Glossary

We’ve created this glossary to help you understand the many terms which are so often used in internet and computing circles. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but hopefully we’ve covered the main words you’ll come across, especially on this site. All the bold words are mentioned in this glossary.

Simply click on the letters below to take you directly to that section. This is a very long page, however, you’ll see regular links to bring you back here.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M

N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A
Acrobat File or Portable Document Format (PDF) - This is a document that can be viewed on virtually any computer platform without losing the original page structure, font style and graphics.

ActiveX - A Microsoft technology which is used to create small components or controls within a Web page. Only used for Internet Explorer on Windows PC’s.

Alta Vista - Is one of the fastest and most powerful search engines around (www.altavista.digital.com) and has recently introduced unmetered internet access in the UK.

Animated Gif - This is an animated gif: it is composed of individual frames which are placed together to form an animation. This image is composed of 10 frames.

Anonymous FTP - Is an archive site that allows anyone to access it and download software or information in the form of a compressed data file.

AOL (America Online) - An all in one browser application which includes email facilities and magazine style content.

Apple - Either a refreshing fruit or in computing circles, the manufacturer of the excellent Macintosh computer.

Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) - A socket connection at the back of a Macintosh Computer for input devices (keyboard etc.) but has now been replaced by USB (Universal Serial Bus).

Applet - These are tiny applications written in Java, a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Applets can add extra functionality to the computer system and web page.

ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) - The US military is credited as being the birth place of what we call the Internet, through this early use of communicating via a computer to computer system.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) – A basic language which all computers understand. These are the letters, both upper and lower case, numbers and punctuation used by the computer in order to type text.

Attachment - A compressed file which is delivered as part of an email message, such as an image, sound or anything which can be sent via email. Beware of unexpected attachments, some computer viruses can be sent this way!

B
Bandwidth – Data transfer speeds depend heavily on bandwidth, which is basically the limitations of the telephone line on which the signals are carried. The connection of more computers to the internet reduces the bandwidth as more people try to use the same line, hence slower speeds. Simple email messages travel much faster than graphic rich websites.

Baud - The baud rate is the speed of a modem and is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Modern modems are 56 kilobits per second (kbs).

BBS (Bulletin Board System) - A place where messages can be posted, like an online message centre. Other people can read and reply to those message too.

BinHex - A standard conversion algorithm used to convert Macintosh binary files to and from the ASCII format. They are mostly used for transmitting files across a network. BinHex files have a .hqx extension.

Bitmap - An image file format used on computers. Usually use a .bmp extension.

Bit - The smallest size of computer information.

Bookmarks - Netscape Navigator’s way of saving the addresses of websites.

Browser - A program which allows your computer to download and display documents from the World Wide Web. Popular browsers include Netscape’s Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Byte - Is a collection of bits, usually 8.

C
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) - The name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. These programs activate when commands are sent to them from a website and can process the results of forms or visitor counters.

Cookie - A little piece of code sent to your computer from a website in order to record your movements on their site. When you return at a later date the website reads the cookies to see if you’ve been before - amongst other things.

D
Dialup - To use a telephone line or ISDN network to connect your computer to the Internet as opposed to a permanent connection.

DNS - The Domain Name Server is a system that will translate Internet names from the format www.sitename.com into a decimal notation format.

Domain - Part of the naming system of the Internet that specifies your computer’s location. The address is written as a series of names separated by full stops. The domain name at Cyberfire, for example, is cyberfire.uk.com.

Other domains include:

.com - commercial
.co.uk - company
.edu - education
.gov - public bodies
.mod - military (Ministry of Defence)
.net - network resource
.sch - schools

Download - When you take something off the internet and put it onto your computer. It could be a web page appearing in your browser or actual software which can be installed.

E
Email - Electronic mail sent from computer to computer

Email Address - This is a unique address within the Internet which allows people to send email to you. Your email address is made up of your name, the @ symbol and your domain name, so the address lee@cyberfire.uk.com is the address for the user Lee at the domain Cyberfire.uk.com.

