GLOSSARY OF
INTERNET TERMS
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- Active
X
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ActiveX ActiveX is a model
for writing programs. ActiveX technology is used to make interactive
web pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static
pages. With ActiveX, users can ask or answer questions, use push buttons,
and interact in other ways with the web page.
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- ADSL
-
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Asynchrious Digital subscriber
line. It has different speeds for uploading and downloading information.
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See Also: DSL
- Anonymous
FTP
-
See Also: FTP
- Applet
-
A small Java program
that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged
Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources
on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers,
etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers
across a network. The current rule is that an applet can only make an
Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.
See Also: HTML
, Java
- Archie
-
A tool (software) for finding
files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact
file name or a substring of it.
- ARPANet
-
(Advanced Research Projects
Agency Network) -- The precursor to the Internet. Developed in
the late 60s and early 70s by the US Department of Defense
as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear
war.
See Also: Internet
- ASCII
-
(American Standard Code for
Information Interchange) -- This is the de facto world-wide standard
for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and
lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard
ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number:
0000000 through 1111111.
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- Backbone
-
A high-speed line or series
of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term
is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much
smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.
See Also: Network
- Bandwidth
-
How much stuff you can send
through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page
of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 15,000
bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly
10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.
See Also: Bps
, Bit , T-1
- Baud
-
In common usage the baud
rate of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive
per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that
the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second
modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300
= 1200 bits per second).
See Also: Bit
, Modem
- BBS
-
(Bulletin Board System) --
A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to
carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements
without the people being connected to the computer at the same time.
There are many thousands (millions?) of BBSs around the world,
most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone
lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like
CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.
- Binhex
-
(BINary HEXadecimal) -- A
method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII.
This is needed because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII.
See Also: ASCII
, MIME , UUENCODE
- Bit
-
(Binary DigIT) -- A single
digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero. The smallest
unit of computerized data. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.
See Also: Bandwidth
, Bps , Byte , Kilobyte
, Megabyte
-
- Bps
-
(Bits-Per-Second) -- A measurement
of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem
can move 28,800 bits per second.
See Also: Bandwidth
, Bit
- Browser
-
A Client program (software)
that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
See Also: Client
, URL , WWW , Netscape
, Mosaic , Home
Page (or Homepage)
- BTW
-
(By The Way) -- A shorthand
appended to a comment written in an online forum.
See Also: IMHO
- Byte
-
A set of Bits that represent
a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more,
depending on how the measurement is being made.
See Also: Bit
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- Certificate
Authority
-
An issuer of Security
Certificates used in SSL connections.
See Also: Security
Certificate , SSL
- CGI
-
(Common Gateway Interface)
-- A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates
with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other
piece of software (the CGI program) talks to the web server.
Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output
according to the CGI standard.
Usually a CGI program is a small program that takes data from a web
server and does something with it, like putting the content of a form
into an e-mail message, or turning the data into a database query.
You can often see that a CGI program is being used by seeing cgi-bin
in a URL, but not always.
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-
-
See Also: cgi-bin
, Web
- cgi-bin
-
The most common name of a
directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored.
The bin part of cgi-bin is a shorthand version
of binary, because once upon a time, most programs were
refered to as binaries. In real life, most programs found
in cgi-bin directories are text files -- scripts that are executed by
binaries located elsewhere on the same machine.
See Also: CGI
-
See Also: cgi-bin
, Web
- Chat Room
-
A place on the Internet where
people go to "chat" with other people in the room. Actually there are
thousands of these Chat Rooms. The rooms are usually organized by topic.
For example in a Michigan Room you would expect that most of the participants
in the room are probably from Michigan or a Gay room, where the participants
are usually gay. When you're in a Chat Room you can view all of the
conversations taking place at once on your screen. You can also get
into a private chat room where only you and one or two others may talk.
This can be an inexpensive way to keep up with friends and relatives
who are online. Chocolate
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- Client
-
A software program that is
used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program
on another computer, often across a great distance. Each Client
program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of Server
programs, and each Server requires a specific kind of Client.
A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.
See Also: Browser
, Server
- co-location
-
Most often used to refer
to having a server that belongs to one person or group physically
located on an Internet-connected network that belongs
to another person or group. Usually this is done because the server
owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed Internet connection
and/or they do not want the security risks of having the server on thier
own network.
