Terminology means Technical Definition, here are some terminologies used for the Internet, more
than 120 terminology listed here all in this page, either you scroll down the page until
you reach the terminology you wants, or it would be easier to click certain letter first.
I hope you like this page and make a good use of it, also there will be an updates in the
future, you may visit it regularly.
ADN
(Advanced Digital
Network) -- Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line.
ADSL
(Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line) -- A method for moving data over regular phone lines. An ADSL circuit is
much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the
subscriber’s premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. An
ADSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased
line.
A commonly discussed
configuration of ADSL would allow a subscriber to receive data (download) at speeds of up
to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and to send (upload) data
at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. Thus the “Asymmetric” part of the acronym.
Another commonly
discussed configuration would be symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second in both directions.
In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of
up to 640 kilobits per second.
ADSL is often discussed
as an alternative to ISDN, allowing higher speeds in cases where the connection is
always to the same place.
Anonymous FTP
See: FTP
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.
See Also: HTML , Java
Archive
A tool (software) for
finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name
or a substring of it.
ARPANet
(Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network) -- The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late
60’s and early 70’s by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in
wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.
See Also: Internet
ASCII
(American Standard Code
for Information Interchange) -- This is the de facto world-wide standard for the code
numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters,
numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be
represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.
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.
See Also: Network
BandWidth
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.
See Also: Bps , Bit , T-1
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).
See Also: Bit , Modem
BBS
(Bulletin Board System)
-- A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on
discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being
connected to the computer at the same time. There are many thousands (millions?) of
BBS’s around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1
or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like
CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.
Binhex
(BINary HEXadecimal) --
A method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII. This is needed
because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII.
See Also: ASCII , MIME , UUENCODE
Bit
(Binary DigIT) -- A
single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero. The smallest unit of
computerized data. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.
(Because It’s Time
NETwork (or Because It’s There NETwork)) -- A network of educational sites
separate from the Internet, but e-mail is freely exchanged between BITNET and the
Internet. Listservs®, the most popular form of e-mail discussion groups,
originated on BITNET. BITNET machines are usually mainframes running the VMS operating
system, and the network is probably the only international network that is shrinking.
Bps
(Bits-Per-Second) -- A
measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can
move 28,800 bits per second.
See Also: Bandwidth , Bit
Browser
A Client program
(software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
See Also: Client , URL , WWW ,
Netscape , Mosaic , Home Page (or Homepage)
BTW
(By The Way) -- A
shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.
See Also: IMHO , TTFN
Byte
A set of Bits that
represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more,
depending on how the measurement is being made.
See Also: Bit
Certificate Authority
An issuer of Security
Certificates used in SSL connections.
See Also: Security Certificate , SSL
CGI
(Common Gateway
Interface) -- A set of rules that describe how a WebServer communicates
with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software
(the “CGI program”) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI
program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.
Usually a CGI program
is a small program that takes data from a web server and does something with it, like
putting the content of a form into an e-mail message, or turning the data into a database
query.
You can often see that
a CGI program is being used by seeing “cgi-bin” in a URL, but not always.
See Also: cgi-bin , Web
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 refered 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.
See Also: CGI
Client
A software program that
is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another
computer, often across a great distance. Each Client program is designed to work
with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires
a specific kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.
See Also: Browser , Server
co-location
Most often used to
refer to having a server that belongs to one person or group physically located on
an Internet-connected network that belongs to another person or group.
Usually this is done because the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed
Internet connection and/or they do not want the security risks of having the server on
thier own network.
See Also: Internet , Server ,
Network
Cookie
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.
See Also: Browser , Server
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk was
originally a cultural sub-genre of science fiction taking place in a not-so-distant,
dystopian, over-industrialized society. The term grew out of the work of William Gibson
and Bruce Sterling and has evolved into a cultural label encompassing many different kinds
of human, machine, and punk attitudes. It includes clothing and lifestyle choices as well.
See Also: Cyberspace
Cyberspace
Term originated by
author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer the word Cyberspace is currently
used to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer
networks.
