With Links, Favorites, Internet History, the Information Bar and various Internet related explanations covered it is now time, over the next three sections, to use Internet Explorer. The first thing I will show you is how to create a FREE E-Mail Address. The reason being that most things on the Internet these days require an E-Mail Address - Booking a Flight. Shopping. Joining a Forum/Newsgroup. Using a Messenger to "Chit-Chat". Sending your C.V to a company. And so on.

Before you can setup a FREE E-Mail Address you must know of a company, or website, that offers a FREE E-Mail Address. Microsoft is one of many companies, with their own website, offering a FREE E-Mail Account. Yahoo is another. Although a company usually has a website, a website owner does not have to have a company. For example. A person with a Forum (Questions & Answers) website will more than likely offer you a FREE E-Mail Address only when you join their forum. This means they are lending you one of their e-mail addresses (with your name on it) as long as you are a member of their forum. Once you stop being a member your e-mail address is deleted.

A company like Microsoft on the other hand tend to offer a FREE E-Mail Account in the hope you will like their e-mail service, and/or their website, and possibly go for one of their Pay-For services (i.e Advanced E-Mail Service) later. These days you normally get free web (internet storage) space with your free e-mail account, which can be used for storing e-mails and photos for example. A feature of webspace, if it is available/offered, is its ability to allow your stored photos to be viewed by the people in your contacts list. And a feature of a free e-mail account in general is its ability to allow an e-mail address to be used with its Messenger ("Chit-Chat") service, if it is offered/available. So always look for the words FREE E-Mail Account. Free E-Mail Accounts usually expire if you do not use them once every 30 days. Meaning. It will be deactivated or deleted thereafter along with your free e-mail address.

In this example I will show you how to set up a FREE E-Mail Address using Microsoft's HOTMAIL e-mail account service. So the first thing you need to do is connect to your ISP's computer (dial the Internet) in order to make the Main Internet Connection (see Internet Connections for more information). This is normally done for you, when you switch on the computer, if you are a Broadband user. However. If you are a Dial-Up (P.A.Y.G) user you will have to manually dial-up (connect to) your ISP's computer in order to make the Main Internet Connection. I say normally, for Broadband users, because it depends on the way your Broadband was setup (i.e to Automatically Connect or to Manually Dial-Up). More information can be found in the Internet section.

Once you have the Main Internet Connection, which is the connection running from your computer to your ISP's computer (Server) only, the next thing to do is open an Internet Explorer window (Fig 1.3). This is done by clicking on internet explorer's Taskbar icon (Fig 1.1) or by clicking on its Start Menu icon (Fig 1.2).

Fig 1.1  Click on internet explorer's Quick Launch Toolbar icon....

Fig 1.2  ....or click on internet explorer's Start Menu icon.

Fig 1.3  The web browser called Internet Explorer

When you open an Internet Explorer window, by default (normal behaviour) it makes an Extended Internet Connection to your Home Page (first to be displayed web page). In this example www.google.co.uk is my Home Page, hence why it was displayed when I clicked on the Internet Explorer icon. Home Page is explained towards the bottom of the Web Terminology section.

With an internet explorer window open, displaying your Home Page, you are now "ON THE INTERNET". This means from here onwards you can travel from one website to another simply by typing a website's Address into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box. In this example you need to go from your home page (i.e. Google website - www.google.co.uk) to the Hotmail website (www.hotmail.com) in order to create a FREE E-Mail Address. You do this by typing www.hotmail.com into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box (Fig 1.3 above) and then either press the ENTER keyboard key or click on the blue, right arrow, GO button (Fig 1.4 below) to take you to the Hotmail website. You can also click on a Bing Suggestion if one is available (Fig 1.3 above).

Fig 1.4  Click on the blue, right-arrow, GO button to go to the website that is inside the Address Bar edit box

After clicking on the blue, right-arrow, GO button Internet Explorer disconnects its Extended Internet Connection from the current website (or web page), i.e. your home page - www.google.co.uk, and then makes a new Extended Internet Connection to the website (or web page) you have typed into the Address Bar edit box (i.e. www.hotmail.com).

As long as the Internet Explorer window is open it will always disconnect the Extended Internet Connection from the website (or web page) you are leaving before making a new Extended Internet Connection to the website (or web page) you are going to. So in this example internet explorer will disconnect its Extended Internet Connection from www.google.co.uk before it makes a new Extended Internet Connection to www.hotmail.com. This is because one internet explorer window can only be connected, via an Extended Internet Connection, to one website (or web page) at a time. And more importantly it can only display the content (i.e. text and graphics) of one website (or web page) at a time.

