Common Internet Terms

Address

Email addresses are composed of numbers or letters followed by the "@" symbol, and then a registered organization with it's abbreviation attached. (xxxx@yzw.com)

Anonymous FTP

This technique allows you to log onto an FTP site and download certain files by putting 'anonymous as your login and your email address as the password (see also FTP)

BBS

Bulletin Board System. A BBS is a storehouse of information and messages where people can exchange files and communicate with one another. Often small and dedicated to special interests, you must know the phone number of the BBS and dial in with your modem.

DNS

Dedicated Name Server. This is the name such as "www.yourname.com", that allows a person to access that computer on the internet when they log on to that name. The main function of this is that a name such as "www.ca4h.org" is more memorable than an IP address which is just random numbers. (see also IP address)

Finger

This command lets you find out who is logged into a particular Net Address or find out if a specific person is logged in.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ's are lists of answers to basic questions new people might ask. Look through an FAQ before asking a question.

Flame

A flame is a virtual tongue-lashing. Newbies get flamed a lot. The best response is to ignore it, and the best way to avoid getting flamed is to be respectful and understanding. Flaming back can start Flame Wars which can be very unpleasant and even damaging.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. The internet convention for moving files from one computer to another. An FTP site is a host computer that holds a group of files. FTP readers or clients, used to upload and download files, may be standalone programs of part of an online service. Many FTP sites require a login and password, but you can usually login anonymously.

Gopher

Gopher is a menu-driven service that uses FTP and Telnet to provide access to huge lists of files on remote computers.

Home page

A multimedia table for the contents of a certain area of the World Wide Web

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language. The graphical programming code used to create sites on the World Wide Web

HTTP

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. The protocol for accessing and viewing the World Wide Web.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address. Every computer on the internet has a unique IP Address (even the one you are at!). It consists of 4 numbers separated by periods, and the numbers can be between 1 and 3 digits long and are between 0 and 255. (e.g. 203.0.52.199) This number is that computers exact location on the internet, and anyone who knows another computers IP can attempt to login at that site (if it is set up as such).

IRC

Internet Relay Chat. The internet version of a walkie talkie.

Link

Text or an image that, when clicked, take the use to another place on the World Wide Web

Netscape/Internet Explorer

These are programs used to view the content of the World Wide Web.

Newbie

This term refers to new users of the internet

Newsgroup

A bulletin board facility used to collect and organize discussions of a particular topic. (See also Usenet)

PPP

Point-to-Point Protocol. A communication convention used by the internet to package and send data. This protocol allows you to choose your own online tools with which to view the web. (See also SLIP)

Resource Type

Appearing at the beginning of an internet address, it specifies the correct connection protocol. (e.g. "ftp://" or "http://")

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol. An older protocol used by the internet to package and send data. The services that use this protocol generally specify which programs can be used to view the internet.

TCP/IP

Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the protocol used by most computers to connect to the internet through a modem.

Telnet

A facility that lets you remotely control computers over the internet. Often used as a verb. (e.g. "You have to telnet into the server")

vThread

A series of posted messages that follow a specific topic.

URL

Universal Resource Locator. All internet address are URL's.

Usenet

A collection of bulletin-board-like facilities designed to organize and log user discussions (threads) on a wide variety of topics.

World Wide Web (WWW)

A portion of the internet that supports multimedia and hyper-text linked files.

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