Email Forwarding - When you register a domain name you can have the email of that domain address forwarded to your regular email account.

Encryption - A way of coding data so that it can’t be read by anyone other than the person intended.

Extensions - Are the letters on the end of a file which specifies what format it is. File formats can tell a user which applications can read them and what kind of document it is. Here are afew examples:

.html - a web page.
.eps - encapsulated postscript (graphic).
.tif - tagged image format file (graphic).
.bmp - bitmap file (graphic).
.txt - text file (text).
.psd - photoshop file (application).
.fhd - Freehand file (application).

External links - Links that take you from the current website to another website either in another browser window or the same one.

Extranet - An extension of an Intranet in that people outside of the Intranet with special access privialages can get access to the Intranet via a password.

F
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) - A document that answers the most commonly asked questions pertaining to the kind of site you’re in.

Firewall - A security system designed to restrict access to computers on a LAN from the outside world, which usually means the Internet.

Frames - Allows you to split a browser screen into several windows with a different web page in each. But pages using frames have their drawbacks in that they can take a long time to download, can cause navigational problems and not easy to bookmark.

Freeware - Free software. Sometimes freeware is used to promote a newer or a bigger version of that software but costs money. See Shareware.

Flame - Email from other people replying angrily to an email or message posted by someone.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - An Internet based protocol for moving files around the net. i.e. uploading to your server to build a website.

G
Gateway - This is a device that passes data between two different systems on a network.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - The most common way of compressing and storing images on the Net. GIF 89a is the latest version.

Gigabyte or Gb (1 Gb = 1,073,741,824 Bytes) - A Gigabyte is 1024 megabytes.

GUI (Graphical User Interface) - The way the computer looks on screen and the way you navigate through your computer system, through icons and images etc.

H
Hits - A measure of the number of times items have been downloaded from a web page. Items could be graphics, text, Java applets and so on. It is not a measure of the number of visitors to a site.

Home Page - The first page of a website, and the page that’s sent by the server as the default. It’s also used as a generic term to refer to a company, or an individual’s site.

Host - A computer you contact to get on the Internet. Each host has an IP address and a fully qualified Internet name. Hosts can manage/maintain websites on their servers as they are connected to the internet constantly. This website is hosted on a server.

HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) - The language used to create documents on the web.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) - The standard way of transferring HTML encoded documents between web servers and browsers.

Hypertext - Text on a web page that acts as a link to another place on the site or another site altogether.

I
IAP (Internet Access Provide) - A company who sells Internet access.

Internet - A collection of computers all over the world that communicate over the phone lines. On the internet you find web pages and websites.

Internet Explorer - Microsoft’s web browser which is now built into their operating system.

Intranet - An intranet uses Internet protocols and applications over an internal network. That is, an internet set-up within a company and not available to anyone outside of it.

Inline Images - Images that pop up as part of a web document.

IP (Internet Protocol) - One layer of a set of protocols which devices on the Internet use to communicate with each other. You’ll often see it written in conjunction with the other major protocol - Transmission Control Protocol - as TCP/IP.

IP Address - Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address. This is expressed in two ways: a dotted decimal notation, for example, 212.84.167.6 or by the more memorable machine and domain name, for example, lee@cyberfire.uk.com.

ISP (Internet Service Provider) - A company who sells Internet access.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) - Combines voice and digital services and allows you to send digital and voice information at speeds of 128Kb over the normal telephone network.

J
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) - A format which is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images and larger files and uses compression techniques to make the file size more ‘internet friendly.

Java - An object oriented language, a lot like C++. Java applets are self-contained programs that can be downloaded from a web server and executed on the client computer.

Javascript/JScript - A language developed to make webpages interactive or add features. See Roll-over.

K
Kill File - A file where you specify the email addresses of users whose mail and posts you don’t want to read.

L
LAN - A Local Area Network is a group of computers connected together to form a network.

