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I want to find something on the internet, how do I search and find what I'm looking for?

You can use a search engine. Type in the topic you are looking for, PRESS ENTER. A listing will come up that matches what you entered. Click on websites that sound interesting to you. Here are some popular search engines.

Google Yahoo Alta Vista Lycos

What to do when :

Your search produces no results

Make sure you read the tool's description, options, rules and restrictions. Not all search tools are created equal. Make sure your spelling is right. If you're not sure, use sub strings (if allowed). If you use logical operators (Boolean operators), check your syntax. Try to be less specific in your query. DO not over specify a search. You might miss relevant documents. Try synonyms and variations on words. Try with another search engine.

Your search produces too many results

Try to be more specific. Identify common words that are important to your search. Try to think of words that uniquely identify what you're looking for. Some words are of little value, because they identify lots of documents. The most distinctive a word, the more useful it will be for sharpening your search. Try to use as many relevant keywords as possible; it will help to uniquely identify what you're looking for.

You're having problems with the Server

The server might return an error message (or simply not allow any connection) if it's too busy or temporarily down, or if it might chokes on your query for unknown reasons.

No answer, Timed out, Too busy

These are the most common type of problems you will get. The server you are trying to access may be too busy or temporarily down. If this happens to you:
Try again after a couple of minutes. Wait until a less busier time of the day. Avoid prime time hours.

Error 404, Page/File not found

There's many reasons for this to happen. It may be that the link no longer exists, the URL has been changed or is simply not valid. Check the following and try again : Double check your URL, make sure it's entered correctly. Check the lower/upper case of each character. URL are partially case-sensitive. The first part (i.e..

protocol://host.domain ) is NOT case sensitive, but everything that follow IS (i.e.. /path.../filename ). Check for any non-alphanumeric symbols, make sure they are OK. If your URL has more than one directory level, try to move up in the tree (i.e. remove the last level and try again). Do so until you are at the top level.
If you still get no response, there's a good chance the URL is not valid or does not exist anymore.

Page has moved

Sometimes authors leave a "we have moved" message and indicate a new link location; sometimes they don't.

Permission denied

It may be that the site is denying public access or is configured so that only restricted access is allowed.
Try again later. Sometimes the restricted access is only for certain period of the day. Try to contact the site authors. In most cases, however, there is not much you can do about it.