# | 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

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56Kflex
This is one of the two competing 56 Kbps modem standards. It was developed by Rockwell and Lucent (the other is the X2 technology of US Robotics).

A

Acrobat Reader
Standalone program or Web browser plug-in from Adobe that lets you view a PDF file in its original format and appearance. The Acrobat Reader is free and can be downloaded from Adobe.

Access provider
Organisation that arranges for you to have access to the Internet through a dial-up account. The charge is usually depending on the amount of usage you contract for.

Active Server Pages (ASP)
Microsoft Internet software to allow combination of HTML, JavaScript and ActiveX.

ActiveX
Microsoft software to enable easier multimedia on the WWW. ActiveX controls can be used to create multimedia effects. On ActiveX Web sites, buttons can light up and sound effects can play when you click or move the pointer over things (see also Java, JavaScript). To see it, your browser must support ActiveX.

Address
The unique identifier you need to either access a Web site: http://www.1-800-ecompro.com (see URL) or 216.136.31.185 (see IP address) or to send email: support@Ecompro.com (see email address).

ADN - Advanced Digital Network
Refers to a 56 Kbps leased line.

ADSL - Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
The phone company's answer to cable modems and in the future even an alternative to ISDN. An ADSL circuit connects two specific locations (similar to a leased line) but it is much faster than a regular phone connection. In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 640 Kbps.

Aggregator
Device (computer) that serves many other devices. For example, a computer that not only handles dial-up modem calls for an ISP, but also supports ISDN connections, leased-lines, while it is also a router, well, that is a typical aggregator.

Anonymous FTP
Allows visitors to upload and/or download predetermined files from designated directories without user ID or password. This is different from "FTP access."

Applet
Small (Java) program embedded in an HTML page. When you access that Web page, the browser downloads the applet and runs it on your computer. For security reasons applets cannot read or write data onto your computer. The applet can only be executed if your browser supports Java.

Archie
(Prehistoric!) database service for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites.

ARPANET - Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
Developed by the US Department of Defense during the cold war. ARPANET was designed to survive nuclear attacks: the authority was distributed over a large number of geographically dispersed computers, so that - even if most servers were destroyed - the remaining servers would be able to continue on. This computer network concept was the basis of the Internet.

ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
World-wide standard for the code numbers assigned to each key on the keyboard. ASCII text does not include formatting and therefore can be exchanged and read by most computer systems.

AUP - Acceptable Use Policy
AUP is a policy for the use of the Internet within an organisation. Companies or organisations can use a AUP filter to exclude some Internet services for their employees or members. Not only organisations can establish their own AUP standard, even parents can do. Many parents use a AUP tool (some sort of filter) to block access to pornographic sites for their children (for example: CyberPatrol).

Autoresponders
Sends an automated email response to incoming email sent to a specific address. One autoresponder per email address. e.g. Visitor X sends an email to sales@ecompro.com. Autoresponder sends an prewritten message to visitor X automatically.

AVI - Audio Video Interleave
Digital video file format created by Microsoft (Video for Windows). An .avi file contains picture and sound elements stored in alternate (interleaved) chunks.

B

Backbone
Segment of a communications network where many lines come together. The term is relative ("the" Internet backbone doesn't exist): a backbone in a small network will be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

Bandwidth
The transmission capacity, usually measured in bits per second (see bps) of a network connection.

Banner
Advertisement in the form of a graphic image on the Web. Most banner ads are animated GIFs.

Baud
The Baud rate refers to the speed of a modem. Although not technically accurate, baud rate is commonly used to mean bit rate (the number of bits transmitted per second) (see bps).

BBS - Bulletin Board System
Members of a BBS can dial into their BBS, mostly to download files, to send email or to join discussion groups. BBS's were the main source of the online community until the breakthrough of the Internet and the WWW.

Beta
A software application that is made available prior to the official release for the purposes of testing.

B-ISDN - Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network
Fiber optic transmission standard. Transmission speed: 1.5 million bits per second (bps).

Bit - Binary DigIT
The smallest unit of computerised data. A bit is either "on" or "off" and is represented by "1" or "0".

BITNET - Because It's Time NETwork
(Prehistoric!) network of educational sites separated from the Internet, but connected to the Internet through email.

Bookmark
Browser feature that allows you to save a link to a Web page. You can always use this bookmark to return to that page.

Bounce
Return of an email because it could not be delivered to the specified address.

Box
Computer.

