Simple Internet Advice

Welcome to the Wheels Near U’s quick and basic guide to the internet, focused on you, the internet and the Wheels Near U Website.

Because sometimes even the basics can seem baffling!

If you need help with any aspects of IT relative to your website or Wheels Near U please do not hesitate to get in touch with Wheels Near U on 01545 580 004.

Guide Intentions: By nature of offering information on something as widely used as the internet, writing a guide that is useful for every user is our aim, but as peoples understanding of the internet can vary between each and every person you may or may not find this guide useful. We are always looking to improve our support literature so should you have any suggestions or constructive criticism we welcome your contact (you can call 01545 580 004, click here to contact us or fax us your suggestions on 01545 581 046.)

Contents:

Recommendations – a few recommendations from the Wheels Near U team that should make browsing the internet an easier, problem free and fast experience for you (all free!) Browsers Anti Virus Software’s Phrase Definitions – a breakdown of each of the phrases you may have heard talked about or read about relating to the internet – simple to the point explanations.

 

Recommendations..

At Wheels Near U we have been using the internet and web technologies for the last 10 years, as a result we have developed a good all round knowledge of what makes up the internet. From the complicated frameworks that hold it up to the best way to browse it.

Based on this experience we would like to recommend a few things that will make going on the internet easier and quicker for you – and they are all free!

Browser

Your browser is the program on your computer that lets you “browse” websites. It basically takes the information on the internet and shows you it in a graphical form. A lot of people use Internet Explorer, the default browser that comes with most computers. This works fine in its newer versions but older versions do tend to be slow, poor at displaying websites and prone to virus’s and such.

We recommend you get a browser called Mozilla Firefox (Mozilla is the company, a lot of people just call the browser “Firefox”.) It is free to get and will make browsing the internet a lot faster, safer and altogether a more pleasing experience.

Anti Virus Software

Anti Virus Software

Anti Virus Software is designed to stop malicious attacks against your computer. There are a huge number of virus’s, spying robots (spybots), malware, hackers and other threats to your computer when searching the internet. But the good news is 99.99% of these are avoidable by maintaining virus protection software on your computer. We recommend several different tools to keep virus’s away from your computer, from our experience the following three stop all known problems from occurring (when regularly updated.) We however cannot be held accountable in any circumstance – these are simply friendly recommendations. Another point to remember about Anti-Virus software is that it is only ever as good as how much it is updated – all three of the following can be easily updated by clicking “update” within the programs – doing so will get the latest “definition files” and allow them to catch even the newest of internet bugs!

 

Avast

Avast! is a software produced by Alwil Software, it offers a range of Anti Virus software – all of which do their job very well. If you computer is a single computer at home you can even get Avast! for free (professional users must pay) You can download avast from http://www.avast.com by clicking “programs” from the top menu bar then “downloads”. From this page you can choose between “Professional Addition” or “Home Edition” – the latter being free. Why Avast? Avast acts as your first defence against virus’s, hacking attempts and the on computer threats – it offers a certain amount of residual protection whether you are browsing the internet or not.

 

Ad-Aware

Ad-Aware is produced by Lavasoft that simply scans your computer for known advertising, tracking components and little bits of software designed to watch what you do. It is free to use in its basic incarnation. You can download Ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoft.com by clicking the “Ad-Aware Free” button. Why Ad-Aware? With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components it is a good program to scan your computer with when it seems to be a bit slower than normal (a sign of such bugs!)

 

Spybot - Search and Destroy

Spybot - Search & Destroy is the third and final of our recommended virus protection measures. It offers protection against spyware and virus like bots that are trying to watch the things you do on the internet such as internet banking, card transactions etc. You can download Spybot - Search & Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org by clicking “download” on the left hand menu. Why Spybot - Search & Destroy? Spybot - Search & Destroy fills the gap between Ad-Aware and Avast! – it offers an excellent scanning ability that will find the most secretive of spyware.

Phrase Definitions

Phrase Definitions

Address Bar – A part of your browser the Address bar is usually found at the top of the browser, it is where you can type URL’s (Web address’s – e.g. www.wheels-near-u.co.uk) Anti-Virus – A software designed to stop virus’s and other malicious programs getting on your computer Browser – A program used to view websites Definition File – A file that stores definitions. Usually associated with Anti-Virus where it is usually used to update your software to know the latest bad bugs to search for on your computer. HTML – HyperText Markup Language – This is the basic code behind all websites on the internet. Keyword /Keyphrase – In terms of search engines this refers to the phrase that identifies a webpage or that is likely to be entered into the search engine to find said page (e.g. “Used Cars For Sale”) PC – Personal Computer SEM – Search Engine Marketing – Marketing websites using search engines – entails either getting up the rankings of search engines or using paid advertising on the search engines. SEO – Search Engine Optimising – The act of making pages as good as they can be in the eyes of the search engines SERPS – Search Engine Results Page – usually seen in the phrase “getting up the SERPS” – meaning coming on the first page of a search engine result for a keyword Slots – A phrase used by Wheels Near U to identify a single advert on Wheels Near U – each trader opts for a certain number of “slots” or windows in which an advert can be displayed URL – Uniform Resource Locator is a technical term meaning the location of a website – it is usually typed into the address bar of a browser

Still struggling to understand? Contact us if you have any questions!