ADN -- (Advanced Digital Network)

Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line.

ADSL -- (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)

A DSL line where the upload speed is different from the download speed. usually the
download speed is much greater.

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 common rule is that
an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was
sent.

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. By 1999 Archie had been almost completely replaced by
web-based search engines. back when FTP was the main way people moved files over the
Internet Archie was quite popular.

ARPANet -- (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)

The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60's and early 70's by the US
Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking to connect together
computers that were each running different system so that people at one location could use
computing resources from another location.

ASCII -- (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

This is the defector 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. 

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.

Bandwidth
How much stuff you can send 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 57,000 bits in
one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-
second, depending on compression.

Baud
In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bitsit 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).

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. In the early 1990's there were 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 AOL gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.

Binary
Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used to refer to files that
are not simply text files, e.g. images.

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.

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. Bandwidthis usually measured in bits-per-second.

BITNET -- (Because It's Time NETwork (or Because It's There NETwork))
A network of educational sites separate from the Internet, but e-mail is freely exchanged
between BITNET and the Internet. Listservs®, a 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 56K modem can
move about 57,000 bits per second.

Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

BTW -- (By The Way)

A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.

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.

CATP -- (Caffeine Access Transport Protocol)

Common method of moving caffeine across Wide Area Networks such as the Internet
CATP was first used at the Binary Cafe in Cybertown and quickly spread world-wide.
There are reported problems with short-circuits and rust and decaffinated beverages were
not supprted until version 1.5.3
Certificate Authority
An issuer of Security Certificates used in SSL connections.

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.

cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGIprograms are stored.

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. EachClient 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.

co-location
Most often used to refer to having a server that belongs to one person or group physically
located on an Internet-connected network that belongs to another person or group. Usually
this is done because the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed Internet
connection and/or they do not want the security risks of having the server on their own
network.

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 Browsers' 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 users' 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.

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.

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 regardsto 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:

softwaretipsandtricks.com
vistaarticles.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 (matisse.net 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.

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 (howeverr a DSL circuit is not a leased line.
A common 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.

Email -- (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.

Ethernet
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN.
There is more than one type of Ethernet. By 2001 the standard type was "100-BaseT" which
can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind
of computer.

Extranet
An intranet that is accesible to computers that are not hysically part of a companys' own
private network, but that is not accessible to the general public, for example to allow
vendors and business partners to access a company web site.
Often an intranet will make use of a Virtual Private Network. (VPN.)

FAQ -- (Frequently Asked Questions)

FAQs are documents that list and answerthe 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 10-BaseTEthernet, about twice as fast as 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 Network into two or more parts
for security purposes.

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.

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.

FTP -- (File Transfer Protocol)

A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites.
FTP is a 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".
FTP was invented and in wide use long before the advent of the World Wide Web and
originally was always used from a text-only interface.

Gateway
The technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two
dissimilar protocols, for example America Online 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.

GIF -- (Graphic Interchange Format)

A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of
the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file would
be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as
JPEG.

Gigabyte
1000 or 1024 Megabytes, depending on who is measuring.

Gopher
Invented at the University of Minnesota in 1993 just before the Web, gopher was a widely
successful method of making menus of material available over the Internet.
Gopher was designed to be much easier to use than FTP, while still using a text-only
interface.
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.

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.

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.

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
SMTP (email) and HTTP (web).

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.
The "hyper" in Hypertext comes from the fact that in HTML you can specify that a block of
text, or an image, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be
viewed using a "Web Browser".
HTML is loosely based on a more comprehensive system for markup called SGML.

HTTP -- (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

The protocol for moving hypertextfiles 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).

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.

IMAP -- (Internet Message Access Protocol)

IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by email clients in
communicating with email servers.
Using IMAP an email client program can not only retrieve email but can also manipulate
message stored on the server, without having to actually retrieve the messages. So
messages can be deleted, have their status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed,
etc. IMAP is defined in RFC 2060

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 areexpressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already
under discussion. One of many such shorthands in common use online, especially in
discussion forums.

internet (Lower case i)

Any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet - as in inter-
national or inter-state.

Internet (Upper case I)

The vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP
protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's.
The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet
and is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world.

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. Compare with
extranet.

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. Many machines (especially servers) also have
one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

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 dataover existing regular phone lines. ISDN is 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 56,000or 64,000 bits-per-second.
Unlike DSL, ISDN can be used to connect to many different locations, one at a time, just
like a regular telephone call, as long the other location also has ISDN.

ISP -- (Internet Service Provider)

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

Java
Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.
Java is often used to build large, complex systems that involve several different computers
interacting across networks, for example transaction processing systems.
Java is also becoming popular for creating programs that run in small electronic devices,
such as mobile telephones.
A very common use of Java is to create 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.

JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add
features that make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is included in an HTML
file it relies upon the browser to interpret the JavaScript. When JavaScript is combined with
Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often
called DHTML.

JDK -- (Java Development Kit)

A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of
tools needed to write, test and debugJava applications and applets
See also: Applet, Java

JPEG -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format is preferred to
the GIF format for photographic images as opposed to line art or simple logo art.

Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024 (210) bytes.

LAN -- (Local Area Network)

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

Leased Line
Refers to line such as a telephone line or fiber-optic cable 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.

Listserv ®
The most common kind of maillist, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft
international, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.

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 connecting to a computer system by giving your credentials (usually your
"username" and "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. Actually, technically, 1024 kilobytes.
MIME -- (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Originally a standard for defining the types of files attached to standard Internet mail
messages. The MIME standard has come to be used in many situations where one cmputer
programs needs to communicate with another program about what kind of file is being sent.

For example, HTML files have a MIME-type of text/html, JPEG files are image/jpeg, etc.

