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Address: The location of an Internet resource (also called the URL.). An email address may take the form of joeschmoe@somecompany.com. A web address looks something like http://www.centralvirginia.net or http://www.ace-lynchburg.com . ADN: (Advanced Digital Network) -- Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line. Anchor: Either the starting point or destination of a hyperlink. Anonymous FTP: An anonymous FTP site allows Internet users to log in and download files from the computer without having a private userid and password. To login, you typically enter anonymous as the userid and your email address as the password. 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. ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A set of 128 alphanumeric and special control characters. ASCII files are also known as plain text files. Archie: The system used in searching FTP sites for files. AU: (.au) - a common audio file format for UNIX systems. AVI: Audio/Video Interleaved - a common video file format (.avi). Video quality can be very good at smaller resolutions, but files tend to be rather large. 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. Bandwidth: A measurement of the volume of information that can be transmitted over a network at a given time. Think of a network as a water pipe - the higher the bandwidth (the larger the diameter of the pipe), the more data (water) can pass over the network (through the pipe). 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. 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). Binary: The system by which combinations of 0s and 1s are used to represent any type of data stored on a computer. Bitmap File: A common image format (.bmp) defined by a rectangular pattern of pixels. BPS: Bits Per Second - a measurement of the volume of data that a modem is capable of transmitting. Typical modem speeds today are 28.8K bps (14,400 bits per second) and 56K bps. ISDN offers transfer rates of 128K bps. Bookmark: A pointer to a particular Web site. Within browsers, you can bookmark interesting pages so you can return to them easily. Also known as "favorites." Browser: A program run on a client computer for viewing World Wide Web pages. Examples include Netscape, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mosaic. Cache: A region of memory where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access. Pages viewed by a browser are often stored in an Internet cache so that pages will load more quickly on subsequent visits. CGI: Common Gateway Interface - the specification for how an HTTP server should communicate with server gateway applications. 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 referred 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. Chat: A system that allows for online communication between Internet users. See IRC. Client: A program (like a Web browser) that connects to and requests information from a server. Cookies: The collective name for files stored on your hard drive by your Web browser that hold information about your browsing habits, like what sites you have visited, which newsgroups you have read, etc. Many view 'cookies' as an invasion of privacy. 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 Browser’s 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 user’s 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. Compressed: Data files available for download from the Internet are typically compacted in order to save server space and reduce transfer times. Typical file extensions for compressed files include zip (DOS/Windows) and tar (UNIX). Dial-up Connection: A connection to the Internet via phone and modem. Connection types include PPP and SLIP. For Central Virginia Dial-up Services - see Central Virginia Resources Direct Connection: A connection made directly to the Internet - much faster than a dial-up connection. Discussion Group: A particular section within the USENET system typically, though not always, dedicated to a particular subject of interest. Also known as a newsgroup. Domain: The Internet is divided into smaller sets known as domains, including .com (business), .gov (government), .edu (educational) and others. Is Your Domain Name available? Check Here Domain Name: Allows you to reference Internet sites without knowing the true numerical address. Is Your Domain Name available? Check Here Download: The process of copying data file(s) from a remote computer to a local computer. The opposite action is upload where a local file is copied to a server. E-mail: Electronic mail. 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. Eudora: A popular freeware and commercial email management program. Exchange: Microsoft's integrated fax and email program designed for Windows 95. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions - a collection of common questions and answers on a particular subject. For example, see the FAQ for this site. Firewall: A combination of hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security purposes. Click Here to Purchase Award-Winning ZoneAlarm Pro! Flame: An insulting message exchanged via email or within newsgroups. A series of flames are known as "flame wars." FreeWare: Software that is available for download and unlimited use without charge. Compare to "shareware." FTP: File Transfer Protocol - a set of rules for exchanging files between computers via the Internet. Gateway: Computer hardware and software that allow users to connect from one network to another. GIF: Graphics Interchange Format - a common image format. Most images seen on web pages are GIF files. Gigabyte: 1000 or 1024 Megabytes, depending on who is measuring. Gopher: A system allowing users to search for files via menus or directory structures. Uses plain English names and is text based only. Helper Application: A program allowing you to view multimedia files that your web browser cannot handle internally, such as images, audio and video files. The file must be downloaded before it will be displayed/played. Plug-ins allow you to actually view the file over the Internet without downloading first. 