| |
A
access—connection to a
network, such as the Internet, to send and receive data
access
provider—a company that allows users to connect to the Internet
(the onramp to the Information Highway).
More and more companies are providing free access to the web, though the
user must be able to tolerate the banner ads which they appear while you
access. Find a provider by using TheList—the
Definitive ISP Buyer's Guide. (See also ISP)
Active X—a
set of Microsoft technologies for delivering interactive content over
the Internet. Available in Internet Explorer, this technology—Microsoft's
response to Sun Microsystem's Java—makes it possible
to view many plug-in applications without first
downloading and installing the required plug-in.
address--a
way of finding people, places and information on the Internet.There are
various types of addresses: email, URL,
Usenet, Gopher and FTP,
and Telnet.
ADSL—Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line, a technology to deliver high-bandwidth
connections to the Internet over regular phone lines.
advanced
file search—see Booleon operators
alias—an alternataive name
or identification of a file or a login name.
Alta Vista—a
search engine
America
Online—the most popular online service.
animated
GIFs—a series of GIF images in one file
which when played in quick succession appear to be animated.
anonymous
FTP—a method to log into an FTP server as an
unregistered user.
applets—mini-applications
that are part of the Java programming language which
are downloaded and executed by a browser.
Archie—an interactive
database of anonymous FTP sites
accessible through Telnet and email.
architechture—the
structure and organization of a computer's hardware or system software;
in design; the way components fit together.
ASCII
(text) files—a file transfer mode
used to transfer files on the Internet. Does not recognize text formatting,
just an international set of character (keystroke) codes.
asynchronous
communication—communication that is delayed over time, e.g. email,
listserv, newsgroup,
bulletin board.
attachment—a document
(file) that is transmitted with an email message,
arriving at the other end as a separate file.
authentication—the
process of verifying identification before allowing a user to log into
a network.
B A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
bandwidth—how much data
can be transmitted over a network on a given period of time; usually measured
in bps (bits per second).
baud—the measure of data
transmission speed per second, e.g. a modem transmitting 33K baud is send
data at 33,000 times a second. Actual speed is determined by how many
bits at a time the modem can transmit.
BBS—Bulletin Board
System, the name given to a message system where information on a topic
is posted electronically so that those with access to it can read, reply
to, and post messages, e.g. Usenet newsgroups.
binary file--a
transfer mode for transferring Internet files, the tranferred file is
identical in appearance to the original document.
Binhex--BInary
HEXidecimal, a method for converting non-text (non-ASCSII) files into
ASCII. Used in email programs that can handle only
ASCII.
bit—a single-digit number,
either a 1 or a 0; represents the small unit of information recognized
by a computer.
bitmap—a
pattern used in forming paint-type graphic images or type characters with
a series of dots, with a certain number of dots per inch.
bookmark—a browser feature
which allows the user to mark favorite pages for easy access; can be organized
hierarchally and customized into a Bookmark List. Microsoft Internet Explorer
refers to this feature as Favorites.
Boolean
operators—Phrases or words such as AND, OR, and NOT that
can be used to refine or limit a search using an Internet search
engine.
browser—a software application
that reads and display HTML documents, and uses a
point-and-click interface for finding information on the Internet. The
two premiere browsers today are Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer. Mosaic was the first, Cello, the second.
bulletin
board—see BBS
C A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
Cable Modem —a
device that allows a computer to connect to a cable television system
and connect to a computer network - cable modems work at speeds approaching
Ethernet connections - probable wide-spread future way to connect to the
Internet.
cache—(pronounced cash)
disk or memory storage of information for rapid access, e.g. broswers
store Web pages—URLs, text, images, sound—on your hard
drive in a cache file so that these items will not have to be rel-downloaded
from a remote server, but can be accessed from the hard drive.
cascading
style sheet—(CCS) a collection of rules that determines how a browser
displays HTML tages, giving control over consistency
in typgraphy and layout of web pages.