See Also: Internet
, Server , Network
- Cookie
-
The most common meaning of
Cookie on the Internet refers to a piece of information
sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser
software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever
the browser makes additional requests from the Server.
Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the Browsers settings,
the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie, and may save the Cookie
for either a short time or a long time.
Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information,
online shopping cart information, user preferences, etc.
When a Server receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie,
the Server is able to use the information stored in the Cookie. For
example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user, or
keep a log of particular users requests.
Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time
and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed
down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their expire
time has not been reached.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life
story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about
a user than would be possible without them.
See Also: Browser
, Server
- Cyberpunk
-
Cyberpunk was originally
a cultural sub-genre of science fiction taking place in a not-so-distant,
dystopian, over-industrialized society. The term grew out of the work
of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and has evolved into a cultural
label encompassing many different kinds of human, machine, and punk
attitudes. It includes clothing and lifestyle choices as well.
See Also: Cyberspace
- Cyberspace
-
Term originated by author
William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer the word Cyberspace is
currently used to describe the whole range of information resources
available through computer networks.
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- Digerati
-
The digital version of literati,
it is a reference to a vague cloud of people seen to be knowledgeable,
hip, or otherwise in-the-know in regards to the digital revolution.
Aka "geeks" :)
- DSL
-
(Digital Subscriber Line)
-- A method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL circuit
is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming
into the subscribers premises are the same (copper) wires used
for regular phone service. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect
two specific locations, similar to a leased line.
A commonly discussed configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds
of up to 1.544 megabits (not mega bytes) per second, and uploads at
speeds of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL:
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.
Another common configuration is symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second
in both directions.
In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second
and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second.
DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN,
being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.
See Also: bit
, bps , ISDN , Leased
Line
- Domain
Name
-
The unique name that identifies
an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated
by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on
the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one
Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine. It is
also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an
actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have
an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet
site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail
on behalf of the listed Domain Name.
See Also: IP
Number
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- E-mail
-
(Electronic Mail) -- Messages,
usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can
also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses (Mailing
List).
See Also: Listserv®
, Maillist
- Ethernet
-
A very common method of networking
computers in a LAN. Ethernet will handle about 10,000,000 bits-per-second
and can be used with almost any kind of computer.
See Also: Bandwidth
, LAN
- FAQ
-
(Frequently Asked Questions)
-- FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions
on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse
as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people
who have tired of answering the same question over and over.
- FDDI
-
(Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
-- A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate
of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as Ethernet,
about twice as fast as T-3).
See Also: Bandwidth
, Ethernet , T-1 , T-3
- Finger
-
An Internet software tool
for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes
used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common
use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site.
Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.
- Fire
Wall
-
A combination of hardware
and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for
security purposes.
See Also: Network
, LAN
- Flame
-
Originally, flame meant to
carry forth in a passionate manner in the spirit of honorable debate.
Flames most often involved the use of flowery language and flaming well
was an art form. More recently flame has come to refer to any kind of
derogatory comment no matter how witless or crude.
See Also: Flame
War
- Flame
War
-
When an online discussion
degenerates into a series of personal attacks against the debators,
rather than discussion of their positions. A heated exchange.
See Also: Flame
- FTP
-
(File Transfer Protocol)
-- A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites.
FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the
purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet
sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material
that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name
anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers.
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- Gateway
-
The technical meaning is
a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar
protocols, for example Prodigy has a gateway that translates between
its internal, proprietary e-mail format and Internet e-mail format.
Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe any mechanism for
providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway
to the Internet.
- GIF
-
(Graphic Interchange Format)
-- A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing
large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are
often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format,
but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.
See Also: JPEG
- Gigabyte
-
1000 or 1024 Megabytes,
depending on who is measuring.
See Also: Byte
, Megabyte
- Gopher
-
A widely successful method
of making menus of material available over the Internet. Gopher is a
Client and Server style program, which requires that the
user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher spread rapidly
across the globe in only a couple of years, it has been largely supplanted
by Hypertext, also known as WWW (World Wide Web). There are still
thousands of Gopher Servers on the Internet and we can expect
they will remain for a while.
See Also: Client
, Server , WWW , Hypertext
- hit
-
As used in reference to the
World Wide Web, hit means a single request from a web browser
for a single item from a web server; thus in order for a web
browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 hits
would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each
of the 3 graphics.
hits are often used as a very rough measure of load on a
server, e.g. Our server has been getting 300,000 hits per month.
