Don’t leave your homepage without them! (Net Magazine)

Member Name: loulou6

Product:	Net Magazine
Date:	24/05/01 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, glossy, easy to read

Disadvantages: freeserve 'help', nothing else really

Ok, I’ll put my hands up….. I’m a total net-head. Didn’t mean to become one, but after being online for about two weeks I won a workstation from Space.com (worth £180.00) of course I was hooked. After a while though I got bored with only entering competitions and wanted to venture into the unknown, but that’s where the problem started, I didn’t know what was out there!

Off to WH Smiths I trundled and stared at the immense amount of Internet Magazines on the shelves, you’ve got to remember this was only 18 months ago, everybody and their mother were bringing out new Internet magazines.

Two magazines caught my eye - .NET and this one, being such a cheapskate I decided on TheNet, as it was only £2.50 (now £2.75). I was quite impressed with the glossy, efficient layout and if I randomly flipped to a page, there was actually something I was interested in, not just pages and pages of adverts. Even the ‘paid for’ feature by Freeserve had some merit! (and guess which ISP I’m now with?)

I got it home and sat down with a steaming cup of Assam and a ciggy – The first thing I noticed was that it was really easy to read and without too much technical jargon (great for the technophobes like me!). It had oodles of colour and it also had a sense of humour with newspaper type headlines like “Get that down you, Love!” (an article about wine online) and “Pylon the Agony” (about a sad web-site for pylon spotters). The articles ranged from finding an ISP to step by step info for putting pictures and video online. I’ll definitely be going back to copies I’ve bought for inspiration or getting clued up on how to access newsgroups (the back copies can also be bought for around £3.50 from Haymarket Publishing).

There are some really great writers on TheNet, these folks really know their stuff (or all they doo all day long is surf!) All you need to
do is write a paragraph describing each site, the web address and decide how many stars out of 5 you’re going to award, I could do that!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, two cups of char and five ciggys later I emerged from the tome raring to go. One problem was the boyfriend….. Once I had cajoled him off the ‘puter with promises of a home cooked pizza (easy to bung together) I started visiting the sites the magazine had recommended. I wasn’t let down; not one of the sites was a dud.

I continue to buy TheNet, maybe not as often, but instead of the buying my normal women’s magazines like Vogue and Cosmo, I’ll pick up TheNet or .NET. You never know when the mother of all sites will be found!

Summary: