Glossary of Internet

[denis]

BROWSER:
A program used to access World Wide Web pages. Examples: Netscape
or Internet Explorer.

CACHE
In browsers, "cache" is used to identify a space where web pages you have
visited are stored in your computer. A copy of documents you retrieve is
stored in cache. When you use GO, BACK, or any other means to revisit
a document, the browser first checks to see if it is in cache and will retrieve it
from there because it is much faster than retrieving it from the server.

CGI
"Common Gateway Interface," the most common way Web programs interact
dynamically with users. Many search boxes and other applications that result in
a page with content tailored to the user's search terms rely on CGI to process
the data once it's submitted, to pass it to a background program in JAVA,
JAVASCRIPT, or another programming language, and then to integrate the
response into a display using HTML.

Client-server technology:
Refers to a connection between networked computers in which the services of
one computer (the server) are requested by the other (the client). Information
obtained is then processed locally on the client computer.

COOKIE
A message from a WEB SERVER computer, sent to and stored by your browser
on your computer. When your computer consults the originating server computer,
the cookie is sent back to the server, allowing it to respond to you according to the
cookie's contents. The main use for cookies is to provide customized Web pages
according to a profile of your interests. When you log onto a "customize" type of
invitation on a Web page and fill in your name and other information, this may result
in a cookie on your computer which that Web page will access to appear to "know"
you and provide what you want. If you fill out these forms, you may also receive
e-mail and other solicitation independent of cookies.

DOMAIN, TOP LEVEL DOMAIN (TLD)
Hierarchical scheme for indicating logical and sometimes geographical venue of
a web-page from the network. In the US, common domains are .edu (education),
.gov (government agency), .net (network related), .com (commercial), .org
(nonprofit and research organizations). Outside the US, domains indicate country:
ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), au (Australia), jp (Japan), fr (France), etc.
Neither of these lists is exhaustive. See also DNS entry.

DOMAIN NAME, DOMAIN NAME SERVER (DNS)ENTRY
Any of these terms refers to the initial part of a URL, down to the first /, where
the domain and name of the host or SERVER computer are listed (most often in

reversed order, name first, then domain). The domain name gives you who
"published" a page, made it public by putting it on the Web.
A domain name is translated in huge tables standardized across the Internet into
a numeric IP address unique the host computer sought. These tables are maintained
on computers called "Domain Name Servers." Whenever you ask the browser to
find a URL, the browser must consult the table on the domain name server that
particular computer is networked to consult.
"Domain Name Server entry" frequently appears a browser error message when
you try to enter a URL. If this lookup fails for any reason, the "lacks DNS entry"
error occurs. The most common remedy is simply to try the URL again, when
the domain name server is less busy, and it will find the entry (the corresponding
numeric IP address).

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one computer
to another, intact for viewing or other purposes.

HOST
Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. A standardized language of computer code, imbedded
in "source" documents behind all Web documents, containing the textual content,
images, links to other documents (and possibly other applications such as sound or
motion), and formatting instructions for display on the screen. When you view a Web
page, you are looking at the product of this code working behind the scenes in
conjunction with your browser. Browsers are programmed to interpret HTML for
display.
HTML often imbeds within it other programming languages and applications such as
SGML, XML, Javascript, CGI-script and more. It is possible to deliver or access and
execute virtually any program via the WWW.
You can see HTML in Netscape by selecting the View pop-down menu tab, then
"Document Source." If you download a document as "Source," the file will contain
HTML markup codes and can be viewed in Netscape and other browsers.

IP Address or IP Number
(Internet Protocol number or address). A unique number consisting of 4 parts
separated by dots, e.g. 135.123.234.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP address. 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.

JAVA
A network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is
specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your
computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other
harm to our computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web
pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.
We can expect to see a huge variety of features added to the Web using Java, since
you can write a Java program to do almost anything a regular computer program can
do, and then include that Java program in a Web page. For more information search
any of these jargon terms in the PC Webopedia.

JAVASCRIPT
A simple programming language developed by Netscape to enable greater
interactivity in Web pages. It shares some characteristics with JAVA but is
independent. It interacts with HTML, enabling dynamic content and motion.

