2,001 Tips
The Web
Become a Web wizard with these new surfing strategies, searching styles and authoring techniques.

Browsers

General Browsing

The Missing Link

You may encounter Error 404 if someone moves, deletes or renames a Web page but doesn't update the corresponding links. Try jumping back until you find a valid address, then search for the prodigal page. For example, if you can't find http://www.anysite.com/pages/missing.html, try the parent directory, http://www.anysite.com/pages/, and see if you can link to it from there. If not, drop back to http://www.anysite.com/. Some Web servers also allow you to browse directories. If you provide a directory name to such a server, it will respond with a list of files in that directory.

Fix Your Fonts

Arial may look good on your screen, but it can be difficult to read through the eyes of some browsers. For the most readable results, select Times Roman as your default font and black as the default type color.

Remail Your E-mail

If you're at risk for receiving mail bombs, or if you simply want to protect your e-mail address from prying eyes, consider a remailer computer service. To learn more, check out the FAQ at http://www.well.com/user/abacard/remail.html.

Clean the Cache

Megabytes of data can build up in the cache directories of Web browsers. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator both feature a push-button method of flushing the cache. In Netscape Navigator, select Options/Network Options, then click on the Cache tab. Click on the "Clear disk cache now" button to empty the cache. In Internet Explorer, select View/Options, then click on the Advanced tab. Click the button labeled Settings under "Temporary Internet files," and then click on the "Empty folder" button.

Leak-Free Surfing

Windows 95 users who are experiencing inordinate lockups or crashes while surfing the Net may want to check out the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/krnlupd.htm. It's an upgrade for the Windows 95 Winsock stack that fixes a memory-leak problem. Programs that open and close many different sockets, or virtual Internet connections, may eventually wind up bogging down the system. The patch fixes the problem and lets you surf leak-free.

[ Go to 2,001 Tips Table of Contents ]