of Internet terminology
N--S
A
Plain Language Glossary
of Internet terminology
N--S
NCSA
US National Center for Supercomputing Applications (University of Illinois)
launched the Mosaic web browser
in 1993. There were versions for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh.
Link: www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
Netiquette
An ad hoc formulaic etiquette for the 'Net. Like most such constructs it
affirms what should be natural courtesy: Don't be rude; don't interrupt,
don't 'shout' by using capitals in newsgroups etc etc.
Netscape
Communications Corporation
Marc Andreessen and James Clark founded
Netscape CC in 1994; the same year as Netscape Navigator (originally
codenamed 'Mozilla') was released. Apart from the GUI-ness
of the browser itself, Navigator revolutionised the software market when it
was distributed without charge. Microsoft used the same strategy with
Internet Explorer. The rest is history. Netscape merged with Sun
Microsystems in May 1999 to form iPlanet.
A version 6 of Navigator is due for release June/July 2000 in which there
are great hopes of denting Internet Explorer's domination of the browser
market.
see: Browser
Network
A network can be anything in size between from two home PCs linked up and
something as large as the Internet.
Newsreader
A small program which enables messages posted to newsgroups to be read; and
of course it will also post messages. Most browsers now come equipped with a
in-built reader; there are also other free-standing programs which have the
same functions.
NNTP
Network news transport protocol. Yet another protocol: this one enables the
movement back and forth of Usenet
messages.
Node
Nodes exist on networks and are basically points of action, or more clearly,
of processing; so that a printer could be a node as well as a computer or
maybe even a work station.
see:
Network
On-line
Being on-line means being connected to a network of some kind; generally it
means being on the 'Net.
[Top of page]
Page
The
WWW is made up of many millions of pages stored on countless servers
throughout the world. It is the basic document of no pre-determined size.
This Glossary comprises five pages; were it made into one page it would
become unwieldy and take an absurdly long time to download.
Perl
Practical extraction and report
language. It is the most popular of the available languages for writing cgi
scripts.
Pixel
The
basic 'dots' which make up whatever is seen on a computer monitor. Today,
most monitors are 15 inch and made up of 800x600 pixels. (The 800 indicates
800 pixels across the screen; the 600 indicates 600 lines down the screen.)
This proportion 4-3 is maintained in the majority of screen resolutions in
use.
PKZIP
and
PKUNZIP
Zipping and unzipping utilities created by Phil Katz.
Plug-in
Plug-ins are the free programs which work with browsers and enable users to
see the extras, the bells and whistles and whizz-bangs -- ie the
animations mostly and sound effects -- which Flash,
Shockwave and RealAudio can add to a web site. Often these effects simply
slooooow things down and the Flash page takes an age to load.
POP3
Post office protocol. POP3 makes the world's e-mails work. It enables ISPs,
for instance, to store e-mails until the subscriber wishes to download
them from the server to the PC. Usually when this happens the downloaded
e-mails are deleted from the server which held them available. This is not
the case with web-based e-mail services such as those provided by Hot Mail
or Yahoo etc; with these the e-mails are left on the -- basically -- public
server till the subscriber deletes them
PoP
A
Point of Presence is the telephone number supplied by an ISP which allows
subscribers dial-up access to the Internet.
PPP
Point to Point Protocol. This is a means
of connecting a computer to the Internet and allows the sending of packets
literally from point to point on the way to their destination. It is defined
in RFC 1661
Public
domain
Router
Script Scripting language Search
engine Security Self-extracting
archive Server Service Provider Shareware Signature SLIP SMTP Snail mail Streaming Surfer Surfing
In this context the term usually refers to software distributed under
the GNU Public Licence.
