THE INTERNET

Connecting to the internet

You can connect to the internet either via an internet cable or wireless.

Most newer desktop computers include a Wi-Fi card but the early desktop computers don't have a Wi-Fi card and so doesn't have a wireless connection feature and so connecting to the internet is solely by a cable or you will have to purchase a USB wireless adapter in order to be able to connect to wireless networks.

You can connect a USB wireless adapter to a desktop computer if wireless connection is the only option available for you (absence of a router or switch provided by an internet service provider -ISP or USB modem)

Figure: USB wireless network adapter

If your desktop computer doesn't have the Wi-Fi card, you will have to purchase a USB  wireless network adapter similar to the above figure and insert into the USB port of the computer.

This will make it possible to see available wireless networks for you to connect to.

Connecting by USB Modem

USB modem enables you to use a phone line to connect to the internet.

Parts of the modem

Step 1

 Put finger on the bottom finger grip, and then lift the front cover of the modem to release and remove.

Step 2

Insert the SIM/USIM card into the SIM/USIM card slot. Insert the SIM/USIM card with the metal contact area facing downwards into the slot, and then push SIM/USIM card as far as possible, shown as the following picture.

Step 3

Put the front cover of the modem flatly upon the body of modem. Direct the front cover towards the locking catches on the sides of the modem and push the front cover of the modem to lock the front cover into its place.

Step 4

Connect the Modem to your laptop or desktop PC.

Plug the USB connector into your computer’s USB port and make sure that it is tightly inserted.

The OS automatically detects and recognizes new hardware and starts the installation wizard.

Connecting by an internet cable

1. Insert the internet cable to the port of the switch/router provided by your internet service provider
2. Insert the other end into your internet port. If connected successfully, the led in the connection end flashes.

Figure: Internet cable

Figure: Network router

Figure: Internet port

If there is internet connection, the connection icon will show on the desktop taskbar. If the cable is connected but no internet, there will be an alert icon in the connection icon.

Figure: Internet connected when internet cable used

Figure: No internet connection

Connecting by wireless

Most laptops have wireless network adapters so you can connect to the internet via wireless.

The wireless source can be either by your router or hotspot on your phone.

To use your phone as a wireless source, you have to turn on your hotspot in order for the laptop to see that network. Your internet data must also be on to access the internet.

Turning on your hotspot on your phone

1. Click on the settings icon
2. Click on more
3. Click on Tethering & portable hotspot
4. Click on Portable Wi-Fi hotspot
5. Click on the switch button to turn hotspot on or off. The name for your hotspot is shown at the left side of the switch button. That's the name you connect to on your computer in the list of available wireless networks.

Figure: Settings icon

Figure: Hotspot step 2

Figure: Hotspot step 3

Figure: Hotspot step 4

Figure: Hotspot step 5

If you wish to change the default name and password, you can click on the Configure Wi-Fi hotspot. Edit the Network SSID and enter your desired password. You can as well select the maximum connections allowed.

Figure: Configure hotspot

To connect to the wireless network follow the steps below:

1. Click on the wireless network icon at the desktop taskbar to show list of available networks.
2. Click on the wireless network you wish to connect to
3. Enter the password if the wireless network is secured and requires a password

Once connected, the wireless network connection icon changes.

Figure: No available wireless network

Figure: Wireless network available

When the wireless network icon is as the above icon, it means there are wireless network available so you can connect to. If the wireless network has the red cross, it means no wireless network available so nothing to connect to.

Figure: Available wireless network when the wireless network icon is clicked

Figure: Connect to the wireless network

Forgetting a wireless network

To forget a wireless network simply means delete a wireless network profile.When you forget a wireless network, the computer device will remove that particular network from saved networks list and it will not remember the password and other network credentials that were previously saved. The next time you connect to a forgotten wireless network, you will be asked the password before being connected to. If you temporary share your hotspot/wireless network on a friend's computer, you can forget the wireless network once the device finishes using the network. Otherwise the next time your wireless network is on and the device is in the vicinity, the device can automatically connect to your wireless network without your knowledge.

To forget a wireless network, please follow the following steps:

1. Click on the wireless network icon on the taskbar
2. Right-click on the wireless network you wish to forget
3. Select Forget this network in the option that pops up

Figure: Forgetting a wireless network

Browsing the internet

You can browse the internet using an internet browser. The following are the popular internet browsers

1. Google Chrome
2. Mozilla Firefox
3. Opera
4. Internet Explorer
5. Microsoft Edge
6. Safari for mac computers

In week 3, we installed Google Chrome so you can either use Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge to browse the internet.

