I have prepared this page for Jill Southern to help her set up her teddy bear business on the Internet. The underlined (blue if in color) words will lead Jill to sites which will help her with her purchase or assist her in the future for information on getting her business set up once it is on the Internet.

At the end of this presentation there are several hardcopy pages of what I have suggested to help Jill with the business choices.

• INTRODUCTION
• HARDWARE
• Processor
• Hard drive
• RAM
• Scanner
• Digital camera
• Modem
• Mouse, keyboard
• VDU
• Costs of hardware
• SOFTWARE packages
• Browser
• Authoring
• Email
• Graphics editing
• BECOMING KOOL ON THE WEB (How to Connect to a Web Site Using the Netscape)
• Internet service provider
• Modem
• Email address
• Phone line
• Protocols
• Html
• http
• ftp
• Internet discussions
• Saving of pages
• Naming files and images
• Image types
• Subdirectories
• Location of images
• ISSUES RELATING TO THE INTERNET
• Viruses
• Spam
• Copyright
• Security
• Privacy
• Total COSTS

INTRODUCTION

To set up a computer system to sell teddy bears over the net Jill will need an easy to run computer that is Internet friendly. The iMac by the Apple corporation is the easiest computer to operate for a beginner and to establish an e-commerce based busines.

HARDWARE

• The computer
• Printer
• Scanner
• Video camera

The iMac is everything Jill will need. The iMac 400MHz PowerPC G3 is faster than the fastest Pentium. Jill can purchase the iMac by clicking HERE. The DV models feature digital video technology. The iMac DV models are like mini movie theatres and studios rolled into one: so Jill can watch the latest DVD movies on them, or create her own pro-quality business movies for selling teddys, using a Apple's iMovie digital video DV camcorder and editing software. Jill will be please to learn that the iMac comes preloaded with video and streaming media. She can play QuickTime 4 which is the standard for digital QuickTime movies, watch QuickTime TV, and take full advantage of interactive websites. iMac combines the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh. It comes with all that Jill will need to send and receive e-mail and surf the World Wide Web. All Jill will need to do is to turn on her new iMac , and her friendly Setup Assistant will ask her a few simple questions (the kind she already know the answers to, like her phone number). Then it will walk her through the steps of getting online, and helps her become connected. Presto, instant Internet. In no time Jill will be sharing e-mail with friends and family and all those wonderful new folks buying her bears. The iMac comes with a bonus 100 hrs of Internet so Jill won't even have to fork out any money to get started.

The iMac comes with everything Jill will need to send and receive e-mail and surf the World Wide Web. Sherlock, the most powerful search technology on the Internet, and a key feature of the Mac OS 9 (the system software which comes with the iMac). Sherlock understands plain English queries, making it easy looking for on the Internet. For example, type a simple question like "who invented electricity" (and even leave out the question mark), and Sherlock will find answers for Jill, ranked by relevance.

The iMac makes it easy to connect to the Internet, with a built-in 56K modem (read the section at the end 'TOO MUCH TO KNOW ABOUT MODEMS) and an 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port (maybe a bit techno for you Jill but it is how you will connect with the Web - don't worry no knowledge of this is really needed), and a choice of connecting through telephone line, cable modem or DSL modem (or wirelessly with the optional AirPort Card and AirPort Base Station). Of course Jill will stick with the 56K modem through her telephone for now.

The other great thing about the iMac is that Jill only needs to learn one Macintosh software application and then she got a pretty good handle on them all. Because all Macintosh applications work the same basic way, with convenient pull-down menus and with icons that represent familiar tools and objects.

The new iMac also comes with USB mass-storage support, USB audio device support, USB communication device support, and universal USB game device support (so it works with just about every game control device out there, right out of the box).

Too much to know about modems…

A modem is a device that can occupy an internal slot in a computer (called a "half card" or "internal" modem). Or it can be an external device (usually referred to as a stand-alone modem) and hook-up to a computer via cables.

Modems convert a computer's binary language into audio tones. Those tones can then be sent anywhere in the world using ordinary telephone lines. But, in order to receive these tones, there has to be a modem at the receiving end, too. At the receiving end, the modem "hears" the tones and converts them back into the binary language used and understood by computers. This process is called Modulation Demodulation (hence MO-DEM for short).

In order for the modem to work, there has to be something between the modem and the computer. An intermediary that makes sure the data transmitted is useable . . . that's what the communications software program does. This is the program that instructs and directs both the computer and the modem so the computer will know what to do with the data it has received.