Like anything else in the public domain, such software is not subject to
copyright ownership restrictions and is therefore freely available; also its
source code is open to amendment.
see: Gnu
Appendix; also
Freeware,
Shareware
Request
for Comment (RFC)
Numbered documents
which set out the standards for the operation of the Internet. The apparent
informality of the name carries the spirit in which the Internet began: a
co-operative effort among individuals determined to make a common enterprise
work. They were first issued in 1969 and continue now. Because they are
largely based on experience, they are pragmatic documents intended to make
things work better. Once reviewed and accepted the proposals become
officials standards, known as Standard (STD) x, which are issued by the IAB.
A special-purpose computer (or software
package) that handles the connection between two or more networks. Routers
concentrate on looking at the destination addresses of the packets of data
passing through them and deciding which route to send them on. One of the
largest manufacturers of routers is Cisco, an American company. Since
routers are the hardware essentials of the Internet, its stock market shares
cannot be subject to the fevered and fickle attentions of share buyers in
pursuit of faddy dot.coms. Invest in hardware! The Internet will continue to
exist without scores of trendy dot.coms; without
routers...zilch.
see: Network
A script is a simple set of
instructions, like a batch file or a macro, written often in a plain text
editor and designed to exploit in-built properties of a program. Most often
these are benign whose effects are intended and expected. Malware, as
viruses are sometimes known, is malicious (hence mal-ware) whose
effects are unexpected but intended only by the virus writer. Some example
of benign intention scripts are Visual Basic, JavaScript,
AppleScript for Apple Macs. The Windows Scripting Host (WSH) adds extended
capabilities scripts in Windows systems (usually Win98) with Internet
Explorer 4 and later.
A (relatively) simple programming language eg JavaScript and Visual
Basic which can be used to create a script, which is a set of instructions
for a computer. VBS
is much favoured by virus writers seeking to exploit certain vulnerabilities
in some Microsoft programs.
A program which searches for
documents relating to a specified subject; or even specific documents. Since
the Internet is so vast, there are a number of such engines; some of the
most well known are Alta Vista, Yahoo!, Google, Excite, Lycos. However, they
do not all take the same approach. Some use an indexer which reads all the
documents it finds and creates an index using an algorithm to make them make
sense and be usable. Others 'fetch' documents
and then index their findings. Google does this and caches a page for quick
reference. Without these clever pieces of software the Internet would be
impossible to use unless the precise URL were always known beforehand.
Simply publishing a web page is not enough if it is hoped others will see
that page. First the search engines must know; then the page can be found.
To aid the search engine in knowing what a web page contains there must be 'Meta
tags' which form part of the page's HTML text. It is these the search
engines looks for and uses to rank relevance etc.
There are many sources of danger for
computers. Large installations of servers
as held by companies like Yahoo! or Alta Vista and necessarily open to the
public have DoS
to fear: system crashes put them out of business -- minutes or hours measure
the degree of damage and hurt income and pride. Personal users have less
massive but equally dangerous foes. In large offices, there are prankster
associates who install dummy-failure programs -- these mimic crashes or
screen mayhem but 'harmlessly'; while e-mail
and its viruses
spread easily in large organisations within intranets.
Home users have principally e-mail viruses to worry about (apart from the
daily hazards of Windows itself). Our security is easily rumbled these days:
either by the folly of ILOVEYOU,
or by the 'accidental' inclusion of genetically-modified seed in supplies of
supposed non-GM seed, or by the marketing strategies of commercial giants
which steadily circumscribe us. Intention does not matter in matters like
these. Apologies are a nauseating spin from ministries of truth; or the
desperate personal scramble when the police catch a virus-writer. It's
consequences really which matter, consequences...
A zipped
file with the executable extension .exe. This ensures that once downloaded
and double-clicked, its built-in un-zipper works automatically and usually
places the file in a pre-determined folder. This is useful for sending
web-site proofs, say; or anything to a learner or to someone inclined to be
nervously disposed.
