For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a

great way to get happening in the blogosphere. current

blogging web sites like blogger and eponym permit users

As we continue, we will take a look at how this new information can be implemented in very special ways.

to set up and horde a blog lacking paying any fees at all.

This encourages people to surprise blogging, because the

detail that one of these sites can present you with all of

the tools that you should to get your blog up and operation

lacking costs any money means that you have

nothing to waste by surpriseing a blog. The detail that it is so

simple to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons

why so many people who have never had any other kind

of web aura before find themselves fraught to

blogging.

By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may

find it easier to get scheduled in explore engines that you

would if you were surpriseing your own blog from scuff.

For example, google runs the free blog hordeing site

blogspot and crawls its pages very regularly looking for

updates, so if you have your site hordeed by blogspot you

are almost guaranteed to be scheduled on google's blog

explore engine. This simple access to explore engines can

take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and

can help you acquire a next with a tiniest of

marketing exertion.

If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to

think pathetic your site. Many people feel that being

hordeed by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of

amateur aroma that is delicate for a new affiliate of the

blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high-profile

blog. Having your own sphere can help you make your

blog feel professional, and verdict a visitors that will

horde your sphere is not arduous or exclusive. Once

your blog takes off, you will doubtless be able to plug

enough advertising opening to be able to present to buy a

sphere and pay for a hordeing parcel, and still have

money left over. However, it does not make sensation in

most gear to invest in these glossy luxuries before you

have a great readership.

opening your blog on a free blogging web site is a great

way to assemble a next before you waste any money

on your blog. If and when your blog becomes trendy

and you are timely to take the next pace and grip

your own sphere, your readers will hunt you to your

new home. The detail that it is viable to use a free blog

horde like blogspost, blogger, or eponym as a kind of

incubator for your blog is great hearsay for bloggers

everywhere.

(Word reckoning 459)

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Having this information handy will help you a great deal the next time you find yourself in need of it.

The stretch Blogging Tory refers to any one of the many

authors affiliated with the conservative Canadian

unity known as The Blogging Tories. nowadays,

From this point forward, we will let you in on little secrets that will help you implement this subject into your life.

there are over a hundred and fifty copy-based blogs

associated with the group, and there are new Blogging

Tories every day. The Tories stay as an inspiring

example of a successful online unity where the

ever-increasing actualitys of affiliated components have a

prolific environment for discussion and dispute about the

thoughts that contour the face of Canada.

The lead of Tory bloggers do make following dealings

and topics the focus of their blogs, but not all of the

content that a Blogging Tory creates and publishes is

blatantly linked to the schedule of the Canadian

parliament or the premier minister. while the

unity components were brought together by a joint

conservative viewpoint, the actuality that not all of the

postings on all of the component's blogs focus on following

topics is one of the most exciting clothes about the

Blogging Tories. On any given day, the core website's

blogroll may quality postings about Olympic medalists,

a James adhere tape festival in Quebec, or a hilarious

delicate experience with a telemarketer. The idea that

having a following affiliation in general makes it

viable to have a prolific discussion about other kinds

of topics has interesting implications for how online

communities are established and how they grow.

(Word view 234)

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When we learn, we continue on a path of growth. Therefore, learning about this subject has already helped you more than you know.

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the

most important decisions that you can make as a

blogger. The right platform can make blogging a

From now until the now until the end of this article, take the time to think about how all of this information can help you.

breeze, and the harm platform can make blogging a

errand. Because the syllabus that you use to blog with is

such a strong part of your blogging experience, it is

well merit putting in the time to find a platform that

provides your ultimate stability between a addict-welimminent

boundary and a adaptable framework that allows you to

make your blog look and feel exclusive. result the right

platform isn't forever tranquil, but with a little bit of

contemplation and a little bit of seek, you will be on

your way to verdict the total blogging platform.

Deciding what your priorities are in language of diminish of use

versus customization. Most well customizable

blogging platforms, like moveable nature, are a bit more

tricky to use than very automated platforms like

wordpress. If you are new to blogs and to internet

technology, you might want to sacrifice the ability to

establish a custom background plan or to integrate a

exclusive font into your shape in order to find a

syllabus that will be tranquil for you to use. On the other

hand, if you are a expert web planer with education

of html or javascript, you will possibly find the

limitations of a addict-welimminent platform to be frustrating.