Bps - Bits Per Second
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another, usually in thousands of bits per second (Kbps) or million of bits per second (Mbps). A 28.8 modem can transport 28,800 bits per second.

Browser - Web Browser
Tool (software program) that allows you to surf the Web. The most popular Web Browsers are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. The very first Web browsers, such as Lynx, only allowed users to see text.

C

C
Name of a structured, procedural computer language commonly used for the creation of operating systems and other professional-grade applications.

C++
Superset of the C language that adds object-oriented concepts. Java, another programming language, is based on C++ but optimised for the Internet.

Cable Modem
Device connected to your computer that enables you to receive and request information from the Internet over your local cable TV line. The bandwidth of a cable modem far exceeds the bandwidth of the 28.8 Kbps, ISDN or ADSL modems.

Cache
Area of your computer memory or directory on your hard disk. This is the place where your browser stores viewed Web pages. When you return to a page, the browser gets this page from the cache, saving you time. However, if you return to a page that changes a lot, you need to click the "Reload" button on your browser to get the latest version.

cc:
Carbon Copy. To send somebody a copy of an email message.

CERN - Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire
CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) is in fact the birth-place of the World Wide Web. One of the researchers of CERN, Dr. Tim Berners-Lee originated the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) on which the World Wide Web is based.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface
Interface that allows scripts (programs) to run on a Web server. CGI-scripts are used to put the content of a form into an email message, to perform a database query, to generate HTML pages on-the-fly, etc. The most popular languages for CGI-scripts are Perl and C.

cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a Web server in which CGI-scripts are stored.

Chat
Online interactive communication on the Web. You can "talk" in real time with other people in the "chat room", but the words are typed instead of spoken.

Click
In advertising a "click" is used to mean a request for a page that contains an ad. Sometimes, a click is more narrowly defined as "a click on an ad". The click rate is the number of clicks (on an ad) as a percentage of the number of times that the ad was downloaded with a page: a click rate of 2% means that 2% of the people who downloaded the page clicked on the ad.

Client/Server
A client is a computer system that requests a service of another computer system (a server) on the network.

Clustering
In a client/server environment clustering means using two or more computers which function together as one single entity. When one computer is failing, the other will take over its task. This procedure will increase reliability and up-time.

Co-location
When servers from different owners are physically located in the same place and use a common Internet connection, it's called a co-location. If someone wants his machine to be on a high-speed Internet connection, if he doesn't have the possibility to maintain his server, or if he doesn't want security risks, he can choose for co-location in a place with optimum conditions for running a server.

Commercial online service
Computer network that offers its members access to its own chat rooms, bulletin boards, and other online features on a monthly fee basis. Well-known commercial online services are America Online, CompuServe, The Microsoft Network, and Prodigy. (They also provide access to the Internet).

Compiler
A compiler translates code written in a computer language into an executable form (machine language).

Compression
Technology that reduces the size of a file to save bandwidth.

Congestion
A condition in (part of) a network when the data traffic is so heavy that it slows down the response time of the network.

Cookie
Small piece of information that a Web server sends to your computer hard disk via your browser. Cookies contain information such as login or registration information, online shopping cart information, user preferences, etc. This information can be retrieved by other web pages on the site, so that this site can be customised. For example, when you're shopping online, the cookie contains a list of all the items you have in your shopping cart. When it's time to pay, the server takes the cookie from your browser to see what you have bought and you'll get a nice bill...

CPU - Central Processing Unit
The brains of your computer. In fact, the main silicon chip that runs the operating system and programs, and controls essential operations.

Cracker
A malicious person who breaks the security of computer systems in order to steal or destroy information.

CyberCash
Used for secure processing of credit card transactions. It works with all popular browsers in the market and other Web store software applications.

Cyberspace
Term used by newbies to describe the Internet, coined by author William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer". Cyberspace is a virtual space, you're in Cyberspace when you are cruising the Web.

D

Daemon
A dormant background process on a Web server (in a UNIX environment), waiting to perform tasks. Well-known daemons are the sendmail daemon and the HTTP daemon.

Data encryption key
String of characters used to encode a message. This encoded message can only be read by someone with another related key.

Data Transfer
Amount of data transferred (or traffic) during a given period. Your aggregate traffic is the sum of outward-bound, inward-bound, email and anonymous FTP traffic. Each time a web page, image, audio, video, and other elements of your website is accessed by your visitor, traffic is generated.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosting daily data transfer allowance is such that most of our users stay within the limit. Monthly traffic allowance is calculated based on the daily traffic allowance times 31. Traffic overage will be charged accordingly.