case
sensitive—the ability of an application or network to understand
the difference between an upper and lower case keystroke. Passwords and
usernames must be typed precisely (giving attention to the case of each
character) if they are to be accessed by a case sensitive program or network
CGI—see Common
Gateway Interface
chat—see Internet
Relay Chat
chat room—for
group "free-for-all" communications (also see IRC)
channel—a method for organizing
and sending information via the internet, used by ISDN
lines, chat rooms, and Web sites.
client—the user end of
a network or the end that requests data and services. Also see server.
client-server—the
architecture where two computers can talk
to each other, the client is the computer program
that requests data and services; the server, that
processes the requests.
client
software—software installed on the user's end, as opposed to software
installed on the server end of a network connection, e.g. Gopher,
FTP programs, Telnet, Veronica,
Archie, and browsers.
Common
Gateway Interface (CGI)—usually written in PERL (Practical Extraction
and Report Language), a method to send inquiries to serivers which in
turn process information entered by site visitors (usually entered into
forms) and returns information (a confirmation or message)
Communicator—Netscape's
web browser.
compression—a process
by which a file or folder is made smaller, to 1) save disk space, 2) save
backup space, and 3) to speed the transmission of a file when using a
modem or network.
CompuServe—One
of the oldest and largest commercial online services. Sometimes abbreviated
as CIS
computer
virus—see virus
connection—ways of
connecting to the internet: network connection,
online services, SLIP/PPP
connection. See also access.
content update plan—A sschedle that shows who will update what on the website, along with a schedule when things will occur.
content-network
technology—a means to make Web sites more personally relevant and
interactive, by downloading content based on a user's profile. The technology
involves identifying a user (usually by user registration information
or cookies) and then serving information that fit
the interests and preferences of the user. See also push
technology. Examples: Pointcast
Network and My Yahoo.
cookie—a method for keeping
track of information which a visitor enters on a Web site. Information
is written to a special Web-browser file on the visitor's hard disk which
alerts the Web server to the uniqueness of the visitor. This user information
is saved in a browser folder called a cookie file. The server which the
user connects to looks for this file and uses it to find the user's specifications.
Cookies can become a privacy issue since other know who you are and collect
information about your net use, interests and preferences. See www.cookiecentral.com.
copyright—the right
for the creator of any work to control how it is used or dispersed. Once
something is created, it is copyrighted. Copyright is now being extended
to Web pages, page design, and the multimedia that reside on a site. See
the Copyright Website.
CSS—see cascading
style sheet
CU-SeeMe—dekstop
videoconferencing software for the Internet or intranet. See CUseeMe
Networks.
cybercafe—a place, either
real or virtual, where Internet users meet to interact and discuss topics
of interest.
cyberpunk—an underground
subculture with both literary and technological roots. Cyberpunk are to
the 1980s what beatniks were to the 1950s and the hippies were to the
1960s.
cyberspace--the place
were people meet, interact, and exchange information online using the
Internet.
cyberspeak—jargon of
the digeratti or users of the networked world.
See the Cyberspeak Dictionary.
D A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
daemon—A networking
program that performs a housekeeping or maintenance utility function without
being called by the user. A daemon sits in the background and is activated
only when needed, for example, to correct an error from which another
program cannot recover.
database—A data structure
that stores metadata, i.e. data about data. More generally, an organized
collection of information
delayed-response
media—Internet communication tools that require time for an end-user
to respond—e.g. email, listservs,
newsgroups
demographics--statistics
describing an audience: who are the users, what is their income level,
M or F, age, etc.
dial-up
networking—connecting to the Internet using a SLIP
or PPP protocol and a modem..
digeratti—a name first
crafted by staff of Wired magazine for the digital elite—professionals
like computer scienties and artists to filmmakers and musicians—who are
becoming increasingly wealthy through innovative and creative uses of
digital technology.
