Surfing the Web Using the Internet Explorer® internet browser

Looking up websites on the internet is not as daunting a task as it first may seem. A few simple steps, and you’re ready to surf!

When you first turn on your computer, you end up looking at your Desktop, which is a background with several little pictures that has several little pictures on it, called icons, have wording underneath them. One icon is blue and “e”-shaped. It has the words Internet Explorer written underneath it. That’s the icon I want you to double click on. 

The Internet Explorer internet browser is a tool that enables you to surf the web. Go ahead and double click on it now. After either a short while or a little wait (depending on what type of internet connection you have), you should see your screen open up to, that’s right, a web page!

 This particular web page is called your “Home Page.” What I’m going to teach you here is how to go from this website to another of your choice and then to another.

Find the white horizontal bar at the top of your screen, next to where it says “Address.” That bar is called a field. On the internet, a field is something you type in. Click once in that field. The text that’s in that field should turn blue (or green or yellow, or whatever color your particular computer uses). But, to get the point across, the background for the text in the white bar should no longer be white.

Now set your mouse aside and type the address of a website you’d like to visit. DO NOT worry about the text you just turned blue (or green or whatever). That text will do a disappearing act as soon as you start typing.

You might have noticed at some point that all website addresses start with http://www. No worries. These days you hardly ever have to worry about the http:// part because your browser, Internet Explorer, automatically inserts that portion of the website address for you. Lots of times, you don’t even have to worry about typing www. for most well-known websites. But for now we’ll practice typing in the www. just in case you need it.

So, as I was saying, go ahead and type the name of the website you plan to go to, putting a www. in front of it. Just as in email addresses, there are NO spaces in website addresses. Also, every website must end in a period (known as a “dot”), followed by a com, net, org, or another extension. Be sure you type the dot and the extension after you type the website name.

The address of the website you want to go to should appear in the white “Address” field at the top of your screen. Now hit either the Enter key on your keyboard. Soon enough (you might have to wait a little bit depending on the type of your internet connection) your website should appear!  

No need to close out of this website to go to another one. Simply repeat the steps above. First click once in the white Address field so the text turns color, type the new website address in, and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

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