Glossary of terms

Smiley: The official term for this is "emoticon". Emoticons are used to convey emotion in an text based world. The idea is to tilt your head to the left 90 degrees and it looks like a smiley face. You're bound to encounter an endless number of variations on the theme.

Microsoft concept that allows a program to run inside a web page.

A 10-Mb/s baseband Ethernet specification using two pairs of twisted-pair cabling (Category 3, 4, or 5): one pair for transmitting data and the other for receiving data. 10BaseT (part of the IEEE 802.3 specification) has a distance limit of approximately 328 feet (100 meters) per segment.

A 100-Mb/s baseband Fast Ethernet specification using two pairs of either unshielded twisted pair (UTP) or shielded twisted pair (STP) wiring. The first pair of wires is used to receive data; the second pair is used to transmit. To guarantee proper signal timing, a 100BaseTX segment cannot exceed 328 feet (100 meters) in length. 100BaseTX is based on the IEEE 802.3 standard.

Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line: High speed copper wire, with upload speeds of 6Mbps and download speeds of 640Kbps.

A name, usually short and easy to remember, that is translated into another name, usually long and difficult to remember.

A small program that runs inside a web Browser.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange: A standard character-to-number encoding widely used in the computer industry.

Anonymous FTP allows a user to retrieve documents, files, programs and other archived data from anywhere on the Internet without having to establish a username and password. By using the special username of "anonymous" the network user will bypass local security checks and will have access to publicly accessible files on the remote system.

see Authentication Post Office Protocol (APOP)

A file-sharing protocol in Apple system software that allows sharing of files and network services through a file server in the Apple Macintosh environment.

A program that performs a function directly for a user. FTP, mail and Telnet clients are examples of network applications.

A system to automatically gather, index and serve information on the Internet.
See: Gopher, Wide Area Information Servers.

Active Server Pages. A means of delivering dynamically-written web pages to web browsers on demand, according to a wide range of possible variables, such as user interaction from forms, the contents of a database, the type of browser used, etc. A Microsoft product, ASP works closely with VBScript, which does not work currently on Netscape. The equivalent Netscape products are JavaScript and LiveConnect.

A type of layout or desktop-publishing package that permits the design of web pages without requiring knowledge of HTML. Examples include Microsoft FrontPage, HotMetal, HotDog, VisualStudio, etc.

Authentication POP is a challenge-response authentication scheme built on top of the standard POP protocol. APOP is designed in a way that protects your password from being sent across the network. To keep your password safe, the server stores your password in a file on local disk. When your mail client connects to the APOP server, a magic string is sent back. That string contains a unique identifier for the current session based upon the process id (PID) and current time.

A file (document, picture, sound, program) included with an e-mail.

The top level in a hierarchical network. Sub and transit networks which connect to the same backbone are guaranteed to be interconnected.

Technically, the difference, in Hertz (Hz), between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel. However, as typically used, the amount of data that can be sent through a given communications circuit.

In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300 = 1200 bits per second). Modems are usually classed as running at 33.6K or 56K – this relates to the speed of data transfer in bits-per-second.

Software distributed for testing, while still in a developmental stage.

Base 2 numeral system. The two symbols used are '0' and '1'.

Any file that is not plain ASCII text; e.g. executable files, graphic files and compressed archive files.

A method of encoding data, mostly used by Macs.

(Binary DigIT) -- A single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero. The smallest unit of computerized data. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.

The return of a piece of mail because of an error in the delivery process. Mail can be bounced for various reasons. "Bounce" can also refer to the message indicating the error (informal usage).

A Netscape method for storing web addresses.

(Bits-Per-Second) -- A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits per second

A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

The best known browsers (often called ‘web browsers’) are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape. Both companies are currently shipping version 4 of their browsers and working on version 5. The choice of browser is largely personal, although many people stay with the browser supplied by their ISP (Internet Service Provider), unaware that they have a choice. Each browser varies slightly in the abilities it has, the way it displays web pages, and the range of additional programs (plugins) it can run. Both major browsers are free of charge and can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s web site, or obtained by using the CD’s on the front of Internet and PC magazine covers.

The Version-4 browsers require large amounts of RAM and disk space to run well.

An error found in a computer program, usually during the developmental stages.

A computer, and associated hardware, which typically provide electronic messaging services, archives of files and any other services or activities of interest to the bulletin board system's operator. Many BBS's are currently operated by government, educational and research institutions.

