ADSL -
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. New technology to carry high
speed data over ordinary phone lines. It is up to 70 times as
fast as a 28.8 modem, and can be used concurrently with voice
over the same line. It is gradually being offered to homes commercially
now. It is called "asymmetric" because download speeds
to the subscriber are faster than upload speeds from the subscriber.
adware -
Any software which serves banner ads or pop-up ads to you while
in use. It is sometimes installed in freeware or shareware which
you download from the nets, and provides one more channel for
advertisers to reach you. Some adware will also track your files,
net usage, and software and report it back to advertisers to help
them channel relevant ads to you
bandwidth -
Literally, the frequency width of a transmission channel in Hertz,
kiloHertz, megaHertz, etc. Often used as an expression of the
amount of data that can be sent through a circuit. The greater
the bandwidth, the greater the amount of data that can travel
in a given time period.
broadband -
When the bandwidth of a signal is large, it can simultaneously
carry many channels of information. Fiber optic cable, in particular,
has a very high bandwidth, and is referred to as broadband.
browser -
Software that will load and display a web page. A browser interprets
the HTML or XML code from the web page files, executes embedded
scripts and programs, provides encryption/decryption for security
where needed, displays graphics (except text-only browsers), plays
music and video, and provides links to related pages. Browsers
are purportedly based on standards developed by the World Wide
Web Consortium and recognized by the Internet Engineering Task
Force. The major browser software developers participate in these
organizations, but each of them also builds in their own proprietary
codes, whether or not approved by the organizations. These differences
in browsers create a challenge for web page developers.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) -
Cascading Style Sheets is a technique built into version 4.0 and
later browsers that support styles for pages. For example, you
can set up styles for fonts and page layouts that will apply automatically
to pages developed under a particular style you develop. This
technique is useful, but the present version browsers from Netscape
and Microsoft are quite different in their implementation, and
what works with one is not likely to work for the other. For compatibility,
care has to be taken to use common elements.
CGI -
Common Gateway Interface. A method used by WWW pages to communicate
with programs run on the web server.
content -
Generally, the information provided on a web page, as opposed
to its design and layout. Content can take the form of text, graphics,
audio, video, or a searchable database.
database -
A collection of data records. On web databases, records may consist
of web pages, or graphics, or audio files, or newspaper files,
or books, or movies, or press releases, or almost anything from
very general to very specific areas of interest. Records may or
may not be further broken into fields. Database records are usually
indexed and come with a search interface to find records of interest.
Domain Name System (DNS) -
Domain Name System. DNS servers are located at many strategic
places on the nets to resolve the routing of e-mail and Internet
connections. There are thirteen major, top-level DNS servers,
which are updated daily, and these in turn feed the updated DNS
information to smaller subordinate DNS servers, which hold more
detailed information on their specific areas of coverage. No single
DNS server has all the address information of the Internet, and
successful routing may require routing through several levels
of servers.
domain name -
Domain name addresses, together with IP addresses, are the two
forms of Internet addresses in common use. Domain name addresses
all end with a correct top-level domain. The top-level domains
may be any of these:
•com
•edu
•gov
•int
•mil
•net
•org
a two-letter country code, such as us, uk, or mx.
DSL -
Acronym for Digital Subscriber Line or Digital Subscriber Loop,
often referred to as xDSL. It refers to several new digital technologies
for fast two-way data connections over ordinary telephone lines.
Rockwell announced a new Consumer DSL or CDSL technology in October
1997, which offers speeds up to 1MBps. US West introduced RADSL.
The other technologies offer speeds up to 8 times as fast as that,
but require more complicated installation. Rolloout has been slow,
but it is spreading rapidly now.
Dynamic HTML (DHTML) -
A more powerful model for HTML that allows absolute control of
positioning of elements on a page and more powerful control of
events. It is supported by MSIE 4.0 and partially by Netscape
4.0.
e-mail
Electronic mail. One of the earliest standard Internet protocols
which enables people with different computers and operating systems
to communicate with each other. E-mail allows one-to-one or one-to-many
mailings. Mail is received and held by a mail server within an
organization or by an Internet service provider until the addressee
logs on to collect the mail. The Internet e-mail standards include
no provision for authenticating the sender, which makes it possible
for spammers to use false From addresses and routing.
extranet -
A network that supplements a closed intranet by providing access
to customers, suppliers, subcontractors, and others outside the
organization who have a need for selective information from the
organization. It is not accessible to the Internet at large.
firewall -
Firewall refers to the concept of a security interface or gateway
between a closed system or network and the outside Internet that
blocks or manages communications in and out of the system. The
security may be provided by passwords, authentication techniques,
software, and hardware.
FTP -
File Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that permits you
to transfer files between your system and another system. Support
for it as a command driven language is built into most operating
systems.
GUI -
Graphical User Interface. Pronounced "gooey". An operating
system interace between the user and the computer based on graphics.
