Web Browsers and Utilities

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (www) is the most commonly accessed part of the Internet. The software used to access the Web is referred to as a browser. 

Every Web page has an address, known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). When you click a link on a Web page, you point your browser to the Web address of a specific file on a specific computer on the Internet. For example, the URL of the OIT home page is http://www.oit.duke.edu.

OIT supports two Web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox.

Internet Explorer is a popular and free Web browser developed by Microsoft Corp. Click here to download IE. To learn how to use Internet Explorer or to get help, from the Help menu select Contents and Index.

Related software

To get the most out of browsing the Web, it's helpful to have some utilities installed on your computer. These programs allow you to listen to audio, view movies and download PDF (portable document format) files. Some of the more popular applications are described below.

Windows Media Player

Download the supported version of Media Player.

Windows Media Player is the audio and video player included with Microsoft Windows. It is capable of playing .mp3, .wav and CD audio as well as .mpg and .avi video files. It has developed over the years to include playlists, audio adjustments, and the ability to apply skins to the interface. Apart from certain proprietary file types (QuickTime and Real, for example), it is capable of playing most audio and video you will encounter.

A common consideration for watching video files with a media player is having the proper codec. A codec is a set of instructions that allows the media player to decode the data into a visual format. Different codecs are used for different purposes, the goal being to balance the video quality with the file size. Codecs are developed by various companies and individuals, the most popular being Microsoft's own Windows Media codecs and the commonly used DivX codec. Windows Media Player will often find and download the proper codec automatically; however, in some cases, you will need to download and install the codec separately. Often this requires knowing which codec is needed for a particular file.

QuickTime

QuickTime is a media player developed by Apple Computer. QuickTime is free, but every time you use it you'll be prompted to upgrade to QuickTime Pro (for a fee). The Pro version has more functions than the free player. Download the free version of QuickTime

Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is an application used to view and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files. You'll encounter PDF files on the Web and on DukeNet. For example, the Duke Libraries Electronic Course Reserves System (E-reserves) uses PDFs extensively to distribute course materials.

When you select a link to a PDF document on the Web, depending on your browser settings, the file downloads to your computer or opens in a browser window. You can also use Reader to open PDF files saved to your computer. Download the free, supported version of Adobe Reader here.