Internet Glossary

A to Z

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
Active Server Pages: (ASP) Web Pages that contain either Visual Basic or Jscript program code. When a browser requests an ASP page, the Web server generates an HTML page on the fly and sends it back to the browser.

ActiveX: A technology which provides tools for linking desktop applications to the World Wide Web. ActiveX controls are small programs which can be run by Web browsers.

ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. An emerging technology that supports high-speed data connections.

Applet: A diminutive of 'application' or 'app'. An applet is a small, single-function program.

Appletalk: The Networking protocol built into all Apple Macintosh computers and laser printers.

Appz: Slang for "apps" or "applications" used in refrence to illegally copied programs (see also warez)

Archie: A rather antiquated program that lets you search for files on the Internet. See Gopher

Autoresponder: A system that sends out emails automatically, commonly used as a follow up lead generating system for business. see here

B
backbone: The main network connections on the Internet.

Back-Button: A button contained on a Browser which allows you to move back to the page you came from.

Bandwidth: The amount of Data that can be transmitted over a network connection at any one time.

Baseband: Digital data transmission in which each wire carries one signal at a time. Computer communications generally uses baseband transmission.

BBS: Bulletin Board System. An electronic message centre. You can dial into a BBS, view messages left by others and leave your own messages and replies.
bps: Bits per second, the standard measure of data transmission speeds.

Broadband: Digital data transmissions in which each wire can carry several signals simultaneously. Cable TV and ,ADSL are examples of broadband applications.

Broadcast: To send the same information to more than one receiver simultaneously. Used both in e-mail and fax systems.

Browser: Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox and others.

C

Cable: A fast method of delivering broadband internet access. only available in limeted areas

Cable Modem: A modem which operates over cable TV lines, providing high transmission rates.

Camper: A term used in multiplayer FPS games for a person who sticks to one spot and shoots anyone who comes near, often to the detriment of the gameplay (wheres your tent? you might as well be camping). You will hear this term a lot if you are hiding out and sniping players .

Chat: To converse with others, there are many types of Chat programs available such as MIRC and ICQ

Chatroom: A place where you meet with others to chat (converse)

CDF: Channel Definition Format. Developed by Microsoft, CDF allows Web developers to create push content.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. CGI programs allow Web servers to interact dynamically with users. For example, when you type information into a form on a Web page, a CGI program can be used to process and store the information you enter.

Collision: When two devices on a baseband network like Ethernet try to send data at the same time, they talk over each other and cause a collision. whenever a collision occurs each device thats trying to send data pauses for a brief random period and tries again. This simple system works less and less the more computers that are added to the network which is why larger networks are usually segmented with bridges and /or switches.

Cookie: A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and to prepare customised Web pages for them.

Cyberspace: The non-physical world created within computer systems. When you're connected to the Internet, for example, you are "in cyberspace".

D

Datagram: See Packet

Dial-up Connection: A widely-used method of connecting to the Internet. A dial-up connection uses regular phone lines to connect one computer to another via modem.

DHCP:

DNS: Domain Name System, an Internet service which converts domain names into IP addresses. Humans use domain names on the Internet (such as www.microsoft.com) because they're easy to remember; but the actual computer addresses for computer systems on the Internet consists of strings of numbers, called IP addresses. The DNS converts the address you type into an IP address.

Domain Name: A name that identifies an IP address, such as http://www.gameznet.com.au Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top-level domain it belongs to. Top-level domains include com, org, edu, net, gov, mil and the various country domains (such as au for Australian sites,uk for English sites or nz for New Zealand).

Download: To copy information from another computer to yours. Commonly using FTP or a Web site to download from a server. When you connect to the Web, you're constantly downloading Web pages and files to your computer system. (see also Upload)

e-mail address: A unique name that identifies an e-mail recipient. E-mail addresses take the form username@hostname. An example is user@gameznet.com.au which is pronounced "user at gameznet dot com dot aye you"

Emoticon: Emotion icon (also known as a smiley), used in e-mail and online conversations to convey tone and mood along with the words. Emoticons consist of a series of punctuation characters that depict an emotion, usually evident when you tilt your head to the left to look at the emoticon. The most famous emoticon is the smiley :-) which indicates the writer is happy or their tone is jocular.

Ethernet: AThe hugely popular networking system first promoted in 1980 which is now the defacto standard for most networks. The most popular versions are 10base2 and 10baseT, running 10Mbps over coaxial and unshielded twisted pair calbe respectively, and 100BaseT, running at 100Mbps over unshielded twisted pair cable.

Eudora: A popular e-mail program.

Extranet: An Intranet that is partially accessible to authorised outsiders.

Finger : A Unix program that lets you find out information about the owner of an e-mail address. The finger lets you know if the user is currently logged on, and on some systems will tell you the user's real name, the time and date of the last time they were connected, and other information which the user has made available about themselves.

Firewall: A hardware and/ or Software system designed to prevent unauthorised access to or from a private network. Allso used By ISP's to prevent unpaid clients from accessing the internet.