This is the area of memory that stores recent information from your Browser, such as web pages you have been to in the recent past. For security reason, we recommend to purge your cache manually very often...

Compact Disc-Read Only Memory. Storage medium for data.

A set of rules that describe how a Web server communicates with another application running on the same computer and how the application (called a CGI program) communicates with the Web server. Any application can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.
See also: CGI-bin.

Common Gateway Interface - Binary: The directory where all relevant cgi information is stored.

A computer system or process that requests a service of another computer system or process. A workstation requesting the contents of a file from a file Server is a client of the file server.A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client that works with Web Servers.

The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online "shopping cart" information, user preferences, etc. They are used by programs like JavaScript and Active Server Pages (ASP) to manage dynamic web interactions.

Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.

To break a program's security, integrity or registration system.

When a program or operating system fails to respond or causes other programs to malfunction.

A term coined by William Gibson in his SF novel Neuromancer(1984) to describe the interconnected "world" of computers and the society that gathers around them.

A program which establishes and maintains your connection to the Internet.

A temporary connection between machines established with modems over a standard phone line.

To transfer a copy of a file from the Internet to your local machine.

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.

(Domain Name Service) A global distributed network of servers that look up the IP numbers of particular Internet addresses from their Domain Names. Every web address has to have a DNS server that knows where that address is, so that requests for web pages can be sent to the correct place.

This is a computer that has no processing power of its own. It simply displays the output from a (usually) remote machine.

A system whereby a computer user can exchange messages with other computer users (or groups of users) via a communications network. Electronic mail is one of the most popular uses of the Internet.

An ASCII glyph used to indicate an emotional state, typically used in E-mail or Usenet messages. Although originally intended mostly as jokes, emoticons or some other explicit humor indication are virtually required under certain circumstances in high-volume text-only communication forums such as Usenet. The lack of verbal and visual clues can otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous, sarcastic, ironic or otherwise non-serious comments to be badly misinterpreted, resulting in arguments and Flame wars.

The transformation of data into a form unreadable by anyone without a secret decryption key. Its purpose is to ensure privacy by keeping the information hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended. In the area of security, encryption is the ciphering of data by applying an algorithm to plain text to convert it into cipher text.

The most widely used local area network (LAN) technology. Standard Ethernet runs at 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s or 1000 Mb/s. It balances speed, price, ease of installation and availability.

A network linking together a group of suppliers, user communities, etc., for the purposes of exchanging data using Internet tools (web browsers, servers, etc.) in a structured way, such as online ordering systems. A sort of Intranet shared between many sites and organizations.

Frequently Asked Questions. In its usual context, FAQ refers to collected answers to often-asked questions on Usenet newsgroups. These are periodically posted to the newsgroups in question.

The public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network with various levels of access privileges.

The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network.

(File Transfer Protocol) -- A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers. Web browsers are normally able to do FTP, but people often use a separate FTP tool such as WS_Ftp to do FTP transactions.

A program that displays information about a particular user, or all users, logged on the local system or on a remote system.

Any of several ways to protect a network from an untrusted host or network. Consists of mechanisms to block network traffic and mechanisms to permit network traffic.

A strong opinion or criticism of something, usually as a frank inflammatory statement, in an electronic mail message.

For Your Information

See: File Transfer Protocol

For What It's Worth

Graphic Interchange Format. An image compression algorithm that facilitates the transfer of high quality images over a network. A GIF can be of any resolution but only has 8 bit (256) colors. One of the advantages of the GIF format is that it can hold multiple images and so can be animated.

A billion bytes(1024 Megabytes), which is large enough to hold 1,250 copies of Moby Dick.

A distributed information service that makes available hierarchical collections of information across the Internet. Gopher uses a simple protocol that allows a single gopher client to access information from any accessible gopher server, providing the user with a single "gopher space" of information. The clients are generally text menu-based. Public domain versions of the client and server are available.

Graphical User Interface. A method of driving software through the use of windows, icons, menus and other graphic devices.

A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular. The term is often misused to mean a person who willfully causes damage to computer systems through this knowledge.

The portion of a packet, preceding the actual data, containing source and destination addresses, error checking and other fields. A header is also the part of an electronic mail message that precedes the body of a message and contains information about the message originator and time stamp.

Each time someone visits a web site, it is termed a "hit". You can measure the success of a web site, depending on how many hits it has received.

This is the page that you set in your Browser to be the first page you visit each time you log onto the Internet.

When data is sent across the Internet it does so via a series of Hops, from one computer to another along the way until the destination is reached.

