| 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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The range of services and the cost can vary widely depending on your geographic
location and the number of service providers in your area. Of course, there is no limit on
the number of providers you can have, and for various reasons you may find that you want
or need more than one provider.
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Ad banner: An ad on a Web page, often using moving images and sound as well as
text. Clicking on a banner usually takes the user to an advertiser's Web site.
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Ad request: An ad request occurs each time the user's browser requests
information from an ad server. If a Web page contains an ad, the browser will
automatically request the information from the ad server.
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Ad view: Technically, an ad view (also called an exposure) occurs every time an
ad is requested from an ad server. Or, on the front end, an ad view represents the number
of times a banner ad is seen on a Web page.
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ARPANET: The computer network system that gave birth to the Internet. ARPANET
(Advanced Research Projects Administration Network) began in 1969 as a U.S. Department of
Defense experiment in packet-switched networking.
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Backbone: A high-speed line or series of connections that
forms a major pathway within a network. For example, National Science Foundation's network
(NSFNET) was, for many years, the backbone of the Internet. See also Network.
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Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can travel a communications path in a
given time, usually measured in seconds. If you think of the communications path as a
pipe, then bandwidth represents the width of the pipe that determines how much data can
flow through it all at once.
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Banner: An ad on a Web page, often using moving images and sound as well as
text. Clicking on a banner usually takes the user to an advertiser's Web site.
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Binary File: A file that contains more than plain text (i.e. photos, sounds, a
spreadsheet, or a formatted word-processing document). In contrast to ASCII files, which
contain only characters (plain text), binary files contain additional code information. A
binary file is made up of machine-readable symbols that represent 1s and 0s. Binary files
include sound files, graphics files, and software, and are frequently called binaries.
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This all becomes important when you wish to transmit a file over the Internet. Let's
say you want to download a neat piece of software called "Fitware" to help you
keep track of your fitness regime. Depending on the software you use, you may find
yourself confronted with a choice of file formats to download. If the file is a piece of
software (like the "Fitware" program), a sound file, or a picture file, you will
choose the "binary" option.
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Bit: Short for binary digit, a bit is the smallest unit of data a computer can
handle. Bits are used in various combinations to represent different kinds of data. Each
bit has a value of 0 or 1.
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BPS: Abbreviation for Bits Per Second and a measurement of how fast data is
transmitted. BPS is usually used to describe modem speeds or the speed of a digital
connection. See ISDN; T1 Line and T3 Line.
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Browser: A software program that allows you to view and interact with various
kinds of Internet resources available on the World Wide Web. A browser is commonly called
a web browser.
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Byte: A series of bits of a particular length -- usually 8. Computer storage
space is measured in bytes. A Kilobyte (or 1K) represents 1024 bytes and a Megabyte (1Mb)
represents one thousand "K" bytes, or one million bytes.
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Cache: When you download a web page, the data is cached, meaning
it is stored temporarily on your computer. The next time you want that page, instead of
requesting the file from the web server, your web browser just accesses it from the cache.
That way, the page loads quickly. But if the web page is updated frequently, as may be the
case with news, sports scores or financial data, you won't get the most current
information. By using the Reload button on your browser, this timely data is updated by
downloading fresh data from the server.
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Click-through: The number of times an ad banner is clicked on during a given
period. Each time a user clicks on an ad banner--thus taking that user to the advertiser's
site--it represents one click-through, or click.
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Click-through rate: The percentage of times a banner ad is clicked on out of the
total number of ad views. If a Web page containing your ad is seen by 10 users and one
user clicks on the ad, the click-through rate is 10 percent. Expressed mathematically as
clicks divided by ad views, the click-through rate is a measure of an ad's success. Often
shortened to click rate.
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Common Gateway Interface (CGI): The interface program that enables an Internet
server to run external programs to perform a specific function. Also referred to as
Gateway or CGI "scripts," these programs generally consist of a set of
instructions written in a programming language like C or PERL that process requests from a
browser, execute a program and format the results in HTML, so they can be displayed in the
browser. Gateway scripts are commonly used to add interactivity to a web page by allowing
users to do things like fill out and submit forms for processing (as in an order form for
an online catalog); query databases by submitting search requests; and register or gain
access to password-protected areas of a site. CGI scripts are also used to implement a
variety of tracking and measurement systems on a web site.
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Cookies: A cookie is a file sent to a web browser by a web server that is used
to record one's activities on a web site. For instance, when you buy items from a site and
place them in a so-called virtual shopping cart, that information is stored in the cookie.
