A rather obscure little snippet that may cause a few of us to inexplicably timeout when trying to access well-known sites resides in the HOSTS.SAM and HOSTS.BAK files. The HOSTS file is used in the process of resolving IP addresses such as http://207.46.131.21 into a host name such as support.microsoft.com/. Occasionally the file will become corrupt and cause the user to be unable to access Web sites. The easiest way to deal with this is to hunt these files down in your Windows folder and rename them -- say, X and XHOSTS.BAK. They should no longer be accessed by Windows and should cause no more trouble. If you experience other Internet or network problems, though, you should restore the filenames and look for an alternate solution. Info on this little tweak is at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q172/2/18.asp. (A more generic explanation of the HOSTS file is found earlier on this page.)

Windows gives you a handy little modem icon in your system tray that flashes when you're connected to the Internet (some ISP users may not get this). If the flashing red and green lights annoys you, you can lose the icon by following this procedure. First, go through Start/Programs/Accessories and choose Dial-Up Networking. In the resulting dialog box, right-click on your dial-up connection icon. From the pop-up menu that appears, choose Properties. In the resulting Modem Properties dialog box, click Configure and then Options. Uncheck the checkbox beside "Display Modem Status." Click OK. Now that flashing annoyance should be gone. Warning: if you have more than one ISP or dial-up connection, you may have to do this for each connection.

Tired of being disconnected while you feed the cat? Many ISP's, most notoriously America Online, disconnect you at a moment's notice, even if you're downloading a file or writing an e-mail. These annoying little features are called "internet service timers," and no one sees them disappearing any time soon. Fight back with "anti-timer utilities." Check out a program called StayConnected! from www.inKlineGlobal.com/products/sc/index.html. Not all ISP's are provided for by this program, but AOL is. Another freebie that works with AOL is Keep It Alive 2.2, from www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Garage/7334/Kpalive.html. Also, AOL can be difficult to connect to, with infuriatingly long delays in getting through, endless busy signals, etc. etc. A freeware program called AOL95 SuperFreeTools used to be available for AOL/Win 9x users; check out the shareware boards, since SFT's home page, www.bluefront.com/aolsft/, seems to have disappeared. SFT automatically redials AOL until it makes a connection, enters your screen name and password, minimizes the Welcome news window, and zaps AOL's reminders that you've been online for x minutes. You can even set it to answer intrusive IM's. (The author of AOL SFT, Lou Moccia, has discontinued offering his products for the time being due to his extreme dissatisfaction with AOL. If you don't already have his wares, you can't easily find them now.) Another stay-on utility is the $20 Stayon Pro from stayonpro.com/. You can also try RAS+95 (available for free at www.zdnet.com/downloads/) and activate its ping monitor. Terminator (www.tpasoft.com/) is a $5 goodie that works with AOL only. RascalPro (from www.basta.com/) includes a pinger that pings your ISP every few minutes to keep you connected; drawbacks are its inability to work with AOL, and its cost ($30). Other ways are to set your mail reader to check for new mail every 10 minutes (Outlook Express and Eudora do this easily), to use your Active Desktop or PointCast system to "push" information over your connection just frequently enough to keep connected (see the Real Time Push archive at www.davecentral.com/realtime.html for good push content options), or to crank up RealNetwork's RealAudio and listen to Internet radio (www.real.com/, www.spinner.com/, radio.lycos.com/, and radio.yahoo.com/ are some of the best Net sources, but many local radio/TV stations also feature Internet broadcasting). You might also consider switching to a regional ISP; they tend to be much less sticky with their interrupts. (AOL says that the use of anti-timer utilities is a violation of the user agreement, but they don't enforce it...and how could they?)

Another way to stay connected is by pinging your ISP every few minutes to keep your connection alive. Several free- or shareware ping utilities are out there: some of the best are the Internet Anywhere Toolkit 2.1 ($15) from www.tnsoft.com/products_ia_tk.html (turn on automatic pinging by clicking on the Endless button on the Ping tab, and setting the Delay interval for however many microseconds you want to wait between pings -- a 5-minute delay would be 300,000 milliseconds), the Stealth Ping ($25) from www.mcs.net/~orvonton/ (sends a ping undetectable by ISPs, which sometimes have anti-ping devices operating), Top Jimmy TJPing Pro from www.topjimmy.net/tjs/ (the freeware version doesn't have automatic pinging, and you want this, so ante up $12.50 -- it also offers traceroute [see below] and lookup functions), or NeoTrace ($19.50) from www.neoworx.com/, which also offers traceroute.

