| Access Provider | |
| Company or organization that allows you to access the Internet through a dial-up account or leased-line. Examples; AOL, Demon Internet, BT, Karoo. |
| See also: (Internet Service Provider) |
| |
| Acrobat Reader | |
| A software program from Adobe that allows you to view PDF files. It is available as a free download from Adobe's website. |
| See also: (PDF) |
| |
| Active Server Pages (ASP) | |
| A specification for dynamically created web pages that contain Visual Basic or Javascript. When an ASP page is requested the web server generates the HTML code in real-time (on-the-fly) and sends it to the browser. |
|
| |
| ActiveX | |
| Used to make interactive web pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static pages. With ActiveX, users can ask or answer questions, use push buttons, and interact in other ways with the web page. |
| See also: (ASP, CGI) |
| |
| Add URL (Submit URL, Suggest a Site) | |
| Commonly used by search engines and web directories to indicate where you can add your website details for possible inclusion in their listings. |
| See also: (Email, Search Engine, Web Directory) |
| |
| Address | |
| The location of an Internet resource such as an email address, or website address. |
| See also: (Email Address, Web Address) |
| |
| Affiliate | |
| Someone who advertises the products and services of another website and is paid a commission when the person they have referred buys a product or service, or responds to an advertisement. |
|
| |
| ALT tag | |
| HTML tag used to display alternative text for an image. This is useful if your visitor does not have images enabled in their browser or is using software to assist with the reading of your web pages. |
| See also: (HTML) |
| |
| American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) (pron. ass-key) | |
| Worldwide standard for the code numbers assigned to each key on the keyboard. ASCII text does not include formatting and therefore can be exchanged and read by most computer systems. |
|
| |
| Anchor (Link, Hyperlink) | |
| Either a named location in a page of HTML or the destination of a hyperlink. The glossary names are examples of named anchors, and the letters on the alphabet bar above are examples of destination hyperlinks. |
|
| |
| Animated GIF | |
| Animated graphic file in (.gif) format. Several images are layered in frames and displayed on a timed basis to form an animation. This format is popular because the limited number of colours (255) helps to keep file sizes to a minimum. |
| See also: (GIF) |
| |
| Anonymous FTP | |
| An FTP server that allows you to login without a userid and password. You generally use 'anonymous' as your userid and your email address as your password. |
| See also: (FTP) |
| |
| Applet | |
| A small program that can be downloaded across a network or over the Internet and launched on your computer. Designed to minimise the use of resources on a server. |
| See also: (Java) |
| |
| Attachment (email) | |
| A computer file that is inserted into an email and delivered with the message text. Attachments can include data files, pictures, and sounds. Caution should be exercised when receiving an attachment from an unknown source to protect your PC from virus infection. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Autoresponder | |
| A software program running on your web server that automatically responds to specific incoming emails. You can configure it to respond and reply to specific email addresses, or to all your incoming email. Generally used to send product/service information emails, and for when you are out of the office or on holiday and are unable to respond to email immediately. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| AVI | |
| Audio/Video Interleaved. A common video file format (.avi). Can be used to display video in web pages or to distribute short video clips as file downloads or attachments. |
| See also: (MP3, Real Audio) |
| |
| Bandwidth | |
| A term used for the volume of information that can be transmitted over a network at a given time. The higher the bandwidth, the more data can be transmitted. |
| See also: (Internet Service Provider) |
| |
| Banner Ad (Banner) | |
| A term used to describe one of the most common Internet advertisement formats. Most often seen across the top of webpages and in a variety of popular pixel sizes: 468x60, 392x72, 234x60 |
| See also: (Button, Hypermedia) |
| |
| Bitmap | |
| A common image file format (.bmp) |
| See also: (GIF, JPEG, TIFF) |
| |
| Bits Per Second (BPS) | |
| The volume of data that a modem is capable of transmitting. A modem denoted as 28.8K bps means it is capable of transmitting data at 28,800 bits per second. |
| See also: (Modem) |
| |
| Bookmark | |
| A hyperlink stored in a web browser for future reference. |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
| |
| Bounce | |
| The return of an email because it could not be delivered to the specified email address. When your message returns it is said to have been 'Bounced'. |
| See also: (Email, Email Address) |
| |
| Broadband | |
| Broadband channels are carried on coaxial or fibre-optic cables that offer a wider bandwidth than conventional telephone lines, giving them the ability to carry video, voice, and data simultaneously. |
| See also: (Bandwidth) |
| |
| Bug | |
| Not the creepy-crawly kind, rather a problem with computer software or hardware that causes it to malfunction. If software is prone to regular malfunctions it is described as 'buggy'. |
|
| |
| Bulletin Board System (BBS) | |
| An open computer system that you can dial into. Most commonly used for discussion groups, file downloads, and messaging between members. Early BBS's (before the Internet) were generally operated from a single computer with no outside connections. However, with the advent of the Internet many now offer access to Internet email, FTP, and other Internet services. |