A computer that allows users to communicate with other host computers on a network. Individual users communicate by using client programs, such as electronic mail, Telnet and FTP.

See: HyperText Markup Language

See: Hypertext Transfer Protocol

A link between one document and other, related documents elsewhere in a collection. By clicking on a word or picture that has been highlighted on a computer screen, a user can skip directly to files related to that subject.

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, additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.

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.

The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).

In My Humble Opinion

Basically a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines. ISDN is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000 or 64,000 bits-per-second. ISDN is more expensive to use than normal phone services and can often be configured to do more than just handle an Internet connection.

Strictly speaking, any network that uses IP (Internet Protocol). In practise, The Internet is the global inter-network of servers, routers and user communities who share information and services using the same protocols, such as http, POP, FTP, IRC and many others.
It also refers to the largest network of computers in the world "The Internet".

An IP address that uniquely identifies a node on the Internet.

A network-layer protocol in the TCP/IP stack offering a connectionless internetwork service. IP provides features for addressing, type-of-service specification, fragmentation and reassembly, and security. IP is def ined in RFC 791.

A protocol that allows users to converse with others in real time. IRC is structured as a network of servers, each of which accepts connections from client programs. See: Talk

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. As the Internet has become more popular many of the tools used on the Internet are being used in private networks, for example, many companies have web servers that are available only to employees. Any restricted group of web pages (for example, using passwords) can also be regarded as an Intranet.

This is an image on a website that contains multiple links. Which link you follow depends on the area of the image you click on.

A 32-bit address assigned to hosts using Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). An IP address belongs to one of five classes (A, B, C, D or E) and is written as four octets separated by periods (for example, 192.168.10.10), also called the dotted decimal format. Each address consists of a network number, an optional subnetwork number and a host number. The network and subnetwork numbers together are used for routing, while the host number is used to address an individual host within the network or subnetwork. A subnet mask is used to extract network and subnetwork information from the IP address. Also called an Internet address.

(Internet Relay Chat) -- Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.

See: Integrated Services Digital Network

(Internet Service Provider) -- An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money. ISP’s come in 2 main types – standard ISP’s who charge a fixed monthly fee and allow unlimited access and Online Service Providers (OSP’s) who have a variable pricing model based on access time and offer additional online services unconnected to the Internet. Examples of OSP’s include CompuServe, AOL and MSN and ISP’s include Demon, PowerNet, Easynet, UUNet, etc. Most ISP’s now offer Dial-up access as well as ISDN, Leased Line and other services.

Java is a network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to any 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 animation, calculators, and other fancy tricks, which can slow pages down.

A programming language for the web that allows the use of dynamic content display in web pages, for example, when a user moves a mouse over a certain point on a web page, or when forms are filled in. JavaScript works on both leading web browsers and is therefore popular with programmers. Despite the name, it is not closely related to Java – this was marketing hype by Netscape, who created it.

Graphic file format which some say is preferred by Net users as it has high compression, thus allowing faster downloads.
.jpg is the file extension name for a JPEG file.

Junk E-mail or Spam is unsolicited e-mail sent to your mailbox.

Newsreader file into which you can enter keywords and e-mail addresses to stop unwanted articles.

A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024 (2^10) bytes

A high-speed, low-error data network covering a relatively small geographic area (up to a few thousand meters). A LAN connects workstations, peripherals, terminals and other devices in a single building or other geographically limited area. LAN standards specify cabling and signaling at the physical and data link layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Widely used LAN technologies include Ethernet, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) and token ring. See also wide area network (WAN).

The amount of time it takes data to reach the destination.

Refers to a phone line that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7 -days-a-week use from your location to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased line and this type of Internet connection is also used to run a web server.

A free version of UNIX, that due to its operational capabilities on multi-hardware platforms is becoming very popular.

A software program that distributes files or information in response to requests sent via E-mail.

Elements in a Web Page that allow Keywords or phrases to be hidden in the page and ignore by Browsers, but noticed and indexed by Search Engines.

See: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

A hosted site that is a duplicate of the original, which is hosted somewhere else.

A MOdulator/DEModulator: A device that allows one computer to talk to another across a phone line by converting analogue to digital and vice versa.
Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.

A compressed audio/video file format.
You can read this file with Quicktime

Audio only compression using the Mpeg format, which reduces file size by 12:1 without quality loss.
You can read this file with Quicktime

An extension to Internet E-mail which provides the ability to transfer non-textual data, such as graphics, audio and video.