When the browser requests additional files, the cookie information is sent back to the
server. Cookies can remember other kinds of personal information --your password, so you
don't have to re-enter it each time you visit the site; your preferences, so the next time
you return to a site, you can be presented with customized information. Some people regard
cookies as an invasion of privacy; others think they are a harmless way to make web sites
more personal.
Most cookies have an expiration date and either reside in your computer's memory until
you close your browser or they are saved to your hard drive. By the way, cookies cannot
read information stored in your computer.
You can use a text editor to view cookie files. For Windows users of Navigator, the
file is called cookies.txt and is located in the the same folder as Netscape. Mac users
can find it in the Netscape folder in the System/Preferences folder. Explorer creates
separate files for each cookie and stores them in folders named "Cookies" or
"Temporary Internet Files."
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CPM: Cost per thousand ad views. (The M stands for the Latin mille, meaning
"a thousand.") The cost of the ad per 1,000 ad views.
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Dial-up Account: A type of account available for connecting to the Internet.
Having an account on a computer system means you have a login name and a password that
lets you access some parts of that system. A dial-up account through an Internet Service
Provider allows you to use your modem to make a connection to your provider's system. Once
you have dialed your provider's local number and are connected, the provider then connects
you directly to the Internet, where you can run any Internet navigation software (like a
web browser), just as you would if you had a direct connection to the Net.
Different types of dial-up accounts are available. A SLIP or PPP account allows you to
navigate the World Wide Web directly from your Windows or Mac operating system. A UNIX
shell account allows you to use UNIX commands on your service provider's system.
See also Access Providers.
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Directory A system that your computer uses to organize files on the basis of
specific information. Directories can be organized hierarchically so that files appear in
a number of different ways, such as the order in which they were created; alphabetically
by name or by type, etc.
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Dithering: When working with a computer display system that supports 8-bit color
(or fewer colors), the video card can display only 256 different colors at one time.
Dithering is a technique to simulate the display of colors that are not in the current
color palette of a particular image. It accomplishes this by arranging adjacent pixels of
different colors into a pattern which simulates colors that are not available to the
computer.
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Domain Name: The unique name that identifies an Internet site. The Internet is
made up of hundreds of thousands of computers and networks, all with their own domain name
or unique address. Domain names always have two or more parts separated by dots. A given
server may have more than one domain name, but a given domain name points to only one
server.
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For example, "whitehouse.gov" is the domain name belonging to the Whitehouse
computer system. Once a system administrator registers a unique domain name, subaddresses
can be assigned to the machines and people on the local network. So the President's e-mail
address is "president@whitehouse.gov," the Vice-President's is
"vice-president@whitehouse.gov," and so on. Each corresponds to a unique IP
address. The machine that serves up the Whitehouse web pages is called www.whitehouse.gov.
Domain names typically consist of some form of the organization's name and a suffix
that describes the type of organization. For example, IBM has registered the domain name
"ibm.com"; Xerox corporation has registered "xerox.com." Registration
is on a first come, first served basis. The domain name suffix is assigned based on the
type of organization. For U.S. domains, the suffixes are:
.com - corporations
.edu - educational institutions
.org - non-profit organizations
.mil - military organization
.net - network provider
.gov - government institution
In addition, non-U.S. sites have an additional extension that indicates the country
where the domain is located. For example:
.au - Australia
.dk - Denmark
.ge - Germany
.uk - United Kingdom
In the United States, domain names are assigned and indexed by the InterNIC project (a joint project of the
National Science Foundation, AT&T, and Network Solutions, Inc.). Each of these
addresses is actually an alias of a numerical address (called an IP address). The IP
number for the Whitehouse for example, is 198.137.240.100. To access the Whitehouse
Internet site, you could use the IP number if you like, but most people prefer to use the
quasi-English domain name alias "whitehouse.gov."
There is much more information about domain names available at The InterNIC Home Page.
To learn the IP address and to contact names for a particular domain name (such as
whitehouse.gov), use the InterNIC WHOIS search form. You can also use this form to see if
anyone has registered a domain name you may be considering.
DPI (Dots Per Inch): A measurement of print image resolution and quality. A
larger number of dots allows for more detail and therefore a higher resolution image. The
average laser printer has a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi which means it can print 300 dots
per inch horizontally and 300 dots per inch vertically, 90,000 dots per square inch. A
high-resolution, professional quality laser printer prints at 1200 dpi.
