The Internet For Dummies, 14th Edition

Introduction

Welcome to The Internet For Dummies, 14th Edition. The Internet has become so interwoven in today’s life — work, school, politics, and play — that ignoring it is no longer an option. This book describes what you do to become an Internaut (someone who navigates the Internet with skill) — how to get started, what you need to know, and where to go for help. And, we describe it in plain old English.

When we first wrote The Internet For Dummies 21 years ago (yikes!), a typical Internet user was a student who connected from college or a technical worker who had access at the office. The World Wide Web was so new that it had only a few hundred Web pages and we only mentioned it in one chapter of the book. The Internet has grown like crazy to include a billion (dare we say it?) normal people, connecting from computers at home or work, along with students ranging from elementary school to adult education. This 14th edition focuses on what’s the most interesting to typical users — how to find things on the World Wide Web, download interesting things, send and receive electronic mail (email), and shop, invest, chat, and play games online.

About This Book

We don’t flatter ourselves to think you’re interested enough in the Internet to sit down and read the entire book (although it should be a fine book for the bathroom). When you run into a problem using the Internet (“Hmm, I thought that I knew how to find old TV shows online, but I don’t seem to remember”), just dip into the ...