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I see funny text on my screen:
Well, you may be viewing a page in Arabic or some other non-Latin language (this also happens on search engine results). Let's focus on the possibility it is Arabic:
If your operating system is Arabized (like MS Arabic Windows 3.1x, 95, 98 or NT4 or later), then either the browser is not configured correctly or the web page author did not specify the right tags. For Latin operating systems, you will need a browser and plugin that cooperate to display Arabic.
If you haven't seen it yet, please refer to: How to read Arabic text on the Internet (W3) (using Windows, Unix, Mac OS etc.)
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Net Abuse (Spams), Internet Security and Privacy:
Information you send and receive on the internet (e.g. E-mail) is usually compared to sending postcards in the mail. In principle anyone who handles those postcards can read them without you knowing of that.
OK, you say, how about encrypting them or using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and other counter-sniffing techniques? You may give it a try but remember: you have to communicate with the recipients to hand your "private key" but how?
Is this scary? Well, it is as good as talking on the phone or making your mailing address available for junk mail. Junk e-mail, of course, costs less.
In short, there is no real privacy online. Don't be deceived: confidential is another abused word like peace, justice and love, to name a few.
Spamming and junk E-mail:
Like junk postal mail and even much worse, junk e-mail is an annoying aspect of the digital world and the irritation it causes is growing by the day. Spamming is the word commonly used to describe Net abuse via e-mail or newsgroups. (Spam is also a brand name food!).
Spammers get your e-mail address in many ways. There are companies that collect and sell e-mail addresses. They acquire your e-mail like they do your phone number or mailing address.
The difference between this and junk postal mail is the fake source. Spammers hide themselves and use many fake addresses for each occasion.
So, what's the solution? There are e-mail filters which block addresses and domains but addresses are easily faked and one can't afford blocking domains completely. Remember not to read suspicious messages.
See also: The Spam FAQ (Oh, yes, you are not fighting nonsense on your own. There is a lot of help out there. And while we are at it, you can counter regular junk mail by marking it "return to sender" without opening it - this way they pay postage twice.
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Saving time and money by using offline features:
If you are paying too much for connection time (e.g. in some countries, you pay for phone connection per unit on top of your Internet access fees), there is no need to read everything while still on-line. An easy solution is to save the document you are interested in (under FILE, SAVE AS in your browser) and view it when you disconnect (fire up the browser and Open local file). Of course, if the document contains images or links that are on different pages, you'll lose these. There are many programs (retail, shareware or even free ones) that allow you to read offline and manage most of the links etc. These range in size, price, functionality and platform (also 16- or 32-bits). A very useful site with reviews and links to these and many other useful programs (internet and otherwise) is at http://www.slaughterhouse.com/ . From the drop down list choose offline web page readers or: click Internet Apps, then choose Web browsers and utilities then offline readers. Make sure you browse all the available programs before downloading one. Some are 4 Megabytes, some are a couple hundred Kilobytes in size, let alone price and function or platform.
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Surfing (browsing) the Web effeciently:
This is really an open question. A good strategy is to plan what you are looking for and share your findings with friends. Remember to bookmark graet sites and arrange your bookmarks in a logical way.
There are sites called Internet guides. These list web pages under different categories and you can browse like you do in an encyclopedia. Some links get outdated, terminated or moved.
Most search engines include a web guide on the same search page. See the next item below for more. Notice that you can rev up the security level on your browser (under Options or View/Options). You may want to examine more than one guide as they have different databases of Internet resources.
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Finding information (anything) quickly (Searching the Net):
Well, if you read the paragraph above this, you are almost there. There are many search engines that try to index the WWW. Some rely on WWW authors to submit their URLs (Web addresses), others scan the WWW and index keywords. Search engines are also a great attraction for advertising so you have to bear with the banners etc (put images off during a search to get rid of the banners and the extra time they take to load. This is under Options in Netscape or View/Options in MSIE, but some engines may not work with graphics turned off).
Finding your favorite info requires some skills. We offer a brief review of popular search engines as well as search tips at Our Search Page on this server.
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Building my own/our company's web page:
Your internet service provider (ISP) is supposed to give you a few initial hints (mostly about what operating system they run: Unix, VMS a.k.a. VAX or Windows NT etc) and what directory to put your homepage in (usually public_html for Unix and [WWW] for VAX). From now on, it's a matter of writing the source documents for your website. Is it difficult? Not really. There are a few approaches:
If you are in a hurry or want quality design (especially if you want to use both English and Arabic), try to hire a professional to do the job. Check out our Global Business Directory or simply count on our services.
