internet services for the government of malta user guide

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June 2002

Section I General Notes ..................................................................................................1 Overview ........................................................................................................................2 Usage...............................................................................................................................2 Restrictions on Internet Access ...................................................................................2 Standards ........................................................................................................................3 Users’ Responsibilities ..................................................................................................3 Protecting Your Internet Account ..............................................................................4 A Word About Viruses .................................................................................................5 Netiquette.......................................................................................................................6

Section II Using The Internet .........................................................................................7 Introduction...................................................................................................................8

A Brief History.........................................................................................................8 The World Wide Web .............................................................................................8 The URL ...................................................................................................................9 Cookies ....................................................................................................................10 Protecting Your Privacy Online...........................................................................13 Spam ........................................................................................................................14 Search ing the Web .................................................................................................16 Refining Your Search .............................................................................................17

Using Internet Explorer..............................................................................................20 Home Page .............................................................................................................20 The Toolbar ............................................................................................................21 The Location Bar ...................................................................................................21 The Menu Bar.........................................................................................................21 The Access Indicator .............................................................................................21 The Status Bar ........................................................................................................22 The Scroll Bar.........................................................................................................22

Some Browser Tricks ..................................................................................................22 History.....................................................................................................................22 Favourites ................................................................................................................23

Glossary .............................................................................................................................25

Section I – General Notes

Internet Services for the Government of Malta – User Guide Page 1

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The Government of Malta provides access to the Internet via its communications backbone, the Malta Government Network. This Guide is intended as an introduction to Internet services for users who are new to the system as well as users who already know how to use the software but are unsure about specific policies regarding the system used within the Government of Malta (Government).

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The Government Internet service is provided for business use only, and it is deemed to be the property of the Government of Malta. Thus all e-mails, attachments and downloads become the property of Government and any such software or files may only be used in ways that are consistent with their licenses or copyrights. In order to preserve corporate information, electronic information that needs to be maintained for record purposes should be printed together with envelope information and filed as a hard copy using the official registry filing method. The use of electronic communication is subject to the same rules and norms used in any conventional paper based work environment. Personal use of the Internet service is only permissible in exceptional circumstances and on no account must it disrupt the system and / or harm Government’s reputation.

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The Government of Malta is duty bound to prevent access to illegal material and also has a moral obligation to prevent access to material which although not illegal may be harmful to society. For this reason, adequate filtering technology is being used.



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The standard package in use within Government for browsing the Internet is Microsoft Explorer. Full details on all software standards and versions in use within Government are available on the CIMU website at http://www.cimu.gov.mt

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As a Government Internet user you have various responsibilities to ensure that the system is used effectively and in its intended manner. Some dos and don’ts are outlined below. Do: w keep your password secret and secure; w ensure you have the latest approved version of the software on your computer; w log out of your Internet account if you are to leave your computer unattended; w use the Internet for personal purpose in exceptional circumstances only and

provided that it does not disrupt the system and / or harm Government’s reputation.

Do NOT: w disclose the password or other means of access; w use someone else’s password or other means of access in a computer; w use the Internet to conduct any personal business or for commercial or

promotional purposes; w enter into any contract over the Internet without approval from the appropriate

Head of Department or his/her delegate; w download files from the Internet without adhering to existing policies on virus

control; w download material (including software) that is not work related; w download items from the Internet that may be considered offensive,

pornography, illegal material, etc.



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Passwords are a basic security service within Government and are used as the primary authentication method. Passwords are intended to ensure that account holders have an appropriate level of security and should be used by the individual users in order to maintain accountability. You are responsible and accountable for Internet activities done using your account and should therefore ensure that only you have access to it. To ensure that your account remains secure you are advised to follow the guidelines below. 1. Change Your Password:

On logging in the first time change your password to something only you know by following the steps below: w Start Internet Explorer and if prompted for your login type your user name

and password; w In the Address line of Explorer type http://govnetusers.mitts.net/ w Click on Change Password w You will be prompted to enter your username and old password together

with your new password which is to be entered twice for verification purposes.

