Log on to the Internet and Find Industry News Online

Welcome to WaterWorld?s newest feature, iWater Report. Each month iWater Report will highlight a fundamental operation needed for surfing the Internet, and feature some of the most useful Internet sites for the municipal water/ wastewater industry.

WaterWorld welcomes your input in the form of e-mail to [email protected], faxes to (918) 831-9776, and by U.S. mail to Kathy Pursley, WaterWorld?s iWater Report, 1421 S. Sheridan Rd., Tulsa, OK 74112-6600. Please write with problems or questions you have about using the Internet as a water professional. If you know of a web site useful to water professionals, and you would like to see it featured in iWater Report, send a brief description and the url (Uniform Resource Locator, the web address of the site).

If you are an old hand at using the Internet, you already may know some of these fundamentals. But, you may find there are a few tips and tricks that you have missed along the way.

There are just a few requirements for surfing the cyber-web: a computer, a browser, a link to the Internet, and an Internet service provider. The computer must have a browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. Two popular browsers are Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

Once you open the browser, it will ask about making an Internet connection. You will have to supply a telephone number for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) at least the first time you go online. After the first dial-up connection, many computers will remember which connection to make.

Your link can be made with a modem installed in the computer and a phone line connection that plugs into the back of the computer. After the telephone or network wires are connected, you will need to select an ISP.

One way to find a good ISP is to compare the cost, the time limits on your access and the size limits of your mailbox. Next, ask around and determine which ISP people in your area prefer. If you travel with a laptop, it will be important for you to access your ISP with a toll-free number or local telephone numbers in the locations you will visit. Whether the ISP offers a help desk person may be important as you get started.

If your computer is part of a business network, your network administrator must set up your Internet link through the main server and allow you access to the Internet. Your network help desk, sometimes called IT or MIS, should be able to get you started connecting to the Internet.

Once the browser is open and the connection to the ISP has been made, you will notice that the little icon (an icon is a picture that represents a program or web page) in the upper right hand corner of the browser window starts doing something. With Internet Explorer, the earth turns or a flag sometimes circles the earth, depending on which version you are using. With Netscape Navigator, little comets shoot across the icon?s night sky scene.

One of the frustrations of using the Internet is all of the net-speak, the acronyms and gobble-de-gook that seem unintelligible. One site that can help by defining some of those weird web words is found at the address, http://www.zdwebopedia.com. To visit the site, find the address line of the web browser, click on the line and type the address into the line. Then click ?Go? or hit the enter key.

The browser will search for the web site and load up the page for viewing. To find the meaning of a web term, type it into the space after the ?Enter a term here:? and mouse click the ?Define It!? button. You may have to scroll downward on the page to see the answer. Try typing each of these words: IT, MIS, cyber, url, web, browser, ISP, http, home page, www, geek and any other computer terms you may have been wondering about.

This month marks a change in the WaterWorld staff. Sylvie Dale, our former Associate Editor, has become pennNET?s newest Online Editor responsible for WaterWorld?s web site, www.wwinternational.com. In honor of her new position, this month?s feature spotlights WaterWorld?s web site.

Most of the newer browsers will not require you to type the http:// part of a web address. The first page that opens after typing www.wwinternational.com (Yes, five ?ws? in all) is the home page. This page features water and wastewater current events and news items updated on a daily basis. It also provides links to all of the other pages at the site. You can find each link by moving the mouse over the page items. When the mouse is moved over a link, the little arrow turns into a pointing hand. Clicking on a link will bring up a new page. Getting back to the previous page is as easy as clicking the back button at the upper left corner of the browser window. Most web sites will have a Back or Home button at the bottom of each main page.

After reading the latest news, click the ?WaterWorld? link under ?Pick a magazine? located on the left side of the page. This will bring you to the WaterWorld page. Each month the latest issue is posted, and the page offers links to the articles. The list on the left side of the page offers choices for New Products, Current Issue, Reader Service, Archives, Subscribe and Advertising & Editorial Information.

Click on the ?Reader Service? link. The new page will ask you to ?First select an issue? by clicking on the little arrow on the right next to the box, holding down the mouse button and highlighting the issue of your choice. The choices available to you will be the last three month?s issues. Select one of the months, for example ?MAR 00? and click the ?Continue? button.

All of the products featured in that month?s issue of WaterWorld are listed, first by category and (scroll downward) then alphabetically by manufacturer. Each little box in front of the category or manufacturer is a tick box, which will select that choice if you mouse click on it. The boxes in the center of the page allow you to type in the numbers found in the printed version of the magazine beneath each product review.

Then click ?Continue? and the new page will list the products you have marked or listed by number. If you picked a category, you will need to click on the tick box to mark the particular products in which you are interested. Clicking the ?Continue? will bring up a page asking for your e-mail address. After filling in your e-mail address, click ?Continue? and the next page will ask for your mailing information so the manufacturer(s) can send you more in-depth information about the products you selected.

After typing in the required address information, and clicking ?Add Me? the new page will tell you ?Thank You?. Your requested information will be sent to you directly from your selected companies.

COMING NEXT MONTH:

More about pdf and Adobe? Acrobat?, answers to your questions and more iWater Report adventures. Happy surfing!