Digerati
The digital version of literati, it
is a reference to a vague cloud of people seen to be knowledgeable, hip, or otherwise
in-the-know in regards to the digital revolution.
Domain Name
The unique name that
identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots.
The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general.
A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only
one machine. For example, the domain names:
matisse.net
mail.matisse.net
workshop.matisse.net
can all refer to the same machine,
but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine.
Usually, all of the
machines on a given Network will have the same thing as the right-hand portion of
their Domain Names (matisse.net in the examples above). It is also
possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is
often done so that a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having
to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle
the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name.
See Also: IP Number
E-Mail
(Electronic Mail) --
Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be
sent automatically to a large number of addresses (Mailing List).
See Also: Listserv® , Maillist
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.
FAQ
(Frequently Asked
Questions) -- FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a
particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and
Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same
question over and over.
FDDI
(Fiber Distributed Data
Interface) -- A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of around
100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as Ethernet, about twice as fast as T-3).
See Also: Bandwidth , Ethernet , T-1
, T-3
Finger
An Internet software
tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give
access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an
account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests,
but many do.
FireWall
A combination of
hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security
purposes.
See Also: Network , LAN
Flame
Originally, flame meant
to carry forth in a passionate manner in the spirit of honorable debate. Flames most often
involved the use of flowery language and flaming well was an art form. More recently flame
has come to refer to any kind of derogatory comment no matter how witless or crude.
See Also: Flame War
FlameWar
When an online discussion
degenerates into a series of personal attacks against the debators, rather than discussion
of their positions. A heated exchange.
See Also: Flame
FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) -- A very
common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login
to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are
many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material
that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these
sites are called anonymous ftp servers.
Gateway
The technical meaning
is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols, for
example Prodigy has a gateway that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail
format and Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe any
mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway to
the Internet.
GIF
(Graphic Interchange Format) -- A
common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of
the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file
would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic
images as well as JPEG.
See Also: JPEG
Gigabyte
1000 or 1024 Megabytes,
depending on who is measuring.
See Also: Byte , Megabyte
Gopher
A widely successful
method of making menus of material available over the Internet. Gopher is a Client
and Server style program, which requires that the user have a Gopher Client
program. 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 , Server , WWW ,
Hypertext
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.
“hits” are
often used as a very rough measure of load on a server, e.g. “Our server has been
getting 300,000 hits per month.” 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.
HomePage
Several meanings.
Originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up.
The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person
or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. “Check out
so-and-so’s new Home Page.”
Another sloppier use of
the term refers to practically any web page as a “homepage,” e.g. “That web
site has 65 homepages and none of them are interesting.”
See Also: Browser , Web
Host
Any computer on a network
that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It
is quite common to have one host machine provide several services, such as WWW and USENET.
See Also: Node , Network
HTML
(HyperText Markup
Language) -- The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World
Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a
block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear, additionally, in HTML you can
specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML
files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web Client Program, such as Netscape
or Mosaic.
See Also: Client , Server , WWW
HTTP
(HyperText Transfer
Protocol) -- The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet.
Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the
other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).
See Also: Client , Server , WWW
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.
IMHO
(In My Humble Opinion)
-- A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the
writer is aware that they are expressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already
under discussion. One of may such shorthands in common use online, especially in
discussion forums.
See Also: TTFN , BTW
Internet
(Upper case I)
The vast collection of inter-connected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols and that
evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60’s and early 70’s. The Internet
now (July 1995) connects roughly 60,000 independent networks into a vast global internet.
See Also: internet
internet
(Lower case i)
Any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet - as in
inter-national or inter-state.
See Also: Internet , Network
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.
Note that an Intranet
may not actually be an internet -- it may simply be a network.
See Also: internet , Internet ,
Network
IP Number
(Internet Protocol
Number) -- Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated
by dots, e.g.
165.113.245.2
Every machine that is
on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is
not really on the Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that
are easier for people to remember.
See Also: Domain Name , Internet ,
TCP/IP
IRC
(Internet Relay Chat)
-- Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers
around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything
that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private
channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.
ISDN
(Integrated Services
Digital Network) -- Basically a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines.
