Glossary of Terms

A Record (Address Record)
An entry in a DNS table (zone file) that maps each domain name or sub-domain to an IP Address.

Anonymous FTP
A method for allowing the public FTP files without requiring a login.

Applet
A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page.

ASP (Active Server Pages)
ASP is a server-side scripting language that embeds commands in HTML documents to provide dynamic content. Generally a Microsoft Windows operating system is used for hosting ASP.

Browser
An application used to view Internet resources such as web pages on another computer.

Cold Fusion
A scripting language for interfacing databases and web development.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
An interface standard which provides a method of executing a server-side program (script) from a website to generate a webpage with dynamic content.

CGI-BIN
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored.

Client
A software program that is used to obtain data from a remote computer or server, such as across the Internet or a local network.

Colocation (Collocation, Co-Location)
Most often used to refer to having a server that belongs to one person or a company physically located in a data center featuring redundant systems and large Internet connections.

Cookie
A piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements, generally used in HTML.

DNS -- (Domain Name System)
The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain names into IP numbers.

Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site and resolves to an IP.

Download
Transferring data (usually a file) from another computer and the opposite of upload.

DS3
A high speed internet connection with transport speed of 44.7 Mbps. A comparison of connection speeds shows

• 56K modem = 56,000 bits-per-second.
• DSL = 784,000 bits-per-second.
• T1 = 1,544,000 bits-per-second.
• DS3 = 69,480,000 bits-per-second.

Email (Electronic Mail)
Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer.

Ethernet
A common protocol used to networking computers.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject.

Firewall
Hardware and/or software used to separate network into multiple segments for security purposes.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A very common method of moving files between two locations across the Internet.

FreeBSD
A UNIX-type operating system. Also see www.freebsd.org.

FrontPage Extensions
These are a set of server-side scripts and programs which enable users of Microsoft FrontPage to use its special components.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
A common format for image file well suited to Internet use due to the smaller file size.

Gigabyte
1024 Megabytes of data.

GNU Linux
A UNIX-type operating system first released in 1984. Also see www.gnu.org.

Host
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet.

Hypertext
Generally, any text that contains links to other documents, words, or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
An email protocol allowing email client program to not only retrieve emails but also manipulate messages stored on the server without having to actually retrieve the messages first.

Internet
The vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's

Intranet
A private network inside a company or organization that is only for internal use.

IP Number (Internet Protocol Number)
A unique numeric address of an Internet connected device consisting of 4 parts separated by dots (i.e. 66.100.167.1).

IPv4 (Internet Protocol, version 4)
The most widely used version of the Internet Protocol, allowing a theoretical maximum of approximately four billion IP Numbers.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol, version 6)
The successor to IPv4 allowing a limitation of over a sextillion IP addresses.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
A large multi-user live chat facility.

Java
Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.

JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive.

JPEG -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
JPEG is an image format preferred to the GIF format for larger formats such as printed photographic images.

Kilobyte
1024 bytes.

Linux
A UNIX-type operating system first released by its inventor Linus Torvalds in 1991. Also see www.linux.org.

Login
The account name used to gain access to a computer system, or the act of connecting to a computer system by giving your credentials.

Mailing List
A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, and their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the list.

Megabyte
1024 kilobytes.

Meta Tag
A specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not normally displayed to the user.

Mirror
Generally speaking, "to mirror" is to maintain an exact copy of something such as a web site.

OpenBSD
A UNIX-type operating system. Also see www.openbsd.org.

Open Source Software
Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes.

Password
A code used to gain access to a locked system.

PDF -- (Portable Document Format)
A file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used.

Perl
A server-side scripting language which is commonly used to write CGI programs.

PHP
A server-side scripting language used to generate dynamic HTML pages. Also see www.php.net.

PNG -- (Portable Network Graphics)
PNG is a graphics format specifically designed for use on the World Wide Web which enables compression of images without any loss of quality, including high-resolution images.

POP -- (Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol)
A Point of Presence usually means location where a network presence can be connected to. Post Office Protocol refers to a way that email client applications get mail from a mail server.

Port
On the Internet, port often refers to a number that is part of a URL, appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name.

Protocol
On the Internet "protocol" usually refers to a set of rules that define an exact format for communication between systems.

Proxy Server
A Proxy Server sits in between a Client and the "real" Server that a Client is trying to use.

Python
An interpreted, object-oriented programming language. Also see www.python.org.

Router
A piece of network hardware that handles the connection between two or more networks

RSS -- (Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication)
A commonly used protocol for syndication and sharing of content originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles.

Search Engine

Security Certificate
A segment of information that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.

SEO -- (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines.

Server
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers.

SMTP -- (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
The main protocol used to send electronic mail from server to server on the Internet.

SNMP -- (Simple Network Management Protocol)
A set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network.

Spam (or Spamming)
An inappropriate attempt to use email, a mailing list, USENET, or similar networked communications for sending the same message to a large number of recipients.

SQL -- (Structured Query Language)
A specialized language for sending queries to databases.

SSL -- (Secure Socket Layer)
A protocol used to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet.

TCP/IP -- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, this is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet.

Telnet
The command and program used to login from one Internet site to another.

Terabyte
1024 Gigabytes.

Terminal
A device used to send commands from one device or system to another one elsewhere.

TLD -- (Top Level Domain)
The last section of a complete domain name. For example, ".com" in www.sprocketdata.com is the Top Level Domain.

UDP -- (User Datagram Protocol)
One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols.

UNIX
The most common operating system used on the Internet, it dates back to 1969.

Upload
Transferring data (usually a file) to another computer and the opposite of download.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The World Wide Web address of a site on the Internet, expressed as http://www.sprocketdata.com for example.

Virus
Often malicious code written to self replicate, display messages, install other software or files, delete software of files, or other such tasks.

VOIP (Voice Over IP)
A specification and various technologies used to allow making telephone calls over IP networks such as the Internet.

VPN -- (Virtual Private Network)
Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.

Web page
A document designed for viewing in a web browser and typically written in HTML.

Website
A collection of web pages and other information (i.e. images, sound, and video files) made available through what appears to users as a single web server.

Worm
A worm is a virus that does not usually infect other programs but does make copies of itself and infects additional computers.

WWW (World Wide Web)
World Wide Web (or Web) is a term frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet". Actually, the WWW is just one of many resources that define the Internet. .

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
XML is a widely used system for defining data formats and provides a very rich system for complex documents and data structures.

Zone file
A file on a nameserver that designates a domain name with all of its associated subdomains, IP addresses, and mail server. Parts of the zone file include the A record, CNAME, and MX records. A zone file is also called a "DNS table".