If you're still using Win 95, make sure you have the latest Windows Dial-Up Networking software, DUN 1.3. Check your version by going into Windows/System, right-clicking on RASAPI32.DLL, and selecting Properties. If the version is not 4.10.1903, you're out of date. Download the current version from www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/
contents/dun13win95/default.asp. Ignore the message that tells you to get the new version of Winsock before installing DUN 1.3, but make sure to install the Winsock2 DLL file immediately afterward: get it from www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/ws2.htm. Win 98/ME users, don't worry about this one.

If you get punted offline a lot, try this to stay connected longer: Go through Start, Settings, Control Panel, Modems. Select Properties, Connections, Advanced. In "Extra Settings" type S10=50. This will force your modem to stay connected for 5 seconds after receiving a disconnect signal; often this will be enough to stay connected. You also may want to do a little self-diagnostic with the Modem applet in Control Panel. Go through Control Panel, select Modems, and choose Diagnostics. Select your modem from the list and choose More Info. You should get a bunch of incomprehensible info about port settings, interrupts, and AT register settings.

Sometimes pages take an annoyingly long time to load. One way to handle it is to hit the spacebar; this will force the text to load first, and let the graphics load later. That way you can read while the graphics load. Another trick is to click Stop and then click Refresh. Sometimes just starting over will get you a faster download.

By the way, you can't stop file downloads by clicking Stop. To stop a file download, click Cancel in the Download dialog box.

Stop your modem from squealing by setting the speaker volume in the Control Panel/Modem applet, or go through Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, and select Dial-Up Networking. Right click your key dialup connection. Select Properties and the Configure button under "Connect Using." You should see a volume level for the modem you have installed internally or externally.

Like borrowing graphics from Web sites? Well, the fact is that almost every graphic on the Web belongs to someone, and more than likely when you snag it (right-click and choose "Save Picture As," if it had slipped your mind) you're stealing it. In practice, unless a Web author takes steps to "watermark" or code-protect his work (many artists do this), almost every graphic appearing on a Web site is fair game. If you're into creeping serious graphics and using them yourself, the more visible and less commercial your site, the more likely you are to get noticed. Myself, I follow the same line of thinking as with home taping -- it's what you use it for that matters. As for saving Web graphics, you're limited as to what format you choose to save them as. Basically, your choices are whatever the format of the graphic (usually .GIF or .JPG/JPEG, though you see others such as .PNG) and .BMP, the Microsoft bitmap format. AOL users who like the .ART work on AOL, save these graphics as .BMP files.

Want free unlimited Internet access? Swap your demographic data for free online service at NetZero (www.netzero.com/). Aside from giving NetZero basic personal info designed to make it easy to target you for advertising purposes (spam spam spam spam....), NetZero appends a permanent, cycling ad banner to your open browser window. It also forces you to go to its home portal page, Guide.Com, before you blast off into the Web itself. And most annoying, NetZero constantly tracks your Web surfing, noting the sites you visit in order to "target" you for ad content that appeals to you. Definitely not a choice for those interested in private surfing, but if you don't mind being a target for ads, NetZero lets you surf for free. (NetZero and Juno have joined forces, and NetZero may not offer free surfing any longer. It's still cheaper than regular dial-up.) NetZero isn't the only player in the free-ISP game; IFreedom and MSN have leapt into the fray, and AOL is considering providing low-cost or free Internet access to members of its associate, MyShoppingClub.com. In the U.K., Freeserve and AOL (!) are two of the biggest free providers. Others newbies in the game are 1stUp.com, Address.com, BlueLight.com, Free ISP, FreeI.net, Juno (the venerable e-mail service and Web portal, which may not offer free Web access any longer), Lycos, Surfree.com, WorldSpy.com, Xoom.com FreeISP, and for free DSL use, FreeDSL and INYC. Note: I have it on very good authority that Juno is horrendous. I can't tell you what ISP to use, but I know I won't ever have it on my machine. Sorry, Juno. As for free ISPs in general, I can't do better than to quote DummiesDaily on the subject: "Free Internet service providers have a lot to offer, but they are not for everyone. Here's the basic idea, from the free ISP's point of view: They want to gather information about you and use that information to sell you stuff. If you're comfortable with that arrangement, you and the free ISP will get along famously. If not, your relationship will always have an undercurrent of tension."

