Some would say that the first thing to cover in an internet introduction should be the history of the internet or the basics of how it works. Although these are fascinating subjects, i disagree, the best way to learn about the internet is to use it! Once you are comfortable using the internet, you can research these topics and many others until your heart is content.
The Web
Here you are! You are on the World Wide Web, a large subsection of the Internet. You made it here, so you must already pretty much have it figured out! I'll start with some basics you probably already know or at least suspected anyway; so bear with me for a minute. Web pages are connected to the rest of internet using click-able "hyper-links". A hyper-link is a pointer to a related place on the internet. A word, phrase of several words, or graphic 
on one page can be linked to any other web page, picture, sound, or other piece of data on the internet using a link. When you click on a link, your web browser requests whatever resource the link points to. Your web browser is the software application you use to view and navigate web pages. The most popular browsers are Netscape and Internet Explorer. Typically, a text hyper-link will be blue and underlined. You can tell if something is a hyper-link by covering it with your mouse pointer. If it is a link, the pointer icon will change (possibly to a hand) and you will be able to see the "URL" or address of the link in the bottom of your browser. You can also see the address of the page you are viewing at the top of your browser. If you are not sure if you want to "follow" a link or not, sometimes it can be useful to place your mouse pointer over the link and see what URL it is referencing. By comparing this address to your current location, you can at least tell if the link is local (in the same domain/web site) or if it is somewhere else. As you read this document, explore the hyper-links.
OK, let's dive in! Here is a good way to get going on the internet, think of something that you are interested in and search for it. Start with yahoo. Yahoo is a manually (human) maintained hierarchical index of web sites. Everything is broken down into categories and subcategorizes. You can navigate the subject tree or search for sites related to particular subjects of interest. Sometimes this is exactly what you want, other times, a search engine will server you better. Hotbot is a good example of a search engine. You can give it a query and it will look in the areas of the internet it is familiar with for occurrences of your keywords. This can be useful when you are looking for something obscure because the process of finding the site is totally automated - hotbot just searches for your keywords in web pages. Ask Jeeves is an example of an advanced search tool that simultaneously submits your query to several different search engines, compiles the results, and displays them for you. This particular tool is especially nice because it allows you to format your queries in regular English! For example, where can i get good Chinese food in Fond du Lac? Actually, Jeeves doesn't seem to have a good answer for this tough question right off - but it won't stop him from trying. Actually, Jeeves seems to recommend you download the recipe and cook it yourself! You will notice that Jeeves formats the response as additional "known" questions and pull-down lists of matches from other sites. If you haven't run into these pull-down lists, or as programmers call them, "combo boxes", you use them by clicking on the down-arrow and selecting your choice (on askJeeves, you must then click "Ask!" to execute your choice). By using a tool like this a few times, you can learn which search engines are best for which types of searches.
Now think of something very specific that you and very few others are really interested in and search for it - you may be surprised what you find! Get to know your search tools! Once you are comfortable with the basics, try building more complex queries like: "this AND that BUT NOT the other". Different search sites use different query formats, but you should be able to find the rules pretty easily.
Click here to see some of my favorite web sites. When you find a site you like and want to remember where it is for future reference, you create a "bookmark" or, as Internet Explorer calls them, "favorites".
Most Have Utility Downloads
coming soon.... my favorite free software, like Netscape, icq, winAmp, real Audio, etc....
Using News Groups
still the net's "killer app", coming soon.....
Author's Note: What do you think of this "tutorial"? Did you find it useful? Was it too basic? Too complex? What was confusing? Email me and tell me what you think.
When i first started writing this, i thought i could type something up that would be quick, clear, concise, and give an internet beginner a good basic grasp of what is going on. This is harder than it seemed in my mind. It is like peeling away layers of an onion... it only seems simple until you try to explain all the layers below that you are familiar enough with to just take for granted! Reading this over, it is not what i hoped for, but maybe you will find it useful anyway....