Internet Dictionary I

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24/7 Operation  The operation of a site or service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

56K line  A data transmission line with the capacity to move information at 56,000bps. Compare ISDN, T-1, T-3 lines.

586  The unofficial name given to the Pentium processor. Intel calls its new processor the Pentium because it was a marketable name and easily protected by copyright laws. Many people in the computer industry, however, referred to the Pentium processor as the 586 in reference to its predecessors, which were called the 286, 386, and 486. Also, the name given to Pentium-class processors produced by Intel Corporation competitors.

686  The name given to Pentium Pro-class processors produced by Intel Corporation competitors.

A

account  An area partitioned for a user of a particular host computer. To assure validity, account holders cannot gain access without using assigned login and password information.

ACL  (Access Control List)  A list of resources and the usernames of people who are permitted access to those resources within a computer system.

active content  Programs that are embedded transparently in Web pages that cause some type of action to occur.

activeX  An object, or control, that contains programs and properties that are put into Web pages to perform particular tasks.

address  An individualized name (or number) identifying a computer user or computer. Used in network communications for the transmission of messages for a particular person or machine.

Address, e-mail  The specific location of a person's electronic mailbox on the Internet. An e-mail address typically consists of a variation of the persons name followed by an @ symbol followed by the domain of the service on which the electronic mailbox is stored (example user@jiveone.com)

Address, web page The specific location of one single Web page on the Internet. A Web page address is a unique combination of letters, numbers, and symbols that identifies one single HTML file within a larger Web site.

Address, web site  The specific location of a Web site on the Internet. A Web site address is a unique combination of letters, numbers, and symbols that identifies a collection of HTML files that are collectively referred to as a Web site. For example, if you wanted to see the Web site for jiveinternet.com Network, you would type the following into your browser http//www.jiveone.com.

ADO  (ActiveX Data Objects).  See activeX.

ad view  A page view of a Web page that contains an advertisement.

agent  A program that performs information gathering, information filtering, and/or mediation on behalf of a person or entity.

Anchors  Anchors are used to mark specific locations within a document. Once an anchor is placed in location, you can create a link to that spot.

anonymous electronic cash   Electronic cash that cannot be traced back to the person who spent it.

anonymous FTP  File Transfer Protocol allows you to connect to a site, search through available files, and download any file, document, or program without having to establish a user-id and password on the system where the material resides. By using the special user-id "anonymous", the network user will circumvent local security checks and have access to publicly accessible files on the remote system. Most systems that permit anonymous login require the user's e-mail address as the password.

ANSI  (American National Standards Institute)  The coordinating body for electrical, mechanical, and other technical standards in the United States.

API  (Application Program Interface)  A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.  Interfaces that extend the capabilities of Web servers; used by programmers to write applications that can interact with other applications. A server API is a published interface that lets software developers write programs that become part of the Web server itself. Usually these are DLLs (Windows dynamic load libraries) that are loaded into memory and stay resident at all times. Some common server APIs and the servers they support:

ISAPI - Microsoft Internet Information Server
NSAPI - Netscape Commerce and Enterprise Server
WSAPI - O'Reilly Web Site and Web Site Pro

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.

application  Software that executes a particular task, such as word processing or spreadsheet analysis.

application service provider  A Web-based site that provides management of applications such as spread sheets, human resources management, or e-mail to companies for a fee.

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. There are currently about 30 Archie servers in the world.

archive site  A mechanism that renders access to a collection of files across the Internet; also, a computer on which such a collection is stored.

archiving  Saving a log on a storage device.

ARPAnet  (Advanced Research Projects Agency)  The experimental network, established in the 1970s, where the theories and software on which the Internet is based were tested. 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 Exchange)  The standard method for encoding characters as 8-bit sequences of binary numbers, allowing a maximum of 256 characters. Text files are customarily called "ASCII files". 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. 

