Glossary
A - C /
D - E /
F - H /
I - J /
K - N /
O - P /
R - U /
V - W
A
ActiveX
A technology from Microsoft that links desktop applications to the
World Wide Web. Using ActiveX tools, software developers can
create interactive Web content for their applications. For example,
Word and Excel documents can be viewed directly in a browser if
ActiveX is enabled. The biggest downside of ActiveX is that it's
almost impossible to have the latest version, considering Microsoft
releases a new version just about every day. However, when it does
work, it works pretty well.
ASP
Just to confuse ordinary people like you and me, there are two
equally important definitions of ASP. It can refer to 1) an Active
Server Page, or 2) an Application Service Provider.
- An "Active Server Page." This is a web page that has one or
more scripts embedded in it. You can tell if you're accessing an
active server page if the suffix of the URL is ".asp" (as opposed to
".php").
Like CGI-based pages, ASP pages are processed on a
Web server before they are transferred to a user's browser. ASPs
are typically used for pages that have dynamic, or frequently
changing, information.
A common ASP script will get input from the
user or user's computer (through a form or a cookie), then access a
database on the server, from which it will build and/or customize the
page. Since ASP technology was designed by Microsoft, ASP
pages typically run Visual Basic Scripts (VBScripts).
- Stands for "Application Service Provider." Sometimes referred to
as an "app-on-tap," this is a third-party company that distributes
software-based services from a central location to customers across
a wide area network (WAN).
In other words, a typical ASP will offer
companies access, via the Internet, to programs and services that
would otherwise have to be stored on their own computer systems.
Application Service Providers are often an inexpensive way for
companies and organizations to manage their information services.
There are five main categories of Application Service Providers:
- Local or Regional ASP - supplies many different application services
for smaller businesses or individuals in a local area.
- Specialist ASP - provides applications for specific needs, such as
Human Resources or Web services.
- Vertical Market ASP - provides support to a specific industry such
as Education.
- Enterprise ASP - delivers information and services for high-end
business.
- Volume Business ASP - supplies small or medium-sized
businesses with services in high volume.
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B
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is how much data you can send through a network or
modem connection. It is usually measured in bits-per-second. A
good example of this is a highway with cars travelling on it. The
highway is the connection and the cars are the data. The wider the
highway the more cars can travel on it at one time. It's the same
thing with computer data. Full-motion, full-screen video would
require a bandwidth of roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second.
Broadband
This term refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single
cable can carry several channels of data at once. The most
common type of broadband transmission is cable wiring (as in cable
TV and cable modems). Because of its multiple channel capability,
broadband has started to replace the baseband, or single-channel
technology most computer networks were originally based on. So
now when you see companies like AT&T and MediaOne pushing
those fancy broadband ads in your face, you'll at least know what
they're talking about.
bps
Stands for "Bits Per Second." (The "b" is lowercase because it
stands for bits, not bytes.) This is the standard way of measuring
how fast data moves across a network or phone system. A 56K
modem can transfer 56,700 bits per second.
Browser
It's what you're probably using to read this right now. A browser, or
web browser (same thing), is the program people use as their
interface to the World Wide Web.
It interprets HTML code including
text, images, hypertext links, java applets, etc. allowing you to view
web sites and navigate from one to another. Currently, the two most
popular browsers are Netscape Communicator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
Byte
A byte is a set of bits that represent a single character in the
computer's memory. Do not confuse this with "bite", which means
something totally different. There are 8 bits in a byte. Bytes are
typically used to measure hard disk storage and computer memory
(megabytes, gigabytes, etc.) Abbreviation: "B".
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C
C/C++
C is a high-level programming language that was developed in the
mid-1970s. It was originally used for writing Unix programs, but it is
now used to write applications for nearly every available platform.
Some nice things about the language are that it is easy to read, it is
flexible (it can be used for a wide variety of purposes), and C
programs typically use memory very efficiently.
C++,
pronounced "C plus plus," is a programming language that
was built off C. The syntax of C++ is nearly identical to C, but it has
object-oriented features, which allow the programmer to create
objects within the code. This makes programming easier, more
efficient, and some would even say, more fun. Because of the
power and flexibility of the language, most programs today are
written in C++.
Cache
Pronounced like "cash", not "catch", and definitely not "cash‚".
There are many different types of caches but they all serve basically
the same purpose. They store recently used information in a place
where it can be accessed extremely fast. For example, a web
browser like Netscape Navigator uses a cache to store the pages,
images, sounds, and URLs of web sites you visit on your hard drive.