A server is the computer on which are stored an organisation's files:
everything from its Gif
logo to its back-up copies of everything it has ever done, to its multi-user
licensed copy of Microsoft Office 2000. All the work-stations in the
organisation refer to the server for everything; in many cases the
work-station will have only a monitor, mouse and keyboard ie it has
no need of memory. The server is everyone's memory. ISPs
have dozens, indeed hundreds of servers all humming silently. Individuals
who run a web site from home or office will have a server permanently
on-line. Servers don't need much horse-power: a 166MHz Pentium would be
entirely adequate. The London Internet Exchange, a major hub for the
Internet in the UK, obviously has vast numbers of servers -- all protected
by the most expensive wall ever built, one built to be proof against
everything but a direct hit by an A-bomb or lost Cruise missile.
[Internet] Service Providers do just that: provide subscribers with access
to the Internet. Once upon a time, all ISPs
charged; in the UK, most charged about £10 per month -- this fee was
decided on by Demon first; others, like Compuserve and AOL, offered 'extra
services' and 'content' and consequently charged extra. Now [Spring/Summer
2000] more and more providers are offering free/unmetered/toll-free access.
Software which is distributed freely with conditions attached. Sometimes it
is released on a trial basis, but time-bombed to cease working after a set
time, 15 or 30 days. Other programs are distributed with no functions
disabled or limited; in these cases the author -- and it nearly always is an
individual -- relies on the user's integrity to send a small sum of
money if it is to be used in the long term. It's hard to know how often this
does happen; in the majority of instances one hopes. If you haven't yet --
pay up!
See Also: Freeware,
Public
Domain
This is what is says it is: a signature at the end of an e-mail which is
added automatically as pre-determined by the writer. Most e-mail programs
allow a couple of default signatures.
see: Body,
E-mail, Header
Serial line Internet protocol. This is a slightly older version of what is
now PPP; but it does the
same thing.
Smiley
'Image' made by using keyboard characters eg :-) -- colon, dash,
bracket -- [supposedly a smile]. They are often used in newsgroup messages,
e-mails and sometimes on web pages and are intended to show some form of
character or emotion.
In practice, they are tiresome.
Simple Mail Transport Protocol. This is the protocol which allows
e-mail messages to be transferred from server to server on their way from
writer to recipient.
The electronic world's contemptuous phrase for the Royal Mail and others of
its kind. The letters it carries do not travel @ the speed of light --
though once they were delivered within a couple of hours. Interestingly,
hand-written letters are a different species to e-mails: starlings and
blackbirds. The tone of voice used in each is different: the e-mail likely
to be casual and off-hand, mis-spelt; while the hand-written...well, is
there such a thing anymore?
The transmission of video -- news clips, press
briefings, even live events -- over the Internet so they may be seen without
interruption. This is achieved initially by 'optimising' the video so that
it is not one pixel larger than it need be. Second, a 'buffer' is created,
of perhaps a minute or so to ensure that there is enough video-time already
in the viewer's machine to cover any glitches or delays while the rest
downloads. Third, the video is sent in compressed form and needs a dedicated
program to decode and display it: RealAudio is the most commonly used viewer
[and is freeware]. Lastly, but glaringly obvious to anyone who has seen it,
this 'feat' is possible because the image one sees is scarcely larger than a
matchbox. It could be described as video snail-mail. However, once ISDN
and ADSL
are up and running, full-size screens will be used to their best. It'll be
digital and crackle free, no snow storms, no Big Bang fall-out.
An American term for one who occupies his/her time on the
Internet following a virtual paper-trail without intent. Like surfing real
waves, it is severely limited. Nevertheless, surfing real waves calls for
considerable skill and athleticism. Virtual surfing implies an approach to
life like that of a damp towel; it bespeaks immense boredom and has no
glamour.
see: Internaut
An American metaphor used to describe moving about the World Wide Web
following links here and there, hither and yon. By its nature, by
definition, surfing is random and directionless, though on occasion it
throws up fine, serendipitous moments.
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