CSC 107      Fall 2003

Using a Web Browser

A Web browser is a program for accessing and displaying Web pages. The two most popular Web browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Communicator, both of which are free. While either browser will work fine for viewing most pages, there are some subtle differences that may affect the display of some pages, especially with respect to newer features of the Web. For this class, Internet Explorer is assumed since it is more widely available and somewhat more stable, but you may choose to use Communicator if you wish.

Starting the browser:

• Click on the browser icon on the desktop. If the icon does not appear on your screen, you can start the browser by clicking on the Start button at the bottom-left of the screen, selecting Programs from the Start menu, and then selecting the desired browser from the Programs menu.

Note: when you start the browser, the home page for that computer is automatically loaded. For computers on campus, the home page is most likely the Creighton University page. For your own personal computer, you can change the home page by selecting Internet Options from the Tools menu in IE (or Preferences from the Edit menu in Communicator).

Opening a Web Page

• In the Address box, type the Web address (also known as its Uniform Resource Locator or URL) for the desired page. The Web address for this course is www.creighton.edu/~csc107

Note: you must be very careful when entering a Web address since any typo will most likely cause the browser to fail in locating the page.

Opening a Local Web Page

• To open a Web page that is stored on your local computer, select Open from the File menu.
• In the box that appears, click on Browse to search for and select the appropriate file.
• Once the file has been selected, click Open to open that file in the browser.

Note: when you open a local Web page, the file name is preceded with file:// in the Address box of the browser. This distinguishes the local page from pages loaded over the Web, whose addresses are preceded with http://.

Viewing the Source of a Web Page

• Load the desired page in the browser (see above).
• Select Source from the View menu to display the HTML source for that page.

Downloading/Saving a Web Page

• Load the desired page in the browser (see above).
• Select Save As from the File menu.
• Enter the file name under which the file is to be saved. If you want the file stored in a location other than the default folder, click on the Save In box and the appropriate folder icons to select the desired location (e.g., the A: drive).
• Click the Save button.

File Transfers

In order to make a Web page accessible to the world, it must be stored on a computer running special Web server software. For this course, this requires two steps, (1) uploading the file to the public_html directory of your bluejay account, and (2) setting the appropriate protection on the file so that Web browsers can view the page.

Transferring files to Bluejay

The procedure for uploading files to the server is different depending on the browser you are using. Separate instructions are provided below.

Using Internet Explorer:

• Enter   ftp://yourUserName@bluejay.creighton.edu/public_html   in the Address box of the browser window, where yourUserName is your user name on Bluejay.
• Enter your Bluejay password at the prompt.
• A list of all your Web pages on Bluejay will appear in the browser.
• Drag the desired files onto the browser window by clicking on the file and holding the mouse button while you move the mouse to the browser window. Alternatively, you can cut-and-paste the desired files onto the browser window.

Using Netscape Communicator:

• Enter   ftp://yourUserName@bluejay.creighton.edu   in the Address box of the browser window, where yourUserName is your user name on Bluejay.
• Enter your Bluejay password at the prompt.
• Click on the link labeled public_html.
• A list of all your Web pages on Bluejay will appear in the browser.
• Drag the desired files onto the browser window by clicking on the file and holding the mouse button while you move the mouse to the browser window.

Making BlueJay Web Pages Accessible

• Enter   telnet://bluejay.creighton.edu   in the Address box of the browser window.
• A separate telnet window will appear and you will be prompted for your user name and password.
• At the resulting $ prompt, enter the command webready. This command will set the appropriate protection modes for all of your files to make them accessible over the Web.
• Log out by entering the command exit at the $ prompt.
• A window will appear informing you that the connection to bluejay has been terminated. Click OK.
• Close the telnet window by clicking on the X at the top-right corner of the window.