ISDN is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced
very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly
128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited
to 56,000 or 64,000 bits-per-second.
ISP
(Internet Service
Provider) -- An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for
money.
See Also: Internet
JAVA
Java is a
network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically
designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the
Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or
files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can
include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.
We can expect to see a
huge variety of features added to the Web using Java, since you can write a Java program
to do almost anything a regular computer program can do, and then include that Java
program in a Web page.
See Also: Applet
JDK
(Java Development Kit)
-- A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of
tools needed to write, test and debug Java applications and applets
See Also: Applet , Java
JPEG
(Joint Photographic
Experts Group) -- JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format
is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed to line art or
simple logo art.
See Also: GIF
Kilobyte
A thousand bytes.
Actually, usually 1024 (2^10) bytes.
See Also: Byte , Bit
LAN
(Local Area Network) --
A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a
building.
See Also: Ethernet
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.
See Also: T-1 , T-3
Listserv
The most common kind of
maillist, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft international,
Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.
See Also: BITNET , E-mail , Maillist
Login
Noun or a verb. Noun:
The account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret (contrast with Password).
Verb: The act of entering into a
computer system, e.g. Login to the WELL and then go to the GBN conference.
See Also: Password
Maillist
(or Mailing List)
A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address,
whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the
maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can
participate in discussions together.
Megabyte
A million bytes.
Actually, technically, 1024 kilobytes.
See Also: Byte , Bit , Kilobyte
MIME
(Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) -- The standard for attaching non-text files to standard Internet mail
messages. Non-text files include graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor
documents, sound files, etc.
An email program is
said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send and receive files using the MIME standard.
When non-text files are
sent using the MIME standard they are converted (encoded) into text - although the
resulting text is not really readable.
Generally speaking the
MIME standard is a way of specifying both the type of file being sent (e.g. a
Quicktime™ video file), and the method that should be used to turn it back into its
original form.
Besides email software,
the MIME standard is also universally used by Web Servers to identify the files
they are sending to Web Clients, in this way new file formats can be accommodated
simply by updating the Browsers’ list of pairs of MIME-Types and appropriate software
for handling each type.
See Also: Browser , Client , Server
, Binhex , UUENCODE
Mirror
Generally speaking,
“to mirror” is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common
use of the term on the Internet refers to “mirror sites” which are web
sites, or FTP sites that maintain exact copies of material originated at another
location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource.
Another common use of
the term “mirror” refers to an arrangement where information is written to more
than one hard disk simultaneously, so that if one disk fails, the computer keeps on
working without losing anything.
See Also: FTP , Web
Modem
(MOdulator,
DEModulator) -- 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 humans.
MUD
(Mud, Object Oriented)
-- One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments, so far only text-based.
See Also: MUD , MUSE
Mosaic
The first WWW
browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX all with the same
interface. Mosaic really started the popularity of the Web. The source-code to Mosaic has
been licensed by several companies and there are several other pieces of software as good
or better than Mosaic, most notably, Netscape.
See Also: Browser , Client , WWW
MUD
(Multi-User Dungeon or
Dimension) -- A (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely
for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development, or education
purposes and all that lies in between. A significant feature of most MUDs is that users
can create things that stay after they leave and which other users can interact with in
their absence, thus allowing a world to be built gradually and collectively.
See Also: MOO , MUSE
Muse
(Multi-User Simulated
Environment) -- One kind of MUD - usually with little or no violence.
See Also: MOO , MUD
Metiquette
The etiquette on the Internet.
See Also: Internet
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.
See Also: Internet
Netscape
A WWW Browser
and the name of a company. The Netscape (tm) browser was originally based on the Mosaic
program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Netscape has grown in
features rapidly and is widely recognized as the best and most popular web browser.
Netscape corporation also produces web server software.
Netscape provided major
improvements in speed and interface over other browsers, and has also engendered debate by
creating new elements for the HTML language used by Web pages -- but the Netscape
extensions to HTML are not universally supported.