LINK
The URL imbedded in another document, so that if you click on the highlighted text
or button referring to the link, you retrieve the outside URL. If you search the field
"link:", you retrieve on text in these imbedded URLs which you do not see in the
documents.

SCRIPT
A script is a type of programming language that can be used to fetch and display Web
pages. There are may kinds and uses of scripts on the Web. They can be used to create
all or part of a page, and communicate with searchable databases. Forms (boxes) and
many interactive links, which respond differently depending on what you enter, all
require some kind of script language. When you find a question marke (?) in the URL
of a page, some kind of script command was used in generating and/or delivering that
page. Most search engine spiders are instructed not to crawl pages from scripts,
although it is usually technically possible for them to do so.

SERVER, WEB SERVER
A computer running that software, assigned an IP address, and connected to the
Internet so that it can provide documents via the World Wide Web. Also called HOST
computer. Web servers are the closest equivalent to what in the print world is called
the "publisher" of a print document. An important difference is that most print
publishers carefully edit the content and quality of their publications in an effort to
market them and future publications. This convention is not required in the Web world,
where anyone can be a publisher; careful evaluation of Web pages is therefore
mandatory. Also called a "Host."

SERVER-SIDE
Something that operates on the "server" computer (providing the Web page), as
opposed to the "client" computer (which is you or someone else viewing the Web
page). Usually it is a program or command or procedure or other application
causes dynamic pages or animation or other interaction.

SHTML, usually seen as .shtml
An file name extension that identifies web pages containing SSI commands.

SITE or WEB-SITE
This term is often used to mean "web page," but there is supposed to be a difference.
A web page is a single entity, one URL, one file that you might find on the Web.
A "site," properly speaking, is an location or gathering or center for a bunch of related
pages linked to from that site. For example, the site for the present tutorial is the
top-level page "Internet Resources." All of the pages associated with it branch out from
there -- the web searching tutorial and all its pages, and more. Together they make up a
"site." When we estimate there are 5 billion web pages on the Web, we do not mean
"sites." There would be far fewer sites.

SPIDERS
Computer robot programs, referred to sometimes as "crawlers" or "knowledge-bots"
or "knowbots" that are used by search engines to roam the World Wide Web via
the Internet, visit sites and databases, and keep the search engine database of web
pages up to date. They obtain new pages, update known pages, and delete obsolete
ones. Their findings are then integrated into the "home" database.
Most large search engines operate several robots all the time. Even so, the Web is
so enormous that it can take six months for spiders to cover it, resulting in a certain
degree of "out-of-datedness" (link rot) in all the search engines.

SSI commands
SSI stands for "server-side include," a type of HTML instruction telling a computer
that serves Web pages to dynamically generate data, usually by inserting certain
variable contents into a fixed template or boilerplate Web page. Used especially in
database searches.

TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) -- 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
Internet service allowing one computer to log onto another, connecting as if not
remote.

URL
Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of any Web document. May be keyed
in Netscape's OPEN or Netscape's LOCATION / GO TO box to retrieve a document.

XHTML
A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a hybrid
between HTML and XML that is more universally acceptable in Web pages and search
engines than XML.

XML
Extensible Markup Language, a dilution for Web page use of SGML (Standard
General Markup Language), which is not readily viewable in ordinary browsers and
is difficult to apply to Web pages. XML is very useful (among other things) for pages
emerging from databases and other applications where parts of the page are
standardized and must reappear many times.

[flumps]

Some more words to add:


Whats the meaning of SSL?

(pronounced as separate letters) Short for Secure Sockets
Layer, a protocal developed by netscape for transmitting private
documents via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt
data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Both netscape navigator
and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web Sites use the protocol to
obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By
convention,URLs that require an SSL connection start with https:
instead of http:. Another protocol for transmitting data securely over
the World Wide Web is Secure HTTP (HTTPs). Whereas SSL creates a
secure connection between a client and a server, over which any amount of
data can be sent securely, S-HTTP is designed to transmit individual
messages securely. SSL and S-HTTP, therefore, can be seen as
complementary rather than competing technologies. Both protocols have
been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard.