GUIs typically use a mouse or other tracking device and icons.
First developed by XEROX as an easier to learn interface than
text-based ones, it was adopted by Apple for the Macintosh, Microsoft
for Windows, and even for unix systems as XWindows.
HTML -
HyperText Markup Language. The coding system used to create WWW
pages. A page written in HTML is a text file that includes tags
in angle brackets that control the fonts and type sizes, insertion
of graphics, layout of tables and frames, paragraphing, calls
to short runnable programs, and hypertext links to other pages.
Files written in HTML generally use an .html or .htm extension.
See the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
http -
HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is the main protocol used on the
World Wide Web that enables linking to other web sites. Addressing
to other web pages begins with "http://" and is followed
by the domain name or IP address
hyperlink -
A link in a web page that brings you to another location or resource
when activated. Hyperlinks usually appear as underlined text and
printed in a contrasting color, but they may also appear as graphics,
such as buttons to click. Hyperlinks may link to another place
in the same page, to a different page, to play an audio or video
file, to download a file, to set up a message to an e-mail address,
to search a database, to read Usenet newsgroups, and to link to
other Internet resources.
Internet -
1. A network of many networks that interconnect worldwide and
use the Internet Protocol (IP).
2. An internet (lower case i) describes more than one local network
interconnected by bridges or routers.
Intranet -
A network of networks that interconnects within a single widespread
organization and uses the Internet Protocol (IP). The sites within
an Intranet are generally closed to the Internet and are accessible
to organization members only.
IP address -
IP addresses, together with domain addresses are the two forms
of Internet addresses in common use. IP addresses consist of four
numbers between 0 and 255, separated by dots.
ISP -
Internet Service Provider.
LAN -
Local Area Network.
link -
An active connection to another web page, location in a web page,
file, or other Internet resource. Selecting the link takes you
to the new location or resource.
meta tag -
In HTML or XML, a tag used in the header of a page to provide
information about the page. There may be multiple meta tags in
a header, each with different information. In current usage, each
tag includes the name of the information and the content that
supports that name. As an example, here is an author meta tag:
<meta name="author" content="Mark Smith">
protocol -
A standard for the exchange of information. Different computers
and operating systems and software are able to communicate with
each other on the Internet, because of the adoption of protocols.
router -
A router connects networks together, controlling the routing of
packets from source to destination and providing alternate paths
when necessary. Routers are more sophisticated than bridges, connecting
networks of different types (for example, star and token ring),
and making logical routing decisions on the basis of available
data. Typically a router hands off packets to another router along
the path until the destination is reached.
search engine -
A utility that will search the Internet, an Intranet, a site,
or a database for terms that you select. Search engines on the
web consist of four elements:
a program that roams the area to be searched, collecting data
records (typically, web pages) and links to more data. These are
variously known as spiders, worms, crawlers, or other colorful
names. Commercial databases, on the other hand, may collect data
records in other ways, such as systematically entering the full
text of newspapers or journals.
a database or collection of records recovered by the spiders or
other type of collector
an index of the database collected to enable fast access to terms
that you search for and their supporting records. Indexes may
be enhanced by controlled vocabularies. See metadata and XML.
A search interface--the form in which you enter your search terms
and the software behind it that queries the index, retrieves matches,
and ranks for relevance and organizes the data for follow-on searches.
shareware -
Software that is offered for free download in hopes that the user
will decide to keep it and pay a fee for it after trying it out.
spyware -
Software planted on your system to capture and reveal information
to someone outside your system. It can do such things as capture
your keystrokes while typing passwords, read and track your e-mail,
record what sites you visit, pass along credit card numbers and
so on. It can be planted by Trojan horses or viruses, installed
as part of freeware or shareware programs you download and run,
installed by an employer to track your computer usage, or even
planted by advertising agencies to assist in feeding you targeted
ads.
SSL -
Secure Sockets Layer. A security protocol developed by Netscape
for commercial transactions on the Internet. Using public-key
cryptography, it provides server authentication, data encryption,
and data integrity. You can recognize its use with URLs beginning
https instead of http.
URL -
Uniform Resource Locator. URLs specify the location of a resource
in the Internet.You can type or paste a URL into the Location
window in your browser and then connect to it. The URL shows the
type of item and its basic address and path. The major types are
http, gopher, ftp, telnet, newsgroups, news articles, and files,
which may be programs, text, graphics, audio, video, etc.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) -
A private network within a public network, usually on the Internet.
Privacy for the virtual network is achieved through encryption
and provides a less expensive option than using dedicated lines.
web site -
One or more connected web pages under a common ownership or management
or theme.
XHTML™ -
eXtensible HyperText Markup Language. HTML re-written as an application
of the XML language.
XML -
Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language. A richer subset of SGML
than HTML. It is a next step in the evolution of web data formats
beyond HTML.
