The web is not constant. Web sites appear and disappear all the time. While everything possible has been done to ensure the sites listed here are reliable, it's likely that some of them will vanish completely and others may re-locate. Non-commercial sites that are hosted in free web space (usually recognisable by long web addresses that are not associated with the name of the site) often disappear when their webmaster loses interest or runs out of time. Those that prove popular may move to their own domains.
There are a couple of things to try if a web site seems to have gone walkabout. It's possible that equipment has crashed or has been taken off-line for maintenance, so you could try again later. Or you could edit the web address by taking it back to the last slash. For instance, if the web address www.webaddress.co.za/interestingstuff/dudfile.html comes up with an error message delete the letters back to www.webaddress.co.za/interestingstuff or even www.webaddress.co.za. It sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't.
Some sites are designed specifically for one browser (usually Microsoft Internet Explorer) and may not appear if you are using another program. If you find yourself looking at a blank page without any error messages, try another browser.
South African Internet Service Provider Mweb decided in February 2001 to block non-subscribers from its network of web sites. These sites include several sites listed here, such as the Daily Mail & Guardian, and SuperSport Zone. Corporate networks and international visitors, along with Mweb subscribers, can still get into the sites. Otherwise all that can be done is hope the decision is reversed.
The Internet may be the information superhighway but some days you just get stuck in the slow lane. There are several things that can make your surfing experience more productive and less frustrating:
- Open multiple simultaneous windows aimed at different web sites. As one site loads you can view another in a separate window. Right-click on a link to open the page in new window.
- Use the 'refresh' or 'reload' button to make sure you have the latest version of the page - this is particularly important with news sites that are updated frequently.
- Using a dial-up connection can inflate your telephone bill so subscribe to email lists from sites that you visit regularly. This way you can check what's new while offline. But stay away from fancy html formatted ones that will try to kickstart the modem.
- Tinker with the browser's preferences (go to edit and then preferences with Netscape, or tools and Internet options with Microsoft's Internet Explorer). In particular select a site you always visit as your home page. Also check the 'auto-complete' box so the browser will finish off the urls of sites you site regularly - saves a lot of typing.
The sheer abundance of the Internet is both its greatest advantage and greatest frustration. Search engines are meant to help you unearth the right site or sites to serve your needs but usually the avalanche of results can be intimidating rather than helpful. Most search engines are capable of getting the results required - the trick is just to couch the search terms so as to limit the results and maximise their quality. Try to use the most specific term possible and try to combine terms with 'AND' in capital letters. For instance, Cape Town AND municipality. It's a good idea to use inverted commas when searching for phrases or names containing several words, such as "Johannesburg Stock Exchange".
For wider searches when you're not quite sure what you're looking for, try an online directory such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or the specialist African and South African directories listed in this guide. These directories are particularly helpful if you want to browse through topics such as travel sites in Mauritius or newspapers in Kenya.
Many African web sites are in French, and a few are in Portuguese, Arabic or Swahili. Monoglots needn't despair, as there are online services that will translate the content for you. One of the best is AltaVista's Babel Fish - although it doesn't translate Arabic or Swahili. It allows you to translate sections of text or entire web sites. Sites that are well written and use standard grammar are more successfully translated but even so you are likely to get some peculiar results:
'fetching engines' instead of 'search engines,' and interesting phrases such as
'So that one cannot misuse the capacity, it is necessary that by the provision of the things, the capacity stops the capacity'
- but it usually presents a fairly lucid text.
You'll often come across files on the Internet that need to be downloaded to your computer's hard drive and then opened with specific software. The most common is the zip format (.zip) that compresses data so as to take less time to download. Winzip, the programme that is needed to decompress the data, can be downloaded free of charge from www.tucows.co.za
Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf) are usually used for long reports with complicated formatting. For instance, the SA Revenue Service makes the annual tax tables available online in this format. If you have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer (also available for download free of charge from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/) you can open these files while online, but for dial-up users in particular, it is often easier to download them to your hard drive and open them later when off-line.
To play audio and video content, you'll need special "player" software. The two most common players are the RealPlayer for .ram files (download from http://www.realplayer.com) and the Windows Media Players for .asf and .wav files (download from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/). If you're likely to be playing sound or video often, it's worth downloading both players - your browser will load the appropriate player as required.
To download any file, use your alternative mouse button (usually the right, unless you've changed it) to click on the link, then click again on 'save link as' or 'save target as' and select a place on your hard drive to store it.
A limited glossary of terms you may come across in this guide or when visiting the web sites listed here.
cookie - a small file sent by a browser to a web server containing your preferences - that thing that allows site's to greet you by name when you return to them after registering -- allows you to personalise web sites
bookmark - a shortcut to a favourite web site, most browsers let you save and organise bookmarks (also called favourites)
browser - the program that lets you view web sites - Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are the two most popular.
domain name - the name of a web site, the name.co.za bit of www.name.co.za
ISDN - stands for Integrated Services Digital Network - basically a high speed internet connection
ISP - Internet Service Provider - the company that provides access to the Internet
FAQs - stands for Frequently Asked Questions and is often used on web sites to prevent people emailing the same question over and over again
FTP - stands for File Transfer Protocol - a common way to upload or download files over the Internet
plug-in - a small program that works in conjunction with a browser to provide audio, video or special effects
POP - stands for Post Office Protocol -- a method of storing and returning email
Search engines - online tool for locating information or specific web sites, just type in what you're looking for, hit the search button and start wading through the results
SMS - stands for Short Message Service - allows you to send short text messages to cellular phones either from the Internet or from another cellular phone
url - stands for Uniform Resource Locator - basically means web address as in www.sitename.co.za
webcams - a camera providing live (or almost live) images on the Internet. Often an image is changed every 10 seconds or so providing a glimpse at the world beyond the computer screen, from traffic intersections to waterholes in national parks.
zine or ezine - an online magazine