Keep up with the ever-changing world of free ISPs at www.freedomlist.com/.

And speaking of "unlimited access," you might want to reread your ISP's Terms of Service regarding that subject. Some local, and national, ISPs are prodding customers recording "unusually high amounts of time online" to reduce their surfing. Lots of ISPs frown on software designed to keep users from getting punted offline, and there are other rules -- one e-mail provider even gets shirty if one of its clients uses it to transmit profanity over the Net. Read your TOS agreement and be ready to defend your inordinate surfing time if necessary.

Here's another way to create a home page with custom links by using Microsoft Word. In Word, select Tools and choose AutoCorrect. Select the "Format As You Type" tab and make sure the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" check box is checked. Create a new document in Word and type in a description and URL address for each of the sites you want listed on your custom home page. Save the document in "Web Page (*.htm; *.html)" format. Now open your browser. If it's Internet Explorer, click on File, Open, Browse and select the page you just saved. If you use Netscape Communicator, click on File, Open Page, Choose File. When the page is displayed in your browser, make it your default home page. To do this in IE, click on Tools, Internet Options, and click on the Use Current button. In Netscape click on Edit, Preferences, Use Current Page. From now on whenever you start your browser your custom home page will appear.

Both MSIE and Navigator can be used as search engines. In IE, type the words GO or FIND or ? followed by a space and then whatever keywords you want, and MSIE will launch a MSN search (you can choose a different engine if you like). Type two or more keywords in Navigator's address bar and Navigator will search Netcenter for those keywords. Searching for only one keyword in Navigator requires you to type a +, a space, and then the word. Navigator 4.5 even offers you a feature called What's Relevant that finds related content to your searches.

Some framed sites force their frames on you when you try to leave them, making new pages display inside their frames. Not cool, and a deliberate attempt on the Web designer's part to keep his site in front of your face. MSIE users can get out of this by going back to the framed page, right-clicking the link that you clicked on earlier, and choosing "Open in New Window." Close the old page. Netscape users, right-click within the frame, choose "Open Frame in New Window," and close the old page.

Want to just refresh what's in the frame and not the whole page? Right-click inside the frame and choose Refresh. (Clicking Refresh on the toolbar reloads the whole page.) In MSIE, choose Refresh to reload only what's inside the frame; in Navigator 4x, right-click and choose Reload Frame.

Sometimes nasty Webmasters design their sites to "hijack" your browser's Back button -- no matter how many times you click it, you can't leave the site. Bad manners, to say the least, and annoying for us. There's no quick fix because it's in the site code, but you can get around the problem by right-clicking the Back button, which will give you a list of the sites you've recently visited. Choose one, left-click it, and you're out. Sometimes the Forward button is similarly hijacked; the same trick works with that button, too. You can also go through your History menu to get out of the obnoxious site. You might also e-mail the site and tell them that you don't appreciate their little code trick and won't be back. Note: a new technology nicknamed "Ooqa Ooqa" is now available for Webmasters to use in reconfiguring your browser. Weather.com is experimenting with it, as are some other major providers. If this technology takes hold, expect to see your browser routinely have its search engine, home page, toolbar design, and other configurations changed. United Virtualities, the maker (and creator of "shoshkeles", the pop-up ads that take over a browser screen before loading of the clicked page is complete) says that users will always have the option to turn the intrusions off, but I doubt that. We can just hope that for every intrusion, some white knight software programmer provides us with a counter.

