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Bandwidth: The transmission capacity of the lines that carry the Internet's electronic traffic. The greater the bandwidth, the more data that can be moved at one time. Lack of bandwidth can impose severe limitations on the ability of the Internet to quickly deliver information. See Also: Bps, Bit Bps: (Bits per second) - A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can move data at 28,800 bits per second. See Also: Bandwidth, Bit, Modem Bookmark: A pointer to a Web site of interest. Within browsers, pages can be "bookmarked" for quick reference, rather than remembering and typing the complete URL in the address bar. See Also: Internet Explorer, Mosaic, Netscape Browser: A software program that is used to view websites and other Internet resources on the WWW. See Also: Internet, Internet Explorer, Mosaic, Netscape, Home Page (or Homepage), URL, WWW Client / Server: Computer technology that separates computers and their users into two categories. When you want information from a computer on the Internet, you are a client. The computer that delivers the information is the server. A server both stores information and makes it available to any authorized client who requests the information. See Also: Server Compression: Data files available for upload and download are often compressed in order to save space and reduce transfer times. Typical file extensions for compressed files include .zip (DOS/Windows) and .tar (UNIX). See Also: Download, PKZIP, Upload Cyberspace: This term was coined by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer. Cyberspace is currently used to describe the whole range of information available through computer networks. See Also: Internet

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DNS: (Domain Name Server) - A computer running a program that converts domain names into IP addresses and vice versa. Domain Name Servers (also known as Name Servers) are the backbone of the Internet. See Also: Domain Name, IP Number, Server Domain Name: A unique name that identifies an Internet site. A domain name is the Internet's way of translating a numeric IP address into an easy-to-remember combination of words and numbers. A given machine may have more than one domain name, but a given domain name points to only one machine. For example, the domain names "example.com", "mail.example.com" and "sales.example.com" can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine. See Also: IP Number Download: The process of transferring data from a remote computer to a local computer. When you copy a file from a computer on the Internet to your computer, you are "downloading" that file. See Also: Upload
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Email: (Electronic Mail) - Messages sent from one person to another via the Internet. Email can also be sent to a large number of addresses at once through a Mailing List. See Also: Internet, List Server, Mailing List
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Firewall: A combination of hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security purposes. A firewall is commonly used to separate a network from the Internet. See Also: LAN, Network Freeware: Software that is available for download and unlimited use without charge. See Also: Register, Shareware

FTP: (File Transfer Protocol) - A common method of moving files between two Internet sites. Most FTP sites require a login name and password before files can be retrieved or sent. See Also: Anonymous FTP, Log In, Password
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Gateway: Hardware or software set up to translate between two different protocols. For example, Prodigy has a gateway that translates between its internal email format and Internet email format. Another definition of gateway is any mechanism for providing access to another system. For example, AOL might be called a gateway to the Internet. Gigabyte: A thousand (technically 2^10 or 1024) Megabytes. See Also: Bit, Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Terabyte
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Home Page (or Homepage): Originally, a home page was the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common definition refers to the main web page for any business or personal site. See Also: Browser, WWW HTML: (HyperText Markup Language) - The language used to build hypertext documents on the WWW. They are nothing more than plain ASCII-text documents interpreted (or rendered) by a web browser to display formatted text and fonts, color, graphic images, and links. See Also: Browser, Internet Explorer, Mosaic, Netscape, WWW HTTP: (HyperText Transfer Protocol) - The protocol for moving hypertext (HTML) files across the Internet. This requires a HTTP client program on one end and a HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used on the WWW. See Also: Client, Server, WWW Internet: The vast collection of inter-connected networks

