06 Browsing the Internet with Firefox

Transcription

1 06 Browsing the Internet with Firefox Before starting on the exercise some explanations. Note these are simplified as the intention is to to help with using and exploiting the internet. You will come across various acronymns such as URL and HTTP which are briefly described. What is a browser? A web browser is an application (app) that resides on a user's computer (a client). Its purpose is to interpret data which is sent down by the server which stores the web site and then to display the page. The web pages are not stored as you view them but rather a large number of files which have to be interpreted and placed according to a template. The sequence when the browser starts is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is entered into the address field by the user or is provided to the browser as the starting or default URL. A typical URL is The URL request is sent and located by the servers which transmits the resource back to the browser. A web site will be sent in the form of a stream of data which is structured in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). The name comes from the markups which printers use to layout a print page. Hypertext is text which can contain links to other text (or images, videos etc.) The browser will interpret the embedded instructions and display the page. The instructions will include the location of items on the page, the font type, size and colour etc. The page may contain links to other locations on the same page or to new pages. The new page may either replace the existing page or display in a new Tab in the browser. The links may also be to images, videos, documents etc. Why is it that some web sites start with " (world wide web)? There is nothing in the internet specifications that dictates that URLs must start as such. It is more of a tradition from the early days of the net when " was used to indicate Internet (public) sites compared with Intranet sites which are accessible to a limited group, typically internally in a company. Nowadays it is common that you can access the same site with or without " Common Browsers Firefox we use this in training as a common application. It is developed by teams of volunteers under the auspices of the Mozilla Foundation. Chrome developed by Google and now the most common browser Internet Explorer the traditional Microsoft Browser which at one stage had a market share of over 95% Edge Microsoft's replacement of Internet Explorer Installing The folder containing the course software contains the program to start installing Firefox. Double left click on the item to start the process. Page 1 of 5 Doug Wilcox 16/08/05

2 Switching on the Menu bar and the Bookmarks bar If your display is does not contain a menu and bookmarks toolbars you should switch these on. Right click approximately in the elipse and then click next to Menu Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar. The display should change to this > Adding some additional functionality to Firefox 1. We are going to add three extra pieces of software to the base product 2. Start Firefox 3. Select the option Add-ons in the Tools menu. 4. In the search window in the top right of the page enter "adblocker" 5. Select AdBlocker Ultimate, you may need to scroll to find it, click install. This will stop most if not all pop-up adverts and many embedded in the web pages. 6. You may be asked to restart Firefox. Ignore at this stage 7. Make sure that you are on the "Get Add-ons" page (top left) and search for "flash video downloader" Page 2 of 5 Doug Wilcox 16/08/05

3 8. Select "Flash Video Downloader YouTube HD Download [4K]" and install. See later how to use this. 9. Repeat the process for "Tab Mix Plus" 10. Select the option to restart Firefox. If it does not appear close Firefox and restart it. Setting your start page 1. From the Tools Menu select the bottom item "Options". You should see a screen as above. 2. Ensure that "When Firefox starts:" is set to "Show my home page" 3. Replace the contents of "Home Page" with " as per the above screen. You can drop the " and will still link to the correct site. 4. You can set the home page, which will be displayed whenever you start Firefox, with a site of your own choosing but stick with the google search for the course. 5. There is no Save option. Simply close the tab. Page 3 of 5 Doug Wilcox 16/08/05

4 Bookmarks Bookmarks, or favourites in other browsers, allow you to save the addresses to sites which you visit regularly. Firefox allows you to store them in a structure similar to Windows files but also in a Bookmarks Toolbar. The Toolbar which is displayed horizontally across the page is extremely convenient to use. It is suggested you only store your most commonly used sites on the Toolbar and use the menus for all others. 1. To save a bookmark the best way is to visit the web site to be saved. If necessary use Google search (explained below) to find the site. Right click on the tab and select the bottom option to "Bookmark This Tab". 2. The "Edit This Bookmark" pop up will appear. 3. You can change the Name to suit, particularly if the default is lengthy which it often is. 4. For Folder use the down arrow to the right and select Bookmarks Toolbar OR, select one of the existing folders under Bookmarks Menu OR, create a new folder which can be a sub-folder of an existing folder. When you want to return to a bookmarked site you either click on the appropriate option on the Bookmarks Toolbar or visit the Bookmarks Menu on the top line. You can change the sequence of items on the Bookmarks Toolbar by selecting with the left mouse button and dragging the item to the required position. For the workshop please prepare a number of topics which you can use for a search and find web sites which you would wish to regularly visit. Page 4 of 5 Doug Wilcox 16/08/05

5 Downloading a video clip from YouTube Firstly, we need to check that you have correctly installed the add-on for downloading youtube clips. If Firefox is not running start it up and go to the Tools menu then Add-Ons. Click on the "Extensions" option on the left and check that Flash Video Downloader YouTube HD Download (4k) is displayed. If not you must install it as described earlier in this document. To access YouTube either search for it on Google or simply type "youtube.com" in the URL address field. Once the YouTube web page was displayed I used its search for "Wilderness Fire 2016" and selected one of the clips. Once the video starts playing you should find a blue down arrow with an underscore. Click on the arrow and it should show you a list of different resolutions with the file size next to each. Thereafter you will receive a standard file dialog box. Modify the settings to change where you want to save the video clip. For training: before playing a video clip check its run time which should be displayed on the still image. To limit download only select clips of less than 2 minutes. Page 5 of 5 Doug Wilcox 16/08/05