There is no such thing as a blogging platform that is

objectively the best platform, because every blogger has

exclusive musts. The blogging progress is very greatly

about individuality, so it makes bounty of sensation that

there would be many different platforms presented that

are planed to assemble the musts of different kinds of

individuals undertaking different kinds of projects. This

diversity is a good thing, because it means that you will

almost indeed be able to find a syllabus that suits

your demolish of practical talent.

However, the statement that no two bloggers must the same

thing from a blogging platform can make your hunt

for the right platform a bit tricky. When you are analysis

appraisals of different platforms, try to keep your

priorities in demur and do your best to take into acregard

the stance that the critic is imminent from. For

example, a harmful appraisal printed by an accomplished

software planer who complains that a accepted

platform is too narrow may tell you that the platform in

issue is ultimate for a launch blogger. There is no

such thing as the total platform for everyone, so

instead of looking for the "best" platform, look for the

best platform for your explicit criteria.

(Word regard 446)

PPPPP

The next time someone asks you about this topic, you can give a little smile and provide them an informative answer.

videotape blogging has a lot of advantages over wording-based

blogging, and it is little amazement that this new

technology is catching on all over the ball. videotape

Before we go an further, lets take a moment to review what we have learned so far about this amazing subject.

blogs very effectively grab the thought of web surfers,

and people are greatly more prone to become excited

about the dynamic content of a video blog than they are

prone to find a printed posting very rousing. The more

enthusiastic listeners are about a spot, the nearer the

word of boasting spreads, and the more transfer the spot will

get.

Of course, there are plethora of disadvantages to video

blogging as well. Hosting a v-blog requires entirely a bit

of attendant pause, which can make it trying to get

happening. It takes more time to manner and upload a video

scrape than it does to dash off a immediate bit of wording, which

means that operation and updating a video blog can be

entirely a bit of work. In addition, web surfers someperiod

grow frustrated with the sluggish loading period of the scrapes

on many video blogs. Whether you opt for a video blog

or not depends on what kind of question trouble you want

to mask, and how greatly time you can heap to video

blogging. Before you determine to pursue a video blog,

believe if there is an easier way for you to get your

meaning across.

(Word reckon 233)

PPPPP

What you have learned while reading this informative article, is knowledge that you can keep with you for a lifetime.

fusion an established blogging site like live journal or

blogger has quite of advantages, especially for the blog

novice. Sites that swarm a lot of different bkindling regularly have

From now until the now until the end of this article, take the time to think about how all of this information can help you.

very practical tutorials about edifice and updating your

blog, and you are possible to meet a very customer-

open software border at an established blogging

site. In addition, these sites impart a kind of direct

area of fellow bloggers who can impart guidance,

insight, and response. These established sites regularly

keep directories of their members, which can be great

reports for your travel kindling because it means that other

bloggers on the site will find out about your pages.

However, there are also some downsides to between up

with a large blogging site. By posting inside the

established templates of a site like blogger, you run the

chance of having your blog look and feel like everyone

besides's. The blogging passage is very greatly about the

cosmos of distinctive sites and the development of

individual voices, so it makes quite of brains that many

bloggers would shy away from the cookie-harvester look

and feel that these blogging sites regularly promote. Many

bloggers feel that the content of a blog is what makes it

distinctive, not the look of the blog, but many members

of the blogging area feel that the visual effect

of a blog should meet the originality of the lettering.

(Word tally 239)

PPPPP

Try searching for a particular keyword from the title of this article on your search engine and you are sure to find a wealth of knowledge.

The definition of blogging is something that is very

greatly in unrest, as the new technologies that occur every

day redefine what a blog is, what a blog can be, and

As we take the journey through the final part of this article, you can look back at the first part if you need any clarifications on what we have already learned.

what a blog should do. For many years, blogs were

definite as textbook-based websites that reserved report of years,

parallel to a manage's log on a sailing convey. However,

this ongoing to change as the group of people who reserved

blogs became more diverse. The more bloggers began

to explore the confines of the avenue and of the

technology that made it likely, the more the

boundaries of what could be called a "blog" stretched.

nowadays, there are an abundance of photo blogs, and there

are even cassette blogs as well. portable blogging plans

may well change the definition of blogging utterly by

making it likely for bloggers to construct new kinds of

posts. Another touch of the blogosphere that is

early to redefine blogging is the corporate blog. As

more companies hire writers to keep blogs with the sole

intent of creating helpful buzzing about their cast,

bloggers across the earth are arguing about whether

these manufactured blogs are actually laudable of the name.