Host that translates domain names into IP addresses.

A pun on "etiquette", referring to proper behaviour on a network.

A series of computers linked together so that they may share resources.

A protocol for the distribution, retrieval and posting of Usenet articles through high-speed links available on the Internet.

The company that makes its eponymously titled browser.
You can download the last version here

Slang term for a user who is new to the Internet.

The name for discussion groups on USENET, also known as News. There are many thousands of newsgroups, such as alt.gardening.flowers or rec.arts.books.tolkien and millions of people participate in them. Some newsgroups are local or based on a particular organization, others are national or global. Many are awash with Spam and can be almost unusable as a result. The search tool Dejanews (http://www.dejanews.com) is an easy way to get to know the service.

See: Network News Transfer Protocol

Any single computer on a network. Can also be referred to as a host.

This is the core software of your computer. Common systems are Windows, MacOS ,UNIX and LINUX.

The unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. The packet includes a header containing control information and (usually) user data. Packets are most often used to refer to network layer units of data.
Packets are sent individually and reassembled at the destination into the whole file.

An add-on to an existing program that fixes a bug or upgrades the program.

Personal Computer Memory Card International Assoc: Small credit card sized devices designed with portable computers in mind. The most common of which is a modem card.

A program that sends an echo like trace to see if a host is available.

See: Pretty Good Privacy

A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins. Plug-ins enhance the functionality of the main package.

(1) Point of Presence. A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network can be connected to, often with dial up phone lines.

The Point-to-Point Protocol provides a method for transmitting packets over serial point-to-point links.

See: Post Office Protocol, Point of Presence

Generally the Input/Output device on the back of a computer. It can also be a number in a web address.

A protocol designed to allow single user hosts to read E-mail from a server. There are three versions: POP, POP2 and POP3. Later versions are not compatible with earlier versions.

The administrator responsible for resolving E-mail problems, answering queries about users and other related duties at a site.

See: Point-to-Point Protocol

A controversial freeware program created in June, 1991 by Philip Zimmermann, PGP is designed to encrypt data for security.
http://www.pgpi.org/

A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages.

Public Switched Telephone Network: The old fashioned telephone system.

QuickTime is Apple's video/animation technology, also ported to Windows. It allows you to view movies on the Internet.
http://www.quicktime.com

Random Access Memory: Memory that can be used at random without the previous sections in the block being touched.

Operating on a remote computer, using a protocol over a computer network, as though locally attached.

A program that automates Net tasks such as collating search engine databases. Also called a Bot.

Rolls on Floor Laughing

Read Only Memory: Information that once stored in its given medium can only be read and not removed from that storage.

A computer at a junction which decides in what direction the Packet of information should be sent.

A list of commands that are carried out without any user transaction.

Method used for attaching peripheral devices to a computer.

A web site that accumulates details of the contents of Web Pages in an index and then allows the searching of that index by Internet users with Keywords, phrases and other methods. Well known examples like AltaVista, Yahoo and HotBot are among the most heavily visited sites on the Internet and attract large amounts of on-site advertising revenue, which is how they are financed.

A protocol used to run IP over serial lines, such as telephone circuits or RS-232 cables, interconnecting two systems. CSLIP indicates that compression is used with the SLIP protocol.

A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g. the mail server is down today, that’s why e-mail isn’t getting out. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

The user interface to an operating environment. UNIX has several, including the Bourne shell (sh), the C shell (csh), and the Korn shell (ksh).

The three or four line message at the bottom of an E-mail message or Usenet news article identifying the sender. Large signature files (over five lines) are considered poor "netiquette".

The TCP/IP standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one machine to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.

See: Serial Line IP

See: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

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. E-mail spam can be dealt with to some extent by using ‘Spaminator’ tools and filters.

A file (usually sound) delivered in Real-time (as it happens) rather than waiting for the whole file to download.

Mac compression format and program.(.sit .hqx)
http://www.alladinsys.com

Informal term for exploring the Internet (i.e. "surfing the 'net"). Most often used in reference to accessing sites on the World Wide Web.

A leased line capable of moving a theoretical 1 Mb in 10 secs. Still not fast enough for full screen motion video.

A leased line theoretically capable of carrying information fast enough for full screen motion video.
(UniWeb.be uses a T3 server for the hosting)

A protocol which allows two people on remote computers to communicate in real-time.
See: Internet Relay Chat.

See: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

(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 available for every major kind of computer operating system.

The standard Internet protocol for remote terminal connection service.