Notes: - Minimum password length is 8 characters; - Using a mixture of letters and numbers makes your password more

difficult to guess; - Do not have a password that is easy for someone to guess such as a name,

dictionary word, acronym or anything linked to personal information; - Never write you password or share it with other persons; - Change your password on a regular basis;

2. Close Your Session: w Always log out after a browsing session; w If you do not log out and the browser is unused for 30 minutes, there will

be automatic logout by the system; w To log out visit http://govnetusers.mitts.net/

w Click on Disconnect from Internet.



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A computer virus is a program that invades your computer system, hides there, and makes copies of itself. Viruses spread when you launch an infected application or start up your computer from a disk that has infected system files.

Viruses behave in different ways. Some viruses stay active in memory until you turn off your computer. Other viruses stay active only as long as the infected application is running. Turning off your computer or exiting the application removes the virus from memory, but does not remove the virus from the infected file or disk.

Some viruses are programmed specifically to damage the data on your computer by corrupting programs, deleting files, or erasing your entire hard disk.

All computer viruses are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt.

Trojan horses are not viruses; however, they are often thought of as viruses. A trojan horse is a program that appears to serve some useful purpose or provide entertainment, therefore encouraging you to run it. But, like the Trojan horse of old, it also serves a covert purpose which may be to damage files or perhaps plant a virus on your computer.

Many computer viruses turn out to be hoaxes or myths. Hoaxes are false alerts about viruses that don't exist. Please ensure that you have Virus Protection installed on your computer and running at all times.



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We expect other drivers to observe the rules of the road and the same is true as we travel through cyberspace. Here are a few pointers to help you out:

w Avoid writing e-mail messages or posting in newsgroups using all caps. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING!

w To add humour and personality to your messages, use smileys, also known as emoticons.

w Keep your communications to the point. Some people pay for Internet access by the hour. The longer it takes to read your messages, the more it may cost them. This is true whether you post messages to a newsgroup or a mailing list.

w Remember that anything you post to a newsgroup or type during a ch at session is a public comment. You never know who's reading it, or who may copy it and spread it around.

w When posting a message to a public bulletin board, forum, or newsgroup, stick to the topic. Don't indiscriminately post unrelated comments, or worse--advertisements--to every newsgroup you can think of. This practice, known as spamming, will quickly lead to another unpleasant Internet practice, flaming.

w Flame e-mail is an insulting message designed to cause pain, as when someone “gets burned”. Sometimes you might offend someone unintentionally. Be prepared to receive some angry e-mail or be treated rudely in a public discussion. This is called being flamed. If you attack back, you will spark a flame war. To contain the heat, the best response usually is no response at all.

w If you post an ad to a newsgroup, or send it in an e-mail, clearly identify it in the subject line. That way people who aren't interested can delete it.

w FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are handy documents to read before asking questions. Always consult them whenever available.

Section II – Using the Internet


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A Brief History

The Internet was born in the mid 1960's to satisfy the need for a resilient communications system for the US military. A concept was devised to link computers together throughout the country in a manner that even if parts of the system was down, messages could still get through. In the beginning, only government think tanks and a few universities were linked. Basically the Internet was an emergency military communications system operated by the Department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). The whole operation was referred to as ARPANET. In time, ARPANET computers were installed at every university in the United States that had defense related funding. Gradually, the Internet had gone from a military pipeline to a communications tool for scientists. As more scholars came online, the administration of the system transferred from ARPA to the National Science Foundation. Years later, businesses began using the Internet and the administrative responsibilities were once again transferred. At this time no one party operates the Internet; there are several entities that oversee the system and the protocols that are involved.

The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web can be thought of as the illustrated version of the Internet. It began in the late 1980's when physicist Dr. Berners-Lee wrote a small computer program for his own personal use. This program allowed pages within his computer to be linked together using keywords. It soon became possible to link documents in different computers, as long as they were connected to the Internet. The document formatting language used to link documents is called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).



The Web remained primarily text based until 1992. Two events occurred that year that would forever change the way the Web looked. Marc Andreesen developed a new computer program called the NCSA Mosaic (National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois) and gave it away. The NCSA Mosaic was the first Web browser The browser made it easier to access the different Web sites that had started to appear. Soon Web sites contained more than just text, they also had pictures, sound and video files. These pages, written in the hyper-text markup language, have links that allow the user to quickly move from one document to another, even when the documents are stored in different computers.

