Internet Terminology
- World-Wide Web (WWW)
- The complete set of documents residing on all Internet servers that use the HTTP protocol, accessible to users via a simple point-and-click system.
- HTML
- A markup language used to structure text and multimedia documents and to set up hypertext links between documents, used extensively on the World Wide Web.
- Hypertext
- A computer-based text retrieval system that enables a user to access particular locations in webpages or other electronic documents by clicking on links within specific webpages or documents.
- Multimedia
- Computer Science. Of or relating to an application that can combine text, graphics, full-motion video, and sound into an integrated package.
- Domain Name System (DNS)
- is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.
- Internet Access Provider
- Internet Service Provider
- Dumb Terminal
- A terminal that has no internal microprocessor and thus no processing power independent of its host computer.
- Wireless Network
- A system that transmits and receives radio signals over the air. The term generally refers to Wi-Fi local area networks (LANs) as well as the optional data services provided by the nationwide cellular carriers (WANs). See Wi-Fi, wireless LAN and cellular generations.
- Modem
- A device for transmitting usually digital data over telephone wires by modulating the data into an audio signal to send it and demodulating an audio signal into data to receive it.
- FTP
- A communications protocol governing the transfer of files from one computer to another over a network.
- NFS
- Software from Novell that implements the NFS distributed file system on NetWare servers. It allows Unix and other NFS client machines to access files on a NetWare server
- Gopher
- A protocol for the storage and retrieval of text on a computer network using a TCP/IP protocol.
- Browser
- a program used to view HTML documents
- E-Mail
- A system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, as between personal computers.
- Applet
- An application that has limited features, requires limited memory resources, and is usually portable between operating systems.
- ASCII
- A standard for assigning numerical values to the set of letters in the Roman alphabet and typographic characters.
- Binary
- A computer program in machine language that can be directly executed by the computer.
- Bit
- the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information that can be stored by a device or other physical system that can normally exist in only two distinct states.
- Byte
- In computer technology, a unit of information made up of bits (often eight bits). The memory capacity of a typical personal computer runs from hundreds of thousands to millions of bytes.
- Client
- A user's computer, which is generally a Windows, Mac or Linux desktop or laptop. The term implies that the client machine is connected to a network. Contrast with server.
- Cookie
- A data file written to a hard drive by some Web sites, contains information the site can use to track such things as passwords, login, registration or identification, user preferences, online shopping cart information, and lists of pages visited.
- Cyberspace
- The electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.
- Domain Name
- A series of alphanumeric strings separated by periods, such as www.hmco.com, that is an address of a computer network connection and that identifies the owner of the address.
- Download
- To transfer (data or programs) from a server or host computer to one's own computer or device.
- DSL Fire Wall
- The primary method for keeping a computer secure from intruders. A firewall allows or blocks traffic into and out of a private network or the user's computer. Firewalls are widely used to give users secure access to the Internet as well as to separate a company's public Web server from its internal network.
- Flame
- To communicate emotionally via e-mail.
- GIF
- (Graphics Interchange Format) A popular bitmapped graphics file format developed by CompuServe. Pronounced "giff" with a hard "g" by most Mac users and "jiff" by PC users, GIFs are widely used on the Web because the format uses its own form of compression.
- Gigabyte
- One billion bytes. Also GB, Gbyte and G-byte
- Hit
- A successful match.
- Homepage
- The first page retrieved when accessing a Web site or the first screen displayed when a PDA or smartphone is started
- Intranet
- An inhouse Web site on the company's local area network (LAN) that serves employees only, and almost every medium to large company has an intranet.
- Internet
- A large network made up of a number of smaller networks.
- Java
- An object-oriented programming language that is platform independent. Developed by Sun, Java is widely used on the Web for both client and server processing
- LAN
- (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used.
- Listserv
- Mailing list management software from L-Soft international, Inc., Landover, MD (www.lsoft.com) that runs on Windows, Mac, OpenVMS, VM (mainframe) and various Unix machines.
- Login
- Signing in and gaining access to a network server, Web server or other computer system.
- Megabyte
- One million bytes, or more precisely 1,048,576 bytes.
- Network
- A system that transmits any combination of voice, video and/or data between users. The network includes the network operating system in the client and server machines, the cables connecting them and all supporting hardware in between such as bridges, routers and switches. In wireless systems, antennas and towers are also part of the network.
- Password
- A secret word or code used to serve as a security measure against unauthorized access to data.
- Plugin
- Software that is installed as an add-on to an application in order to enhance its capability
- Protocol
- The format and procedure that governs the transmitting and receiving of data.
- Search Engine
- Software that searches for data based on some criteria. Although search engines have been around for decades, they were brought to the forefront after the Web exploded onto the scene.
- Spam
- E-mail that is not requested. Also known as "unsolicited commercial e-mail". Spam is mostly used to advertise products and sometimes to broadcast some political or social commentary.
- Trojan Horse
- A program that appears legitimate, but performs some illicit activity when it is run. It may be used to locate password information or make the system more vulnerable to future entry or simply destroy programs or data on the hard disk
- Upload
- To send data from a user's machine to a server
- Virus
- Software used to infect a computer. After the virus code is written, it is buried within an existing program. Once that program is executed, the virus code is activated and attaches copies of itself to other programs in the system. Infected programs copy the virus to other programs.
- Website
- A presence on the World Wide Web. To qualify as a bona fide Web site, it must be available on the Internet around the clock. A Web site is a collection of Web pages, which are documents coded in HTML that are linked to each other and very often to pages on other Web sites.
- Worm
- A destructive program that replicates itself throughout a single computer or across a network, both wired and wireless. It can do damage by sheer reproduction, consuming internal disk and memory resources within a single computer or by exhausting network bandwidth.
