Here is tip everyone should know: Your browser has some great built in features that work on all sites, here are some of the most useful: (note you can use them with your mouse if you click on File or Edit, depending on where they are, but keyboard combinations are quicker and intuitive)

Resize the print: Ctrl + ] and CTRL + [
Go to the top or bottom of the page: CTRL + HOME and CTRL + END
Find keywords in the current page: CTRL + F
Save the current page: CTRL + S
Copy/Paste highlighted text : CTRL + C and CTRL + V
Note: Some other programs allow you to use these same keyboard options but you probably should think first before assigning those hot key combinations to short cuts and features for other programs.

1. It's best to have a pentium processor under your hood. Current prices are reasonable AND some of the latest and best programs (especially games) REQUIRE a pentium processor to run. Everywhere you go these days someone is trying to sell you a new Pentium computer, and the "buzzword" is "Under $1,000" BUT you can ship your CPU to "Computer Services" and have it upgraded, with a new mother board, to an Intel Pentium 150 mnz for only $299 or $399 for the 200 mhz. The phone number is 334-824-2552.

2. Love it or hate it, you need to have Windows 95 or NT as an operating system in order to run the most current and most innovative software on your system. There will be PLENTY cheap copies available in a few months when Windows 98 comes out. If you have Win 95 set up on a hard drive, here is a tip on how to duplicate/back up all your data exactly to another hard drive: Install the second hard drive and set up your system to recognize it, make sure it's partitioned and formatted (using the /s parameter to transfer the system files) then close all your programs except Windows and click on "Start / Run" and type in: XCOPY C:\*.* D:\*.* /e /c /h /k (note: D: would be the target drive you wanted to duplicate your data to.)

3. Netscape 4.0x or Internet Explorer - If you don't have the latest versions of one of these browsers you are at risk of JAVA security breaches AND you'll be without a host of great new features that have been recently added.

4. Real Audio is the leader in web audio programs and now (ver. 4.0) has video. There are many news/entertainment shows available through Daily Briefing that deliver their programming via Real Audio. Most the record companies use Real Audio to allow you to sample MTV type demo clips. It works as a plug-in with your browser to automatically launch and play when .RA files are detected. Real Audio uses the audio compression technology that was developed by Voxeware, the company that released VoxChat, the high quality internet telephone that offers voice phone conferencing with up to 5 parties.

5. TrayText. As you surf the net and encounter forms to fill out and passwords that need to be inserted and discover information you want to save, you'll never find a more convenient program to store and retrieve frequently used text. TrayText has combined the best features of the macro type programs AND the clipboard programs AND "sticky note" programs, making everything you would normally do with cutting and pasting very easy. It will insert text into applications that won't allow text to be pasted.

6. After you're on the net, you'll probably want to find and meet other people who share common interests. There are millions of people online, available for keyboard chat or internet telephone/video conferencing. Here are some of the programs that will help you meet new friends and communicate with your family and friends in real time.

ICQ: the coolest way to keep in CLOSE contact with your friends and know when they are online. Exchange message, go into live chat, launch voice phones, play games, send url's and more. It's free too!

Keyboard: mIRC and Pirch are a couple of the most popular IRC chat programs, offering access to 8 or 10 IRC networks, which have as many as 15,000 people on line. Chat rooms are set up which often have hundreds of people who meet and discuss/debate their favorite topics and offer help and advice for both personal and computer related problems.

Telephone: Freetel, Iphone, Powwow and Netmeeting are some of the programs that offer voice phone meeting places and video can be added if you have a video camera. Netmeeting probably has the leg up since it will allow you to give control of your computer (with your approval, while monitoring) to someone from a remote system. This has a lot of potential for technical support and education.

7. Home Page. Everyone should have a home page where they can share their ideas, show their pictures, play their music, provide an online resume, sell stuff, or carry on crusades to save or destroy whatever they are passionate about. There are a number of free locations to build a home page, but most either require you to have non-profit status or they are very limited, not allowing images, music or a way to let your visitors download files. The free home sites usually place annoying advertisements on your page. There are some places you can find quality web housing with stats and telnet/ftp access for as little as $10 a month or about $20 a month if you want registered InterNIC domain name support. Seagull Net has the best service and price I have found.

8. When you have a home page you'll need an HTML editor to help you display the information you want to make available. Of course the latest Netscape Browser has a pretty good HTML editor built into it, but if you want more features you can search for HTML editors at Cream of the Crop Downloads and you'll find about 40 that are available. (Note: this page is about 2 megs so it takes a couple minutes to load.)

9. Information on Web site building is helpful. ELSOP.com and Builders.com are great HTML resources. Mary and Kathy's Java Tutorial and Gamelan are great JAVA resources. Matt's Perl scripts have free scrips and instructions on how to add extra CGI features such as a guest book, message board, keyword searches to your page. Or for about $100 you can just pay someone to set up your page the way YOU want it.

10. Have a particular interest? Web Ring will connect you to a group of sites that deal with your favorite subjects. The sites are organized in a "ring" so you will eventually arrive back at your starting point or you can view an index and pick sites based on their descriptions. You can start your own ring if you have 4 other sites to join with you. It's a free service and was started by college student who is now 19 years old. Here is a sorted index of the most popular rings all on one page, with link to their indexes.

11. Like to gamble? Forget the lottery and casino sites and just play the stock market! There are several online brokers,Datek ($10 per trade) and Lombard ($15 per trade) that will be happy to place your bets! They both will give you live quotes if you open an account. You never have to send in any money. For some interesting stock market reading, take a look at this site.

12. You'll need to upload your web page to your web host. Netscape has built in feature built into the Composer called "publish" that will upload your page, or you can use a program like CuteFTP that offer a wider range of options and features.