Because each hit can represent anything from a request for
a tiny document (or even a request for a missing document) all the way
to a request that requires some significant extra processing (such as
a complex search request), the actual load on a machine from 1 hit is
almost impossible to define.
- Home
Page (or Homepage)
-
Several meanings. Originally,
the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts
up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business,
organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of
web pages, e.g. Check out so-and-sos new Home Page.
Another sloppier use of the term refers to practically any web page
as a homepage, e.g. That web site has 65 homepages
and none of them are interesting.
See Also: Browser
, Web
- Host
-
Any computer on a network
that is a repository for services available to other computers on the
network. It is quite common to have one host machine provide
several services, such as WWW and USENET.
See Also: Node
, Network
- HTML
-
(HyperText Markup Language)
-- The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for
use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned
typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that
indicate how it should appear, additionally, in HTML you can specify
that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet.
HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web Client
Program, such as Netscape or Mosaic.
See Also: Client
, Server , WWW
- HTTP
-
(HyperText Transfer Protocol)
-- The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet.
Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server
program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in
the World Wide Web (WWW).
See Also: Client
, Server , WWW
- Hypertext
-
Generally, any text that
contains links to other documents - words or phrases in the document
that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be
retrieved and displayed.
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- IMHO
-
(In My Humble Opinion) --
A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates
that the writer is aware that they are expressing a debatable view,
probably on a subject already under discussion. One of may such shorthands
in common use online, especially in discussion forums.
See Also: BTW
- Internet
-
(Upper case I) The
vast collection of inter-connected networks that all use the TCP/IP
protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60s
and early 70s. The Internet now (July 1995) connects roughly 60,000
independent networks into a vast global internet.
See Also: internet
- internet
-
(Lower case i) Any
time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet
- as in inter-national or inter-state.
See Also: Internet
, Network
- Intranet
-
A private network
inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software
that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only
for internal use.
As the Internet has become more popular many of the tools used on the
Internet are being used in private networks, for example, many companies
have web servers that are available only to employees.
Note that an Intranet may not actually be an internet
-- it may simply be a network.
See Also: internet
, Internet , Network
- IP
Number
-
(Internet Protocol Number)
-- Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts
separated by dots, e.g.
165.113.245.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a
machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet.
Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier
for people to remember.
See Also: Domain
Name , Internet , TCP/IP
- IRC
-
(Internet Relay Chat) --
Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of
major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other.
Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given
channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and
are) created for multi-person conference calls.
- ISDN
-
(Integrated Services Digital
Network) -- Basically a way to move more data over existing regular
phone lines. ISDN is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and
in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone
circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over
regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000
or 64,000 bits-per-second.
- ISP
-
(Internet Service Provider)
-- An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form,
usually for money.
See Also: Internet
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- Java
-
Java is a network-oriented
programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically
designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your
computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses
or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called
"Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations,
calculators, and other fancy tricks.
We can expect to see a huge variety of features added to the Web using
Java, since you can write a Java program to do almost anything a regular
computer program can do, and then include that Java program in a Web
page.
See Also: Applet
- JavaScript
-
JavaScript is a programming
language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that
make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is included in an
HTML file it relies upon the browser to interpret the JavaScript.
When JavaScript is combined with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS),
and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called
DHTML.
JavaScript was invented
by Netscape and was going to be called "LiveScript", but the
name was changed to JavaScript to cash in on the popularity of Java.
JavaScript and Java are two different programming languages.
See Also:
HTML, Java
- JDK
-
(Java Development Kit) --
A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements
the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debug Java applications
and applets
See Also: Applet
, Java
- JPEG
-
(Joint Photographic Experts
Group) -- JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files.
JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images
as opposed to line art or simple logo art.
See Also: GIF
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- Kilobyte
-
A thousand bytes. Actually,
usually 1024 (2^10) bytes.
See Also: Byte
, Bit
- LAN
-
(Local Area Network) -- A
computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building
or floor of a building.
See Also: Ethernet
- Leased
Line
-
Refers to a phone line that
is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7 -days-a-week use from your location
to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased
line.
See Also: T-1
, T-3, DSL
- Listserv®
-
The most common kind of maillist,
"Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. Listservs
originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.
See Also: BITNET
, E-mail , Maillist
- Login
-
Noun or a verb. Noun: The
account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret
(contrast with Password).
