applet
An
application that is downloaded from a web page and executed by browser software.
Also, an HTML tag that defines an applet program.
B
browser
Software that will load and display a web
page. A browser interprets the HTML or XML code from the web page files,
executes embedded scripts and programs, provides encryption/decryption for
security where needed, displays graphics (except text-only browsers), plays
music and video, and provides links to related pages. Browsers are based on
standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. The major browser software
developers participate in these standardss, but each of them also builds in
their own proprietary codes, whether or not they are approved. These
differences in browsers create a challenge for web page developers.
The principle browsers are Firefox, Microsoft Internet
Explorer, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. There are also specialized browsers, such
as Webbie, which will convert text to speech for the visually impaired.
C
CGI -- (Common Gateway Interface)
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates
with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of
software (the ?CGI program?) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can
be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.
cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a web
server in which CGIprograms are stored.
Cookie
The most common meaning of "Cookie"
on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to
a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save
and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests
from the Server.
Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the Browsers'
settings, the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie, and may save the
Cookie for either a short time or a long time.
Cookies might contain information such as login or
registration information, online "shopping cart" information, user
preferences, etc.
When a Server receives a request from a Browser that
includes a Cookie, the Server is able to use the information stored in the
Cookie. For example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user,
or keep a log of particular users' requests.
Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined
amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is
closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their "expire
time" has not been reached.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life
story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user
than would be possible without them.
D
Domain
Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet
site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on
the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A
given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points
to only one machine. For example, the domain names:
matisse.net
mail.matisse.net
workshop.matisse.net
can all refer to the same machine, but each
domain name can refer to no more than one machine.
Usually, all of the machines on a given Network will have
the same thing as the right-hand portion of their Domain Names (matisse.net in
the examples above). It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be
connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business
can have an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet
site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf
of the listed Domain Name.
F
Frames are a technique used in web pages to
divide the page into multiple windows, where each window is called a frame and
can contain its own separate page. The advantage of frames is that one window
can be scrolled or changed while other windows remain fixed for such purposes
as keeping a menu in view all the time. The disadvantage is that not all browsers support them.
A packet switching standard based on the older X.25 protocol that achieves greater speeds with fast,
reliable networks. It lowers overhead by reducing the accounting and checking
procedures used in X.25.
Sometimes server software is designed so that additional
capabilities can be added to the main program by adding small programs known as servlets.
File Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol
that permits you to transfer files between your system and another system.
H
HyperText Markup Language. The coding system
used to create WWW pages. A page written
in HTML is a text file that includes tags in
angle brackets that control the fonts and type sizes, insertion of graphics,
layout of tables and frames, paragraphing, calls to short runnable programs,
and hypertext links to other pages. Files written in HTML generally use an
.html or .htm extension. See the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML Page for more
information.
HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is the main
protocol used on the World Wide Web that enables linking to other web sites.
Addressing to other web pages begins with "http://" and is followed
by the domain name or IP address.
A form of text which includes visible links
to other pages of text or media, accessible by clicking or selecting the links.
I
Internet Relay Chat. An Internet protocol
that allows people all over the world to meet in conference groups (called
channels) and chat with each other by typing. For more information, see the IRC FAQ.
Internet Service Provider. An institution that provides
access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.
J
JPEG -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
JPEG
is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format is
preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed
to line art or simple logo art.
M
N
Short
for net etiquette. The basic principles of courtesy and consideration for
others that can keep communication on the Internet a pleasure for all.
P
Adobe's
Portable Document Format. It is often used as a format which allows much more
complete, controlled layout of a page and its graphics and text than
conventional HTML does. It requires a browser plug-in to see a web page in PDF
format. Files will usually have a .pdf extension.
To create a page in PDF format, you need
Adobe Acrobat (not the free Acrobat Reader) or other premium Adobe software.
plug-in
A piece of software that plugs into a main
program to give it added capability, for example, you can add a Quick Time
plug-in to your browser to play Quick Time movies on the web.