A device that allows you to access information stored on a remote machine.

A series of articles on the same topic, in a Usenet newsgroup.

A product that emulates a SLIP or PPP connection over a serial line, allowing shell users to run a SLIP/PPP session through a UNIX dialup account.

Thanks in advance.

An Internet standard transport layer protocol. It is connection-oriented and stream-oriented, as opposed to UDP.

A Windows program that provides SLIP and PPP access.

See: User Datagram Protocol

(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).

The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Internet Explorer.

A computer operating system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets). UNIX is one of the longest-established operating systems for powerful computers and is widely used in many different flavours for Internet servers, often in conjunction with Apache.

This was initially a program run under the UNIX operating system that allowed one UNIX system to send files to another UNIX system via dialup phone lines. Today, the term is more commonly used to describe the large international network which uses the UUCP protocol to pass news and electronic mail.

See: Uniform Resource Locator

A method of attaching peripherals to a computer.

A collection of thousands of topically named newsgroups, the computers which run the protocols and the people who read them and submit Usenet news articles. Not all Internet hosts subscribe to Usenet and not all Usenet hosts are on the Internet.
See: Network News Transfer Protocol.

An Internet standard transport layer protocol. It is an unreliable,connectionless-oriented delivery service as opposed to TCP.

A compression of "user identification"; the userid always proceeds the @ sign in an E-mail address.

See: UNIX-to-UNIX Copy

The restoration of uuencoded data to its original form.

The conversion of binary data into a 7-bit ASCII representation using an encoding scheme. Originally implemented to enable users to send such data over UUCP, it is now used to send binary files such as graphics files, user application documents and programs through E-mail and on Usenet.

A program which replicates itself on computer systems by incorporating itself into other programs which are shared among computer systems.

Imaginary memory area for some Operating Systems, its purpose is to enlarge the actual working memory size.

Microsoft's private networking protocol.

A virtual site consists of a Domain Name System (DNS) domain with Web, FTP and e-mail services. Each virtual site contains its own list of site user accounts. Each site user account has its own Web, e-mail spool and any number of e-mail aliases. The fully qualified domain name of a virtual site is unique to that site, while its IP address can be shared by many sites.
With the advent of name-based virtual hosting, it is no longer necessary to dedicate an IP address to a virtual site. Apache can now differentiate among target virtual sites according to the name requested. Many virtual sites on the UniWeb Server can share one IP. Not all services are compatible with name-based virtual hosting. SSL encryption for web data and an anonymous FTP account can only be enabled on one virtual site per IP address hosted by theUniWeb Server.
The IP address of the UniWeb Server can be shared by many virtual sites or it can be unique to one virtual site. The UniWeb Server has one main site (which by default cannot be deleted) and virtual sites. The main site uses the IP address assigned to the UniWeb Server.

The new modem standard that has brought an end to the industry division over the different 56k protocols.

(Wireless Application Protocol) is the gateway to a new world of mobile data. It provides a universal standard which enables users to easily access Web-based interactive information services and applications from the screens of their mobile phones.
As such, WAP is at the heart of Total Connectivity usage.

Sound file format.

The web interface for displaying live digital images.

A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities of information, and then making those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet. A prominent feature of WAIS is that the search results are ranked (scored) according to how relevant the hits are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last batch and thus refine the search process.

Winsock is a TCP/IP stack that allows you to use your modem to send data to/from the Internet. A Winsock interface is required for Windows Internet applications like Netscape, Eudora, Free Agent, and many others. Winsock allows true Internet networking via modem.

A small program that will guide you through a specific procedure;e.g.: Installing a program onto your computer.

An Internet program which allows users to query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks and hosts.

(World Wide Web) - Two 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) which allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be requested from, and delivered to, web browsers.

What You See Is What You Get

eXtensible Markup Language is a markup language for documents containing structured information..

One of the two 56k modem standards.

A service used by UNIX administrators to manage databases distributed across a network. Now known as NIS (Network Information Services).

Quite possibly the Web's largest Internet directory/ Search Engine.

File compression format that creates file with extension .zip. Commonly used to reduce file size for transfer or for hard disc storage.

For Windows 95-98-2000/NT
Winzip: http://www.winzip.com
Stuffit Expander: http://www.aladdinsys.com (Also Sit, .hqx)

For MAC OS / X
ZipIt 1.3.5: http://www.maczipit.com
Stuffit Expander: http://www.aladdinsys.com (Also Sit, .hqx)