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. 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: The first page of a Web Site. Also, the Web site that automatically loads each time you launch your browser. Host: The name of a specific machine within a larger domain. When the term refers to web pages it means the server on which web pages are stored. IPPs "host" web pages and URLs for other companies. To learn more about hosting, see Web Page Hosting. HTML: HyperText Markup Language - a collection of tags typically used in the development of Web pages. HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol - a set of instructions for communication between a server and a World Wide Web client. Hyperlink: A connection between two anchors. Also called a link. Clicking on one anchor will take you to the linked anchor. Can be within the same document/page or two totally different documents. Hypertext: A document that contains links to other documents, commonly seen in Web pages and help files. Information Superhighway/Infobahn: The terms were coined to describe a possible upgrade to the existing Internet through the use of fiber optic and/or coaxial cable to allow for high speed data transmission. Internet: The worldwide network of computers communicating via an agreed upon set of Internet protocol. 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. IPP: Internet Presence Provider - the company which provides web page hosting and web page design. IRC: Internet Relay Chat - the system allowing Internet users to conduct online text based communication with one or more other users. ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network - a system of all digital, high bandwidth telephone lines allowing for the simultaneous delivery of audio, video and data. Data travels at 128K bps. ISP: Internet Service Provider - the company which provides you with a connection to the Internet via either a Dial-up Connection or a Direct Connection. For Central Virginia Dial-up Services - see Central Virginia Resources IP Address: Internet Protocol Address - every computer on the Internet has a unique identifying number, like 142.16.225.2. Java: A programming language, similar to C++, created by Sun Microsystems for developing applets that are capable of running on any computer regardless of the operating system. JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group - a common image format. Most of the images you see embedded into Web pages are GIFs, but sometimes, especially in art or photographic Web sites, you can click on the image to bring up a higher resolution (larger) JPEG version of the same image. JPEG files allow 16 million colors. (GIF files allow only 256 colors for an image.) Killfile: Found within newsreaders, a list of undesirable authors or threads to filter out. Knowbot: A system for finding Internet user's email addresses via their first and last names. Due to the rapid growth in the volume of email users, this system is not perfect. LAN: Local Area Network - a network of computers confined within a small area, such as an office building. 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. Link: Another name for a hyperlink. Listserv: An electronic mailing list typically used by a broad range of discussion groups. When you subscribe to a listserv, you will receive periodic email messages about the topic you have requested. Lurking: The act of reading through mail lists and newsgroups without posting any messages. Considered good "netiquette" to get the feel of the topic before adding your opinion. Mailing List: A list of email addresses to which messages are sent. You can subscribe to a mailing lists typically by sending an email to the contact address with the following in the body of the message: the word subscribe, the name of the list, and your email address. MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface - a high quality audio file format. MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, a protocol for allowing email messages to contain various types of media (text, audio, video, images, etc.). Mirror Site: An Internet site setup as an alternate to a busy site; contains copies of all the files stored at the primary location. Modem: 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 people. MPEG: Motion Picture Experts Group - a video file format offering excellent quality in a relatively small file. Video files found on the Internet are frequently stored in the MPEG format. Full length movies (like Top Gun) are available on CD and are stored in the MPEG format. Multimedia: A combination of media types on a single document, including: text, graphics, animation, audio and video. Nameserver: A computer running a program that converts domain names into appropriate IP addresses and vice versa. NCSA: National Center for Supercomputing Applications - an organization headquartered at the University of Illinois. Researchers here created the Mosaic and HTTPD server programs. Netiquette: Short for Internet etiquette. Companies which want to be respected on the Internet will learn and follow good "netiquette." For example, if they put another company's logo on their page, they will get permission; they will link the logo to the company's website; they will not change the logo; and they will transfer the image to their own server so as not to use the linked company's bandwidth when the page is viewed. 