N

Nameserver:  A computer running a program that converts domain names into appropriate IP addresses and vice versa.

NCSA: (National Center for Supercomputing Applications)  An organization headquartered at the University of Illinois.  Researchers here created the Mosaic and HTTPd server programs.

Netiquette:  Short for Internet etiquette.

Newbie:  A new Internet user.

Newsgroup:  A particular section within the USENET system typically, though not always, dedicated to a particular subject of interest.  Also known as discussion groups.

Newsreader:  A program designed for organizing the threads received from a mailing list or newsgroup.

Netscape:  Netscape dominates the market for World Wide Web browsers and servers.

Network:  A number of interconnected computers that can transfer data from one computer to another.  A LAN is a relatively smaller form of a network in comparison to the Internet, a world wide network of computers.  Also see Ethernet and WAN.

O

Object:  Objects are sophisticated constructs that are utilized to hold and manipulate data.  Objects can facilitate the incorporation of multimedia constructs into Web pages.

Online:  When you connect to the Internet, you are online.

Online Service:  Services such as America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy and the Microsoft Network which provide content to subscribers and usually connections to the Internet, though sometimes limited.  For instance, online services just recently added Web browsing ability. If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, the fees these services charge add up rapidly.

Open Systems Interconnection: (OSI)  A suite of protocols, designed by ISO committees, to be the international standard computer network architecture.  Also see The International Organization for Standardization.

Operating System:  See OS.

OS: (Operating System)  The program that controls a computer's hardware.  A computer's operating systems typically controls the use of the CPU through a scheduler, and memory and peripheral devices through device drivers.  User applications send requests to the operating system to access the computer.

P

Packet:  A chunk of data.  The TCP/IP protocol breaks large data files into smaller "packets" for transmission.  When the data reaches its destination, the protocol makes sure that all packets have arrived without error.

Page:  An HTML document, or Web site.

Perl: (Practical Extraction and Report Language)  It is an interpreted language created by Larry Wall.  Originally based on UNIX systems, it is now available on other platforms, including DOS.  It is a popular choice for the creation of CGI scripts.

PING:  A program for determining if another computer is presently connected to the Internet.

Pixel: (Abbreviation for PICture ELement)  The smallest unit of resolution on a monitor.  Commonly used as a unit of measurement.

Plug-In:  A small application which extends the built in capabilities of your Web browser.  Examples include Macromedia's Shockwave, providing animation, and RealAudio, offering streamed sound files over the Internet.

PKZIP:  A widely available shareware utility allowing users to compress and uncompress data files.  Helps reduce storage space and transfer times.

POP: (Post Office Protocol)  A method of storing and returning e-mail.  There are three versions: POP, POP2 and POP3.  Later versions are not compatible with earlier versions.

Post:  To send a message to a mailing list or newsgroup.

PPP: (Point-to-Point Protocol)  A protocol for converting a dial-up connection to a point-to-point connection over the Internet.  Frequently used for accessing the World Wide Web over phone lines.  Considered more stable than a SLIP connection.

PGP: (Pretty Good Privacy)  An encryption scheme which uses the "public key" approach - messages are encrypted using the publicly available key, but can only be deciphered by the intended recipient via the private key.

Property:  Properties provide additional information about elements, such as a name or instructions on how the element should be displayed.  Attributes are used to add properties to elements.

Protocol:  An agreed upon set of rules by which computers exchange information.  Protocols are developed for each kind of information exchange.  For example, electronic mail uses the SMTP protocol and the Web uses among others, the HTTP protocol.

Provider:  An Internet Service Provider, or ISP.

Q

Queue:  A list of e-mail messages that will be distributed next time you log onto the Internet.

QuickTime:  A common digital audio/video file format created by Apple Computer.  QuickTime files found on the Internet require a QuickTime viewer program for playback.

R

Register:  With shareware, when you contact the vendor and pay for the product, you are registering.  In return, you will receive either a password to turn off the nag notices or a copy of the full commercial version.

RGB: (Red, Green, Blue)  The three basic colors that when combined create all other colors.

Robot:  A program that automatically searches the World Wide Web collecting document titles (including Web page titles) and URLs.  These are then indexed by the robot's accompanying search engine where the info can be accessed.  Robots are also known as spiders.

Router:  In a network, a device that reads network layer packet headers and receives or forwards each packet accordingly.  Routers connect LANs and WANs into internetworks but must be able to process the network packets for specific types of network protocols.  Many routers process various packet types and therefore are termed multiprotocol routers.

Rule:  Style sheets are composed of rules that specify how the elements in a document should be displayed.  A style sheet rule consists of a selector which specifies the elements that are effected by the rule and declaration which specifies how the elements should be displayed.  For example, a rule to display all list items in red would look like this: LI (color:red).

S

Script:  When embedded in an HTML document (Web page), scripts can be written to perform many functions.  For example, they can validate a form's input, create animations, or display alert boxes.  Older browsers cannot interpret scripts.  Also see JavaScript, VBScript and ASP.

Search Engine:  A tool for searching information on the Internet by topic.  Popular engines include InfoSeek, Inktomi and Web Crawler.

Selector:  Selectors in style sheets are pattern matching rules that are used to determine which style rules apply to elements in the document.

Server:  One half of the client-server protocol.  The server is the networked computer that you connect to to access a particular Web page.  The server responds to the request submitted by the client (your computer) and sends the requested page to the client.  Your World Wide Web browser is a client of a World Wide Web server.  Also see http server and IIS.

Server-Side:  Refers to scripting operations that occur on the server before a requested page is sent from the server to the client.