With this neat strategy, when you visit a page you have recently
been to, everything doesn't have to be downloaded to your
computer all over again. Because accessing your computer's hard
disk is much faster than accessing the Internet, this speeds up web
browsing significantly.
Your computer also uses disk caching, which stores information you
have recently read from your hard disk in the computer's RAM.
Since accessing RAM is much faster than reading data off the hard
disk, this helps speed up common functions on your computer. One
more type of cache is a processor cache, which stores small
amounts of information on or next to the processor. This helps make
the processing of common instructions much more efficient, thereby
speeding up computation time. Neat, huh?
CGI
Stands for "Common Gateway Interface." CGI is a set of rules for
running programs on a web server. Whenever you submit
information, like search terms or your login and password, to a web
server, there's a good chance that the server is using a CGI script to
receive and process the data. However, with new scripting
languages such as PHP, ASP, and JSP attracting many web
programmers, CGI scripts aren't as popular as they once were.
CPU
Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This baby is the brain of your
computer. It processes all basic instructions and pretty much runs
the show. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to
the CPU. Every day, it's compute this, compute that -- you'd think
the CPU would need a break after awhile. But no. It just keeps on
processing. Amazing. The CPU is also referred to as the simply the
processor. Some people refer the entire motherboard as the CPU,
but that's just wrong.
Cyberspace
Unlike most computer terms, "cyberspace" doesn't have a standard,
objective definition. Instead, it is used metaphorically to describe the
virtual world of computers. For example, an object in cyberspace is
just a block of data floating around on some computer system or
network. With the advent of the Internet, cyberspace now also is
used to refer to the global network of computers.
So, after sending
e-mail to a friend, you could say you sent the message to him or her
through cyberspace. However, use this term sparingly, as it is a
popular newbie term and is already well overused.
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D
Database
A database is a means of storing organized data. It is the way most
companies store information about their employees, their products,
and financial information. Databases are now also used in nearly all
e-commerce sites to store product inventory, customer information,
sales data, etc.
Database software, such as Microsoft Access,
FileMaker, and MySQL is designed to help companies and
individuals organize large amounts of information in such a way
where the data can be easily searched, sorted, and updated.
While the first databases were relatively "flat" (limited to simple rows
and columns), today's relational databases allow users to access,
update, and sort data in a numerous ways. Certain databases even
let users store all kinds of data, such as sound clips, pictures, and
videos.
Default
This is the default term used to describe a preset value for some
option in a computer program. It is used when a setting is not
specified by the user. For example, the default font setting in
Netscape Communicator is "Times." If you don't go to the Netscape
preferences and change it to something else, the "Times" font will
be used -- by default.
Typically default settings in programs are set
to what most people would choose, so there's no big reason to
change them. However, if you're one of those people who has to
customize everything and can't stand having a single option set to
default, feel free to do whatever you want.
The term default can also be used as a verb. If a custom setting
won't work for some reason, the program will "default" to the default
setting. If that's not enough, default can also be used as an
adjective. For example, say you're working on computer that is on a
network and you print something when there is no printer specified.
If you don't get some nasty error about how you should have
selected a printer, your work will be printed on a default printer.
Hence, default is used as an adjective to describe the printer.
DNS
Stands for "Domain Name System." The primary purpose of DNS is
to keep Web surfers sane. Without DNS, we'd have to remember
the IP address of every site we wanted to visit, as opposed to just
the name. Now, I have some computer science friends who might
prefer this, but for normal people, names are much easier to
remember.
The reason for the Domain Name System is that web
sites are actually located by their IP addresses. So, when you type
in "http://www.adobe.com", the computer doesn't immediately know
that it should look for Adobe's web site. Instead, it sends a request
to the nearest DNS server, which matches an IP address to the
domain name and then connects you to the server with that IP
number. And we just take it for granted.
Domain Name
This is the name that identifies a web site. For example,
"apple.com" is the domain name of Apple Computer's web site. A
single web server may have more than one domain name, but a
single domain name points to only one machine. To use Apple
Computer as an example again, www.apple.com,
support.apple.com, and store.apple.com could be served on one to
three machines.
It is also possible, and quite common, for a domain
name to be registered, but not be connected to an actual machine.
The reason for this is usually so that a company or group can have
e-mail addresses at a certain domain without having to maintain a
web site. In these cases, there still must be a machine to handle the
mail of the listed domain name.
