection which works by plugging a special MODEM into your 3-pin mains electric supply. This currently runs both uploads and downloads at 1 megabit per second (mbit/s) and is expected to increase to 2 or 3 mbit/s next year. For more information surf to: www.southern-electric.co.uk or www.hydro.co.uk 3.10. Changing Your Broadband Provider Should you be discontent with your current broadband provider, you can change them to another provider. However, you would be advised to check certain facts before doing this if these are important to you, e.g. that the new broadband ISP is able to support your current e-mail address and that they can take over any Website you may have. For example, The procedure to change an ADSL broadband ISP in the UK is to contact the ISP you wish to move to and they will then contact the BT Wholesale section to request that your current broadband service be migrated to them from your old ISP. BT Wholesale will then inform your old ISP that you wish to migrate and will allow 10 working days for it to agree to the transfer. On agreement, your account will be transferred and your new ISP will be charged œ35 by BT, which your new ISP may absorb itself or pass onto you. If the old ISP refuses to let you migrate your current account, you should phone them to try to persuade them to do so and if they still refuse, you can always simply close the old account without migration and then start again by opening a new account with your new ISP (but your e-mail address, Website details,etc, will, of course, become invalid in this case). ******** >SECTION 4 INTERNET EXPLORER VERSIONS 5.0, 5.5 AND 6.0 Whether you use Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 or 6.0, there are few differences in their contents or how they work. Of note is that versions of IE later than Version 5.0 feature a "Receipts" property sheet which can be found within Tools, Options. Similarly, IE6 provides a feature not in earlier versions, called "Privacy Report", which is on the View menu and has an associated "Privacy" property sheet in Tools, Options. Both of these additions will be covered in this section as well as the other main features pertinent to all three versions of Internet Explorer. However, note that IE6 requires at least Windows 98 to run. 4.1. Internet Protocols, Server Names and File Paths When you go onto the Internet with a browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, etc, you will be using certain protocols and server names, and you can also designate a directory or folder or particular document path if you know this. There are therefore three elements to such a URL. Firstly, the protocol is the HTTP:, FTP:, USENET, GOFER, etc, element of an Internet address (URL). Secondly, there is the server name, which may comprise the server computer name or the domain name and possibly some other identification details. Thirdly, the path contains directory/folder names and eventually a filename (document or program). For example: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/wordtips.htm where the protocol is the "HTTP:" part, the server name is "www.microsoft.com" and the path is the "enable/wordtips.htm" part. For more information on protocols and download procedures, see "FTP File Downloads" in Section 13. When you are on a particular Web page in Internet Explorer, having activated one or more links since being on the home page, you can observe (and make a note of if you wish) the path to that particular page by moving to the line underneath the Menu bar and observing the "Address Bar". You will probably have to do this in your screenreader's mouse or navigation mode. For instance: www.hj.com/tutorials/wordtutor.html but you have to ensure that the "Address Bar" is turned on in the "View" menu by pressing ALT V, T and then ARROWING to "Address Bar" and pressing ENTER to check it on if it is not already checked. In future, if you wish to go straight to that particular wordtutor.html file or page, you could just type the path to it straight into the Address Bar when you start Internet Explorer (see the steps to follow below for more details). Note: The different levels of directory leading to the program or document you wish to reach are separated by forward slashes, not back slashes. 4.2. Launching Internet Explorer There are several ways you can start Internet Explorer running. See which of the below methods you prefer. 4.2.1. Launching Internet Explorer from its Executable File on Your Hard Disk You can start Internet Explorer from its place of residence on your hard dis by: 1. Press Windows key and release it. 2. Then press P (for Programs). 