"Spyware" is software, usually free, that performs a useful function but also sends back info on your computer to its parent company. Go!Zilla is a notorious example of this, but there are others (Gator comes to mind -- see for yourself at www.cexx.org/gator.htm). Programs like Ad-Aware and OptOut hunt down spyware on your system. You can find lists and descriptions of spyware programs and vendors at the following sites: www.spychecker.com/, www.spywareinfo.com/, www.alphalink.com.au/~johnf/dspypdf.html, www.infoforce.qc.ca/spyware/enknownlistfrm.html, and www.globalnet.cz/spyware/list.html, among others. Find out more about spyware at my Virus and Spyware page.

Something similar, and relatively new, is "foistware" -- products that install unwanted extras on your system without your permission or even knowledge. Two culprits, NewDotNet and Webhancer, are currently making the rounds. Both can interfere with the functioning of your machine, sometimes to the point of making it unworkable. Check out your system in Add/Remove, and if you find either of them, lose 'em. According to a Langa List reader, NewDotNet seems to come with Earthlink, @Home, Juno, Webshots and NetZero; Webhancer comes with AudioGalaxy and Bearshare (both post-Napster P2P programs). Another one is Surf Safari, a surfing/shopping links program that runs in a small area on top of the browser window. Surf Safari comes along with NetZero, so be warned. We can also add TopText, which adds ad-sponsored links to any Web site you visit. TopText comes with a utility called Kazaa Media Desktop, among others; keep this one off your machine also. (Kazaa has just added a "stealth P2P network" access utility inside their program, which can turn on your PC without your knowledge and use its resources for its own ends. Now that's going over the line!) Others that come to mind are Gator and eZula, two firms that bundle foistware programs along with just about everything they market, whoever lurks at www.lop.com/ (I don't know who they are, since I ain't getting near the place), and VX2, a little beastie that creeps in from AudioGalaxy, Onflow, and other sources. Sneaky little buggers, all. The best way to purge your system is to use the free Ad-Aware program, available from www.lavasoft.com/.

While we're on the topic, some slick Webmeisters are placing a .DLL file called IEHELPER.DLL on people's machines. This file causes pop-up ads to appear every time you turn around, even on sites like this one that don't use ads. Go through Find (or Search) to see if this file is on your computer; if so, send it to the Recycle Bin. Assuming your browser behaves without it (it should), then delete it. Presto, fewer pop-ups.

A less obtrusive browser plug-in is Snippets, a freebie from www.snippets.com/. The idea is that Snippets constantly searches selected Web sites, such as eBay, stock market update sites, or whatever, and displays selected information whenever you run your cursor over the Snippets-provided icon. Get the lowdown from the above URL.

Recently a site called GoHip has blitzkrieged some users by adding an unwanted "browser enhancement," which sets itself as their default start-up page, drops pop-up ads galore on them as they surf, etc., and has proven remarkably difficult to remove from people's computers. One user complained that even after uninstalling and reinstalling both MSIE and Netscape and deleting all GoHip entries in his Registry, he still couldn't purge the infestation. GoHip has bowed to pressure and has made a removal utility available to users plagued with too much GoHipness. Surf to www.gohip.com/remove_browser_enhancement.html to find the utility, along with instructions on how to use it to de-hipify your machine. I've thought about surfing to GoHip to see what the ruckus is all about, but on second thought, I think I'll just pass this along and stay the hell out of that little Web swamp.

One of the latest and most egregrious of hijackers is Lop.com. If your home page, default search engine, and even 404 Error pages are being yanked to Lop, you've been hijacked. The owners, C2 Software, profess ignorance of the problem -- it's just advertising, they mewl, what's the big deal? -- but the rest of us hate it. Some folks, who have to download Lop's software, often from sites such as MP3-2000.com and MP3Yes.com, find themselves with new browser toolbars, desktop icons, and more, all courtesy of the aggressive admeisters at Lop. Most sites advertise "Lopware," as we'll call it, as adware designed to allow access to premium content. Sneaky, especially when scurrilous "advisors" have been advising Lop on how to make the download completely automatic and surreptitious. If you've been Lopped, visit lop.com/help.html for an uninstall routine, and keep your browser security settings on "high" to prevent automatic downloading of Lopware or anything else.

Overall, I have to agree with Anne Kandra of PCWorld on pop-ups, "hijacker" ads (those animations that jump out at you when you click into a site), and the like: "To the companies that use these ads: Stop it. They only make us hate you."