|
| |
| Button | |
| A graphic that a user can 'click' on to do something. Most commonly used to refer to smaller advertisement banners with the following pixel sizes: 88x31, 120x60, 120x90. |
| See also: (Banner Ad, GIF) |
| |
| Cache | |
| A region of memory or a directory on your hard drive where frequently used data can be stored for quick access. If enabled, your web browser will cache the HTML of web pages as you visit them. When you return to a page that your browser has cached, it will use the HTML it has in its cache, which speeds up the display of the page because the browser does not need to download it again. |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
| |
| cc: | |
| Abbreviation for Carbon Copy. Using cc: you can send a copy of your email message to someone else, or to several other recipients, without having to copy or retype the message. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| cgi-bin | |
| A directory (folder) on a web server that contains executable programs (scripts). This directory is usually set aside for the purpose of executing (running) scripts and is generally the only directory on a web server where scripts are given permission to execute. |
| See also: (CGI, Script) |
| |
| Chat Room | |
| A place on the Internet where people can chat to each other in real-time. Once inside a chat room you will see a list of other users in the same room and the text of the current conversation. You chat by typing your message and adding it to the conversation. To help you keep track of the conversation, each message is prefixed with the user's name. You can also have private conversations with one or members of the room that cannot be seen by everyone else. Chat software is usually required, one of the more popular ones being IRC (Internet Relay Chat), or MIRC. |
| See also: (IRC, Newsgroups) |
| |
| Click-through | |
| The term used to describe clicking an online advertisement and going 'through' to the advertiser's website. |
|
| |
| Common Gateway Interface (CGI) | |
| A standard for running programs on an Internet web server, often called 'scripts'. |
| See also: (ASP, cgi-bin, Script, Web Server) |
| |
| Compression | |
| A method of reducing the size of a file in order to save space and speed up transfer times. Especially useful for Internet users because many people pay for the time they are connected. The most common tool for compressing and uncompressing files is Winzip. Files compressed with Winzip have the (.zip) extension. |
|
| |
| Cookie | |
| Information stored on your computer by a web site you visit. They are generally used to track your preferences, such as your username when visiting websites that require you to login, and the areas of a website you visit most often. |
| See also: (Login) |
| |
| Counter | |
| A number displayed on many web pages that shows how many times the page has been requested. Generally meant to indicate how many people have visited the page. |
| See also: (Hit) |
| |
| Cracker | |
| A malicious hacker. |
| See also: (Hacker) |
| |
| Cross-posting | |
| To post a message simultaneously to multiple newsgroups or discussion groups. Inconsiderate or unnecessary cross-posting is considered poor Netiquette. |
|
| |
| Delivery Receipt (email) | |
| An optional feature of modern email software that notifies you when your message has been delivered to its recipient. There is also a Read Receipt that will notify you when the message has been opened or read. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Discussion Group (Newsgroup) | |
| An area within the USENET system that is typically used for the discussion of a particular topic or subject. There are tens of thousands of discussion groups, also commonly called newsgroups. |
| See also: (Newsgroups, USENET) |
| |
| Domain Name | |
| A unique name that identifies an entity on the Internet, such as: dtopwebdesign.com, qango.com, etc. Commonly observed when browsing the web with 'www.' at the beginning, or when sending email with 'email.name@' at the start to denote the recipient of the email for that domain. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Download | |
| The transfer of files from a remote computer to your computer. The opposite action is upload (the transfer from your computer to a remote computer). When you collect your email you download it from a mail server, when you publish your webpages you upload them to your web server. |
| See also: (FTP, Upload) |
| |
| Electronic Commerce (e-commerce) | |
| General term used to describe conducting business on the Internet. Often miss-used, it applies to the complete transaction of a purchase directly from a merchants' website. This is often done through an online store and will include presentation of the product or service, transaction of the purchase, and fulfilment of the order in a single process, all directly from the website. Businesses that offer information about their products and services, but do not offer a direct web-based purchase facility, are not truly e-commerce enabled. |
|
| |
| Email (electronic mail, E-mail, email, e-mail) | |
| Quite simply, an email is a message that is sent electronically, most commonly via the Internet. Email is the most widely used part of the Internet due to its cost effective capability of sending messages anywhere in the world almost instantaneously, and at a cheaper cost than regular postal mail ('snail mail) or making a telephone call. In addition, email's can also include binary encoded files (attachments) giving you the ability to swap computer files with colleagues, friends, etc. |
| See also: (Attachment, Chat Room, Encryption, Mailbox) |
| |
| Email Address | |
| An electronic mail address. Email addresses are in the form: emailname@domain (e.g.; shaun@dtopwebdesign.com). |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Email Alias | |
| An additional email address used to redirect email to another email address. Most commonly used to forward email from several domains to a single collection point. You may have a dial-up email address of email@dialup.com and own the domains bob1.com, bob2.com, and bob3.com. Using an email alias you can forward all email for each of your 'bob' domains to email@dailup.com so that you can collect and read all of your email in one go. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Emoticon | |
| A combination of characters used to form a facial expression, coming from two words; emotion and icon. Used to express your mood within text messages since the viewer cannot see your face to interpret your facial expressions. |
| See also: (Chat Room, Email) |
| |
| Encryption | |
| Security system to scramble the contents of an email or file before it is sent across the Internet. The recipient must have software to decrypt whatever you send them, and a 'key' system is employed to ensure that only authorised recipients can decrypt your information. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is one of the most commonly used encryption programs. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Ezine (ezine) | |
| A magazine in electronic form, as opposed to a paper-based printed magazine. Ezine's are usually delivered via a web site or an email newsletter. |
|
| |
| Finger | |
| A UNIX utility that reports information about other users. |
| See also: (Unix) |
| |
| Firewall | |
| A hardware or software system for securing data on a PC or local network from unauthorised access by Internet users. |
| See also: (LAN) |
| |
| Flame | |
| Usually used in reference to USENET discussion groups and mailing lists where someone is aggressive, rude or derogatory just for the sake of it (flamer). |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Mailing List) |
| |
| Flash | |
| Multimedia file format developed by Macromedia. Typically used for complex animation or to add enhanced user interactivity to a website. To view flash files you need a plug-in for your web browser. |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
| |
| Follow-up | |
| A reply to a discussion group posting. |
| See also: (Discussion Group) |
| |
| Forums | |
| Topic focused discussion groups or areas. |
| See also: (Discussion Group) |
| |
| Forwarding | |
| Sending an email message to a third party. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Freeware | |
| Non-copyright software made available free for public use by the author. |
| See also: (Shareware) |
| |
| FTP (File Transfer Protocol) | |
| Protocol for the transfer of files from one computer to another. Used widely across the Internet for maintaining files on web servers (updating websites) and for downloading files from anonymous FTP servers. |
| See also: (Download, Upload, Web Server) |
| |
| FWIW | |
| Abbreviation of 'For What It's Worth'. |
|
| |
| FYI (For Your Information) | |
| Commonly used acronym in email and discussion groups. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Email) |
| |
| Gateway | |
| A computer that links two networks, often converting protocols or messages from one network format to the other. The term can also refer to a system that provides direct access to other remote services, i.e.; a 'gateway' to the Internet. |
|
| |
| GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) | |
| A commonly used image file format on the web. Originally developed by CompuServe, it uses a reduced colour spectrum (256 colours) to compress images to a small size for quick transportation and downloading. Particularly suited to navigation buttons where the images are small in size and contain relatively few colours. |
| See also: (Animated GIF, Button, JPEG, TIFF) |
| |
| Gigabyte | |
| 1000 Megabytes. |
| See also: (Megabyte, Terabyte) |
| |
| Gopher | |
| Invented at the University of Minnesota and named after its mascot, this is the direct precursor, in both concept and function, to the World Wide Web. |
| See also: (FTP) |
| |
| Guerilla Marketing | |
| Unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. |
|
| |
| Hacker | |
| An expert programmer who spends a lot of time figuring out the finer details of computer systems and networks. Despite popular folklore a hacker is usually not malicious, as opposed to a cracker who often has malicious intent. |
| See also: (Cracker) |
| |
| Handle | |
| A nickname used in online communications, commonly found in online discussion forums or in chat rooms. |
| See also: (Chat Room, IRC) |
| |
| Hit | |
| Refers to a single request for a single item on a web server. If a web page has two images it will generate three hits, one for the HTML page itself and two for the images. Often incorrectly used to measure the number of people visiting a web page or site. Also used in Internet advertising to refer to a click-through on an advertisement. |
| See also: (Counter) |
| |
| Homepage (Home Page) | |
| Several meanings. The most common meaning refers to the main starting page of a website, the most top-level HTML page or Index page. It can also mean the web page that your browser will go to when it starts up. |
|
| |
| Hotspot | |
| An area of an image file that contains an embedded hyperlink. |
| See also: (Hyperlink, Link) |
| |
| HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) | |
| HTML is the foundation for most web pages and consists of structured markers (tags) that allow you to format text and specify the placement of images within a HTML document. HTML is independent of operating system, editor software, or web server platform. |
| See also: (http, XML) |
| |
| http (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) | |
