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A
Address: The location of an Internet resource. An email address may take the form of enquiries@intellisoft.co.uk. A web address looks something like http://www.intellisoft.co.uk.
Applet: A program that can be downloaded over a network and launched on the user's computer.
Anchor: Either the starting point or destination of a hyperlink. The letters at the top of this page are all anchors - clicking one takes you to another part of this page.
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.
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.
B
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).
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 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: A program run on a client computer for viewing World Wide Web pages. Examples include Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape.
C
Cache: A region of memory where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access.
Chat: A system that allows for online communication between Internet users.
Client: A program (like a Web browser) that connects to and requests information from a server.
Cookies: The name for files stored on your hard drive by your Web browser that hold information used by the website.
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 typically compacted in order to save server space and reduce transfer times. A typical file extensions for compressed files is zip (DOS/Windows).
D
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.
Domain Name: Allows you to reference Internet sites without knowing the true numerical address.
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
e-mail: Electronic mail.
F
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions - a collection of common questions and answers on a particular subject.
FreeWare: Software that is available for download and unlimited use without charge.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol - a set of rules for exchanging files between computers via the Internet.
G
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.
Gopher: A system allowing users to search for files via menus or directory structures. Uses plain English names and is text based only.
H
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. 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.
I
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. This highway does not exist - the Internet of today is not an information superhighway.
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.
IP Address: Internet Protocol Address - every computer on the Internet has a unique identifying number, like 81.201.142.5.
Internet: The worldwide network of computers communicating via an agreed upon set of Internet protocol. Odds are that if you are reading this document, you are probably on the Internet right now (just in case you didn't know).
J
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 Photograhic 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.
L
LAN: Local Area Network - a network of computers confined within a small area, such as an office building.
Link: Another name for a hyperlink.
M
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.
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.
N
Nameserver: A computer running a program that converts domain names into appropriate IP addresses and vice versa.
Netiquette: Emily Post meets the Internet. Short for Internet etiquette.
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.
O
Online: When you connect to the Internet, you are online.
Online Service: Services such as America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy and the Microsoft Network which provide content to subscribers and usually connections to the Internet, though sometimes limited. For instance, online services just recently added Web browsing ability. If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, the fees these services charge add up rapidly.
P
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. 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.
Post: To send a message to a mailing list or newsgroup.
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.
Protocol: An agreed upon set of rules by which computers exchange information.
Provider: An Internet Service Provider, or ISP.
Q
Queue: A list of email messages that will be distributed next time you log onto the Internet.
R
Robot: A program that automatically searches the World Wide Web for files.
S
Search Engine: A tool for searching information on the Internet by topic. Popular engines include InfoSeek, Inktomi and Web Crawler.
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 brower 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.
T
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.
U
Upload: To copy a file from a local computer connected to the Internet to a remote computer. Opposite is download.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator - the method by which Internet sites are addressed. An example would be "http://www.intellisoft.co.uk", the address of the this home page.
V
Visit: Synonymous with viewing a World Wide Web site.
W
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.
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.
Z
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 PKZip (DOS) or WinZip (Windows).
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