When there is a high demand for certain sites you will find that these sites are slower to load, than times when demand is minimal. The NASA site did demonstrate this quite well last year when Voyager was big news. The link could not handle the *load. To relieve the load, *mirror sites soon popped up to spread the load around.

*Load – traffic
*Mirror Sites – additional sites with identical information

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How do I check my InfoChannel email from another Internet connection?

Answer: If you are away from your computer, just visit http://webmail.infochan.com from any computer hooked up to the Internet! You will be prompted to enter the first part of your e-mail address (for username@mail.infochan.com enter “username”), your e-mail password, and then click Login. Please remember, if your e-mail address is username@infochan.com, you will need to change the E-mail Server to “infochan.com”. The first time you use the service it will ask you to customize the settings for your online account. Enter your name and verify that the return address reflects your e-mail address, and then click Save Config. After which you will be able to view all the messages in your inbox.

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For 28.8 or 33.6 modems, normal connect rates will be between 21.6 and 28.8. Keep in mind that the connect rate reported at logon is just a snapshot of that moment and your actual rates will fluctuate up and down during the time you are connected.

You can try disconnecting any other telephones, answering or fax machines hooked to any other phone jacks or you may want to run a dedicated line from your computer phone jack straight to the phone box on your house, bypassing other house phone jacks and circuits that may be causing line noise or other interference. You can check modem setup; be sure maximum speed is 115k (this is port speed for most 28.8 or 33.6 modems), data compression is on and flow control is set to hardware.

Regarding 56k modems and initial connect rates, some of the same factors apply. In addition, the distance between you and your local telephone company's CO (Central Office) or local exchange and the number of analog to digital conversions along that route will also affect your ability to connect faster. Generally, if you live more than 3 miles from your CO or local exchange, you may not be able to connect any faster with a 56k modem than you did with a 33.6 or 28.8 though, it is possible you may see some improvement in throughput.

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The Internet is a global network of computers that communicate using a common language. It's similar to the international telephone system -- no one owns or controls the whole thing, but it is connected in a way that makes it work like one big network. There are over thirty million people that have e-mail access to the Internet. That includes you.

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The World-Wide Web is a term used to describe all of the information and multimedia content available on the Internet. To access this information, you use an application called a web browser. *Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser application. Internet Explorer lets you search, find, view and download information on the Internet. "Hypertext" makes the web an easy place to navigate. Using a file format called "HTML" (hypertext markup language), "hypertext" lets you "hyperlink" or jump from one page on the web to other pages -- those pages can contain images, movies, sounds, 3D worlds, just about anything. The pages and files can be located anywhere on the Internet. The "hyperlinks" are the connecting strands that form the World Wide Web. When you are connected to the web, you have equal access to information anywhere in the world; there are no additional "long distance" charges or restrictions.

*Netscape Navigator is also web browser application

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File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a standard Internet protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which transfers displayable web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

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In information technology, a protocol is a special set of rules that end points (in a telecommunication connection) use when they communicate. Protocols exist at several levels in a telecommunication connection. There are protocols between each of several functional layers and the corresponding layers at the other end of a communication. Both end points must recognize and observe a protocol.

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SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in the transmission of e-mail. However, it is limited in its ability to receive messages. It is therefore usually used with one of two other protocols -- POP3 or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) -- that lets the user access messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the server. In other words, users typically use a program that utilizes SMTP for sending e-mail and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving messages that have been stored for them at their local server.

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Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the basic communication language (or protocol) of the Internet. When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP instructions, just as every other computer on the Internet, so that messages may be sent or information transmitted between any computer on the Internet.

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A server is a computer program (specific set of ordered operations for a computer to perform) that provides services to other computer programs in the same computer or other computers. A client is the computer requesting these services.

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