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- 10BaseT
- 10 Megabit per second baseband Ethernet specification
using two pairs of twisted-pair cabling (Category 3, 4 or 5): one pair
for transmitting data and the other for receiving data. 10BaseT has a
distinct limit of approximately 100 meters per segment.
- 100BaseT
- 100 Mebabit per second baseband Fast Ethernet
specification using UTP wiring. Like the 10BaseT technology on which it
is based, 100BaseT sends link pulses over the network segment when no
traffic is present. However, these link pulses contain more information
than those used in 10BaseT.
- A
Record
- An A record is part of the zone file. It is used to
point Internet traffic to an IP address. For example, you can use an "A
record" to designate abc.yourdomain.com to send traffic to your web site
at IP address 209.15.32.135. You can also designate xyz.yourdomain.com
to go to a separate IP address.
- ADN
- (Advanced Digital Network) -- Usually refers to a 56
Kilobit per second 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 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
- Anonymous File Transfer Protocol allows the public to
log into an FTP server with a common login (usually "ftp" or "anonymous"
and any password (usually the person's e-mail address is used as the
password). Anonymous FTP is beneficial for the distribution of large
files to the public, avoiding the need to assign large numbers of login
and password combinations for FTP access. See Also: 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. Landmark packet-switching network established in 1969 by the
US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that
would survive a nuclear war. See Also: Internet
- ATM
- ATM -- Asynchronous Transfer Mode. International
standard for cell relay in which multiple service types (such as voice,
video, or data) are conveyed in fixed-length (53-byte) cells.
Fixed-length cells allow cell processing to occur in hardware, thereby
reducing transit delays. ATM is designed to take advantage of high-speed
transmission media such as E3, SONET, and T3.
- 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, plus parity.
- 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
- The difference between the highest and lowest
frequencies available for network signals. The term is also used to
describe the rated throughput capacity of a given network medium or
protocol. In short, bandwidth is a loose term used to describe the
throughput capacity (measured in Kilobits or Megabits per second) of a
specific circuit.
See Also: Bps , Bit , T-1, OC-3.
- Baud
- Unit of signaling speed equal to the number of
discrete signal elements transmitted per second. Baud is synonymous with
bits per second (bps). 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. See Also: Bandwidth , Bps , Byte , Kilobyte , Megabyte
- BITNET
- (Because It's Time NETwork (or Because It's Their
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
- Client software that is used to look at various kinds
of Internet resources. Examples include Microsoft's Internet Explorer
and Netscape's Navigator.
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.
CGI "scripts" are just scripts which use CGI. CGI is
often confused with Perl, which is a programming language, while CGI is
an interface to the server from a particular program. Perl is an
application of CGI, as well as MIVA, Python, PHP3, and other scripting
languages. 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 referred 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
server. While most programs using CGI are stored in this directory, it
is not a requirement for using CGI. 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 and an FTP program are specific kinds of
clients. See Also: Browser, Server
- Co-Location
- Network Operations Centers offer the ability for
customers to place their webservers and other network equipment in their
NOC which are connected via high speed fiber data lines to the backbone
of the Internet. Administration is done remotely so that a customer far
away can configure and control their network equipment.
- Contact Record
- In the case of many registries, contact information
for technical, billing and administrative purposes are maintained in
their database. It is important to keep your contact records updated to
ensure that billing and renewal can proceed without problems.
- 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. 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.
- DNS: Domain
Naming System
- DNS stands for Domain Name System and is a
distributed, replicated system which allows nameservers to map domain
names to an IP number. DNS is integral to the Internet in that it allows
people to use hostnames (yahoo.com) rather than IP addresses
(138.23.234.12) in web, e-mail, and other Internet protocols.
- Dedicated Server
- For those customers that want the advantages of
co-location without the hassles of purchasing their own server. See
co-location.
- 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:
1001resources.com, ftp.1001resources.com, whatever.1001resources.com 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 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-Commerce
- Electronic Commerce. Refers to the general exchange of
goods and services via the Internet.
- 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 debaters, 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.
- Gigabyte
- 1024 Megabytes 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-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
- Hosting
- This term can be used to refer to the housing of a web
site, email or a domain. See Email hosting and Web Site hosting for more
details.
- 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 many 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
- InterNIC
- InterNIC (now known as Network Solutions) once held an
exclusive contract with the U.S. government to assign domain names
ending with a .com, net, and .org. Since their contract expired, the
U.S. government has opened the monopoly once held by Network Solutions
and now there are many different registrars who can register these
domain names.
- 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
- Kilobyte
- A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024
(210) 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, Listservs originated on
BITNET but they are now
common on the Internet.
See Also: BITNET , E-mail , Maillist
- Local Registry Fees
- Most TLDs require initial registration fees as well as
annual or bi-annual renewal fees. Prices vary from cost-free to
thousands of dollars per domain depending on the TLD chosen as well as
the registration organization choosen. Typical registration fees for
TLDs are from $15 to $35 for 2 years of service.