The URL

Each web site has an address, or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL contains a set of instructions that are read by the browser.

http://www.gov.mt/ protocol domain

http://doi.gov.mt/EN/ministries_and_departments/default.asp protocol domain directory document

w The beginning of the URL contains the protocol. This also tells you the type of resource or method of access at that address. For example: - http a hypertext document or directory; - ftp a file available for downloading or a directory of such files; - news a newsgroup; - telnet a computer system that you can log into over the Internet; - WAIS a database or document in a Wide Area Information Search database; - file a file located on a local drive, for instance, your hard drive;

w The second section of the URL reveals the domain.

w Directories follow the domain.

w Lastly is the name of the document. (If no document is named the browser will automatically open any document in the directory named “default” or “index”.



You enter the URL of a site by typing it into the Location bar of your web browser, just under the toolbar.

Most of the URLs you will use start with http, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the method by which HTML files are transferred over the Web. Here are some other things to know about URLs: w A URL usually has no spaces. w A URL always uses forward slashes (//). w If you enter a URL incorrectly, your browser will not be able to locate the site

or resource you want. Should you get an error message or access the wrong site, make sure you typed the address correctly.

w You can find the URL behind any link by placing your cursor over the link. The pointer will turn into a hand and the URL will appear in your browser's status bar, usually located at the bottom of your screen.

Cookies

Cookies are lines of data sent to an Internet user’s computer by some Web servers when the user’s Web browser visits the server. These cookies can subsequently be read and updated when the browser requests pages from the same server. There are two types of cookies: w Persistent cookies are stored for a length of time that is set by the Web server

when it passes the cookie to Internet Explorer. These cookies are used to store state information between visits to a site.

w Per-session cookies are used to store state information only within a session.

These cookies are cached only while a user is visiting the Web server issuing the per-session cookie and are deleted from the cache when the user closes the session.



Cookies can only contain as much information about you as you disclose on the site that set the cookie. Cookies cannot read from your hard drive or get your e-mail address or any other information from your browser's user preferences unless you actually fill out a form online and send it in. If you did that, the information could then be saved inside a cookie, and the next time you visited the site, the server would be able to “remember” that information about you. Whenever a web browser requests a file from the web server that sent it a cookie, the browser sends a copy of that cookie back to the server along with the request. Thus a server sends you a cookie and you send it back whenever you request another file from the same server. In this way, the server knows you have visited before and can coordinate your access to different pages on its web site. For example, an Internet shopping site uses a cookie to keep track of which shopping basket belongs to you. Note: The cookie is stored as a text file on your computer. Cookies cannot be used to execute code (run programs) or deliver viruses.

Problems with Cookies

Cookies make a lot of things possible that would be impossible otherwise, however there are several of the things that make cookies imperfect: w Cookies on shared computers:

Any computer that is used in a public area or in an office environment can be used by a number of different persons. If you use a public computer to purchase something from an on-line store, take care to disable cookies before your session or to remove any cookies afterwards as the store will leave a cookie on the computer, and someone could later try to purchase something from the store using your account.

w Cookies get erased:

If you delete cookies from your computer, and re-visit a site for which you previously had a cookie, that site will think you are a new user and assign you a new cookie. This tends to distort the site's record of new versus return visitors, and it also can make it hard for you to recover previously stored preferences. Many sites now store all user information in a central database and store only an ID value on the user's computer. If you register with a user name and a password, you can login, even if you delete your cookie file, and restore your preferences. If preference values are stored directly on the computer then recovery is impossible.



w Multiple computers: People sometimes use more than one computer during the day and will therefore have different cookies on the each computer used. Again, a site that allows registration and stores preferences centrally makes it possible to login to the same account and retain user preferences irrespective of location.

Why the Fury Around Cookies?

Cookies are benign text files, nonetheless there has been an uproar in the media about cookies and Internet privacy. This is due to the fact that a web site can track not only your purchases, but also the pages that you read, the ads that you click on, and so on. If you then purchase something and enter your name and address, the site potentially has a lot of information about you, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

Preventing Any Cookies from being Placed On Your Computer

It is possible to prevent cookies from being sent to your computer using the browser options. In Internet Explorer choose the Tools, Internet Options and click on the Security tab. Select the Internet icon and click on Custom Level… Choose your Cookies preferred settings. Note that if you disable cookies you will not be able to use online services that require them. You may opt to be prompted before accepting a cookie, but at many sites you will be continually closing the warning dialog box, particularly sites that use multiple cookies.