Between all of these different navy that are constantly

growing and reshaping the blogosphere, it is tough

to picture that the definition of what is and is not a

blog will ever stay preset for very long.

(Word hold 237)

PPPPP

As they say, knowledge equals power, so continue to read information on this topic until you feel you are adequately educated on the subject.

Blogging 101 is typically about the blogging

vocabulary. To understand blogs, you neediness to know

the provisos blog, platform, field, and web mass.

As you continue to read this article, pay special attention to how parts 1 and 2 relate to one another.

Once you have mastered these key rudiments of

blogging, you can write any conversation about

blogging with confidence. After you know what

closely a blog is, you will be on your way to

quick the absolute exam of blogging 101.

Blog is small for weblog, which plainly means a

cycle of online columns existing in transpose

chronological order. That's all! Most blogs are copy,

but there are also photo blogs and record blogs. The

remnants of blogging 101 has to do with the precise

border of gear. If you are venue up a blog, you will

neediness a platform, a web mass, and a field. A

blogging platform is a processor software encode

that allows you to write columns and to renew your

blog. Your platform is also what you use to strategy

the look of your blog, from influence system to font

range. The web mass is place of like the virtual organize

cabinet where your blog is stored. Your processor

communicates with the mass when you upload or

rework a column. The field is the online address of

your blog, and typically trimmings in dot com'. Now that

you know what a blog is, what a platform is, and

what fields and masss are, congratulate manually!

You have approved blogging 101.

(Word hold 238)

PPPPP

What you have learned while reading this informative article, is knowledge that you can keep with you for a lifetime.

movable blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is

sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot

of bloggers are attracted to the form of blogging in

In the introduction, we saw how this subject can be beneficial to anyone. We will continue by explaining the basics of this topic.

the first place is that they have being able to make

regular upmeetings and publicizes that keep all of their visitors

up to zoom with stream situations. movable blogs, or

"moblogs," take this to the excessive by allowing regulars to

publicize equipment factually as they transpire. This new wave of

moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to meeting

with good and bad dealings of importance as they transpire

all over the world, portion to make international

communication nearer and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a

lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so

stream that a blog can be when you want to run home

and gumboot up in order to upmeeting it. However, mobile

blogging letters the opening of an rousing new era

when web-based communication can transpire

spontaneously from any place. Moblogging diplomacy

mean that there is almost nowhere on the earth that

carcass off-limits for bloggers.

movable blogging is still in its youth because the

technology that makes it viable has only freshly hit

the macro sell. The first moblog technology became

vacant over a decade ago, but it is only the previous two

or three days that mobile web diplomacy have become

consumer-open enough to draw to most regulars. As

camera handsets and other mobile technology become

more current, more and more bloggers are receiving away

from their desks and are thumping the streets. Moblogging

is seemly greatly more widespread that it was even a

few months ago, and mobloggers are hastily attracting

a lot of notice with the blogging district. It is not

yet exonerate whether moblogs will become the dominant

kinds of blogs in the days to come, but the stream

trend seems to mean that moblogs are here to live.

movable diplomacy make it viable to blog from the sites

where stream dealings are relating, which is one of the

reasons why mobile blogging has so greatly rousing

aptitude to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger

with a camera handset can publicize blog entries from, say, the

base of the dais at a presidential speaking, or from the

stands during the decisive moments of the world chain.

This enables bloggers to experience the same factual time

thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a

more democratic form. The combination of mobility

and individual check that moblogging provides

sure seats mobloggers on the cutting edge of

nowadays's communications technology, and it is hard to

think that the number and standing of moblogs will

not prolong to grow in the impending days.

(Word deem 462)

PPPPP

We hope that you have found this article interesting and eye catching to say the least. Its objective is to entertain and inform.

Choosing a domain name for your site is one of the most important steps towards creating the perfect internet presence. If you run an on-line business, picking a name that will be marketable and achieve success in search engine placement is paramount. Many factors must be considered when choosing a good domain name. This article summarizes all the different things to consider before making that final registration step!

Short and Sweet

Domain names can be really long or really short (1 – 67 characters). In general, it is far better to choose a domain name that is short in length. The shorter your domain name, the easier it will be for people remember. Remembering a domain name is very important from a marketability perspective. As visitors reach your site and enjoy using it, they will likely tell people about it. And those people may tell others, etc. As with any business, word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool to drive traffic to your site (and it’s free too!). If your site is long and difficult to pronounce, people will not remember the name of the site and unless they bookmark the link, they may never return.