Pop Up
Windows
A special kind of
pop-up window is a pull-down menu, which appears just below the item you
selected, as if you had pulled it down.
(n.) Also called a drop-down menu,
a menu of commands or options that
appears when you select an item with a mouse.
The item you select is generally at the top of the display screen, and the menu appears just below it, as if you
had pulled it down.
S
Scrolling
Most
computer programs display their content within a window.
However, windows are often not large enough to display their entire content at
once. Therefore, you may have to scroll through the window to view the rest of
the contents. For example, on some monitors,
a page from a word processing document may not fit within the main
window when viewed at 100%. Therefore, you may have to scroll down the window
to view the rest of the page. Similarly, many Web pages do
not fit completely within a window and may require you to scroll both
vertically and horizontally to see all the content.
To
scroll up or down within a window, simply click the scroll bar on
the right-hand side of the window and drag the slider up or down. If the window
requires horizontal scrolling as well, click the scroll bar at the bottom of
the window and drag the slider to the right or left. Some computer mice also
include a scroll wheel that allows you to scroll through the window
by rolling the wheel back and forth.
Search
Engine
A (usually web-based) system for searching
the information available on the Web.
Some search engines work by automatically searching the
contents of other systems and creating a database of the results. Other search
engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in a database,
and some combine the two approaches.
Server
A computer, or a software package, that
provides a specific kind of service to client software running
on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such
as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is
running, e.g. "Our mail server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't
getting out."
A single server machine can (and often does) have several
different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different
servers to clients on the network.
Traditionally, spam is flooding message
boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, or your mailbox with unwanted, unsolicited
off-topic messages--usually ads or promotions or deliberate disruptions. It is
a major violation of netiquette, and it violates member agreements in most places
and can lead to account cancellation. While spam is usually viewed as large
numbers of messages, to the individual, one unwanted message is spam. The term
was inspired by an old Monty Python sketch about a repetitive menu with spam,
spam, eggs, and spam.
T
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol. The protocols that are the basis for transmitting and routing data
packets on the Internet. The Internet Protocol is the one thing that all
current Internet sites have in common. The basic TCP/IP model has five layers
of interaction:
·
Physical or Data Transport Layer. This most basic layer
moves data over cables based on the physical address of each Network Interface
Card (NIC). The most common types are ethernet and token ring.
·
Data Link Layer. This layer frames the packets of data
that are sent through the network. PPP, frame relay, and X.25 operate at this layer. Bridges connect local networks at this layer.
·
Network or Internet Protocol Layer. This layer puts an
Internet Protocol wrapper around the data with source and destination addresses
in its header. Routers, which connect networks together,
operate at this layer.
·
Transport Layer. This layer governs the setting of
suitable packet sizes, segmenting and reassembling data, detection of errors,
and flow control.
·
Application Layer. This layer provides for standard
interfaces for such functions as message handling and file transfer and remote
login. It allows, for example, for different e-mail programs to be used, as
long as they conform to the standard interface. This layer in TCP/IP
corresponds to the session, presentation, and application layers in the OSI model.
Telnet
The command and program used to login from
one Internet siteto another. The telnet command/program gets
you to the login: prompt of another host.
U
Uniform Resource Locator. URLs specify the
location of a resource in the Internet.You can type or paste a URL into the
Location window in your browser and then connect to it. The URL shows the type
of item and its basic address and path. The major types are http, gopher, ftp,
telnet, newsgroups, news articles, and files, which may be programs, text,
graphics, audio, video, etc.
W
Wide Area Network.
WWW -- (World Wide Web)
World Wide Web (or simply Web for short) is a
term frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet",
WWW has two major meanings:
First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources
that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP,telnet, USENET, WAIS and
some other tools.
Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP
servers), more commonly called "web servers", which are the
servers that serve web pages to web browsers.
