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Hit: This term refers to the number of files that are downloaded from a web
server. It's a way of measuring traffic to a website that can be misleading. The number of
hits a site receives is usually much greater than the number of visitors it gets. That's
because a web page can contain more than one file. For example, each graphic element is a
separate file, so a page with nine graphics would count as ten hits, one for each graphic
and one for the HTML file. In this scenario a page may have 10,000 hits, but only 1,000
visits.
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Home Page: This term refers to the first page you encounter as
you surf the Internet, also known as the Front Page, Index.html (or htm), or default.html
(or htm).
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HTML: Acronym for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is the computer language used
to create hypertext documents. HTML utilizes a finite list of tags that describe the
general structure of various kinds of documents linked together on the World Wide Web.
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HTTP: HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol -- the method by which
hypertext files are transferred across the Internet. Letās examine these terms one at a
time. "Hypertext" was coined by Ted Nelson in 1965 to mean "text which is
not constrained to be linear." When used with the web, it is text that is linked to
something else. When you click on a word and you are shown another page (or a sound file
or a picture), you are using hypertext. Hypertext allows you to jump around between files,
following your own interests and train of thought. World Wide Web pages written in HTML
use hypertext to link to other documents.
Hypertext transfer is simply the tranfer of hypertext files from computer to computer.
When you are reading a hypertext document, say, at the Library of Congress site, you can
click on a link that takes you to the NASA page. Of course, you haven't actually gone
anywhere. A document simply has been transferred from NASA's computer to your computer,
across the Internet.
Now what on earth is protocol? In computerese, a protocol is a set of standards used by
two computers to communicate and exchange information with each other. To put it all
together, HyperText Transfer Protocol is the set of standards used by computers to
transfer hypertext files (web pages) over the Internet.
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Hypertext: A way of presenting information in which text, sounds, images, and
actions are linked together in a way that allows you to jump around between them in
whatever order you choose. Hypertext usually refers to any text available on the World
Wide Web that contains links to other documents.
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Image Map: An image map is a graphic divided into regions or
"hotspots." When a particular region is clicked, it calls up a web page that has
been associated with that particular region. A typical example of an image map is a web
site that offers national information organized by state. Clicking on a state on a map of
the United States calls up the appropriate page.
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Internet Access Provider: The remote computer system to which you
connect your personal computer and through which you connect to the Internet. An access
provider is the company that provides you with Internet access and in some cases, an
online account on their computer system. An access provider can be a large commercial
service like Compuserve or America Online, which will charge you by the hour for your
Internet access, or a small local company, which might charge you a flat rate per month
for unlimited hours. If you access the Internet directly from a company account, then your
company is your access provider.
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Internet Service Provider (ISP): Also called access providers. The remote
computer system to which you connect your personal computer and through which you connect
to the Internet. ISPs that you access by modem and telephone line are often called dial-up
services.
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Intranet: You can think of an intranet as an internal Internet designed to be
used within the confines of a company, university or organization. What distinguishes an
intranet from the freely accessible Internet, is that intranets are private. Until
recently most corporations relied on proprietary hardware and software systems to network
its computers, a costly and time-consuming process made more difficult when offices are
scattered around the world. Even under the best of conditions, sharing information among
different hardware platforms, file formats and software is not an easy task. By using
off-the-shelf Internet technology, intranets solve this problem, making internal
communication and collaboration much simpler.
Intranets use TCP/IP to transmit information across the network, as well as HTML to
create documents.Information is stored on one or more company servers and accessed by
using a web browser, such as Navigator or Explorer. This self-contained, miniature
Internet can have all the same features -- individual home pages, newsgroups, e-mail - but
they are restricted to company employees and contractors.
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IP Address: A numeric code that uniquely identifies a particular computer on the
Internet. Just as a street address identifies the location of your home or office, every
computer or network on the Internet has a unique address, too. Internet addresses are
assigned to you by an organization called InterNIC. You register your address with
InterNIC as both a name (whitehouse.gov), which is referred to as the domain name, and a
number (198.137.240.100), which is generally referred to as the IP address or IP number.
Because the numeric addresses are difficult to understand or remember, most people use
names instead like whitehouse.gov or ibm.com. A software database program called Domain
Name Service (DNS) tracks the names and translates them into their numerical equivalent so
that the computers can understand what they are and find them. See Domain Name.
When you have a standard dial-up account with an Internet provider, you will either be
assigned a "permanent" or "static" IP address (i.e. its always the
same), or the system will use "dynamic" IP addressing, which assigns you an
address every time you log on. If you are an organization and want all of your employees'
computers to have Internet access, you can apply to the InterNIC for a range of IP
addresses. Most likely, the InterNIC will assign you a Class C address, which consists of
255 unique IP numbers for you to assign to your employees.
If you need more than 255 IP address, you can apply for a Class B address, which will
give you over 65,000 unique IP addresses. Class A addresses are for very large companies.
