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56K Line
A digital phone-line connection (leased line) capable of carrying 56,000 bits per second. At this speed, a Megabyte will take about 3 minutes to transfer. This is 4 times as fast as a 14,400 bps modem.

Anonymous FTP
When a user is allowed to log onto a server without having an account.

ASCII
ASCII is the most common format for text files in computers and on the Internet. In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-binary digit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined.
UNIX and DOS-based operating systems (except for Windows NT) use ASCII for text files. Windows NT uses a newer code, Unicode. IBM's System 390 servers use a proprietary 8-bit code called extended binary-coded decimal interchange code. Conversion programs allow different operating systems to change a file from one code to another.
ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute

Backbone
A backbone is a larger transmission line that carries data gathered from smaller lines that interconnect with it.

1) At the local level, a backbone is a line or set of lines that local area networks connect to for a wide area network connection or within a local area network to span distances efficiently (for example, between buildings).

2) On the Internet or other wide area network, a backbone is a set of paths that local or regional networks connect to for long-distance interconnection. The connection points are known as network nodes or telecommunication data switching exchanges (DSEs).

Bandwidth
Generally speaking, bandwidth is directly proportional to the amount of data transmitted or received per unit time. In a qualitative sense, bandwidth is proportional to the complexity of the data for a given level of system performance. For example, it takes more bandwidth to download a photograph in one second than it takes to download a page of text in one second. Large sound files, computer programs, and animated videos require still more bandwidth for acceptable system performance. Virtual reality (VR) and full-length three-dimensional audio/visual presentations require the most bandwidth of all.

Baud
Baud was the prevalent measure for data transmission speed until replaced by a more accurate term, bits per second (bits per second). One baud is one electronic state change per second. Since a single state change can involve more than a single bit of data, the bps unit of measurement has replaced it as a better expression of data transmission speed.
The measure was named after a French engineer, Jean-Maurice-Emile Baudot. It was first used to measure the speed of telegraph transmissions.

BBS
Bulletin Board System. A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on discussions, upload and download files and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. There are many of BBS's around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with one or two phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.

Binhex
BinHex is a utility for converting (encoding) Macintosh files into files that will travel well on networks either as files or e-mail attachments. Like Uuencode, BinHex encodes a file from its 8-bit binary or bit-stream representation into a 7-bit ASCII set of text characters. The recipient must decode it at the other end. Older e-mail utilities sometimes can't handle binary transmissions so text encoding ensures that a transmission will get to an older system. BinHex specifically handles both resource and data forks in Macintosh files (which Uuencode doesn't). BinHex files have a suffix of ".hqx". (Earlier versions have the suffix ".hex".)

Bit
Binary Digit. A bit is the smallest unit of data in a computer. A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1. Although computers usually provide instruction that can test and manipulate bits, they generally are designed to store data and execute instructions in bit multiples called byte. In most computer systems, there are eight bits in a byte. The value of a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a single capacitor within a memory device.
Half a byte (four bits) is called a nibble. In some systems, the term octet is used for an eight-bit unit instead of byte. In many systems, four eight-bit bytes or octets form a 32-bit word. In such systems, instruction lengths are sometimes expressed as full-word (32 bits in length) or half-word (16 bits in length).

BPS
Bits Per Second. In data communications, bits per second (abbreviated bps) is a common measure of data speed for computer modem and transmission carriers. As the term implies, the speed in bps is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second.

Browser
A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online. By the time the first Web browser with a graphical user interface was invented (Mosaic, in 1992), the term seemed to apply to Web content, too. Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user.

Byte
In most computer systems, a byte is a unit of data that is eight binary digits long. A byte is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or typographic symbol (for example, "g", "5", or "?"). A byte can also hold a string of bits that need to be used in some larger unit for application purposes (for example, the stream of bits that constitute a visual image for a program that displays images or the string of bits that constitutes the machine code of a computer program).

Client
A client is the requesting program or user in a client/server relationship. For example, the user of a Web browser is effectively making client requests for pages from servers all over the Web. The browser itself is a client in its relationship with the computer that is getting and returning the requested HTML file. The computer handling the request and sending back the HTML file is a server.

Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the total interconnectedness of human beings through computers and telecommunication without regard to physical geography.

William Gibson is sometimes credited with inventing or popularizing the term by using it in his novel of 1984, Neuromancer.

Domain Name
A domain name locates an organization or other entity on the Internet. For example, the domain name www.lemoorenet.com locates an Internet address for "lemoorenet.com" and a particular host server named "www". The "com" part of the domain name reflects the purpose of the organization or entity (in this example, "commercial") and is called the top-level domain name.

The "lemoorenet" part of the domain name defines the organization or entity and together with the top-level is called the second-level domain name. The second-level domain name maps to and can be thought of as the "readable" version of the Internet address.

A third level can be defined to identify a particular host server at the Internet address. In our example, "www" is the name of the server that handles Internet requests. (A second server might be called "www2".) A third level of domain name is not required. For example, the fully-qualified domain name could have been "lemoorenet.com" and the server assumed.

E-mail
E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication. (Some publications spell it email; we prefer the currently more established spelling of e-mail.) E-mail messages are usually encoded in ASCII text. However, you can also send non-text files, such as graphic images and sound files, as attachments sent in binary streams. E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and is still the most popular use. A large percentage of the total traffic over the Internet is e-mail. E-mail can also be exchanged between online service provider users and in networks other than the Internet, both public and private.

E-mail can be distributed to lists of people as well as to individuals. A shared distribution list can be managed by using an e-mail reflector. Some mailing lists allow you to subscribe by sending a request to the mailing list administrator. A mailing list that is administered automatically is called a list server.

Ethernet
Ethernet is the most widely-installed local area network (LAN) technology. Specified in a standard, IEEE 802.3, Ethernet was originally developed by Xerox and then developed further by Xerox, DEC, and Intel. An Ethernet LAN typically uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires. The most commonly installed Ethernet systems are called 10BASE-T and provide transmission speeds up to 10 Mbps. Devices are connected to the cable and compete for access using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.

FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ's are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQ's on subjects as diverse as How to Pickle Peppers to our very own How To's.

Finger
Finger is a program that tells you the name associated with an e-mail address. It may also tell you whether they are currently logon at their system or their most recent logon session and possibly other information, depending on the data that is maintained about users on that computer. Finger originated as part of BSD UNIX.

To finger another Internet user, you need to have the finger program on your computer or you can go to a finger gateway on the Web and enter the e-mail address. The server at the other end must be set up to handle finger requests. A ".plan" file can be created for any user that can be fingered. Commonly, colleges, universities, and large corporations set up a finger facility. Your own Internet access provider may also set up information about you and other subscribers that someone else can "finger." (To find out, enter your own e-mail address at a finger gateway.)

Fire Wall
A combination of hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security purposes.

Flaming
On the Internet, flaming is giving someone a verbal lashing in public. Often this is on a Usenet newsgroup but it could be on a Web forum or perhaps even as e-mail with copies to a distribution list. Unless in response to some rather obvious flamebait, flaming is poor netiquette. Certain issues tend to provoke emphatically stated responses, but flaming is often directed at a self-appointed expert rather than at the issues or information itself and is sometimes directed at unwitting but opinionated newbie who appear in a newsgroup.

FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol), a standard Internet protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to downloading programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download programs you select from a Web page. Using FTP, you can also update (delete, rename, move, and copy) files at a server. You need to logon to an FTP server. However, publicly available files are easily accessed using anonymous FTP.

Gateway
A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, a node or stopping point can be either a gateway node or a host (end-point) node. Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve pages to users are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company's network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway nodes.

Host
The term "host" is used in several contexts, in each of which it has a slightly different meaning:

1) On the Internet, the term "host" means any computer that has full two-way access to other computers on the Internet. A host has a specific "local or host number" that, together with the network number, forms its unique IP address. If you use Point-to-Point Protocol to get access to your access provider, you have a unique IP address for the duration of any connection you make to the Internet and your computer is a host for that period. In this context, a "host" is a node in a network.