Shareware:  Software that is available on a free limited trial basis.  Sometimes this is a fully featured product, other times it lacks some of the features of the commercial version.  If you find the product useful, you are expected to register the software, for which in return you will receive the full featured commercial version.

Signature:  A personal tag automatically appended to an e-mail message.  May be short, such as the author's name, or quite long, such as a favorite quote.

SGML: (Standard General Markup Language)  A standard for markup languages.  HTML is one version of HTML.

Site:  One or more Web pages found at the same URL.

SLIP: (Serial Line Internet Protocol)  A protocol allowing you to use a dial-up connection as an Internet connection.  Similar to a PPP connection, though far less stable.

SMTP: (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)  A protocol dictating how e-mail messages are exchanged over the Internet.

Snail Mail:  Plain old paper mail.  United States Post Office.

Spider:  Same as a robot.

Subscribe:  To become of a member, such as to a mailing list, a newsgroup, an online service or an Internet Service.

SPAM:  Sending multiple, sometimes thousands, of unwelcome messages to a newsgroup or mailing list to promote a commercial product or Web site.

Style Sheet:  Style sheets provide a method for the control of visual presentation of an HTML document (Web page).  Style sheets can be embedded in an HTML document either in the head or as an attribute of an HTML element, or can be stored in a seperate document with the suffix of "CSS."  Older browser versions will not understand style sheets.  Also see Cascading Style Sheets.

T

T-1:  A category of leased telephone line service, allowing transfer rates of 1.5 Mbps (megabytes per second) over the Internet.  T-1 utilizes 24 voice circuits and can be divided into 12 ISDN lines.  Too expensive for home users (around $2000 per month), but commonly found in business environments.

T-2:  A high speed telephone line configuration capable of carrying 6.312 Mbps.  T-2 utilizes 96 voice circuits.

T-3:  A high speed telephone line configuration capable of carrying 44.736 Mbps.  T-3 utilizes 672 voice circuits.

T-4:  A high speed telephone line configuration capable of carrying 274.176 Mbps.  T-4 utilizes 4032 voice circuits.

TAR: (Tape ARchive)  A compression format commonly used in the transfer and storage of files residing on UNIX computers.

Tag:  Tags are embedded within markup language documents to specify document format.  Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is utilized in the basic construction of Web page documents.  The opening tag of an HTML document is <HTML> and the closing tag is </HTML>.

TCP/IP: (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)  This protocol is the foundation of the Internet, an agreed upon set of rules directing computers on how to exchange information with each other.  Other Internet protocols, such as FTP, Gopher and HTTP sit on top of TCP/IP.

Telnet:  A protocol for logging onto remote computers from anywhere on the Internet.

Thread:  An ongoing message based conversation on a single subject.

TIFF: (Tag Image File Format)  A popular graphic image file format.

Trolling:  Deliberately posting false information in order to elicit responses from people who really want to help.

U

UNIX:  A powerful operating system used on the backbone machines of the Internet.  World Wide Web servers frequently run on UNIX.

Upload:  To copy a file from a local computer connected to the Internet to a remote computer.  Opposite is download.

URL: (Uniform Resource Locator)  The method by which Internet sites are addressed.  An example would be http://www.halice.com/home, the address of the home page of this site.

USENET: (USEr's NETwork)  The collection of the thousands of bulletin boards residing on the Internet.  Each bulletin board contains discussion groups, or newsgroups, dedicated to a myriad of topics.  Messages are posted and responded to by readers either as public or private e-mails.

UUEncode: (Unix-to-Unix Encoding)  A popular method of converting files from binary to ASCII format so they can be transmitted over the Internet.  Also see binary file.

V

Validator:  A program that reviews an HTML document for errors.  Validators typically use the document type identifier to determine which set of HTML rules to check the document against.

VBScript:  Developed by Microsoft, VBScript was introduced in the browser Internet Explorer version 3.  VBScript is supported in the browser Netscape Navigator through a plug-in.

Veronica:  The system used in searching Gopher menus for topics.

Viewer:  An application (program) for displaying data in a specific format. For example, a GIF viewer is used to display GIF images.

Visit:  Synonymous with viewing a World Wide Web site.

W

W3C:  See World Wide Web Consortium.

WAIS: (Wide Area Information Servers)  A system of searchable text databases.

WAN: (Wide Area Network)  A system of connected computers spanning a large geographical area.

WAV: (Waveform Audio)  A common audio file format for DOS/Windows computers which utilizes the (.wav) suffix.

Web:  See WWW.

Web Server:  See http server.

WINSOCK:  A Microsoft Windows DLL file that provides the interface to TCP/IP services, essentially allowing Windows to use Web browsers, FTP programs, and others.

World Wide Web:  See WWW.

World Wide Web Consortium: (W3C)  An international industry consortium whose mission is to develop common protocols to support the evolution of the World Wide Web.  HTML versions 3.2 and 4.0 were developed by the W3C.

WWW: (World Wide Web)  Or simply the "Web."  A subset of the Internet which uses a combination of text, graphics, audio and video (multimedia) to provide information on most every subject imaginable.

X

X-Pixelmap:  An uncompressed color image file format utilizing the suffix (.xpm).

X-Bitmap:  An uncompressed black and white image file format utilizing the suffix (.xbm).

XML: (Extensible Markup Language)  Heralded as the successor to HTML.

Y

Yahoo:  A popular search engine/directory on the Web, whose URL is http://www.yahoo.com.

Z

ZIP:  A file compression program.  Many files available on the Internet are compressed or zipped in order to reduce storage space and transfer time.  To decompress a zipped file, you need a utility program such as PKZip for DOS or WinZip for Windows.

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