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Email List: A way of having a group discussion by electronic mail. Also used
to distribute announcements to a large number of people. A mailing list is very much like
a conference on a bulletin board system, except the conversation comes to you in your
e-mail box. Each time you or any member of the list posts a reply to the conversation, it
is distributed to the e-mail box of every member of the list. All of this traffic is
automated and managed by programs called mailing list managers (MLM's) or mail servers.
The two most frequently used programs are Listserv and Majordomo.
Mailing lists are the most basic form of Internet conferencing. They can be public or
private and, unlike Usenet newsgroups, which require additional software to run, all you
need to participate is an e-mail address.
A mailing list is said to be "unmoderated" if all of the messages sent to the
list are automatically forwarded to each member of the list. In a "moderated"
list, all messages are sent first to a list moderator, who makes decisions about which
postings will or will not be sent to everyone on the list.
If many people are on a mailing list, the traffic in your e-mail box can be
overwhelming. One way to deal with this is to subscribe to the "digest" version
of the list (not all mailing lists have digest versions). In a digest version, postings
are collected into a single file and distributed to the list on a regular basis (usually
daily). In this way you receive only one big file at regular intervals rather than
hundreds of small ones everyday.
You join a mailing list by subscribing to it - also termed Opting-In or Opt-in Direct
Email. This doesn't mean you have to pay money, it just means you are asking to have your
e-mail address added to the distribution list. To get off the mailing list, you have to
unsubscribe from the list. You do both by sending an e-mail message to the list
administrator with the following in the body of your message:
subscribe name-of-list your e-mail address
or
unsubscribe name-of-list your e-mail address
The exact way of doing this varies a little from list to list. It's best to request
information about the list first and that will tell you exactly what you need to do. Once
you've subscribed to a list you will receive an e-mail message with details about how the
list works and how to unsubscribe.
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Firewall: A combination hardware and software buffer that many companies or
organizations have in place between their internal networks and the Internet. A firewall
allows only specific kinds of messages from the Internet to flow in and out of the
internal network. This protects the internal network from intruders or hackers who might
try to use the Internet to break into those systems.
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Flaming: Sending inflammatory, hostile or derogatory email, especially in
response to spam.
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Forms: Forms are web pages comprised of text and "fields" for a user
to fill in with information. They are an excellent way of collecting and processing
information from people visiting a web site, as well as allowing them to interact with web
pages. Forms are written in HTML and processed by CGI programs. The output can be sent as
an e-mail form, stored online, printed, and/or returned to the user as an HTML page. When
you enter a keyword in the search field of an Internet directory, you are filling in a
form. It is then processed by a CGI program, returning a list of possible matches with
your keyword. Forms are also used for online catalogs, surveys, requests for information,
and conferencing.
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Front Page: This is the first page you encounter as an Internet
surfer, also known as the Home Page, index.html (or htm), or default.html (or
htm).
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FTP: An acronym for File Transfer Protocol -- a very common method of
transferring one or more files from one computer to another. FTP is a specific way to
connect to another Internet site to retrieve and send files. FTP was developed in the
early days of the Internet to copy files from computer to computer. With the advent of the
World Wide Web, and web browser software, you no longer need to know arcane FTP commands
to copy to and from other computers. In your browser, you can use FTP by typing the URL
into the location box at the top of your screen. For example:
ftp://name.of.site/directory/filename.zip will transfer filename.zip to your computer's
hard disk. You can also use ftp://name.of.site/directory/ which will give you a listing of
all the files available in that directory. If you are using a web browser that doesn't
have built-in FTP capability, or if you want to upload files to a remote computer, you
will need to use an FTP client program to transfer files. To use FTP you need to know the
name of the file, the computer where it resides, and the directory it's in. Most files are
available via "anonymous FTP," which means you can log into the machine with the
user name "anonymous" and use your e-mail address as your password.
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GIF or .gif: Acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. This graphics file format
uses a compression scheme originally developed by CompuServe. Because they are compressed,
the file sizes can be quickly and easily transmitted over a network. That's why it is the
most commonly used graphics format on the World Wide Web.
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Graphical User Interface (GUI): A GUI interface allows users to navigate and
interact with information on their computer screen by using a mouse to "point,"
"click," and "drag" icons and other data around on the screen, instead
of typing in words and phrases. The Windows and Macintosh operating systems are examples
of GUI's. The World Wide Web is an example of a GUI designed to enhance navigation of the
Internet, once done exclusively via terminal-based (i.e. typed command line) functions.
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