Verb: The act of entering into a computer system, e.g. Login to the
WELL and then go to the GBN conference.
See Also: Password
-
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- Maillist
-
(or Mailing List) A
(usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail
to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of
the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have
many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions
together.
- Megabyte
-
A million bytes. Actually,
technically, 1024 kilobytes.
See Also: Byte
, Bit , Kilobyte
- MIME
-
(Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) -- The standard for attaching non-text files to standard
Internet mail messages. Non-text files include graphics, spreadsheets,
formatted word-processor documents, sound files, etc.
An email program is said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send and
receive files using the MIME standard.
When non-text files are sent using the MIME standard they are converted
(encoded) into text - although the resulting text is not really readable.
Generally speaking the MIME standard is a way of specifying both the
type of file being sent (e.g. a Quicktime video file), and the
method that should be used to turn it back into its original form.
Besides email software, the MIME standard is also universally used by
Web Servers to identify the files they are sending to Web Clients,
in this way new file formats can be accommodated simply by updating
the Browsers list of pairs of MIME-Types and appropriate software
for handling each type.
See Also: Browser
, Client , Server , Binhex
, UUENCODE
- Mirror
-
Generally speaking, to
mirror is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the
most common use of the term on the Internet refers to mirror sites
which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain exact
copies of material originated at another location, usually in order
to provide more widespread access to the resource.
Another common use of the term mirror refers to an arrangement
where information is written to more than one hard disk simultaneously,
so that if one disk fails, the computer keeps on working without losing
anything.
See Also: FTP
, Web
- Modem
-
(MOdulator, DEModulator)
-- A device that you connect to your computer and to a phone line, that
allows the computer to talk to other computers through the phone system.
Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.
- MOO
-
(Mud, Object Oriented) --
One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments, so far
only text-based.
See Also: MUD
, MUSE
- Mosaic
-
The first WWW browser
that was available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX all with the
same interface. Mosaic really started the popularity of the Web. The
source-code to Mosaic has been licensed by several companies and there
are several other pieces of software as good or better than Mosaic,
most notably, Netscape.
See Also: Browser
, Client , WWW
- MUD
-
(Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension)
-- A (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are
purely for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development,
or education purposes and all that lies in between. A significant feature
of most MUDs is that users can create things that stay after they leave
and which other users can interact with in their absence, thus allowing
a world to be built gradually and collectively.
See Also: MOO
-
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- Netiquette
-
The etiquette on the Internet.
See Also: Internet
- Netizen
-
Derived from the term citizen,
referring to a citizen of the Internet, or someone who uses networked
resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.
See Also: Internet
- Netscape
-
A WWW Browser and
the name of a company. The Netscape (tm) browser was originally based
on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA).
Netscape has grown in features rapidly and is widely recognized as the
best and most popular web browser. Netscape corporation also produces
web server software.
Netscape provided major improvements in speed and interface over other
browsers, and has also engendered debate by creating new elements for
the HTML language used by Web pages -- but the Netscape extensions
to HTML are not universally supported.
The main author of Netscape, Mark Andreessen, was hired away from the
NCSA by Jim Clark, and they founded a company called Mosaic Communications
and soon changed the name to Netscape Communications Corporation.
See Also: Browser
, Mosaic , Server , WWW
- Network
-
Any time you connect 2 or
more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a
computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an
internet.
See Also: internet
, Internet , Intranet
- Newsgroup
-
The name for discussion groups
on USENET.
See Also: USENET
- NIC
-
(Networked Information Center)
-- Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The
most famous of these on the Internet is the InterNIC, which is where
new domain names are registered.
Another definition: NIC also refers to Network Interface Card which
plugs into a computer and
adapts the network interface to the appropriate standard. ISA, PCI,
and PCMCIA cards are all examples of NICs.
- NNTP
-
(Network News Transport Protocol)
-- The protocol used by client and server software to
carry USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IP network.
If you are using any of the more common software such as Netscape,
Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to participate in newsgroups
then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.
See Also: Newsgroup
, TCP/IP , USENET
- Node
-
Any single computer connected
to a network.
See Also: Network
, Internet , internet
-
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- Packet
Switching
-
The method used to move data
around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming
out of a machine is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address
of where it came from and where it is going. This enables chunks of
data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines, and
be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along
the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.
- Password
-
A code used to gain access
to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and
are not simple combinations such as apple6.
