Microsoft's Internet Explorer |
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Tips on Surfing the Net
There are three topics discussed in this document:
| 1.) "For your viewing pleasure" - changing your system settings. |
| 2.) "Too many browsers?" Not really. |
| 3.) "The World Wide Wait?" Getting a good modem. |
"For your viewing pleasure" - changing your system settings
Many people nowadays don't take advantage of their computer's video card. Increasing your system settings so that your system displays thousands of colors and runs in an 800x600 resolution is not at all uncommon. And changing your system's settings doesn't slow down your computer either! So you're getting full advantage of your computer while also enjoying thousands of colors without any downside at all.
What happens when you change your system settings?
When you change your screen resolution, the screen becomes more smaller and you can fit more onto the screen at once. What your computer does is add more pixels onto the screen output and as a result, your screen seems less cluttered. We recommend that you view not only our page but the rest of the Internet with an 800x600 or higher screen resolution. Most people nowadays use an 800x600 screen setting.
When you change the color depth, the computer adds more colors to the system palette. What does that mean to you? That means that you can enjoy up to 32 million colors on the screen simultaneously! Most people, when they get their computers, start out with a 256-color setting. That's not good to view more recent Internet sites with (including ours), we recommend that you have at least 16-bit color (which is actually 65 thousand colors) to view our site and others with. Here is a table that states what the computer says as color and how many colors it actually is.
| 16-color | The computer will only display 16 colors simultaneously, if you've ever experienced Windows in "safe mode" then you've seen 16-colors used. Make sure NOT to confuse this with 16-bit color. |
| 256-color | The computer will display 256-colors. When using Netscape to surf the internet, it will actually make its own palette of 216 colors. Making your web-surfing experience even less visually enjoyable. |
| High Color (16-bit) | Not to be confused with 16-color, 16-bit-color will display 65 thousand colors simultaneously. Great for 'net surfing. |
| True Color (32-bit or 24-bit) | This isn't as common in all computers as in the High Color (16-bit) however this extremely powerful setting handles millions of colors simultaneously. If you have this setting, then your computer can probably also handle high resolutions. |
Using a utility to take advantage of 16-bit or higher color
The Microsoft font smoother is a utility that can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's web site. The font smoother is designed to smooth the edges of your fonts so they don't appear so blocky. It's a great utility and available here: The Microsoft Font Smoother
"Too many browsers?" Not really
Lots of people today get annoyed when they see "Best viewed with..." messages. Maybe it's because they themselves don't have the browser. However, what those people don't usually know is you can download either browser for free. And not only that, you get to take advantage of the web's newest technologies! Such as arrays, cookies, dynamic images, layers, Dynamic HTML, modifiable menus for JavaScript, JavaScript itself, mouseovers, and new window launching. And guess what else? Our site takes full advantage of this! So it's to your best interests that you download a new and better browser today!
Click on the browser of your choice for a free download.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer |
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or |
Netscape's Communicator |
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"The World Wide Wait?" Getting a good modem
It's no doubt that you've had to wait for something to download off the 'net. And most people are turned-off by this, actually who wouldn't be? The 'net wasn't meant to be slow, in fact, those who have experienced a T1 or cable modem connection knows how great it is to click on something and it comes up instantaneously (especialy pictures). What can you do to get a better connection?
You could get a better modem. 56k or X2 technology is nice, but you have to find an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that supports this feature. Or you could go all the way and get a cable modem. The great thing about this (for family households) is that it doesn't tie up the phone line. However, it's expensive. The speed of your connection comes down to once factor: money. If you feel that you spend a great deal of time for the Internet maybe you might wnat to invest in a cable modem, if not, there's other, cheaper options that will more than likely suffice for your need.
