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Glossary of Internet
Terms
Copyright © 1994-98
The URL of this document is: http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html
which is where you can look for the latest, most complete version.
Permission is granted to use this glossary, with credit to Matisse Enzer, for
non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the content is not altered including
the retention of the copyright notice and this statement. Any use by a commercial entity
is "commercial use". you may of course make links to this document without
asking for permission. The licensing fee for reproduction for commercial use is $500 or
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Last update: 11/22/98
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-
-
- 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 subscribers 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. See Also: bit , bps ,
ISDN
- 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
- Archie
- 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 60s and early 70s 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 BBSs 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.
See Also: Bandwidth , Bps , Byte
, Kilobyte , Megabyte
- BITNET
- (Because Its Time NETwork (or Because Its 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 Web Server
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 Browsers 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 users 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.
See Also: Bandwidth , LAN
- 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.
- Fire Wall
- 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
- Flame War
- 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.
- Home Page (or 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-sos 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 Transport 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 60s and early
70s. 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.
- MOO
- (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
- Netiquette
- 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/IP network.
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:
Hot$1-6 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-ins 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
- 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, thats why e-mail isnt 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 Transport 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
- SNMP
- (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 PDUs -
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 didnt 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 someones 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. URLs 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 sides software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends
using information from both its own and the other sides 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
- 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
For more information contact Matisse Enzer
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