Main Menu  |  Index of Topics  |  ShortList  |   Google Search 
Web Tools and Tutorials
Last checked 12/14/2004

Press CTRL/F to search this page.

The Internet Traffic Report monitors the flow of data around the world. It then displays a value between zero and 100. Higher values indicate faster and more reliable connections.
  • Get New Wise is a site that trys to protect Internet users, especially those who are not technically inclined, from the evil doers. There is a section for kids, also.
  • Odd de Presno's Online World Resources4 outta five is aimed at folks who are just starting to become familiar with the Web. Section headings are Part 1: An Online World, Part 2: Applications, Part 3: Working Smarter.
  • The Tourbus4 outta five has been around for awhile and is very useful. Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin drive this thing and it is worth a visit. Sign up for the newsletter and check out the archives.
  • The Living Internet4 outta five is a one-stop-shop for information about the Internet including email, security, usenet, etc.
  • About-the-Web4 outta five has plenty of tips and tricks for newbies. Covers all aspects of using the Web: email, browsers, search engines, etc.
  • Documents that present information in a question/answer style are used a great deal on the Internet and are called FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). One pretty good FAQ document that can answer your questions is the Boutell WWW FAQ
  • AARP's How-To has basic stuff on various aspects of using the Internet.
  • The GoogleGuide is a tutorial on how to use Google.
  • The List is a list of Internet Access Providers.
  • The Online Connection has a variety of information on Internet service providers. Very useful for comparing the offerings.
  • About MOO's and MUD's
  • Intranet Guide has information on building and justifying Intranets. Includes ROI calculations, white papers, case studies, etc.
  • Cool Tool weeds out the lackluster tools to give you a list of useful downloads.
  • Server Watch has info on creating and maintaining servers including a comparison chart of features of different machines and operating systems.
  • Spreadsheet FAQ's has links to tutorial and support material for all of the major spreadsheet programs.
  • Web Developer's Handbook is a great collection of reference material, links to tutorials, scripts, etc.
  • The Web Developer's Virtual Library of Tutorials has some great material.
  • Intranets has information on creating and maintaining them, links to other sites, myths, issues, etc.
  • Plugin Tester tests out your newly installed browser plugins or you can use it to see if you need a plug-in.
  • Internet Traffic Report shows you whether it's just your computer that's slow or the whole network.
  • Stroud's Internet Resources has links to all kinds of add-ins, plug-ins, browsers, scripts, etc.
  • INTERNIC Whois Enter a domain name and get information on its owner.
  • ARIN's Whois
  • Network Solutions' Whois
  • Better-Whois4 out of 5
  • Whois.net
  • AllWhoIs Now that there are multiple databases owned by multiple domain name companies, you need a tool that will search all databases for a domain. Enter a domain name and get information on its owner.
  • Network Tools4 out of 5 has tools like finger, ping, traceroute, etc. Also has details on IP addresses.
  • DNSStuff.com has Whois, reverse DNS lookups, IP tests, host name tests, email tests, URL deobfuscator, HTML validator, etc.
  • Speed Test checks the speed of your Internet connection. This is sponsored by Microsoft Network and requires that java and javascript be enabled.
  • MacroMedia's DHTMLZone has great material on Dynamic HTML.
  • Popup Killers This site has a collection of links to various programs that kill those pesky popups that show up when you are browsing. Most of these programs are free.
Tutorials
The following sites are especially useful for folks new to the Internet:

  • Learn the Net4 out of 5 has good introductory material, especially the section on browsing .
  • Folks OnLine4 outta five has basic help for the new Web user. The material is said to be written by nontechnical folks.
  • Web Teacher4 outta five - great tutorial on just about all aspects of Internet including using browsers, e-mail, telnet, ftp, newsgroups, etc.
  • A Beginner's Guide
  • How Web Servers Work4 outta five is from the How Stuff Works site and is a very good overview of Web servers and the Internet in general.
  • Connect: An Internet Encyclopedia - excellent reference about the inner workings of the internent. Includes ping, finger, whois, as well as other, more heavy duty material.
  • Web Teacher has brief info on various aspects of the Web including email, FTP, Telnet, etc.
  • Dr. Internet has pretty good answers to questions about the Net although it is somewhat dated. No search engine makes finding stuff difficult.
  • A Brief History of the Internet from the Internet Society.
  • Hobbe's Internet Timeline since 1950's to present. Overview only.
  • Patrick Crispen's Roadmap is educational in an historical sort of way. It is a very old site.