Internet Explorer: A web browser developed by Microsoft Corporation to compete with Netscape. See Also: browser, Mosaic, Netscape internet: (Lower case I) An internet is created any time 2 or more networks are connected together. See Also: Internet, Network Intranet: A network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software found on the Internet, but is only for internal use. A company web server available only to employees would be an Intranet. See Also: Internet, internet, Network IP Number: (Internet Protocol Number) - A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots. 123.45.678.9 could be an IP number. Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number. Most machines also have one or more domain names that are easier for people to remember. See Also: DNS, Domain Name, Internet, TCP/IP ISP: (Internet Service Provider) - A business that provides access to the Internet and WWW in some form, usually for pay. See Also: Internet, WWW
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JPG: (Joint Photographic Experts Group) - The name of the committee that designed the photographic image-compression standard. The format (.jpg) is optimized for compressing full-color or grayscale photographic images, and does not work well for line drawings or black-and-white images. JPG images are 24-bit (16.7 million color) graphics. See Also: GIF, TIFF LAN: (Local Area Network) - A computer network restricted to a limited area, usually the same building or a floor of a building. Office computers are typically connected to a LAN. See Also: Ethernet, Network

Login: The user- or account-name used to gain access to a computer system. Also, the act of entering or "signing on" to a computer system. See Also: Password
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Megabyte: A million bytes or a thousand (technically 2^10 or 1024) kilobytes. See Also: Bit, Byte, Gigabyte, Kilobyte, Terabyte Modem: (MOdulator, DEModulator) - An electronic device that lets computers communicate with one another, much as telephones work with people. The name is derived from "modulator-demodulator" because of their function in processing data over analog phone lines. Terminal Adapters are often (and mistakenly) referred to as modems. See Also: Terminal Adapter MPEG: (Motion Picture Experts Group) - A video file format (.mpeg) offering excellent quality in a comparatively small size. Video files found on the Internet are frequently stored in the MPEG format. See Also: Compression Multimedia: A combination of media types in a single document, such as text, graphics, audio and video. Netiquette: The desired mode of manners and conduct for the Internet. See Also: Flame, Netizen, Spam, Trolling Netscape: A web browser created by Netscape Communications Corporation. The Netscape browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It provided major improvements in speed and interface over other browsers, but also engendered debate by being the first to create browser-specific elements for HTML. See Also: Browser, Mosaic, Internet Explorer, Server, WWW Network: A network is created any time 2 or more computers are connected together to share resources. When 2 or more networks are connected, it becomes an internet. See Also: Internet, internet, Intranet

Online: When someone is connected to the Internet, they are considered "online". See Also: Internet
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Packet: A chunk of data. The TCP/IP protocol breaks large data files into smaller "packets" for transmission over the Internet. When the data reaches its destination, the protocol makes sure that all packets arrived without error. See Also: TCP/IP Password: A code used to gain access to a locked system. Effective passwords should contain both letters and non-letters and not be common or easily guessed words. See Also: Login Port: (3 definitions) - First and most frequently, a port is where information goes into and/or out of a computer, such as the serial port on a PC. Secondly, a "port" often refers to the number appearing after the colon (:) in a domain name, such as http://www.example.com:7000/. Thirdly, to "port" something refers to translating a piece of software from one computer platform to another (for example, from Windows to Macintosh). See Also: Domain Name, URL Router: A computer or software package that handles the connection between 2 or more networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the destination addresses of the packets passing through them to decide which route to send them on. See Also: Network, Packet, Packet Switching Search Engine: A tool for locating information on the Internet by topic. Popular search engines include Yahoo, AltaVista, and HotBot. Server / Client: A computer or software package that provides a specific kind of service to client software on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software (such as a WWW server) or to the machine that the software is running on (such as a mail server). A single server machine may have several different server software packages running on it. See Also: Client, Network, WWW

Upload: The process of transferring data from a local computer to a remote computer. When you copy a file from your computer to a computer on the Internet, you are "uploading" that file. See Also: Download URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) - The standard method of giving the address for any resource on the WWW. A URL might look like this: http://www.example.com/examples.html. The most common use of a URL is to enter it in a web browser to access that page on the Internet. See Also: Browser, HTTP, WWW WAN: (Wide Area Network) - Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus. See Also: Internet, internet, LAN, Network WWW: (World Wide Web) - The technical definition of the WWW is the global network of hypertext (HTTP) servers that allow text, graphics, audio and video files to be mixed together. The second, more loosely used definition is the entire range of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS, and other such tools. See Also: FTP, Gopher, HTTP, Telnet, Usenet, WAIS
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ZIP: A compressed file format (.zip). Many files available on the Internet are compressed or "zipped" in order to reduce storage space and transfer times.