28.8K: 28.8 Kilobits (Kbps) per second, or .036 Megabytes (MB) per second, the speed of v.34 modems.

56K: 56 Kilobits (Kbps) per second, or .07 Megabytes (MB) per second. A common maximum transmission rate for frame relay or leased lines.

absolute path: A file path that begins from the root, or topmost, level of a hard drive or server.

anonymous FTP: Using FTP with a user name of anonymous and the user's e-mail address as a password. A common way of making files available to the general public on the Internet.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard for representing text characters in 7 bits, as the numbers 1 through 128.

bandwidth: The amount of data that can be carried through a given network connection.

binary: A binary file is any nontext file, made up of 8-bit data, as opposed to 7-bit ASCII.

BIND: Berkeley Internet Name Domain. A common UNIX software package which provides DNS, or Domain Name Services.

browser: A Web client with which a user interacts directly.

cache: A collection of data stored in a location more readily accessible than the original location.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. Any program or script run on a Web server, which is triggered by a client's actions.

Chat : An application that lets users communicate in real time by typing lines of text, which are then displayed to all the other users of the system. Users log in to Chat via a Telnet session.

client: Computer software that requests a service from a server; for example, an FTP client can retrieve files from an FTP server.

command line: A user interface that relies upon commands typed by a user rather than graphical representations of objects in the environment. See also GUI.

CSU/DSU: Customer Service Unit/Digital Service Unit. An interface for connecting a computer or other device to a digital medium. A modem is the analog equivalent of a CSU/DSU.

daemon: A background process that performs a task when some condition becomes true. Programs that provide Internet services under UNIX are usually run as daemons, and named by using the service protocol's name followed by a d, for daemon„ for example, FTPd or HTTPd. Often pronounced deemon, but also as day-mon.

dial-up: A connection between two computers or networks established via ordinary phone lines.

digest: A compilation of messages sent to a mailing list periodically.

distributed service: A way of providing a resource over a computer network that allows for more than one machine to deliver a service, through the use of standard protocols and conventions. The Web is an example of a distributed service with no central authority.

DNS: Domain Name System. A distributed database for performing name-to-address and address-to-name resolution. For example, a domain name server might resolve the domain name www.freedonia.com into the IP address 204.62.130.117.

domain: The name of a computer or a group of computers on the Internet. For example, the host name www.freedonia.com is made up of the domains www, freedonia, and com, with freedonia being a subdomain of com, and www being a subdomain of both freedonia and com (and also a host name). Domains are organized in an inverted tree structure called the domain name space.

e-mail: Messages that are exchanged between computer users via a network.

Ethernet: A networking standard for local area networks that carry data at 10 Megabits per second, or 1.25 Megabytes per second.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. Many Usenet groups have an FAQ: a list of frequently asked questions and answers to those questions. FAQ is often used to mean any informational document.

filename extension: Two, three, or four characters at the end of a filename to indicate to computers without file typing what kind of file it is. For example, a filename ending in .sit indicates a StuffIt binary; a filename ending in .html indicates a file in HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language.

Finger: A protocol that displays information about a user for a given system.

firewall: A gateway that screens all traffic between an internal, protected network and an external network, and permits only authorized traffic to pass through.

form: Forms, or fill-in forms, are the electronic version of paper forms, common on the Web to allow for user input and interaction. Although forms are created using HTML, they must be processed using some scripting or programming facility.

frame relay: A digital network technology that provides high-speed connections over great distances. Data is sent over the network using "virtual circuits" between two end points.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. A method for exchanging text and binary files between computers on the Internet.

fully qualified domain name: A domain name ending with a dot (.).

gateway: A device that translates data between different protocols or networks. GIF Graphics Interchange Format. A common 8-bit, 256-color graphics format developed by CompuServe. A 1989 update to the GIF format, GIF89a, added support for a transparency index and interlaced graphics.

Gopher: A simple menu-based information service. Gopher clients present lists of items that can be downloaded or displayed, as well as items that are links to other directories or servers.

GUI: Graphical User Interface. The Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, and the X Window system are all environments that take advantage of a graphical user interface, in which pictures are used instead of words to represent some elements of the OS, such as the file system. The Web is often called the GUI of the Internet, although there exist many text-based, command-line-driven browser users for which that statement wouldn't be true.

host: A computer on the Internet that allows users to communicate with other hosts, not to be confused with servers, which specifically serve information to clients. Every computer on the Internet able to connect to other computers on the Internet is a host, whether it's being used as a client or a server.

hub: A device that connects multiple machines to a single network connection.

image map: An image within a Web document that has "hotspots" defined, which are links to other documents.

IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol. A successor of POP, IMAP is a mail protocol that allows users to read and maintain mail using multiple mailboxes across a network.

Intranet: Any network which provides similar services within an organisation to those provided by the Internet outside it but which is not necessarily connected to the Internet. The commonest example is a company which sets up one or more World-Wide Web servers on an internal network for distribution of information within the company.

Internet: A network of networks using a common protocol, IP.

Internic: Internet Network Information Center. A managing body established by the National Science Foundation that performs, among other things, domain and directory services for the Internet.

IP: Internet Protocol. A network layer protocol that transmits data as packets. IP is used by all Internet services.