2) In IBM and perhaps other mainframe computer environments, a host is a mainframe computer (which is now usually referred to as a "large server"). In this context, the mainframe has intelligent or "dumb" workstations attached to it that use it as a host provider of service. (This does not mean that the host only has "servers" and the workstations only have "clients." The server/client relationship is a programming model independent of this contextual usage of "host.")

3) In other contexts, the term generally means a device or program that provides service to some smaller or less capable device or program.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is the set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page. The markup tells the Web browser how to display a Web page's words and images for the user. Each individual markup code is referred to as an element (but many people also refer to it as a tag). Some elements come in pairs that indicate when some display effect is to begin and when it is to end.

Hypertext
Generally, any text that contains "links" to other documents. These links are words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.

Internet
Upper case I. The vast collection of interconnected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANet of the late 60's and early 70's. The Internet connects well over 60,000 independent networks into a vast global Internet.

Internet
Lower case i. Any time you connect two or more networks together, you have an Internet.

IP Address
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of four parts separated by dots. For example: 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. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

IRC
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.

ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network. 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.

ISP
Internet Service Provider. An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Actually 1024 bytes.

LAN
Local Area Network. A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.

Leased-Line
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.

Listserv
The most common kind of mail list, Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.

Login
Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret (contrast with Password). Verb: The act of entering into a computer system.

Mail list or Mailing List
A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the mail list. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.

Megabyte
A million bytes. A thousand kilobytes.

Modem
Modulator, Demodulator. A device that you connect to your computer and to a phone line that allows the computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Modems convert the digital signal to analog so it can travel the phone line and then back to digital again for processing.

Netizen
Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet, or someone who uses networked resources. The term cannotes civic responsibility and participation.

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.

Newsgroup
The name for discussion groups.

NIC
A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. Personal computers and workstations on a local area network (LAN) typically contain a network interface card specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology, such as Ethernet or token ring. Network interface cards provide a dedicated, full-time connection to a network. Most home and portable computers connect to the Internet through as-needed dial-up connection. The modem provides the connection interface to the Internet service provider.

Node
Any single computer connected to a network.

Packet Switching
The method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address of where it came from and where it is going. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines, and be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along the way. This way, many people can use the same lines at the same time.

Password
A code used to gain access to a locked system. Good Passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such as "virtue7". A good password might be: Cool%1-6.

POP
Two commonly used meanings: "Point of Presence" and "Post Office Protocol". Point of Presence. This 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. Post Office Protocol. The way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP or shell account you almost always get a POP account with it, and it is this POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail.

Port
A place where information goes into or out of a computer, or both. For example, 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 the URL which appears after the ":", 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. Service can also listen on nonstandard 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 nonstandard port (the standard gopher port is 70).

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 it will run on a Macintosh.

Posting
A single message entered into a network communications system.

PPP
Point to Point Protocol. Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connection and thus be really and truly on the Internet.

Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between two or more networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding on which route to send them.

Server
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. "Our 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.

SLIP
Serial Line Internet Protocol. A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem to connect a computer as a real Internet site. SLIP is gradually being replaced by PPP.

SMDS
Switched Multimegabit Data Service. A new standard for very high-speed data transfer.

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.)

Sysop
Systems Operator. Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. A System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.

T-1
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits per second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000 bits per second. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet.

T-3
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 45,000,000 bits per second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video.

TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Set of communications protocols developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to internetwork dissimilar systems. 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. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

Telnet
The command and program used to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet command/program gets you to the login prompt of another host.

Terminal
A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be a physical terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.

Terminal Server
A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP service if connected to the Internet.

UNIX
A computer operating system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets). UNIX is designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

URL
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). A URL looks like this:
http://www.lemoorenet.com
The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program such as the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape.

Usenet
A worldwide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all Usenet machines are on the Internet, maybe half. Usenet is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

WAIS
Wide Area Information Servers. A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities of information, and then making those indexes 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 the last batch" and thus refine the search process.

WAN
Wide Area Network. Any Internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.

WWW
The universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together. WWW is also loosely used as the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, Usenet, WAIS and other tools.