The main author of
Netscape, Mark Andreessen, was hired away from the NCSA by Jim Clark, and they founded a
company called Mosaic Communications and soon changed the name to Netscape Communications
Corporation.
See Also: Browser , Mosaic , Server
, WWW
Network
Any time you connect 2
or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network.
Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an internet.
See Also: internet , Internet ,
Intranet
Newsgroup
The name for discussion
groups on USENET.
See Also: USENET
NIC
(Networked Information
Center) -- Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous
of these on the Internet is the InterNIC, which is where new domain names are registered.
Another definition: NIC also refers
to Network Interface Card which plugs into a computer and
adapts the network interface to the
appropriate standard. ISA, PCI, and PCMCIA cards are all examples of NICs.
NNTP
(Network News Transport
Protocol) -- The protocol used by client and server software to carry USENET
postings back and forth over a TCP/IPnetwork. If you are using any of the
more common software such as Netscape, Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to
participate in newsgroups then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.
See Also: Newsgroup , TCP/IP ,
USENET
Node
Any single computer
connected to a network.
See Also: Network , Internet ,
internet
Packet Switching
The method used to move
data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a
machine is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address of where it came from and
where it is going. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on
the same lines, and be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along
the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.
Password
A code used to gain
access to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not
simple combinations such as virtue7. A good password might be:
See Also: Login
Plug-In
A (usually small) piece
of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins
for the Netscape® browser and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses
plug-ins.
The idea behind
plug-in’s is that a small piece of software is loaded into memory by the larger
program, adding a new feature, and that users need only install the few plug-ins that they
need, out of a much larger pool of possibilities. Plug-ins are usually created by people
other than the publishers of the software the plug-in works with.
POP
(Point of Presence,
also Post Office Protocol) -- Two commonly used meanings: Point of Presence and Post
Office Protocol. A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network can
be connected to, often with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet company says they will
soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means that they will soon have a local phone number in
Belgrade and/or a place where leased lines can connect to their network. A second meaning,
Post Office Protocol refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a
mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell account you almost always get a POP
account with it, and it is this POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to
get your mail.
See Also: SLIP , PPP
Port
3 meanings. First and
most generally, a place where information goes into or out of a computer, or both. E.g.
the serial port on a personal computer is where a modem would be connected.
On the Internet 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/
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.
See Also: Domain Name , Server , URL
Portal
Usually used as a
marketing term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place people
see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites, a
search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other service to entice
people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence
"portal") to the Web.
Posting
A single message
entered into a network communications system.
E.g. A single message
posted to a newsgroup or message board.
See Also: Newsgroup
PPP
(Point to Point
Protocol) -- Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular
telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections and thus be really and
truly on the Internet.
See Also: IP Number , Internet ,
SLIP , TCP/IP
PSTN
(Public Switched
Telephone Network) -- The regular old-fashioned telephone system.
RFC
(Request For Comments)
-- The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the Internet.
New standards are proposed and published on line, as a Request For Comments. The Internet
Engineering Task Force is a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and
eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard
retains the acronym RFC, e.g. the official standard for e-mail is RFC 822.
Router
A special-purpose
computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more networks.
Routers spend all their time looking at the destination addresses of the packets
passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
See Also: Network , Packet Switching
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.
See Also: Certificate Authority ,
SSL
Server
A computer, or a
software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software
running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as
a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g.Our mail
server is down today, that’s why e-mail isn’t getting out. A single server
machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus
providing many different servers to clients on the network.
See Also: Client , Network
SLIP
(Serial Line Internet
Protocol) -- A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem
to connect a computer as a real Internet site. SLIP is gradually being replaced by PPP.
See Also: Internet , PPP
SMDS
(Switched Multimegabit
Data Service) -- A new standard for very high-speed data transfer.
SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) -- The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet.
SMTP consists of a set
of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.
Almost all Internet
email is sent and received by clients and servers using SMTP, thus if one
wanted to set up an email server on the Internet one would look for email server software
that supports SMTP.
See Also: Client , Server
SMMP
(Simple Network
Management Protocol) -- A set of standards for communication with devices connected to a
TCP/IP network. Examples of these devices include routers, hubs, and
switches.
