Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ for Dummies®

Chapter 9. Internet-Working

In This Chapter

• Getting an overview of the Internet

• Pre-surfing with the Network System Preferences pane

• Finding out about the MobileMe services

• Surfing the Web with Safari

• Searching with Google

• Chatting with iChat

These days, networking online is easier than finding a log to fall off: You simply use the Internet to connect your Mac to a wealth of information residing on computers around the world. Luckily for you, Mac OS X has the best and most comprehensive Internet tools ever shipped with a Mac operating system.

Mac OS X offers built-in Internet connectivity right out of the box. For example, Mac OS X Leopard comes with

• Apple's Safari Web browser, which you use to navigate the Web, download remote files via FTP, and more

• iChat, Apple's live online chatting client that works with other iChat users, people using AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) clients, people using Jabber (an open-source chatting protocol), Google Talk, and Bonjour (which discovers other users on your local area network)

• The Mail application (for e-mail)

In this chapter, I cover the top two things most people use the Internet for: the World Wide Web (that's the www you see so often in Internet addresses) and live chatting with iChat. You can find out all about Mail in Chapter 10.

But before I can talk about browsers, e-mail software, and chatting, I have to help you configure your Internet connection. When you're finished, you can play with your browsers, mail, and chat applications to your heart's content. ...