What is a network?


A group of two or more computer systems linked together. There are many
types of computer networks, including:


Local - area networks (LANs) : The computers are geographically
close together (that is, in the same building).
Wide- area networks (WANs) : The computers are farther apart and
are connected by telephone lines or radio waves.
campus - area networks (CANs): The computers are within a limited
geographic area, such as a campus or military base. metropolitan
Metropolitan- area networks (MANs): A data network designed for
a town or city.
Home - area network (HANs): A network contained within a user's
home that connects a person's digital devices.
In addition to these types, the following characteristics are also used to
categorize different types of networks: Topology: The geometric
arrangement of a computer system. Common topologies include a bus, star,
and ring. See the Network topologydiagrams in the Quick Reference section
of Webopedia.
protocol : The protocol defines a common set of rules and signals
that computers on the network use to communicate. One of the most popular
protocols for LANs is called Ethernet. Another popular LAN protocol for
PCs is the IBM token-ring network.
architecture : Networks can be broadly classified as using either a
peer-to-peer or client/server architecture.
Computers on a network are sometimes called nodes. Computers and
devices that allocate resources for a network are called servers.

Active Server Pages

Abbreviated as ASP, a specification for a dynamically created Web page with a .ASP extension that utilizes ActiveX scripting -- usually VB Script or Jscript code. When a browser requests an ASP, the Web server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser. So ASPs are similar to CGI scripts, but they enable Visual Basic programmers to work with familiar tools.

VPN

(pronounced as separate letters) Short for virtual private network, a network that is constructed by using public wires to connect nodes. For example, there are a number of systems that enable you to create networks using the Internet as the medium for transporting data. These systems use encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot be intercepted.

FORUM

An online discussion group. Online services and bulletin board services (BBS's) provide a variety of forums, in which participants with common interests can exchange open messages. Forums are sometimes called newsgroups (in the Internet world) or conferences.

Bandwidth

(1)A range within a band of frequencies or wavelengths. (2) The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second(bps) or bytes per second. For analog devices, the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz).

The bandwidth is particularly important for I/O devices. For example, a fast disk drive can be hampered by a bus with a low bandwidth. This is the main reason that new buses, such as AGP, have been developed for the PC.


SSH


Developed by SSH Communications Security Ltd., Secure Shell is a program to log into another computer over a network, to execute commands in a remote machine, and to move files from one machine to another. It provides strong authentication and secure communications over insecure channels. It is a replacement for rlogin, rsh, rcp, and rdist.

SSH protects a network from attacks such as IP spoofing, IP source routing, and DNS spoofing. An attacker who has managed to take over a network can only force ssh to disconnect. He or she cannot play back the traffic or hijack the connection when encryption is enabled.

When using ssh's slogin (instead of rlogin) the entire login session, including transmission of password, is encrypted; therefore it is almost impossible for an outsider to collect passwords.

SSH is available for Windows, Unix, Macintosh, and OS/2, and it also works with RSA authentication.

[flumps]

Internet

A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well.

There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider(ISP).

The Internet is not synonymous with World Wide Web.

[denis]

Virtual hosting is a method that web servers use to host more than
one domain name on the same computer and IP address.


With web browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (as most do), upon connecting to
a webserver, they send the address that the user typed into their browser's
address bar (the URL). The server can use this information to determine
which webpage to show the user.


For instance, a server could be receiving requests for two domains,
www.site1.com and www.site2.com, both of which resolve to the same IP
address. For www.site1.com, the server would send the HTML file file from
the directory /www/JoeUser/site1/, while requests for www.site2.com would
make the server serve pages from /www/FrankUser/site2/.


BambooWeb Dictionary

[kooshin.com]

wow good presentation guys. I really liked it. It is very detailed and useful

[JeffEDH]

Very nice indeed! Great info! Good place for quick reference.

[Insignia]

Whoa, cool. Alot easier than searching individually :P

[Ados]

Great List