Dedicated line
A direct telephone line between two computers.

Dial-up
Temporary connection (over a telephone line) to the computer of your ISP in order to establish a connection to the Internet.

Digerati
The digital elite. Derived from "literati".

Disk Space
Used to store everything related to your website such as your regular html files, images, multimedia files, anonymous ftp files, POP mail messages, cgi-scripts and any other files that make up your website.

DNS - Domain Name Server or Domain Name System
A Domain Name Server maps IP numbers to a more easily remembered name. When you type http://www.ecompro.com into your browser, the DNS (specified when you installed dial-up networking) searchs for a matching IP address (216.136.31.185). If the DNS doesn't find an entry in its database, it will ask other DNSs until the entry is found, and you will see our site. Otherwise, you'll get an error message from your browser.

Domain Alias
Allows additional domain names to point to your website. e.g. Company X registered two domain names, A and B. It decides on A as its default website. Then domain B becomes a "domain alias" of domain A. Whenever someone types in domain B, he/she/it is automatically "pointed" to domain A.

Domain name
Basically an easy to remember internet address, or URL, in plain alphabet which computers will translate into an ugly IP address which is a long set of numbers. e.g. 1-800-ECOMPRO.com and 1-800-ECOMPRO.net. A more formal definition is below:

"An addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP) numbers) used by the network. A domain name is hierarchical and often conveys information about the type of entity using the domain name. A domain name is simply a label that represents a domain, which is a subset of the total domain name space. Domain names at the same level of the hierarchy must be unique, for example there can be only one com at the top level of the hierarchy, and only one netsol.com at the next level of the hierarchy." from InterNIC.

Domain Name Registration
In order for visitors to find your website using the domain name of your choice, you need to do two things. First, you need to reserve your domain name with InterNIC or other country NIC. Second, you need to provide InterNIC or whoever with the nameserver of your domain name.

Download
Transfer of data from a server to your computer's hard disk. You can use your browser or an FTP program to download files to your computer. When you're retrieving your email, you're downloading your email to your computer.

DS1 - DS3
See T1 - T3.

E

Email - electronic mail
Message, usually text, transmitted over the Internet and sent from one person to another (although you can also sent email to a large number of email addresses (mailing list)).

Email address
An electronic mail address. Email addresses are in the form of: user@domain (for example: support@ecompro.com). Most local ISPs offer you an email address - this is called a POP account. A POP account requires a username and password to access your email. You have to configure your email software to retrieve the email from your POP account. See also email alias.

Email alias
Additional email address that points to another email address (normally your current email address with your local ISP). All messages sent to an email alias, are automatically and immediately redirected (forwarded) to the specified "real" email address, so you don't have to configure your email software to retrieve email sent to your email alias. See also email address.

Email forwarding
e.g. X sends an email to webmaster@yourname.com. Our server receives the mail and immediately forwards it to you@yourisp.com.

Emoticon
Name for those little sideways smiling (and not-smiling!) faces in email messages and other postings. Also known as "smiley". For example:
"just kidding" represented by ;-)
"I'm sad" represented by :-(
If you don't get it, turn your head sideways and look again ;-)

Encryption
Procedure that scrambles the contents of a file before sending it over the Internet. The recipient must have software to "decrypt" this file. If you want to transmit "hot stuff" like credit card information or a password, you have to use some form of encryption. PGP is a commonly-used encryption program.

EOT
End of thread (meaning: end of discussion)

Ethernet
Standard method of connecting computers to a LAN. Ethernet can handle about 10,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any computer.

F

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Document that contains the most common questions and answers on a particular subject.

Finger
Internet utility for locating people on Internet sites. Returns such information as whether a user is logged in, where someone has an account, etc. Many site administrators don't allow Finger requests, because it can help hackers to break into their server.

Firewall
Internet security to protect a LAN against hackers. A combination of hardware and software acts as a firewall to separate the LAN into two parts. "Normal" data is available outside the firewall, while "hot stuff" is inside the firewall.

Frame
Technology introduced in Netscape 2.0 that allows Web designers to break the browser window into several smaller windows, each of which can load different HTML pages. This means Web designers can create navigation bars and ads that stay on the screen as you click through a site.

