A Beginner's Guide to Downloading

1. Use a Special Download Directory
Downloading can get messy. Unless you file new software neatly away, you'll be bogged down in no time. To keep track of software you download, you should keep it in a special "in-box."

The way to make a new download folder or directory varies according to the operating system you're using: Windows 3.x, Windows 95, or Macintosh. But the good news is that you make the folder or directory once and reuse it time and again. And if you call your in-box something intuitive like "Download" or "Temp," you'll always know where to find it.

2. Find the Software
Software is available everywhere on the Internet for downloading--from ftp sites, Web sites, or special search engines like c|net's shareware.com. If you know what software you're looking for and can't find it at daviestrek.com or don't know a reliable ftp site to get it from, searching shareware.com is your best bet.

The process is easy enough: just pick your platform--Mac, Windows, Unix, whatever--and enter one or more search words in the Quick Search box. Then scroll down the list, and when you find software that interests you, click on its name. Further complexities are explained in CompuTREK's help file, but it's basically that simple.

3. Download the Software
Once you've homed in on the software you want to download, click the underlined hyperlink to it. This takes you to a How to Download page. In most cases, shareware.com will give you a dozen or so sites that contain the file you're looking for, including mirror sites around the world. In general, you'll want to click on the first site you see that has a high star rating. (shareware.com star ratings don't rate the software or the site, just how reliable the connection to the site has been recently.)

If you're curious about how long it will take to download the file, click the estimated download times link. Then jump back to the list of sites, and you're ready to download--and that is as simple as clicking on the link at the site you like most.

Or is it so simple? There are a few wrinkles in this process. You might not get a connection to the first site you try, for instance. If not, try another site; sooner or later you'll get a connection. What happens next depends on which helper applications (or viewers) are installed in your Web browser. If your browser isn't configured to view compressed files, you'll get a message like this:

"No viewer available for this file type. Do you want to save to disk?"

Click OK when you see this question, and then locate the Download folder or directory you made earlier.

4. Decompress the Archive
Practically every file you'll ever download from the Internet is compressed. By dealing with compressed files, not only do you cut the time it takes to download a file by about half, but you can also download many files at once if they're in a single compressed archive. Dealing with compressed files makes the whole download process go more smoothly--until the file is on your hard disk. At that point, the file may have one of these unfriendly looking extensions: .arj, .arc, .bin, .exe, .gz, .hqx, .sea, .sit, .uu, .uue, .zip, or .z.

How you handle these files depends on whether you're running a Mac or Windows system and on what software you use to decompress .zip or StuffIt/BinHex archives. (We're assuming you'll use WinZip for the PC and StuffIt for the Mac.)

5. Install the Software
Sometimes a .zip or StuffIt archive contains just one program file and a read-me text file; they're the easy ones. But merely removing programs from their compressed archives doesn't always mean you can run them right away. Many programs need to be installed. How to do this varies among programs, so you'll need to check the download's read-me file to know for sure. (WinZip has a helpful install feature you might want to read more about.)

6. Delete the Compressed File
Before you settle down to enjoying your newly downloaded and installed software, remember that the compressed file (which you'll no longer need) is taking up valuable disk space. If you want to pass it on to friends, by all means hold onto it; we suggest you move it to a floppy disk. But if you're finished with it, just delete the compressed file. If you followed our earlier suggestion and made a special download folder or directory, it should be easy to find.

That's it. You're now ready to enjoy your download!

CompuTREK Graphics are designed by Susan Robinson of Griffin Graphics. Thanks Susan! Read our Disclaimer if you're really bored. Hmm, that seems pretty easy!