The .cc domain suffix was created to be an alternative to the ".com" suffix for commercial web sites. It is a nice suffix because it is short and easy to say. However, not all web hosting companies support .cc domains and they are also not offered by many domain name registrars. Still, if you can find a web host that supports domain names ending in .cc, it may be a good alternative if your .com and .net choices are already taken.

A portal is a web site that acts as a starting point for many other sites. Some of the largest portals include Excite, Lycos, Yahoo, Netscape, NBCi, and MSN. There are, however, many smaller portals, known as "niche portals" for specific interests. These are sites like Fool.com (for investors) and Garden.com (for gardeners). Most large portals have thousands to millions of sites indexed for visitors to search though. They also typically have a large directory of sites, which are categorized by topic. Web portals are a great place to start when you're looking for something and have no idea where to find it.

Java applets can be really cool when they work. They allow interactive programs like calculators and games to run directly in your browser window. Unfortunately, applets require full Java support or they won't run at all. What makes this such a big problem is that Netscape and Internet Explorer use different Java interpreters. So one Java applet might run fine on Jane's PC running Internet Explorer, but might not run at all on Peter's Mac which is running Netscape.

The best way to solve the errant Java problem is to have the two latest versions of both browsers on your computer. If an applet won't run on one browser, try the other one and it probably will. Fortunately, most web programmers go through the painful process of making their applets compatible with both IE and Netscape. However, since that's not always the case, it's a good idea to have both browsers on your computer.

Cookies are little preference files that web sites store on your computer. Many web sites such as Yahoo and Excite use them extensively. Cookies allow you to personalize the web pages you visit, which can save you a lot of time since you don't have to re-enter information every time you visit the site.

A lot of people seem to get worried that cookies store personal information in an unsafe way. Though cookies used to be relatively non-secure, they have been much improved. In fact, the only way that the cookies on your computer can be viewed is by the web server that sent you the cookies.

Because so many web sites rely on cookies, I'd recommend leaving cookies turned on in your browser. They aren't a major security risk and they can make your web browsing much more efficient. You can change your cookie settings in your browser preferences under the "receiving files" heading. The default setting is usually "accept all cookies," which is what I would reccomend.

The purpose of the Internet cache is to store pages and images you've recently visited so that you won't have to download them when you visit the site again. However, since there is only a certain amount of disk space for the cache, it has to erase files when new ones are added. Having a full cache isn't something you should be worried about, though it may cause a temporary slow down when a large number of cached documents are deleted at one time. Still, the benefits of caching far outweigh this minor speed bump. The biggest drawback of the Temporary Internet Cache is that sometimes files in the cache get corrupted and can cause problems with your browser. So it's a good idea to empty the Temporary Internet Cache every couple of weeks or so no matter how much space it is taking up.

Any type of file can be downloaded via FTP. However, the files you download from an FTP site are usually compressed to save space and to reduce download times. The compression process usually turns the file into either a .zip file (PC) or a .sit file (Mac). To uncompress the file you'll need a program like WinZip (PC) or StuffIt Expander (Mac).

Web hosts are what make web sites accessible over the Internet. This means they keep all the web pages of the hosted site on their server, they take care of all the setup and technical issues, and they have a very high-speed connection to the Internet. For example, SiteHost4U hosts Sharpened.net. All the Sharpened.net web pages are actually on a SiteHost4U server, which is connected to the Internet backbone. The reason most people have their domain hosted instead of doing it themselves, is because there are very high costs involved in the setup and maintenance of a server. Just the high-speed connection typically runs a couple grand a month. This is why most small organizations and businesses choose to have their sites hosted by a web host for simple monthly payments (usually around $10-$25 per month).

A virus is a program or file which can do a variety of harmful things to your computer. Things like causing your computer to crash, creating tons of random files, or worse yet, deleting files. Most viruses can replicate themselves, which can be a big problem if they get on a computer network.

To protect yourself from viruses you should make sure you have an anti-virus program installed on your computer such as Symantec Anti-Virus, or McAfee Virus Scan. The most common way to get a computer virus is through an e-mail attachment. So it's best to not open any file that is questionable until you find out for sure that it's safe.

If you connect to the Internet via 56K modem, most ISPs will allow you to use the same service on multiple computers as long as they're not connected at the same time. To set up another computer for Internet access, just open the Internet control panel and enter the same information that is in the Internet control panel of your other computer. If this doesn't work, run the Internet Setup Wizard (in the same control panel) and enter the correct information there.

If you connect to your ISP using a DSL or cable modem, you should first check with your ISP to see if using two computers is OK. If so, you can connect your modem from your computer to a hub and have multiple other computers connected to the hub as well. Then, once you connect to the Internet (with the computer that is attached to the modem), all computers connected to the hub can be online at the same time.