FrontPage Extension
A proprietary website page editing software suite from Microsoft, which enables newbies to modify their web pages. To use all the features that come with Microsoft FrontPage WebPages editor, FrontPage extension should be installed on your web server by your webhosting company.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosing clients can request that FrontPage extensions be installed for their account free of charge.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol
Internet tool to transfer files through the Internet from one computer to another. FTP is used to download files from another computer, as well as to upload files from your computer to a remote computer.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosting clients have unlimited FTP access 24 hours a day 365 days a year to set up, maintain and manage your web site(s).

G

Gateway
An interface that connects two different networks (a LAN can be connected to the Internet through some kind of gateway). An interface that translates between two different protocols is also called a gateway.

GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
Common graphics file format on the Internet. This format can display only 256 colors at the maximum (8 bits), therefore a GIF is mostly used to show clip-art images (photographic images are usually in the JPEG format). The GIF 89a standard allows multiple images in one file, so you can use a GIF file to show some animation on your Web site (also called an animated gif).

Gigabyte - Gb
About 1 billion bytes.
1 Kb = 1,024 bytes
1 Mb = 1,024 Kb (= 1,048,576 bytes)
1 Gb = 1,024 Mb (= 1,073,741,824 bytes)

GIGO
Garbage In Garbage Out. When you enter wrong input in a program, you'll get bad output.

Gopher
Forerunner of the World Wide Web, invented at the University of Minnesota and named after its mascot. It was the most important tool for finding Internet resources, before the breaktrough of the World Wide Web.

GUI - Graphical User Interface
Graphical environment of an operating system. The Windows and Macintosh operating systems use a GUI. UNIX and DOS are command line operating systems.

Guru
In the context of the WWW, a person with exceptional skills who acts as an expert or/and is a knowledge resource for the Internet community.

H

Hacker
An expert programmer who uses his skills to break into computer systems or networks just for the fun of it, or to expose security risks. Unlike a cracker, a real hacker doesn't want to harm anybody or anything.

Hash table
Table that contains pointers for easy retrieving some sorted information. For example, in the table above, each letter points to a specific position on this page. It could equally point to a specific position on another page. If you want to see words beginning with an "H", you click on the "H" in the hash table and a hyperlink will bring you immediately to this position, so there is no need to scroll through the entire glossary.

Hit
A single request from a browser to a server. Some servers also count each graphic on that page as a hit. For this reason, it's doubtfully to use the number of hits as an accurate measurement for the popularity of a Web site.

Home page
Main page of a Web site. A Web site containing only one page, is also called a home page. Our home page is located at http://www.ecompro.com

Hop
In reference to the Web, a small jump on the route from one main computer to another. It can take you 15 hops or more to get from your access provider to a Web server on the other hemisphere.

Host
The server on which a Web site is stored. Hosting companies store Web sites of their customers on powerful Web servers (with fast, permanent connections to the Internet).

HREF - Hyperlink Reference
HTML code. Specifies a URL as the linked resource.

HTML - Hypertext Mark-up Language
The coding language to create hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. HTML is a way to format text by placing marks ("tags") around the text (like old-fashioned typesetting code).

HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The World Wide Web protocol for moving hypertext (HTML) files across the Internet.

Hyperlink
A highlighted word (or graphic) within a hypertext document (Web page). When you click a hyperlink, it will take you to another place within the same page, or to another page.

Hypermedia
Pictures, videos, and audio on a Web page that act as hyperlinks.

Hypertext
Text that includes links to other Web pages. By clicking on a link, the reader can easily jump from one Web page to another related page. Hypertext spins the Web - no Web without hypertext!

I

ICQ - "I Seek You"
Communications network on the Internet. If you like to know if your friends are surfing the Web right now, ICQ does the searching for you, alerting you in real time when your friends sign on - and vice versa. More information: http://www.icq.net.

Impression
Each request for a Web page on a particular server. Most server log files only count impressions, not "hits" (which may include requests for graphic files). Counting the impressions is a good way to measure the popularity of a Web site.

Information superhighway
Former USA Vice President Al Gore's allegorical vision on the ideal Internet (or something like that). The "information superhighway" is now another paraphrase of the Internet.

Internet
When two or more networks are connected, you have an internet (lower case i).
"The" Internet (upper case i) is the largest of the internets (the mother-of-all-internets...). The Internet evolved from the ArpaNET (a USA military network) to an academic research network, to the current (global) commercial network. Other names: "the Net", "cyberspace", "the information superhighway"...

