Download it. If you are reading this, you are probably using a Web browser. If you are using a Web browser, you have a gateway to all of the Internet software in the world. The remarkable thing about the stuff is that most of it is free! Some of it is pretty big, and might take a while to download over a modem, but hey, it's worth it! Unless you are paying hourly rates for your Internet access, you should just download and go do something else: read a book, watch PBS, go for a walk. If it takes an hour, so what: just do it! If you are on a university campus network or a cable modem, even the real big stuff ought to just zip down.

But where do I download it?

There are a lot of sites out there but some are clearly better organized and easier to use Tucows is the largest and has mirror sites all over the world The software is reviewed and rated. Find your nearest mirror at http://www.tucows.com Strouds Consummate list of Winsock Applications is an institution and has recently been given a home by Mecklermedia at http://cws.internet.com. The software is reviewed and rated. Other sites: http://www.winfiles.com/ http://www.hotfiles.com/internet.html http://www.davecentral.com/ (extensive reviews...) http://www.shareware.com/ http://www.download.com/ http://www.winsite.com/ http://www.filefarm.com/ If you need the latest version of your browser and you don't want to stand in the long virtual lines at Netscape or Microsoft, go to browsers.com to get the newest one, at http://www.browsers.com/ For servers, try http://serverwatch.internet.com/

So what do I need? A good basic suite of Internet includes a dialer (built into Windows 95), a telnet application, a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application, an electronic mail (email) application, and a World Wide Web browser. If you rarely have a need to send files using FTP, you could get by with one application for FTP, email, and Web browsing. Netscape Communicator from Netscape Communications at http://home.netscape.com/ supports FTP and email as does Internet  Explorer, and there are other suites as well.