Protecting Your Privacy Online

Today many web sites ask their visitors for personal information. These sites may use personal information to, among other things, send a free newsletter, allow visitors to shop online, help customise a web page, determine what kind of advertisements to display, better understand audience demographics, or allow visitors to enter a contest or game. The point is that there are many different uses for personal information, and many of them offer real value. But before you give out information about yourself, look for and carefully read a site's privacy policy. A privacy policy is a statement that explains how a web site will treat the personal information it collects from its visitors. Reading and understanding the policy will help you to make an informed decision about whether or not you'll share your personal information. An organisation's privacy policy must be easy to find, read and understand. The policy must state clearly:

w what information is being collected;

w the use of that information;

w possible third party distribution of that information;

w the choices available to an individual regarding collection, use and distribution of the collected information;

w a statement of the organisation's co mmitment to data security;

w what steps the organisation takes to ensure data quality and access;

w additionally, in the vast majority of circumstances, where there is third party distribution of individually identifiable information, you should be given the opportunity to opt out.



Spam

What is Spam?

Put simply: w Spam is excessive and unwanted multi-posting of messages; w Spam is often commercial in nature, although what classifies spam is the

quantity not the content; w Spam can also be referred to as Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP) or Excessive

Cross-Posting (ECP).

Dealing with Spam

For most people, dealing with unsolicited e-mail, or spam, is a time consuming nuisance. Very few of these messages deserve any attention, and even fewer deserve a response. The following tips can help you avoid some of the unsolicited mail received. w Don't volunteer to receive e-mail

Sites that provide free services or sites that sell goods or services often ask whether the user wants to receive promotional e-mail. Many of those sites are offering the freebies just to get your information. Unless you have a real need to know of every new product or service of a particular company, decline to receive these optional e-mails.

w Give out your e-mail address only when necessary

If an e-mail address is requested by someone, whether in person, in some kind of application form or through an online form of some sort, ask yourself two things: first, will the organisation or the individual receiving this address send you unsolicited e-mail; second, do you trust that your e-mail will not be sold or given away to a third party. If the answer is yes to either question, then do not give out your e-mail address. Also, do not give out your address if there is no need for any future e-mail contact with you.

w Avoid posting your primary e-mail address on the Web

Whenever you post your e-mail address in chat rooms, newsgroups, and other public Web forums, it makes it easy for someone else to find your address and use it to send unsolicited mail. If you are involved with some kind of organisation or service that has an online member directory, either don't use an e-mail address or use only a secondary address.



w Do not respond to unsolicited e-mail If the unsolicited mail was commercial in nature, especially from one of the many "hot business opportunity" e-mails from unknown organisations, responding to the e-mail or to the commercial offer in any way will likely encourage more unsolicited e-mails. This includes using the remove option on some of these e-mails which in some cases builds lists of e-mail addresses which are used by more spammers.

w Use the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) field when sending e-mail to multiple

recipients If you are sending an e-mail to multiple recipients where the recipients have no formal relationship with one another, put all of those recipient addresses in the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) field to avoid everyone from seeing everyone else’s e-mail address. This is because recipients can only see those address that are in the To and Cc fields.

w Avoid sending unsolicited e-mail

If the recipients of your e-mail do not expect a message from you and if there is no compelling reason to send the message, consider not sending the message at all. Also, if a recipient associates your e-mail address as a source of unsolicited e-mail, all of your e-mails may be ignored or filtered out in the future.

w Do not use a subject line that looks like those used in unsolicited

commercial e-mails Unsolicited commercial e-mails often have similar kinds of subject lines, typically containing either promising quick financial rewards or vague statements like "Hi" or "The information you requested." Because many e-mail readers only display the senders e-mail address and the subject line, a legitimate e-mail may be deleted because it looks like an unsolicited e-mail.



Searching the Web

With billions of web pages online, you could spend a lifetime surfing the Web, following links from one page to another. Amusing perhaps, but not very efficient if you are after some specific information. So where do you start? Searching the Internet requires part skill, part luck and a little bit of art. Fortunately, there are a number of search engines available (such as Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista to name a few) to help with the hunt. The trick is understanding how they work so you can use the right tool for the job.