Internet Explorer
Web browser from Microsoft.

InterNIC - Internet Network Information Center
The InterNIC is the entity that keeps track of the domain names. Most domain names are registered with the InterNIC.

Intranet
Private (company) network of computers using the same protocols as the Internet, but only for internal use. Some sort of small, private Internet.

IP - Internet Protocol
The rules that provide basic Internet functions. IP allows computers to find each other.

IP address
A unique 32-bit Internet address consisting of four numbers, separated by dots and sometimes called a "dotted quad". Every server - connected to the Internet - has an IP number. The IP number of 1-800-ECOMPRO.com is "216.136.31.185".

IRC - Internet Relay Chat
A chat network but the words are not spoken but written. All words typed by any user are seen by everyone who is in that "chat room" (or channel) at that moment.

ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
Digital telephone system that can provide high-speed (up to 128 Kbps) transmission of voice and data.

ISOC - Internet Society
The Internet Society is a non-governmental international organisation to coordinate the Internet technologies and applications (http://www.isoc.org)

ISP - Internet Service Provider
1. An "ISP" provides Internet access to its members. Every time you log on, your ISP connects you to the Internet.
2. Any company that provides Internet services such as Web site development.

J

Java
A platform-independent programming language invented by Sun Microsystems, that Web developers use to create applets. Java-enabled Web pages can include animations, calculators, scrolling text, sound effects and even games. Although many Web designers like Java because of its possibilities, they have to take into consideration that many people are surfing the Web with a Java disabled browser, simply because they don't want to wait until some applet is entirely loaded into their browser.

JavaScript
First of all: JavaScript has nothing to do with Java... JavaScript is a scripting language designed by Netscape. JavaScripts are embedded into HTML documents. It's more complicated than HTML tags, but if you look at the source code of a JavaScript enabled Web page, you can easily understand the syntax.

JDK - Java Development Kit
Sun Microsystems offers Web designers this software development package, so they have all the tools to write, test and debug Java applets.

JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group
Image compression standard, optimised for full-color (millions of colors) digital images. You can choose the amount of compression, but the higher the compression rate, the less quality the image has. Almost every full-color photograph you see on the Web is a JPG file, while GIFs are used to display clip-art images (up to 256 colors).

K

Kbps - Kilobits per second
Measure of data throughput. A 28.8 Kbps modem transfers data at about 3.6K (kilobytes) per second.

Kilobyte - Kb
Rounded: a thousand bytes. Actually, 1024 (2^10) bytes.

Knowbie
Someone who can guide newbies through cyberspace.

L

LAN - Local Area Network
Computer network limited to one single location, usually an office.

Leased line
Dedicated phone line that provides a full-time (24/7) connection from your location to another location. Because you are the only user on this line, you can achieve higher data transfer speeds.

Link
Marked text (usually underlined) or picture within a hypertext document (Web page). With just one click of your mouse, a link brings you to another Web page (or to another place on the same page). Links are essential in hypertext documents, without links one can hardly speek of "hyper"text.

Linux
UNIX based operating system for personal computers. Free software!

Listserv
Software for conversations (devoted to one specific topic) through an electronic mailing list. Similar to newsgroups but unlike newsgroups, listservs operate via email (every contribution of a subscriber is sent to all subscribers on the list via email). By sending a predefined email message to the list server in question, you can easily subscribe or unsubscribe.

Location
Internet address as displayed on your browser. When you type in the URL of a Web site into the location bar of your browser, your browser will take you to this page.

Log file
File that contains detailed recorded events of a computer system, for example: server access log files, error log files etc.

Login
Entering into a computer system. Also the account name (or user ID) that you must enter before you can have access to some computer systems.

M

Machine
Other name for computer.

Machine language
Binary code. Machine language is the only language a CPU understands. High-level programming languages (C, Perl, Java etc) must be translated to machine language, before they can be executed.

Mailing list
Email based discussion group. List servers maintain a list of email addresses of subscribers. When you send an email message to this group, your email is copied and sent to all subscribers.

Mail server
Server that handles incoming and outgoing email.

Mainframe
Large and very powerful computer used for intensive computational tasks.

Mbps (Mega-bits per second)
Measure of data throughput in millions of bits per second.

Megabit
About one million bits. Exactly 1,048,576 bits (2^20).

Megabyte - Mb
About one million bytes. Exactly 1,048,576 bytes (2^20), or 1,024 Kb.