See Also: Login
- Plug-in
-
A (usually small) piece of
software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples
are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser and web server.
Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins.
The idea behind plug-ins is that a small piece of software is
loaded into memory by the larger program, adding a new feature, and
that users need only install the few plug-ins that they need, out of
a much larger pool of possibilities. Plug-ins are usually created by
people other than the publishers of the software the plug-in works with.
- POP
-
(Point of Presence, also
Post Office Protocol) -- Two commonly used meanings: Point of Presence
and Post Office Protocol. A Point of Presence usually means a city or
location where a network can be connected to, often with dial up phone
lines. So if an Internet company says they will soon have a POP in Belgrade,
it means that they will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade and/or
a place where leased lines can connect to their network. A second meaning,
Post Office Protocol refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora
gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell
account you almost always get a POP account with it, and it is this
POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail.
See Also: SLIP
, PPP
- Port
-
3 meanings. First and most
generally, a place where information goes into or out of a computer,
or both. E.g. the serial port on a personal computer is where a modem
would be connected.
On the Internet port often refers to a number that is part of a URL,
appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name. Every
service on an Internet server listens on a particular port number
on that server. Most services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers
normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard
ports, in which case the port number must be specified in a URL when
accessing the server, so you might see a URL of the form:
gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/
shows a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard gopher
port is 70).
Finally, port also refers to translating a piece of software to bring
it from one type of computer system to another, e.g. to translate a
Windows program so that is will run on a Macintosh.
See Also: Domain
Name , Server , URL
- Portal
-
Usually used as a marketing
term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first
place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a
catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also
offer email and other service to entice people to use that site as their
main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to the Web.
- Posting
-
A single message entered
into a network communications system.
E.g. A single message posted to a newsgroup or message board.
See Also: Newsgroup
- PPP
-
(Point to Point Protocol)
-- Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular
telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections
and thus be really and truly on the Internet.
See Also: IP
Number , Internet , SLIP
, TCP/IP
- PSTN
-
(Public Switched Telephone
Network) -- The regular old-fashioned telephone system.
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- RFC
-
(Request For Comments) --
The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the
Internet. New standards are proposed and published on line, as
a Request For Comments. The Internet Engineering Task Force is a consensus-building
body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established,
but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC,
e.g. the official standard for e-mail is RFC 822.
- Router
-
A special-purpose computer
(or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more
networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the destination
addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which
route to send them on.
See Also: Network
, Packet Switching
- Security
Certificate
-
A chunk of information (often
stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish
a secure connection.
Security Certificates contain information about who it belongs to, who
it was issued by, a unique serial number or other unique identification,
valid dates, and an encrypted fingerprint that can be used
to verify the contents of the certificate.
In order for an SSL connection to be created both sides must have a
valid Security Certificate.
See Also: Certificate
Authority , SSL
- Server
-
A computer, or a software
package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software
running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece
of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which
the software is running, e.g.Our mail server is down today, thats
why e-mail isnt getting out. A single server machine could have
several different server software packages running on it, thus providing
many different servers to clients on the network.
See Also: Client
, Network
- SLIP
-
(Serial Line Internet Protocol)
-- A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and
a modem to connect a computer as a real Internet site.
SLIP is gradually being replaced by PPP.
See Also: Internet
, PPP
- SMDS
-
(Switched Multimegabit Data
Service) -- A new standard for very high-speed data transfer.
- SMTP
-
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
-- The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet.
SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a
program receiving mail should interact.
Almost all Internet email is sent and received by clients and
servers using SMTP, thus if one wanted to set up an email server
on the Internet one would look for email server software that supports
SMTP.
See Also: Client
, Server
- SNMP
-
(Simple Network Management
Protocol) -- A set of standards for communication with devices connected
to a TCP/IP network. Examples of these devices include routers,
hubs, and switches.
A device is said to be SNMP compatible if it can be monitored
and/or controlled using SNMP messages. SNMP messages are known as PDUs
- Protocol Data Units.
Devices that are SNMP compatible contain SNMP agent software
to receive, send, and act upon SNMP messages.
Software for managing devices via SNMP are available for every kind
of commonly used computer and are often bundled along with the device
they are designed to manage. Some SNMP software is designed to handle
a wide variety of devices.
