Glossary of
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From Interchange |
Archie (ARCHIVE): Catalog program that maintains an updated list of anonymous FTP hosts. Talent or send e-mail to an Archie server with a search query. It will return search results with the host names.
Client: Computer on a local area network that uses the resources of another networked computer device (server).
Domain Name: Naming convention for constructing e-mail addresses across the Internet. For example, userid@domain_ name where the domain name for an organization could be edu (educational and research), gov (government), mil (military agency) net (gateway or host), org (non-profit organization).
Domain Name System (DNS): E-mail addressing system used in large networks, such as the Internet which converts an e-mail address (for example, joe@ichange.com) to the Internet Protocol (IP) address for transmission over the network.
Encryption: Process of translating data into one or more "secret" codes. Encrypted data requires a "key" to translate the code back to the original state. Used for storing or transferring valuable data.
FAQ: Either a Frequently Asked Question or a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers. Found quite often on the Internet.
Firewall: Hardware and/or software that prevents access by a computer or group of computers to another system from an external location.
Freeware: Software that can be copied and used without charge. Owner retains the rights to redistribute a future release and with a quirky.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): Standard protocol that allows files to be transferred over the Internet This method is both machine and operating system independenteven though a user may be using DOS, they can connect to and transfer files from a UNIX system. Some hosts on the Internet allow users to connect through FTP anonymously to gain access to public files/programs, including shareware.
Gopher: A program that searches for file names and resources on the Internet and presents hierarchical menus to the user. As users select options, they are moved to different Gopher servers on the Internet.
Gateway: Computer system that connects networks between TCP/IP and other protocols and converts the different data formats. For example, an e-mail gateway allows e-mail to be transferred between different Internet hosts using different e-mail addressing formats.
Home page: The first page users see when they point a browser to a site on the World Wide Web. Usually a "welcome" page that introduces the various sections within the site.
Host: A specific computer or computer system that controls a network.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): A subset of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) that is used to translate Hypertext links between documents on the World Wide Web.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol): Client/server protocol
used for information sharing on the Internet. It is the basis of the World Wide
Web.
IP (Internet Protocol): Internet-based protocol that allows packets to travel through multiple networks. Keeps track of Internet addresses for different nodes, routes outgoing messages, and recognizes incoming messages.
IP Address (Internet Protocol address): A unique, 32-bit identifier for a specific TCP/IP host on a network. Contains a network ID (netid) and a host address (hostid).
IRC (Internet Relay Chat): Computer conferencing on the Internet. There are IRC channels on every conceivable topic from more than 60 countries. Access to IRC is somewhat limited, and is considered to be more confining than Chat services provided by on-line services.
Internet: The network of networks that intercommunicate through TCP/IP protocol. Computers connected to the Internet can communicate with any other Internet computer, or access a vast pool of resources from over 20,000 computers throughout the world.
LISTSERV: Software that manages e-mail lists and provides discussion forums that cover a variety of topics. LISTSERV subscription lists provide news and articles to e-mail addresses.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): Extensions to the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) format that allow multiple types of data (binary, audio, video) to be transported across TCP/IP networks.
Mosaic: An Internet utility developed at the University of Illinois National Center of Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) that lets you browse (hence the term "browser") through the World Wide Web.
Netscape Navigator: Graphical interface "browser" utility that provides a user friendly environment for accessing the World Wide Web. Similar to Mosaic.
Ping (Packet Entrant Groper): An Internet utility that is used to determine whether a particular IP address is on-line. Used to test and debug a network by sending out a packet and waiting for a response to make sure that there is a path to the address.
Protocol: A specific set of rules, procedures, or conventions for formatting and timing data communications between two devices.
Proxy: Network management system that responds to protocol requests so that Full protocol stacks don't have to be implemented in simple devices, such as modems.
PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): Communications protocol that provides dial-up access to the Internet. PPP can establish and terminate a session and hang up and redial on a low-quality call.
SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol): TCP/IP protocol that allows packets to traverse multiple networks to the final destination over serial lines, such as a dial-up or private telephone line. SLIP is being superseded by PPP, but is still commonly used.
From Blue Chips Magazine, the Journal of the Utah Computer Society.
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