MIPS - Million Instructions Per Second
Measure of processor speed.

MIME - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
Standard for attaching non-text files to email messages (formatted word processing files, spreadsheets, pictures, executable files etc).

Mirror or mirror site
More or less an exact copy of another WWW or FTP site. Mirror sites are created when the traffic on the original site is too heavy. They are usually on servers which are located in different geographic areas.

Modem
Contraction of MOdulator-DEModulator. A modem allows computers to transmit information to each other via ordinary telephone lines.

Mosaic
First Web browser (developed by NSCA) with the ability to display graphics. The Mosaic browser caused a major breakthrough in the way people could access the resources of the World Wide Web.

MP3 or MPEG 3
Compression standard for music. Although the compression rate may be very high, you'll have almost no loss of quality. This makes it a very attractive method to copy CDs. It's no wonder that the music industry is not very happy about these MP3 files...

MPEG - Moving Pictures Expert Group
Compression standard for video in a format similar to JPEG.

N

Nameserver
The server on which particular domain names are listed. When someone enters a website URL into a browser, the user is directed to the relevant nameserver. The nameserver then directs the request to the IP address of the specific web site requested.

Navigator
Web browser from Netscape.

Net
Short for Internet.

Net surfing
Browsing the World Wide Web, without a specific goal in mind.

Netiquette - Network etiquette
Informal code of good manners on the Internet.

Netizen
A responsible citizen of the Internet.

Netlag
Condition that occurs on the Web when heavy traffic slows down server response time.

Network
Group of computers that are connected together so that they can share resources and exchange data.

Newbie
A newcomer.

Newsgroup
Discussion group (on USENET) among people who share a mutual interest. In one particular newsgroup you can find several conversations ("threads") on different (to the newsgroup related) topics. There are thousands and thousands of newsgroups, covering almost every possible subject.

News server
Computer of your ISP that gathers USENET newsgroups. From this server you can download the newsgroups you're interested in.

Nibble
Four bits (half a byte).

NIC - Network Information Center
Any office that handles information for a network (for example: the InterNIC).

NNTP - Network News Transport Protocol
Protocol to transport USENET postings over a TCP/IP network.

Node
Any server connected to the Internet.

O

OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48
OC stands for Optical Carrier, a standard for fiber optic transmission.
OC-1: transmission speed of 51.85 Mbps
OC-3: transmission speed of 155.52 Mbps
OC-12: transmission speed of 622.08 Mbps
OC-24: transmission speed of 1,244 Mbps (1.24 Gbps)
OC-48: transmission speed of 2,488 Mbps (2.48 Gbps)

Offline
Not connected to a computer network.

Online
(Currently) connected to a computer network.

P

Packet
Data chunk sent across a network.

Packet Switching
Method to send data across a network. Data is broken up into packets (chunks). Each packet has the address of the sender and the address of the destination. This way, packets from many different sources can be sent on the same line at the same time.

Page - Web page
One single document on the Web.

Parse
To break up a text into useful chunks (used in programming languages). For example: parsing the date variable in order to get the day of the week.

Password
Secret code that you must enter after your user ID (login name) in order to log on to a computer.

PDF - Printable Document Format
Platform independent file format created by Adobe (see Acrobat Reader). Created for offline reading of brochures, reports and other documents with complex graphic design. When you download a .pdf file, you get the entire document in a single file.

Perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language
Perl is a powerful computer language, especially used for writing CGI scripts which handle input/output actions on Web pages.

Petabyte
About one thousand terabytes (one million gigabytes...)

PGP - Pretty Good Privacy
Program, developed by Phil Zimmerman, that protects files from being read by others. You can also use PGP to attach a digital signature to a file to proof that you are the sender.

Ping - Packet InterNet Groper
Program that tests a network connection. Ping sends data packets to a network connection to measure the response time (or to check whether the packets arrived).

Plug-in
Small piece of software, usually from a third party developer, that adds new features to another (larger) software application.

PoP - Point of Presence
Local phone service area where your ISP provides dial up access to the Internet.

POP3 - Post Office Protocol
Internet protocol used by your ISP to handle email for its subscribers. A POP account is just a synonym for an email account. These are your email mail boxes in our server that can be accessed directly to retrieve your mail using such programs as Eudora, Outlook Express, and Netscape Mail. Each POP3 account has its own password to ensure privacy.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosting clients receive globally accessible email accounts that may be accessed from anywhere in the world using any Internet-connected PC..