Search engines break down into two categories--directories and indexes.

w Directories, such as Yahoo!, work like a card catalog in a library and are good at identifying general information. They classify websites into similar categories, such as law firms, universities and natural history museums. The results of your search will be a list of websites related to your search term. For instance, if you are looking for the Louvre museum website, use a directory.

w Web indexes, on the other hand, search all the contents of a website. They are ideal therefore for finding specific information, such as biographical information about a particular artist. Indexes use software programs called spiders and robots that scour the Internet, analysing millions of web pages and newsgroup postings and indexing all the words.

Indexes like AltaVista and Google find individual pages of a website that match your search criteria, even if the site itself has nothing to do with what you are looking for. You can often find unexpected gems of information this way, but be prepared to wade through a lot of irrelevant information too.

Search results may be ranked in order of relevance - the number of times your search term appears in a document - or how closely the document appears to match a concept you have entered. This is a much more thorough way to locate what you want.

Note: Bear in mind that websites tend to change often. These changes are not always reflected in the search engine database, particularly for directories. Typically, websites are registered with search engines when they first go online. After that, changes are not reported generally. To find the most recent information, your best bets are search engines that use Web-indexing robots, software that constantly searches the Internet, recording additions and changes.



Tip: Use your browser’s Find feature through the Edit menu to locate the item you are looking for in a particular page.

Metasearches

Rather than search each directory or index individually, you can submit your query simultaneously to multiple search engines by doing a metasearch. Some metasearch tools include MetaSearch , Mamma and IcySpicy.

Tip: Create a folder called Search Engines under your Favourites menu. Now add these engines to the folder so you can easily access them whenever you want to do a search.

Refining Your Search

Understanding how to perform sophisticated searches of online information will greatly increase your chances of finding what you want. While most search engines let you define your search criteria in very specific ways, not all function identically. Take the time to read the search tips on the respective sites to familiarise yourself with each one's unique properties. For instance, how does the engine handle searches that include more than one word? Most engines, but not all, return results that include any of the words. Because there is so much information online, you will usually want to limit the scope of your searches. Use any of the following methods for faster and more accurate searching:

Boolean operators

The English mathematician, George Boole, developed an algebra of logic, which has become the basis for computer database searches. Boolean logic uses words called operators to determine whether a statement is true or false. The most common operators are AND, OR, NOT (sometimes referred to as AND NOT) and NEAR. These words can be enormously helpful when doing online searches. A few examples show why.



Searching... Results in...

Government AND Malta Documents with both words.

Government OR Malta The greatest amount of matches; documents with either word.

Government NOT Malta Documents containing Government but not Malta.

Government NEAR Malta Ensures that the document contains both terms and that they are located near each other.

Note: The exact syntax each engine uses varies, so familiarise yourself with each one's unique properties.

Capital Sensitivity

If a search keyword is capitalised the search engine will return only documents containing the capitalised word. For example, if you were interested in documents relating to the country of China, capitalising the word and using an engine that supports capital sensitivity narrows down the number of results returned, eliminating documents that relate to china dishes. Note however, that in many instances it is better to leave keywords uncapitalised to allow the engine to return results that contain keywords in either form.

Phrase Searching

When using search terms containing more than one word in a specific order, if you enclose the words in quotation marks, the engine returns only documents containing the exact phrase.

Truncation

If you are looking for information on gardening, you could use it as your keyword. If you wish to broaden your search, use a root part of the word and abbreviate it with an asterisk (garden*). The engine will return links to documents containing gardens, garden, gardener, gardeners, and so on.



Limited Boolean Options

Some engines offer limited Boolean logic with radio buttons or pull-down menu choices such as:

w Documents must include “All terms” (equivalent to using the operator AND between all terms).

w Documents must include “Any terms” (equivalent to using OR between all terms).

Date Capability

Many search engines offer the ability to limit searches by web page creation dates. This is a very useful tool for people doing continuing research on a specific topic. It enables them to limit the results to pages created since their last search. It is also useful when searching for current event topics.

Note: the implementation of this feature varies widely.

Restricting Searches to Specific Parts of a Document

Some engines can limit searches to specific areas, the most common being the document title and URL

Restricting Searches to Specific Areas of the Web

Some engines allow you to limit your searches to just the Web or just newsgroups.

Restricting Searches to Specific Media

Both Google and AltaVista allow you to search for various types of media, including audio, video, and graphics.



