Internet Glossary

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

A

ADSL: a high bandwidth technology for internet connections over a plain old telephone line.

B

Backbone: A high-speed line or series of connections forming a major pathway within a network, which carries data gathered from smaller connections that interconnect with it.

Bandwidth: Measures the amount of information that can be transmitted over a network, normally measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). Simple HTML web pages do not require a large amount of bandwidth, but full-motion video does.

Baud: The baud rate of a modem measures how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second the carrier signal shifts value.

Bps (Bits-Per-Second): A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another.

Browser, web: A computer program that opens and displays web pages. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Netscape are common web browsers.

C

CGI (Common Gateway Interface): The method of passing data back and forth between the web server and the application program is called the common gateway interface (CGI). CGI "scripts" are used for tasks such as submitting forms to a web server.

Co-location: A basic service offered by web hosts for customers who own their own web servers. Co-location includes the rental of space in the data center as well as the connection of the web server to the Internet.

D

Disk space: A measure of hard drive storage, normally measured in megabytes (MB).

Domain name: An individual's or company's unique address (www.hostbasket.com) on the Internet. A domain name is made up of an identifying name followed by a period and a multiple-letter extension such as .com, .org, .net, .edu or a country code such as .be or .co.uk.

E

E-mail (Electronic Mail): Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via the Internet.

E-mail Aliasing: Allows users to have multiple addresses for one POP mailbox.

Ethernet: A common method of networking computers in a LAN (Local Area Network). An Ethernet can handle about 10,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.

F

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): FAQs are web site documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject.

Firewall: A combination of hardware and software located at the gateway server of a network that protects information contained within the network from users outside the network (on the Internet).

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A common method of moving files between two Internet sites for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files.

G

Gateway: A hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color.

Gigabyte: 1,000 or 1,024 megabytes, depending on the method of measurement used.

Graphical Usage Statistics: Creates graphs that depict the amount of traffic to a given site, what documents are being accessed, and who is accessing them.

H

Hit: When 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. For a web browser to display a page that contains three graphics, four "hits" would occur at the server-one for the HTML page and one for each of the three graphics.

Host, web: A company that hosts web sites.

Hosting, dedicated: A web server that is dedicated to hosting the web sites of a single customer.

Hosting, shared: A web server that hosts web sites for multiple customers.

Hosting, web: The storage of a web site and delivery of that web site to the Internet.

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 blocks of text are surrounded with codes that indicate how it should appear. Information is encased in special markers (called tags) that tell the WWW applications how the text is to be interpreted. HTML is a universal language that allows computers with different operating systems to understand one another.

HTML+: This proposed new standard is a superset of HTML, designed to extend the capabilities of the language and incorporate better support for multimedia objects in documents.

Http (HyperText Transfer Protocol): The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires an http client program on one end and an http server program on the other. Http is the most important protocol used on the World Wide web.

Hypertext: Text that contains links to other documents. Words or phrases in the document can be chosen by a reader, which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.

I

Internet: The vast collection of interconnected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols and that grew out of the U.S. Defense Department's ARPANet of the late '60s and early '70s.

Internet Service Provider or ISP: A single computer network, connected to the Internet, that provides access for individual computers to the Internet.

Intranet: A network of linked computers maintained by a company or other organization. Employees can access information specific to their company via the intranet.

IP (Internet Protocol): The protocol that allows computers and networks on the Internet to communicate with one another.

IP Number (Internet Protocol Number): Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots. Every machine on the Internet has an IP number.

J

Java: A network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to computers through the Internet. Using small Java programs (called "applets"), web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, etc.

JavaScript: A programming language used most often in web pages to add features that make web page more interactive. JavaScript was invented by Netscape. JavaScript and Java are two different programming languages.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): A format for transmitting photographic image files.

K

Kilobyte or KByte: 1024 bytes, used quite often to express the size of a file.

L

Leased line: Refers to a phone line that is rented for exclusive, 24-hour, 7-days-a-week use from one location to another. Highest speed data connections require a leased line.

M

Megabyte: A million bytes or, more accurately, 1024 kilobytes.

Microsoft NT: A popular operating system for higher-end computers called workstations as well as web servers and other types of servers.

Modem (MOdulator, DEModulator): A device that connects a computer to a phone line, and allows the computer to talk to other computers through the phone system.

N

Node: Any single computer connected to a network.

NT, Microsoft: A computer operating system by Microsoft Corporation.

O

On-line: an on-line service is a service provided on the internet and on which certain transactions can be executed in real-time, usually without human intervention.

P

Packet Switching: The method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all data from a machine is broken into packets; each packet has the address of where it came from and where it is going. This enables 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.

Personal CGI directory: A feature that allows users to run any CGI script from a directory located inside their home directory, provided the script conforms to the terms and conditions of usage agreement.

POP (Point of Presence, also 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. A second meaning, Post Office Protocol, refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. A POP account means the same as an e-mail account.

Port: That part of a web server that handles requests for particular services (FTP, TELNET, WWW). Each of those has its own port number, where it "listens" for requests.

Portal: Used 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 catalogue of web sites, a search engine, or both. A portal site may also offer e-mail and other service to entice people to use that site as their main point of entry to the web.

PPP (Point to Point Protocol): A protocol that allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections and be on the Internet.

Q

Quality Of Service or Qos: the quality of a certain service such as hosting, taking into account speed, availability, security etc.

R

Redundancy: Refers to protection against system failures. In data centers, for instance, to ensure servers always have power supply, two power supplies are used so that one takes over if the other one fails

Router: A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between two or more networks. Routers look at the destination addresses of the packets of information passing through them and deciding which route to send them to.

S

Search Engine: A computer program that searches the web to find web pages on a given subject. Some well-known search engines are Alta Vista, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek, web Crawler and Yahoo!.

Secure transactions: In e-commerce transactions, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology provides for site authentication and peer-to-peer secure communication. This allows for the safe transmittal and receiving of sensitive information such as credit card numbers or passwords.

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.

Shopping cart: Software that allows customers on an e-commerce web site to select items they wish to purchase and store them in their virtual shopping cart. Customers can view, add or delete items in their shopping cart before making their electronic purchase.

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.

Spam (or Spamming): An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, 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 request it.

T

T-1: A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second.

T-3: A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): 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.

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: 1,000 gigabytes.

Traffic: The amount of data transferred from one computer to another computer per unit of time. Normally measured in megabytes (MB). For billing purposes, traffic is normally quotes in MB per month. Traffic is one of the variables by which most web hosting companies charge their customers.

U

UNIX: Developed at Bell Labs in 1969 as an interactive time-sharing system, UNIX has evolved into a type of freeware. Various versions of UNIX are available from a number of companies.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The standard address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide web (WWW). One uses a URL by entering it into a WWW browser program.

V

Virtual hosting: hosting in between shared and dedicated hosting. Using advanced technology, a user uses a part of a server which is not shared. CPU power and other resources are shared among the virtual hosting customers on the server, each being garantueed a minimum amount.

W

WAN (Wide Area Network): Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.

web Developer: An individual or company that specializes in the development of web sites. web developers handle all the programming aspects of creating a web site such as HTML programming, creating graphics, adding pictures, creating links, etc.

web Publishing Software: Software that allows a user to write HTML and create a web site without having HTML programming experience.

Wizard: Interactive help screens that assist users in installing new software or performing a complex operation such as publishing a web page.

X

XML: eXtensible Markup Language: a general-purpose data structure used to exchange information across the internet. XML document used a structure very familiar to HTML.

Y

Y2K: the year 2000.

Z

Zone file: a file in a nameserver, containing all information related to one domain.

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