Download
This is the process in which data is sent to your computer.
Whenever you get information off the Internet, you are downloading
it to your computer. For example, you might have to download an
upgrade for your computer's operating system in order to play a new
game (especially if you're using Windows). The opposite of this
process, sending information to another computer, is called
uploading.
Driver
This term usually refers to the person behind the wheel of a moving
car. In the computer world, however, a driver is a small file that
helps the computer communicates with a certain hardware device. It
contains information needed to recognize and control the device,
which the computer does not already have. In Windows-based PCs,
a driver is often packaged as a dynamic link library (DLL) file; in
Macs, most hardware devices don't need drivers, but the ones that
do usually come with a software driver in the form of a System
Extension.
DSL
Stands for "Digital Subscriber Line." It's basically another medium
for sending data over regular phone lines. However, a DSL circuit is
much faster than a regular phone connection, even though the wires
it uses are copper like your typical phone lines. An asymmetric DSL
(ADSL) connection allows download speeds of up to about 1.5
megabits (not megabytes) per second, and upload speeds of 128
kilobits per second.
That is why it's called ADSL and not just DSL
(because of the asymmetric speeds). There is also a "Symmetric
Digital Subscriber Line" (SDSL), which is similar to ADSL, but allows
data transfer speeds of 384 Kilobits per second in both directions.
Theoretically, this type of connection allows download speeds of up
to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits
per second.
The difficult part in establishing a DSL circuit is that it
must be configured to connect two specific locations, unlike a
regular phone line or cable modem. DSL is often seen as a better
alternative to the older ISDN standard.
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E
E-commerce
E-commerce (electronic-commerce) refers to business over the
Internet. Web sites such as Amazon.com, Outpost.com, and eBay
are all e-commerce sites. The two major forms of e-commerce are
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B).
While companies like Amazon.com cater mostly to consumers,
other companies provide goods and services exclusively to other
businesses.
The terms "e-business" and "e-tailing" are often used
synonymously with e-commerce. They refer to the same idea; they
are just used to confuse people trying to learn computer terms.
Encryption
This is the coding or scrambling of information in a file so that it can
only be decoded and read by someone who has the correct
decoding key. Encryption is commonly used in e-mail and other data
transferring so that if someone were to intercept the message or
data they would not be able to read it.
So if you were sending a message over the office network to
your co-worker about how much
you hate your job, your boss, and the whole dang company, it would
be a good idea to encrypt the message first.
Ethernet
Just to be clear, the first syllable is pronounced like "Heath" as in
Heath BarT, not like "Beth." I found this out the hard way (ridiculing
laughter), but at least you don't have to. Ethernet is the most
common type of connection computers use in a local area network
(LAN). The two most widely used forms of Ethernet are called
10BaseT and 100BaseT.
In a 10BaseT Ethernet, data transfer
speeds can reach 10 mbps (megabits per second) through a copper
cable. In a 100BaseT Ethernet, transfer speeds can get up to 100
mbps. (Bet you wouldn't have guessed that.) There is also a new
technology called "Gigabit" Ethernet, employed by some of the
latest Apple Power Macs, where data transfer rates peak at 1000
mbps. Now that's fast.
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F
Firewall
A firewall is used to protect a networked server from damage by
those who log in to it. This can either be a computer equipped with
security features, software protection (called defensive coding), or
both. A firewall allows only certain messages from the Internet to
flow in and out of the internal network. So, basically, it's a lot like a
wall of fire. Whatever
FTP
Stands for "File Transfer Protocol." It is a common and efficient
method of transferring files via the Internet from one computer to
another. Some common FTP programs are "Fetch", for the Mac,
and "CuteFTP", for Windows. However, you can also use a web
browser like Netscape to access FTP servers. Simply type the URL
of the server into the location box.
For example: ftp://name.of.site/
will give you a listing of all the directories of the FTP server,
ftp://name.of.site/directory/ which will give you a listing of all the files
available in that directory, and ftp://name.of.site/directory/filename
will download the actual file to your computer. Most FTP servers are
"anonymous FTP" servers, which means you can log in with the
user name "anonymous", and your e-mail address as the password.
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G
Gateway
A gateway can be either hardware or software that acts as a bridge
between two applications or networks so that data can be
transferred between a number of computers. When e-mail gets sent
between two servers or when you log in to a web site, there is a
gateway that allows the connection take place. In a completely
unrelated story, Gateway is also the name of a popular direct-order
PC manufacturer.