DNS—the Domain Name
System which identifies each computer as a network node on the Internet
using an internet protocol address system to translate from domain names
to IP numbers and vice-versa.
domain—the group of all
of the local area networks of similar interests and function (education,
commerce, government).
domain name—the
unique name that describes an Internet site.
domain-name
address—the "plain English" address for a computer on the Internet.
See also IP address.
discussion
group (forum)—An online network discussion platform to encourage
and manage online text discussions over a period of time among members
of special interest groups or project teams; also know as a bulletin board,
where messages are posted in threads (categories) and shows a history
of comments.
DOM—(Document
Object Model)—the specificiations that describe how objects (links, text,
graphics, etc.) are organized and represented hierarchically.For example,
in DOM, an HTML page is an object and tags
are properties of that object.
downloading—receiving
a file from another computer over a network. Uploading means transmitting
a file to another computer.
E A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
email—electronic mail
is the most widely used service on the internet, making it possible for
one email address to send and receive messages in the form of an electronic
memo/letter to another email address. These addresses follow the format
username@host.domain.
F A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
FAQ—Frequently Asked
Questions document which answers FAQs about various subjects.
Favorite–Internet
Explorer's expression for bookmark (see bookmark)
FTP (File Transfer
Protocol)—moves a file to a server, much like moving the contents of one
folder to another folder or one directory to another directory.
FTP Client—An application on the client's
machine that will transfer files to and from a server or other computer.
flowchart—a graphic
representation of the pages on a web site, showing how they are linked.
forum— see discussion
group
G A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
GIF (Graphics Interchange
Format)—a popular format for images on the Web; created by CompuServe.
Gopher—Invented
at the University of Minnesota in 1993 just before the Web, gopher was
a widely successful client-server method of making menus of material available
over the Internet. 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, FTP, WWW
GUI–Graphic User Interface,
referring to the console of the operating system which makes it easy for
a user to interact with it, by using menues, buttons, windows and other
on-screen graphic mechanisms.
H A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
home page—the
first page read by a browser when it connects to a web site (usually the
file named index.htm)
HTML—Hyper Text Markup
Language, the text markup language used to insert tags which allow a Web
browser to correctly display a hyper-text document. HTML is a subset of
the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) first invented to display
legal texts and now the world standard for large documentation projects.
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
I A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
Information
Highway—A term used to describe the Internet
(slang).
InterSLIP—by anonymous
FTP@ftp.intercon.com (/pub/sales/directory)
internet—a world-wide
network of computer networks and servers
Internet
Relay Chat—(IRC) text-based conversations via the internet over
a channel—similar to a CB channel.—wherein anyone
who joins the channel can read and respond to the messages of all others
on the channel. This type of communications is also referred to as chatting.
IRC channels are referred to as chat rooms.
intranet--A private network
inside a company or organization, which uses software like that used on
the Internet, but is for internal use only, and is not accessible to the
public. Companies use Intranets to manage projects, provide employee information,
distribute data and information, etc.
IP—Internet Protocol,
a standardized method of transporting information across the Internet
in packets of data. It is often linked to Transmission Control Protocol
(see TCP), which assembles the packets once they have
been delivered to the intended location
IP address—The
numeric address of a computer on the Internet. An IP address is written
as a set of four numbers separated by periods (each number can range from
0 to 255). An example of an IP address is 123.123.4.5.
IRC—Internet Relay
Chat, a method for serving and retrieving connections for real-time conferencing
over computer networks.
Internet
Service Provider—(see ISP)
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
—an organization or commercial enterprise which provides access to the
Internet.
ISDN—Integrated
Services Digital Network, a digital telephone network that allows personal
home computers to connect to remote networks.
J A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
Java—a programming
language in which you write small programs, called applets, which in tern
create complex displays and interactive elements for the Web page. (see
www.javasoft.com)
K
L A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
listserve—An
automated e-mail distribution system. Listservs are commonly used by discussion
groups
login name—The
name the computer system checks against to identify the user (user name
or name of the user's account).