First Person Shooterl: FPS for short. Games like Quake oor Half -Life which are played from the first person perspective. (You are looking from the charactors perspective usually in 3d ) the are the most popular multiplayer games.

Flame: A vicious e-mail message or newsgroup post in which the author attacks another online participant for some real or imagined transgression.

Frag:Used in reference to multiplayer computer games. To kill an opponent is to frag him. Commonly referred to in FPS (first person shooters) and also used in the term frag count , which is how many kills you have scored on other players

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. A method for transmitting files to or from a server across the Internet . Often called Anonymous FTP, because users are given restricted access to other computers without being required to identify themselves before downloading files. URLs that point to a file on a FTP server start with ftp://

G

Gameznet is a West Australian based site. Aside from our range of free online games we also offer game and internet related services across the board including muliple player gaming, LAN parties, hardware and software , Custom Built Gameing computers and LAN's and personalised PC and internet support , check out friends of Gameznet for more great West Australian sites and interests. oh yeah, we have Heaps of free online games and other cool stuff gameznet.com.au

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format. A graphics file format used extensively on the Internet because it uses compression to minimise the size, and hence the download time, of the images.

Gopher: An early database system used to store information on the Internet. Information in gopher servers (called gopher space) can be retrieved using search tools such as Veronica and Archie .

Host: A computer attached directly to the Internet. Users on client machines can connect to hosts to transfer information.

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.

HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol, the underlying method used to format and transmit information on the World Wide Web.

Hyperlink: An element (piece of text, graphic image) in a document that links to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document. When you click on a hyperlink, the link's destination is displayed. (All of the underlined text in blue on this page are hyperlinks)

Hypermedia: The combination of hypertext and multimedia elements (sound, video, graphics) in an online document.

Hypertext: Text that allows embedded links to other documents. Clicking on a hypertext link displays the destination text or document. The World Wide Web is made up of hypertext documents.

I

IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol- a protocol used for retrieving email messages from a server by a client (your email software). IMAP is a younger protocol that the more commonly used POP, and current versions support extended features like keyword searching emails which are still on the server.

Internet address: See URL.

Intranet: A Web site or group of Web sites belonging to an organisation and accessible only to the organisation's employees or those authorised.

IP: Internet Protocol. A protocol which specifies the format of packets of information (also known as datagrams) and the addressing scheme used to send the packets across a network. IP is usually combined with another protocol, TCP, which is used to establish a virtual connection between the source of the information and the packet's destination.

IP Address: Internet Protocol Address. Every resource on a TCP/IP: network (such as the Internet) has a unique, 32-bit identifying address, written as four numbers separated by full stops ('dots'). The Internet uses a system of registered IP addresses, called Internet addresses, to avoid duplicates.

IPX : Internetwork packet Exchange, a networking protocol used by the Novell NetWare operating systems. Also commonlly used for playing games accross a windows network.

IRC: Internet Relay Chat. A system for online chating the most common program used is MIRC

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. A technology which transmits voice, video and data over digital telephone lines. Most ISDN lines provide two lines at once, called B channels, each offering transmission rates of 64Kbps. You can use one line for voice and the other for data, or use both lines for data to boost your data transmission to 128Kbps.

ISP: Internet Service Provider. ISPs maintain a dedicated communication line to the Internet; users dial in to the ISP, which then connects them to the Internet via a (hopefully) high-speed dedicated communications line.

Javabeans: Javabeans are small reusable software objects created in Java.

Javascript: A scripting language which shares many of the features of Java, and which can be used to add dynamic content to Web sites.

JPG: (jpeg) A graphics file format which can compress graphics to a fraction of their size. JPG uses 'lossy compression', which means that the higher the degree of compression, the more detail is lost from the image. JPG images are frequently used on Web pages because their small size reduces download time.

L

Lan: Local Area Network, a localised group of computers all connected together forming a network. Many games can be played on a LAN

Link: A dynamic reference to another document (or another part of the current document). Clicking a link will connect you to the destination document.

list: Usually refers to a mailing list

listserv: An automated mailing list server.

M

Mail Server : a computer which serves the mail for a network. Normally your email is sent to this machine and waits for you to log into it with your email client so that you can read or download your mail.

Mailing list: A list of e-mail addresses grouped together under a single name. Any e-mail sent to the mailing list address is automatically forwarded to all the addresses (the subscribers) on the list. Mailing lists are used to share information between people with common interests.

Mailing list server: A server that manages mailing lists for groups of users.

Majordomo: An automated mailing list server.

Massively Multiplayer Online Game: MMOG - In these games you join thousands of other player co-existing in a virtual world. They are often complex inboth social aspects and gaming sence but very rewarding if you have the time.

Mbone: Multicast backbone. An extension to the Internet designed to support two-way transmission of data between multiple sites.

Mbps: Megabits per second -- millions (mega) of bits per second. A measure of data transfer speed.

MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Internet e-mail systems can normally only handle plain, unformatted text. MIME is a specification which allows formatted messages, sound, graphics, audio and video files to be sent over the Internet as e-mail. Web browsers also support various MIME types, allowing them to display files that are not in HTML format.

