A couple of sites that might be of interest to someone new to the internet would be Microsoft's Internet Tutorial or ILC Glossary of Internet Terms.

Most of this software is made for Windows 95. Some internet service providers have a default setup that doesn't take full advantage of Windows 95 capabilities. For more information click here.

One of the first things you want is a good virus program. One of the more popular for Windows 95 is McAfee's. But like all other virus scanners you need to update every few months for new viruses. Your risk of getting a virus isn't that great if you know where you are downloading from but you don't want to take the risk anyway.

F-Prot for DOS is a fast virus scanner that is freeware and works great with Windows. I use it to scan my files in WinZip.

And speaking of WinZip this is a program everybody needs if you are going to download those zip files. A zip file is generally a group of files that have been compressed into one file so it can be easily transferred. After you open a zip file with WinZip you extract it somewhere on your hard drive. Then run the setup, install or some cases just execute the program itself.

The mail program I'm using right now is Eudora Light mostly because it's what I'm used too. This is another great freeware program. They also have a Pro Version if you just got to have something better.

There are a lot of other good free mail programs such as Pegasus Mail so you shouldn't have any problem finding something you like.

As far as newsgroup programs go I haven't found anything made by anybody else that like using as much as Free Agent except maybe Agent. Both made by the same people but as you probably can guess one is the freeware version. A newsgroup is one of the discussion groups on USENET. There are over 50,000 groups that cover about any subject you can think of. People trade messages and files here freely so this is where a lot of the smut ends up. A great resource if you can overlook the pitfalls.

There are also telnet programs you can play with. They are mostly used to access a BBS (Bulletin Board System) on the internet. There are more of these around the world than anybody can count with many being run on somebody's home PC. They have messages, files, games and other stuff. I haven't found a telnet program that I'm completely satisfied with but NetTerm comes the closest of the ones I have tried.

Chatting is one of the more popular things to do on the internet. You go to what is called a room where you can see what other people that are in the room with you are typing. And you are liable to be chatting with somebody on the other side of the world. The most well known is mIRC. (Internet Relay Chat )

Even though I don't spend much time in chat one the coolest programs I have come across is Microsoft's Comic Chat. You get to pick a cartoon character to represent you and every time you type something it pops up on the screen with what you typed in a balloon caption.

My first FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program was WS_FTP. This too is freeware and the one I recommend for starters because it's easy to use. It is used for transferring files to and from FTP sites. A necessity for managing your own web site.

Do you hear that funky music when you visit my site. If not you need to do download Crescendo for your browser. It is some sort of synthesizer that plays midi files to enhance (or annoy) your web surfing.

Are you listening to the internet yet? Download Real Player to listen to the hundreds maybe thousands of radio stations on the internet. From sporting events to oldies you can find it all. I don't know that I agree with their claim of near CD quality but it's free.

Shockwave is about the coolest plug-in I have come across for your browser. The best I can describe it is as interactive animation with sound. If you are looking for something to play around with this is it.

If you are interested in editing or creating art work you will want to check out Paint Shop Pro. This is one of the most popular programs on the internet and it's not hard to figure out why. A really great program for working with graphics.

If you are one of these people who has a lot of pictures to look at you might want to try LView Pro . It opens and loads quick with a quality viewer. Easy to use and even will run a slide show of your favorite pictures.

This isn't really software but if you are looking to create your own homepage Geocities makes it easy. Of course you will want to improve on your first page so they give you all the help and resources you need to do that. All they ask is that your page fit one of their themes. And once again it's free.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the language that is used to create a web page such as this one. As I have been learning more about HTML my choice of editors has changed a few times but right now I'm using Homesite. It is what I used to create this page. They used to have a freeware version but I'm not sure if it's available anymore.

I have only made a few phone calls over the internet so I'm not very familiar with the internet phone software. It is one of those deals where you get excited the first time you try it but then you figure out you don't know anybody to call. Microsoft has NetMeeting while Netscape has Cool Talk so if you have somebody to call you can try one of these.

I tried to explain things in as simple terms as I could so anybody could understand it but just in case I lost you somewhere just write me. I'm always glad to help if I can.