The telephone number you use to dial into your local Internet Service Provider (ISP). To connect to the Internet you must first establish an account with an ISP your area. Usually you will receive a list of telephone numbers you can use to "dial-in" to the service. Sometimes access numbers can be frustrating because you get continous busy signals and/or no answer. You should try and have a few alternate access numbers available just in case this happens.
When you sign up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you're given an account name or account ID and password this will allow you access to the Internet when you dial the access number provided by the ISP.
acknowledgement - When a modem receives a data packet, it sends a signal back to the. If all the data is present and correct, it sends an ACK signal, which acts as a request for the next data packet. If the modem didn't get all the data, it sends back a negative ACK, or NAK (negative acknowledgement).
Association for Computing Machinery - ACM (founded 1947) is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing the art, science, engineering, and application of information technology, serving both professional and public interests by fostering the open interchange of information and by promoting the highest professional and ethical standards.
ActiveXÖ is a set of technologies created by the Microsoft Corp. that enables a type of interactive content on World Wide Web sites. With ActiveX, Web sites come alive using multimedia effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated applications that create a user experience comparable to that of a high-quality CD-ROM.
e-mail address, Internet address, and Web address - A code or series of letters, numbers and/or symbols by which the Internet identifies you or a location where information is stored. Through the use of addresses people can send you e-mail, look at your Web site, and send or receive information.
As an e-mail identifier it looks something like username@hostname.com, in which username is the userID, account, or nickname of a particular person or machine designated to receive e-mail, and hostname could be the name of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) the account is set up with or the name of the computer itself which will store the e-mail messages sent to it. The symbol in the middle of an e-mail address is an "at" symbol (@), and the symbol which follows the hostname is called a period but is spoken in computer terms as a "dot", therefore an e-mail address would be verbalized as username at hostname dot com.
A Web address is the same as a URL or Uniform Resource Locator this address usually starts with http://www followed by a "dot" and then a domain name and a path.
Internet address can refer to both of the above as well as IP addresses which are numeric designations given to computers or domain names and users that log on to the Internet.
A feature of e-mail programs that lets you store a list of important e-mail addresses.
Advanced Digital Network - Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line or dedicated line.
Created by Adobe Systems, Inc, Acrobat is a freeware file reader that decodes, reads and converts documents to the Portable Document Format (PDF). This program allows scalable graphics and type to be displayed and printed from any computer Macintosh, Windows, DOS, or UNIX - regardless of the fonts or software programs used to create the original. Better get a copy now.
Adaptive Digital Pulse Code Modulation - A family of speech compression and decompression algorithms. A common implementation takes 16-bit linear PCM samples samples and converts them to 4-bit samples, yeilding a compression rate of 4:1.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - supposedly the next form of data communication because it will deliver and receive information on our current telephone lines at a much greater rate, or higher bandwidth speed. ADSL solves the bandwidth bottleneck to your home or business, over lines that already exist, your copper twisted pair telephone line. ADSL can transmit megabits, enough to outrun the Internet. ADSL will start connecting real customers in 1997.
Away From Keyboard - A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.
sometimes called a web agent or autonomous agent is a program which does things for you like, filtering your e-mail and finding Web sites to suit your interests. Usually the program does this independently once you set your preferences. Click on the More button below to get a detailed description of what agents are from MIT.
artificial intelligence - Computer hardware and software packages that try to emulate human intelligence in order to solve problems using reasoning and learning. First conceived as computer intelligence in 1950 by Alan Turing, it was renamed artificial intelligence in 1955 by John McCarthy. One of the earliest and most successful applications were computer programs that could play chess. In 1990, a computer named Mephisto suprised the public by checkmating Grand Master Anatoly Karpov.
One of many Macintosh sound file formats. On the Net you may come across the option to hear a sound clip. The file which is downloaded to your computer when "clicked on" might be in the aiff format (if the sound file was originally captured on a Macintosh). Your helper applications or browser plugins need to be configured to know what to do with this type of file.
A search engine for locating WWW documents that is provided by NEXOR, a UK based service provider. Aliweb does not use a spider, instead, it relies on forms that web authors themselves submit to the Aliweb database.
Developed by Digital Equipment Corporation the AltaVista Search Service has changed how we use the Internet. It is no longer necessary to know the address of a particular home page, only to begin following the trail of hyperlinks to your eventual goal. AltaVista Search Service takes you to precisely where you want to be from the start by pointing you to relevant web pages regardless of where they reside on a particular site. You can then follow the links from there as desired.
The painstaking task of classifying web pages into logical groups is a thing of the past. Today, AltaVista Search Service puts the contents of the Internet at your fingertips, transforming this information into a bona fide business, education, and entertainment resource.
On servers aliases are a way of mapping an incoming request for a Web page. When an alias is found in a URL, the alias's value is substituted in place of the alias. For example, if you have Web pages on a server which you wish to be viewed on the Internet, the actual location of those files may be: www/netlingo/userpages/joeswebsite/index.html but with the use of an alias, the URL you use to access the site could be http://www.netlingo.com/~joeswebsite. In this case the tilda (~) represents an alias for the path www.netlingo.com/userpages/.
Type of newsgroup that discusses alternative topics. Some Internet providers ask that their users sign an agreement stating they are over 18 before providing access to the alt. newsgroups.
Refers to a pre-release of a software or hardware product. The release prior to the beta release.
"If it's in print, it's in stock", that's the motto of Amazon.com which offers over one million book titles over the Internet for you to purchase. It's worth a visit just to search the titles.
