WISTA On LINE

The Internet is growing fast - every two years it triples in size. It is the fastest growing form of information and communication

Paul Dixon, our Webmaster gives some pointers about the Internet and how to get connected at home.

Perhaps now is the time to join in. Getting connected to the Internet, at home or even a simple connection at the office, is now very easy. Just follow the instructions. Well not quite, but almost!

So what is required? A simple setup would be a computer, together with a modem, a software program and a telephone line.

A lot of people think that using computers and the Internet is difficult, and beyond them. Ten years ago, this might have been the case, but not so now. More and more computers being sold now, have internal modems built in, programs fully installed, and ready to use once the monitor and the computer have been plugged together.

They may be two or three “free trial“ programs pre-loaded, so its a matter of choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and just clicking the relevant free trial icon, following the simple instructions on screen.

If there is no modem built in to the computer, then an external modem is needed. Simply go to your local computer shop, armed with the make and type of the computer. They cost in the UK from about £45.00 .Then it is a simple job of plugging it in to the computer, to the telephone socket, and to the mains power point. Again most will come with free trial software, which normally is very simple to install.

With the computer and modem ready to go, and the software loaded into the computer, your computer is now ready to dial out via the telephone lines to cyberspace.

You can “surf” the web, send and receive e-mail, “subscribe” (for free) to Internet newsgroups, chat with people all over the world using Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and use many other services, including Internet Telephone.

At this point a couple of words of warning is in order. Most of the ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) require details of a “Major” credit card to be typed in. Giving this information is as safe as giving details of your credit card over the phone, (for example, when booking theatre tickets, etc). The ISP will not charge you unless the terms of the free offer are exceeded, - so read very carefully the small print of the offer.

Remember also, in the UK and most of Europe, all the time your computer is connected via the phone line to the ISP, the phone call is not free - you are paying for a local call. In other words, a one hour session on the internet will cost the same as a one hour local phone call.

Once the ISP free trial is over, it is decision time. Stick with your chosen ISP, or find another?

Factors to consider include: the amount of time spent connected to the provider (AOL, Compuserve, BT’s oneline, etc), the number of email addresses required, speed, free web space provided & content. Is it for use in the office or at home? How many people now know your e-mail address? By changing the provider, your e-mail address will change. If the time spent connected is over, say, 10 hours a month, consider an ISP that charges a flat rate. One of the leading ISPs AOL, charge by time. Their costs (at the time of writing) are £4.95 with 3 free hours per month, and then an hourly rate of £2.35 per hour. That works out at £ 21.40 inc. VAT, for an average 10 hours per month, or just under 30 minutes a day excluding weekends. That’s more than double some flat rate ISPs.

How many e-mail addresses does the ISP provide? Extra addresses may be required for the family at home, or for work colleges. How fast is the service? Time spent waiting for web pages to load soon mount up. Is a “Home Page” required, either for advertising your business, or just for fun? Most ISPs give 5 Mb of space, (about 4 diskettes worth), ample for a simple series of pages without many graphics, but useless for a site like Wista's. The ISP we use is one of the few that provides “unlimited” space.

What extras does the ISP provide? Some ISPs provide pure Internet services only, whilst others have their own forums, news, competitions, games, etc. Are these extras required? Does the ISP provide most or all of the software needed for using the Internet fully?

Use the time in the free offers to go to the search engine Yahoo. (http://www.yahoo.com) and type in “internet service providers” (including the inverted commas), and look at the various ISP’s web sites for further information about them.

The warnings over if you are thinking on changes your ISP, then it is a good idea to obtain a personal special free e-mail address (working in a similar way to personal telephone numbers). Visit http://www.iname.com to obtain one and enter your “current” e-mail address. Any e-mail address to this personal e-mail address will be automatically re-directed to you. If you change ISP, and therefore your e-mail address, simply go back to the website and update your new details.

Paul Dixon
WISTA’s Webmaster
webmaster@wista.org or to : cigar@writeme.com

Do you have an e-mail address??

Does your company have a home page in the internet?

Please do send an e-mail to: wista@wista.org With the e-mail & web address to be included in the new e-mail & home-page directory we are preparing

Cyber – Sailing
 

Pages for you to visit and enjoy:

IMO: www.imo.org/

US Coast Guard: www.cga.edu/

Det Norske Veritas: www.dnv.no/

Seanet: www.seanet.co.uk/

International Association of Classification Societies: www.iacs.org.uk/

ISM Code FAQ - hosted by DNV: www.dnv.no/html/maritime/smc/faq.htm#interim

American Bureau of Shipping: www.eagle.org/

Baltic Exchange:www.balticexchange.co.uk/

The Institute of Navigation: www.ion.org/

Blue Mountain Electronic Postcards: www.bluemountainarts.com/index.html

On the Set of the Titanic: www.webcom.com/jrudolph/titanic/tm_bodies.html

Coast guard academy to all the ports of the world (seaports - Link): www.hal-pc.org/~nugent/port.html