See Also: Network
, Router
- Spam
(or Spamming)
-
An inappropriate attempt
to use a mailing list, or USENET or other networked communications
facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending
the same message to a large number of people who didnt ask for
it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit which featured
the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also have come from
someones low opinion of the food product with the same name, which
is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources.
See Also: Maillist
, USENET
- SQL
-
(Structured Query Language)
-- A specialized programming language for sending queries to databases.
Most industrial-strength and many smaller database applications can
be addressed using SQL. Each specific application will have its own
version of SQL implementing features unique to that application, but
all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL.
- SSL
-
(Secure Sockets Layer) --
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted,
authenticated communications across the Internet.
SSL used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web
browsers and web servers. URLs that begin
with https indicate that an SSL connection will be used.
SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message
Integrity.
In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security
Certificate, which each sides software sends to the other.
Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its
own and the other sides Certificate, ensuring that only the intended
recipient can de-crypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data
came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message
has not been tampered with.
See Also: Browser
, Server , Security
Certificate , URL
- Sysop
-
(System Operator) -- Anyone
responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network
resource. A System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance
should be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.
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- T-1
-
A leased-line connection
capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum
theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less
than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion
video, for which you need at least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 is
the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet.
See Also: Bandwidth
, Bit , Byte , Ethernet
, T-3
- T-3
-
A leased-line connection
capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second.
See Also: Bandwidth
, Bit , Byte , Ethernet
, T-1
- TCP/IP
-
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) -- This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet.
Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software
is now available for every major kind of computer operating system.
To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.
See Also: IP
Number , Internet , UNIX
- Telnet
-
The command and program used
to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet
command/program gets you to the login: prompt of another host.
- Terabyte
-
1000 gigabytes.
See Also: Byte
, Kilobyte
- Terminal
-
A device that allows you
to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually
means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually
you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software
pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal and allows you to type
commands to a computer somewhere else.
- Terminal
Server
-
A special purpose computer
that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection
to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal
server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections
on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide
PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.
See Also: LAN
, Modem , Host , Node
, PPP , SLIP
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- UDP
-
(User Datagram Protocol)
-- One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP
suite of protocols. UDP is a stateless protocol in that
UDP makes no provision for acknowledgement of packets received.
See Also: TCP/IP
- UNIX
-
A computer operating system
(the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word
processors and spreadsheets). UNIX is designed to be used by many people
at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in.
It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.
- URL
-
(Uniform Resource Locator)
-- The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet
that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this:
http://www.matisse.net/seminars.html
or telnet://well.sf.ca.us
or news:new.newusers.questions
etc.
The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program,
such as Netscape, or Lynx.
See Also: Browser
, WWW
- USENET
-
A world-wide system of discussion
groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines.
Not all USENET machines are on the Internet, maybe half. USENET
is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called
newsgroups.
See Also: Newsgroup
- UUENCODE
-
(Unix to Unix Encoding) --
A method for converting files from Binary to ASCII (text)
so that they can be sent across the Internet via e-mail.
See Also: Binhex
, MIME
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- Veronica
-
(Very Easy Rodent Oriented
Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives) -- Developed at the University
of Nevada, Veronica is a constantly updated database of the names of
almost every menu item on thousands of gopher servers. The Veronica
database can be searched from most major gopher menus.
See Also: Gopher
- VPN
-
(Virtual Private Network)
-- Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are
connected using the public Internet, but the data sent across
the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.
A typical example would
be a company network where there are two offices in different cities.
Using the Internet the two offices mereg their networks into one network,
but encrypt traffic that uses the Internet link.
See Also: Internet,
Network
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- WAIS
-
(Wide Area Information Servers)
-- A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities
of information, and then making those indices searchable across networks
such as the Internet. A prominent feature of WAIS is that the
search results are ranked (scored) according to how relevant the hits
are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last
batch and thus refine the search process.
- WAN
-
(Wide Area Network) -- Any
internet or network that covers an area larger than a
single building or campus.
See Also: Internet
, internet , LAN , Network
- Web
-
See: WWW
- WWW
-
(World Wide Web) -- Frequently
used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two major
meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources
that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS
and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP
servers) which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound
files, etc. to be mixed together.
See Also: Browser
, FTP , Gopher , HTTP
, Internet , Telnet
, URL , WAIS
-
-
- Zone File
-
The master files in a DNS
entry which shows where a site is located on a particular IP address
or server.
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