Both Class A and Class B addresses are very hard, if not impossible, to get. Usually,
companies will get multiple Class C addresses. Actually, we're quickly running out of IP
addresses. So the Internet Engineering Task Force, which standardized the IP protocol, is
working on a solution, described in IP: Next Generation. The document is rather technical,
so beware.
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ISDN: An acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN lines are
connections that use ordinary phone lines to transmit digital instead of analog signals,
allowing data to be transmitted at a much faster rate than with a traditional modem.
ISDN converts audio signals - your voice for instance - into digital bits. Since bits
can be transmitted very quickly, you can get much faster speed out of the same telephone
line - four times faster than a 14.4 kbps modem. In addition, ISDN connections are made up
of two different channels, allowing two simultaneous "conversations" so you can
speak on one channel and send a fax or connect to the Internet over another channel. All
of these transactions occur on the same twisted-pair phone line currently plugged into
your telephone. To find out if you can get ISDN, contact your local phone company or call
around to a few local Internet service providers.
ISDN is a powerful tool for Internet communications, but it is not available
everywhere. Traditionally, it has been used in urban business zones and large corporate
settings with special digital switching equipment, but residential ISDN service is
expanding rapidly. If you are shopping for an Internet access provider that offers you
ISDN, be sure to thoroughly evaluate the equipment costs. An ISDN line can offer you
inexpensive, high-bandwidth connections, but you may have to buy special equipment (like
routers and switchers) that allow ISDN to communicate with your internal networks.
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Java: Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by Sun
Microsystems, Inc. to create executable content (i.e self-running applications) that can
be easily distributed through networks like the Web. Developers use Java to create special
programs called applets that can be incorporated in a web page to make it interactive. A
Java-enabled web browser like Sun's HotJava is required to interpret and run the Java
applets.
Like a gateway (CGI) script, Java is activated by a special HTML tag on a web page. But
unlike gateway scripts, which require information that exists on the server to run
applications or process input, Java enables developers to create content that can be
delivered to and run by users on their computers. This software can support anything that
programmers can dream up, from spreadsheets and tutorials to interactive games and
animation.
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JPEG: Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group, an industry committee that
developed a compression standard for still images. JPEG refers to the graphics file format
that uses this compression standard. You will find JPEG files on the World Wide Web with
the file extension .JPG.
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Link: Generally refers to any highlighted words or phrases in a hypertext
document that allow you to "jump" to another section of the same document or to
another document on the World Wide Web.
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MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension): MIME stands for Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extension, a standard system for identifying the type of data contained in a
file based on its extension. MIME is an Internet protocol that allows you to send binary
files across the Internet as attachments to e-mail messages. This includes graphics,
photos, sound and video files, and formatted text documents. MIME has to negotiate many
different operating systems and types of software to perform this amazing feat. Its
invention has been a major step forward in the exchange of non-text information over the
Internet.
E-mail programs that allow you to send and receive these types of files are said to be
MIME-compliant. Many of these programs now incorporate MIME and have made it practically
invisible to the user. You are probably using MIME when you send e-mail with an
"attachment" of a formatted file. If not, then your mail program is using
something very similar called UUencoding and UUdecoding to achieve the same result.
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Mirror: An FTP server that provides copies of the same files as another server.
Used when an FTP site is so popular that the volume of users accessing it keeps others
from getting through. A mirror site provides an alternate way to access the same files.
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Navigation Tools: Navigation tools allow users to find their way around a
website or multimedia presentation. They can be hypertext links, clickable buttons, icons,
or image maps. Navigation tools are usually present either at the bottom or top (sometimes
both) of each page or screen and typically allow users to return to the previous page,
move forward to the next page, jump to the top of the current page and return to the home
page.
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Netiquette: A form of online etiquette. This term refers to an informal code of
conduct that governs what is generally considered to be the acceptable way for users to
interact with one another online.
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Newsgroups: Electronic discussion groups consisting of collections of related
postings (also called articles) on a particular topic that are posted to a news server
which then distributes them to other participating servers. There are thousands of
newsgroups covering a wide range of subjects. You must subscribe to a newsgroup in order
to participate in it or to track the discussion on an on-going basis. Unlike with a
magazine or newspaper, subscribing to a newsgroup does not cost anything.
Newsgroups are found primarily on Usenet. Usenet is the collection of computers that
participate in a global conferencing system that make newsgroups perhaps the largest
distributed bulletin board system in the world. Newsgroups are one of the oldest and most
widely used services on the Internet. There are more than 13,000 of them, with new ones
coming online all the time. Not all newsgroups are carried by Usenet, and Usenet is
carried by networks that are not on the Internet.
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Newsreader: A software program that lets you subscribe to newsgroups as well as
read and post messages to them. A newsreader is like a friendly librarian who keeps track
of the articles posted to the newsgroups you like to read and locates them when you want
to read them.
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Object-oriented Programming: A programming technique that speeds the development
of programs and makes them easier to maintain through the re-use of "objects"
that have behaviors, characteristics, and relationships associated with them. The objects
are organized into collections (also called class libraries) which are then available for
building and maintaining applications. Each object is part of a "class" of
objects, which are united via "inheritance" and share certain characteristics
and relationships.
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