The most original approach is to learn the basics and build a simple page then keep modifying it as you learn more (on your own or by looking at other people's work - not blind copying and no violation of copyrights either!)
Another way is by using one of those HTML Wordprocessors or filters and there are plenty of them out there from freeware to shareware to betas and commercial ones: HotMetal, HotDog, Homesite, PageMill, MS FrontPage and countless others (some browsers have authoring tools also like Netscape Gold and MSIE 4.x). The catch here is that you must learn the HTML processor itself (not difficult for most) and you have to keep updating them for the new standard(s).
The other alternative is to use your favorite wordprocessor and save the document as html. MS Word 97 and most recent versions of competitive wordprocessors offer this feature.
There are also a few things to keep in mind when planning and putting your web online: to be brief, don't use circus colors, too many inline graphics, darkish background or difficult to read text, avoid large file sizes, invest in easy navigation and minimize the number of clicks needed to reach a target, get rid of "click here" to go to .., don't use those "under construction" banners and consider the diversity of your audience.
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Which W3 browser is the best?
Good question. The answer depends on your experience, platform and needs. If you need to read Arabic text, your choices are limited even more (see How to Read Arabic Text). Currently, Netscape Navigator (communicator) and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the finalists in browser competition.
Try both Netscape and Microsoft IE (use at least version 3.x of both! - the most recent is version 5.x) and compare, then choose the one suitable for your needs and platform. We found Arabic MSIE (v. 3.02 or later) to handle Arabic pages better.
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Reading Arabic Text on the Web and Authoring Arabic pages
Jump to details on How To Read Arabic Text on the W3
So, you want to read/publish Arabic, but how?
The brute force method (still used) is to save the whole Arabic text as .gif file (or .jpg) - that is in graphics format, so any graphics enabled browser (most today are, apart from Lynx) will display the text either as scanned or made transparent (our original contribution to this backward technology was to capture the screens and apply giftrans.exe to them). This method is still used by a number of Arabic newspapers online either as the only option or an alternative. Needles to say, you can't edit the text (without using OCR - optical character recognition) and it takes too long to load, plus if you turn images off, you never know what is going on. You can't also search that graphical text.
You can also output files in .pdf format and require viewers to use Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Here are the details on How To Read Arabic Text on the W3
Writing Web Pages in Arabic:
The choices are also limited here and the issue of coding sets arises. You can, in principle, use any Arabic text editor to do that (by inserting the html tags) but those can easily get mixed up with the text and result in funny behavior. Some Arabic wordprocessors on different platforms started adding HTML filters. Examples include MS Office 97 Arabic edition for Arabic Windows 95 (and the infamous MS Internet Assistant for MS Word 95 Arabic), Nisus Writer for Mac and HTML editors bundled with Arabic enabled browsers. MSIE 4.01 MiddleEast has a customized version of FrontPage Express which has limited Arabic support.
Arabic pages on this site are done in MS Word 97 Arabic then saved as HTML followed by a lot of source doctoring using WordPad.
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Buying items online:
Cyber trade is more or less like real-space trade but there are more chances for thieves on the internet. If a site springs up today and disappears in a week, you know what you are dealing with. If you read the classifieds in the paper, you know if it is too good to be true, probably it is not. You occasionally get an e-mail offer to make thousands of $$$$ per week (or more politely, potential per week). Be cautious!
Secure transactions go over the Internet in encrypted format (this is as safe as giving your credit card details over the phone or faxing it). If the site has secure transaction, both Netscape and MSIE show a symbol on the status bar (either a key - NOT a broken key! - for Netscape) or a lock (MSIE).
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Where to find: Arabic software, free software, Arabic audio and music, Arabic food stores, Arabic bookstores ...
There are a few places where to find these and more. You need to do a little more work.
Start with our Global Business Directory which is our cyberspace yellow pages with listings by business owners. Then try our Arabic Web Index which lists and categorizes most useful Arabic and related resources. If you still can't find it, start at our search page and make sure to read the search tips (note the difference between local and global searches).
We also have a collection of similar questions asked repeatedly by our visitors - make sure to check out Ask Arabic2000: Where can I find ..? - it may save you some time or work.
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E-mail messages we did not answer:
Well, if the subject was civilized and made sense, be assured that we attempted at least once (especially if the answer is not on our site already). Always make sure you specify your full e-mail address. To list your business or link your site, please use the specific forms to submit such info.
We have added an e-mail form to fill online and submit if you have questions or comments. You will get a confirmation by e-mail if your message is valid.
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