Get Net Wise is a site that tries to protect Internet users, especially those who are not technically inclined, from the evil doers. There is a section for kids, also.

Internet Health Report is put together by the folks at Mozilla. This is an annual report that shows trends in the use of the Internet, degree of access to Internet resources, security issues, etc.

The Tourbus has been around for awhile and was very useful. Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin drove this thing and it is worth a visit. Check out the archives.

Internet 101 has information on browsing, using email, Internet safety, and how to use search engines.

Learn the Internet is for beginners with a good overview of a variety of issues related to using the Internet.

About-the-Web has plenty of tips and tricks for newbies. Covers all aspects of using the Web: email, browsers, search engines, etc.

Web Developer's Handbook is a great collection of reference material, links to tutorials, scripts, etc.

The Web Developer's Virtual Library of Tutorials has some great material.

Internet Traffic Report shows you whether it's just your computer that's slow or the whole network.

Whois Enter a domain name and get information on its owner.

ARIN's Whois

Network Solutions' Whois

Better-Whois

DomainTools has a nice Whois service.

Whois.net

Network Tools has tools like finger, ping, traceroute, etc. Also has details on IP addresses.

MXToolbox has a great set of tools including lookup tools including a reverse IP lookup to find out who owns an IP.

DNSStuff.com has Whois, reverse DNS lookups, IP tests, host name tests, email tests, URL deobfuscator, HTML validator, etc.

How DNS Works is a pretty thorough explanation of how the Domain Name Servers work. In comic form.

DNS Propogation Tools is an article with links to DNS tools.

SpeedTest checks your connection speed by writing to a cookie file and then reading it back. Intuitive site with a lot of options.

fast.com tests your internet speed very simply. So simply, you have to click on the "more" button to get a bit of info beyond your download speed.

CoverYourTracks tests your browser to see if it is leaking tracking information.

December Net Tools has a large collection of Internet tools including email clients, FTP clients, browsers, utilities, etc.

AmIUnique Visit this site to find out how unique your browser fingerprint is. The more unique your fingerprint is, the more likey you are being tracked even when you use the usual methods of concealing your ID.

DeviceInfo shows how much information is available to the sites that you visit.

Home Internet Cheat Sheet is a CNet article (2022) that covers a lot of home Internet issues - what Internet provider is best, what equipment is best, how to troubleshoot your network, etc.

Learn the Net has good introductory material, especially the section on browsing.

How Web Servers Work is from the How Stuff Works site and is a very good overview of Web servers and the Internet in general.

Basic Internet Skills is an excellent section of the excellent Basic Computer Information site.

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia - excellent reference about the inner workings of the internent. Includes ping, finger, whois, as well as other, more heavy duty material.

A Brief Explanation of the Internet from the Internet Society.

Hobbe's Internet Timeline since 1950's to present. Overview only.

The GoogleGuide is a tutorial on how to use Google.

Spreadsheet FAQ's has links to tutorial and support material for all of the major spreadsheet programs.

How to Edit A Web Page To Get Around Paywalls is a tutorial on how to specifically edit it to get around paywalls that prevent reading the article without being signed on.

How To Bypass Paywalls is a review of Web services that help you read articles that require subscriptions. These sites allow you to paste the URL of the article into their site and the site finds the article in unprotected areas of the Web.

These sites are also useful:

December's Works has links to internet tools and education material.

Free Internet Software This is a collection, put together by Bob Rankin, of free software for expanding your internet use such as free browsers, free RSS readers, etc.

How to Use a Browser

Panopticlick This site checks your browser and advises you about how much information is being leaked to outside agencies. Sponsored by EFF. It doesn't solve the problem, it just lets you know how bad it is.

How to Clear the Cache on Any Browser

Firefox - brought to us by the open source Mozilla project. This is a great browser.

Best Firefox Extensions according to Lifewire (2024)

I Want a Firefox Extension - collects Firefox extensions and organizes them in a I-Want-To format. For example, 'I want to archive my visit history' takes you to an extension that does that.

Firefox Extensions for Online Security and Safety - from PCMag (2019)

Firefox Addons

Best Firefox Addons - MakeUseOf article mid-2017. Excellent suggestions for add-ons.

Mozillazine is no longer updated but there is plenty of info on Mozilla, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey.

Mozillazine KnowledgeBase is a wiki for Firefox and other Mozilla browsers.

