Glossary of Computer & Internet Terms

Browser
A program that allows you to navigate the World Wide Web. Browsers can be either text-based or graphical. Some examples of browsers are Netscape Navigator, HotJava, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

CERN
Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (The European Laboratory for Particle Physics), the site in Geneva where the World Wide Web was created in 1989.

CGI
Common Gateway Interface - an Application Program Interface (API) addressed in the UNIX (operating) system which allows a web server to pass data from an HTML document to a CGI script. This allows various programs to run and return resulting data to the HTML document.

COM port
Serial port on the IBM PC (and compatibles) that can be used to connect a device for data communications (ie. modem port). They are numerically designated, such as COM1 and COM2. Normally a mouse will be on COM1 and your modem on COM2.

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.

CPS
Characters Per Second - a measurment of data transmission speed. Characters usually consist of 8 bits of data plus start and stop bits, thus a character may take 10 data bits (often called a data byte).

Cyberspace
The "area" or space in which computer users travel when "navigating" or surfing around on a network or the Internet.

DNS
Domain Name Service - a data look up table system to match "names" of servers, such as SURFARI.NET, to their numeric IP addresses (207.114.135.2). The tables are maintained at local, regional, and global levels by various organizations.

Download
The process of transferring information from one computer to another. You download a file from another computer to yours. The reverse process (transferring a file from your computer to another) is called uploading.

DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line) -- A method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL 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. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased line.
A commonly discussed configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL: "Asymmetric" Digital Subscriber Line.
Another common configuration is 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.
DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN, being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.

E-Mail
Messages, usually private, that are transmitted electronically from one system to another.

FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions - a listing or text file established for public use that contain questions and answers that are frequently asked by new or inexperienced individuals.

Finger
An application program which will search a server connected to the internet for a specified entity (or user name) and return information that may be stored on that server. Normally the entire search string needs to be supplied such as: Finger jt@surfari.net.

Firewall
Software or hardware settings/techniques that protects your computer from the rest of the internet. Generally it will prevent data from coming into your network that you are not accepting (such as port access requests from unknown hosts).

Frame
A subwindow within the browser window.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol, a reliable method of transferring files over the internet. FTP protocol can be used to transfer files between two machines on which a user has accounts. An anonymous FTP site enables users to retrieve files without actually having accounts on those servers.

Gopher
A hierarchical information-retrieval protocol popular on the Internet before the Web (which uses the http protocol).

Home Page
The top level HTML document in a collection of linked documents. This "page" is the that is normally referenced first, where the other documents may be related to this one. This file is usually called index.html and resides in the users' public_html directory on their internet web server.

HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language - the programming (or formatting) language used to create WWW pages and defines the functions to be performed when one clicks on a button, image, or hypertext link embedded in the page.

HTTP
Hyper Text Transport Protocol - the method by which WWW pages are "linked" together across various internet server computers.

Hyper Text
A technology that allows navigation between and within large documents, regardless of where users are on the Web. Hytertext links can be pointers to sections within the same document, to other documents, or to other resources such as FTP sites, images, or sounds.

Image map
A Web page graphic that the user can click on and be directed to various places depending where in the image he clicked.

Internet
A system that connects computers around the world using a suite of networking protocols, called TCP/IP, into one single/logical network that shares a common addressing scheme. The internet is a cooperative venture; it is not owned by any person or group.

Intranet
Uses the Internet as a backbone of the internal computer network within an organization. With an intranet you could use a Web server to publish information only available to your employees.

IP
Internet Protocol - the communication "protocol" used to connect network server computers across the internet. It provides the framework to transfer data back and forth across the internet. One of the most commonly used version of this is "TCP/IP".

ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network - An all digital telephone system that consists of 2 64 Kbps data channels and one "supervisory" channel. This is often referred to as 2B+D. This connection is capable of sending data up to 128 Kbs (combining the two data channels) and can be wired into homes across existing copper wiring.

JAVA
An object-oriented programming language and environment, similar to C or C++, that was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. It is used to create network-based applications.

JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group - a standard used to compress digital photographic images so the resulting image file takes less space. These image files can be identified with the JPG extension (such as photo.jpg).

Kb
Kilobyte - 1024 bytes, a method of expressing data storage.

Kbps
Kilo Bits Per Second - a measure of data transmission indicating 1024 bits per second.

MAPI
(Mail API) A programming interface that enables an application to send and receive mail over the Microsoft Mail messaging system. Simple MAPI is a subset of MAPI that includes a dozen functions for sending and retrieving mail.

