Your web browser is the program you use to access web sites. Some examples of web browsers are Firefox and Internet Explorer.
You might not know it, but you could be using a web browser that's 10 years old. With the fast development pace of technology, if you're using a browser that's even a year old, you’re not getting as good an experience as the people who are using a modern browser. And you probably won't be seeing StudyStays the way it's meant to look.
If you're not sure what browser you're using, you can find out here. If it's not a modern browser, it'll show you when it was released. Internet Explorer 6, for example, was released in August 2001 and is now a relic from a time when the internet was much slower, uglier and harder to use.
If you find out that your browser is quite old—say Internet Explorer 8—the good news is that there are lots of modern browsers available, and they're all completely free to download and install. Examples are Google Chrome (my favourite), Apple's Safari (works on PC too), Firefox 7 and Internet Explorer 9. One of the reasons Chrome is so good is that it updates itself automatically, so you're always using the latest and best.
But the bad news is that your IT department has quite possibly chosen a web browser for you that's well past it's expiry date. If you're especially unfortunate, they also restrict what you can install on your computer, so you can't fix the situation yourself by upgrading your browser.
So what can you do to improve your every-day internet use?
If you're adventurous, you could go ahead and try to download and install one of the browsers above. If you're lucky it'll work. If you're unlucky, it'll be blocked from installing. If that happens, you could contact your IT department and tell them how old your browser is, and can you please have a new one. If you have a good IT department, they'll be happy to oblige.
But they might say no. Possibly they'll remind you that you don't know as much about computers as they do, or mention security threats (modern browser are actually much more secure than older ones). Or maybe they're just plain too busy to help you.
In this situation, if you're using an Internet Explorer older than version 9, there's one last option open to you: install Google Chrome Frame. This is a program that runs Google Chrome inside Internet Explorer, and it gets around some of the installation restrictions you might have. Here's a comparison of Internet Explorer 6, with and without Google Chrome Frame (and real Chrome for good measure).
Click to see the full-size animation
Hope you have a safe and enjoyable internet journey.