M A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
mailing list—(listserv)
send email to a single address and is then distribution to the entire
list (teacher-to-students; student-to-students) see
listserv
MacPPP-freeware
by anonymous FTP@merit.edu(/pub/ppp/didrectory)
MIME—Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions, an internet protocol for email that enables nontextual
data—such as graphics, audio, video—to be transmitted. Universally used
by web servers to identify the type of files they are sending to web clients.
modem—a
device that modulates and demodulates telephone toned to allow for the
multiplexing of information on the telephone network
MOO (Multi-user dungeon Object
Oriented)—educational chat space, a virtual classroom where message can
be listed, the chalkboard can be written on,, where teacher and students
can "talk" at the same time. Log can keep a record of an entire session.
N A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
Netscape—The
browser Netscape from the company Netscape. The most popular browser for
many years. Today IE has the lead. You can read more about browsers in
our Browser Section.
network—A group of computers
and associated devices connected by communications facilities (both hardware
and software) to share information and peripheral devices, such as printers
and modems.
newsgroup—Collections
of related messages (also called articles) on a particular topic that
are posted to a news server by users, which then distributes them to other
participating servers
O A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
offline browsing—downloading
an entire web site (HTML files,graphics, etc.) and
browsing from your hard drive instead of over the internet connection.
online
services—virtual communiities that prove services to their subscribers
such as electronic mail, discussion
forums, real-time chats, software libraries, stock
quotes, and Internet resources. Examples: America
Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, Delphi, and
Microsoft Network.
P A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
plug-in—A program
module that adds inline functionality to a Web browser (or, in general,
any other program). On the Web, plugins let Web browsers display data
such as VRML scenes, real-time video, or multimedia data inline with the
HTML document.
PPP— Point to Point Protocol,
an Internet standard for electronically connectiong a remote computer
to an IP network - the method slowly replacing SLIP.
push
technology—An Internet technology that sends prearranged information
to users before they actually request it. The user sets up a profile specifying
the type of information that they require.
Q
R
S A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
search
engine—a program that run on a Web server, using CGI, to access
databases of a siteâs contents.
server—a computer
on a network that manages resources and fulfills requests.
shopping cart—a CGI
program that keeps track of items which a visitor has selected to purchase
from a Web site.
site map—an outline of
the contents of a web site, showing how it is organized.
SLIP— Serial Line Interface
Protocol, a service provided by internet access providers (see ISP) which
makes it possible for a PC to dial into a server and communicate with
other computers on the Internet.. See also PPP
T A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
Tag—code used to define content
in an HTML document. Angle brackets are placed around
the tag name.
TCP—Transmission Control
Protocol, the protocol used in conjunction with Internet Protocol ( see
IP) to transmit information over the Internet in the
form of units.
Telnet—an application which
allows to transmit files over the internet using FTP
U A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
URL— Uniform Resource Location
UseNet— the name given
to the computer network which carries newsgroups - newsgroups are arranged
in heirarchies based loosely on subject matter - the USENET is often confused
with the INTERNET in the news media - started by two students at Duke
University.
V A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
virus—self-replicating program
that infects computers and can destroy data
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling
Language)—a programming language which created 3D graphics for advanced
interaction. (see tutorials)—
W A B
C D E F
G H I J
K L M N
O P Q R
S T U V
W X Y Z
web-site mirroring—Duplicating
the data on one drive on the same data path for data redundancy.
In terms of web sites, sites are often mirrored to reduce the traffic
to one server. Also it allows users to choose to connect to the site with
the fewest hops.
WWW (World Wide Web)—the largest
and most popular network of computers on the internet, due largely to
the graphical interface made possible with the use of Web browsers used
to view HTML pages.
Web Designer—the person responsible for the visual and multimedia
content of a web site.
Web Developer—the person responsible for
creating and maintaining the interface betweeen the front and back end
of a web site; most of the time also considered a programmer.
Web Server—a computer that stores web
page files and sends them to browsers when requested.
Web Site—a set of interlinked
HTML pages (and related content) served from a particular
hard drive
XYZ |