A modem's speed is measured by bits-per-second ... usually expressed as "bps". It wasn't too long ago that 2400 bps was considered as being high speed. Today, however, even the home user can buy an affordable 14,400 bps modem! Which is to say that the 14,400 bps modem will transmit data six times faster than a 2400 bps modem.

V-DOT WHAT?

V-dot-this. V-dot-that.

V.32 - The Consulting Committee for International Telephone and Telegraph (or "CCITT") standard for 9600 bps and 4800 bps modem operation. V.32 modems fall back to 4800 bps when line quality is impaired. V.32bis - The CCITT standard for a fairly broad range of modems capable of higher operational speeds; 14,400 bps, 12,000 bps, 9600 bps, 7200 bps, 4800 bps. V.32bis will automatically seek a lower operating speed when line quality is poor ... and when line quality improves, the modem will automatically move forward to the highest speed. V.42 - The CCITT standard for detection and negotiation for LAPM error control. V.42 also supports MNP Levels 2 through 4. V.42bis - An extension of V.42 defining the data compression 4 to 1 ratio protocol for use with V.42.

DATA/FAX MODEMS

Data/FAX modems are engineered for transmission of data, but they also have an added capability that enables you to send and receive FAXes from your PC. There comes the obvious advantage of not having to run to another machine to send a FAX. But there are several other significant advantages: Consider that the FAX Jill will send from her iMac can more easily be treated as "confidential". Sending FAXes to several people is quite easy ... easier than doing the job repeatedly at a stand-alone machine.

Jill can keep FAXing costs in control by programming her iMac to do the job when rates are lower than peak use time rates.

She'll even have the benefit of being able to print out a FAX on plain paper.

FAX MODEMS HAVE A LOT OF CLASS.

Check out the specifications for a FAX modem, and Jill will find reference to the modem's compliance with a certain "class" ...and an additional reference to the "group" the FAX modem belongs to. That's OK as long as you understand the differences between them:

CLASS 1 MODEMS utilize a series of Hayes-type AT software commands to control FAX boards. Class 1 modems do not have the ability to automatically detect whether an incoming call is data or FAX. The modem will have to be set for one or

the other.

CLASS 2 MODEMS have hardware that provide the ability to automatically detect whether the incoming call is a data call or a FAX call.

GROUPS, TOO?

As far as FAX modem "groups" are concerned, the differences between them are easy to understand.

Depending on its operating speed, and level of technological sophistication, a FAX machine/FAX modem will fall into one of four groups:

GROUP 1 is for FAX modems/machines that transmit a standard 8-1/2" x 11" page in approximately 6 minutes.

GROUP 2 indicates that the FAX modem or machine will transmit a standard 8-1/2" x 11" page in approximately 3 minutes.

GROUP 3 will be a digital machine/9600 bps machine or modem. FAX modems in this group will send an 8-1/2" x 11" page in as few as 20 seconds!

GROUP 4 at this point in time, includes those machines and modems that represent the state-of-the-art; operate at 64,000 bps! That's fast! And THIS IS THE MODEM FOR JILL WHICH WILL BE INSTALLED WITH HER iMAC

A rule of thumb: faster modems cost more to buy, but less to use than slower modems.

A modem modulates outgoing digital signals from a computer or other digital device to analog signals for a conventional copper twisted-pair telephone line and demodulates the incoming analog signal and converts it to a digital signal for the digital device.

In recent years, the 2400 bps modem that could carry e-mail has become obsolete. 14.4 Kbps and 28.8 Kbps modems were temporary landing places on the way to the much higher bandwidth devices and carriers of tomorrow. From early 1998, most new personal computers came with 56 Kbps modems, WHICH OF COURSE IS WHAT JILL IS GETTING. By comparison, using a digital ISDN adapter instead of a conventional modem, the same telephone wire can now carry up to 128 Kbps. With Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) systems, now being deployed in a number of communities, bandwidth on twisted-pair can be in the megabit range.
 
 
 
 

How to Connect to a Web Site Using the Netscape
 
 

To start Netscape Communicator:

        Start Windows
        Logon

Double click the Netscape Communicator  icon on the windows desktop.

A window will appear asking you to select a user or default user, select the user and press OK.

Netscape displays the Home Page. The home page appears every time you start Netscape Communicator.  This section you are in of Netscape Communicator is known as Netscape Navigator.

To Quit Netscape Communicator

COSTS