- 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. A thousand kilobytes. See Also: Byte , Bit , Kilobyte
- MIDI
- Musical Instrument Digital Interface -- A network and
accompanying protocol developed in the 1970's for transmitting various
information between musical and other devices including keyboards,
samplers, lights, controllers, etc.
- 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 QuicktimeÅ 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.
- Modify (Domain Name)
- The database that the TLD registries maintain need to
be accurate in order for name resolution, billing, renewal notices and
public records to be processed correctly. Typically modifications are
required when nameservers need to change or the contacts change email or
postal address or phone number. The procedures for modifying records
will depend on the registry.
- 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
- MX
Record: Mail Exchange
- Mail Exchange record is part of the zone file and is
used to designate which mail server machine should process email for a
specific domain.
- Name
Servers
- A computer that performs the mapping of easily
remembered domain names to IP addresses. Sometimes referred to as a host
server.
- 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 Network Solutions, 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
- OC-3
- Refers to a circuit that transmits 155,000,000 bits
per second.
- 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.
- Parking (Domain Name)
- Registries require the use of name servers or hosts
for every domain registered. Parking is the process by which someone
selects a domain name, and "parks" it by registering the domain name
under someone's name servers. Parking can be done by anyone, to anyone
else who has active name servers. However, parking a domain name alone
will result in no service (webhosting, e-mail) for that particular
domain name.
- 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-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-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
developed by a third party.
- 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. 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 it 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
- Propagation
- The process whereby the nameservers throughout the
world have updated their records for a specific domain. For example, if
you move your domain from one host to another, it will take around 24
hours or so for the new address to broadcast everywhere. During that 24
hour period, the traffic is decreasing at the old location and
increasing at the new location.
- PSTN
- (Public Switched Telephone Network) -- The regular
old-fashioned telephone system.
- Register (Domain Name)
- Since every domain is unique, registries have been set
up to assign domains to individuals and organziations. When a domain is
registered with the appropriate registry, that domain is assigned and
becomes no longer available for anyone else to use. Typically, there are
registration and renewal fees (local registry fees) associated with the
right to use a domain. However, there are some TLDs that are provided at
no charge.
- Registrant (Domain Name)
- The entity, organization or individual that will be
using the domain name.
- Registrar (Domain Name)
- Some registries don't provide the ability for end
users to register domains with them directly. They might require end
users to purchase the domain through an internet provider that is acting
as the registrar.
- Registry (Domain Name)
- An organization responsible for assigning domain names
for the TLD that they manage. Furthermore, it is their responsibility to
update the global DNS tables that all nameservers use to resolve domain
names. For example, InterNIC is the registry for .COM, .NET and .ORG
domain names.
- Renewal (Domain Name)
- Most TLDs need to be renewed at some scheduled yearly
interval. This is an opportunity for both the registrant and the
registry to update their records as well as collect any applicable
renewal fees.
- Resolution (domain Name)
- The conversion of an internet address or domain name
into the corresponding physical location.
- 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 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 '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
- 1024 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
- Top Level
Domain: (TLD)
- A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the uppermost in the
hierarchy of domain names. For example, 1001resources.com is our domain
name. The "net" is considered the TLD and the "1001resources.com" is
considered the second level domain. Together they form a domain name
which is unique. There are two types of TLDs. The most common type is
the Generic or Global TLDs which include .COM, .NET, .ORG, .MIL, .INT
and .EDU. There is a possibility that new gTLDs will be introduced in
the near future. National or ccTLDs are two letter country code domains
that are managed by a registry designated and controlled by each
specific country. Each registry might have differing prices, residency
requirements and structure.
- Trademark
- As it relates to domain names... a word, phrase or
slogan used to identify and distinguish the source of the goods or
services. Trademark law may be different worldwide. If someone registers
a domain name such as microsoft.to then Microsoft would need to go to
the courts in Tonga to fight to get the name back. Expensive
international litigation is one reason why it is important to protect
your trademarks before someone else registers the names.
- Transfer (Domain Name)
- On occasion, domains are sold to another organization
or sometimes the name of a company might change. Most registries require
a letter of permission from the old owner to hand over control to the
new owner. The procedures for Transfer of ownership will depend on the
registry.
- TTFN
- (Ta Ta For Now) -- A shorthand appended to a comment
written in an online forum. See Also: IMHO , BTW
- 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.1001resources.com or
telnet://anywhere.you.want 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
- Whois
- Most registries maintain a database of domain names
and their associated contact information. Users can query these
databases through a program called Whois.
- WWW
- (World Wide Web) -- Two 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 , Telnet , URL , WAIS
- Zone
file
- The group of files that reside on the domain host or
nameserver. The zone file designates a domain, its subdomains and mail
server.
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