Do you have a dial-up Internet account? Are you tired of having to open the Dial-Up Networking folder every time you want to get connected? Here's a quick alternative:

Open the Dial-Up Networking folder and click the icon you use to access the Internet. Now drag that icon onto the Start button and drop it. Windows creates a shortcut to your dial-up connection at the top of the Start menu. Next time you want to dial, just click the Start button and then choose the connection icon at the top of the menu.

Want to get to your favorite Web sites as fast as possible? If you use Internet Explorer 5.0, here's a shortcut that can save you countless keystrokes:

For Web sites that begin with the standard www and end with the standard .com, just type the text in the middle. Then press Ctrl+Enter. With this shortcut, IE automatically adds the beginning and end of the standard Web address, saving you eight keystrokes per Web address. Over a week or month, that can add up to literally thousands of keystrokes.

You want to get to the Web site for a well-known company, but you're not sure of its exact Web address? Don't guess--just type the name of the company or product (even if it's more than one word) into the Address bar and press Enter. With the most recent versions of both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, this technique takes you briefly to an Internet site powered by technology from the RealNames Corporation. This Web server tries to guess what you're really looking for, and then takes you to the Web site that's registered for the word or phrase you typed. It's powerful, it's fast, and it works.

Do you use Internet Explorer 5? If so, be sure to download and install Microsoft's Web Accessories for IE5. This free add-on software package gives your browser eight new capabilities, including the ability to open a frame in a new window, highlight text with the electronic equivalent of a yellow marker pen, and zoom in on an image.

Your hands are on the keyboard and you want to quickly return to the previous page you were viewing in your browser window. Don't move your hand to the mouse--just press the Backspace key, which has the same effect as the Back button on your browser's toolbar.

Do you have a Microsoft or Logitech mouse equipped with a wheel? If so, you can use it to temporarily change the size of text in your browser window, making Web pages easier to read. This tip is especially useful when working with a site that uses a very small default font.

With the browser window active, hold down the Ctrl key and spin the wheel down to make the text larger. Spin the wheel up to make text smaller. In all, you can choose five settings, corresponding to the five choices on the View, Text Size menu.

Every time you open a Web page in Internet Explorer, Windows tries to do you a favor. Instead of loading the entire page (which might take a while, depending on its size and how many graphics it includes), the browser gathers some basic information about the file. Then it looks in the Temporary Internet Files folder--aka the Web cache--to see if you've viewed that page recently. If IE finds the page and thinks it hasn't changed recently, it retrieves the saved copy from the cache.

If you're using a dial-up connection, fetching cached files can be a real time-saver. But it can also cause problems. Sometimes IE gets confused and loads an old copy of the page. In that case, you might see yesterday's headlines on a newspaper's Web page, for example. What do you do in that case? Try either of these two techniques:

Hold down the Shift key and click the Refresh button. This forces IE to load the most recent copy of the page, regardless of whether it's in the cache.

If the problem occurs often, pull down the Tools menu in IE and choose Internet Options. On the General tab, click the Settings button and change the setting under Check for newer versions of stored pages to Every visit to the page.

If you use a dial-up connection to the Internet, you can configure Internet Explorer so it automatically calls your ISP whenever you open your browser or email program. After setting up the modem and entering connection information in the Dial-Up Networking folder, follow these steps:

1. Open IE and choose Tools, Internet Options.
2. Click the Connections tab and choose the dial-up connection from the list.
3. Click the Set Default button.
4. Choose the option "Always dial my default connection."
5. Close the dialog box and restart your computer if prompted.

Do you like to work with multiple browser windows so you can compare Web page? If you do, you may be bugged by the way Internet Explorer 5 behaves when you double-click a Web shortcut. By default, Windows tries to reuse the browser window you opened first, instead of opening a new window. You can change this behavior easily. From IE, choose Tools, Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab, scroll down through the Browsing section, and uncheck the box to the left of Reuse windows for launching shortcuts. Close the dialog box, and you'll find that Windows now leaves your open IE windows alone.

To change your home page in Internet Explorer, use this incredibly easy shortcut. Open the page you want to use as your new home page--the one that appears every time you open your browser. Click the icon at the left of the Address bar, alongside the address of the page, and drag the icon onto the Home button on your Internet Explorer toolbar. When you release the mouse button, IE asks you if you want to make this page your new home page. Click Yes, and you're done.

You can use the right mouse button to save a from a Web page so that you can open it later without having to download it again. This technique is useful when working with MP3 and MIDI files, Word documents, Adobe PDF pages, and other files that would otherwise download to a temp folder and then open in your Web browser or Media Player. Instead of clicking this type of link, right-click on the link and choose Save Target As from the shortcut menu. Specify the location where you want to save the file (the My Documents folder is best) and click OK.