| A protocol that tells computers how to communicate with each other. You will notice most web page locations begin with "http://" |
| See also: (HTML) |
| |
| Hyperlink (Link) | |
| A link to a resource such as a website, FTP server, file, etc. Most hyperlinks are found on web pages and will hyperlink you to another web page or website. The 'see also' hyperlink below is an example: |
| See also: (World Wide Web) |
| |
| Hypermedia | |
| Non-textual link to another web page or resource. Navigation buttons and banner advertisements are examples of hypermedia. |
| See also: (Banner Ad, Button) |
| |
| Hypertext | |
| Text on a web page that links the user to another web page, file, or resource. The hypertext (link) will usually be a different colour to the other text on the page and is usually underlined, although with the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) hyperlinks can be coloured to suite the general style and layout of web page and may not be underlined. |
| See also: (HTML, Link) |
| |
| IMHO | |
| An acronym for 'In My Humble Opinion'. |
| See also: (FYI) |
| |
| Inline Image | |
| A graphic that is displayed by the browser as part of an HTML document. |
| See also: (GIF, JPEG, TIFF) |
| |
| Internet | |
| Originally called ARPANET after the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. This electronic network connects the hosts together so that you may go from one web page to another efficiently. The electronic connection began as a government experiment in 1969 with four computers connected together over phone lines. By 1972, universities also had access to what was by then called the Internet. |
| See also: (Intranet, World Wide Web) |
| |
| Internet Account (Dail-up Account) | |
| An account with an Internet Service Provider that allows you to access the Internet. |
| See also: (Internet Service Provider) |
| |
| Internet Service Provider (ISP) (Access Provider) | |
| Company or organization that allows you to access the Internet through a dial-up account or leased-line. Examples; AOL, Demon Internet, BT, Karoo. |
|
| |
| Intranet | |
| A private network inside an organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but is only for internal use. |
| See also: (Internet) |
| |
| IP Number (Internet Protocol Number) | |
| A unique identifier consisting of 4 groups of numbers (up to 255) separated by dots, e.g.; "165.113.245.2" Each server connected to the Internet has an IP Number. As the number of servers connected to the Internet increased, it became increasingly difficult to remember all the relevant IP numbers, so domain names were introduced to put a more useable interface on top of the IP Number system. |
| See also: (Internet) |
| |
| IRC (Internet Relay Chat) | |
| A system that allows Internet users to chat in real-time using text based communication software. Also called Chat Rooms, they are usually divided into topic areas for discussion. |
| See also: (Chat Room, Discussion Group) |
| |
| ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) | |
| Fibre-optic cables used for higher-speed data transfer over the phone network. ISDN typically offers up to 128,000 bits-per-second. Compared to a standard analog modem at 33,600 bps, ISDN gives you faster download speeds and reduces the time needs to download web pages and files. It also offers the capability to use two separate channels and connect to two different locations at the same time. |
| See also: (Modem) |
| |
| Java | |
| A programming language that developers use to create applets, small programs that are embedded in web pages that run when a user accesses the page or clicks on a certain area. |
| See also: (Javascript) |
| |
| JavaScript | |
| A programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive. |
| See also: (Java) |
| |
| JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) (.jpg, .jpeg) | |
| A 'lossy' compression image file format (the file is compressed by removing data). Most commonly used for photographic images because it uses the full colour spectrum, as opposed to the more common GIF format which only has 256 colours. |
| See also: (GIF, TIFF) |
| |
| Keyword | |
| A word you might use to search for a website. Also an HTML meta-tag used to embed words in a web page that can be found and indexed by search engine robots. |
| See also: (Search Engine, Web Directory) |
| |
| Killfile | |
| Found within newsreaders. A list of undesirable authors or message threads to filter out of the discussion. |
| See also: (Newsreader) |
| |
| LAN (Local Area Network) | |
| A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building. |
| See also: (WAN) |
| |
| Leased Line | |
| An exclusive high capacity telephone network connection that is available 24-hours, 7 days per week. Used for a constant high speed Internet connection, or to connect an organisation's offices in different towns. |
| See also: (ISDN, Modem) |
| |
| Link | |
| A shortened version of hyperlink. |
| See also: (Hyperlink) |
| |
| Location | |
| The address of an Internet resource, such as http://www.dtopwebdesign.com/ |
| See also: (Address) |
| |
| Log File | |
| A file created by a web server that contains all of the access information regarding the activity on that server and the web sites it is responsible for. |
| See also: (Hit, Visitor, Web Server) |
| |
| Login | |
| Connecting to a computer system by giving your username, and usually your password. |
| See also: (FTP) |
| |
| Logout (Logoff) | |
| Disconnect from a network, remote system or secure part of a website where you have 'logged in'. |
|
| |
| LOL | |
| An acronym for Laugh Out Loud, or Laugh On Line. Look for it in your e-mail or in chat rooms. |
| See also: (Chat Room, FYI, IMHO) |
| |
| Lurking | |