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. Netscape: Netscape provides World Wide Web browsers and servers. Network: A system of connected computers exchanging information with each other. A LAN is a relatively smaller form of a network in comparison to the Internet, a world wide network of computers. Newbie: A new Internet user. If you are reading this definition, you probably are one (or at least were one before you read this). Newsgroup: A particular section within the USENET system typically, though not always, dedicated to a particular subject of interest. Also known as discussion groups. Nothing you say in newsgroups is private, especially your email address. Newsreader: A program designed for organizing the threads received from a mailing list or newsgroup. Online: When you connect to the Internet, you are online. Online Service: Also called "dail-up services," because individual users generally Services such as America Online, Earthlink, CompuServe, Prodigy and the Microsoft Network, which provide content to subscribers and usually connections to the Internet. Online services generally include Web browsing ability. Packet: A chunk of data. The TCP/IP protocol breaks large data files into smaller "packets" for transmission. When the data reaches its destination, the protocol makes sure that all packets have arrived without error. Page: An HTML document, or Web site. PGP: Pretty Good Privacy - an encryption scheme which uses the "public key" approach - messages are encrypted using the publicly available key, but can only be deciphered by the intended recipient via the private key. PING: A program for determining if another computer is presently connected to the Internet. Often used as a verb "to ping." Pixel: Short for picture element - the smallest unit of resolution on a monitor. Commonly used as a unit of measurement. 100 pixels is approximately equal to one inch. PKZIP: A widely available shareware utility allowing users to compress and decompress data files. Helps reduce storage space and transfer times. Plug-In: A small application which extends the built in capabilities of your Web browser. Examples include Macromedia's Shockwave, providing animation, and RealAudio, offering streamed sound files over the Internet. Compared to helpers, the multimedia files do not need to be downloaded before shown or played. POP: Post Office Protocol - a method of storing and returning email. Port: One meaning of this word is a place where information goes into or out of a computer, or both. For example, the serial port on a personal computer is where a modem would be connected. On the Internet, a 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/ which 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. Post: To send a message to a mailing list or newsgroup. PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol - a protocol for converting a dial-up connection to a point-to-point connection over the Internet. Frequently used for accessing the World Wide Web over phone lines. Considered more stable than a SLIP connection. Protocol: An agreed upon set of rules by which computers exchange information. Provider: An Internet Service Provider, or ISP. Queue: A line waiting for something, such as "a printer queue of jobs waiting to print" Also, a list of email messages that will be distributed next time you log onto the Internet. QuickTime: A common video file format created by Apple Computer. Video files found on the Internet are often stored in the QuickTime format - they require a special viewer program for playback. Register: With shareware, when you contact the vendor and pay for the product, you are registering. In return, you will receive either a password to turn off the nag notices or a copy of the full commercial version. You should also register all other purchased programs with the vendor so you can get technical support when you need it. (Also, using copyrighted software that you have not purchased is a violation of Federal law.) Robot: A program that automatically searches the World Wide Web for files. The robot.txt file is the file that tells the search engine spiders which folders in your website NOT to index. For a complete explanation of the robot.txt file, go to www.dwfaq.com/Tutorials/Miscellaneous/robot_txt.asp Search Engine: A tool for searching information on the Internet by topic. Popular engines include Google, MSN and Yahoo. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving the level of Internet traffic coming to a particular web page from the search engines, especially from the unpaid (also called "Natural Listings") listings in those search engines. This is typically done with a mixture of content-related changes to the website itself and "popularity" levels derived from the quality and quantity of websites that link to a particular web page. See Search Engine Optimization companies in this directory. 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. Server: One half of the client-server protocol, runs on a networked computer and responds to requests submitted by the client. Your World Wide Web browser is a client of a World Wide Web server. Shareware: Software that is available on a free limited trial basis. Sometimes this is a fully featured product, other times it lacks some of the features of the commercial version. If you find the product useful, you are expected to register the software, for which in return you will receive the full featured commercial version. It is not good "netiquette" to download shareware and keep it without paying the owner. Signature: A personal tag automatically appended to an email message. May be short, such as the author's name, or quite long, such as a favorite quote. Site: A single or collection of related Web pages. SGML: Standard General Markup Language - a standard for markup languages. HTML is one version of HTML. SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol - a protocol allowing you to use a dial-up connection as an Internet connection. Similar to a PPP connection, though far less stable. SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - a protocol dictating how email messages are exchanged over the Internet. Snail Mail: Paper mail. United States Post Office. SPAM: Sending multiple, sometimes millions, of unwelcome messages to a newsgroup or mailing list to promote a commercial product or Web site. Most ISPs will discontinue the accounts of any users caught sending SPAM. In addition, a new law prohibits the sending of mass, unsolicited emails. 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.