If a website is using FRAMES (Split Windows) or internet explorer is using TABs (Separate Windows within the main window) then each window has its own Extended Internet Connection. If an Extended Internet Connection cannot be made, to the website (or web page) you are going to, internet explorer will complain with Error 404 - Page Could Not Be Displayed. Closing an internet explorer window will disconnect the Extended Internet Connection belonging to the website (or web page) you were viewing in that window.

Fig 1.5  Click on the SIGN UP button, on the left, to continue

When you get to the Hotmail website (Fig 1.5 above) look to the left of it and you should see a SIGN UP button. Click on it to get to the next web page - It is the registration (sign-up) form that will create your free Windows Live ID, which is the ID you use to log-in to your automatically created free hotmail account and services.

Fig 1.6  Click on CHECK AVAILABILITY to see if your chosen Windows Live ID is available

After clicking on the Windows Live (left-side) SIGN UP button (Fig 1.5 above) you are taken to the Registration web page (Fig 1.6 above) where you are required to enter your Registration Details and agree to the Microsoft Terms & Conditions. The registration web page is one long web page that will need scrolling as you enter your registration details. In this example I will breakdown each section of the web page/registration details for you.

The first section requires that you type a Windows Live ID (User Name) into the WINDOWS LIVE ID Edit Box. In this example I have typed yoingco2011 as the Windows Live ID (User Name) I would like to use. The Windows Live ID can be used with this Hotmail E-Mail Account (once it has been set up), Windows Live Messenger ("Chit-Chat" program) and so on. Following the Windows Live ID is the @ sign (@ is pronounced AT) and then the Domain Name, either hotmail.co.uk or live.co.uk. Normally you would stick to what domain name is chosen for you (i.e. hotmail.co.uk), but if you want to change it you can do so by clicking on the DOMAIN NAME drop-down menu and then select the domain name you would like to use.

Fig 1.7  Select the Domain Name you would like to use from the drop-down menu, if need be.

When you have typed in your preferred Windows Live ID, and changed the domain name if need be, check that your chosen Windows Live ID is available by clicking on the CHECK AVAILABILITY button (Fig 1.6 above). This needs to be done because even how unique you think your chosen Windows Live ID is someone might be using it. For example. If your chosen Windows Live ID is jsmith71, named after you (John Smith) and your birth year (1971), you may find it is being used by other John Smith's born in 1971 (i.e. jsmith71@hotmail.co.uk and jsmith71@live.co.uk).

Fig 1.8  The chosen Windows Live ID is available (not in use by anyone at this time)

If someone else is using your chosen Windows Live ID you will see the following error message and be given alternative, available, Windows Live IDs to choose from. From here you can click on an alternative Windows Live ID to use, look at some more Windows Live IDs by clicking on the MORE link or click on the ADVANCED SEARCH link to search for much better Windows Live IDs.

Fig 1.9  The Windows Live ID yoingco2010 is unavailable, but similar Windows Live IDs are available.

If you use common words and/or numbers to make up your Windows Live ID it may take you several attempts before you get a Windows Live ID that is available. For example. If you want a user name such as johnsmith261073, to mean you are called John Smith and born on 26th October 1973, it might unavailable because many people called John Smith were also born on 26th October 1973. The same applies to Nicknames, Animal Names and so on. So always think Unique - For example. You could have jothoct73 (first two letters from JOhn, last two letters from smiTH and OCTober 73 - Pronounced Joff Oct 73 for easy remembrance).

With the user name yoingco2010 available, my E-Mail Address is yoingco2010@live.co.uk. So as you can see, an e-mail address in general is made up of a Windows Live ID (User Name), the @ (AT) sign and a Domain (Company) Name. It is very important you remember this because with some companies they ask for the User Name only (i.e yoingco2010) whereas other companies ask for the E-Mail Address (i.e yoingco2010@live.co.uk). The @ sign just acts as a separator. Another thing to remember is that your Windows Live ID (User Name) is only available/unique to you with the current domain name (i.e. live.co.uk) - In other words, someone could set up an e-mail address as yoingco2010@yahoo.co.uk or as yoingco2010@hotmail.co.uk.

The next required piece of information is the Password. It is required in order to stop unwanted people from Viewing/Changing your e-mail account details, Viewing your e-mails, Signing-In as you with Windows Live Messenger and so on. To make it more difficult for someone or something to guess your password use a password that contains between 7 and 16 Characters, with those characters containing a mixture of words, symbols and numbers. For example. Do not use common words to make up your password, like - Password, 190371 (D.O.B: 19th March 1971), Mother, God and so on. Use something like these instead - F10uR_22 (Flour_22), Son_Shine_1, ThreePlusFour and so on.

