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Access to Resources

Windows XP includes Internet Explorer 6 by default, which provides access to resources on the Internet as well as the local computer and network resources such as printers and shared folders. How you access a particular resource depends primarily on what you put in the address bar. The following paragraphs show the most common types of resources you can access with Internet Explorer, including their corresponding address format.

Websites – http://www.techexams.net or http://222.222.22.22. When you use an URL or IP address in the address bar, Internet Explorer assumes you want to connect to an HTTP resource and will automatically use the prefix http://. If you want to connect to a secure website, use https:// instead. When you open a file by using the http:// prefix, Internet Explorer will learn the file type from the MIME information it receives from the server, and will open the file in the browser or start the corresponding application. You can have Internet Explorer determine the file type on it own, based on the extension and content, by using the file:// prefix instead.

FTP sites – To access FTP sites on remote server, use the following format: ftp://ftp.sitename.com
Many FTP sites automatically log you on as anonymous or a prompt you to enter a username and password. You can logon with a different account by choosing Login As from the File menu. If you access an FTP site through a CERN-compliant proxy server, you must supply the username and password in the URL instead, for example: ftp://username:password@ftp.sitename.com

Shared Folders – To access a file in a shared folder on a remote computer that is not running any web services, use the same format as you would in Windows Explorer, in other words, use the UNC path. For example: \\fileserver1\sharedfolder\file1.doc. In addition to accessing remote resources, you can also access local files and folders in the same way as in Windows Explorer, for example, by typing C:\Windows in the address bar.

Shared Printers – Besides access to files and folders, you can use Internet Explorer to access shared printers if the print server is running IIS. For example, you can manage a printer shared as PSales and documents in the printer’s queue by using the URL http://printserver1/PSales. Read the Printing TechNotes for more information.

Security Settings    Back to top

Internet Explorer 6.0 provides several customizable security and privacy related settings. You can access these settings by using the Internet Options control panel applet, or by right-clicking the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop and selecting Properties. A third option is to click Internet Options in the Tools menu in Internet Explorer. The following four tabs of the Internet Properties are relevant to security and privacy:

Security

The Security tab allows you to add sites to different zones, each with its own customizable security level:
• The Internet zone contains all the web sites you haven’t manually placed in other zones.
• The Local intranet zone contains local intranet sites such as the sites configured to bypass the proxy server and sites to which you connect by using an UNC path.
• The Trusted sites zone contains sites that you explicitly add as trusted sites.
• The Restricted sites zone contains sites you explicitly add as sites you do not trust.

For the latter three zones, you can use the Sites button to add additional sites. For the Local intranet and Trusted sites zone you can also specify whether https:// should be required by enabling the option Require server verification (https:)for all sites in this zone. For each of these four zones, you can configure the security level by clicking the Custom Level button to open the Security Settings dialog box. Here you can specify whether ActiveX, .Net, scripting, and file downloads should be enabled, disabled, or whether the user should be prompted before accepting these objects. Before you modify the security settings for a particular zone to allow proper access to a single web site, you should consider placing that web site in another zone.

Privacy

The Privacy tab allows you to configure how Internet Explorer handles cookies for the Internet zone. A cookie is a text file that a website stores on the local computer to maintain information about a visitor’s session. For example, if you enable the option to logon automatically at the TechExams.net forums, a cookie will be placed on your computer with the information required to automatically log you on next time you visit the forums.

Internet Explorer makes a distinction between two main type of cookies, first-party, which are cookies from the same domain as the website you are viewing, and third-party, which originate from another domain and are used to provide third-party dynamic content. In the Settings section of the Privacy tab, you can specify one of the following privacy settings that determine which cookies are accepted and which are rejected: Block all cookies, High, Medium-High, Medium (default setting), Low, and Accept All Cookies. Click the following link for a complete description of each privacy setting: How to Manage Cookies in Internet Explorer 6.

All cookies from sites in the Local intranet and Trusted zones are automatically accepted, and all cookies from sites in the Restricted zone are blocked. Click the Edit button in the Web Sites section to open the Per-Site Privacy Actions dialog box, which allows you allow or block all cookies for individual web sites.

Content

On the Content tab, you can enable and configure the Content Advisor, which uses rating systems to block sites with sexual, violent, and other type of content you don’t want your kids to see. You can configure a separate Supervisor password that can be used to disable or change the settings of the Content Advisor.

The most important security related options on the Content tab are in the Certificates section. When you click the Certificates or the Publishers button, the Certificates dialog box will open allowing you to view the currently installed certificates for trusted certification authorities and trusted publishers. You can also use Certificates to import and export personal certificates and private keys, including those used for the Encrypted File System (EFS).

Advanced

The Advanced tab of the Internet Properties provides additional miscellaneous security settings concerning digital certificates, encryption, SSL/TLS versions, and secure connections.

For more information about Internet Explorer, including the changes and additions that came with Window XP Service Pack 2, check out the Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Resource Kit.