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H
Home Page
The starting point, or main page of a web site. This page usually has
some sort of table of contents on it and describes the purpose of the
site. For example, http://www.sharpened.net/index.php is the home
page of Sharpened.net. Also, many people have a "personal home
page," which is often the only page of their web site and is usually
pretty lame
Host
This is a computer that acts as a server for other computers on the
network. It can be a web server, an e-mail server, an FTP server,
etc. For instance, a web host is what provides the content of web
pages to the computers that access it. It is also known as the
mother computer. Well, not really, I just made that up.
HTML
Stands for "Hyper-Text Markup Language." Today's software
programs are created mostly in C/C++; today's web pages are
created in HTML. Also known as hypertext documents, web pages
must conform to the rules of the HTML language in order to be
displayed correctly in a web browser.
The HTML syntax is based on
a list of tags that describe the format and what is displayed on web
pages. Fortunately, the HTML language is quite easy to learn. Even
more fortunately, (so much for good grammar), most web page
development programs allow you to create web pages via a
graphical interface without having to actually write the HTML code.
HTTP
Stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol." It is the protocol used to
transfer data over the World Wide Web. Yes, that's why all web site
addresses begin with "http://". Whenever you type a URL into your
browser and hit Enter, your computer sends an HTTP request to a
Web server. The Web server then sends to you the requested
HTML page. Pretty simple.
Hypertext
This term is used to describe text that links to other information. By
clicking on a hypertext link, a user can quickly jump to different
content. Though hypertext is usually associated with the Web, the
technology has been around since the 1960s. Software programs
that include dictionaries and encyclopaedias have long used
hypertext in their definitions so that readers can quickly find out
more about specific words or topics. Apple Computer's HyperCard
program also used hypertext, which allowed users to create multi-
linked databases. However, today the Web is where hypertext
reigns, where nearly every page includes links to other pages and
both text and images can be used as links to other content.
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I
Internet
Believe it or not, the Internet was created in 1969, during the Cold
War, by the United States military. It was meant to be a "nuke-proof"
communications network. Today, it consists of countless networks
and computers all over the world, allowing millions of people to
share information. Information on the Internet is transferred on huge
lines known collectively as the Internet backbone.
Instead of being regulated by the government, the Internet is now
mainly controlled by the major Internet service providers such as
MCI, Sprint, GTE, ANS, and UUNET. Because these providers
make huge amounts of revenue off the Internet, they are also
motivated to maintain consistent and fast connections, which
benefits everyday Internet users like you and me. Many people think
the Internet and the World Wide Web are the same thing. They're
not. The World Wide Web is what you are browsing right now -- it is
only part of the Internet.
Intranet
Contrary to popular belief, this is not simply a misspelling of
"Internet". An Intranet is an internal or private Internet used strictly
within the confines of a company, university, etc. If you care for a
little etymology, "inter" is a prefix meaning "between or among," and
"intra" means "within". Hence the difference between the Internet
and an Intranet.
Up until the last few years, most corporations used networks
composed of expensive proprietary hardware and software. Now,
using basic Internet technology, intranets have made internal
communication much easier and less expensive. Intranets use a
TCP/IP connection, just like the average home Internet user does.
The documents in an Intranet are also HTML-based, which is what
allows them to be accessed using a web browser like Netscape
Communicator. Now that you know the difference between the
Internet and an intranet, you can go around telling people on the
street what you know and impress them. Alright!
IP
Stands for "Internet Protocol." This is what allows for data to be
transferred between systems over the Internet. It provides a
standard set of rules for sending and receiving data via the Internet.
People often say "IP" when referring to an IP address. The two are
not necessarily synonymous, but I don't care if you say IP instead of
IP address. I do it, I mean, nobody cares.
IP Address
Also known as an IP number, it is a code made up of numbers
separated by 4 dots that identifies a particular computer on the
Internet. Every computer, whether it be a web server or the
computer you're using right now, requires an IP address to connect
to the Internet. For example, the IP address of everyone's favourite
computer resource, Sharpened.net, is 216.147.47.134.
If you have a standard dial-up account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP),
you will either be assigned a static IP address (which is always the
same), or you will be given a dynamic IP address, (which changes
every time you log on). ISPs typically assign users a dynamic IP
address each time they sign on because it cuts down on the number
of IP addresses they must register. However, if you connect to the
Internet through a network, it is very likely that you have a static IP
address.
