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Address: The
location of an Internet resource. An email
address may take the form of yourname@domain.com
A web address looks something like http://www.axiominfo.com
Applet: A
small program that can be downloaded and
launched on a user's computer.
Anchor: The
starting point or destination of a hyperlink.
ASCII: American
Standard Code for Information Interchange.
ASCII files are also known as plain text
files.
AVI: Audio
Video Interleaved - A Windows multimedia
video format from Microsoft.
Bandwidth: Internet
bandwidth is the transmission speed or
throughput of your connection to the Internet.
However, measuring bandwidth can be tricky,
since the lowest bandwidth point between
your computer and the site you're looking
at determines the effective transmission
speed at any moment.
Binary: The
system by which combinations of zeroes and
ones are used to represent any type of data
stored on a computer.
Bitmap
File: A common image
format (.bmp) that maps an image pixel,
bit by bit.
BPS: Bits
Per Second - a measurement of the volume
of data that a modem is capable of transmitting.
Typical modem speeds today are 56K bps (57,000
bits per second). ADSL offers transfer rates
of 512K bps and beyond.
Bookmark: A
pointer to a particular Web site. Within
browsers, you can bookmark interesting pages
so you can return to them easily.
Browser: Browsers
are software programs on the users' systems
that enable you to view World Wide Web documents.
Examples include Microsoft's Internet Explorer,
Netscape and Mosaic.
Cache: An
area of memory or hard disk where frequently
accessed data can be stored for rapid access.
CGI: "Common
Gateway Interface," the most common way
Web programs interact dynamically with
users. CGI processes the data once it's
submitted by the user, sends it to Java,
JavaScript or some other programming language,
and then formats the response into a display
using HTML.
Chat: A
feature of the internet that allows users
to "talk" to one another in virtual real
time. Users communicate by typing messages
which are sent instantly to another person
or group within the chat group. The same
has been extended to use voice chat.
Client: A
program (like a Internet Explorer or Netscape)
that connects to and requests information
from a server.
Client-Server
Protocol: A
communication protocol between networked
computers in which the services of one
computer (the server) are requested by
the other (the client).
Compressed: Data
files available for download from the Internet
are usually compressed in order to save
server space and reduce transfer times.
Cookies: The
files stored on your hard drive by your
Web browser that hold information used
by the website.
Dial-up
Connection: A
connection to the Internet via phone
and modem.
Direct
Connection: A
connection made directly to the Internet
- much faster than a dial-up connection.
Domain: The
Internet is divided into smaller sets known
as domains, including .com (business),
.gov (government), .edu (educational) and
others.
DNS: An
acronym for Domain Name Server, DNS refers
to a database of Internet names and addresses
which translates the names to the official
Internet Protocol numbers and vice versa.
Download: The
process of copying data file(s) from a
remote computer to a local computer. The
opposite action is upload here a local
file is copied to a server.
E-mail: Electronic
mail. A system of exchanging messages by
means of computers attached to a network,
or the internet.
FAQ: Frequently
Asked Questions - a collection of common
questions and answers on a particular subject.
Freeware: Software
that is available for unlimited use without
charge.
Firewall: This
term refers to security measures designed
to protect a networked system from unauthorized
or unwelcome access.
FTP: File
Transfer Protocol is a set of rules that
allows the transfer of files from one computer
to another.
Gateway: Computer
hardware and software that allow users to
connect from one network to another.
GIF: This
acronym stands for Graphic Interchange Format,
a commonly used file compression format developed
by CompuServe for transferring graphics files
to and from online services.
Gopher: A
system allowing users to search for files
via menus or directory structures. Uses plain
English names and is text based only.
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.
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. Clicking
on one anchor will take you to the linked
anchor. The link can be within the same document
or totally different documents.
Hypertext: A
document that contains links to other documents,
commonly seen in Web pages and help files.
IP
Address: Internet
Protocol Address - every computer on
the Internet has a unique identifying
number, like 201.202.65.5.
IRC: Internet
Relay Chat - the system allowing Internet
users to communicate online via 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.
Internet: The
worldwide network of computers communicating
via an agreed upon set of Internet protocol.
Java: A
programming language, 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 compressed
image format. Most of the images you see
embedded in Web pages are GIFs or JPEG Images.
LAN: Local
Area Network - a network of computers confined
within a small area, such as an office building.
Link: A
hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference
in a hypertext document to another document
or other resource. Clicking on the link will
take you to the target document or site.
Mailing
List: A list of
email addresses to which messages are sent.
You can subscribe to a mailing list 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.
Mirror
Site: An Internet site
setup as an alternate to a busy site;
contains copies of all the files stored
at the primary location.
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.
Multimedia: A
combination of media types on a single document,
including: text, graphics, animation, audio
and video.
Netiquette: Short
for Internet etiquette – An informal
group of rules and ways of behaving on the
Internet. Example: sending spam, unwanted
E-mail, is bad netiquette.
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.
Online: Your
computer is online when it performs an operation
and is connected to other computers. You
are probably inline right now.
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.
Pixel: Short
for picture element - the smallest unit of
resolution on a monitor. Commonly used as
a unit of measurement.
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.
PNG: Portable
Network Graphics- a graphics format specifically
designed for use on the World Wide Web. PNG
enable compression of images, yet retaining
the quality of images.
POP: Post
Office Protocol - a method of storing and
returning email.
Post: To
send a message to a mailing list or newsgroup.
Protocol: A
set of standards that define how traffic
and communications are handled by a computer
or network routers.
Queue: 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.
Robot: A
program that automatically searches the World
Wide Web for files.
Script: A
script is a type of programming language
that can be used to fetch and display Web
pages. There are may kinds and uses of scripts
on the Web.
Search
Engine: A tool for searching
information on the Internet by topic.
Popular engines include Google, Yahoo,
Info Seek.
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.
Site: A
single or collection of related Web pages.
SMTP: Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol - a protocol dictating
how email messages are exchanged over the
Internet.
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.
TIFF: Tag
Image File Format - a popular graphic image
file format.
TELNET: Internet
service allowing one computer to log onto
another, connecting as if not remote.
Upload: Transferring
data (usually a file) from the computer
you are using to another computer- the opposite
of download.
URL: Uniform
Resource Locator - The unique address of
any Web document. An example would be "http://www.axiominfo.com",
the address you typed it the browser to get
to this site.
USENET: Bulletin
board-like network featuring thousands of "newsgroups."
WAN: Wide
Area Network - a system of connected computers
spanning a large geographical area.
WAV: Waveform
Audio (.wav) - a common audio file format.
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.
XHTML: A
variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext
Markup Language is a hybrid between HTML
and XML that is more universally acceptable
in Web pages and search engines than XML.
XML: Extensible
Markup Language, a dilution for Web page
use of SGML (Standard General Markup Language),
which is not readily viewable in ordinary
browsers and is difficult to apply to Web
pages. XML is very useful (among other things)
for pages emerging from databases and other
applications where parts of the page are
standardized and must reappear many times.
See XHTML.
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 utility like WinZip (Windows).
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