Port
Related to the Internet, a port is a part of a Web server that handles requests for particular services (FTP, TELNET, WWW). Each of those services has its own port number, where it "listens" for requests. For example, WWW servers normally listen on port 80. When you use a non-standard port number, it must be specified in the URL after a colon (:) (eg http://www.domain.com:8000)

Portal
A Web site that attracts visitors by offering free information, or free services on a daily basis. When you are on a portal site, you can use this site as a basis to explore the Web, such as the search index Yahoo!.

Posting
A single message posted to a newsgroup, bulletin board or mailing list.

PPP - Point to Point Protocol
Protocol that handles the sending of data packets over dial-up and leased-line connections to your ISP. PPP gets you online.

Protocol
A set of rules and conventions that describes the behaviour that computers must follow in order to understand each other.

Proxy
Form of security on the Internet. When you use a proxy or proxy server, you send a request to a server on the Internet via this proxy. For the server on the Internet it looks like the request is coming from the proxy, not from your machine.

Push media
New method to collect information on the Internet. You can subscribe to some push agency to deliver you all the information you need about a particular subject, so you won't have to scour the news by yourself.

Q

Query
Request for specific information from a database.

Query string
Your input to a server on the Internet. For example, when you perform a search on Yahoo!, you'll see a question mark in the URL, followed by some strange text-string. Everything after that question mark belongs to the query string. A query string is data input for the CGI script on that particular Internet server.

R

RealAudio/RealVideo
Real Networks' RealAudio/Video system is a client-server based, meaning both the browser and the server must have RealAudio/Video components for it to work, streaming audio/video delivery system for the Internet. You can create and deliver audio/video-based streaming multimedia content through the Internet to audiences worldwide.

Redirect
By using particular HTML-code in a Web page, one can redirect the visitor seamlessly to another Web page.

Redundancy
Form of protection against system failures. For example, if you want to be sure that you'll always have power supply, you can set up two power supplies so that one takes over if the other one fails.

Remote login
Using the Telnet protocol to operate a remote computer over the Internet as if you were on site.

Response time
Time between the sending of a request to a specific Internet server and the execution of that request.

RFC - Request For Comments
Procedure to establish new standards or to propose new standards on the Internet. Each standard, each protocol has a related RFC (followed by a reference number). For example, RFC 822 is the Internet standard for email. RFCs guide the development of the Internet.

Root
1. Top-level directory from which all other (sub)directories branch out.
2. On a UNIX system, the system administrator's account (also known as the superuser account). For security reasons, only the system administrator is allowed to log in as root.

Router
Computer that acts as an interface between two networks. A router sends data packets back and forth between networks.

S

Search engine
Web site that allows users to search for keywords on Web pages. Every search engine has its own strategy for collecting data, so it's no wonder that one particular search produces different results on different search engines.

Server
A (powerful) computer that has a permanent connection to the Internet. Web sites are stored on a Web server.

Shell account
An account that gives access to a UNIX based host computer. The user can enter UNIX commands to operate this computer.

Shopping cart
Keeps track of what your customers have ordered on-line as they add and remove items from their virtual "shopping cart." When the customer is ready to check out, the program tallies the order for your customer to review. If the customer decides to submit the order, the program will email the order information to the email address of your choice and a "receipt" to your customer.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosting has a selection of e-commerce webhosting plans that support shopping carts.

Sig - signature file
A small ASCII text file (four or five lines only), automatically attached to the end of an email message that includes additional information about the author.

Site - Web site
A place on the Web. Refers to a home page or to a collection of Web pages. This 1-800-ECOMPRO page is only a part of the entire 1-800-ECOMPRO website.

SLIP - Serial Line Internet Protocol
Standard to connect your machine to the Internet using a regular telephone line. SLIP is being replaced by PPP.

Smiley
See emoticon.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Main protocol to send and receive email between servers on the Internet.

Snail mail
Regular postal mail. Refers to its slowness in relation to electronic mail.

Socket
One end of a two-way connection. A socket is composed of the IP address of the server and a port number. The server "listens" for requests on this given port number. When a client-request arrives, the server binds this socket to communicate with the client.

SoHo
Acronym for Small Office, Home Office.

Spam
Junk email. Spam is a serious breach of netiquette.

Spider
Small piece of software (also known as a (ro)bot), used by some search engines to index Web sites. Spiders search the Web to find URLs that match to the given query string.