Toggle back and forth between Netscape's Bookmarks and IE's Favorites with FavTool, a little goodie from Microsoft. It's free for the download from www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ieplatform/favtool/favtool.asp.

Think that by dialing that 800 number to connect with your ISP, you're getting free phone access? Think again. Most ISPs charge a hefty rate to connect to them via 800 number, usually between $5 and $8 per hour. Only use an 800 number if you don't have a local phone number available and you can't find a cheaper long-distance connector (10 cents a minute works out to $6 an hour, for the math-impaired among us). Worse, with the constant restructuring of area codes, what is a local call today might not be a local call tomorrow. Just because you or your ISP connection don't dial an area code doesn't mean you're not making a long-distance call. Keep abreast of access number changes and make sure you're always using a local number. Americans can keep up with area code changes at www.nanpa.com/. British users, I understand that you're really nailed to the wall, as most British ISPs don't provide free access numbers. Yeesh.

This brings us to the dilemma of the road warrior who travels enough to make connecting with an ISP a potentially expensive process. We're talking 8 to 10 cents a minute on dialup fees here. A few alternatives: if most of your traveling is to the relatively civilized parts of North America, you might consider using AOL, Earthlink, or another national ISP as a backup. The big boys usually have a local number available in all but the wildest parts of the continent. (Other larger ISPs often have local access nationwide, more than you'd think.) Other ways to save money include:

• Downloading your e-mail in one big batch and reading it offline. Compose replies offline, then go back on to send them in a second quick call.

• Avoid pointless surfing. Find what you need online and get off.

• Stick to the e-mail newsletters from the Web sites you frequent, and skip the rest. That keeps you in touch with the essential information you need, while keeping online charges down.

• Download your favorite Web pages automatically each time you connect, then hang up and switch to offline browsing. Why pay for the time you spend reading a Web page's content?

If you're with a content provider such as AOL or MSN and you're tired of the Internet delays, replace that provider with a smaller ISP who just provides Internet access. A local ISP might be ideal, since you're not competing for bandwidth with a nation full of Webheads, but instead are sharing bandwidth with a relatively small number of locals. However, the frequent traveler might find an AOL account handy, as it provides easy access to your account from wherever in the US you happen to be. A number of hotels and conference sites even provide AOL hookups. Carry an AOL startup disk for backup, and log on with ease from just about anywhere. Or you may want to consider joining CompuServe, the granddaddy of 'em all. AOL bought out CompuServe and since then it has all but vanished from people's minds, but it's still there, with strong, relatively intelligent discussion forums (particularly on computer-related topics) and a huge variety of downloadable software, much of which isn't available anywhere else. CompuServe 2000 is much more buttoned-down and sedate than AOL, but some features of AOL have migrated over to CompuServe's structure, such as the Preferences icon-based menu and the embedded MSIE browser. CS 2000 uses a clone of AOL's e-mail service, also, which doesn't endear it to some users. But so far CompuServe hasn't quite become a pale, gray-flannel ghost of AOL, which is what many pundits and users feared. It's still worth consideration. Check it out for yourself at www.compuserve.com/.

Printing Web pages can be a frustrating task, resulting in dozens of blank pages spat from the printer, oddly printed or offset pages, pages printed so lightly that they can't be read, graphics stranded on pages by themselves, bizarre text formattings, or even printer lockups, browser crashes, or system screwups. Fun, huh? While you can't do much about the Web pages' formattings that give your printer schizophrenia, there are some things you can do to lessen the problems. MSIE 5 users, use the File, Print command to access the Print dialog box. From here you can have your printer print a table of links associated with the Web page. (Warning, a Web page with lots of links can crank out lots and lots of pages.) Under the File, Page Setup menu, you can adjust the page margins and orientation, as well as customize Web page prints with header and footer info. Play with the options to see what you can force the printout to contain. Navigator 4.08 and beyond handles things similarly to MSIE 5, providing a Page Setup menu that lets you set page options, margins, headers and footers, etc. Navigator's Print Frame option lets you print the contents of a selected frame without printing the entire page; MSIE lets you do that by having you right-click the interior of the frame and selecting the Print option from the menu; you'll get a box giving you the option of printing everything, printing only the selected frame, or printing each frame individually. MSIE has a neat little effect called Print Target; right-click a link and select this to print a page without actually loading it in the browser. Hewlett-Packard and Canon provide useful Web printer utilities for use with their printers; visit their Web sites for more info.