ASDL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)  Internet connections using DSL protocol with bandwidths from 16 to 640 Kbps upstream and 1.5 to 9 Mbps downstream.  See bandwidth.

ASP  (Active Server Pages) (1)  Applications that generate dynamic content within Web pages using Jscript code or Visual Basic.  (2) By Microsoft.  An open, compile-free application environment in which you can combine HTML pages, scripts, and ActiveX server components to create powerful Web-based business solutions. (These pages use the extension .asp)

ATM  (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)  Internet connections with bandwidths of up to 622 Gbps.  See bandwidth.
A common Internet protocol for transferring data across the Internet. ATM is a dedicated-connection switching technology that organizes digital data into cells or "packets" and transmits them over a connection using digital signal technology.

authentication  The process of identifying users before they are allowed access to computer systems or networks, typically by user-ids and passwords.  Technique that limits Internet or intranet access to those visitors who identify themselves by entering a username or password.

B

backbone  The main network of connections that carry most of the traffic on the Internet. 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.
A larger transmission line that carries data gathered from smaller connections that interconnect with it. A backbone is a set of paths that local or regional ISP networks connect to for long-distance interconnection. The local or regional ISP network connects to the backbone at a network access point (NAP).

b2b  (Business to Business).  Normally used to describe an e-Business solution that caters to other businesses.  See b2c.

b2c  (Business to Consumer).  Transactions conducted between shoppers and businesses on the Web.  See b2b.

backbone  A high-speed connection within a network that links shorter (usually slower) branch circuits. An example is the NSFNet, generally considered to be the backbone of the Internet in the United States.

Background  What displays behind all the graphics and text on a Web page. A background can be a color or a tiled graphic.

bandwidth  Measure in kilobytes of the traffic transferred via one of the several Internet protocols.  The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.  The amount of bandwidth a Web server requires depends on the applications that will be running on the Web server. Simple HTML Web pages do not require a large amount of bandwidth, but full-motion video requires a large amount of bandwidth. Also, the number of simultaneous site visitors that a Web site can accommodate without degrading service. 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.
 

Base Display Target   The frame that a linked file displays in.

Base URL   Sets the URL for which all links in the Web page are based.

baud rate (Same as bps--Bits Per Second).  A unit used to measure the number of data bits a modem can transfer in one second. One baud is how many signals a modem can handle in one second. Information is measured in bits, and bits come in the signal. Higher baud modems can send and receive more signals in a second, and the faster speeds also cram more bits into a signal. 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).

BBS  (Bulletin Board System)  Computers access by remote users via modems for discussion, file downloads, and other BBS services. 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 BBSs 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. BBSs are typically stand-alone systems not on the Internet, though many have gateways.

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

binary file  Refers to a file that contains information in a non-text form (graphics, sounds, spreadsheets, etc.). Any file that is not a text file. Any arrangements of bits that is meaningful to a computer, without regard to any correspondence to a human-readable character set.

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. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.
 

BITNET  (Because It's Time NETwork (or Because It's There NETwork)) a cooperative education and research 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.

blog, blogger  A blogger is someone who publishes a Web log (or "blog"), an online, very public, theme-specific journal intended for the Web savvy reader.  The article My blog, my self explains this trend recently embraced by people from all walks of life to record their daily thoughts and share them with the world.  Jennifer Balderama (blogjen@yahoo.com), formerly of CNET's News.com and now with the Washington Post, had this to say about blogs and bloggers:

"Web logs give voice to people whom just a decade ago, you never would have heard from. There are war blogs, peace blogs, food blogs, crude blogs, humor blogs, culture blogs to occupy your day. Geek blogs, freak blogs, teen blogs, mean blogs, fanaticals and radicals who like to rant away. Worker bees and histories, punditry and poetry, diversity, adversity and spicy verbal play. Optimists, pessimists, enthusiasts and hobbyists, journalists and journal-ists with something big to say."

 

You can create your own blog at blogger.com.

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