America Online for Dummies Book

	Foreword	xix
	Introduction	1
	About This Book	1
	Conventions Used in This Book	1
	What You're Not to Read	2
	Foolish Assumptions	3
	How This Book Is Organized	3
	Icons Used in This Book	5
	Where to Go from Here	6
Part 1	Driver's Ed for the Digital Traveler	7
Chapter 1	What You Got Yourself Into--and What You Need to Enjoy the Trip	9
	What Online Really Means	9
	All It Takes Is a Bunch of Stuff	11
Chapter 2	I Didn't Know You Could Do That Online!	17
	Signing On	18
	Checking the E-Mailbox	19
	Reading the Morning Paper	20
	Eyeing the Markets	21
	Internet On Ramp, Next Right	22
	The Joys of (Nearly) Free Stuff	23
	Let the Fun and Games Begin!	23
	Following the Ball, Puck, and Sinker	24
	Nailing Down the Details	24
	Enjoying a Little Chat	25
	When Problems Come Up	25
	Handling the Rude, the Crude, and the Socially Maladjusted	26
	When It's Time to Say Good-Bye	28
Chapter 3	Mucking Around the Menus	29
	Revealing the Toolbar and Its Way-Cool Menus	29
	Sailing Around the Navigation Bar	38
	Running Through the Menus	39
Chapter 4	Making Your Preferences Known	45
	What They Do, Where They Live, and Why You Care	45
	Setting Your Preferences	46
Chapter 5	Dealing with Spams, Scams, Viruses, and Hoaxes	59
	What If You Just Gave Your Password to Someone?	60
	If Someone Asks for Your Password, Just Say "No"	60
	Spam, Spam Everywhere and None of It to Eat	63
	Fooling the Bulk Mail Behemoth	65
	Viruses Come in the Darnedest Packages	68
	Recognizing Hoaxes: No, Bill Gates Won't Give You $5000	69
Part II	The Basics of Online Life	71
Chapter 6	Doing the Screen Name Tango and the Parental Controls Two-Step	73
	What's in a (Screen) Name?	74
	Dealing with Screen Names	75
	Turn a Bit and Let Me See Your Profile	82
	Parental Controls: Taking Away the Online Car Keys	84
	Starting the Controls--and Backing Safely Down Your Digital Driveway	85
	Tailoring Online Life with Custom Controls	86
Chapter 7	Navigating the System and Marking Your Favorite Destinations	101
	Your Windows on the World	102
	Adding Your Picks to My Places	107
	Organizing the Places of Your Heart	108
Chapter 8	E-Mailing the World, One Mailbox at a Time	115
	Sending E-Mail to an America Online Subscriber	116
	Writing to the 's: Sending Internet E-Mail	121
	E-Mailing with Panache	122
	Linking with Ease	123
	Incoming Missive, Sir!	124
	Delving into Your Mailbox	126
	Cashing In on a Good Thing	128
	Organizing Your E-Mail Mess(ages)	128
	Catching People with Your Address Book	130
	Doing E-Mail the Automatic AOL Way	134
Chapter 9	Chatting the Day (and Night) Away	139
	They Don't Call It Community for Nothing	139
	Ambling into a Chat Room	140
	Finding Conversations among the Keystrokes	142
	Seeking Out a Chat Room	145
	Beware the Password Scammers	146
	Enjoying a Little Private (Room) Time	147
	Attending Lectures--and Enjoying Them	148
	Recording Your Conversations	150
Chapter 10	Dropping a Quick "Hello" with Instant Messages	151
	Online Telepathy with Instant Messages	152
	Preferring Your Buddies	155
	Turning Off Instant Messages Because Sometimes You Just Want to Be Alone	156
	Catching Password Scammers	157
Chapter 11	Cogitating, Consternating, and Conflagrating on the Message Boards	159
	Winding Your Way through the Message Folders	159
	Reading, Replying to, and Generally Browsing the Messages	162
Chapter 12	Where's Your Buddy? Where's Your Pal?	165
	Who's Your Buddy?	165
	Privacy Preferences: Please, I Vahnt to Be Alone	172
	Setting Your Buddy List Preferences	173
	Building an Online Treehouse with Buddy Chat	175
Chapter 13	AOL Companion: Look! On the Desktop! Something Small, Blue, and Useful!	177
	Meeting the Companion	178
	Covering the Basics	180
	Flipping Through the Tools	181
Chapter 14	Hanging with Groups@AOL	185
	Free Online Tool Kit with Every Groups@AOL! Act Now!	185
