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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.
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Backbone: Network of broadband connections between switches.
Bandwidth: A measure of the communication capacity or data transmission rate of a
circuit or channel.
Baud: An older term being replaced by bits per second or bps.
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: Colloquial term for programs that listen and respond on an IRC channel to
conversation. Also written as bot.
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.
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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 or 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).
Chat: 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.
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Database: A multi-user 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).
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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.
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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.
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Home: The startup page of a site, containing identity and index information.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language): A so-called tag language in which web pages are
formatted and web information is distributed.
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.
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Information Superhighway: A Buzz word. 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. (see Media Hype)
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.
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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.
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Link: See Hyperlink
List-Serv: A free software program for automating the _selftenance and delivery of
e-mail mailing lists. There are mailing lists for many different topics. Some lists are
open (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).
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Media: Information storage and distribution format (e.g. video tape, floppy disk,
optical disc, print, etc.) The extensions of mankindıs 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.
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NCSA: The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is an educational
institute. The Mosaic web browser was created here.
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.
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Page: A hypermedia document on the web
Peripheral Devices: Computer hardware other than your _self system, such as fixed,
floppy and CD-ROM drives, modems, joysticks, and video, sound and graphics cards, most of
which need separate hardware drivers (software).
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
POPs in Los Angeles and New York.
PPP: Point to Point Protocol. Dial-up Internet connection speaking in TCP/IP
protocol, somewhat faster than SLIP.
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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: Robots 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.
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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. Form 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.
SSL: The Secure Socket Layer is a protocol that Netscape uses to provide people
with secure transactions over the network.
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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.
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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.
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VRML: Virtual Reality Modeling Language. A so-called tag language in which web
pages are formatted that can support 3D graphics and interactive spatial navigation.
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WAIS: Wide Area Information Server. A powerful system for searching large amounts
of information very quickly over the Internet.
WAV: The file extension used on some types of audio files. Also written .wav.
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 transfer over the Internet. This utility also
decompresses files that were originally compressed using PKZIP or TAR formats.
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.
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ZIP: When one compresses (i.e., makes a smaller but equal copy) a file using a
program called pkzip, the resulting file is called a zip file. It usually ends with the
file extension .zip.
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