ISPs and organizations usually apply to the InterNIC for a range of
IP addresses so that all their clients have similar addresses. There
are three classes of IP address sets: Class C, which consists of 255
unique IP numbers, class B which will gives you 65,000 unique IP
addresses, and class A addresses are for very large companies.
Because the InterNIC is actually running out of IP addresses, and
therefore, ranges of IPs, Class A and Class B addresses are very
hard to get. Most large companies have to get multiple Class C
addresses instead. In case you care, the Internet Engineering Task
Force, which brought us the IP protocol in the first place, is working
on a new protocol called "IP Next Generation" or IPng.
ISDN
Stands for "Integrated Services Digital Network." Nope, it's not the
same thing as the ISBN you see in books. ISDN is a data transfer
technology, created in 1984, that allows for faster transfer rates than
modems do. Basically, ISDN enables wide-bandwidth digital
transmission over the public telephone network. It's just that easy.
Well, there's a lot more that goes into it, but it's too complex to
explain. Using ISDN, you can transfer 64K or 128K of data per
second. However, the newer DSL technology and cable modems
seem to be making ISDN obsolete.
ISP
Stands for "Internet Service Provider." It's how just about all homes
are connected to the Internet. Most ISPs are made up of a network
of servers, including Web, e-mail, and news servers). When your
modem dials your ISP, a point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection is
established with another modem on the ISP's end. From there, you
are connected to routers, which route you to the Internet
"backbone". From there, you can access stuff from anywhere
around the world.
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J
Java
Java is a computer programming language developed by Sun
Microsystems. The syntax it uses is much like that of C/C++, but it's
structured around classes instead of functions. It can also be used
for programming applets -- small programs that can be embedded in
web sites. Java is becoming increasingly more popular among both
web and software developers. It is a very efficient and easy-to-use
language. But, like the Reading Rainbow guy says, you don't have
to take my word for it. Our friends at Sun Microsystems describe
Java as a "simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust,
secure, architecture-neutral, portable, high-performance,
multithreaded, dynamic, buzzword-compliant, general-purpose
programming language." And it removes stains like magic.
JavaScript
Like Java, this is a programming language designed by Sun
Microsystems (in conjunction with Netscape) that can be integrated
into standard HTML pages. It is based off the Java programming
language, but is used mainly to create interactive web pages.
Because of the usefulness of JavaScript, many professional web
sites incorporate it in the HTML of their web pages to make them
more dynamic and interactive
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K
Kbps
Stands for "Kilobits Per Second." Try not to confuse this with
Kilobytes per second (which is 8 times more data per second). This
term is most often used in describing modem speeds. For example,
two common modem speeds are 33.6 Kbps and 56 Kbps.
Kilobyte
A kilobyte consists of 1024 bytes of computer data. (This is because
2^10 = 1024). Now, I realize this may be a shock to those of you,
who for your whole life, thought a kilobyte was 1000 bytes. "But 'kilo'
means one thousand!", you exclaim. Right, but in the computer
world, rules and guidelines don't really have the same influence as
they do in most other cases. Just ask any computer programmer.
However, because 1024 is so close to 1000, in most cases a
kilobyte is rounded off to 1000 bytes. Common download speeds
with a 56K modem are 3 to 5 kilobytes/sec. Abbreviation: "K".
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L
LAN
Stands for "Local Area Network" and is pronounced like "land"
without the "d". People will think you're weird if you say "L-A-N". It's
a computer network limited to a single building or small area. Most
large office buildings today use LANs, making it easy for employees
to share information. Currently, the most common type of LANs are
Ethernet-based and use software from Novell or Oracle.
Link
When you're browsing the Web and you see a highlighted and
underlined word or phrase on a page, there's a good chance you're
looking at a link. These friendly little guys allow you to "jump" to
another web site, another frame, or another part of the page you're
viewing en tks so that data can be transferred between a number of
computers. When e-mail gets sentveloping it was that he wasn't
happy with any of the currently available options (oh, if we all could
do that...).
He freely distributed his OS, helping it to gain popularity.
Today, Linux is currently used by hundreds of thousands of people
(maybe more) around the world. Computer hobbyists (a.k.a. geeks)
love it because it's very customizable and you can actually add your
own code to OS itself. However, Linux has also become the choice
for some corporations because it is an inexpensive substitute for
Unix. The current supported hardware platforms are Intel, PowerPC,
DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, and Motorola.