One way to actually do something about keeping your children's minds free from Internet smut is to check out www.neted.org/. This site gives information about the efforts of a 15-member tech company coalition to offer Net safety tips, a guide to browser filters, how to report offensive sites, and guides to child-friendly content.

Currently AOL is the only "content provider" worth the label, since it assimilated CompuServe, MSN is struggling (though Microsoft still has plans to topple AOL from its throne using its new, very hyped version of MSN), and Prodigy has reconfigured itself as an ISP. However, the void is being filled by "web portals" - Web-based content providers who offer news, chat services, stock reports and other business interests, shopping, e-mail, personal home pages, and other proprietary goodies, with the idea being that you select one of these "portals" as your home page and make it the hub of your Web surfing. The best news is that these new portals are free. Who are they? You've probably already visited some of them. Search engines such as Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista, Lycos/Hotbot/Tripod, InfoSeek, and NBCi (formerly Snap!) are plunging into the fray, along with entries from rivals Netscape (NetCenter, now merging with AOL.com) and Microsoft (Internet Start) and less satisfactory offerings from AOL.com, Planet Direct, and GeoCities (now combined with Yahoo!). At the moment Yahoo! and Excite seem to have the jump on their competition, but look for the other guys to improve. (Yahoo! and Excite are driving hard towards the "online community" concept, including user-configurable chat sites, personal start pages, message boards, and calendars. Yahoo! is even sponsoring Yahoo Clubs, which allow you or me to start online communities based on any topic of interest, and Yahoo Calendar, a Web-based personal schedule service. Find out more from clubs.yahoo.com/ and www.excite.com/ respectively.) National ISPs are often affiliated with portals themselves: Earthlink and Mindscape both provide (or they used to provide) home pages connected to NBCi (formerly Snap!), MCI provides Yahoo!, Prodigy Internet connects with Excite, and several others such as Concentric and AT&T Worldnet give you a choice of several portals. Lycos has opened Tripod to its Asian, Indian, and European members. Other sources such as computer magazines and local newspapers are putting together portals of their own. A new concept is the "vertical portal;" a portal designed to appeal to a smaller audience and featuring tightly focused content, such as Family Education's portal, which is designed to attract children and their parents. Yahoo!, Excite, and others with broader appeal are being called "horizontal portals." Not everyone is thrilled by web portals; one tandem of columnists dismiss portals as "bus stops for newbies," and say that most experienced Web surfers use their own collection of bookmarks and turn to generic search engines/portals only as last measures. They point out that savvy surfers know to go to Amazon.com for book buying, Autobytel.com for car shopping, or to Newsbot for a headline fix. This seems reasonable for some, but this reasoning applies more to the relatively small number of technically savvy, highly Web-literate users out there. Many users are content to use a portal as "free parking" or an easy-to-grasp home site and leave the heavy-duty, streamlined surfing to those who spend the majority of their days on the Internet - which ain't the majority of users, believe me. Many ISPs have also embraced the concept of "personal start pages" as customizable portal pages for subscribers. Web gadfly John Dvorak has made his own "portal page" available for use as a home page; it's packed with useful links and boasts no advertising. Look it over at www.dvorak.org/home.htm. Make your own "portal page" with the help of Page1, a free utility from www.pcmag.com/download/. An easier method is to download PC Magazine's Page 1 from www.zdnet.com/downloads/; this preformatted personal start page can be easily customized to fit your needs by following the online directions. And MSIE 5x users can make home pages for themselves with the browser doing all of the hard work.