Fig 1.10  Type your desired password into the CREATE A PASSWORD Edit Box

Begin by typing your desired password into the CREATE A PASSWORD Edit Box (Fig 1.10 above). As you type, from your sixth character onwards, the Password Strength indicator will highlight the strength of your password accordingly (WEAK, MEDIUM or STRONG). I typed a six letter word above, which gave me a WEAK strength. So I then added an _ (underscore) sign which gave me a MEDIUM strength (Fig 1.11 below) before finally adding four numbers which gave me a STRONG strength (Fig 1.12 below).

As you type your password each character you type will be shown as a DOT character, so that anyone looking at the screen cannot see your password.

Fig 1.11  The password is currently of MEDIUM strength




Fig 1.12  The password is now of a STRONG strength




Fig 1.13  Retype the password for confirmation

When you have typed in your desired password you must retype it into the RETYPE PASSWORD Edit Box. This is so that the password and retyped password can be compared, in order to establish if you have made a typing error. For example. You may have thought you typed JIMMY_2007 as your password inside the Create A Password edit box when in fact you typed JIMNY_2007, because your finger caught the wrong key. So when you type JIMMY_2007 into the Retype Password edit box, thinking JIMMY_2007 to be correct when really it should now be JIMNY_2007 because of your mistake, the registration process is able to identify the mistake and inform you of it. If the registration process only needed one password, and you thought you typed JIMMY_2007 as your password but mistakenly typed JIMNY_2007, typing JIMMY_2007 instead of JIMNY_2007 would mean you could not log-in to your e-mail account next time because you would not know the mistakenly typed password JIMNY_2007 is now the correct password.

The Reset Password section allows you to either create a Secret Question and Secret Answer, or supply an alternative e-mail address, so that if you forget your password (as described in the above paragraph for example) you can then either answer your secret question or you can have your password sent to your alternative e-mail address. To clarify. You do not need to supply an alternative e-mail address. You can create a secret question and secret answer instead. Both are not required.

Begin by either typing an alternative e-mail address into the ALTERNATIVE E-MAIL Edit Box, if you have an alternative e-mail address you can use (i.e. another e-mail address of yours or your friend's e-mail address), or click on the OR CHOOSE A SECURITY QUESTION FOR PASSWORD RESET link to continue. In this example even though I could of used an alternative e-mail address, such as contactjohn@vistalessons.com, I decided to show you how to create a secret question and secret answer instead just in case you do not have an alternative e-mail address. Hence why you are reading this section in order to create a new, free, e-mail address. So continue by clicking on the OR CHOOSE A SECURITY QUESTION FOR PASSWORD RESET link.

Fig 1.14  Click on the OR CHOOSE A SECURITY QUESTION FOR PASSWORD RESET link to continue

When you click on the OR CHOOSE A SECURITY QUESTION FOR PASSWORD RESET link the reset password section changes so that you can select a secret question, from the SECRET QUESTION Drop-Down Menu, and then type in a secret answer for that secret question inside the SECRET ANSWER Edit Box. In this example I chose the secret question FAVORITE HISTORICAL PERSON and then typed Robin Hood as the secret answer.

Fig 1.15  Select your secret question from the SECRET QUESTION Drop-Down Menu




Fig 1.16  Type your secret answer into the SECRET ANSWER Edit Box

Although the PASSWORD was disguised by DOT symbols (Fig 1.13 above) it might surprise you that the SECRET ANSWER was not. Furthermore. Once someone has seen your E-Mail Address, Secret Question and Secret Answer (i.e. because they were being nosey, looking over your shoulder) they can then use them to reset your password. In other words. They could enter your e-mail address into the Hotmail sign-in (log-in) web page and then pretend they have forgotten your password, where they would then be asked for your Secret Answer (to your Secret Question) in order to reset your Password. So be careful when filling out these registration details - If you use an Internet Cafe watch who is looking at your screen.

The Account Information details are quite straight forward. The names you type into the FIRST NAME and LAST NAME edit boxes are the names other people will see when they receive an e-mail from you (i.e FROM: John White). These names do not have to be your real names though. They could be nicknames for example.

Fig 1.17  Fill in your Account Information

After typing in the names select your Country/Region, and Constituent Country, if need be by using the appropriate drop-down menus. The COUNTRY/REGION setting normally defaults to the country you are in but the CONSTITUENT COUNTRY setting will need selecting. It has a selection of citizenship countries to choose from. For example. The UK is split into four countries/citizenships (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). In this example UNITED KINGDOM was the default Country/Region setting but I had to select ENGLAND from the CONSTITUENT COUNTRY drop-down menu.