| A term used for an inactive subscriber who is just reading a discussion. Lurking is advised for new users who need to get up to speed on the history and etiquette of the group, forum, or current on-going discussions. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Forums) |
| |
| Mail-bomb | |
| The flooding of an e-mail address with messages, usually in response to something that has outraged other users. |
|
| |
| Mailbot | |
| An email server that automatically responds to requests for information. |
| See also: (Autoresponder) |
| |
| Mailbox | |
| Where you store electronic mail. |
| See also: (Email) |
| |
| Megabyte | |
| 1024 kilobytes. |
| See also: (Gigabyte, Terabyte) |
| |
| Meta-tag | |
| An HTML tag that is embedded in the document, but not displayed in a web browser. They are most commonly used to encode keywords into HTML documents for use by search engine spiders. |
| See also: (HTML, Search Engine, Spider, Web Directory) |
| |
| MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) | |
| A protocol for allowing email messages to contain various types of files, known as attachments. |
| See also: (Attachment, Email) |
| |
| Mirror | |
| Refers to a server that contains an exact copy of the data from another server. Commonly used to give access to the same resource from multiple locations. This spreading of the data reduces the load on each server and offers redundancy in case of failure on one or more servers. |
| See also: (FTP) |
| |
| Modem (Modulator-demodulator) | |
| Device that allows a computer to transmit and receive information via an ordinary telephone line. |
| See also: (ISDN) |
| |
| Moderated Mailing List | |
| A mailing list where messages are first sent to the list owner for review before they are distributed to all the subscribers. |
| See also: (Mailing List) |
| |
| Mosaic | |
| One of the first graphical World Wide Web browsers developed at NCSA. |
| See also: (Netscape Navigator, Web Browser) |
| |
| MP3 | |
| The file extension associated with MPEG audio layer 3 (MPEG-3). An MP3 is created using compression coding to remove redundant and irrelevant parts of a sound signal that the human ear doesn't register. The result is a highly compressed file with no noticeable loss of quality, making them popular for transfer over the Internet. |
| See also: (Real Audio) |
| |
| Multimedia | |
| A combination of media types on a single document, including: text, graphics, animation, audio and video. |
|
| |
| Navigate (Browse) | |
| To move around the World Wide Web by following hyperlinks, i.e.: moving from document to document on different web servers around the Internet. |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
| |
| NCSA (National Centre for Supercomputing Applications) | |
| An organisation headquartered at the University of Illinois. Researchers here created the Mosaic and HTTPD server programs. |
| See also: (Netscape Navigator, Web Browser) |
| |
| Net | |
| Short for Internet. |
| See also: (Internet) |
| |
| Netiquette (Internet Etiquette) | |
| Guidelines to good manners on the Internet. |
| See also: (Chat Room, Discussion Group) |
| |
| Netizen | |
| A citizen of the Internet. |
|
| |
| Netscape Navigator | |
| A web Browser developed by Netscape. The Netscape browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
| |
| Network | |
| Connecting two or more computers together so that they can share resources. |
| See also: (Internet) |
| |
| Newbie | |
| Person who is new to the Internet or who isn't familiar with a system or service. Can also apply to forums and discussion groups. |
| See also: (Chat Room, Discussion Group) |
| |
| Newsgroups | |
| Also called Discussion Groups and USENET groups, they often have nothing to do with news. Newsgroups are ongoing discussion groups among people on the Internet who share a mutual interest. |
| See also: (Discussion Group) |
| |
| Newsreader | |
| Application software for reading and posting articles to USENET discussion groups (newsgroups). Some email applications also include a newsreader. |
| See also: (Newsgroups) |
| |
| Node | |
| Any single computer connected to a network. |
| See also: (Network) |
| |
| NTP (Network Time Protocol) | |
| A protocol used to synchronize time between computers on the Internet. |
|
| |
| Online (Connected) | |
| Term used to describe being actively connected to the Internet. You are probably 'online' right now. Can also be used in the context of having the capability to connect to the Internet, i.e.; "Can you go online?" |
| See also: (Internet) |
| |
| Packet | |
| Data across a network is broken up into small packets to be transported. Each packet travels independently of the others from the same file or message. They are all reassembled into the file or message when they reach the destination. |
| See also: (Network) |
| |
| Page (Webpage, Web Page) | |
| An HTML document. |
| See also: (HTML) |
| |
| Page Views | |
| A measure of how many times a HTML viewable page has been requested from a web server. |
| See also: (Hit) |
| |
| Password | |
| A code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. |
| See also: (Login) |
| |
| PDF (Portable Document Format/File) | |
| Adobe Systems platform independent file format. Documents published in PDF format can be read and printed by anyone, regardless of platform or operating system providing they have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software or browser plug-in installed. To learn more and to download Adobe Acrobat Reader click here. |
| See also: (Acrobat Reader) |
| |
| PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) | |
| A popular encryption scheme. Data is encrypted using the publicly available key, but can only be deciphered by the intended recipient using the private key. For more information visit the PGP website, here http://www.pgpi.org/ |
| See also: (Encryption) |
| |
| Ping | |
