The 'Net is much more than just surfing and E-mailing. 

The World Wide Web has much  to offer including Chat , NewsGroups,

Internet Telephony, Voice & Video Conferencing to name but a few.

What are they, and how to make use of them?

Chat - most people have heard of 'Chat Rooms', but this is only one aspect of so-called 'chat' - which is a misleading term, as it implies talking, as on the phone! In fact, most chat is a person on one PC typing text to someone on another PC. For actual talking, you need a microphone plugged into your PC, and special software. For video - either one way or 2 way - you and the other person need a 'web-cam' video camera, and special software. 

- Real-time chat - or 'live' communication one-to-one or with a group of people, by means of text on the screen, or by voice and/or video. If it's with a group of people, it's known as conferencing.

- Asynchonous chat - a big word to describe the opposite of real-time! This is when you leave your message, and it's picked up later by the other person - such as with E-Mail and NewsGroups - see below

Newsgroups - often referred to as Usenet NewsGroups, these were started well before the World Wide Web, and were a means of sending messages all around the world. With literally millions of messages being sent each day, they are now divided into NewsGroups, with each based on one subject. Having said that, there are thousands of subjects, each with a huge numbers of messages, sent in by anybody, anywhere. Very little to do with News though!

Many people looking for specialist or unusual information, find it in newsgroups rather than on the 'Net.

If you have an E-Mail program such as Outlook Express, you can access NewsGroups quite easily. But first, you'll need to setup a few details in O/Express. Here's how:

1. Open Outlook Express, then click 'Tools' (on top row), 'Accounts', click the 'News' tab, click 'Add' button then 'News'.

2. Now you're in the Wizard. Enter your name and email address. Next, the Wizard will want your ISPs news server name. If you don't have it, try typing in nntp.xxx.co.uk   - where xxx is your ISP's name, e.g. if your ISP is Virgin then type in nntp.virgin.co.uk but if that doesn't work, you'll need to get in touch with your ISP and ask them for their News server address.

3.You'll then be asked if you want to connect and download newsgroups. Click Yes, but it'll take a time, as there are thousands of groups, but you do this only once!

4. Once downloaded, choose a group, click on it and then click Subscribe (it's free!) Now you can choose any messages you want to read.

5. Details given here are brief, but for more info, click on Outlook Express's Help

Telephony - often referred to as IP Telephony (IP=Internet Phone) - it simply means making phone calls via the Internet. The big difference between this method and normal telephone calls, is the cost. You can call anywhere in the world using IP, for the cost of a local call! 

This is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family who live abroad!

What do you need to get started? If you already have a sound-card and speakers, then all you need is simple, low cost microphone, and special software - this can be downloaded free from the sites mentioned below.

It is generally fairly simple to then setup your PC to use the microphone, but in the event of problems, you can contact us for help - see our 'Contact us' page.

Normally, calls are made from your PC to another person on their PC, running the same software as you. Calls to a telephone number are possible, but usually cost more. You can also try a video link-up by adding a web-cam to your system.

For more information and the software you need, visit these sites, or email us with any queries you have - goto our 'Contact us' page to send a query.

www.skype.com  - very popular & with easily installed free software.

www.phonefree.com  - free software and easily installed

www.buddyphone.com  - very popularly used in the USA

www.net2phone.com  -  becoming very popular in the UK now

www.vocaltec.com  - for more info

www.iptelephony.org  -  loads of info including ISP's