TECHNICAL TERMSIf you cannot find the term you are looking for in this list, please check whatis.com.
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (see below). A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.
Baud rate (Same as bps or Bits Per Second)
A unit used to measure the number of data bits a modem can transfer in one second. One baud is how many signals a modem can handle in one second. Information is measured in bits, and bits come in the signal. Higher baud modems can send and receive more signals in a second, and the faster speeds also cram more bits into a signal. Divide the bits per second by 10 to get an approximate idea of how many characters per second a modem is transmitting data. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits per second.
(Bulletin Board System) -- A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. There are many thousands (millions?) of BBS’s around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.
A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte. kilobyte is a 1000 bytes (actually roughly 1024 bytes) and megabyte is a million bytes or technically, 1024 kilobytes.
As opposed to a dedicated or leased line; a type of computer linkage using regular telephone lines, generally referring to the kind of connection one makes when using a terminal emulator and a regular modem.
Special computers that are set up on a network to prevent intruders from stealing or destroying confidential files.
An acronym for File Transfer Protocol. A very common method, also the same of the program, to move files between two Internet sites. For example, you would use an FTP to _upload_ your web pages from your local computer (i.e you work offline and then just use this program to transfer your files) or to_download_ files from a computer on the internet to another computer. For example you could use this to get an anti-virus or some other program, digital images, etc. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers.
A computer that links two networks, routing IP datagrams [formatted electronic data which consist of two parts: the data proper (which may be part of a longer message), and the header (which indicates the source, the destination, and the type of data)]. and often converting protocols or messages from one network to the other. The term can also refer to a system capability that provides direct access to other remote networks or services. e.g. connects your network to the internet and in a sloppy fashion you could even say AOL or compuserv is your gateway to the Internet.
A menu-based system that allows a user to access information from a remote computer. Menu items point to a file or directory item, which may be located on the same computer or on a different one. Gophers essentially point to other gophers on remote machines. Through gopher, you can telnet to remote computers and perform searches on searchable databases.
(Hyper Text Markup Language). A system of marking up, or tagging, a document so it can be published on the World Wide Web.
(HyperText Transfer Protocol) The client-server protocol upon which the World Wide Web is based.
The worldwide network of networks based on the TCP/IP protocol. A non-commercial, self-governing network devoted mostly to communication and research with roughly 20 million users worldwide. The Internet is not an online service and has no real central "hub." Rather, it is a collection of tens of thousands of networks, online services, and single-user components. Also, when not capitalized, any interconnected set of networks.
Generally provide only an Internet connection, an electronic mail address, and maybe World Wide Web browsing software. With CompuServe or America Online you get Internet access and the proprietary features offered by these online services, such as chat rooms and searchable databases. Internet access through online services may be more expensive than that obtained through an ISP.
(compare Internet and extranet) Internal systems, based on Internet technology, designed to connect the members of a specific group or single company (a closed-user group). An Intranet is nothing more than a private Internet. In other words, it is a private network, usually a LAN or WAN, that enables the use of Internet based applications in a secure and private environment. As on the public Internet, Intranets can host Web servers, ftp servers, and any other IP-based services.
(Integrated Services Digital Network). Special connections that use ordinary phone lines to transmit digital instead of analog signals. Briefly, ISDN is a telecommunications network that allows for digital voice, video, and data transmissions. ISDN lines contain two channels: a B channel, which has a 64Kbps (kilobits per second) data transmission rate, and a D channel, which has either a 16Kbps or 64Kbps transmission rate. When the two lines are used together, transmitted data can travel at 128Kbps.
A dedicated (as opposed to a dial-up) telephone line typically used to link a moderate-sized local network to an Internet Service Provider. i.e. for exclusive 24-hour, 7 -days-a-week use from your location to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased line. A T-1 connection is a leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet. T-3 is a leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video.
Linux (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a UNIX-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. Linux is a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux's kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU project.
A program that allows users to mass-distribute messages that form conferences, as well as archiving files and messages that can be searched for and retrieved. The most common form of mailing list.