Mb
Megabyte - 1024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 bytes. Another method of expressing data storage.

MOSAIC
A WWW interface program available for Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX X-Windows that provides a graphic multimedia interface for WWW page browsing.

MPEG
Motion Picture Experts Group - a standard for compressing digital video images. This method is starting to become widely used in satellite video distribution. These video files can be identified with the MPG extension (such as video.mpg).

Newsgroups
A collection of electronic messages arranged in groups (often by interest) and distributed to computers across the internet. You can select various groups, read and write messages to each. Often referred to as Usenet Newsgroups.

NNTP
Net News Transfer Protocol - a method to transfer newsgroups from the internet site to another.

Perl
A popular UNIX-based scripting language. Often used in partnership with CGI.

Ping
An application program that can tell you if a particular computer server is presently connected to the internet. You can use this to diagnose connection problems.

Pixel
One dot of light on the computer screen. Common computer screens contain 640 horizontal by 480 vertical pixels. Depending on the video configuration and monitor size, other computers may have screen sizes of 800 by 600 pixels, 1024 by 768 pixels, or even 1200 by 1024 pixels (on a 21" monitor, lest the user go blind).

POP
Point Of Presence - the location of a particular service or internet connection.

POP3
Post Office Protocol - alternative mail protocol used to serve dialup connections to the internet. This system holds your mail until you make a connection and request it.

PPP
Point to Point Protocol - a type of internet communication protocol used for modem connections. A dialup connection, providing IP service, was developed after the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP). The PPP connection has some improvements over the SLIP connection, in terms of compression and error correction.

Protocol
A system of rules and procedures governing communications between two devices. File transfer protocols in your communication program refer to a set of rules governing how error checking will be performed on blocks of data.

Server
A computer dedicated to providing a specific service to other computers. Servers can be connected to any network to provide a variety of functions, such as printing, tranferring files, and providing access to WWW pages.

Shareware
Computer software which users are encouraged to copy and distribute to others. The use and "evaluation" of the software usually has a time period associated with it, when expired the user is expected to either register it with the author or delete it and/or discontinue use.

SLIP
Serial Line Internet Protocol - an implementation of IP over serial ports or modems, usually on a dialup basis.

SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - the most common method for relaying mail electronically across the internet.

Surf
The act of viewing Web pages. Often implies moving from one to another to another via links. Surfing is supposed to make you cool.

Syntax
The grammatical rules of a programming language.

T1
A classification of leased telephone line service offering 23 voice channels and 1 supervisory channel, which can offer up to 1.544 Mbps of digital data transmission service.

Table
An HTML design element that formats and displays data in an on-screen table structure.

Tag
An HTML "code" that defines how a portion of a Web document is to be formatted by the browser for display.

TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - the basic packet protocol used to connect machines to the internet is the IP, whereas the TCP will interact with the IP to provide an application protocol interface. In simpler terms, a family of protocols used to connect local area networks to one another (forming an internet).

Telnet
An application program that allows you to logon to a menued service provided at TCP/IP internet sites. You can log into SURFARI by "telnetting" to SURFARI.NET or 207.114.135.2.

UNIX
A computer operating system; one that the majority of hosts connected to the Internet run. There are several different versions of UNIX available today, fondly referred to as flavors.

Upload
The process of transferring information from one computer to another, specifically from your computer to someone else's (either another user's computer or a server).

URL
Uniform Resource Locator - a system of references to different internet sites, indicating both the site and type of protocol or application program used to reach it (such as ftp, http, gopher, etc).

USENET
Users Network - one of the earliest networks of computers which exchange mail in groups (or conferences) via the internet.

UUCP
Unix to Unix Copy Program - a series of programs and methods used to transfer files and electronic mail by dialup modem. Many Bulletin Boards provide e-mail/newsgroup services by using the UUCP to connect to an Internet provider, and are not actually connected to the internet by IP.

Web Browser
An application that locates a document through a URL, retieves the document, and formats it for display to the user. The Web Browser is usually a client on the remote server or computer system.

Web Site
An individual Web document collection named by a unique URL.

Webmaster
The person responsbile for creating and managing a Web site.

Winsock
A Dynamic Link Library (DLL) program used in Microsoft Windows that will provide a simple program interface to TCP/IP services. When you set up your system for internet access WINSOCK.DLL is an important part of this application. The winsock is installed either by a 3rd party program (such as Trumpet Winsock) or by WIN95 itself.

WWW
World Wide Web - a network of graphical hypertext services linked by the internet. This network offers a graphical representation of data which can also include sounds, text, and video clips.