To access a website, you need to enter the website address in the address bar and press enter.

The home page is the first page you will see when you visit the website. To navigate to other pages, you have to click on the image or text (Links) to direct you to a page.

When your cursor hovers on a link, the cursor icon changes to hand to let you know that this is a link and you can click on it to navigate to the page.

Figure: Cursor changes to hand when link is hovered

To go back to a previous page, you can click on the back arrow icon at the top left of the browser. 

To go forward, you can click on the forward icon at the top left of the browser.

To refresh a page, you can click on the refresh icon at the top left of the browser.

To close a tab, click on the cross sign (x) at the top left side of the browser.

o open a new tab, click on the plus icon (+) at the top side of the browser.

Figure: back arrow, forward arrow, refresh , close tab (x) and new tab (+) icons

To open a new window, right-click on the browser icon at the taskbar and select New Window or Open New Window.

To close all browser windows, right-click on the browser icon at the taskbar and select Close all windows

Figure: New window / Close all windows

To get additional features of the browser, click on the more icon. Select the appropriate task you wish to perform (printing a page, view browsing history, view downloads, deleting cookies etc.) 

Figure: The more icon for Google Chrome browser

Figure: The more icon for Mozilla Firefox browser

Figure: The more icon for Opera browser

To minimize the browser, click on the minimize icon and to maximize, click on the maximize icon.

Figure: Minimize browser icon

Figure: Maximize browser icon

Printing a web page

To print a page, you can press ctrl + p or click on the more icon and select Print

Printing portion of a web page

1. Use the mouse to select that portion
2. Right-click on the selected portion and select Print

The printer dialog pops up. If you are not connected to a printer, you can save the printing as a PDF by changing the print option to Save As and save to the computer.

Figure: Print & others when a more icon is clicked on Google Chrome

Downloading

1. To download from the internet as we discussed last week, search for the file or software you wish to download on google.com
2. Select the appropriate option from the search results and visit the site
3. Click on the download button on the page to start downloading. 

Most downloaded files can be found in the downloads folder of the This PC. You can as well change where download files should be saved to when you click on the more icon of the browser then settings → advanced. You can then change the default location to your desired location.

Creating Email

An email address is a designation for an electronic mailbox that sends and receives messages, known as email, on a computer network. Since the 1980s, all email addresses follow the same format: @. 

An example is below:

• joseph@domainname.com
• adjeteyadjei1990@example.com
• kofi@yahoo.com
• abena95@gmail.com

There are a number of free email service providers. These are the popular:

• Gmail - gmail.com
• Yahoo - yahoo.com
• Microsoft Outlook - outlook.com
• Mail - mail.com
•  GMX Mail - gmx.com
• Icloud Mail - icloud.com
• Yandex Mail - yandex.com

Businesses and websites can purchase custom email addresses for their domain through one of these email providers or through their website hosting provider.

Creation of email address in all these email service providers are similar. This week we will look at how to create an email address with gmail which is the most popular email providers.

Creating Gmail Account

1. Visit gmail.com
2. Click on create account
3. Fill in the form

Form Fields and Explanations

First Name

This is your given name

Last Name

This is your surname

Username

A unique name that identifies you on gmail. It should comprise letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and periods (.).

If someone has already used the username that you enter, you will be informed and you can try a different username.

If your username is joseph.adjetey then your gmail account will be joseph.adjetey@gmail.com

Password

A text that you will use to authenticate yourself. It must be 8 or more characters with a mix of letters, numbers & symbols.

Security caution

Don't use only your phone number or a text that is common to people. If someone wants to login into your email, the first text they will try will be the publicly known information such as your name, telephone number, your pet name, best friend etc. Use a text that you won't forget at the same time will be difficult for people to guess.

Confirm

You must enter the same text you entered for password. This is to make sure that the password you entered is correct and there is no typo error.

Once everything is ok, click on Next. 

Your account will be created and you will be asked to enter additional information

Your phone number (Optional)

This will be used to send you a verification code in case you forget your password and want to reset it.

Recovery email (Optional)

An email address that you already have. It could be another email from gmail or any other email service provider. 

This will be used to send you a verification code in case you forget your password and want to reset it.

Your date of birth (Compulsory)

Month - Day - Year

Your Gender (Compulsory)

Indicate whether you are male or female or if you don't want to say

Click Next

Agree to gmail terms

Once you agree, your email account page will be shown where you can send your first email.

Sending Email

1. Click on Compose button
2. Fill the form
3. Click send

Form fields and explanations

To

This is the email address you wish to send the email to

To enter multiple email addresses, separate the emails by a comma (,) or a semi-colon (;).

