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The Teachers.Net Website Handbook

Chapter One - The Tools of the Trade
Where to Download the Software
The fastest way to locate shareware and freeware on the internet is at the Virtual Software Library (Shareware.com), also known as shareware.com. The website provides an interactive form which allows you to specify your operating system (Macintosh, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, etc.) and permits you to search for software available in many key archives across the internet. You can search for a product by name (i.e. "Eudora"), by function ("mail client"), or browse through the latest arrivals or most popular downloads.

You can access the Virtual Software Library at: www.shareware.com, although you may prefer the more lean Power Search Form

Essential Web Authoring Tools

A Word on Shareware and Freeware

This section discusses the tools I consider essential for internet authoring. Lucky for us, many of them are freeware, others are inexpensive shareware. Let me take a moment to explain the difference:

Clients & Servers

Undoubtedly you have heard the term "clients" and "servers" in the internet world. Let me briefly explain what these are, so you'll understand the difference. When you are on the internet, your computer is almost always interacting with another computer. Sometimes you are sending information, other times you are receiving it. When two computers interface, one always acts as the server, the other as the client.

When your web browser connects to a website, the computer that sends the information is using special software that allows it to interface with your computer (regardless of operating system), and your computer is using special software that allows it to receive the information. This is known as a client-server relationship. When your computer is using Netscape, or Homer, or Newswatcher, etc., it is the client. When the remote computer program has the ability to service many connections at once, it is acting as the server.

On the internet, the programs that we use to access these servers are often simply called clients. Now you know what a client is! The following section describes only the clients you will need (or that we recommend) to create and maintain your own World Wide Web site. You will need at least one from each category. Some clients have advantages over others, like running multiple uploads in the background (Anarchie), others are more limited, but are free (like SimpleText). We recommend that you download and evaluate each of these programs, then decide which one works best for you.