This word is often used to denote the opposite of digital. It loosely means the measuring of data on more physical grounds as opposed to digital which is a more electronic "wired state." Thanks to Wired Style Guide
In HTML, anchors mark the start and end of hypertext links.
For example: the HTML tag <a href="h.html#html"> marks the start of an anchor, while the tag </a> marks the closing of an anchor.
People who invest in computer related start-up companies.
pronounced "ah-knee-may" - An artistic, and sensual type of Japanese animation. On the Internet one can find hundreds of superb anime Web sites.
Notes that you can add to Web documents. These notes are stored on your local disk and are available each time that you access a document. This feature is found in NCSA Mosaic, but not Netscape.
An Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP> option which allows you to connect to a site, search through available files, and download any file, document, or program available without first establishing an account there. Some FTP servers are setup to allow a limited amount of anonymous FTP users to login at the same time, and only provide access to designated files.
American National Standards Institute - An organization of American industry groups who work with other nations to develop standards in facilitating telecommunications and international trade. Developments include the ASCII, SCSI, and the ANSI.SYS device driver.
America Online - A commercial on-line service known for its all inclusive use of events, shopping, travel, etc., as well as Internet access.
America OnLine Hell - Hacker programs that allow one to manipulate AOL's software. Bundles of keyboard macros that exploit software bugs in the AOL system allowing hackers to access, among other things, personal e-mail accounts.
Application Programming Interface - An API is a series of functions that programs can use to make the operating system do their dirty work. Using Windows APIs, for example, a program can open windows, files, and message boxes as well as perform more complicated tasks by passing a single instruction. Windows has several classes of APIs that deal with telephony, messaging, and other issues.
A computer software program or application. Usually you see this word in conjuction with the word "killer". A killer app is supposedly an intensely "killer" or extremely good program.
Mini-programs that can be downloaded quickly and used by any computer equipped with a Java-capable browser. Applets carry their own software players.
Deals with the structuring paradigms, style and patterns that describe or make up, either software systems or Internet/intranet systems. In particular, architectures can be overall structures for systems.
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it.
As a noun, archive is the place on an Internet host where files are stored. It is also a file that contains a number of compressed files. As a verb, archive means to compress a number of files into one file for storage and transmittal. SEE ALSO: FTP and file compression.
or FTP site - A computer dedicated to the storage of files, usually organized by subject, that can be accessed through anonymous FTP or e-mail. Most files stored at archive sites are compressed and need to be extracted (unZipped, or UnStuffed) to be used.
Address Resolution Protocol - A method for finding a host's Ethernet address from its Internet address. The sender broadcasts an ARP packet containing the Internet address of another host and waits for it (or some other host) to send back its Ethernet address. Each host maintains a cache of address translations to reduce delay and loading. ARP allows the Internet address to be independent of the Ethernet address but it only works if all hosts support it.
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 that would survive a nuclear war. Also: An experimental network designed to see how well distributed, non-centralized networks work; the basis for the later evolution of the Internet.
A message or posting to a newsgroup. Some newsreader programs can filter out old articles that you may have read earlier.
American Standard Code for Information Interchange - (pronounced "askee") The 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. This is also used to describe files that are stored in clear text format. Some rather inventive individuals have developed what is known as ASCII art, a low-brow art in a high tech medium, using only the ASCII character set to create smileys or emoticons.
The "at" sign has grown tremendously in popularity. It is primarily used to separate the domain name and the user name in an Internet address and is pronounced "at." For example, egone@interport.net is read and pronounced as "egone at interport dot net."
AT is a contraction of attention, a command used to program SmartModems from Hayes Microcomputer Products. AT commands program a variety of modem hardware settings and were adopted by other modem manufacturers who wanted to market their wares with the term Hayes-compatible. It was considered a must to know that ATL0 turned your modem speaker down and ATM0 turned it off. Now, however, the commands are usually hidden under a menu option in your communication software.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode - A high speed networking scheme and communication protocol designed with the transfer of multimedia data in mind. NOTE: You can't get $20 bills from here.
AtomTime95 is a 32-bit Win95 winsock (Internet) application which will connect to the atomic clock time server in Boulder, CO and fetch the current atomic time value. It then compares this to your PC's time setting and displays the difference. You then have the option of updating your PC clock to match the atomic clock value. There are also advanced settings that allow you to have the application run in a much more automated fashion. Note: This application will not work unless you are running some kind of Internet access (examples would be PPP, SLIP or even direct connection via a network).
also called an enclosure (Microsoft Mail) - A file(s) that is added to an e-mail. You can attach files through almost any popular e-mail program such as Eudora and Netscape Mail. Usually this is accomplished simply clicking the attach file button and then browsing through your system to find and select the desired file.
A UNIX sound file format. On the Net you may come across the option to hear a sound clip. The file which is downloaded to your computer when "clicked on" might be in the au format (if the sound file was originally captured on a UNIX system or converted from another platform). Your helper applications or browser plugins need to be configured to know what to do with this type of file.
acceptable use policy - this is the official policy statement regarding the use of a network or computer system.
A security measure for checking a user's identity. Some Web sites require a users identity to be authenticated before they can enter. This is usually done with a password and/or username which was established prior to the user arriving at the site.
A feature of e-mail, fax, or any type of communication program which allows a call to be "picked up". Usually there is a light on the modem itself if it's an external one or on the graphical interface of the software that indicates that the auto answer feature is turned on. Most programs must be configured for this to be possible.
