A | B | C |D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
- Access Privileges
- The privilege to access and make changes to folders.
- Address
- The unique code assigned to the location of a file in storage, a device in a system or network, or any other data source on a network.
A
- Backbone
- Network of broadband connections between switches.
- Bandwidth
- A measure of the communication capacity or data transmission rate of a circuit or channel.
- Baud (older term being replaced by bps - bits per second):
- The number of signaling elements that can be transmitted per second on a circuit.
- Bit
- The smallest amount of information that can be transmitted. A combination of bits can indicate an alphabetic character, a numeric digit, or perform signaling, switching or other functions.
- BOT
- "bot" is the colloquial term for programs that listen and respond on an IRC channel to conversation.
- Bottleneck
- A system capacity constraint that may reduce traffic during peak load conditions.
- BPS
- Bits per second. The measure of a modems speed.
- Broadband
- A high-capacity communications circuit/path. It usually implies a speed greater than 1.544Mbps.
- Browser
- Application software that gives you a graphical interactive interface for searching, finding, viewing and managing information over a network.
- BBS (Bulletin board system)
- An electronic bulletin board where users can leave messages. Many BBSs are on a membership basis.
B
- Capacity
- The highest possible (reliable) transmission speed that can be carried on a channel, circuit or piece of equipment. Capacity may be expressed as raw speed or net throughput.
- Carrier
- A telecommunications provider which owns network switch equipment.
- CATV
- Cable Television - Community Antenna Television. A community television system, served by cable and connected to a common (set of) antenna(s). 1994 Federal legislation may allow CATV providers to compete for telephone service (on the Information Superhighway).
- Cern
- The European Laboratory for Particle Physics, site of the first World Wide Web conference and considered the birthplace of WWW technology. Work on WWW technology and setting standards has moved to the World Wide Web Organization (W3O, at w3.org). http://www.cern.ch/
- Channel
- A telecommunications path (pipe) of a specific capacity (speed) between two locations in a network.
- Common Carrier
- A carrier that holds itself out as serving the public (or a segment thereof) indifferently (i.e., without regard to the identity of the customer and without undue discrimination).
- CGI
- The Common Gateway Interface is an interface for programmers who build scripts or applications which run behind-the-scenes on a web server. These scripts can generate text or other types of data on the fly, perhaps in response to input from the user or from mining information from a database.
- Chat
- "Chat" is a term used to describe real-time conferencing. For example, IRC, "WebChat", prodigy and aol chat rooms are all examples of "chat".
- Communication Link
- A system of hardware and software connecting two end users.
- Compression / Decompression
- A method of encoding/decoding signals that allows transmission (or storage) of more information than the media would otherwise be able to support.
- Connection
- A point-to-point dedicated or switched communication path.
- Cyberspace
- Originally used in "Neuromancer," William Gibson's novel of direct brain-computer networking, refers to the collective realms of computer-aided communication.
C
- Database
- A multiuser collection of information. Often supports random access selectivity and multiple "views" or levels of abstraction of the underlying data.
- Dedicated Line
- A private line leased from a telecommunications carrier.
- Digital
- A device or method that uses discrete variations in voltage, frequency, amplitude, location, etc. to encode, process, or carry binary (zero or one) signals for sound, video, computer data or other information.
- Download
- To transfer programs or data from a computer to a connected device, usually from a server to a personal computer
- Drag and Drop
- A GUI (Graphic User Interface) concept that allows one screen object to be selected and passed as input to another screen object (icon).
D
- Nothing available
E
- FAQ
- Frequently Asked Question.
- File Server
- A computer that provides access to files for remote users (clients).
- Finger
- Protocol which allows finding information about the users on your host network. Some networks do not allow fingering from an external system, and some do not allow fingering at all.
- Flame War
- A heated and emotional debate online where polity is ignored.
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- A protocol used to provide file transfers across a wide variety of systems.
F
- Gateway
- Protocol converter. An application-specific node that connects otherwise incompatible networks. Converts data codes and transmission protocols to enable interoperability.
- GIF
- Graphics Interchange Format. GIF is a standard format for image files on the WWW. The GIF file format is popular because it uses a compression method to make files smaller.
- Gopher
- Internet public database browsing and searching program.
- GUI
- Graphical User Interface.
G
- Home
- The startup page of a site, containing identity and index information.
- HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
- A "tag" language in which web pages are formatted and web information is distributed.
- HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)
- The method by which documents are transferred from the host computer or server to browsers and individual users.
- Hyperlink
- Connections between one piece of information and another.
- Hypermedia
- A method of presenting information in discrete units, or nodes, that are connected by links. The information may be presented using a variety of media such as text, graphics, audio, video, animation, image or executable documentation.
- Hypertext
- Describes a type of interactive online navigation functionality. Links (URLs) embedded in words or phrases allows the user to select (e.g. mouse click) text and immediately display related information and multimedia material.
