Ask Sam: How to Upgrade Your Internet Browser

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Ask Sam: How to Upgrade Your Internet Browser

Along with your local connection to the Internet, your Internet “Browser” software is about the most important tool in your pleasant surfing of the Internet. Unlike your connection, you can get the latest and greatest software completely free online.

Most people use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (MSIE), since it comes already loaded on almost all new PCs with windows. You probably have an icon on your desktop which is a lower-case “e” with a Saturn-like ring around it. That’s MSIE.

Netscape Navigator has been around longer than Explorer, and is still a preferred tool by many “techies” like me. The icon for current versions is a white “N” in a green box, but older versions use a lighthouse image.

AOL has its own browser built-in, although after you connect to the Internet through AOL, you could use either of the other browsers from your desktop by clicking on them.

There are other browsers available, but that accounts for about 90% of the browsers that are used to access TSCL.org.

Periodically, these firms update their browsers. Generally, they do it to increase security, make browsing faster, and allow you to view web pages that use newer software. While we here at TSCL strive to keep things fast and simple, some other sites require a newer browser to fully enjoy them. Also, if you do any online shopping or book travel reservations online, the increased security of the newer versions is desirable.

AOL pesters their customers relentlessly when they come up with a whole new version. For minor upgrades within a version, they just load them to your system when you sign-in. For MSIE and Netscape users, it’s another story. These firms spend millions of dollars developing new browsers, and give them away for free, but rarely do they make it easy to get the new version!

For MSIE, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. One of the top 10 downloads is the latest version of Internet Explorer. If you don’t find it easily, use the search feature right on the page. The current version says it only takes two minutes to download at a normal dial-up speed of 28.8 kbps. Follow the instructions to expand the files and install your new browser.

For Netscape, go to http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/main.tmpl and choose the most current version to download.

Happy surfing!

(If I can help you make your online experience more pleasant, or at least less painful, I’d be glad to try. Chances are, if you’ve got a question, hundreds of other TSCL supporters do, too! Write to me at Sam@TSCL.org.)

September 2003