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Home Page

When you first launch your web browser, usually by double-clicking on the icon on your desktop, a predefined web page appears. This page is referred to as your home page or start page. You can change your start page by clicking on Tools, Internet Options and typing the desired URL in the Address: box (see below):



The Toolbar

The row of buttons at the top of your web browser, known as the toolbar, gives you access to the most frequently used commands.

The Location Bar

Just under the toolbar, you will see a box labelled Address. This is where you enter the address of a website you want to visit. After you enter it, press the Return or Enter key to access the site.

Tip: The AutoComplete feature saves previous entries you've made. Start typing in the website address and if you've typed a similar entry before, AutoComplete lists possible matches as you type.

The Menu Bar

Located along the top of the browser window, the menu bar offers a selection of things you can do with a web page, such as saving it to your hard drive or increasing the size of the text on a page. Many of the choices are the same as the buttons on the toolbar below. Click once on a word to access the drop-down menu, then click on the selection you want to make.

The Access Indicator

The Access Indicator is the small picture in the upper right-hand corner of the browser. When this image is animated, it means that your browser software, known as a client, is accessing data from a remote computer, called a server.



The Status Bar

At the bottom of your web browser you'll find the status bar. You can watch the progress of web page transactions, such as the address of the site you are contacting, whether the host computer has been contacted and the size and number of the files to be downloaded.

The Scroll Bar

The vertical bar to the right of the browser lets you scroll down and up a web page. You can do this by placing your arrow pointer on the up or down arrows and holding down your left mouse key. You can also place the pointer on the slider control, hold down the left mouse key and drag the slider. If a web page is too wide to fit your screen, a horizontal scroll bar will appear at the bottom on your browser. This scroll bar works the same way.

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History

As with most software, there is more than one way to accomplish a task. Here are a few other features to help you navigate: As you hop from page to page and website to website, your browser remembers where you've been. Click the History button on the toolbar. There you'll find a list of all the web pages you have visited during a specified period of time. To revisit a page, just click on the address.

Tip: Another way move between pages is by clicking the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will appear and you can choose to move forward or back.



Favourites

With millions of websites and more coming online daily, you will undoubtedly find ones you want to revisit. Adding these sites to your Favourites enables you to return to them quickly, without having to retype the addresses. To save a web page you are currently visiting, click on Favorites – Add to Favorites.

Type in the name of the website you are adding or click OK to accept the name automatically entered for you. If you wish to create this link in a particular folder click on Create in >> and choose a folder or click on Create New to create a new folder.

Putting Your Links in Order

Soon you will discover that you've got dozens of websites under your Favorites. Now is the time to organise them into folders. Click on the Favorites button on the toolbar to open the Favorites window. Now select Organise Favorites. Click on the Create Folder button and type in the folder name.. Once you have your folders created you can drag your favourite links into the appropriate folder.



Sometimes the names of the bookmarks are not descriptive, so you may want to alter them. After the dialog box opens, click on the Favourite you want to change. Next, click the Rename button and type a new name.

Tip: Click on the button to keep your Favourites on screen at all times.

Glossary


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Glossary


API: The conventions by which an application program accesses the operating system and other services. Abbreviation for Application Programming Interface.

Autoresponders (Mailbots): Automated programs which are established to return a prewritten message upon receipt of e-mail. Program will grab the return address from the “header” of the message. Typically, these programs will send out the preset message within seconds of receipt.

Boolean operator: A search operator that is used in searches to construct and combine search criteria according to Boolean logic. The Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT.

Bounced Message: A returned, can't deliver e-mail message.

Button: A graphic or textual representation of a command or action. You click buttons to carry out actions, such as opening and closing windows.

Check box: A small, square box that can be selected or cleared. When a check box is selected, the box contains an x or a check mark.

Click: To press and release a mouse button without moving the mouse.

CMC: A messaging interface. Abbreviation for Common Messaging Calls.

Command: A word or phrase in a menu that you click to carry out an action.

Computer System: In this guide a computer system refers to the user’s computer with operating system and application software.

Double-click: To quickly click the mouse button twice without moving the mouse.

Drag: To move an item across the screen by clicking it and then pressing and holding down the mouse button while moving the mouse. For example, you can move a window to another location on the screen by dragging its title bar.

