| |
| Client |
| A software program that is used
to contact and obtain data from a Server software program
on another computer, often across a great distance. Each Client
program is designed to work with one or more specific
kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific
kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client. |
|
| Domain Name |
| The unique name that identifies an Internet
site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated
by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and
the part on the right is the most general. A given machine
may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain
Name points to only one machine. For example, the domain
names: |
| |
| matisse.net |
| mail.matisse.net |
| workshop.matisse.net |
| |
| Can all refer to the same machine, but each
domain name can refer to no more than one machine. |
| Usually, all of the machines on a given
Network will have the same thing as the right-hand portion
of their Domain Names (matisse.net in the examples above).
It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not
be connected to an actual machine. This is often done
so that a group or business can have an Internet email
address without having to establish a real Internet site.
In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle
the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name. |
|
| Email -- (Electronic Mail) |
| Messages, usually text, sent from one person
to another via computer. Email can also be sent automatically
to a large number of addresses. |
|
| Extranet |
| An intranet that is accessible to computers
that are not physically part of a companys' own private
network, but that is not accessible to the general public,
for example to allow vendors and business partners to
access a company web site. |
| Often an intranet will make use of a Virtual
Private Network. (VPN.) |
|
| Fire Wall |
| A combination of hardware and software that
separates a Network into two or more parts for security
purposes. |
|
| FTP -- (File Transfer Protocol) |
| A very common method of moving files between
two Internet sites. |
| thus these sites are called "anonymous
ftp servers. |
| FTP was invented and in wide use long before
the advent of the World Wide Web and originally was always
used from a text-only interface. |
|
| GIF -- (Graphic Interchange Format) |
| A common format for image files, especially
suitable for images containing large areas of the same
color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller
than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format,
but GIF format does not store photographic images as well
as JPEG. |
|
| HTML -- (Hyper Text Markup Language) |
| The coding language used to create Hypertext
documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a
lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround
a block of text with codes that indicate how it should
appear. |
| in Hypertext comes from the fact that in
HTML you can specify that a block of text, or an image,
is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files
are meant to be viewed using a "Web Browser. |
| HTML is loosely based on a more comprehensive
system for markup called SGML. |
|
| Hypertext |
| Generally, any 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 retrieved and displayed. |
|
| IMAP -- (Internet Message Access Protocol) |
| IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main
protocol used by email clients in communicating with email
servers. |
| Using IMAP an email client program can not
only retrieve email but can also manipulate message stored
on the server, without having to actually retrieve the
messages. So messages can be deleted, have their status
changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc. |
| IMAP is defined in RFC 2060 |
|
| internet (Lower case i) |
| Any time you connect 2 or more networks
together, you have an internet - as in inter-national
or inter-state. |
|
| Internet (Upper case I) |
| The vast collection of inter-connected networks
that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols and that
evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's. |
| The Internet connects tens of thousands
of independent networks into a vast global internet and
is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world. |
|
| Intranet |
| A private network inside a company or organization
that uses the same kinds of software that you would find
on the public Internet, but that is only for internal
use. Compare with extranet. |
|
| IP Number -- (Internet Protocol Number) |
| Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique
number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. |
| 165.113.245.2 |
| Every machine that is on the Internet has
a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP
number, it is not really on the Internet. Many machines
(especially servers) also have one or more Domain Names
that are easier for people to remember. |
|
| Java |
| Java is a network-friendly programming language
invented by Sun Microsystems. |
| Java is often used to build large, complex
systems that involve several different computers interacting
across networks, for example transaction processing systems. |
| Java is also becoming popular for creating
programs that run in small electronic devices, such as
mobile telephones. |
| very common use of Java is to create programs
that can be safely downloaded to your computer through
the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses
or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java
programs (called "Applets), Web pages can include functions
such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks. |
|
| JavaScript |
| JavaScript is a programming language that
is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that
make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is
included in an HTML file it relies upon the browser to
interpret the JavaScript. When JavaScript is combined
with Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of
HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called DHTML |
|
| JPEG -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group) |
| JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format
for image files. JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format
for photographic images as opposed to line art or simple
logo art. |
|
| Maillist |
| (or Mailing List) A (usually automated)
system that allows people to send email to one address,
whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the
other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people
who have many different kinds of email access can participate
in discussions together. |
|
| Network |
| Any time you connect 2 or more computers
together so that they can share resources, you have a
computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together
and you have an internet. |
|
| NNTP -- (Network News Transport Protocol) |
| The protocol used by client and server software
to carry USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IP
network. If you are using any of the more common software
such as Netscape, Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to
participate in newsgroups then you are benefiting from
an NNTP connection. |
|
| POP -- (Point of Presence, also Post
Office Protocol) |
| Two commonly used meanings: |
| Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol. |
| A Point of Presence usually means a city
or location where a network can be connected to, often
with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet company says
they will soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means that they
will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade and/or
a place where leased lines can connect to their network. |
| A second meaning, Post Office Protocol refers
to a way that email client software such as Eudora gets
mail from a mail server. When you obtain an account from
an Internet Service Provider (ISP) you almost always get
a POP account with it, and it is this POP account that
you tell your email software to use to get your mail.
