Index · Features · E-mail · Contact List · News Reader · Bookmarks · Security · Contact Home

Terminology

Being new to the Internet is something everyone has once been. It might seem like an insurmountable task to get to know even the most basic things about how the Internet operates and how you are supposed to use it, but actually, it's not at all that difficult when you really set your mind to it.

This document contains a handy QuickStart Guide that should be read by everyone wishing to learn the basics of the Internet, and the Opera Internet browser.

Top!

The Opera Browser

The Opera browser is an Internet browser. By using it, you will be able to access the World Wide Web, you are able to use e-mail and news groups, and generally do just about everything you'll need to do on the Internet.

Please refer to the alphabetical index for the complete listing of the contents of this Help.

Top!

Internet Terminology

The Internet is often referred to as a whole, like a self-contained entity that can be accessed through every computer with a modem, and which seems to contain every piece of information known to man, (il)legal music files, movies and programs, games and news, chatting and e-mail cards, all rolled up into one. This, unfortunately, is not the case.

"Internet"

The term "Internet" is applied pretty much to every kind of computer network that is accessed through either a modem or ISDN network card, to your telephone, through cable of some sort or even through satellite dishes, and which is accessed through a "browser". Although this is true, the Internet is so much more; it is affordable and easy communication, information from all over the world, accessible to everyone. The Internet as it stands today is maintained by a number of instances, and no single government or power controls it, something that has lead to some countries in the world actually seeing it as an enemy of the state.

Basically, this is a huge connection of computers that's in every part of the world. It's a collective term for everything from e-mail to the World Wide Web, including news, SMS (cell-phone messages), Internet Relay Chat (IRC for short), and also Instant Messaging.

A lot of people think that the Internet is only what is seen through a web browser, but that is a gross misunderstanding, because the Internet is really a totally new kind of communication tool, and one that will change the world as we know it accordingly.

In the "early" days of the Internet, it was often referred to as "The Information Super Highway", and "Cyberspace", amongst others, though these expressions have fallen from grace, so to speak, as more and more people have started using the Net, which, incidentally, is how most people refer to it now; the Net. :-)

Top!

"World Wide Web"

The World Wide Web is the Internet as experienced through a web browser. It is an information system that makes it possible to navigate through the Internet in a simple fashion by clicking on what are known as "links". You can access documents, files, programs and applications via the WWW - or short: "Web'.

"HTML"

HyperText Markup Language is a simple, yet powerful, markup language that is used to present text, images, sound and other media files on the World Wide Web. There are several types of markup languages in use on the WWW, but a rough estimate would put HTML at the very top of the list of most used markup languages, as it is used in about 99% of Web documents.

"Cascading Style Sheets"

A way of separating style from content, CSS was devised by in 1994, and adopted as an official w3c recommendation in 1997. The benefits of using CSS is that you can easily maintain your style on the one hand and you content on the other hand, which actually is a great help where sites of multi-pages are concerned, such as with news sites in particular, but also with other types of big sites.

"JavaScript"

JavaScript is a scripting language that was introduced in order to enhance Web site interaction, such as making images change when you use the mouse cursor to move over it.

"ECMAScript"

This is JavaScript and JScript as an open, standardized technology, which is being maintained by the European Computer Manufacturers Association. Opera supports this scripting language, which gives the browser scripting capabilities of JavaScript 1.3 leve.

"HTTP"

The HyperText Transfer Protocol is the protocol that's used to send documents in HTML, text and other reader-dependent formats of information to the Web browser. It is also possible to send programs through this protocol, but the main use of it is the former. The Internet Engineering Task Force (the IETF), are the ones who maintain the HTTP protocol, which is now out in version 1.1.

"FTP"

In relation to the protocol passing information is this protocol for passing files and other "heavy" objects, so to speak. It can, as HTTP, transfer information documents as well. Opera supports FTP by allowing downloads. The IETF are also the ones that maintain the FTP protocol.

"URL"

Uniform Resource Locator - In the WWW all documents, files and programmes have their own "place" with its own address, the so called URL. The URL consists of these elements:

protocol://machine-name/directory/filename

Machine-name can be a standard typed machine name, or it can be an IP address, while the directory and filename most certainly are names (even though that name be a number).

Top!

"E-mail"

E-mail is the acronym for "electronic mail", and refers to simple text messages that are transmitted over the Internet from one computer to another. E-mail is used in a lot of different contexts, and allows you to communicate with friends, relatives, coworkers or like-minded souls quickly and cost-effectively.

For information on setting up Opera 4.02's e-mail client, please see the e-mail directions document in this Help.

Top!

"Newsgroups"

USENET or newsgroups is a "place" on the Internet where people with common interests share discussion forums. Anything from the absurd to the bizarre, from politics to computers, from hobbies to interests, from the present to the future is being discussed. There are currently more than 20.000 individual newsgroups listed. Have your pick, and take part in inter-continental communication. Subscription is free in most cases.

For information on setting up Opera 4.02's news reader, please see the news reader directions document in this Help.

Top!

"SSL"

Meaning Secure Socket Layer, this is an open web technology for allowing secure transactions and communication through both client and server, and between two clients. In short, it's a way of authenticating none, one or both of the participants communicating over an encrypted connection. The two versions supported by Opera, SSL v2 and SSL v3 are the defacto standard for security on the Internet today.

"TLS"

Transport Layer Security is being touted as the successor to SSL v3, and is developed and maintained by the IETF. Opera 3.50 was the first commercial level web browser to incorporate TLS 1.0, and Opera 4.02 continues this support.

"Cookies"

Cookies are small text files that store information you have given about yourself to identify you on the Internet, or to store your settings for a site, set by servers for servers to reclaim, and are used by most commercial Web sites. They cannot store or open viruses on your hard drive, contrary to what they are often made out to be by people who do not know what a cookie really is.

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that the instructions in these documents will work on every computer and every platform. Please inform us if you have problems with Opera, but please, first check our online support section, as this section is updated on a regular basis with information about the Opera Browser.

Copyright © 1995 - 2000 Opera Software AS. All rights reserved.