3. Either ARROW down the list of programs in here to "Internet Explorer and then press ENTER or press I (for Internet Explorer) to open it without having to ARROW to it. 4. Internet Explorer will loadin and start for you to either go onto the Internet with to view Web pages or to view any Web pages you may already have on your computer's hard disk. 5. If you want to go straight onto the World Wide Web, you can do so by typing a site's address in by either: A. Pressing ALT D to go to the address bar (if you have this showing), or B. Pressing CONTROL O to activate the Open dialogue, Then type the site URL in, e.g.: www.tesco.com or web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard and press ENTER, when the required site's home page will then load for you to browse through. Or, alternatively and more conveniently, you can create a shortcut on your Desktop or Start Menu from which to launch Internet Explorer, as directed below. 4.2.2. Creating a Shortcut and Launching Internet Explorer from It I Would recommend that you put a shortcut on your Desktop or Start Menu (if one is not already there) from which to quickly launch Internet Explorer. You can then run it by simply pressing Windows Logo key D, press I until "Internet Explorer" is highlighted and then ENTER on the shortcut label. This will not only be helpful to you but to any sighted members of your family. Alternatively, you could create a unique shortcut key combination, such as ALT CONTROL I to launch Internet Explorer with but this would, of course, not be very helpful to others who do not know your shortcut. Internet Explorer will then launch and you can go onto the Web by typing a site's address in by either: A. Pressing ALT D to go to the address bar (if you have this showing), or B. Pressing CONTROL O to activate the Open dialogue, Then type the site URL in, e.g.: www.tesco.com or web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard and press ENTER, when the required site's home page will then load for you to browse through. To create a Desktop shortcut for Internet Explorer, or any other program or folder for that matter, you would: 1. With Windows 98 and some versions of Windows 95: A. place focus on Internet Explorer by pressing Windows Logo key, then P (for Program Files) and then ARROW down to Internet Explorer. B. Now press SHIFT F10 to bring up a Context Menu and ARROW to "Send To" and press ENTER. C. Lastly, ARROW down to "Desktop" and press ENTER. 2. If the above is not possible with your operating system, the longer way to achieve this is: A. Press Windows LOGO key followed by the letter S, then press T. B. Then press CONTROL TAB to the "Start Menu Programs Property Sheet". C. You will and on the "Add" button, so press ENTER. Then tab to the "Browse" button and press ENTER. D. You will be asked for the executable filename, so type in "iexplore.exe" and then TAB to the list of folders on your c: drive under the "Look In" line. Press right ARROW on C for your c:\ hard disk drive and then Press TAB to a list of the folders on the C drive. Then press P until "Program Files" is spoken and then press ENTER. E. Now press I until "Internet Explorer" is spoken and press ENTER. F. Press I until "Iexplore.exe" is highlighted and then press ENTER. G. Press the TAB key to the "Open" option and then press ENTER. H. Then TAB to the "Next" button and press ENTER. You are asked where you want to place the shortcut, so ARROW up to "Desktop" and then press TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. Note that you pass "Start Menu" on your way to "Desktop", so you could stop there if you wanted to put this shortcut on your Start Menu instead of your Desktop (but remember that your Start Menu can become full so that no more can fit onto it). I. You are asked to select a name for the shortcut and given "Iexplore.exe" as an option. If you want to change this, just type over it, e.g. with "Internet Explorer", and then press TAB to the "Finish" button and press ENTER. J. Now press TAB to the "OK" button and press ENTER to complete the procedure. K. You can now, in the normal way, go to this shortcut on your Desktop by pressing Windows Logo key M followed by I until "Internet Explorer" is spoken and then press ENTER to load it. Note: You can also create shortcuts in the above way for any other file, folder or disk drive on your computer and to Web pages. 4.2.3. Other Methods of Launching Internet Explorer If you do not wish to place a shortcut on your Desktop or Start Menu, Internet Explorer, by default (as standard), is contained within the Program Files folder. You can therefore also run it by navigating to it with My computer or Windows Explorer or by using the "Run" option on your Start Menu. To do this via the "Run" facility you would hold down the Windows key and press the letter R, then type the full path to the executable file in the editfield which comes up. This would be: c:\progra~1\intern~1\iexplore.exe or "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" (ensure that you include the double quotes in the above line) and press ENTER. You should come up onto the start screen for Internet Explorer, but if you are taken to the "Connect" button immediately, press ENTER to go online or just press the ESCAPE key to go to the start screen without going online. Alternatively (and even more conveniently and easily), you can use the above same Run dialogue to type in the appropriate Web page address, Website filename or Website audio file to either open a given Web page, download a specific file or start the playing of a particular audio file by streaming (playing it directly) from the Net. For example, if you wanted to open the Talking computers audio magazine for visually impaired people main home Web page and hear the Talking Computer's Editor's introductory audio file welcoming you to their site, you could do the following: 1. Press Windows Key R. 2. Type into the editfield which you are now presented with the address of this site, which is: http://tc.pressakey.net and press ENTER. 