As
things progressed, the most desired
commercial domain names using the .com
soon became all used up, so .net was
started to be used for general use. Soon
the original designations became less
and less followed, until today, .edu, .gov,
and .mil are about the only original
TLDs that are still reserved for a
special purpose. Also, .org is still
mainly used for non-profit
organizations, but this is mot always
honored, and anyone can register a .org
domain name.
In November 1988, another
TLD (Top Level Domain) was introduced,
.int. This TLD was introduced in
response to NATO's request for a domain
name which adequately reflected its
character as an international
organization.
By the mid-1990s there
was pressure for more TLDs to be
introduced.
However, progress on this
stalled after the U.S. government, for
whatever reason, intervened and nothing
ever came of it at that time.
In October 1998, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) was formed to take
over the task of managing domain names.
After a call for proposals on August 15,
2000, and a brief period of public
consultation, ICANN announced on
November 16, 2000, its selection of .aer,
.biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and
.pro.
These new TLDs started to
come into use in June 2001, and by the
end of that year all except .pro existed
and were in general use. .name and
.coop became fully operational in
January 2002, and .aero followed later
in the year. .pro became a TLD in May
2002, but did not become fully
operational until June 2004.
As of June 2005, ICANN
had announced the approval in principle
of several new TLDs, with details still
being worked out and implementation
still in the future for .cat, .jobs, .mobi,
.post, .tel, .travel and .xxx. At the
rate the Internet is growing, there will
probably be more, especially when the
IPv6 comes into full use.
So, what's the difference between
.com and .net? They are just
different address, like Springfield,
OH. and a Springfield, GA. are
different places. The name is the
same, but they are two entirely
different entities.
Q.
When I try to print a web page, the
right end of the text is usually clipped
off. How can I fix this so the entire
page prints?
A. What you are experiencing
is a known problem with Internet
Explorer and other browsers. The web
page is wider than the paper, and
Internet Explorer doesn't provide
any real way to change its width.
The next version of Internet
Explorer, version 7, due to be
released later this year, corrects
this and has a "Shrink to fit"
option when printing.
However, there is a setting that you
can change that may allow just
enough room to allow printing the
entire width of the web page
although it nearly eliminates the
right and left borders.
With the web page open, click on
File, than Page Setup. Near the
bottom of this dialog, you will see
a section labeled Margins. By
default, these are set at .75 for
the left and right. Change these to
.25 for both left and right, the
minimum setting allowed. If you try
to set them anything less, they will
automatically be reset to .25. Click
OK. This setting should be
remembered the next time you try to
print from IE.
Now when you try to print the page,
you will have approximately one inch
more room on the page due to the
much smaller borders. This just may
be enough to allow the whole page to
print. The only other alternative
would be to set your printer to
Landscape mode. This will for sure
allow the entire page to print, but
require more pages to print it all.
