Glossary of Internet Terms Welcome to esn.net's Glossary of Internet Terms, a plain english and hopefully common sense explanation of internet terms and definitions. New users can familiarize themselves with the complicated terminology used on the Internet. All entries have been organized alphabetically. Be sure to use to alphabetic text bar to jump to the section of interest. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z A Acceptable Use Policy : This is a policy statement made by an Internet Service Provider, and indicates the type of use which is permissible from that connection. Access Provider : See Service Provider. ACK : An acknowledgment number carried in the TCP header that tells a TCP sender the sequence number of the byte which the TCP receiver expects next. Acrobat : Multimedia authoring system from Adobe for creating animated presentations. The Amber plug-in for Netscape Navigator enables you to view Acrobat documents within Web pages. Acronym : Acronyms are widely used on the Internet, and are words that are derived from the initial letters of a phrase or saying. For example IMHO is a commonly used acronym for In My Humble Opinion. ActiveX : New browser technology developed by Microsoft for Internet Explorer 3, enabling interactive controls to be embedded in Web pages. Address : This can be either the address of a user of a system, as in e-mail address (required in order to send a message to a particular person) or the address of a site on the Internet. Address Book : A feature found in most e-mail programs that enables the user to store e-mail addresses for easy access. Many allow the use of aliases in order to mass mail a selected group of people instead of sending a message to each individual user. See also alias. Advanced Research Projects Agency : ARPA was the U.S Defense Projects responsible for the early development of the Internet, then known as the ARPANET, back in the 1960's and 1970's. The brief was to develop a communications network that would not be disrupted in the event of a nuclear attack, and that would enable military researchers to exchange information. AFS : A set of protocols, similar to NFS, that allow for the use of files on another network machine as if they were on your local machine.

• Alias : It is possible when using, for example electronic mail to establish an alias (or nickname) for your user name (many e-mail programs permit this). So any e-mail sent to the alias can be directed to one individual user or a select group of users.
• ALT : One of the categories available on Usenet newsgroups. ALT stands for alternative , and these newsgroups are generally amongst the most controversial on Usenet.
• AOL/America Online : One of the largest and fastest growing online services and Internet service providers in the USA, Canada and the UK
• AmiTCP : The Amiga implementation of the Internet protocol required to enable Internet access.
• Analogue Signals : Continuous but varying waveform, and example being the voice tones transmitted over a telephone line.
• Anchors : The hypertext links that are embedded within a HTML document. Anchors enable the user to jump from one piece of information to a related item no matter where on the Internet the information may be stored.
• Anonymous FTP : FTP or File Transfer Protocol allows a user to connect and transfer and retrieve files from their directory to accessible file servers on the Internet. FTP sites form the backbone of file transfer for the majority of Internet users.
• Annotations : Personal text messages that may be added to local World Wide Web documents when using a browser such as Netscape or Mosaic or Internet Explorer.
• ANSI : American National Standards Institute, responsible for improving standards in many areas.
• AppleLink : This is a commercial online service for users of Apple Computers.
• AppleTalk : This is Apple's Local Area Network (LAN) software which enables Apple computers to share resources.
• Applet : Small application written in the new Java programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Applets allow users to embed interactive programs inside a Web page.
• Application : A piece of software that performs a useful function.
• ARC : Application program used to create a compressed archive of a file, or group of files, using the PKARC compression program. Users should note that this type of compression has been replaced with the more popular PKZIP compression standard.
• Archie : Archie is an Internet resource that will search for the locations of files that are available by Anonymous FTP. You supply Archie with a keyword and it will return a list of Anonymous FTP sites which contain files that match, right down to including the exact filename and directory structure to enable you to easily go and retrieve the file in question. Archie is also available via e-mail if you don't have a full Internet connection.
• Archive : A file, or group of files that have been compressed to form a smaller file. Depending on the program used to compress the archive, it will bear one of the many file extensions , including .lha, .zip, .arc, .zoo. or .tar.
• ARQ : Automatic Repeat Request. An error control protocol used by Miracom modems.
• Article : A message posted to a Usenet newsgroup is most commonly referred to as an article.
• ASCII : American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A code supported by just about every computer manufacturer to represent letters, numbers, and special characters.
• ASCII Art : Artwork composed entirely of ASCII characters, most often seen as part of long and flamboyant signature files on Usenet.
• Assigned Numbers : Numbers that are assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for various elements of network protocol implementation.
• Asynchronous : A form of data transmission which allows information to be sent at irregular intervals.
• AT Command Set : The command language for modems that was developed by Hayes and has now become an industry standard.
• Attachment : Binary files that have been UUencoded, or sent using the MIME standard, and delivered as part of an e-mail message are said to be attachments.
• Audio Streaming : An application which provides "audio on demand". That is it lets your computer play sound while the sound file downloads, rather than forcing you to wait for the entire file to arrive before play begins.

