| INTERNET SPEAK
|
Have you ever wondered what "HTML" or "WWW"
stands for? We try to explain a few of these abbreviations and
technical terms with the following:
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| Baud rate
|
The speed rate of a
data channel - expressed as bits per second (bps)- which is usually
used when referring to modem speeds.
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| Bits and bytes
|
A bit is the smallest
piece of information that a computer deals with - either an 0 or a
1. The word bit comes from "B"inary dig"IT".
Bytes are a collection of bits and usually come in a form of
seven-bit bytes and eight-bit bytes.
Kilobyte (kb)
A thousand bytes (1024, or 2^ 10 bytes)
Megabyte (Mb)
A thousand kilobytes (1024kb). A million bytes.
Gigabyte (Gb)
A thousand Megabytes (1024Mb). A million kilobytes.
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| Browser
|
A program which allows
your computer to download and display documents from the World Wide
Web. Some browsers can also FTP and read Usenet postings. Popular
browsers include Netscape Navigator and Communicator, and Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
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| Bandwidth
|
The amount you can
send through a modem, measured in bits-per- second (Bps).
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| Bps
|
Bits-per-second. A
measurement of how fast data is transferred. A 28.8 modem can move
28,800 bits per second.
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| Cookie
|
A piece of code sent
by a website to your browser that the browser is expected to save
and to send back to the website if you visit the website again. You
can set your browser to warn you of cookies.
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| Dialup
|
This means using
telephone lines or ISDN networks to connect your computer to a
service / the Internet. The opposite of a permanent connection, it
means you have to make a phone call to get online.
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| Domain
|
The part of the
Internet name that specifies your computers location in the world is
written as a series of names separated by full stops. Adept's domain
name is "adept.co.za" where ".co" means company
and ".za" South Africa.
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| email address
|
This is a unique
address within the Internet which lets people send mail to you. It's
usually your name, the @ symbol and your domain name for example
"me@stellenbosch.co.za"
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| Frames
|
An HTML feature that
allows web designers to split up the window of a web browser into
sections. Frames allow you to view several pages without re-loading
the entire pages.
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| FTP
|
File Transfer Protocol
is the basic way of transferring files across the Internet. If you
want to get files from another computer then you'll need an FTP
client (available as shareware or with most WWW browsers).
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| GIF's & JPEG's
|
A way of compressing
and storing images used on the Net.
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| Hypertext
|
Text that contains
links to other documents - words or phrases in the document that can
be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be opened
and displayed.
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| Home Page
|
Technically, an
opening page on a World Wide Web site, and the page that will be
sent by the server as the first. It's also used as a term to refer
to a company, or an individual's site.
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| Host
|
The computer you
contact to get on the Internet - each host has an IP address and a
fully qualified Internet name.
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| HTML
|
Hyper Text Mark-up
Language - this is the language used to create documents on the
World Wide Web.
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| HTTP
|
Hypertext Transfer
Protocol - the standard way of transferring HTML- encoded documents
between Web servers and clients (browsers). A computer that is
acting as a Web server is often referred to as an HTTP server.
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| Intranet
|
A private network of
computers inside a company or organization that use the same kinds
of software that you would find on the Internet, but that is only
for internal use.
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| IP address
|
Every computer
connected to the Internet has to have an address. Confusingly, this
is expressed in two ways: as an IP address in dotted decimal
notation, eg. 158.152.34.2; or by the more memorable machine and
domain name, eg. mypc@company.co.za. Within the mechanics of the
Internet itself the dotted decimal version, ie. the IP address, is
the format which is used.
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| ISP
|
An Internet Service
Provider. It's a company whose business is selling Internet access
to others. Some service providers sell access to other service
providers, some specialise in selling connections to companies,
usually over leased lines.
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| Java
|
Java is an
object-oriented programming language invented by Sun microsystems
specifically designed for writing programs that can be downloaded to
your PC through the Internet. Java programs (called
"Applets") are used for Web pages that include functions
such as animations, calculators etc.
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| MIME
|
Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions, the standard for attaching non-text files to
standard Internet mail. Non-text files include graphics,
spreadsheets, formatted word-processor documents, sound files, etc.
An email program is said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send
and receive files using the MIME standard.
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| Mirror
|
Some FTP- and
web-sites are so heavily used that their entire contents are copied
to other sites to share the workload. These are known as mirror
sites.
|
| Modem
|
This stands for
MOdulator/DEModulator - a device that translates the digital
information your computer produces into analogue signals that can be
sent down normal telephone lines. Modem specifications primarily
refer to the speed at which they can communicate, generally given in
terms of V-series.
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| Newbie
|
A novice or new user
on the Internet.
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| Newsgroup
|
These are the
Internet's bulletin boards. There are hundreds of thousands of
groups covering every subject under the sun. Most ISPs and
organisations have a newsgroup server which periodically receives a
feed of news from another newsgroup server on the network - it takes
all new messages from the feed and then adds the messages which have
been posted by it's own users. The feed then goes onto another
newgroup server. The collective name for these newsgroup servers is
the Usenet. To access the newsgroups stored on your access
provider's server, you need a newsreader program.
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| Packet
|
A bundle of data that
traverses a network. On the Internet a packet is formed by the IP
part of the TCP/IP protocol. It must contain 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 some data.
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| Plugin
|
A small piece of
software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common
examples are plug-ins for the Netscape navigator browser and web
server.
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| POP
|
Point of Presence - a
local Internet access point set up by an access provider to reduce
the telephone charges for people dialing in.
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| POP3
|
An e-mail transfer
protocol.
In this case, POP = post office protocol.
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| Protocol
|
Essentially an agreed
way for two devices on a network to communicate with each other, it
defines many issues including packet format, how it is verified, how
routers deal with it, and what to do if a packet goes missing.
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| Security
Certificate
|
A chunk of information
that is used by the SSL (secure socket layer) protocol to establish
a secure connection. When confidential information is passed over
the Internet (like credit card details), the secure connection
prevents anyone besides the sender and receiver to read it.
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| SSL
|
Secure socket layer. A
protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted,
authenticated communications across the Internet. URL's that begin
with "https" indicate that an SSL connection will be used.
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| Server
|
A central computer
which makes services and data available.
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| SMTP
|
Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol - the Internet protocol for transferring mail.
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| TCP/IP
|
Transmission Control
Protocol - the major protocol in the suite of Internet protocols. It
takes the information to be translated by the application and passes
it to the IP to be transmitted. Where IP is responsible for getting
a packet from one host to another, TCP is responsible for ensuring
that messages get from one host to another and that the messages are
understood. Internet Protocol is one layer of the set of protocol
within each other. It defines how packets of data get from their
source to their intended destination.
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| URL
|
Uniform Resource
Locator - The standard way to give the address of any resource on
the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). e.g.
http://www.corel.com/software.html
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| WWW
|
World Wide Web - also
known as the Web - this is the generic name given to all of the HTML
documents on the Internet that have links to each other and are
accessible from HTTP or WWWeb servers. The WWW has been the 'killer
application', which has driven the Net's popularity.
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|
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