Leased Line - A dedicated telecommunications connection between two points.

Lurking - Sitting on the edge of a newsgroup or mailing list listening to the discussion but not joining in. Good for beginners to get an idea of what’s happening before jumping in.

Lycos - A very good and accurate search engine found at www.lycos.com and www.lycos.co.uk

M
Macintosh (Mac) - The famous and distinctive computer developed by Apple. This system is favoured by designers, graphic artists and ordinary folk because of the superior qualities of the operating system, ease of use and reliability. The latest range consist of the iMac (consumer desktop model), iBook (consumer laptop model), G4 (professional desktop model) and PowerBook (professional laptop model).

Mail gateway - A computer that translates mail between different mail systems. It works out where the important bits (for example, subject, author, recipient) are in the message and translates the lot into the format required by the other system. There are mail gateways on the Internet between LAN mail systems and the Internet and also at your access provider, where the mail gateway stores mail for you and sends it on when you connect.

Mailing list - A system that allows you to send email to one address and have it copied and sent to all subscribers on that mailing list.

Microsoft - The company behind the infamous Windows operating system. Microsoft is regularly accused of ripping off other people’s technology and calling it their own and has recently been accused of monopoly practices.

Mirror - Some anonymous FTP sites are so heavily used that their entire contents are copied to, and made available from, other sites, to relieve the load. These are known as mirror sites.

Modem (MOdulator/ DEModulator) - A piece of hardware that translates the digital information your computer produces into analogue signals that can be sent down telephone lines and converted back at the other end.

N
NCSA - The National Centre for Supercomputing Applications, the developers of the first web browser, Mosaic.

Netscape Navigator - Originally the favoured web browser but now faces hard competition from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Netiquette - The rules of good online behaviour.

Newsgroup - These are the bulletin boards of the Internet. There are thousands of groups covering every subject imaginable.

NIC - Network Information Centre. In the early days of the Internet this was the central site which maintained IP addresses and domain names. Nowadays there are NICs throughout the world.

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) - The protocol used to exchange articles between news servers. This is also the protocol used for communication between a newsreader program and a newsgroup server.

Node - Any device connected to the Internet such as hosts.

O
Online - Refers to a computer which is or has a connection to the internet. Or that a website is on a server and can be reached by people on the internet.

Off-Line Reader - A piece of software which allows you to compose messages and email off-line and then post them up as a batch when you next go online. They also allow you to download all your emails and messages in one go so they can be read off-line (not connected to the internet).

Operating System - The heart and soul of the computer such as Mac OS 9, Unix, Linux and Windows and allows you to interact and perform tasks with the computer.

P
Packet - A bundle of data that’s transmitted across a network. A packet contains the source address (where the packet’s come from), the destination address (where it’s going), a packet identifier (so that the receiving computer can tell what sort of packet it is) and data.

Parked - When a domain name has been registered but has not yet been mapped to a website.

Pict - A Macintosh specific image file format.

Ping - A program that uses the TCP/IP protocol to send a message to a host’s network interface to see if it exists. Useful for network troubleshooting.

POP (Point of Presence) - A local Internet access point set up by an access provider to reduce the telephone charges for people dialling in.

POP3 - An email transfer protocol.

PPP (Point to Point Protocol) - The protocol that allows a computer to use the normal telephone line and a modem to make a TCP/IP connection. If you dial up your Internet access provider you’ll most likely be using a PPP connection.

Plug-in - Add-ons for web browsers. Plug-ins add features such as the ability to play video and sound or any specialist feature on a particular site.

Protocol - Essentially an agreed way for two devices on a network to communicate with each other.

Q
QuickTime - This program, developed by Apple, is now a standard internet tool which allows the playback of animation, video and sound on websites and multimedia discs.

R
Roll-over - A mouse activated function on a webpage, which causes 2 images to swap, like the buttons on this website or the example shown here:

Router - Routers connect all the networks that make up the Internet together and exchange packets (information) between them.