Lots of folks use both Netscape/Mozilla and Microsoft browsers, but they sometimes have trouble making the secondary browser understand that it isn't the one they wish used as the default browser. Here's how to make the other browser take a back seat: First, open the browser you want as your default browser; if it gives you a dialog box offering to let you choose it as the default, choose it. Then open the other browser and when it puts up its own dialog box, instead of choosing it as the default, choose the option that forces that browser to not show you that box again. Click No. What if you want to change default browsers from one to the other? To select MSIE 4.x over Netscape, open MSIE, choose View/Internet Options, click the Program tab, and check the box labeled Internet Explorer Should Check to See Whether It Is the Default Browser. The next time you open MSIE, it will offer to become the default browser. (MSIE 5 users, go through Tools/Internet Options.) To select Netscape Navigator over MSIE, find your personal Netscape user directory (typically a folder like C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\USER\username. Use a text editor like Notepad to open PREFS.JS, the JavaScript file that loads your preferences when you open Navigator. Find the line that reads USER_PREF("BROWSER.WFE.IGNORE_DEF_CHECK",TRUE) and change TRUE to FALSE. Save the file, exit Notepad, and restart Navigator to have it reset as the default browser. The easy way, of course, is to let a software utility do it for you. Try BrowserSwitch ($20) from www.coolware.com/switch/ to change default browsers with a single mouse click. (This is not shareware; it requires you to purchase it. Sorry.)

Most browsers are preset to their maker's home site (Netscape or Microsoft) or the PC manufacturer's home page. What a waste. Choose a Web portal (see above) or any other Web site that suits your interests. News junkies may want to select the CNN, USAToday or Nando site; business mavens might want to choose Business Week Online; sports fans might select ESPN's or CNNSI's sites; computer types might prefer ZDNet or C|Net. Or choose any site that you'd like to start from every time you fire up your browser, even this one if you like. For a list of Internet news sites, go to my own News Sites page.

Win 95 keeps a tight rein on your modem speed because the baud rate on the COM Port doesn't allow you to crank it. Go through Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, and access Device Manager, or use your shortcut. In Device Manager, click the + sign next to Ports (COM & LPT). Select the port your modem uses (probably COM1) and set the Bits Per Second to 115200 bps. This is the maximum for a "standard" COM port. If problems arise, set it back to its original value. System Monitor can also tell you if you're having trouble. (To determine which port your modem uses, click on the + sign next to the Modem icon in Control Panel and select your modem. Click on Properties and choose the Modem tab. Here you'll see which port your modem uses.) Also, for most modems, you can click Hardware in the Flow Control drop-down box.

Both Netscape and IE feature some of the same keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+D sets bookmarks or adds to your Favorite list; Alt+Left Arrow takes you to the last page visited; Alt+Right Arrow takes you forward; Esc stops a page from loading; Ctrl+N launches a new browser window. Ctrl+W closes the active window. Ctrl+H opens the History folder. Ctr+l-F opens the Find dialog box. Ctrl+L lets you open a new web page. Ctrl+B opens the Bookmarks or Favorites window.

Browser accelerators are programs that force Web pages to appear more quickly in your browser without forcing you to lay out the cash for a new modem or a fancy connection. They also add another level of complexity to your browsing. One of the most common ways these programs work is to "pre-load" pages from a Web site; while you're reading through Page 1, it's downloading the rest of the pages. A good program of this nature is Go Ahead Got It!, available for $20 downloaded from www.goahead.com/. Other programs of this nature include Imsi's Net Accelerator and Innovative's Java Booster, which also preloads the Java applets from the web pages you visit, preserving them on your disk so you don't have to reload them every time you visit that site.

You always hear about "Internet traffic jams;" get traffic reports from The Internet Traffic Report at www.internettrafficreport.com/, from the Internet Weather Report at www.internetweather.com/, from MCI's traffic site at traffic.mci.com/, from MIDS Internet Weather Report at www.mids.org/weather/, from Netstat at www.netstat.net/, from UCLA's site at www.cns.ucla.edu/weather.html, or if you really want to dig into the nitty gritty, MAE at www.mfst.com/MAE/.

Some sites like to hide stuff from you. Locate the goodies by finding the ROBOTS.TXT file. In the URL address box, type www.fubar.com/robots.txt, of course substituting the URL of your site. This displays the files and folders that aren't in the search engines. To bring them up, type their filenames in the address box.

Downloading at 3 a.m. is a good way to avoid Internet snarls, but can be a good way to make your sweetie snarl at you. Try an automatic downloader such as NetAttache to download your programs for you. Visit www.tympani.com/ for a free 15-day trial. Other shareware and freeware utilities are available as well; one of n