Sub-domain: A web page address within a primary domain that points to a sub-directory within the primary domain. For example, aol.com is a domain. netfind.aol.com is a sub-domain, or subdirectory within the aol.com domain. The reason you can get to aol.com without typing http://www.aol.com (you can type simply http://aol.com) is the "www" is the default sub-domain of the primary domain of aol.com. Sub-domains may be purchased at www.pleasevisit.com . T1: A category of leased telephone line service, allowing transfer rates of 1.5 Mbps (megabytes per second) over the Internet. Too expensive for home users (around $2000 per month), but commonly found in business environments. T3: A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video TAR: Tape ARchive - a compression format commonly used in the transfer and storage of files residing on UNIX computers. TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - this protocol is the foundation of the Internet, an agreed upon set of rules directing computers on how to exchange information with each other. Other Internet protocols, such as FTP, Gopher and HTTP sit on top of TCP/IP. Telnet: A protocol for logging onto remote computers from anywhere on the Internet. Thread: An ongoing message based conversation on a single subject. TIFF: Tag Image File Format - a popular graphic image file format. UNIX: A powerful operating system used on the backbone machines of the Internet. World Wide Web servers frequently run on UNIX. Upload: To copy a file from a local computer connected to the Internet to a remote computer, such as to a server where web page files are stored. Opposite is download. URL: Uniform Resource Locator - the method by which the Internet addresses websites. An example would be "http://www.centralvirginia.net ", the address of the Central Virginia Business Directory. USENET: Short for User's Network. The collection of the thousands of bulletin boards residing on the Internet. Each bulletin board contains discussion groups, or newsgroups, dedicated to a myriad of topics. Messages are posted and responded to by readers either as public or private emails. Veronica: The system used in searching Gopher menus for topics. Viruses: A program transmitted to your computer designed to damage your system or in some way disrupt your operations.
WAIS: Wide Area Information Servers - a system of searchable text databases. WAN: Wide Area Network - a system of connected computers spanning a large geographical area. WAV: Waveform Audio (.wav) - a common audio file format for DOS/Windows computers. WINSOCK: Winsock - a Microsoft Windows DLL file that provides the interface to TCP/IP services, essentially allowing Windows to use Web browsers, FTP programs, and others. WWW: World Wide Web, or simply Web. A subset of the Internet which uses a combination of text, graphics, audio and video (multimedia) to provide information on most every subject imaginable. X-Pixelmap: An uncompressed color image file format (.xpm). X-Bitmap: An uncompressed black and white image file format (.xbm). Yahoo!: A Web directory created by a couple of guys from Stanford who now have more money than the entire state of Arkansas. Rumor has it they own one business suit between them. Their site is constantly updated and provides an easy way of finding almost any Web page. Test it for yourself at www.yahoo.com. ZIP: A compressed file format (.zip). Many files available on the Internet are compressed or zipped in order to reduce storage space and transfer times. To uncompress the file, you need a software utility like WinZip which is readily available to download from the Internet.(see Winzip for Beginners ) |
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