Fig 1.18  Select a Constituent Country, if need be, from the CONSTITUENT COUNTRY drop-down menu

In the Postal Code edit box simply type in your post code, with or without a space (i.e. SW2 1RX or SW21RX) but preferably with a space. And with the GENDER setting click on either the MALE radio (circle) button or on the FEMALE radio (circle) button. The BIRTH YEAR edit box needs a four digit YEAR (i.e. 1968) typed into it.

Fig 1.19  Type the Picture Characters into the CHARACTERS edit box

After typing in your Account Information you are then asked to type the Picture Characters into the CHARACTERS Edit Box. This is to ensure that a Human is creating this e-mail account and not an Automated Program. Hence why the characters are picture characters (graphics). An automated program cannot read on-screen characters (graphics) as letters/numbers at this time, designed in this way.

If you make a typing mistake, because you cannot read the picture characters properly for example, you will be given error message that requires you to type the picture characters again. And in some cases the web page itself might clear your entire information, after your mistake, usually due to a bad extended internet connection (i.e Hotmail could not reconnect to its Server to retrieve your information it has stored so far and therefore cannot refresh the web page with your information). Also. Hotmail will not use AutoComplete to remember your information, as it is a secure website. This means it only submits information to its server when you click on certain buttons (i.e the I ACCEPT button, below). So to cut down on mistakes look carefully at the picture characters and type them in CAPITALS.

If you are not happy with the picture characters you have been given you can use the blue REFRESH button, to the right of the picture characters, which will refresh the web page with a new set of picture characters. Alternatively. You can click on the AUDIO (Speaker) button to clear the CHARACTERS edit box and then click on the PLAY AUDIO button to listen to a 10 digit number. You then type that 10 digit number into the CHARACTERS edit box. You have to listen to the audio of 10 digits very carefully though because it sounds as if they are being spoken to you in a busy railway station or airport.

Fig 1.20  Type the spoken 10 digit number into the AUDIO Edit Box as you hear them - Click on PLAY AUDIO to replay the numbers if need be.

When you have filled in this e-mail account registration form check it over, for mistakes and so on, and then click on the I ACCEPT button to accept the Contract (Agreements/Terms Of Service) between you and Microsoft. Untick the SEND ME E-MAIL... option, before clicking on the I ACCEPT button, if you do not want any Promotional Offers sent to this new e-mail account from Microsoft (Windows Live and MSN).

Fig 1.21  If you accept Microsoft's Agreements click on the I ACCEPT button to continue

After agreeing to Microsoft's Contract, by clicking on the I AGREE button above, you are then automatically Signed-In (Logged-In) to your new, free, e-mail account and therefore taken straight to the e-mail account interface. From there you can view your e-mails, create a new e-mail and so on.

Fig 1.22  Your new, free, e-mail account has been created successfully

If you look around the window you will notice Folders to your left (INBOX, JUNK, DRAFTS, Etc), E-Mail to the center (in this case one e-mail from the Hotmail Staff, welcoming you to Windows Live Hotmail), Options above (NEW, DELETE, JUNK, Etc) and so on.

E-Mail, in general, will be explained in the next section. For now though you should Sign Out by clicking on the SIGN OUT button/link - Sign Out means you want to log-off (disconnect) from your e-mail account because you are no longer in need of it right now. You should always Sign Out. If you do not someone could be nosey and start reading your e-mail or more importantly change certain details of your e-mail account, especially if you are in a Internet Cafe.

Fig 1.23  ALWAYS click on the SIGN OUT button/link to log-off (disconnect) from your e-mail account

After clicking on the SIGN OUT button/link, towards the top-right of the window, the Extended Internet Connection is disconnected from www.hotmail.com and a new Extended Internet Connection is automatically made to www.msn.com. In other words. Microsoft could send you back (connect you) to your previous website (i.e. www.google.com) but it does not. It connects you to its MSN (Microsoft Network) website instead. This is normal and known as redirection. If you close the Internet Explorer window however the Extended Internet Connection will be closed - In this example you would just be left with the Main Internet Connection.

In the next section you will be shown how to use your Free Hotmail E-Mail Account in a general/basic, but yoingco.com!, way. However. To understand more about E-Mailing, What an e-mail actually is and What you can do with the E-Mail Client (program) called Windows Mail I advise you to read the Windows Mail category.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.