Glossary

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case 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.

The amount of information that can be sent through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.

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.

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.

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 is a specific kind of client.

Electronic Mail. Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. Email can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses (Mailing List).

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.

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.

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.

A combination of hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security purposes.

File Transfer Protocol. With FTP you can connect to remote servers to upload and download documents, programs and graphics. There are many shareware FTP clients that provide a graphical (drag and drop) user interface. Most operating systems with a TCP/IP stack have a built-in text-mode FTP client which can be used when all else fails for file retrieval.

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 Email format and Internet Email format. Another way to describe gateway is any mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway to the Internet.

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, looser use of the term refers to practically any web page as a "homepage;" e.g., "That website has 65 homepages and none of them are interesting."

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.

Text or icons on web pages that are linked to Email addresses or other websites on the Internet.

HyperText Markup Language. The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like 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.

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).

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.

The Internet is the world’s largest computer network. It is made up of clients (your computer) and servers (everything else you see). The Internet connects thousands, perhaps millions, of computers together.

From all parts of the world. These computers communicate through a set of protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/IP defines the functions and services on the Internet. Some of the services are FTP, WWW, mail, news and IRC (see Glossary for descriptions).

Any time you connect two or more networks together, you have an internet--as in inter-national or inter-state.

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 for internal use only. 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.

Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of four 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.

This is Internet Relay Chat (IRC)."Imagine a vast number of people mingling with one another, perhaps at a large party. You are standing with a group of people who are having several conversations. Whatever you say can be heard by everyone else in your group. You can also eavesdrop on other peoples’s conversations, or just listen. You can also invite someone (or several people) over into a corner for a more private talk. And, if the need arises, you can whisper a private message in someone’s ear."(1)

1. Hahn, Harley & Stout, Rick. "The Internet Complete Reference" 1994

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 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.

Internet Service Provider. An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

Local Area Network. A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.

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.

The most common kind of maillist, Listservs originated on BITNET, but they are now common on the Internet.

Noun: The user 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.

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.

Any time you connect two or more computers together, so that they can share resources, you have a computer network. Connect two or more networks together, and you have an internet.

Internet News is not actual "headline" news stories, but discussion groups based on a topic. Messages with a common theme (usually responses to a previous message) are called a discussion thread. You will need a news client (or news reader) like Microsoft Internet News or Netscape Navigator to access News. There are many shareware news readers available.

Any single computer connected to a network.

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.

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$1-6"

Two commonly used meanings: Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol.

A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network can be connected to, often with dialup 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 Post Office Protocol refers to the way Email 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. It is this POP account that you tell your Email software to use to get your mail.

Three 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/

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 is will run on a Macintosh.

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 on the Internet.

A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between two 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.

A computer or 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 Email 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.

Shareware is software that is free to the public and can be downloaded thoughout the Internet.

 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.

 Sysop

System Operator. Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. A System Operator 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 speed 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.

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.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP 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.

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.

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.matisse.net/seminars.html or

telnet://well.sf.ca.us or news:new.newusers.questions

The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer or Lynx.

A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. About half all USENET machines are on the Internet. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

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

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.