IP address: The dotted decimal address, such as 192.0.0.1, for computers on the Internet.

ISDN: Intergrated Services Digital Network. A standard for providing end-to-end digital connections, for both voice and data. Most ISDN connections have a maximum throughput of 64 or 128 Kbps, or .08 and .16 Megabytes per second, respectively.

ISP: Internet Service Provider. An organization that sells Internet connectivity and provides consultation and service to organizations and end users.

Java: An object-oriented programming language that originated at Sun Microsystems, and that is currently being developed as a way of implementing cross-platform distributed applications on the Web. Java programs that run on the client's machine are called applets. HotJava was the first Web browser to include Java applet support.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. The name of the committee that developed the standard 24-bit image compression algorithm, designed for use with full-color or gray-scale photorealistic images. JPEG is commonly used to refer to both the compression algorithm and its standard file format.

LAN (Local Area Network): A network that spans only a short distance.

leased line A private (nonshared) line for voice or data.

list server: Any program that batch distributes e-mail messages and allows the maintenance of e-mail list databases.

log: A file into which the actions or error messages of a server application is written, for reporting or troubleshooting purposes.

mailbot: A program that automatically replies to incoming e-mail, usually based
on the content of that e-mail.

mailing list: A list of e-mail addresses available through a single e-mail address, so that when a message is sent to a mailing list's address, each e-mail address on the list receives a copy.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): A standard way of identifying data types; for example, a GIF file has a MIME type of image/gif; a µ-law sound file has a MIME type of audio/basic. When used outside the context of transporting these data types inside Internet mail messages, MIME types are often referred to as "content types" or "media types"

mirror: A site that provides copies of some or all of the resources available at another site to improve their availability or to reduce network traffic.

MPEG: Moving Pictures Experts Group. The name of the committee that developed several standards for the compression of moving pictures.

network: Hardware and software used to exchange data between computers.
news

News (or Usenet news): a collection of threaded discussion groups, organized by topic.

OS: Operating System. The software layer that sits between a computer's hardware and a computer's applications.

packet: A unit of data sent over a network.

Perl: Practical Extraction and Report Language. A very useful cross-platform scripting language remarkable for its text manipulation capabilities.

pipe: The physical or base protocol layer of a network connection. Also, under UNIX, a method of interprocess communication.

POP (Post Office Protocol): A protocol that allows computers that may not be connected to the Internet at all times to receive mail via a "maildrop," in a fashion similar to a post office box at a post office.

port: A channel for specifically addressing a single TCP or UDP connection.

PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): A protocol for transmitting data over serial
lines. Unlike SLIP, PPP isn't limited to transmission of IP packets.

protocol: Rules governing the exchange of data between processes, computers, or networks.

proxy: A server that connects to another server on behalf of a client.

real time: Information that is sent and received more or less immediately as a talk or chat session is considered to be a real-time conversation, while e-mail and Usenet news are usually far from real time.

relative path: A file path beginnning from an arbitrary position in a file system, rather than from the root.

RFC: Request For Comments. Documents submitted to the IETF that describe Internet standards or proposed Internet standards.

root: The topmost directory or folder.

router: A device that controls the flow of data from one network to another.

script : A computer program written in an interpreted language, such as AppleScript or Perl.

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface): A protocol that enables a computer
and devices to communicate with one another on a common interface.

server: An application or a computer that offers a service to a client.

site: An Internet server, usually referring to a single function of that server, not all the services provided through the one machine.

SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol): A protocol for transmitting IP packets over serial lines; that is, using modems over telephone lines.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol): An Internet protocol for the delivery of e-mail.

SOCKS (SOCKetS): A server running SOCKS acts as a proxy server that provides screening, authentication, and logging for application-level connections.

spam: Flooding some place on the Internet with irrelevant or inappropriate data.

subnet: A segment of a larger network.

subnet mask: A bit mask that separates the portions of an IP address significant to the network from the bits significant to the subnet. For a class C address, a standard subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, which masks the first three bytes of the address, and leaves the last byte available to identify machines on the subnet.

T1: A network protocol that transfers data at 1.544 Megabits per second, or .193 Megabytes per second..

T3: A network protocol that transfers data at 44.746 Megabits per second, or 5.593 Megabytes per second.

Talk: A protocol that lets two users talk to one another in real time via their keyboards. Unlike many real-time protocols, which transmit lines of text broken by carriage returns, talk transmits every keystroke as it's entered.

TCP: Transmission Control Protocol. A transport layer protocol used by most Internet services.

TCP/IP: The TCP protocol sitting atop the IP protocol.

Telnet: A protocol that enables users to log in to remote hosts.

UNIX: (Derived from Multics.) A multiuser operating system popular as a platform for Internet servers.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator. A standard for specifying resources on the Internet.

Usenet: A network defined, suitably enough, as a collection of all the machines that carry and distribute news.

VRML: Virtual Reality Markup Language. A platform-independent language being developed for use on the Web for the description of 3-D virtual worlds.

WAN: Wide Area Network. A network spanning large distances comprised of multiple LANs.

Web (World Wide Web): A distributed information service built atop HTTP, which is supported by many graphical clients, called browsers.