S
Search Engine - A tool which searches through the content of the web to find specific phrases, words or websites and displays the results for you to choose from.

Server - A computer which makes services and data available.

Shareware - Software which you can test out for a certain amount of time before having to pay it.

Shockwave - Macromedia’s software which allows you to create Macromedia Director presentations that can be viewed on the Net.

Signature File - A message which automatically adds itself to email you send. You can write anything in your signature file from adverts to your website address.

SLIP - Serial Line Internet Protocol – a protocol that allows devices to use IP over asynchronous and synchronous communications links. Superseded by PPP.

Smilies - Punctuation that when viewed sideways-on, looks like human expressions, e.g,. happy :-) sad :-( astonishment :-o

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - The Internet protocol for transferring mail.

Spam - Slang for posting unwanted/unexpected messages to multiple email address or newsgroups; the electronic equivalent of junk mail and is not welcome.

Stuffit - A program that compresses files and uses the .sit and .sea extensions. Originally developed by Aladdin Systems for the Mac but is now cross platform.

T
Tags - The formatting codes used to create HTML documents (web pages).

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) - The standard procedure for regulating transmission on the internet.

Telnet - The protocol that allows you to connect your computer to a host computer so it appears like you’re a dumb terminal to that host. Telnet once made up the majority of Internet traffic but it’s now been superseded by the web.

Terminal Adapter - The equipment used to connect your computer to an ISDN line.

TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) - A cut down version of FTP, used when a host needs to automatically download a file from another host on the network.

Thread - A thread is like an online conversation and is made up of linked postings sent to a message area or conference.

U
Unix - An operating system that allows multiple users to access the resources of one host at the same time. Many news, mail, web and name servers on the Internet use this operating system.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator. The URL defines the name of the computer that the site is housed on and the path and the file name. The full URL for us is http://www.cyberfire.uk.com.

USB - A new connection standard developed by Intel for connecting keyboards, printers or anything with a USB cable to a computer. Apple was the first to adopt this new standard.

Usenet - The huge system of discussion groups on the Net where comments are passed among many thousands of machines. The discussion areas on Usenet are called newsgroups.

UUencode - A way of translating binary data so it can be sent as an ASCII file across the Internet. You do need a decoder though to convert it back into its native format at the other end.

V
Virus - A virus is a type of malicious program which aims to destroy data on a computer system. They are designed to replicate undetected until it’s too late. The internet is one way viruses are able to spread as well as on infected disks and CD’s. You should always have up-to-date antivirus software on your computer to prevent data loss.

VRML - Virtual Reality Modelling Language. This file format allows you to create 3D graphics for the Internet.

W

W.A.P - (Wireless Application Protocol) Still in its infancy, this is the format used by mobile devices (phones etc) to display websites which have been written in WML, (Wireless Markup Language). WAP sites are primarily text based for download speed and phone window size. In the future we will have websites as we know today displayed on such devices. See www.wapforum.com for further information.

Web Server - A web server delivers web pages to your computer.

Web Page - A combination of HTML and graphics combined to form a sort of electronic magazine accessible by computers connected to the internet.

Website - A collection of web pages connected by hyperlinks.

Windows - The name of Microsoft's operating system. Eg. Windows 3.11, 95, 98, NT and now 2000

WHOIS - An Internet program which allows you to query a database of both people and Internet resources (domains, hosts and so on). You get back details such as company name, address and email address.

WWW (World Wide Web also known as the Web) - This is the generic name given to all of the hypertext-based HTML documents on the Internet. These documents have links to each other and are accessible from HTTP or web servers.

X
X-Modem - A protocol used to transfer files between two computers, usually with modems.

Y
Yahoo - A directory of Internet content and free email facility which is similar to a search engine.

Y-Modem - A protocol used to transfer files between two computers primarily through modems.

Z
.Zip - A compression format used on Windows PC’s.

Z-Modem - Another protocol used to transfer files between two computers primarily through modems.

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