3. Internet Explorer (or whichever other Web browser is your default (usual) browser will launch and (if you are not already online) you will be taken online, the Talking Computers home Web page will display and its introductory audio announcement will be heard. Note: You can do this even if, at the same time, you have another program running such as MS Word, Excel, etc, and if you then wish to return to that first running program, you can simply close your Web browser or press ALT TAB to cycle to it without closing the browser. 4.2.4. Starting Internet Explorer with a Blank Page or Starting it with a Specific Home Page Automatically Loading If you like, you can make Internet Explorer launch with a blank page rather than waiting for a specified page on the Net to load in every time you go online. Conversely, you can take the opposite approach and have a given page you like to go to and have regularly loaded in when you go online. Do this as follows: To start with a blank page and therefore not have to wait for an unwanted page to load before you can continue: 1. With Outlook Express running, press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options). 2. You will be in the "General" property sheet, so TAB to "Use Blank" and press ENTER. 3. Now SHIFT TAB back to "OK" and press ENTRE to finish. To specify a given home page to open each time you go online: 1. With Outlook Express running, press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options). 2. You will be in the "General" property sheet and should be on the "Home Page Address" editfield, so just type in here the Website home page address (URL) you want to have opened every time you go online, e.g.: web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard for my own Website home page. 3. Now SHIFT TAB back to "OK" and press ENTRE to finish. 4.3. Internet Explorer Temp File Cache Size Once you have opened a Web Page it is automatically saved to a temporary folder in your \Windows folder. If you then want to go back and look at this same page again, Internet Explorer will access this on- disk page, rather than taking time to open it again from the Net. This speeds the process up. You can speed things up even further by increasing the size of your cache (amount of disk space devoted to this), if you have plenty of free hard disk space. To do this: Press ALT T, O, and in the "General" property sheet TAB to the "Temporary Internet Files Settings" button and press ENTER. Then TAB to the "Amount of Disk Space to Use" box and left ARROW to increase this or right ARROW to reduce it. Increasing from 1 or 2 per cent to 10 per cent should make a fair degree of difference. Then press ENTER on OK twice. In the two last dialogue boxes you can view the contents of your temporary Internet folder and empty it if you wish to reclaim some disk space. If you know that you have recently been on a particular Web page which is updated regularly, the quick reload method which Internet Explorer uses to speed page loading up may not suit your needs. In this case, after the on-disk page has been loaded, you can press F5 to "refresh" the page, which means that the browser will be told to go back to the Website and reload the most up-to- date version of the page you want. 4.4. What are Web Pages and How are They Read A Website is a collection of interlinked Web pages on a particular computer on the Nett. The first page is the home or index page. Web pages can contain text, pictures, animations and audio and video clips. Pressing ENTER on a "link" on a Web page may take you to another link on that same page, to another page on the same Website or to a page on another computer altogether anywhere else in the world. When you have loaded a Web page of text and pictures and the text on that screen has all been automatically read to you (24 lines per screen), you press the PAGE DOWN key to hear the next screen of information. Pressing PAGE UP takes you back a screen of information and reads it. Pressing CONTROL PAGE down moves you to the next page and CONTROL PAGE up takes you back a page. Up and down ARROW keys should permit you to read the page a line at a time, otherwise do this in your screenreader's navigation or mouse mode. Pressing the TAB key moves you forward to the next element on the current