Select the first letter of the word from the list above to
jump to appropriate section of the glossary. If the term you are
looking for starts with a digit or symbol, choose the '#'.
- ActiveX
- coming soon
- Analog
- coming soon
- Anchor
- The underlined, off-colored text. The mouse cursor will
turn into a pointing hand when positioned over an anchor.
Click it to go to the web page it refers to. It looks
like this. (See also: Link)
- Anonymous FTP (File Transfer
Protocol)
- The procedure of connecting to a remote computer, as an
anonymous or guest user, in order to transfer public
files back to your local computer. (See also: FTP, Download)
- Browser, Web
- A software application that allows the user to navigate
the World Wide Web in a graphical environment such as
Microsoft Windows, and Apple Macintosh. Today's web
browsers navigate by clicking on links
to other web pages.
- Client
- Description coming soon
- Cyberspace
- A popular term encompassing all computer networks,
primarily the Internet and it's various aspects. (See
also: Internet)
- Digital
- coming soon
- DNS (Domain Name System)
- The Internet naming scheme which consists of a
hierarchical sequence of names, from the most specific to
the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for
example cccoe.k12.ca.us is the domain name for the Contra
Costa County Office of Education, a grade K-12 school
system, in California, in the United States. (See also: IP address, URL)
- Download
- The electronic transfer of information from one computer
to another, generally from a larger computer to a smaller
one, or from the Internet to a personal computer. For a
better explanation, look at our Downloadable Software Index.(See
also: Upload)
- E-Mail
- coming soon
- FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- A list of commonly asked questions about a particular
subject. This web site is a kind of FAQ on how to use the
Internet. An example of an FAQ is something like
everything you've wanted to know about a certain game
(moves, combos, characters, etc.).
- Flame
- An angry e-mail or newsgroup
posting ridiculing somebody, somebody's words, or
something. It could also be just a message by someone
being critical about something. Usually derogatory or
complaining about something. (See also: E-mail,
Usenet)
- Freeware
- coming soon
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- Allows a user to transfer files electronically from
remote computers back to the user's computer, or
vica-verca. (See also: Anonymous
FTP, Download, Upload)
- Gopher
- The predecessor to the World Wide Web (or WWW),
gopher was almost nothing like what we have now.
Basically, you can think of Gopher as an advanced FTP client. With gopher, you can connect
to a specific server. You browse through a series of
directories, or folders, to reach the document of your
choice. Users browsed their boring way through text
directory listings, to get text-only documents. And then
there are occasional graphics, but by themselves without
text captions. It's a wonder why it took them so long to
come up with the WWW. (See also: Client,
Server, FTP, WWW, History
of/What is the Internet)
- HTML (Hyper-Text Mark-up Language)
- The language and type of coding used to create Web Pages. To see an example of
such coding, use your browser's Source function from the
View menu bar above.
- HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol)
- A communications protocol that is used to transfer web
pages across the Internet. (See also: Protocol,
Internet, Web
Pages)
- Image Map
- An image (usually large) that is an anchor.
Clicking on different parts of the image will take you to
different pages, or do different things. Term comes from:
mapping out where parts of the image take you. (See also:
Anchor, Link)
- Internet
- The series of interconnected networks that includes local
area, regional, and national backbone networks. Networks
in the Internet use the same telecommunications protocol
(TCP/IP) and provide electronic mail (e-mail),
remote login (telnet), information
retrieval (Gopher / WWW),
news bulletin boards(Usenet), and
file transfer services (FTP). (See
also: LAN, TCP/IP,
WAN)
- IP (Internet protocol)
- The Internet standard protocol that provides a common
language over dissimilar networks, used to move packets
of data among computers.
- IP Address
- The numeric address of a computer connected to the
Internet; also called Internet address. People usually
don't deal with these, but rather with Domain Names. (See
also: DNS)
- IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
- One of the original types of chat rooms on the Internet.
Almost all chat rooms on the www are based on IRC.
America On-line was the first service provider to make
IRC widely available. IRC is a simple text-only way of
chatting. People connect to an IRC server with a special
client. Then the server broadcasts all of the messages to
any person in a specified room. If a room doesn't exist
when you type in it's name, the server automatically
creates a new one. So you can have an unlimited number of
specific rooms.