H
- Information Superhighway
- A Buzz word. (see also - Media Hype) Refers to the Clinton/Gore administration plan to deregulate communication services allowing for the integration of all aspects of the Internet, CATV, telephone, business, entertainment, information providers, education, etc.
- IP (Internet Protocol)
- The Internet protocol that defines the unit of information passed between systems that provides a basis packet delivery service.
- IP Address
- The Internet protocol address which is a 32-bit address assigned to a host. The IP address has a host component and a network component.
- ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
- A set of standards for high-speed transmission of simultaneous voice, data and video information over fewer channels than would otherwise be needed, through the use of out-of-band signaling.
I
- JPEG
- Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is a popular method used to compress photographic images. Many web browsers accept JPEG images as a standard file format for viewing.
J
- Nothing available
K
- Link
- See Hyperlink.
- List-Serv
- "ListServ" is a free software program for automating the maintenance and delivery of e-mail mailing lists. There are mailing lists for many different topics - some lists are "open" (which means anyone on the list can send a message to the whole list, as in a conversation), and some are "closed" (only certain people can post information to them).
L
- Media
- Information storage and distribution format (e.g. video tape, floppy disk, optical disc, print, etc.) The extensions of mankind╣s ability to communicate. This is the message.
- Modem (MODulator-DEModulator)
- End user computer interface that enables digital data to be transmitted over analog transmission facilities like phone lines.
- MPEG
- Moving Pictures Expert Group. MPEG is a standard way to compress full-motion video.
- Multimedia
- Computer systems that integrate audio, video and data.
M
- NCSA
- The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is an educational institute. The Mosaic web browser was created here. http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
- Network
- A system of interrelated elements that are interconnected in a dedicated or switched linkage to provide local or remote communication (of voice, video, data, etc.) and to facilitate the exchange of information between users with common interests.
N
- Nothing available
O
- Page
- A hypermedia document on the web.
- PKZIP
- PKZIP is a shareware compression utility for PCs. A program called PKUNZIP is used to decompress these files.
- Pointer
- An address (URL) embedded in data that specifies the location of data in another record or file. A hyperlink is an example of a pointer.
- "POP" (point of presence)
- A "pop" is an Internet service provider's dialup connection for modem users, used particularly to describe local connections so modem users don't have to dial long distance. For example, a particular ISP might be based in San Jose, but have "POP"s in Los Angeles and New York.
- PPP (Point to Point Protocol)
- Dial-up Internet connection speaking in TCP/IP protocol, somewhat faster than SLIP.
P
- Nothing available
Q
- Real Time
- Rapid transmission and processing of event-oriented data and transactions as they occur, in contrast to being stored and re-transmitted or processed as batches.
- Robot
- "Robot"s are usually mentioned in the context of the WWW as programs which traverse the web looking for information, perhaps for indexing into a search engine or to find errors in web sites or some such.
R
- Security
- Control mechanisms that prevent unauthorized use of resources.
- Server
- In a network, a host data station that provides facilities to other stations.
- SGML
- Standard Generalized Markup Language is a language for describing other tag-based structural document languages. For example, HTML is defined using SGML.
- Signal
- An event-oriented change in state (e.g. a tone, frequency shift, binary value, alarm, message, etc.).
- Site
- Address location of a server on the Internet.
- SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol)
- Dial-up Internet connection speaking in TCP/IP protocol.
S
- TCP/IP
- Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the standard network communications protocol used to connect computer systems across the Internet.
- Telnet
- Telnet is a network program that offers a way to log into and work from another computer. By logging into another system, users can access Internet services that they might not have on their own computers.
T
- UNZIP
- To unzip a file means to decompress, or expand a file that has been made smaller using a compression utility.
- URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
- The form of the site address that reveals the name of the server where the site's files are stored, the file's directory path, and its file name.
- Usenet (USEer NETwork)
- Internet newsgroups. One of the earliest forms of "group electronic mail," currently at a level of about 10,000 different newsgroups.
U
- VRML - Virtual Reality Modeling Language
- A "tag" language in which web pages are formatted that can support 3D graphics and interactive spatial navigation.
V
- WAIS (Wide Area Information Server)
- A powerful system for searching large amounts of information very quickly over the Internet.
- WAV
- "wav" is the file extension used on some types of audio files.
- Webmaster/Webmistress
- System operator for a web site server.
- Wideband
- A medium-capacity communications circuit/path. It usually implies a speed from 64Kbps to 1.544Mbps.
- WINZIP
- Winzip is a compression utility that lets Windows 95, 3.1, and NT users make their files smaller for faster tranfer over the Internet. This utility also decompresses files that were originally compressed using PKZIP or TAR formats. http://www.winzip.com/winzip/
- WWW (World Wide Web)
- Internet system for world-wide hypertext linking of multimedia documents, making the relationship of information that is common between documents easily accessible and completely independent of physical location.
W
- Nothing available
X
- Nothing available
Y
- ZIP
- When one "compresses" (i.e., makes a smaller but equal copy) a file using "pkzip", the resulting file is called a "zip" file. It usually ends with the file extension ".zip".