Consider Alternatives

Unless a visitor reaches your site through a bookmark or a link from another site, they have typed in your domain name. Most people on the internet are terrible typists and misspell words constantly. If your domain name is easy to misspell, you should think about alternate domain names to purchase. For example, if your site will be called “MikesTools.com”, you should also consider buying “MikeTools.com” and “MikeTool.com”. You should also secure the different top level domain names besides the one you will use for marketing purposes (”MikesTools.net”, “MikesTools.org”, etc.) You should also check to see if there are existing sites based on the misspelled version of the domain name you are considering. “MikesTools.com” may be available, but “MikesTool.com” may be home to a graphic pornography site. You would hate for a visitor to walk away thinking you were hosting something they did not expect.

Also consider domain names that may not include the name of your company, but rather what your company provides. For example, if the name of your company is Mike’s Tools, you may want to consider domain names that target what you sell. For example: “buyhammers.com” or “hammer-and-nail.com”. Even though these example alternative domain names do not include the name of your company, it provides an avenue for visitors from your target markets. Remember that you can own multiple domain names, all of which can point to a single domain. For example, you could register “buyhammers.com”, “hammer-and-nail.com”, and “mikestools.com” and have “buyhammers.com” and “hammer-and-nail.com” point to “mikestools.com”.

Hyphens: Your Friend and Enemy

Domain name availability has become more and more scant over the years. Many single word domain names have been scooped up which it makes it more and more difficult to find a domain name that you like and is available. When selecting a domain name, you have the option of including hyphens as part of the name. Hyphens help because it allows you to clearly separate multiple words in a domain name, making it less likely that a person will accidentally misspell the name. For example, people are more likely to misspell “domainnamecenter.com” than they are “domain-name-center.com”. Having words crunched together makes it hard on the eyes, increasing the likelihood of a misspelling. On the other hand, hyphens make your domain name longer. The longer the domain name, the easier it is for people to forget it altogether. Also, if someone recommends a site to someone else, they may forget to mention that each word in the domain name is separated by a hyphen. If do you choose to leverage hyphens, limit the number of words between the hyphens to three. Another advantage to using hyphens is that search engines are able to pick up each unique word in the domain name as key words, thus helping to make your site more visible in search engine results.

Dot What?

There are many top level domain names available today including .com, .net, .org, and .biz. In most cases, the more unusual the top level domain, the more available domain names are available. However, the .com top level domain is far and away the most commonly used domain on the internet, driven by the fact that it was the first domain extension put to use commercially and has received incredible media attention. If you cannot lay your hands on a .com domain name, look for a .net domain name, which is the second most commercially popular domain name extension.

Long Arm of the Law

Be very careful not to register domain names that include trademarked names. Although internet domain name law disputes are tricky and have few cases in existence, the risk of a legal battle is not a risk worth taking. Even if you believe your domain name is untouchable by a business that has trademarked a name, do not take the chance: the cost of litigation is extremely high and unless you have deep pockets you will not likely have the resources to defend yourself in a court of law. Even stay away from domain names in which part of the name is trademarked: the risks are the same.

Search Engines and Directories

All search engines and directories are different. Each has a unique process for being part of the results or directory listing and each has a different way of sorting and listing domain names. Search engines and directories are the most important on-line marketing channel, so consider how your domain name choice affects site placement before you register the domain. Most directories simply list links to home pages in alphabetical order. If possible, choose a domain name with a letter of the alphabet near the beginning (”a” or “b”). For example, “aardvark-pest-control.com” will come way above “joes-pest-control.com”. However, check the directories before you choose a domain name. You may find that the directories you would like be in are already cluttered with domain names beginning with the letter “a”. Search engines scan websites and sort results based on key words. Key words are words that a person visiting a search engine actually search on. Having key words as part of your domain name can help you get better results.

No one is in charge of the Internet. There are organizations which develop technical aspects of this network and set standards for creating applications on it, but no governing body is in control. The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private companies.

All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and services to the user’s local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to take advantage of the latest access technology.

An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia displays, real-time broadcasting, shopping opportunities, breaking news, and much more.

The Internet consists primarily of a variety of access protocols. Many of these protocols feature programs that allow users to search for and retrieve material made available by the protocol.

