You are probably surfing the Internet with Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. These are known as browsers. And consist of a menu bar reading: file, edit, view, favorites etc. A toolbar below it followed by an address bar beneath that. Look to the top of your screen, you see? You could be using another browser, but don't worry they are not complicated whatsoever. You may even be familiar with it already.

Benefits of using the Internet:

• Send an receive email
• Chat to people around the world
• Surf web sites
• Set up your own money spinning business

Email works much faster than the postman. It's called electronic mail and travels through a device what is known as a server. This isn't connected to your machine, it's part of your service provider's network. Often it takes a matter of seconds to deliver the message straight to your mailbox, although it has probably been directed around the world.

Electronic mail, or e-mail is one of the most exciting and easiest ways to communicate through the Internet. You can set up email accounts, usually free, with a number of respectable companies online such as hotmail.com, which is powered by the Microsoft Network. Email addresses take the form of 'yourname'@'domain name'.com. With the domain being someone like Hotmail or AOL. (The '@' sign is pronounced 'at'.)

Once you have signed up to a email service you can start sending your mail, and put the postman out of work! There are set fields you have to fill in before you actually send your message.

Attachments are another facility of email. You can send things typed out in, for instance, Microsoft Word, to your friends, colleague's etc. Just watch the sizes of the attachments you send otherwise they could take a little while! If you receive an attachment from someone you don't know, do not open it until you are sure what's in it. It could contain a computer virus that could damaged your computers files or wipe them out altogether! This goes for anything else too. Some downloads contain viruses so make sure the company from whom you are downloading is respectable and established.

The technical name for these is usually Discussion Boards. You are able to post messages on a wide range of topics depending on the message board you chose. You can leave a message, come back twenty-five minutes later and read the replies other people have posted. An example of a message board site is nightly.net. It caters for a wide range of message subjects ranging from music to computers and technology. You may have to become a member to post your messages, you will usually be assigned a username and password for security. Most message boards are strictly monitored by the site webmaster and are kept very secure.

This is where you can talk to people from all over the world in real time! Conversation like! The text you write is usually deleted from the system after about half-hour so you cannot go back to a conversation unless you exchange email address' etc.

How to conduct a chat with an online community...

CAPITAL LETTERS are a major no no. This is considered shouting. However, it's pretty funny to do if you want to joke around.

Don't disclose your home address to anyone you have just meet online. If you are to meet someone who you chat to online, make sure you are meeting in a public area.

When you are online the only information other people have of you is your IP address, unless of course, you tell them stuff. This is a number that can either change when you log on known as a dynamic IP address or stays the same every time you log on known as a static IP address. If for instance you committed a crime on the Internet such as breaking copyright laws, the government can contact your ISP and find out who was at the end of that IP address at a certain time, and gain contact information with that individual. Remember you can be held accountable for whatever you do online just as you can be in life. Never give out your password, always look through the terms and conditions if you are subscribing to anything... it only takes a few minutes!