	Making a Group for You and Yours	188
Part III	Diving into the Fun Stuff	193
Chapter 15	Finding People, Places, Things, and Information	195
	Finding People: Sniffing Out Friends, Acquaintances, and Other Novel Folks	195
	Finding Places: Tracking Interests and Meeting Informational Needs	200
	Finding Cool Programs and Nifty Files	206
Chapter 16	Tracking News, Weather, Markets, and More	207
	Getting the News	207
	Rolling Your Articles into a Log	210
	The Weather Outside--Is It Frightful?	212
	Watching the Markets	212
Chapter 17	Frolicking in the Games	217
	Getting Game with AOL, EA, and Pogo	217
	They Want How Many Subscriptions?	220
Chapter 18	Loading Up, Loading Down, and Zipping All Around	223
	Locating Likely Candidates	224
	Downloading a File Right Now	227
	How Do You Manage This Many Downloads?	228
	The Joys of Stuffing and Zipping	230
	Donating Your Efforts	232
	Logging Isn't Really Downloading, but It's Close	233
Chapter 19	Cruising the Internet	235
	AOL Anywhere Basics	236
	So Just What Is This Internet Thing?	236
	E-Mail the Internet Way	238
	Join a Mailing List for Fun and Full Mailboxes	239
	Topic Hopping on the Web	241
	Newsgroups Talk about the Craziest Things	247
	FTP Downloading for the Nerd at Heart	255
Chapter 20	There's Music in the Wires	257
	Pushing Guitars Through the Internet Takes More Than Strong Biceps	258
	Tuning the Online Radio	260
	Jamming to the Music Videos	261
	Turning Your Computer into a Jukebox with MP3s	264
Part IV	Secret Tricks of the AOL Gurus	267
Chapter 21	Making a Truly Cool Profile	269
	It's All in the Wrists (and the Tabs and Colons)	270
	Profile Remodeling for the Do-It-Yourselfer	271
	Don't Panic--It Only Looks Blank	276
Chapter 22	Dressing Up Your Software with Fresh Buttons and a New Menu	277
	Dancing the Toolbar Tango and the New Button Bop	278
	Choosing a Welcome Screen that Matches Your Mood	281
	A Menu to Call Your Own	282
Chapter 23	Discussing Strange New Vistas with AIM	287
	Yes, You Really Want to Do This	288
	Adding AIM to Your Computer	288
	Making a Name for Yourself	290
	Introducing Yourself with a Profile	294
	Hitting the Highlights	296
Chapter 24	Spinning a Web (Site) of Your Own	299
	Why You Might (or Might Not) Want Your Own Web Site	300
	Stuff to Do Before You Build	301
	Building a Place to Call Homepage	303
	Doing It Yourself in the Great Out There	306
Chapter 25	Taking AOL Anywhere	309
	Connecting Through the Web	310
	Flipping Channels on AOLTV	311
	Putting AOL in Your Palm	314
	Reach Out and Touch Your E-Mail	317
Chapter 26	So You Wanna Go Faster?	319
	High Bandwidth Doesn't Mean Oversized Musicians	319
	Browsing the Net Through Rose-Colored Wires	320
	Enjoying AOL's Special High-Speed Perks	324
Part V	The Part of Tens	325
Chapter 27	Ten Fun Things to Do Online	327
	Decode Digital Terminology	328
	Hurricane Building for the Do-It-Yourself Weather Fan	328
	Ferret Out Long-Lost Friends and Businesses, Wherever They May Be	328
	Trip through the Coolest Online Areas	329
	Send Online Cards, Flowers, and Other Things That Smell	329
	Hang Out with Your Favorite Celebrities	330
	Download the Best Software	331
	Track Packages All Over the World	331
	Practice a Foreign Language	332
	Collect Free Stuff from the Government	332
Chapter 28	Ten Things That Can Go Wrong--and How to Fix Them	333
	A .MIM File Is Motioning from My Mailbox	334
	The Computer Almost Signs On	335
	The Host Isn't Responding to You	335
	The System Rudely Kicks You Off (Punted, Part I)	336
	America Online Doesn't Say a Word	336
	Your Computer Locks Up While Downloading Files (Punted, Part II)	337
	File Downloads Take Too Long	338
	Automatic AOL Mail Goes Undercover	339
	Your Internet Mail Comes Back As Undeliverable	339
	The New Item on Your Go To Menu Goes to the Wrong Place	340
	Index	341