| A network diagnostic utility that uses an IP Address to determine whether a remote computer is active and where it can be contacted. |
| See also: (Network) |
| |
| Pixel | |
| The smallest unit of resolution on a monitor. Commonly used as a unit of measurement. |
| See also: (GIF, JPEG, TIFF) |
| |
| Platform | |
| The type of computer or operating system on which a software application runs. For example, some common platforms are PC, Macintosh, Unix, and NeXT. |
| See also: (Unix) |
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| Plug-in (Plugin) | |
| Usually a small software program that adds features to a larger program. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape and Microsoft web browsers that enable the user view flash animation files. |
| See also: (Flash) |
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| POP (Point of Presence) | |
| The nearest connection point at which a user can connect to an ISP or telephone company. |
| See also: (Internet Service Provider) |
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| POP (Post Office Protocol) (Email) | |
| Protocol used to retrieve messages from a mail server. You may already use this protocol if you collect your email from a 'pop3' server. |
| See also: (Email) |
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| Portal | |
| A website that is intend to be a starting point for users when browsing the World Wide Web. Often offering a variety of services such as free email, a search engine, forums, etc. The term Portal is used because users 'pass through' this website to get to other places on the web. |
| See also: (Search Engine, Web Directory) |
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| Post | |
| A message or article submitted to a mailing list, chat forum, or discussion group, e.g.; "We've had several posts about this subject" |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Forums, Mailing List) |
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| Posting | |
| A single message entered into a discussion group or chat forum. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Forums, Mailing List) |
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| Postmaster | |
| An alias on a mail server for the administrator. Also used to assist with the routing of incoming email. |
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| Protocol | |
| Standards that ensure different network products can work together, and rules on how computers will talk to each other over a network. |
| See also: (Network) |
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| Provider | |
| An Internet Service Provider, or ISP. |
| See also: (Internet Service Provider) |
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| Qango | |
| A web directory network located at http://www.qango.com/, owned and operated by the owner of dtop Web Design. |
| See also: (Search Engine, Web Directory) |
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| Queue (email) | |
| A list of email messages that are either waiting for collection (incoming) or that will be delivered next time you connect to the Internet (outgoing). |
| See also: (Email) |
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| QuickTime | |
| A video and sound file format for computers, developed by Apple Computer. |
| See also: (AVI, MP3) |
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| Radio Button | |
| Used in HTML forms to indicate a series of items. Only one button can be selected at one time. |
| See also: (Response Form) |
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| Real Audio | |
| A software application that allows you to listen to audio in real-time over the Internet. Often used |
| See also: (Feedback Form) |
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| Referrer (Referring Page) | |
| URL of an HTML page that refers visitors to another web site. |
| See also: (Counter, Hit, Log File) |
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| Referrer (Sub-Affiliate) | |
| The affiliate that has referred a new member to an affiliate program. |
| See also: (Affiliate) |
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| Response Form | |
| Element within an html document that accepts user input and forwards the data to a specified recipient by email. |
| See also: (Feedback Form) |
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| Robot (bot, Spider) | |
| A program that automatically searches the World Wide Web for files, documents and information. |
| See also: (Spider) |
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| Router | |
| A special-purpose computer or software package that handles the connection between two or more packet-switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on. |
| See also: (Network, Routing) |
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| Routing | |
| The process of locating the most efficient or effective pathway through a network to a destination computer. |
| See also: (Router) |
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| Script | |
| In the context of the World Wide Web, a CGI script is a program that can be executed on a web server, interacting with users through a web browser. |
| See also: (CGI) |
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| Search Engine | |
| A non-categorised system for searching a collection of links to hypertext documents (web pages) or web sites, examples include: Alta Vista and Google. Search engines are the most popular method for searching for information on the web. |
| See also: (Portal, Web Directory) |
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| Security Certificate | |
| Information that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection between your computer and the server you are contacting. |