Login
Unlike the words "brush", "comb", and "e-mail", this term should not
be used as both a noun and a verb. It should only be used as a
noun, (You don't login to a server, you log in to it) and it refers to a
username, or a code that identifies you to a certain server. It is often
used in conjunction with a password to verify who is accessing the
server. For example, when trying to access some forbidden top
secret documents, you'll often encounter a screen that says,
"Please enter your login and password." Then you have to sit there
for hours trying to guess the stupid password...
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M
Modem
The word modem is actually short for Modulator/Demodulator. (Man,
was I excited when I first found that out.) A modem is a
communications device that can either be installed internally or used
externally. It allows computers to connect to each other and transfer
data over telephone lines. The largest downside to modems is that
they are rather slow. Because of their lacklustre speeds, many
multimedia capabilities such as streaming audio and video have
taken awhile to catch on. This will most likely change, however, as
cable and DSL modems replace the slow 28.8 and 56K modems
we've been using for so long.
Multimedia
As the name implies, multimedia is the integration of multiple forms
of media. This includes text, graphics, video, audio, etc. For
example, a presentation involving audio and video clips would be
considered a "multimedia presentation". Educational software that
involves animations, sound, and text would be called "multimedia
software". CDs and DVDs are often considered to be "multimedia
formats" since they can store a lot of data and most forms of
multimedia take up a lot of space.
Since multimedia is so commonplace today, due to the
advancements in computer speeds and storage, the term
"multimedia" doesn't produce the same excitement it once did. This
also means it isn't as overused as was it was back in the '90s.
Thank goodness.
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N
Network
When you have two or more computers connected to each other,
you have a network. The purpose of a network is to enable the
sharing of files and information between multiple systems. The
Internet is a commonly described as a "network of networks." Some
common types of network connections are through serial, phone,
and Ethernet cables.
Newsgroups
A discussion group that's based on postings by members on a
particular topic. These topics range from sports, autos, investing,
teen problems, and some stuff you probably don't want to know
about. The way newsgroups work is users post messages to a news
server which then sends them to a bunch of other participating
servers. The groups can be either "moderated", where someone
decides which postings will become part of the discussion, or "un-
moderated", where everything posted is included in the discussion.
To participate in a newsgroup, you must subscribe to it. It doesn't
cost anything, but some groups can be hard to get into. Nearly all
newsgroups are found on Usenet, which is a collection of servers
around the world. Because of the global spectrum of newsgroups,
they make up the largest bulletin board system in the world. From
the last I heard, there are more than 13,000 newsgroups in
existence, with new ones being added all the time.
There are many
"Newsreader" programs which allow you to access and participate
in newsgroups, but since the ability is integrated into Netscape
Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can just use
your web browser instead.
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O
Operating System
Also known as an "OS", this is the software that actually
communicates with computer's hardware. Without an operating
system, all software programs would be useless. The OS is what
allocates memory, processes tasks, accesses disks and
peripherals, and acts as the user interface.
With an operating system, like the Mac OS or Windows 98, developers can write to a
common set of programming interfaces (known as APIs) using the
operating system to talk the hardware. Without an operating system,
programmers would have to write about ten times as much code to
get the same results. Of course, there are people who have to
program the operating system itself...
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P
Packet
A small amount of computer data sent over a network. Any time you
receive data from the Internet, it comes to your computer in the form
of packets. Each packet contains the address of its origin and
destination, and information that allows it to "connect" to related
packets being sent. The process of sending and receiving packets is
known as "packet-switching". Packets from many different locations
can be sent on the same lines and be sorted and directed to
different routes by various computers along the way. Man, one of
those cheesy animations would really help explain this.
Ping
Though this term can refer to a golf brand as well as the sound
made by striking your glass with your spoon at the dinner table, it
also has a computer-related meaning. The main purpose of a ping is
to test a system on the Internet to see if it is working. "Pinging" a
server can also test and record the response time of servers and
other computers connected to the Internet. This is helpful in finding
Internet bottlenecks, so that data transfer paths can be rerouted the
most efficient way. Also, a good way to make sure you do not get
disconnected from your ISP for being idle is to send a ping every 5
minutes or so. There are a number of shareware Ping programs that
will do this for you.
Port
An Internet port refers to a number that indicates what kind of
protocol a server on the Internet is using. For example, web servers
typically are listed on port 80. Web browsers use this port by default
when accessing web pages, but you can also specify what port you
would like to use in the URL like this: http://www.excite.com:80/.
