Digital Survival - web-browsing

Search engine security

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:27:58 +0000

If you are concerned about someone monitoring your search keywords, you can use an SSL connection with Google. Just type in https://www.google.com. This doesn't prevent Google from logging your search requests, but it does ensure that your search is not being monitored by a third party on the internet. If you are also concerned about Google logging your search requests, you can use a search engine like Scroogle http://scroogle.org), which uses Google's search database but doesn't log your keywords.

Tags:

internet

search engines

web-browsing

security

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

Searching web-pages

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:20:11 +0000

The web-browser is a great tool for research. To find information on the web, you can use a search engine to look for relevant words (keywords) that are embedded in web-pages. Search engines store information about web-pages, which they gather using automated systems known as 'web-crawlers'. When you enter keywords into a search engine, they search their own databases for web-pages containing those keywords. The search engine lists the results, with the more frequently visited web-pages at the top of the list. The most commonly used search engines are Google, Yahoo and Bing.

When using a search engine, make your searches as simple as possible and use as few words as possible — 'weather bangalore' will give better results than 'weather report for Bangalore, India'. Think of how things might be written on the page you are looking for: 'Stomach ache' will yield better results than 'my stomach hurts'.

Tags:

search engines

web-browsing

Web-browsing security

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:09:15 +0000

Many countries have installed software to prevent people from accessing certain websites and internet services. Companies, schools and public libraries often use similar software to prevent employees, students and patrons from accessing material that they consider distracting or harmful. Some filters block sites based on their IP addresses, while others blacklist certain domain names, or search through all unencrypted internet communication, looking for specific keywords. If you suspect that the page you are looking for is being censored, you may want to consider using an anonymity tool like Tor (www.torproject.org). You can learn more about bypassing censorship in Security in a Box (http://security.ngoinabox.org/en/chapter-8)

Tags:

internet

web-browsing

security

Troubleshooting web-browsers

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:04:06 +0000

There are a lot of reasons why your web-browser might have problems loading a web-page. The first thing to try is clicking the 'reload' button. If that doesn't work, then:

If you get an error message that says 'this page can not be found', check that you have typed the address correctly.
If you get an error message that says 'Unauthorised' or 'Forbidden', the page you are looking for may be censored. See below, under Security, for more information on this.
If you are seeing a screen with a funny-shaped box and some x's on it, or if there is no content on the page at all, you might be missing an add-on component which extends the capabilities of your browser; for example, by allowing you to watch a video. Your browser should give you a message about installing what's missing and usually it's safe to follow these instructions.
If the page won't finish loading, your internet speed might be too low for the amount of graphics and other content on the page in question. Click the stop button and see if the page offers a link for a text-only option. Alternatively, you can set your browser preferences so that it does not load images.

Tags:

web-browsing

trouble-shooting

Browsing web-pages

katie — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:59:28 +0000

A web-browser is the main way for you to view information on the internet. If you are reading this guide on the web, then you are using a web-browser to do it. The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. Most of what you do on the internet can be done via the web-browser.

This includes: -

Reading web-pages
Research using a search engine
Reading and composing email
Creating and editing documents and spreadsheets, using online applications
Interacting with online communities and networks
Creating and updating your own web-pages
Communicating in real time via text and voice.

Things you will find in a web browser:

An address bar where you can type the address (or URL) of a website (such as www.tacticaltech.org).
A search window (in which you can type keywords) that connects to a search engine
A home button which will take you back to a designated web-page that is opened every time you restart your browser (this can be changed in the 'preferences' or 'options' menus).
A stop button which will stop a web-page from loading. This is helpful if the page seems to be taking a while to download into your browser
A reload/refresh button which will start downloading the page again from the beginning
Forward and Back buttons which make it easy to navigate through pages you have already browsed.
A bookmark bar, where you can store website addresses which you might want to visit again.

Tags:

internet

web-browsing