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B

• Backbone : One of the networks that connects other networks to the Internet. For example the NSFNET is one of the main backbones of the Internet.
• Bandwidth : The difference in Hertz between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel. Usually used to describe the amount of traffic through a particular newsgroup or conference.
• Bang Path : An old UUCP e-mail address system.
• Banner : A message displayed by an online system when you execute certain commands. For example there may be a "login banner" which displays information about the system when you first connect to it. System managers, or Wizards, or UNIX systems all display banners actively on their systems.
• Basehand : A digital signaling technique used in Ethernet local area networks.
• Batch : A method of collecting several files together before downloading.
• BatchFTP : An easy way to get several files from various FTP sites together before downloading from a terminal Internet Service Provider.
• Baud : A unit of measurement denoting the number of transitions in modem signal per second. Each transition may carry more than one bit of information.
• BBS : Bulletin Board System. An online service which can be completely stand alone, such as the support BBS's that are operated by many computer equipment supplier, or part of a network such as Fidonet. Many BBS's now have links to the Internet by way of offering users Internet e-mail, and some have Usenet news feeds as well.
• BinHex : A Mac program to convert binary code to ASCII ready for transfer over the Internet by e-mail. Similar to UUencoding for PC users. Files that have been converted using BinHex will have the filename extension of .hqx.
• Bis : Often seen used in connection with modem standards. Bis is french for the word repeat.
• Bit : A unit of measurement that represents one character of data. A bit is the smallest unit of storage in a computer.
• BITNET : An IBM based academic computer network. BITNET is an acronym for "Because It's Time, NETwork."
• Bits Per Second : The speed at which bits are transmitted.
• Blinking : Using an off-line reader to access and online system.
• Block : Data consisting of a fixed number of characters or records, moved as a single unit during transmission.
• Body : The part of an electronic mail message that contains the actual message text, as opposed to the mail header for example.
• Bookmark : A way of storing pointers to Web sites in your browser.
• Boolean Search : A method of searching for information within a database using certain operators such as AND and OR.
• Bot : An automated agent which automatically performs a set of instructions used mostly as a character in a Multi User Dungeon game, or used mostly in IRC as a way of mimicking a real user logged online.
• Bounce : When e-mail is returned due to failure to deliver.
• BPS : Bits per second. The measurement of the speed in which data can be transmitted over a telephone or network line.
• Bridge : A device that connects two or more physical networks and forwards packets between them.
• Broadband : A transmission method often used to send different kinds of signal at the same time, like voice and data for example.
• Brownouts : Common phenomenon in which several servers on the Net get overloaded as they try to cope with the Net traffic after another server has crashed.
• Browser : A generic term for an application that displays Web pages. Most browsers now provide the capabilities to view Web pages with graphics, tiled backgrounds, and print from the Web, and access other Internet protocols such as e-mail, Gopher, Usenet and file transfers.
• Buffer : A memory area used as a temporary storage device for data during input/output operations.
• Byte : A group of binary digits that are stored and operated upon as a unit.