Game servers, like a Quake server, or a KALI server also use
different ports. It is good to know what a port is, but you seldom will
have to specify it manually, so don't freak out.
PPP
Stands for "Point to Point Protocol." It is the Internet standard for
dial-up connections. PPP is a set of rules that defines how your
modem connection exchanges packets of data with other systems
on the Internet. Basically, if you have an ISP that you connect to via
modem, you're most likely using PPP.
Protocol
When computers communicate, there needs to be some set of
guidelines that each computer follows when sending and receiving
data. This set of communication rules is called a protocol. There are
many different types of computers and operating systems, and just
as many different types of connections between them. That's why
we need protocols.
Though they do help standardize communications, there are still
many different protocols -- probably too many to remember. Some
examples of these different protocols are PPP, TCP/IP, SLIP,
HTTP, and FTP. Can you guess what the last "P" stands for in each
acronym? If not, I'll give you a hint: it's the same as "Robocop" with
a "p" at the beginning, the "b" changed to a "t", and the "l" changed
to a "p". Sorry, I'm wasting space again...
Proxy Server
It's hard to find a large business, organization, or university these
days that doesn't use a proxy server. When a proxy server is
installed, all computers on the local network have to go through the
server before accessing outside information on the Internet. By
using this technology, an organization can both improve the network
performance and filter what users connected to the network can
access.
A proxy server improves Internet access speeds from a network
primarily by using a caching system. Caching saves recently viewed
Web sites, images, and files on a local hard drive so that they don't
have to be downloaded from the Web again.
While your Web browser might save recently viewed items on your computer, a
proxy server caches everything accessed from the network. That
means if Bob views the cnn.com home page at 1:00 and Jill views
the same page at 1:03, she'll most likely get the page straight from
the proxy server's cache. Though this means super-fast access to
Web pages, it also means users might not be seeing the latest
update of a Web page.
The other main purpose a proxy server is to filter what is allowed
into the network. While HTTP, FTP, and Secure protocols all can be
filtered by a proxy server, HTTP is the most commonly filtered. The
proxy server can limit what Web sites users on the network can
access. Many organizations choose to block access to sites with
objectionable material such as hacking information and
pornography, but other sites can be filtered as well. If an employer
notices workers are spending too much time at a site like eBay or
Quicken.com, those sites can be blocked by the proxy server as
well.
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R
Router
A hardware device that routes (hence the name) data from a local
area network (LAN) to phone lines or another connection. Routers
act like a coin sorting machine, allowing only authorized machines
to send data through a LAN so that private information can remain
secure. Well, at least it's sort of like a coin machine... Routers also
handle errors and keep statistics about what's going on in the
network.
Root
Believe it or not, this term has nothing to do with root beer. Instead,
it is commonly used in reference to a computer's directory structure.
The root directory is the top-level directory of a file system. For
example, on a Windows-based PC, "C:" would be the root directory
of the C drive.
On a web server, the root directory is usually
designated by just a forward slash ("/ "). So, on a Unix system, you
would type "cd /" to go to the root directory. Root can also be a the
name of a user who has administrative privileges
on a Unix or Linux server. While other users can access only their
directory (i.e. "/www/users/~fred/"), the root user can access any
folder from the root directory up. This allows the root user to make a
lot of system changes such as messing up the permissions for
numerous users without knowing it.
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S
Server
As the name implies, a server serves information to computers that
connect to it. When users connect to the server, they can access
programs, files, and other information from the server. Common
servers are web servers, mail servers, and LAN servers. One server
computer can have several different server software packages
running on it.
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T
TCP/IP
Stands for "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol." In the
early days of the Internet, these two protocols were developed by
the U.S. military to allow computers communicate over long
distance networks.
The IP part refers to the moving of data packets
between nodes. The TCP part has to do with the verifying delivery
of the packets. TCP/IP has often been described as the foundation
of the Internet. Because it is such an integral part of Internet access,
TCP/IP is built into all major operating systems, such as Unix,
Windows, and yes, even the Mac OS.
Telnet
Simply put, Telnet is a program that allows you log on to a Unix-
based computer. If you have an account on a Telnet server, you can
access its resources (such as a directory of your files, e-mail, ftp,
etc). The downside of Telnet is, to use it, you need to use Unix
commands, which can be somewhat frustrating at times, especially
to Mac users (inside joke).