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COMPONENTS OF THE INTERNET

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WORLD WIDE WEB
The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP, Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols will be explained later in this document.

The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to be conversant in these protocols within separate, command-level environments. The Web gathers together these protocols into a single system. Because of this feature, and because of the Web’s ability to work with multimedia and advanced programming languages, the Web is the fastest-growing component of the Internet.

The operation of the Web relies primarily on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. HyperText is a document containing words that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user. A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web, words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.

Producing hypertext for the Web is accomplished by creating documents with a language called HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. With HTML, tags are placed within the text to accomplish document formatting, visual features such as font size, italics and bold, and the creation of hypertext links. Graphics and multimedia may also be incorporated into an HTML document. HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language is developed and released. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.

The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to documents and resources throughout the Internet.

The Web provides a vast array of experiences including multimedia presentations, real-time collaboration, interactive pages, radio and television broadcasts, and the automatic “push” of information to a client computer. Programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion and XML are extending the capabilities of the Web. A growing amount of information on the Web is served dynamically from content stored in databases. The Web is therefore not a fixed entity, but one that is in a constant state of development and flux.

For more complete information about the World Wide Web, see Understanding The World Wide Web.

E-MAIL
Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.

A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person’s e-mail address. Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are referred to as MIME attachments.MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs, including Eudora, Netscape Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook, offer the ability to read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type.

TELNET
Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. There are no graphics in Telnet sessions, just text. To Telnet to a computer, you must know its address. This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers (140.147.254.3). Some services require you to connect to a specific port on the remote computer. In this case, type the port number after the Internet address. Example: telnet nri.reston.va.us 185.

Telnet is available on the World Wide Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet have been library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to the Web. A link to a Telnet resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to your Web browser in order to work.

With the increasing popularity of the Web, Telnet has become less frequently used as a means of access to information on the Internet.

FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets, and more.

If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a file transfer.

FTP transfers can be performed on the World Wide Web without the need for special software. In this case, the Web browser will suffice. Whenever you download software from a Web site to your local machine, you are using FTP. You can also retrieve FTP files via search engines such as FtpFind, located at /http://www.ftpfind.com/. This option is easiest because you do not need to know FTP program commands.

E-MAIL DISCUSSION GROUPS
One of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to communicate via e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These are administered by software programs. Probably the most common program is the listserv.

A great variety of topics are covered by listservs, many of them academic in nature. When you subscribe to a listserv, messages from other subscribers are automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe to a listserv by sending an e-mail message to a computer program called a listserver. Listservers are located on computer networks throughout the world. This program handles subscription information and distributes messages to and from subscribers. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv discussion group. Visit Tile.net at /http://tile.net/ to see an example of a site that offers a searchablecollection of e-mail discussion groups.

Majordomo and Listproc are two other programs that administer e-mail discussion groups. The commands for subscribing to and managing your list memberships are similar to those of listserv.

USENET NEWS
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member.

Usenet itself is a set of machines that exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.

There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. While many are academic in nature, numerous newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. Much serious computer-related work takes place in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.

The Usenet newsfeed can be read by a variety of newsreader software programs. For example, the Netscape suite comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products.

FAQ, RFC, FYI
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to the topic of the newsgroup. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to individual Usenet newsgroups. A Web-based collection of FAQ resources has been collected by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at /http://www.faqs.org/.

RFC stands for Request for Comments. These are documents created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define the nuts and bolts of the Internet. They contain both technical specifications and general information.

FYI stands for For Your Information. These notes are a subset of RFCs and contain information of interest to new Internet users.

Links to indexes of all three of these information resources are available on the University Libraries Web site at /http://library.albany.edu/reference/faqs.html.

CHAT & INSTANT MESSENGING
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the “chat room” to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site. Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are frivolous, substantive conversations are also taking place. To access IRC, you must use an IRC software program.

A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messenging. With instant messenging, a user on the Web can contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America Online’s Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo are other commonly-used chat programs.

Other types of real-time communication are addressed in the tutorial Understanding the World Wide Web.

MUD/MUSH/MOO/MUCK/DUM/MUSE
MUD stands for Multi User Dimension. MUDs, and their variations listed above, are multi-user virtual reality games based on simulated worlds. Traditionally text based, graphical MUDs now exist. There are MUDs of all kinds on the Internet, and many can be joined free of charge. For more information, read one of the FAQs devoted to MUDs available at the FAQ site at