A
Plain Language Glossary
of Internet terminology
G--M
Gateway
A term used in networking to indicate the connection between two networks --
often using different protocols -- made by both hardware and appropriate
software.
see: Protocol
GIF
Graphics interchange format. CompuServe developed the GIF. It is used
throughout the Internet for graphics files, especially those not based on
photographs. see JPEG.
The format compresses files in a 'lossless' way ensuring no diminution of
image quality. Gifs are limited to 256 colours and are best when the colours
are 'flat'. Images requiring more colours -- like photographs -- should be
formatted as JPEGs. Its name extension (also a TLA)
is .gif. When used as here, these extensions are incomplete without the
full-stop.
see: CompuServe
Gigabyte
(GB)
Strictly 1024 megabytes (1,073,741,824 bytes ie 230).
Generally, though, one gigabyte is taken to mean 1000 MB.
see: Kilobyte;
Megabyte
GNU
Gnu's
not Unix. This is a software system, Unix compatible, and developed by the
Free Software Foundation. It was begun by Richard Stallman, at MIT, in 1983.
see GNU Project
for details. It purpose is the encouragement and development of non-proprietary
software. Perhaps
the most well-known example of this
is Linux.
Gopher
Gopher is an old pre-WWW system of organising and making files available on
servers. It was developed at the University of Minnesota and uses Veronica
as search
engine or system
GUI
Graphical
user interface. In Windows [and Apple Mac] systems, the crucial difference
from working with DOS and using keyboard commands is that part of the screen
image functions beyond mere text display and provides toolbars and clickable
buttons etc to work with and navigate by. Keyboard shortcuts which function
as the buttons do are a legacy of pre-GUI life. GUIs transformed not only
the way people worked with computers, making them usable by everyone after a
short time, but opened up a completely different
way of working. Although working visually is familiar -- speedometers, fuel
gauges, thermometers -- these visual analogues themselves were enhanced with
other modalities with the use of GUIs. For example, an image
map is unimaginable in a world without
a GUI -- and impossible in the world of
dials.
[Top
of page]
Header
The header part of an e-mail displays the times and routes taken by it from
sender to recipient; also the subject is part of a header. Many e-mail
programs do not display this information by default but it is available if
wanted.
see:
Attachment,
Body,
e-mail,
Signature
hit
Whenever a browser makes a request to a server for a web page, a 'hit' is
made; at the same time another 'hit' is made for each image on that page.
Home
Page
The home page is the first page which opens on any web site; sometimes known
as 'index' when displayed in the address field at a web site. It usually
offers preliminary information and navigation links throughout the site.
Frequently large corporate sites have some fancy Flash-enabled
animations and other paraphernalia which show off the designer's skill
without providing anything particularly useful. Indeed, these pages often
take some time to download while the deadly digit twitches on the mouse
ready to move on.
see: Hyperlink
Host
Working from a work station or a remote terminal you connect to a host where
the data is held. The company on whose servers this web site is installed is
known as a host, providing the hardware and connection to the Internet. It's
possible to host a web site from a PC at home but a permanent connection is
obviously necessary; these are a substantial annual cost..
HotJava
A suite of applications produced by Sun Microsystems, developers of Java.
Amongst this suite is a collection of libraries for building Java-enabled
applications for use on the web and a web browser. The great thing about
HotJava is that it can run Java applications while on the web; it's also
useful for developers of Java applications. When viewing HTML pages,
however, HotJava operates like version 3 browsers which have largely been
replaced by versions 4 & 5 of both Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator.
see: Applet
HTML
Hypertext markup language. The formatting language used to format Web pages.
It permits text and images to be combined in the creation of Web documents.
Hypertext formatting allows links to be made between different documents --
either as within this glossary or between any two documents so formatted and
available on an Internet server anywhere in the world.
see: Gif,
Jpeg,
Tag,
World
Wide Web
HTTP
Hypertext transport protocol. The key protocol of the WWW which permits the
transfer of documents across the web. Like much else behind the scenes --
and the GUI -- this and other protocols which control the web's working and
its structure are devised and published by the W3C.
http://www.w3c.org
Hyperlink
On web pages, the hyperlinks are the highlighted text (as in this glossary
but usually underlined
elsewhere) or some images which, when clicked on, take the reader to another
page on that site or to another site altogether. Hyperlinks are also used
when making the connection to download files of any kind.
see: Bookmark,
Download
IAB
see Internet Architecture Board below.
IAHC
Internet ad hoc committee. Among its duties are the assigning of top-level
domains (TLD).
IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force. This
is an international organisation of people and organisations concerned with
the development if the Internet. It is the Internet's primary
standard-defining organisation.
ILOVEYOU
A malign VBS
distributed as an attachment to e-mails in May, 2000, which did an
astonishing amount of damage around the world before it was realised what
was happening. It worked in the following way: arriving as an e-mail
attachment whose title ILOVEYOU piqued most people's interest, it was
activated when opened. (This seemed to happen only to people using Microsoft
Outlook -- but not Outlook Express. see MAPI)
Being a script it promptly executed its
commands which were to replicate itself and then send itself to every
address in the unfortunate's e-mail address book. (To do this it required
the WSH to
be present on the system it had infected. Without it, nothing happened.)