page, e.g. link, button, editfield, etc, whereas pressing SHIFT TAB takes you back an element. If you want to go back to the link you were last at (previous page, previous site, etc), you press ALT LEFT ARROW key. If you want to go forward a link, you press ALT RIGHT ARROW key. (Remember, these two latter commands do not work if you are using HAL 5X.) To return directly to where you first started out, i.e. your opening page when first launching your browser, press ALT HOME. Internet Explorer also has a Go to visited page history feature, so that you can view and go back to any page you have already been to in the current surfing session. You get to this history by pressing ALT V (for View( and then O (for Goto) and ARROWING up and down the already visited page names and pressing ENTER on any of them. You are likely to find that every time you open a new page within a site, you are presented at the top of the page with the same list of pictures, advertisements, logos, navigational bars with image buttons on them, list of links to go to, etc. The relevant section of the new page you have loaded may only appear halfway down the new page. You will have to ARROW or TAB quickly past all of this time and again to find what you want, which is tedious but necessary, unless your screenreader has a special jump past header links shortcut or links only links list facility which allows you to go easily to a specific link, put links in alphabetical order, display only unvisited links, etc, such as is available with the JFW 3.7 INSERT F7 and INSERT F9 commands, The Window-Eyes 4.0 INSERT TAB and CONTROL TAB commands or by downloading MS Powertoys and using its SHIFT F10 and "Links List" option. Another way to quickly get past these repeated header links is to press PAGE down once or twice until you jump past them or, if the page has frames, press CONTROL TAB once or twice to jump past the header frames. As you move around a Web page, in addition to encountering readable text, you will come across icons and images (pictures) which are meaningful to a sighted person but may be meaningless to a screenreader. Your screen reader may only be able to announce such as "image" or "bitmap" (or just say nothing) when it falls on these pictures. However, if the Webmaster (the person who wrote the Web page) has done his job thoroughly, he should have placed text titles at the side of these icons which your screanreader can read out to you to clarify what the picture is or what will happen if you press ENTER on an iconised link. These text titles are known as "ALT tags". Some Websites employ what are known as "frames". A good screenreader should be able to allow you to negotiate frames but some cannot cope with them very well. A frame is an area on a Web page where similar types of information is stored but there are likely to be several frames on screen at once and, depending upon what you do in one frame, the layout and content of another frame may change. this usually makes browsing such sites more difficult, although not necessarily impossible. The more up-to- date and better quality screenreaders can now deal quite well with frames and have special keystrokes to do this. The standard Windows keystroke to move from one frame on a page to another is to press CONTROL TAB until you get to the frame you wish to look at and then you can ARROW down the information in the frame you are currently on. CONTROL SHIFT TAB moves you backwards through frames. 4.5. Reading Web Pages Offline Remember, provided that you have a reasonable sized cache on your hard disk to hold already visited Web pages, you can always go to these already visited pages again without being online and incurring phone costs. You may wish to do this if a particular page is very big, with hundreds of links and considerable amounts of text. You achieve this in the normal way by pressing CONTROL O, typing in the Web page address and pressing ENTER. Internet Explorer will attempt to take you online but you just TAB to the "Work Offline" option and press ENTER. The on-cache page )providing it exists on your hard disk) will immediately be loaded for viewing in the usual way. If you decide that you want to visit a specific link on the page, just press ENTER on it, when you will be taken to the "Connect" button to go online and find it if it also is not already on your hard disk cache. If this too is in your cache, then it will be opened immediately without you being taken online. You can, in fact, save much time by quickly going through all of the links on a Website which interest you, starting with the home page, opening them all one by one to get the related pages dumped onto your hard disk. You can then, in the normal way, view the pages and use the links on them to open other on-cache pages without being on line. You can do this no matter how deep the layers of sub-pages and sub-links go. However, you will not be able to complete and then later submit things like order forms with purchase basket details, credit card details, etc, without first going online, normally via a Secure information server. If, once you have come offline to examine the several pages you have downloaded to cache, you press ENTER on a link which does not have a corresponding page in your hard disk cache, you will be taken online to that page. One other thing you should keep in mind in respect of revisiting Web pages on-cache is that, if the page has been in your cache for a long time, it may be out of date, i.e. the site it came from may have been updated since you originally visited it. In this case, you will need to go back on line to obtain an up-to- date cache copy of the relevant page or pages, which will overwrite your original page or pages. 