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| Server | |
| A machine that serves other clients on a network, and also used to describe a software a package that provides a specific kind of service such as; web server, mail server, and ftp server. |
| See also: (Network, Web Server) |
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| Server-Side Include (SSI) | |
| A method of inserting (including) information into a HTML document as it is being served. Commonly used for including environment variables, or for calling script functionality 'on-the-fly'. |
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| Shareware | |
| Software that is sold for a nominal fee. Usually available for use for a trial period to allow you to evaluate it. Traditionally once the trial period expires the software is locked until you either purchase it or uninstall it. |
| See also: (Freeware) |
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| Signature | |
| A personal tag automatically appended to outgoing e-mail messages or forum postings. Commonly includes the author's name and website URL. |
| See also: (Email) |
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| Site (Web Site, Website) | |
| A single web page or collection of related web pages. |
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| SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) | |
| Standard protocol on the Internet for delivering email. |
| See also: (Email) |
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| Snail Mail | |
| Regular postal mail. Derived from the fact the it takes much longer to deliver than email. |
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| Spam (Newsgroups) | |
| Cross-posting the same message to newsgroups with no regard for whether or not the subject matter is relevant to the topic being discussed. Much the same as email spam, generally containing some form of advertising. |
| See also: (Newsgroups) |
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| Spider | |
| An automated robot program that searches the Internet, usually retrieving information from web pages for storage in a database. |
| See also: (Robot, Search Engine) |
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| SSL (Secure Socket Layer) | |
| A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet. |
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| Subscribe | |
| To become of a member of a discussion group or mailing list. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Mailing List) |
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| Surf (Surfing) | |
| Same meaning as 'browsing the web'. Term used to describe moving around resources and documents on the Internet or World Wide Web. |
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| Tag (HTML) | |
| Used to format HTML documents. To view HTML tags, use your browser to View the Source Code of this page. |
| See also: (HTML, Hypertext) |
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| TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) | |
| A collection of protocols that let different types of computers communicate with each other. TCP/IP is the language by which all Internet computers talk to each other, and is essentially the foundation of the Internet. |
| See also: (Network) |
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| Telnet | |
| A program or command used to login from one computer to a remote computer, host or server. |
| See also: (Terminal Emulation) |
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| Terabyte | |
| 1000 gigabytes. |
| See also: (Megabyte, Gigabyte) |
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| Terminal Emulation | |
| A software technique for imitating a terminal when communicating with a host computer. |
| See also: (Telnet) |
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| Text-based Browser | |
| A text only browser that cannot handle hypermedia files. |
| See also: (Web Browser) |
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| Thread | |
| A message and its corresponding responses in a newsgroup or forum. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Forums) |
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| TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) | |
| A full colour non-lossy compression graphic image file format. |
| See also: (GIF, JPEG) |
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| Timeout | |
| When one computer fails to respond to another within a given time limit. |
| See also: (Network) |
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| Trojan Horse | |
| Like the Trojan horse of mythology, Trojan horse viruses hide inside another program. They are activated when you use the program they are hidden in. |
| See also: (Virus) |
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| Under Construction | |
| A term used to describe a web page or website that is still being developed. A common graphic associated with pages under construction depicts a person in a hard-hat digging. |
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| Upload | |
| The process of transferring information from your computer to another computer through a network or over the Internet. The opposite to 'download'. |
| See also: (Download) |
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| URL (Uniform Resource Locator) | |
| An address used to define a point or resource on the World Wide Web. Most commonly used to define the location of a website, web page, or file, e.g.; http://www.dtopwebdesign.com/, can also refer to other protocols such as ftp://, telnet://, and news:// |
| See also: (http) |
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| USENET | |
| A network of Internet servers containing discussion groups, often called newsgroups. Users can participate in discussions by emailing messages, and use a newsreader application to browse and correspond within the groups. |