    • These sites are also useful:

  • THE Journal Technical Horizons in Education has an excellent index of sites related to education and the Web.
  • December's Works4 outta five has links to internet tools and education material.
  • Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial "The Teaching Library of the University of California, Berkeley makes the content of its Internet Workshops freely available to the public via this site. The Tutorial includes an introduction to the Internet, a glossary of terms, things to know before searching the World Wide Web, how to create search strategies, and how to refine your topic and identify the search tools to fit your needs. There are also well designed pages on how to construct and refine searches for Infoseek, Hotbot, and AltaVista. The section on AltaVista includes an Interactive Thesaurus for LiveTopics (discussed in the February 14, 1997 issue of the Scout Report). Beyond General World Wide Web Searching provides explanations and links to alternatives to search engines and subject directories, such as "webliographies," searchable databases, online journals and books, and email discussion groups. "
  • Dummies Daily has basic information for the beginner. Also has a mailing list so that you can get a tip of the day about using any of about six software packages including Word, Excel, the Internet, Computing basics, and Quicken.
  • Internet Guidebooks from the Community Learning Network, is material meant for teachers but the short articles are useful for the rest of us also.
  • Free Internet Software This is a collection, put together by Bob Rankin, of free software for expanding your internet use such as free browsers, free RSS readers, etc.
Browsers
About Listservers

About Usenet and News Groups
  • DejaNews searches Internet news groups.
  • Google Groups is a very good search engine to help you find specific news groups. You don't have to subscribe to the group. You just read the messages in your browser. Also, check out Google Groups - Beta - don't know what the difference is.
  • Usenet Info Center4 outta five is a great site for information about Usenet groups.
  • Usenet FAQ
  • Inter-Link Newgroups list has information on newsgroups (Usenet) and their location.
  • Tilenet has searches for Usenet groups, Listservs, and FTP sites.
  • Usenet FAQ has good stuff but may be more than you want to know.
  • News Groups is a useful thing since it is a handy listing of all of the news groups.
  • Public News Servers is a list of alternative news servers.
About Email
  • RealEstateZoo and EmuMail allow you to check your email on any POP server through their service. Your email is displayed in your browser. It's free.
  • Tricks of Effective E-Mail Users is a great intro to using e-mail which includes etiquitte, flaming, how to reply to an e-mail, etc. Great for beginner as well as more advanced users.
  • EveryThingEmail has links to everything that you might want to know about e-mail. Finding e-mail addresses, using listservs, spamming, etc.
  • Ultimate E-mail tells about uses for e-mail that you might not have considered .
  • How to Find Someone's E-mail Address has descriptions of search engines and links to them. Good e-mail address information.
  • E-mail Acronyms and Smilies explains acronyms like TIA (thanks in advance) or IMHO (in my humble opinion) and has a great collection of 'smilies', sometimes known as 'emoticons', intended to communicate an emotion :) .
  • Pegasus where you can get the shareware version of the Pegasus e-mail reader software.
  • Eudora where you can get the shareware version of the Eudora e-mail reader software.
  • Eudora Mail - more info on using Eudora as your mail program.
  • Help for Eudora Mail
  • Info on Eudora Snooping Eudora contacts its home server while you are using it. Read about it and get the fix for it.
  • E-mail Utilities lets you find someone with a new address by looking for their old address. Also, you can send e-mail to celebrities.
  • JunkBusters for the serious e-mailers among us. This site will help you eliminate junk e-mail from your life. It has other sections on such topics as cookies, spamming, getting rid of telemarkters, etc.
  • How to do Everything by E-mail including FTP, Archie servers, Veronica, gophers, etc.
  • Abuse Net You send them your spam mail and they will trace it back to the sender and complain for you.
  • Spam Cop You send them your spam mail and they will trace it back to the sender and complain for you.
  • BanTheSpam is another site dedicated against spam.
  • CAUCE - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email tells you what spam is and what to do about it.
  • Campaign to Stop Junk E-mail has things to do to stop spam and junk e-mail.
  • How to Get That Spammer
  • Lashback Unsub shows a list of sites that you should NOT respond to when they ask you to unsubscribe from their spam.
  • Lashback Untrusted - type in a domain of a suspected spammer and Lashback will tell you if they have any evidence that the domain was used for spamming folks who respond to 'do not send me stuff' on their site.
  • Fidget has 5,000 e-newsletters you can sign up for, for free.
  • How to MUNG Your Email Address MUNG stands for 'mash until no good'. This is an easy technique to prevent your email address from falling into the hands of spammers.
  • MailExpire sets up a free mail account for you that expires in a user selected time period, up to one month. You can use this if you need to have a valid e-mail account to get something off the Web but you don't need to risk giving out your real email account.
  • Sam Spade has a great set of tools to help you find out where your span is coming from. You have to understand the Internet and Email to use these tools.
  • Uncovering Headers in Spam Mail is a heavy duty article about how to find the true source of spam by examining email headers.
  • How to Change the Name that Appears on Your Outgoing Email from the Family Internet folks.
  • Free Email Providers Guide helps with selecting free email accounts.

    • Advice: Use anyword@example.com when asked to enter your email address by a nosey Web Site. Example.com, example.org, and example.net are currently reserved domains for testing purposes. If you use them, you won't inadvertently send mail to a real address.

FTP Sites

 Main Menu  |  Index of Topics  |  ShortList  |   Google Search