Articles tagged with: 'internet software'

The Internet is probably the largest academic and commercial collaboration in history. It provides numerous sources of information and means of communication.

This section of the guide concentrates on the programs that you will need to make the best use of the resources that the Internet provides.

These resources are provided by servers using protocols which can be accessed by client programs on your computer.

Mozilla Firefox is the guide's choice of web browser, and has a long and interesting history. Originally the Mozilla project was the developers name for the Netscape browser, which was eventually released as an open source project. The browser was later heavily modified, and released to the world as Mozilla Firefox.

The new browser enjoyed an immediate success, introducing tabbed panes, and new security features. One sign of this success was that it caused Microsoft to develop and release a new version of the Internet Explorer browser with similar features.

Mozilla Thunderbird is probably less well known than its sister browser application, Mozilla Firefox, though it shares much of the same history. Indeed, it also shares much common code from Mozilla Firefox, which allows it to use the same web page rendering engine, and extensions (add-ons) manager.

WengoPhone is a VoIP client, less well known than Skype, but which provides more or less the same functionality, while being multiplatform, open source, and using standard VoIP protocols called H.323 and SIP.

The information available in Wikipedia is somewhat dated, however, the project has evolved since it's first appearance in 2005, to become a stable and complete application. One word of caution though – WengoPhone doesn't work very well with low bandwidth Internet connections, such as dial up modems. You'll need to have an IDSL or ADSL high speed connection.

Apart from advising you on choosing from the enormous amount of software available, and showing you how to install, and uninstall the software, the guide also provides pragmatic information on using the programs.

The goal of these tutorials is to provide you with just enough knowledge to make you reasonably competent in the shortest time. They also serve as a basis to become proficient in using one or more of the programs, should you wish to invest further time on them, by offering pointers to more detailed information available on the Internet.

Mozilla Firefox is the guide's choice of web browser. This tutorial will explain using Firefox to browse web sites, among other things. If you haven't already done so, you may want to read about installing Mozilla Firefox in this article.

Mozilla Thunderbird is an excellent e-mail client. This tutorial explains how to set up your e-mail accounts, send and receive e-mails, and use filters to sort e-mails, and get rid of the spam.

WengoPhone is the guide's choice of VoIP client. It provides voice and video conferencing over the Internet. This tutorial will explain how to make contact with other users, make voice telephone calls, and exchange video.