4.6. E-Mail Links on a Web Page Many Web pages, particularly the home page, will contain an e- mail link, so that you can press ENTER on this and then type in a comment, request, etc. This link is often labelled "Send Mail". What actually happens when you press ENTER on such a link is that your default e-mail software will launch, e.g. Outlook Express, and you can then complete the e-mail details in broadly the usual way (see from step 4 in "Sending E-Mail" in Section 8 below for step-by-step instructions). The "To:" line of the e-mail header will have automatically been completed for you with the recipient's e-mail address. After sending your e-mail message to your e-mail Outbox, you will be returned to the Web page from where you opened the e-mail client to continue surfing. Later you will need to activate the send facility on your e-mail program to finish the e-mail message sending process. It is worth noting, however, that if you have a lengthy message to send, you do not have to type it at the above online stage. You can, instead, after pressing ENTER on the "Send Mail" link, simply press ALT S to save the uncompleted message to your Outbox, when only the e-mail "To:" address details will be saved. Then, later, go into your Outlook Express Outbox, press ENTER on the message and then complete the "Subject":" line and the whole message body whilst offline. Finish by sending the message as normal with ALT S followed by CONTROL M. 4.7. The Internet Explorer Favourites Folder The favourites facility permits you to record and save the whereabouts of given Websites, Web pages and links on pages you visit and would like to quickly return to in future. The favourites folder already has a number of already set-up favourite places to be taken back to in it and you add others yourself. The favourites folder is quite flexible, as demonstrated below. You can export and send favourites elsewhere, move them around, rename them, create sub-folders for them, print them out, sort them by name within their current folder, view their properties, and so forth. 4.7.1. Using the Favourites Folder and Adding More Favourites to It You can place your favourite URLs (Internet addresses) in the Internet Explorer favourites folder and organise the subfolders in this folder but you must remember that Windows 95 uses this same favourites folder in which to save favourites from other programs. To bookmark or add the current page (on the Web site you are presently at) to the favourites folder, press ALT a, and press ENTER on "Add to Favourites". You will be offered a filename for the page, so if this is acceptable just press ENTER. If not, type a different filename into the editfield you will be in and press ENTER. To go to one of your favourite Web pages, as bookmarked above, press ALT A (for Favourites) and ARROW down through the favourites folders, press ENTER on the one you want and ENTER on the page name that you want. 4.7.2. Viewing the Contents of Your Favourites Folder To view the contents of your favourites folder, press ALT A and ARROW down the list and press ENTER on any of the menu options (but you may have to go into your screenreader's mouse navigation mode to view the contents). An alternative way of displaying the contents of your Favorites folder is by using the Run dialogue of Windows, e.g. press ALT R, type favorites (American spelling) into the editfield and press ENTER.You can then ARROW up and down and left and right and press ENTER on any of the favourites to be taken online or to be taken into a sub-menu of favourites if one exists. To leave this favourites list, press ALT F4 once or twice. Note that you enter favourites in this way without having Internet Explorer running at the time and that you must use the American way of spelling favorites. 4.7.3. Creating Folders and Sub-Folders within Favourites To create folders or subfolders within favourites, when on an existing favourites folder or sub-folder, press ALT A, O, and press ENTER on the "Create New Folders" button. You can also delete favourites from this dialogue and move files from one folder to another. When you create a new favourites folder, it appears on the favourites menu. For example, to delete a favourite, press ALT A, O, and then ARROW up to the "Favourites" button and press ENTER. The favourites list will open and you can ARROW down these to the one you want to delete and press the DEL key followed by Y to confirm the operation. 