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 copies of material originated at another location, usually in order
to provide more widespread access to the resource. For example, one site might create a
library of software, and 5 other sites might maintain mirrors of that library.

Modem -- (MOdulator, DEModulator)

A device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a computer. A modem
allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems
do for computers what a telephone does for humans.

MOO -- (Mud, Object Oriented)

One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments.

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
was licensed by several companies and used to create many other web browsers.
Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at
the Univeristy of Urbana-Champange in Illinois, USA. The first version was released in late
1993.

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
thatlies 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 within their absence, thus allowing
a world to be built gradually and collectively.

MUSE -- (Multi-User Simulated Environment)

One kind of MUD - usually with little or no violence.

Netiquette
The etiquette on the 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.
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).

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.

Newsgroup
The name for discussion groups on USENET.

NIC -- (Network Information Center)

Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous of these on
the Internet was the InterNIC, which was where most new domain names were registered
until that process was decentralized to a number of private companies.

NNTP -- (Network News Transport Protocol)

The protocol used by clientand 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: Client, Server, TCP/IP

Node
Any single computer connected to a network.

Open Source Software

Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming code is available
to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the
software incorporating their changes. There are many types of Open Source Software,
mainly differing in the licensing term under which (altered) copies of the source code may
(or must be) redistributed.

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 along different routes by special
machines along the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.
You might think of several caravans of trucks all using the same road system. to carry
materials.

Password
A code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and
non-letters and are not simple combinations such as virtue7. A good password might be:
5%df(29)
But don't use that one!

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.

POP -- (Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol)

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 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 a way that e-mail client software such as
Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain an account from an Internet Service
Provider (ISP) 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. Another protocol called IMAP is
replacing POP for email.

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/
This 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 is will run on a
Macintosh.

Portal
Usually used as a marketing term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the
first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web
sites, a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other service to entice
people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to the Web.

Posting
A single message entered into a network communications system.

PPP -- (Point to Point Protocol)

The most common protocol used to connect home computers to the Internet over regular
phone lines.
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.

Proxy Server
A Proxy Server sits in between a Client and the "real" Server that a Client is trying to use.
Client's are sometimes configured to use a Proxy Server, usually an HTTP server. The clients
makes all of it's requests from the Proxy Server, which then makes requests from the "real"
server and passes the result back to the Client. Sometimes the Proxy server will store the
results and give a stored result instead of making a new one (to reduce use of a Network).
Proxy servers are commonly established on Local Area Networks.

PSTN -- (Public Switched Telephone Network)

The regular old-fashioned telephone system.

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 the Internet, as a Request For Comments. The
proposal is reviewed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/), 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 message formats is RFC 822.

Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2
or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and
destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to
send them on.
See also: Network, Packet Switching

SDSL -- (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line)

A version of DSL where the upload speeds and download speeds are the same.

Search Engine
A (usually web-based) system for searching the information available on the Web.
Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents of other systems and
creating a database of the results. other search engines contains only material manually
approved for inclusion in a database, and some combine the two approaches.

Security Certificate
A chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to
establish a secure connection.

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 can (and often does) have several different server software
packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the 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 realInternet site. SLIP has largely been replaced by PPP.

SMDS -- (Switched Multimegabit Data Service)

A standard for very high-speed data transfer.

SMTP -- (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

The main protocol used to send electronic mail from server to server on the Internet.
SMTP is defined in RFC 821 and modified by many later RFC's

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.
SNMP is defined in RFC 1089

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.)

SQL -- (Structured Query Language)

A specialized 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 slightly different version of SQL implementing features unique to that
application, but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL.
A example of an SQl statement is:
SELECT name,email FROM people_table WHERE contry='uk'

SSL -- (Secure Socket Layer)

A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated
communications across the Internet.

Sysop -- (System Operator)

Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource.
For example, a System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should
be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.

T
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 lines are commonly used to connect large LANs to the
Internet.

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.

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 included with every major kind of computer
operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

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
1000 gigabytes.

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 onthe other side. Thus the terminal server does the
work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node.
Mostterminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.

UDP -- (User Datagram Protocol)

One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. UDP is a
"stateless" protocol in that UDP makes no provision for acknowledgement of packets
received.

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.
Apple computers' Macintosh operating system, as of version 10, is based on Unix.

URI -- (Uniform Resource Identifier)

An address for s resource available on the Internet.
The first part of a URI is called the "scheme". the most well known scheme is http, but there
are many others. Each URI scheme has its own format for how a URI should appear.

Here are examples of URIs using the http, telnet, and news schemes:
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com
telnet://well.sf.ca.us
news:new.newusers.questions

URL -- (Uniform Resource Locator)

The term URL is basically synonymous with URI. URI has replaced URL in technical
specifications.

URN -- (Uniform Resource Name)

A URI that is supposed to be available for along time. For an address to be a URN some
institution is supposed to make a commitment to keep the resource available at that
address.

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. USENET is completely
decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

UUENCODE -- (Unix to Unix Encoding)

A method for converting files from Binaryto ASCII (text) so that they can be sent across the
Internet via e-mail.

Veronica -- (Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives)

Developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica was a constantly updated database of the
names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopherservers. The Veronica database
could be searched from most major gophermenus.
Now made obsolete by web-bases search engines.

VPN -- (Virtual Private Network)

Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the public
Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is
"virtually" private.

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) accordingto 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.

WWW -- (World Wide Web)

Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two major
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.

XML -- (eXtensible Markup Language)

A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define
complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds,
glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.
As long as a programmer has the XML definition for a collection of data (often called a
"schema") then they can create a program to reliably process any data formatted according
to those rules.