Alternative Browsers for iOS Devices (2018) This is a slideshow that displays about 10 alternative browsers that can be used instead of Safari.

Some alternatives to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome (as of 2019):

SeaMonkey is the old Netscape. This still is an excellent browser. It even includes Composer, a very simple Web page editor that has great utility for Web developers without being complex.
Vivaldi
Opera is fast and includes an ad-blocker and free VPN.
8 Unique Browers to Try from PCMag
Alternative Browsers - from PC World - other than Chrome, Firefox, and IE.
Best Desktop Browsers as ranked by Slant in 2024.

Listserv FAQ sponsored by Drexel

Temple University's Listserv Site

Lsoft

Google Groups is a very good search engine to help you find specific news groups. You don't have to subscribe to the group. You just read the messages in your browser.

What Is Usenet?

Public News Servers is a list of alternative news servers.

Best Usenet Providers (2021) according to Tom´s Guide.

How To Get Started Using Usenet is a LifeHacker article which explains the various parts needed to get involved with Usenet.

Web Email Clients is a very good description of what a Web based email client/program is and how it works.

Thunderbird is the best free email client (as of 2020).

Thunderbird Tutorials FreeEmailTutorials has some very good tutorials on setting up and using Thunderbird.

Thunderbird Blog As of 2020, Thunderbird became independent of the Mozilla project. This blog keeps users up to date.

ProtonMail is a free email service that provides end to end encryption.

10 Best Free Email Providers includes Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.

Best Free Email Providers (2019) is a Lifewire article covering 10 email providers including Gmail, ProtonMail, Tutanota, AOL Mail, etc.

Best Free Email Providers (2019) is a TopTenReviews article covering 10 free email providers.

Best Free Email Programs (2019) is a LifeWire article covering a handful of free email programs including Thunderbird.

Pegasus where you can get the shareware version of the Pegasus e-mail reader software.

Best Free Email Programs for Desktops (2018)

Abuse Net You send them your spam mail and they will trace it back to the sender and complain for you.

Spam Cop You send them your spam mail and they will trace it back to the sender and complain for you.

CAUCE - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email tells you what spam is and what to do about it.

50 Email Tips and Tricks

More Email Tips and Tricks from the HowToGeek.

Guerrilla Mail allows to create a fake email address that expires in a few days. Use it when sites require an email address but you don't want to give them yours.

MailDrop allows to create a fake email address that expires in a few days. Use it when sites require an email address but you don't want to give them yours.

Mailinator Make up any name and add mailinator.com as the email address, and then any email sent to that address is available on the Mailinator site to all who know the name. Not real secure but handy in a pinch.

How to Send Text Messages Using Email shows you how to send a text message to a phone using any email program.

7 Free Disposable Temporary Email Address Providers

AdGuard Email is a free (as of December 2024) service that allows you to create fake (aka alias) email addresses that will forward email to your real address without exposing the real email address to spammers.

Uncovering Headers in Spam Mail is a heavy duty article about how to find the true source of spam by examining email headers.

How to Trace Emails Back to Their Source is a MakeUseOf article.

How to Read Email Headers and Spot Obfuscation is a pretty thorough explaination of email headers. The intent of the article is to point out how to protect yourself from email criminals. The process is so complicated that few would act on the info presented in the text.

Free Email Providers - other than Gmail and Yahoo, which are very good service providers.

Send is a free service that allows you to send large attachments that otherwise would be blocked by the usual email size limitations. You transfer the files and the site generates a link that you can send to 20 or less recipients who can use it to complete the download.

Easiest Ways to Share Files is a collection of Web services that help you share or transfer files.

Advice: Use anyword@example.com when asked to enter your email address by a nosey Web Site. Example.com, example.org, and example.net are currently reserved domains for testing purposes. If you use them, you won't inadvertently send mail to a real address.

Log on with ftp://username:password@hostname. if necessary. Also, if asked, enter "anonymous" as the username and your e-mail address as the password.

What is FTP

FTP Tutorial includes command line examples.

FileZilla Project - best freeware FTP client for transferring files.

5 Best FTP Clients reviewed by Lifehacker

Papa Archive is one of the bigger sites.

WS_FTP Users Guide from XOOM and WS_FTP Workshop from Clarion are good guides for using WS_FTP. To get WS_FTP, go to Ipswitch's Download Site.