4.7.4. Organising, Deleting, renaming, Printing Out and making other Modifications to favourites To alphabetise the contents of your Favorites folder, in order to be able to find given listings in a long list more easily, press ALT A (for Favorites) and then ARROW down to any favourite listing and press SHIFT F10. Now from this context menu ARROW to "Sort by Name" and press ENTER, so that your Favorites list will now be sorted by page title. If you have sub-folders of favourites running off from your main list, you will have to open each folder and use SHIFT F10 to be able to alphabetise each sub- folder. Note that there are numerous other actions which you can effect from the above Context menu, such as deleting a favourite, renaming a favourite, etc. Similarly, to get the favourite you are currently on in the favourites folder/list, press SHIFT F10 and then ARROW down through the list of possible actions you can carry out on that favourite listing and press ENTER on it to achieve that action, e.g. to print its details out, to rename it, to delete it, etc. 4.7.5. Saving and Exporting a copy of Your Favourites Folder and of Your Cookies for Safe Keeping or for Use on Another Computer For example, to export and save a copy of your favourites folder: 1. Press ALT A to open the folder. 2. Press ALT F (for File) and then I (for Import and Export) and then press ENTER on "Next". 3. You will now be in a list containing four choices, namely to import or export favourites or to import and export cookies. ARROW to "Export Favourites" and press ENTER. 4. To highlight all favourites for exporting, press CONTROL A and then ENTER on "Next". 5. You now export to a file by TABBING to a filename editfield which, by default, is usually set to save to C:\My documents\bookmarks.htm, so if this suits you, accept this path and filename by TABBING to "Next" and pressing ENTER. If you would like to save elsewhere, provide the path to this location but ensure that you give the file an .htm extension, because it is saved in HTML format, e.g.: a:\bookmarks.htm 6. Lastly, press ENTER on "finish" and then on "OK". 7. You can now deal with this favourites file in two ways, either: A. On your current or another computer, go through the same procedure as above but at step 3 select "Import Favourites" to overwrite the favourites folder on that other machine with the saved favourites folder. B. Alternatively, if you do not wish to overwrite the favourites folder on another computer, you could also carry this favourites file around on your floppy disk or copy it to another computer so that when you wish to go online to any of your favourite Websites, you can just launch Internet Explorer, press CONTROL O to open the Open dialogue and then type the favourite filename in to open a list of your favourites links, e.g. type in A:\bookmarks.htm. Now ARROW or TAB to the site link you want and press ENTER on it to be taken online to that location. Note 1: At step 3 above, if you had of chosen "Export Cookies", you would have been able to save copies of your valuable cookies for reinstallation if you ever lost them or for copying onto another PC elsewhere, such as your laptop. By default, the cookies text file saves to My documents and is called "cookies.txt". This is covered in detail in Volume 2 of the Internet tutorial. Note 2: Saving your cookies and favourites bookmarks files can be a worthwhile exercise to perform from time to time in its own right as a means of backing up these valuable data files which it may have taken you weeks or months to create and build up. 4.8. Saving a Page or Opened File in Internet Explorer To save a Web page or such as an opened text file, with the page or file on screen, press ALT F, A, type in the path and filename to save to, such as a:\bbcpage or c:\my documents\bbcpage, TAB to "Files of Type" and select the format to save in,e.g. press T for a plain text format, TAB to the "Save" button and press ENTER. You can also TAB to and ARROW through other folders in the above "Save As" dialogue box to save to if you prefer, in the standard Windows way. If you want to read your Web page or text file in a given program, such as a Web browser or Microsoft Notepad, make sure that you save the page in the appropriate format and give the file a suitable filename extension, e.g. nero.htm or nero.html to save a Web page from the Nero Burning-ROM Website in HTML format or tutorial.txt to save an opened text file on screen respectively. Of course, if you wanted to have your file automatically open in Microsoft Word, then you could save it as a rich text (rtf) or text (txt) file but specify that it has a .doc extension. When, after saving the above page, you want to read it in such as Microsoft Word or MS Wordpad, press CONTROL O and type: c:\my