Mirror site: A site which contains an exact replica of the contents of another site. Due to the popularity of some sites, mirrors are created to reduce congestion when many people try to access them at the same time.

Modem: Modulator-demodulator. A modem is used to transmit digital data (from your computer) across analogue phone lines. When you send information from your computer, the modem at your end converts the digital data to analogue form. At the receiving end, another modem reconverts the data into digital form and passes it to the remote computer.

Multicast: To transmit a message to a select group of recipients. Contrast this with broadcasting, which involves sending a message to everyone connected to a network.

Multiplayer: Where several people play on the same computer game at the same time, usually over a network or the Internet.Multi player games are becoming more and more popular and most games today have some form of multiplayer function. check out gameznet.com.au for more information.

N

NetBEUI : Short for NetBIOS Enhanced User Interface, and pronounced "net booey" An enhanced version of Novell's old NetBIOS protocol, Used on "NT networks" .

i
Netiquette: Etiquette guidelines for behaviour on the Internet, in particular with regard to posting messages to newsgroups and e-mail. it is considered bad net etiquette to "shout" which is when you TYPE IN CAPITALS

Network: Two or more computer systems linked together.

Newbie: A person who is new to computers or the Internet.

Newsgroup: An online discussion group on a particular topic.

Newsreader: An application that lets you read and reply to messages posted on Internet newsgroups. Outlook Express handles this as well as email.

NIC: Network Interface Card- also know simply as a networkor LAN card, This is the board which you put into your computer that connects it to other computers forming a network or LAN.

NNTP: Network News Transport Protocol, the protocol used for distributing, posting recieving and acquiriing information on Newsgroup messages.

Online: Connected to a computer communications system. (Ie- connected to your ISP)

Outlook Express: An email program that comes as part of the Microsoft Internet Explorer package (version 4 and above)

P
Packet: A piece of a message transmitted over a packet-switching network. A packet contains not only data but also its destination address on the network.
packet switching: A means of transmitting information in which each message is divided into packets before being sent. Each packet is transmitted individually, and packets from the same message can follow different routes to the destination. Once all the packets forming a message arrive at the destination, they are recompiled into the original message. The Internet is a packet switching network.

Packet Switching : A networking system in which messages are chopped into packets before sending. If errors occur,only the packets that fail to arrive need to be resent rather than the whole message.

PC : Personal Computer, usually refering to an IBM coompatable rather than a Macintosh or other

Password : A code or secret word known only to the user for logging in or gaining access into protected areas

PING: Packet Internet Gopher. A program used to time the response of an Internet connection. A PING sends a request to an Internet host and waits for a reply (called a PONG). Teh time in milliseconds it takes for data to go to and from the server to you.

Player:: A program that plays or runs a certain media file eg- Winamp is a "player" used to play various audio files. Also used as the term to identify the person at the controls in a game eg - "the player"

Plug-in: (or inline plug-in). A program that `plugs into' and extends the capabilities of another program such as a Web Browser, paint program etc in a specific way. For example, plug-ins can allow your browser to play new audio or video formats, animations or even business applications. Or in a paint program may give the program new visual effects to draw from.

POP: Post Office Protocol. A protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. There are three versions: POP, POP2 and the most recent, POP3.

PoP: Point of Presence, a location where you can get dial-up access to a network. ISP's often provide many PoPs so users can gain Internet access with a local call, instead of having to call their ISP long distance.

Post: To place a message on a newsgroup or BBS.

PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol. One of the most popular methods for dial-up connections to the Internet.

Protocol: A set of rules which allows different parts of a computer network to 'talk' to one another. Because the Internet consists of an incredibly varied collection of hardware, it uses a whole series of protocols which enable the diverse parts to talk to one another. In technical terms, a protocol contains a formal description of the message formats and rules two computers must adopt in order to exchange information.

Public-Domain Software: Any program that is not copyrighted, and is thus available for free use by anyone. (Note that 'freeware' is copyrighted software that is free.)

Push: Information which is sent without being requested. Generally on the Web, information is 'pulled'; that is, it is requested from a Web server by the user's browser. Push information is sent directly to a user's screen without the need for a specific request. Once you subscribe to a push service, customised information will be downloaded to your computer automatically.

Q

Quicken: an accounting software package

Real Time Strategy: RTS for short. These are games like warcraft 3 or the ever popular starcraft. They are more cerebral than FPS games though often just as violent.

SET: Secure Electronic Transactions, a developing standard that will make credit card transactions on the Internet as secure as ordinary offline transactions.

Shareware: Software which you can try out without payment. If you continue to use the software, you are honour-bound to pay the author the requested fee.

shocked: A Web page which incorporates Macromedia's Shockwave technology. Shocked pages can contain animation,games, cartoons including interactive elements and sound.

S-HTTP: An extension to HTTP, not supportedby all browsers or servers,which allows secure (encrypted) data transmissions over the world wide web. S-HTTP allows HTTP messages to be exchanged securely, making it possible to use a web site without your actions being easilly comprehensible if intercepted by a third party See also SSL<