(or Mailing List) A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.
Generally speaking, “to mirror” is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common use of the term on the Internet refers to “mirror sites” which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain exact copies of material originated at another location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource. (we mirror the Cameroon website here in NY because of the slow connection to them and plan to do the same for all the others to increase their visisiblity).
The name for discussion groups on USENET, a world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on the Internet, maybe half. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, which are called newsgroups.
One computer (or other peripheral) within/on a network.
Open Source is the result of a long-time movement toward software that is developed and improved by a group of volunteers cooperating together on a network. Many parts of the UNIX operating system were developed this way, including today's most popular version, Linux. Linux uses applications from the GNU project, which was guided by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. The Open Source Definition, spearheaded by Eric Raymond (editor of The New Hacker's Dictionary), is an effort to provide a branded model or guideline for this kind of software distribution and redistribution. The OSI considers the existing software distribution licenses used by GNU, BSD (a widely-distributed version of UNIX), X Consortium, and Artistic to be conformant with the Open Source Definition.
Makes available client-server e-mail messaging. i.e you can look at your new messages and download only those without having to access your whole mailbox.
A term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites (may be organized along a theme), a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other services to entice people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to the Web.
One way computers can communicate with each other over the Internet (compare "SLIP") by dial up. PPP connections let you communicate directly with other computers on the network using TCP/IP connections.
SHELL ACCOUNT
An entry-level Internet access account (not as complete as telnet). Instead of linking your computer directly to the Internet, you use your modem to dial in to an Internet-connect host computer operated by an Internet service provider (ISP).
High-speed digital lines that provide data communication speeds of 1.544 megabits (T-1) and 45 megabits (T-3) per second.
A protocol which allows you to sign onto a remote UNIX computer from a another computer located anywhere on the Internet. To telnet into a remote computer, you usually need to supply a user ID and password (i.e have an account) that is recognized by the remote system. Once logged on, you can ftp, look at mail, do programming etc as though you were working on your local machine.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in the private networks called intranets and in extranets. When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.
Abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. UNIX software that allows email and news messages to be exchanged on a store-and-forward basis between remote computers. Before the rise of the Internet, this was the main way that remote UNIX machines were networked. It is no longer in wide use out here although for many countries with poor connectivity this is still important and and was the primary means of exchanging mail in the cases of Cameroon, Pakistan, Angola, etc.
The operating system upon which the Internet was developed. It was developed in the late 1960s/early 1970s as a joint venture between General Electric, AT&T Bell Laboratories, and Massachusetts Institute for Technology. UNIX grew with support from the University of California Berkeley and other universities. Pure UNIX is based upon a command line interface. However, just as DOS has Windows to provide a GUI (graphical user interface) environment, UNIX has GUI overlays as well -- the two most notable are NextStep and X Windows. There are several free versions of UNIX; Linux and FreeBSD are examples. We use linux in many of our sdnp nodes since it is free, powerful and robust. It is also used by NASA etc and is fast becoming an operating system to which many of the major software firms are going to "port" (develop for another system) their applications.
Very Small Aperture Terminals are small, software-driven earth stations, used for the reliable transmission of data, video, or voice via satellite. A VSAT network consists of a central hub (master earth station), many remote VSATs, and the satellite transponder space segment. The hub station is always larger than the remote VSATs. The VSAT equipment consists of two units: one plac ed outdoors for a line-of-sight to the satellite, and one placed indoors to interface with the user' s communications device (e.g. data terminal equipment). The outdoor unit consists of a small antenna , mount, and electronics for signal reception and transmission. The indoor unit is a small desktop b ox that contains receiver and transmitter boards and an interface to the user's equipment. Both unit s are connected via cabling. A VSAT network can be provided through a purchase or lease arrangement with fixed transmission costs regardless of distance or number of receiving sites. VSATs have become a solution in many developing countries to extend data, voice and video communications, providing h igh quality digital links to locations where telephone services are poor or not available.
World Wide Web) -- Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two major meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.
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