Naturally, in a large organisation, this self-replication caused mayhem
immediately by overloading the system internally and clogging the external
channel by sending to everyone known to the workers in the organisation.
Estimates of the damage world-wide are put @ $2billion plus. It wasn't long
before other versions of it appeared; some very malign -- they destroyed the
unfortunate's BIOS at least. ILOVEYOU is said to have been written in the
Philippines. The apparent author has reportedly said he didn't really mean
it to happen. Which is like saying, having shot someone dead, that you only
wanted to see if the gun worked. The virus is another amazing example of
just how vulnerable a computer-dependent society is; and how easily
disrupted.
Image
map
An image with 'hot spots', which when clicked on provide multiple hyperlinks
from a single image.
see: Hyperlink
i-mode
A
mobile phone
and Internet service, currently (June, 2000) available only in Japan. The 'i'
indicates information which is the core of this service. There are some 7
million subscribers in Japan accessing the portal. Mostly used fore e-mail,
i-mode can be used to check horoscopes, book tickets, music on the charts
which can be downloaded. Subscribers pay for everything via their phone
bill. There are more than 13,000 sites available to i-mode -- like
Wap it is unable to handle standard web pages. Basic charges begin at
about £2 a month. One reason it is so cheap is that users are charged on
how much data they download -- whether a horoscope or an e-mail or a stock
market report or checking a train time table. Because everything is added to
the phone bill, no credit card is required -- and because all charges are
automatic, it's easier to spend which DoCoMO, the operator, loves as it has
a cut of every penny charged. Easy and successful
as it is already, it could pose a real threat to
Wap.
Internet
The term 'Internet' refers to the global set of interconnected networks and
their servers
accessible by the 100s of millions of users connecting by service
providers and using the various protocols
mentioned elsewhere in this glossary. Some figures suggest there are about
130 million users in North America; some 70 million in Europe; 5 million in
the Middle East and Africa; 50+ million is Asia.
Internet
Architecture Board
The
body which oversees the development of the Internet and its technical
standards through two 'task forces': the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
and the Internet Research Task Force.
Internaut
The
term used in Europe for what the English-speaking world -- under the heels
of an American-jargon hegemony -- must call a 'surfer'. Internaut nicely
echoes both astronaut and cosmonaut, which in turn echo those old
adventurers, the Argonauts.
There's self-indulgence and lack of imagination in surfer. Internaut
suggests there's scope for discovery and learning; it's grown-up.
Intranet
An office's internal network of computers which function together in much
the same way as the Internet and uses TCP/IP protocols. They can extend
beyond one building using permanent links and use firewalls to prevent
unauthorised use. However, once breached these networks are very vulnerable.
Some worldwide e-mail system are intranets; among other things this allows
the very rapid spread of viruses like Melissa via internal e-mail -- which
forced systems to be shut down for a day or so in 1999. Similar things
happened when ILOVEYOU
smiled from many e-mail programs' subject line.
IP
Internet protocol. This protocol provides the routing (in packets) of data
across the Internet and ultimately their re-assembly so they can be viewed
in the computer they were requested from -- as this document has been
transmitted to each reader's monitor. It is a transport layer upon which
others (ie TCP)
function.
see: Protocol
IP
Address
Every domain has its unique name or address (www.yoursite.co.uk) which is
converted by the DNS
into a unique four-number code. The domain name is obviously much easier to
remember than a 10-12 digit number; the DNS does the hard work, then
displays 'Connecting to...' in the status bar.
see: Address
for fuller explication
IRC
Internet Relay Chat is an on-line chat system devised in Finland by Jarkko
Oikarinen. It enables text messages between two or more people to be
exchanged via an IRC server. These exchanges are live; or as the jargon has
it 'in real time'.
ISDN
Integrated services digital network. A digital telephone line allowing data
transfer rates significantly faster than existing analogue lines. It allows
the simultaneous transfer of voice, data and video information. It is an
'always on' connection which does not require dial-in -- in itself a boon.
However, this permanent connection gives rise to security problems which are
best dealt with by a firewall.
ISP
An Internet service provider is a company which provides users with access
to the Internet. There are perhaps 200 such providers in the UK; most are
small are localised. The larger companies are now vying with each other for
market share and offering free or unmetered or toll-free access -- these
terms seem interchangeable. These offers are presumably seen as loss leaders
in the hope that later advertising will provide adequate income to continue
the service. Others, like AOL, Compuserve, Demon, ClaraNet, charge a monthly
fee; even these though are succumbing to market pressures and adapting their
subscriptions.
Jargon
Like all other specialised subjects, the Internet has its own jargon; a
somewhat cryptic language describing technical details. Some jargon is
explained in this glossary.