| See also: (Discussion Group, Newsreader) |
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| Username (User ID) | |
| A unique identifier that you use to identify yourself on a computer, server, chat forum, or other area where anonymous use is not permitted or security is required. |
| See also: (Login) |
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| Uuencoding | |
| A standard for encoding and decoding files attached to email messages. |
| See also: (Attachment, Email) |
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| Virtual | |
| An adjective that refers to objects, activities, etc. that exist or are carried on in cyberspace. |
| See also: (Cyberspace) |
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| Virus | |
| A computer virus is similar to a physical one, it infects the host (your computer or network) and then does its best to spread to other hosts. Whilst some viruses are harmless (their creators just want to see how well they work), many are malicious and cause damage to systems by modifying or deleting data. The two main sources of viruses are email attachments and files downloaded from websites. Despite popular belief simply reading your email is not sufficient to infect your system, you must execute the attached file for it to plant the virus. Your best defence against viruses is to delete email attachments from people you don't know, and to avoid downloading any files where the author or source cannot be authenticated. |
| See also: (Trojan Horse) |
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| Visit (Visitor) | |
| Synonymous with viewing a web page or website, i.e.; "We had 300 visitors last week" |
| See also: (Counter, Hit) |
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| VR | |
| An acronym for 'Virtual Reality'. |
| See also: (Virtual) |
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| WAIS (Wide Area Information System) | |
| Lots of large databases you can search through. It was designed by WAIS Corp. as a way of accessing very large databases across multiple networks. |
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| WAN (Wide Area Network) | |
| Similar to a Local Area Network (LAN) but on a larger scale, usually over a much greater distances. |
| See also: (LAN) |
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| Web Address | |
| The location of a website or resource on the World Wide Web, such as the dtop Web Design web address: www.dtopwebdesign.com, www.qango.com, www.yahoo.com |
| See also: (Email Address, World Wide Web) |
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| Web Browser (Browser) | |
| The program that you use to view HTML documents. You are probably using a web browser to view this page. Two of the most popular web browsers are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. |
| See also: (Webpage) |
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| Web Directory (Directory) | |
| A collection of hyperlinks organised by category that can be searched using keywords or by browsing through the category structure, like Yahoo. Often erroneously confused with search engines, which are non-categorised collections of links. |
| See also: (Portal, Search Engine) |
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| Web Server | |
| A server that is constantly connected to the Internet with the ability to serve hypertext documents and files to users on request. |
| See also: (FTP, Host) |
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| Webmaster (Webmistress) | |
| The person responsible for administering a website. |
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| Webpage (Web Page) | |
| An HTML document. |
| See also: (HTML) |
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| Website (Web Site) | |
| A collection of HTML documents, usually hyperlinked together. |
| See also: (Host) |
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| What's New | |
| A place where you will find information on the latest changes and updates to a website. |
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| World Wide Web (WWW, Web, The Web) | |
| A generic term used to describe the entire collection of hypertext documents on all the web servers around the world. Whilst the Internet consists of a variety of services including email, newsgroups, FTP, WWW, etc. the term World Wide Web refers only to web pages and websites. |
| See also: (Internet, Web Server) |
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| X-Bitmap (xbm) | |
| An uncompressed black and white image file format. |
| See also: (GIF, JPEG, TIFF) |
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| XML (eXtensible Markup Language) | |
| XML is a standard for defining data formats. It provides the capability to construct complex data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, etc. that can be processed independently of computer platform or software. |
| See also: (HTML) |
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| Yahoo | |
| The most popular web directory in the Internet. Located at http://www.yahoo.com/ |
| See also: (Search Engine, Web Directory) |
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| ZIP | |
| A compressed file format (.zip). Many files available on the Internet are compressed or 'zipped' in order to reduce storage space and transfer times. To compress and uncompress Zip files, you need a utility like WinZip. |
| See also: (Compression) |
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| Zmodem | |
| A file-transfer protocol that uses cyclical redundancy check (CRC) to detect errors. It is designed to transfer large files. |
| See also: (Modem) |
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