Another protocol called IMAP is replacing POP for email. |
|
| Port |
| 3 meanings. First and most generally, a
place where information goes into or out of a computer,
or both. E.g. the serial port on a personal computer is
where a modem would be connected. |
| On the Internet port often refers to a number
that is part of a URL, appearing after a colon (:) right
after the domain name. Every service on an Internet server
listens on a particular port number on that server. Most
services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers
normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on
non-standard ports, in which case the port number must
be specified in a URL when accessing the server, so you
might see a URL of the form: |
| gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/ |
| This shows a gopher server running on a
non-standard port (the standard gopher port is 70). |
| Finally, port also refers to translating
a piece of software to bring it from one type of computer
system to another, e.g. to translate a Windows program
so that is will run on a Macintosh. |
|
| Portal |
| (hence "portal") to the Web. |
|
| Proxy Server |
| Server that a Client is trying to use. Client's
are sometimes configured to use a Proxy Server, usually
an HTTP server. The clients makes all of it's requests
from the Proxy Server, which then makes requests from
the "real server and passes the result back to the Client.
Sometimes the Proxy server will store the results and
give a stored result instead of making a new one (to reduce
use of a Network). Proxy servers are commonly established
on Local Area Networks |
|
| SMTP -- (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) |
| The main protocol used to send electronic
mail from server to server on the Internet. |
| SMTP is defined in RFC 821 and modified
by many later RFC's |
|
| Spam (or Spamming) |
| An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing
list, or USENET or other networked communications facility
as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending
the same message to a large number of people who didn't
ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty
Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over
and over. The term may also have come from someone's low
opinion of the food product with the same name, which
is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste
of resources. (Spam? is a registered trademark of Hormel
Corporation, for its processed meat product.) |
|
| SQL -- (Structured Query Language) |
| A specialized language for sending queries
to databases. Most industrial-strength and many smaller
database applications can be addressed using SQL. Each
specific application will have its own slightly different
version of SQL implementing features unique to that application,
but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset
of SQL. |
| A example of an SQl statement is: |
| SELECT name,email FROM people_table WHERE
country='uk' |
|
| TCP/IP -- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) |
| This is the suite of protocols that defines
the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating
system, TCP/IP software is now included with every major
kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the
Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software. |
|
| URL -- (Uniform Resource Locator) |
| The term URL is basically synonymous with
URI. URI has replaced URL in technical specifications. |
|
| Virus |
| A chunk of computer programming code that
makes copies of itself without any concious human intervention.
Some viruses do more than simply replicate themselves,
they might display messages, install other software or
files, delete software of files, etc. |
| Virus requires the presence of some other
program to replicate itself. Typically viruses spread
by attaching themselves to programs and in some cases
files, for example the file formats for Microsoft word
processor and spreadsheet programs allow the inclusion
of programs called "macros which can in some cases be
a breeding ground for viruses. |
|
| VPN -- (Virtual Private Network) |
| Usually refers to a network in which some
of the parts are connected using the public Internet,
but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so
the entire network is "virtually private". |
|
| WAN -- (Wide Area Network) |
| Any internet or network that covers an area
larger than a single building or campus |
|
| Web |
| Short for "World Wide Web". |
|
| WWW -- (World Wide Web) |
| World Wide Web (or simply Web for short)
is a term frequently used (incorrectly) when referring
to "The Internet, WWW has two major meanings: |
| First, loosely used: the whole constellation
of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet,
USENET, WAIS and some other tools. |
| Second, the universe of hypertext servers
(HTTP servers), more commonly called "web servers, which
are the servers that serve web pages to web browsers. |
|
| XML -- (eXtensible Markup Language) |
| A widely used system for defining data formats.
XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents
and data structures such as invoices, molecular data,
news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate
properties, etc. |
| As long as a programmer has the XML definition
for a collection of data (often called a "schema) then
they can create a program to reliably process any data
formatted according to those rules. |
|
| XPFe- (Cross Platform Front End) |
| A suite of technologies used to create applications
that will work and look the same on different computer
operating systems. A widely used XPFE application is the
Netscape web browser in version 7 and later. The primary
technologies used in creating XPFE applications are JavaScript,
Cascading Style Sheets, and XUL. |
|
| XUL -- (eXtensible User-interface Language) |
| A markup language similar to HTML and based
on XML. |
| |
| XUL used to define what the user interface
will look like for a particular piece of software. XUL
is used to define what buttons, scrollbars, text boxes,
and other user-interface items will appear, but it is
not used to define how those item will look (e.g. what
color they are). |
| |
| The most widely used example of XUL use
is probably in the Mozilla web browser, where the entire
user interface is defined using the XUL language. |
| |