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C

• Call For Votes : Often reduced to the acronym of CFV, a call for votes is part of the Usenet newsgroup creation process. This process isn't required when creating an alt group.
• Carrier : A signal of continuous frequency capable of being modulated with another information carrying signal.
• Cascade : An art form usually restricted to Usenet newsgroups. In fact there are groups devoted to the art of cascading. It involves quoting a previous message and then adding a quote to it, both these get quoted and another added, and so on in a cascade of quotes. Most cascades are nothing but a waste of bandwidth.
• CC : Acronym for Courtesy Copy or Carbon Copy, the process of sending a duplicate copy of a message to an individual or group of people.
• CCITT : International Consultative Committee for Telegraphy and Telephony. An organization that produces international technical standards for data communications. It has recently been replaced by the ITU-T.
• Cello : A World Wide Web graphical browser program for Windows users.
• CERN : The European Laboratory for Particle Physics, based in Geneva, and the birthplace of the World Wide Web. The acronym CERN is derived from Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (the centre's previous name).
• Character : A binary representation of a letter, number or symbol.
• CIM : The CompuServe Information Manager is the officially supported access program for CompuServe.
• CIS : CompuServe, the American online information service.
• CIX : Compulink Information eXchange. The largest conferencing system in the UK
• CIx : The Commercial Internet Exchange, agreement among Internet Service Providers regarding the commercial use of the Internet.
• ClariNet : A commercial online publisher that produces a number of news related Usenet newsgroups. These groups are only available to those service providers, or individuals who have paid the necessary subscription fees.
• Class A Network : An Internet network that can define a maximum of 16,777,215 hosts. Current limitation specify a maximum of 128 such Class A networks, and this figure is fast being reached. Class A Networks are usually large government or educational establishments.
• Class B Network : An Internet network that can define a maximum of 65,535 hosts. These are limited to a total of 16,384 currently and the number of Class B Networks is a long way off of that figure. Usually a Class B Network will be a corporate or some other such organization that is expected to show some growth.
• Class C Network : An Internet network that can define a maximum of 256 hosts. These are limited to a total of 2,097,152 currently and the number of Class C Networks is even less than Class B ones at the moment. Generally speaking these networks will be allocated to small businesses, bulletin board systems, and individuals with direct connections.
• Client : An application that extracts information from a server on your behalf.
• Client Server : A client program which rEnterSoftdes on your computer and presents you, the user with a pretty easy to understand interface. You ask the client program to do something and it will go ask the client program to do something and it will go and ask the server, which rEnterSoftdes elsewhere on the Internet, to perform that task. The server will go and do the work and return the information requested to the client. Examples of the client server model used on the Internet include Archie, Gopher, and the World Wide Web.
• Clipper Chip : A microchip that contains encryption methods that have been proposed by the United States National Security Agency. Allows the law enforcement agencies and secret service organizations to monitor online communications.
• Com : A top-level domain name extenuation used by commercial companies on the Internet.
• Command Line Interface : Commonly known as CLI, the first dEnterSoftgned and created user interface which allows interaction between computer and user.
• Communications Decency Act : United States legislation intended to make the server legally responsible for ensuring no obscene materials come into the hands of minors.
• Compress : A UNIX archiving program that reduces the size of a file.
• Connect Time : The length of time you spend online to the Internet.
• Cookie : A random quote, generated by software. Found on many online systems.
• Courtesy Copy : A copy of an electronic mail message that is sent to someone other than the main recipient, but at the same time. Often used to keep copies of e-mail for the sender's own records.
• CPS : Characters Per Second. A measurement of data output speed.
• Crash : A sudden and total system failure.
• CRC : Cyclic Redundancy Checking. A type of error detection.
• CREN : The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking, which was formed by a merger of BITNET and CSNET.
• Cross Post : To post the same message to more than one conference, message area or Usenet newsgroup.
• Cryptography : The science of code. That is encrypting messages so that they cannot be read by anyone unless they have the right "key" to unlock the encryption.
• CSLIP : Compressed SLIP is a version of SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) that uses compression to produce faster transfer rates. The SLIP protocol is used to enable a connection to the Internet to be made using an ordinary telephone line.
• CTS : Clear to Send, an RS232C signal that means that the transmission of data is correct.
• Cybercafe : A cybercafe combines the traditional coffee house with the introduction of Internet access.
• Cyberpunk : A person who lives in the future culture of cyberspace, virtual reality, etc. As epitomized by the works of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson.
• Cybersex : A act of engaging in sex in an online or virtual environment. For example, two consenting adults engaging in an e-mail or real time chat sex session.
• Cyberspace : A term coined by William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer" used to describe the collective "World" of networked computers. Now commonly used to refer to the world that exists within computer networks, accessed by comms technology.
• Cyborg : A combination of man and machine popularized in science fiction novels.
• Cypherpunk : One of many computer users who are deeply involved with the subject of encryption. See also Cryptography.

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D

• Daemon : A program which sites on a system waiting to perform a specific function. Daemon is an acronym for Disk and Execution MONitor.
• DARPA : The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, responsible for the development of ARPANET which is the basis of what was to develop into the Internet.
• DASD : Direct Access Storage Device.
• Database : Collection of information held at a single site that is searchable by the use of keywords.
• Data Compression : The compression of information to decrease transferred file size. MNP5 and V.42bis are the best known types.
• Datagram : The primary unit of information transferred over the Internet using the Internet Protocol.
• DCE : Data Communications Equipment.
• Decryption : Decoding encrypted data to its original form. See also Cryptography and Encryption.
• Delphi : Delphi is one of the big names in USA Internet provision and online services. With over 120,000 members worldwide, and easy access to the Internet.
• Delurk : To stop lurking, this is to make a posting for the first time after spending a while reading but not contributing to a forum or newsgroup.
• Dial-Up : To connect to another computer by calling it over the telephone network.
• Digicash : Electronic money that can be used to buy things over the Net.
• DIP Switch : Dual Interface Poll Switch which enables the user to set various parameters of a circuit board.
• Distribution : Used in Usenet to refer to the geographic region to which newsgroup messages may be posted.
• DNS : Domain Name System is a database system for translating computer domain names into numeric Internet addresses.
• Document : Any HTML file, or World Wide Web page commonly known as a document.
• Domain : Part of the naming hierarchy of the Internet. There are various levels to a domain name, and you are likely to see some of the following top level domains: com - commercial organizations, edu - educational organizations, gov - government organizations, mil - military organizations, net - network resources and org - misc organizations.
• Domain Name Server : Domain Name Server enable domain names to be resolved into numerical IP addresses.
• Download : The transfer of a file from another computer to your own.
• DTE : Data Terminal Equipment.
• DTR : Data Terminal Ready, an RS232C signal that is part of the handshake in a data transmission interface.
• Duplex : A communications channel capable of carrying a signal in both directions.

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