A device is said to be
“SNMP compatible” if it can be monitored and/or controlled using SNMP messages.
SNMP messages are known as “PDU’s” - Protocol Data Units.
Devices that are SNMP
compatible contain SNMP “agent” software to receive, send, and act upon SNMP
messages.
Software for managing
devices via SNMP are available for every kind of commonly used computer and are often
bundled along with the device they are designed to manage. Some SNMP software is designed
to handle a wide variety of devices.
See Also: Network , Router
Spam
(or Spamming)
An inappropriate
attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET or other networked communications
facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to
a large number of people who didn’t ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous
Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also
have come from someone’s low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is
generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam is a registered
trademark of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)
E.g. Mary spammed 50
USENET groups by posting the same message to each.
See Also: Maillist , USENET
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.
SSL
(Secure Sockets Layer)
-- A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated
communications across the Internet.
SSL used mostly (but
not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s
that begin with “https” indicate that an SSL connection will be used.
SSL provides 3
important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity.
In an SSL connection
each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each
side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using
information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only
the intended recipient can de-crypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came
from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered
with.
See Also: Browser , Server ,
Security Certificate , URL
Sysop
(System Operator) --
Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. A
System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should be performed and the
System Operator performs those tasks.
T-1
A leased-line
connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum
theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds.
That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at
least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks
to the Internet.
See Also: Bandwidth , Bit , Byte ,
Ethernet , T-3
T-3
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.
See Also: Bandwidth , Bit , Byte ,
Ethernet , T-1
TCP/IP
(Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) -- This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet.
Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available
for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet,
your computer must have TCP/IP software.
See Also: IP Number , Internet ,
UNIX
Telnet
The command and program
used to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet command/program
gets you to the login: prompt of another host.
Terabyte
1000 gigabytes.
See Also: Byte , Kilobyte
Terminal
A device that allows
you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a
keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal
software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical
terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.
Terminal
Server
A special purpose
computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN
or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of
answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most
terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.
See Also: LAN , Modem , Host , Node
, PPP , SLIP
UDP
(User Datagram
Protocol) -- One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP
suite of protocols. UDP is a “stateless” protocol in that UDP makes no provision
for acknowledgement of packets received.
See Also: TCP/IP
UNIX
A computer operating
system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors
and spreadsheets). UNIX is designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is
multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers
on the Internet.
URL
(Uniform Resource
Locator) -- The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is
part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this:
http://www.matisse.net/seminars.html
or
telnet://well.sf.ca.us
or
news:new.newusers.questions
etc.
The most common way to
use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Lynx.
See Also: Browser , WWW
USENET
A world-wide system of
discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all
USENET machines are on the Internet, maybe half. USENET is completely
decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.
See Also: Newsgroup
UUEncode
(Unix to Unix Encoding)
-- A method for converting files from Binary to ASCII (text) so that they
can be sent across the Internet via e-mail.
See Also: Binhex , MIME
Veronica
(Very Easy Rodent
Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives) -- Developed at the University of
Nevada, Veronica is a constantly updated database of the names of almost every menu item
on thousands of gopher servers. The Veronica database can be searched from most
major gopher menus.
See Also: Gopher
VPN
(Virtual Private
Network) -- Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected
using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so
the entire network is "virtually" private.
A typical example would be a company
network where there are two offices in different cities. Using the Internet the two
offices mereg their networks into one network, but encrypt traffic that uses the Internet
link.
See Also: Internet, Network
WAIS
(Wide Area Information
Servers) -- A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities of
information, and then making those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet.
A prominent feature of WAIS is that the search results are ranked (scored) according to
how relevant the hits are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last
batch and thus refine the search process.
WAN
(Wide Area Network) --
Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or
campus.
See Also: Internet , internet , LAN
, Network
WEB
See: WWW
WWW
(World Wide Web) --
Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two
major meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be
accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools.
Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that
allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.
See Also: Browser , FTP , Gopher ,
HTTP , Internet , Telnet , URL , WAIS