Examples

abena95@gmailcom, adjeteysowah@yahoo.com, kofi@mail.com

Cc

Abbreviation for carbon copy. If you want to copy the email to someone, you can enter the email address to send the copy to.

The one copied to will notice that the email addressed to him/her has also been sent to a list of other people who have been CCed.

To copy to multiple email addresses, separate the emails by a comma (,) or a semi-colon (;).

Example

abena95@gmailcom, adjeteysowah@yahoo.com, kofi@mail.com

Bcc

Abbreviation for blind carbon copy. Just like CC, BCC is a way of sending copies of an email to other people except the other recipients won't be able to see that someone else has been sent a copy of the email.

So Bcc emails will not be shown in other recipients CCed to.

To copy to multiple email addresses, separate the emails by a comma (,) or a semi-colon (;).

Examples

abena95@gmailcom, adjeteysowah@yahoo.com, kofi@mail.com

Subject

This is the heading of your message so the recipient knows what the email is about before opening it.

The Message Box

You enter your message in this box.

Attaching a file to message

To attach a file to your message, click on the attachment icon. A dialog box pops up. 

Navigate to the file you wish to attach. You can select multiple files in the same folder if you wish to attachment multiple files.

If you want to attach a complete folder, you must zip that folder and send as an attachment.

Zipping a folder

1. Right-click on the folder
2. Select send to -> Compressed (zipped) folder

A zipped version of the folder by the name of the folder is saved in the same folder the folder is located.

Unzipping a zipped file

1. Select the file
2. Click on Extract at the top menu of the File Explorer
3. Click on Extract all
4. Browse to the place you wish to save your extracted folder

NOTE

By default the same folder the zipped file is located will be selected as the folder you wish to save your extracted folder.

If that's where you wish to save to, just click on Extract. Otherwise browse to the location where you wish to extract your zipped file to.

All sent emails can be seen under Sent. You simply click on the Sent menu to view sent emails.

Reading an email

Emails you've received are placed under Inbox. If you have unread message(s), the Inbox menu will be read and the number of unread messages will be at the right.

Messages that you were composed but were not sent are placed under Drafts. To see draft messages, click on the Drafts menu

Emails from suspicious senders are placed under Spam. To view spam messages click on More and scroll to Spam.

Messages that you delete will be placed under Trash. After 30 days they will be permanently deleted. To view trash messages click on More and scroll to Trash

Logging out

To logout, click on your profile picture. By default, your profile picture will be a circular button at the top right with the first letter of your first name in it. Scroll and select Sign out.

Resetting password

1. Enter your email address or phone and click Next
2. Click on forgot password?
3. Enter the last password that you remember

If you don't remember click on Try another way

Try Another Way

If you used your phone during the registration, google will send a notification to your phone. Tap Yes and tap the number it shows on the page.

You will be redirected to a page to create a new password.

NOTE:

Your phone must be connected to the internet to receive the notification on your phone.

Fields and explanation

Create password

8 or more characters text

Confirm

Repeat the same password typed above

Once everything is ok, press Next to reset the password

If you entered a recovery email instead of a phone when registering

You will be shown a masked email address of the recovery email. 

Enter the full email

A verification code will be sent to that email.

Login to your recovery email to check the verification code and enter the code

Once the code is correct, you will be directed to a page to create a new password.

Searching on the internet

There are many search engines that can be used to search on the internet but some of the popular ones are:

1. google.com
2. yahoo.com
3. bing.com
4. yandex.com

In this week, we will use google search engine to demonstrate how to search on the internet.

1. Visit google.com
2. Enter your search keywords or phrase in the search box
3. Press enter
4. Click on the appropriate result

NOTE

To open the result in a new tab so that the result page still remains, follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the result link
2. Choose Open link in new tab

COPYING A TEXT

1. Click and drag over text to highlight the text you wish to copy
2. Press ctrl+c or right-click on the highlighted text and choose copy

TIP WHEN TRANSFERING SEARCHED TEXT TO WORD DOCUMENT

When you copy from a page, the text style (color, font type etc.)  is also copied.

To avoid transferring these styles to the word document, first paste the copied text to a notepad and copy from notepad to the word document.

To print a page of a search result refer to print page or portion of a page in the content above.

SAVING IMAGE FROM A PAGE

1. Right-click on the image
2. Choose Save Image As
3. Browse to where you want to save the image

NOTE

You can as well copy and image and paste into a word document.

To copy and image follow the steps below:

1. Right-click on the image
2. Select copy
3. Paste in the word document