Java
A high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. It got the
name in 1995, probably from the coffee that programmers consumed during long
coding sessions. Also, the WWW was growing rapidly at that time and Java was
modified to take advantage of that platform. Because of some clever behind
the scenes libraries of software Java can run on Windows, the Mac OS, and
Unix which makes it ideal for used on the web.
see: Applet
and HotJava
above
JavaScript
A scripting language which can work with HTML to produce a variety of
interactive and dynamic effects on a web page. These are sometimes known as applets.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Expert Group. The standard of image compression developed
for Internet use. Most photographic images can be highly compressed using
this method. Unlike Gifs, Jpegs are not limited to 256 colours only. They
can use up to the 16 million colours used in TrueColor. Quality also depends
on the degree of compression: 75% is acceptable and most common. Greater
compression becomes quickly noticeable.
.jpg
or
.jpeg
Filename extension of the image format defined by the Joint
Photographic Expert Group.
kbps
Strictly 1024 bits per second; commonly rounded down to 1000;
often confused with bytes. Kb indicates kilobits; KB indicates kilobytes.
see: Byte
Kilobyte
(KB)
Strictly 1024 bytes (210). Generally, though, a kilobyte is taken
to mean 1000 bytes.
LAN
see Local Area Network below.
Leased
Line
A high-speed phone link for private use, leased from a provider to be
available 24 hours a day, providing a permanent link to the Internet.
Link
Links are the working connections between pages on the WWW. Each time
highlighted text is clicked to move to another page a link -- hyperlink --
is followed to the designated page.
Local
Area Network
An LAN is a group of interconnected computers within the limited area of one
building usually connected by network cables. Although the protocols
involved are different, LANs are similar to Intranets.
Log-on
The process of getting on to the Internet via a host computer and ISP.
LZW
Lempel,
Ziv, Welsh. The compression algorithm
was developed by Ziv and Lempel in 1977. It is used in the compression of Gifs.
Later, the algorithm was further refined by Welsh.
MAPI
Mail
application program interface. Not a
subject obviously pertinent
to this glossary; however since Microsoft's e-mailer Outlook has this
facility it deserves a place. The 'interface' is the program's capacity to
be instructed by other Microsoft programs such as Word which can add
addresses to it and so on. But, it makes Outlook vulnerable to
malicious VB scripts sent as e-mail attachments viz the ILOVEYOU
worm which exploit the apparent usefulness of MAPI. (At the time of writing,
May, 2000, Microsoft are apparently
preparing a fix. Time will demonstrate its usefulness and compromises.}
It's worth adding that the program's free version, Outlook Express, does not
have MAPI, and is therefore not vulnerable to such scripts.
Megabit
1024
kilobits (1,048,576 bits). Generally taken to mean a million
bits.
Mb
indicates mega bits; MB indicates mega bytes
Megabyte
(MB)
Strictly, 1024 kilobytes (1,048,576 bytes ie 220).
Generally, though, one megabyte is taken to mean 1000 kilobytes, one million
bytes.
see: Gigabyte,
Kilobyte
Meta
tag
These tags are the 'headlines' or
keywords which describe a web page or site; they also sometimes give the
name of the site's author and the program used. Correct use of these
keywords greatly improves the chances of a site being found if relevant to a
search from anywhere in the world. These tags form part of the HTML text but
are not displayed to visitors; they are however what the search
engine indexes and therefore form a vital part in the publishing and
success of any web site.
MIME
Multipurpose Internet mail extensions is the standard formatting
specification for sending non-text (ie non-ASCII) messages
using e-mail. a format designed originally to include images, sounds,
animations and other types of documents within Internet mail messages. It
was defined by the IETF in
1992. Recently, this has been amended to incorporate S/Mime which permits
encrypted messages to be sent.
Mirror
site
An web site which has the same files as the site it is 'mirroring'. [But
things are not 'flipped' as mirrors do in the real world. These sites are
really 'echoes'.] Sites are sometimes mirrored several times, in many
countries around the world. They relieve the load that can be placed on HTML
sites like NASA at moments are great interest ie the Shoemaker-Levy comets.
This makes it easier to gain access and view pages or download faster
without the site and its servers being overwhelmed by traffic -- which is
what happens with DoS attacks. Popular FTP sites are also frequently
mirrored.
see: Download,
FTP
Modem
Modulator-demodulator
is the physical object which transmits and receives digital information over
an analogue phone line; ISDN
also requires a modem but its mode of transmission is digital and, among
other things, is not subject to 'noise' on the line which interferes so much
with analogue transmission. Whereas the so-called 56K analogue modem does
not receive information at anything like 56,000 bps, an ISDN
or ADSL
will work at their advertised rates eg 512 kbps. Think of it
as the narrow 'neck' of an hourglass.
Mosaic
An GUI application written
at the NCSA.
It purpose was the provide easy access to documents using the Internet.
There are several versions currently available.
see: Browser
MPEG
Motion Picture Expert Group. A video compression format used for viewing and
transferring both movie or other animation clips across the Internet.
.mpg
or .mpeg
The TLA for
MPEG files.
A Plain Language Glossary text copyright
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