documents\bbcpage.txt or whatever you called it, in the editfield. Press ENTER and Word or Wordpad (or most other editors and word-processors) will open the file for you. You can, of course, also use Microsoft Notepad to do this when Internet Explorer has been shut down by using Notepad in the normal way via the Open option on the File menu. Note: By default, Internet Explorer automatically saves copies of the Web pages you have already been on and the cookies you have downloaded in the Windows folder at: C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\ under a filename such as Index.HTM or Index.html or whatever other name the HTML file originally had. So, if you want to look through these and possibly open one of them for reading offline, you should use CONTROL O and type the path in in Internet Explorer; or use the Run dialogue (ALT R) to do this; or, if you do not know the exact filename of the HTML file, navigate to it using Windows Explorer as usual. 4.9. Downloading a File from the Net or Opening it Online When you are on a link on a Website which permits the downloading of a file and you activate this link by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on it, for example, a file with such as a .zip extension, you will normally be placed in a dialogue box which you can TAB through and which offers you two options. The default option is "Save this Program to Disk" for you to download the file and save it to your hard disk. The second option, which you would need to ARROW to, is "Run this Program from its Current Location", which permits you to open the file and run it from its Website location before deciding whether or not to download and save it. In the vast majority of cases, you should elect to save the file to disk, so that you can then later run your virus-checker on it to ensure that you have not downloaded a virus with the file, particularly if the file is an executable file with such as a .com, .exe or .dll extension, or a word-processor file. After choosing to save the file to disk, you will be given the file's current filename to save it to or you can type over this filename with a filename of your own choice. The second option, to open and run a file or document from its current location, is not normally recommended. Having said this, if the file you may wish to run from its current Website is not an executable or word-processor file and you want to have a glance at it before downloading it or you want to listen to a sound file before downloading it, you can do so. This should be safe to do with such as plain text (.txt) files and sound files as these are not virus carrying executable or macro carrying word-processor files. The file will open in its associated program for you to view or listen to, e.g. Notepad with .txt files or Windows Media Player with such as .wav files. 4.10. Doing Two Things at Once in Internet Explorer You can continue to browse the Net whilst a file/program is downloading. Whilst the download is going on, press ALT F, N, and hit ENTER on "Window". You can now use the standard keystrokes of CONTROL O (or ALT D), type in the page address and press ENTER, to open a new Web page. Similarly, you can open to windows as above but this time to load in two Web sites with similar information on them to compare each. You just view what is on Website/page one and then press ALT TAB to move to the second Website/page to view that and use ALT TAB again to move back to the first page. You can close any of the windows by pressing ALT F4 on them. 4.11. Sending a Copy of a Web Page or Link to Someone Else When you have a Web page on screen and would like to send a copy of it to someone else, you can do this by: 1. Press ALT F (for file), E (for send). 2. You will now have three choices which you can ARROW through: send "Page by E-Mail", send "Link by E-Mail" or send "Shortcut to Desktop". The first of these will ensure that your Web page is appended to an e-mail message and sent where you want it to go; the second will send a link (URL) by e-mail, so that the recipient can press ENTER on this and be taken to the Web page you have on screen right now; and the third option will place a shortcut on your Desktop to the page you are currently on, so that you can press ENTER on this in future to have Internet Explorer loaded and take you straight there. For this example, I will deal with the "Page by E-Mail" feature. 3. With focus on the "Page by E-Mail" line, press ENTER, when Outlook Express will be launched and you will find yourself in the "To:" editfield to type in the e-mail address of the recipient. Then TAB to "CC:" and "Subject:" and complete these as normal. 4. Finally, you TAB to the message body, where your Web page will be displayed. you can type above this a note to the recipient if you wish. 5. With the process completed, just send the e-mail as usual, with ALT S, ENTER and then CONTROL M. Then exit Outlook Express to go back to Internet Explorer by pressing ESCAPE and N for no. (See Sect