SQL - Structured Query Language
Method to access a database.

SSL - Secure Sockets Layer
Protocol that allows to send encrypted messages across the Internet. SSL uses public key encryption to pass data between your browser and a given server. A URL that begins with "https" indicates that an SSL connection will be used. Most commonly used for credit card transactions, SSL is mandatory for accepting American Express cards online.

Streaming audio/video
Technology that allows to play audio or video while it is still downloading.

Surfing
Browsing the Web, just looking around.

Sysadmin
System administrator of a UNIX machine (someone who maintains a UNIX machine). See also root.

Sysop
System operator. The person who performs physical operations on a computer system.

T

T-1
High speed, high bandwidth leased line connection to the Internet. A T-1 line can (theoretically!) deliver information at 1.544 Mbps.

T-3
High speed, high bandwidth leased line connection to the Internet. A T-3 line can (theoretically!) deliver information at 44.736 Mbps (the equivalent of 28 T-1 lines).

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
A suite of communications protocols that defines the basic workings of the Internet. In fact TCP/IP is THE protocol of the Internet because it's the language by which all Internet computers talk to each other.

Telecommuting
Working at home using a computer and a modem to communicate with the office.

Telnet
Internet protocol that lets you connect your machine as a remote terminal to a host computer somewhere on the Internet. To telnet into a remote machine, you have to enter a user ID and a password.

Terabyte
About one thousand gigabytes (one million megabytes...)

Throughput
Measure of data transmission speed (in Kbps).

Time out
When you request a Web page and the server that hosts the Web page doesn't respond in a certain amount of time, you may get the message "connection timed out".

Traffic
See Data Transfer.

Transfer rate
See throughput.

Triple-dub
Abbreviated way to say "www" when reciting a URL.

U

Unix
Multi-user computer operating system. The Internet and the World Wide Web grew up on Unix, and these days Unix is still the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

Upload
Sending files from your computer to another computer through the Internet. For example, sending email is uploading a file to the SMTP server of your ISP. When you have a personal home page, you must upload your HTML files to the Web server that hosts your Web site.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator
Address of any resource on the World Wide Web. The URL of our home page is: http://www.ecompro.com

Usage Statistics
Detailed graphical and tabular usage statistics of website traffic grouped by weeks, days, and hours, tracking numbers of hits, from where those hits are coming from, which page is the most popular, how much data transfer is occurring, and more.

1-800-ECOMPRO webhosting clients may request detailed graphical usage statistics and have access to raw log files for detailed traffic analysis.

Usenet
World-wide decentralized distribution system of newsgroups. Newsgroups (discussion groups would be a more accurate name) cover almost every human proclivity. No one can really count the number of newsgroups because not all Usenet machines are connected to the Internet, however, there are at least 15,000 newsgroups available through the Internet.

User ID
Unique identifier that you must enter every time you want to access a particular service on the Internet. The user ID is always accompanied by a password.

Uuencoding - Unix to Unix Encoding
Method for converting binary files (non-textual files) to ASCII files (text), so you can also send graphic pictures to your friends via email.

V

Veronica
Acronym for "Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives." (Prehistoric!) searchable database of documents on Gopher servers.

VRML - Virtual Reality Modeling Language
Method for creating 3D environments on the Web. On a VRML page, it is possible to move around through a virtual room, pick up things, open a door etc. To see VRML pages your need a VRML plug-in for your browser.

W

WAIS - Wide Area Information Server
Distributed information retrieval system that allows you to search huge amounts of information using keywords.

WAN - Wide Area Network
Any internet or network that covers more than one single building. See also LAN.

Webmaster
The person who is responsible for the Web server (usually the sysadmin).
Email address of our Webmaster: webmaster@Ecompro.com.

Wetware
Hacker slang for the human brain.

Whois
Program that queries the InterNIC's database of domain names.

World Wide Web
An Internet client-server system to distribute information, based upon the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Also known as WWW, W3 or the Web. Created at CERN in Geveva, Switzerland in 1991 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee.

WYSIWYG
What you see is what you get.

X

X2
56 Kbps modem standard from US Robotics.

Xmodem
Error control software protocol used to transfer files between modems. Sends data in blocks of 128 bytes.

Y

Ymodem
Error control software protocol used to transfer files between modems. Based on the Xmodem protocol. Sends data in blocks of 1,024 bytes.

Z