Glossary


E-mail Acronyms: When sending off a quick message, these acronyms can help. Don't overuse.

2L8 too late AAMOF as a matter of fact AFAIK as far as I know B4N bye for now BTW by the way CMIIW correct me if I'm wrong CUL see you later FWIW for what it's worth FYI for your information IAC in any case IKWUM I know what you mean IMHO in my humble opinion IOW in other words KWIM know what I mean LOL laughing out loud NBIF no basis in fact OTOH on the other hand ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing SIG special interest group TIA thanks in advance TNX thanks TTFN ta ta for now

Emoticons: Also referred to as smileys, these symbols help convey the tone, or emotion of an online message. Examples:

:-) happy :) smile :-( sad ;-) wink :-o shocked, surprised :-> devilish :/ hmmm...

Encoding: A method of sending binary (non-text files) with e-mail messages. Common encoding options include: Mime, BinHex, UUencode, etc. Sender and receiver must both use the same method.

Glossary


Flame: An angry or rude e-mail message, often posted as a public response on a discussion group. If you become the target of a flame, avoid responding or you might incite a flame war.

Header: The first part of a received e-mail message which contains information about the routing of the message while traversing the Internet. Much of this may not be displayed if the e-mail software program keeps it hidden (usually an option).

IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol. A method to access and manipulate e-mail that is stored remotely on another computer. Messages do not get transferred to the users computer, making it easier to manage e-mail when accessing from multiple computers.

Lurk: To observe an online discussion without participating. Good idea when first joining a Mailing List.

MAPI: A messaging interface. Abbreviation for Messaging Application Programming Interface.

Mail Bomb: Hundreds or thousands of e-mail messages sent to the same address, sometimes to the central posting address of a discussion group causing an avalanche effect and can bring down a server with the heavy load it causes.

Mailer Daemon: A Unix program used in the management of e-mail messages. Not generally encountered by a user unless the user gets a bounced message.

Mailing List: A collection of e-mail addresses of people who have asked to receive regular mail discussions on a particular topic, and for which they can sometimes submit messages for disbursement to the entire group.

Mailing List Manager: An automated program to handle the administrative functions of adding/removing subscribers, disseminating the message postings, sending topic related and help files, etc. for the entire Mailing List. Example MLMs include Majordomo, Listserv, ListProc, Mailbase, etc.

Menu: A list of commands or options which the user can choose from. A menu opens by clicking the name of the menu (such as File or Help) on the menu bar at the top of a window.

Glossary


Menu bar: An area at the top of a window that displays available menus.

Moderator: Someone who controls the postings of messages in a Mailing List to ensure conformity with the topic and list policies.

Option button: A button that usually appears in a group of related options. Only one option button in the group of related options can be selected at a time. The selected option button is marked by a dot.

POP/POP3: Post Office Protocol. A mail protocol used to service intermittent dial-up connections to the Internet. Mail is held until the user access the account, at which time the mail is transferred to the user's computer.

Postmaster: The person to contact at a particular server/site to get help, or information about that server/site. Also the person to contact to register a complaint about a user's behavior.

Scroll bar: A bar that appears at the right and/or bottom edge of a window or a list when its contents are not completely visible. A scroll bar enables you to scroll through the contents of the window or the list.

Signature Line: A set of 4 - 8 lines of text placed at the end of a mail message to provide the reader with the author's contact information. The signature line is composed and placed into the e-mail software's signature file for automatic appending.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The most common protocol used for transferring e-mail across the Internet.

SPAM: To send unsolicited commercial e-mail, usually in large amounts and indiscriminately, to discussion groups or subscriber bases.

Status bar: A line of text at the bottom of an program window. The status bar displays a brief explanation of toolbar buttons, menu commands, and information about the current session.

Tab: The heading of a window page. If you click a tab, the corresponding page of the window is displayed.

Glossary


Thread: A written conversation on a particular topic in a larger group discussion.

VIM: A messaging interface. Abbreviation for Vendor Independent Messaging.

VIM/SMI: A messaging interface. Abbreviation for Simple Messaging Interface of Vendor Independent Messaging.

X.400: A set of international standards for electronic mail systems.

X.500: A standard way to develop an electronic directory of people in an organisation so that it can be part of a global directory available to anyone in the world with Internet access.