- ISDN (Integrated Digital Services Network)
- A high-speed communications device that can be used in
place of a regular computer modem. Instead of
transferring information over telephone lines in Analog
format (like regular modems), ISDN transfers the data in
a Digital format. It is faster, more precise, more
reliable, and less errors occur during the transfer of
data. ISDN modems transfer data at up to 128k per second
as opposed to a modem's 28.8k per second. To use ISDN,
you must purchase a separate ISDN modem, a special phone
line, and buy special access from your ISP. ISDN is not
available in some regions or from some ISPs. (See also: Analog, Digital,
ISP, Modem)
- ISP (Internet Service Provider)
- This is the company that your computer calls up with your
modem. They have permanent, high-level connections to the
Internet. Their position is fixed in a giant web of
networks. When your computer connects to your ISP, they
temporarily give you one of their IP Addresses to use
during your session on the Internet. They are your
'Doorway' or 'On-ramp' to the Information Superhighway.
(See also: IP Address, WAN)
- Java
- Coming Soon
- Java Applet
- Coming Soon
- JavaScript
- Coming Soon
- (empty)
- LAN (Local Area Network)
- coming soon
- Link
- A section of text, or an image that is linked to another
web page. You can identify it by it's off-colored and
underlined text. The mouse pointer will turn into a
pointing hand when positioned over a link. Click it to
activate it and go to the web page that the link points
to. It looks like this. (See also: Anchor, Image Map)
- Modem
- coming soon
- Network
- A group of computers linked through a common
communications protocol that are able to share resources
such as files, printers, CD-ROMs, and other information.
(See also: Protocol)
- Newsgroup
- coming soon, see Usenet
- On-Line
- A generic term for the Internet. Also a term to say that
something is working correctly, connected, or awaiting a
request: "The printer is On Line."
- Page, Web
- The specific file, or location that you have open in your
web browser is called a web page. Your World Wide Web
experience is made up of visiting various web pages which
contain the information you wish to access.
- Plug-In, Netscape
- coming soon
- Protocol
- A mutually determined set of formats and procedures
governing the exchange of information between systems.
- (empty)
- Remote Access
- The ability to access a computer from outside a building
in which it is housed, or outside the library. Remote
access requires communications hardware, software, and
actual physical links, although this can be as simple as
calling the system directly or as complex as a Telnet
login across the Internet. (See also: Telnet)
- Server
- description coming soon
- Shareware
- Computer software, distributed through public domain
channels, for which the author expects to receive
compensation. Also called a Demo. (See also: Freeware)
- TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol)
- A combined set of protocols that performs the transfer of
data between two computers. TCP monitors and ensures
correct transfer of data. IP receives the data from TCP,
breaks it up into packets, and ships it off to a network
within the Internet. TCP/IP is also used as a name for a
protocol suite that incorporates these functions and
others. (See also: IP, Protocol)
- Telnet
- A base-level technology on the Internet (along with WWW,
Usenet, FTP, etc.) used to access remote computers
through a text-only terminal connection. Functions used
in Telnet sessions are actually executed on the remote
computer. Only the Input and Output of the function
happens on your local computer. (See also: Remote Access)
- Upload
- coming soon
- URL (Universal Resource Locator)
- This is the name of the server, or computer that you're
trying to connect to. For web servers, it's usually
something like www.something.ext. Most companies
are smart enough to use a standard naming convention. The
www stands for World Wide
Web, it could also be something like ftp,
telnet, irc, or gopher. The something part
can be anything. Usually the name of the company or
organization. ext can only be 1 of a very few
extensions. This 3-letter code tells you what type of
site it is that you're linking to. They are: .com (the
most popular, for commercial sites), .edu (for
educational), .gov (government), .org (non-profit
organizations), and .mil (the least common, for military
info). You'll also see the occasional .us, .ca, or .de
for some sites. The 2-letter codes stand for what country
they're in. (See also: DNS)
- Usenet (NNTP or just News)
- coming soon
- VBScript
- coming soon
- WAN (Wide Area Network)
- coming soon
- Web Browser
- See Browser, Web
- WWW (World Wide Web)
- Description coming soon. But do I have to tell you what
it is?
- (empty)
- (empty)
- (empty)
- (empty)
last edited by: eric
on: Wednesday, July 30, 1997
©1997 ThinkQuest
Team 10492
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