Is my computer internet- ready?

Your computer is waiting impatiently on the desk, ready to make the leap into cyberspace, but are you prepared? Try this quick QUIZ.

DO YOU HAVE…….

A modem, either internal ( located inside the system unit- this is also known as a modem card ) or external? A modem is a device for encoding and decoding the data you send and receive across the internet. The phone line, which is the transmission medium, carries waves in analogue form, and the data on your computer is stored in digital form; thus the modem must modulate and demodulate the data( hence the name ) so it can be carried to the destination and reconfigured, so the receiving computer can make sense of it. The same applies in reverse to get information back to you. Modern modems transmit information at a rate of 56,000 bits per second ( 56 kilobits per second or Kbps ) or as fast as the telephone infrastructure can carry it.

Why would I want to get on the internet ?

Think about the things you have to do today: make a shopping list and brave the supermarket, pay some bills, send a card for a friends anniversary, buy your aunt a birthday present then wrap it and post it, order a reference book from the library for your next big project – you just know they won’t have it in stock – and maybe help with the kids’ homework.

The good news is that, while you’ll still have a cook your own meals and stack your own dishwasher at the end of the day, the internet can help with all the rest of those daily chores, and probably save you heaps of time into the bargain.

The value of the internet increases as more and more people connect to it. Think of the telephone. One telephone by itself is absolutely useless; it becomes useful the minute a second telephone is installed and more and more useful as further telephone are installed. The internet’s the same and, while even five years ago it had a limited appeal, a gee-whiz aura, it has evolved to the point where it is populated by enough companies, services and people to be really useful.

Apart from the must-do things in life, there are stacks of wouldn’t-it-be-nice things the net can assist with as well – shopping for rare, out-of-print- books and records, trawling the world for obscure collectibles on auction sites, or shopping for luxurious lingerie or the finest golf club the world has to offer. If you have a hankering for Moroccan tagine but don’t have a recipe book, the net can come to the rescue, with more recipes than you’d ever have time to prepare.

Introduction of the internet

The concept of cyberspace is difficult to grasp and yet, paradoxically, the internet is rapidly becoming a large part of our everyday existence. Website addresses adorn all manner of advertisement, magazines and television shows have on-line entities to complement their print and broadcast offerings. Services and utilities exhort us to pay their bills by Bpay over the phone or over the internet. The banks, and even the phone companies, are promising us discounts if we opt to visit them on line, rather than in person.

So WHY???, you are asking YOURSELF, is the internet any good to me? Isn't it all just more trouble than it's worth? Another reason to stay trapped in front of my computer instead of getting out into the fresh air?

Absolutely not. The internet, despite its bad press and apparent complexity, can be fun, challenging and above all, extremely useful. This blog serves as an introduction to something more amazing and far-reaching than you could ever have imagined.

WELCOME!