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U
Unix
Also known as UNIX, though it doesn't really stand for anything. The
Unix operating system was first created in Bell Labs way back in the
1960s. It became popular in the 1970s for general purpose
computing, but not on the consumer level. Since a lot of Internet
hosting is done on Unix machines, the platform gained tremendous
popularity in the 1990s.
It still remains somewhat of an ambiguous
operating system, as there are many different versions of it. These
include Ultrix, Xenix, Linux, and GNU, which, making things even
more confusing, all run on a number of different hardware platforms.
Most people don't need to mess with Unix, but computer geeks
seem to have the need to use it as much as possible.
Upload
If downloading is receiving a file from another computer, uploading
is the exact opposite. It is sending a file from your computer to
another one. Pretty straight forward. It is possible to both upload
and download at the same time, but it may cause slower transfer
speeds if you have a low bandwidth connection. Because most files
are located on huge ftp servers, people generally do a lot more
downloading than uploading.
URL
Stands for "Uniform Resource Locator." It is the address of a certain
file or directory on the Web. A URL can't have spaces and uses
forward slashes to definitively denote different directories. Some
examples of URLs are
http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/index.php,
http://www.wheaton.edu/, and ftp://info.apple.com/.
As you can see, not all URLs begin with "http". They also consist of two main parts.
The first part of a URL indicates what kind of resource it is
addressing. Here is a list of the different resource prefixes:
Http - a hypertext directory or document (such as a web page)
ftp - a directory of files or an actual file available to download
gopher - a gopher document or menu
telnet - a Unix-based computer system that you can log into
news - a newsgroup
WAIS - a database or document on a Wide Area Information Search
database
file - a file located on your hard drive or some other local drive
The second part of a URL (after the "://") contains the address of the
computer being located as well as the path to the file. For example,
in http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reports/index.php, "www.cnet.com"
is the address or domain name of the host computer and
"/Content/Reports/index.php" is the path to the file. When a file
ends with a slash and not something like "blahblah.php", the server
usually defaults to a file in the current directory named "index.php".
So, if you type in "http://www.sharpened.net/" and
"http://www.sharpened.net/index.php", you should get the same
page. Go ahead and try it if you have nothing better to do.
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V
VPN
Stands for "Virtual Private Network." (Not a competitor of UPN). This
is a network term that isn't used very much (probably because
VPNs are not very common), but at least you can impress your
friends by talking about them.
A VPN refers to a network partially
connected to the Internet, but uses encryption to scramble all the
data sent through the Internet so the entire network is "virtually"
private. For example, a large company that has offices in multiple
locations could send data to the different locations via the Internet,
but encrypt everything that is sent, thus creating a VPN. It's sort of
like having a secure Intranet over the Internet. Pretty cool.
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W
Web Page
Web pages are what make up the World Wide Web. These
documents are written in HTML (hypertext markup language) and
are translated by your Web browser. Web pages can either be static
or dynamic. Static pages are written in plain HTML and show the
same content each time they are viewed.
Dynamic pages have
content that can change each time they are viewed. These pages
are typically written in scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, ASP,
or JSP. The scripts in the pages call functions on the server that
return things like the date and time, and database information.
However, all information is returned in HTML form, so when it gets
to your browser, all the browser has to do is translate the HTML.
Please note that a Web page is not the same thing as a Web site! A
Web site is a collection of pages. A Web page is an individual HTML
document. This is a good thing to know, as most techies have little
tolerance for people who mix up the two terms.
Web Site
No, this is not the same thing as a Web page. Though the two terms
are often used interchangeably, they shouldn't be. So what's the
difference? Well, to put it simply, a Web site is a collection of Web
pages. For example, Amazon.com is a Web site, but there are
millions of Web pages that make up the site. Knowing the difference
between these two terms can save you from some major
embarrassment.
WWW
Stands for "World Wide Web." Contrary to popular belief, this is not
a synonym for the Internet. The World Wide Web, or just "the Web,"
as ordinary people call it, is a subset of the Internet.
The Web consists of web pages that can be accessed with a Web browser.
The Internet is the actual network of networks where all the
information resides. Things like Telnet, FTP, Internet gaming,
Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and e-mail are all part of the Internet, but
not the World Wide Web.
The Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
is the set of rules all web resources need to abide by. With
hypertext, a word or phrase can contain a link to another Web site.
All web pages are written in hypertext markup language (HTML),
which works hand-in-hand with HTTP.
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