| Machine |
Other
name for computer.
|
| Machine
Language |
Binary
code. Machine language is the only language a CPU
understands. High-level programming languages (C,
Perl,
Java
etc) must be translated to machine language, before they
can be executed.
|
| Mailing
List |
Email
based discussion group. List
servers maintain a list of email
addresses of subscribers. When you send an email
message to this group, your email is copied and sent to
all subscribers.
|
| Mail
Server |
Server
that handles incoming and outgoing email.
|
| Mainframe |
Large
and very powerful computer used for intensive
computational tasks.
|
| Mbps
(Mega-bits per second) |
Measure
of data throughput
in millions of bits per second.
|
| Megabit |
About
one million bits.
Exactly 1,048,576 bits (2^20).
|
| Megabyte
- Mb |
About
one million bytes.
Exactly 1,048,576 bytes (2^20), or 1,024 Kb.
|
| MIPS
- Million Instructions Per Second |
Measure
of processor speed.
|
| MIME
- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
Standard
for attaching non-text files to email
messages (formatted word processing files, spreadsheets,
pictures, executable files etc).
|
| Mirror
or Mirror Site |
More
or less an exact copy of another WWW
or FTP
site. Mirror sites are created when the traffic on the
original site is too heavy. They are usually on servers
which are located in different geographic areas.
|
| Modem |
Contraction
of MOdulator-DEModulator. A modem allows computers to
transmit information to each other via ordinary
telephone lines.
|
| Mosaic |
First
Web
browser (developed by NSCA) with the ability to
display graphics. The Mosaic browser caused a major
breakthrough in the way people could access the
resources of the World
Wide Web.
|
| MP3
or MPEG 3 |
Compression
standard for music. Although the compression rate may be
very high, you'll have almost no loss of quality. This
makes it a very attractive method to copy CDs.
|
| MPEG
- Moving Pictures Expert Group |
Compression
standard for video in a format similar to JPEG.
|
| Navigator |
Web
browser from Netscape.
|
| Net |
Short
for Internet.
|
| Net
Lingo |
The
slang (jargon) commonly used on the Internet.
|
| Net
Surfing |
Browsing
the World
Wide Web, without a specific goal in mind.
|
| Netiquette
- Network Etiquette |
Informal
code of good manners on the Internet.
|
| Netizen |
A
responsible citizen of the Internet.
|
| Netlag |
Condition
that occurs on the Web
when heavy traffic slows down server response
time.
|
| Network |
Group
of computers that are connected together so that they
can share resources and exchange data.
|
| Newbie |
A
newcomer to the online
world.
|
| Newsgroup |
Discussion
group (on USENET)
among people who share a mutual interest. In one
particular newsgroup you can find several conversations
("threads") on different (to the newsgroup
related) topics. There are thousands and thousands of
newsgroups, covering almost every possible subject.
|
| News
Server |
Computer
of your ISP
that gathers USENET
newsgroups. From this server
you can download
the newsgroups you're interested in.
|
| Nibble |
Four
bits
(half a byte).
|
| NIC
- Network Information Center |
Any
office that handles information for a network
(for example: the InterNIC).
|
| NNTP
- Network News Transport Protocol |
Protocol
to transport USENET
postings
over a TCP/IP
network.
|
| Node |
Any
server
connected to the Internet.
|
| OC-1,
OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48 |
OC
stands for Optical Carrier, a standard for fiber optic
transmission.
OC-1: transmission speed of 51.85 Mbps
OC-3: transmission speed of 155.52 Mbps
OC-12: transmission speed of 622.08 Mbps
OC-24: transmission speed of 1,244 Mbps (1.24 Gbps)
OC-48: transmission speed of 2,488 Mbps (2.48 Gbps)
|
| Offline |
Not
connected to a computer network.
|
| Online |
(Currently)
connected to a computer network.
|
| Packet |
Data
chunk sent across a network.
|
| Packet
Switching |
Method
to send data across a network.
Data is broken up into packets
(chunks). Each packet has the address
of the sender and the address of the destination. This
way, packets from many different sources can be sent on
the same line at the same time.
|
| Page
- Web Page |
One
single document on the Web.
|
| Parse |
To
break up a text into useful chunks (used in programming
languages). For example: parsing the date variable in
order to get the day of the week.
|
| Password |
Secret
code that you must enter after your user
ID (login
name) in order to log on to a computer.
|
| PDF
- Portable Document Format |
Platform
independent file format created by Adobe (see Acrobat
Reader). Created for offline
reading of brochures, reports and other documents with
complex graphic design. When you download
a .pdf file, you get the entire document in a single
file.
|
| Perl
- Practical Extraction and Report Language |
Perl
is a powerful computer language, especially used for
writing CGI
scripts which handle input/output actions on Web
pages.
|
| Petabyte |
About
one thousand terabytes
(one million gigabytes).
|
| PGP
- Pretty Good Privacy |
Program,
developed by Phil Zimmerman, that protects files from
being read by others. You can also use PGP to attach a
digital signature to a file to proof that you are the
sender.
|
| Ping
- Packet InterNet Groper |
Program
that tests a network
connection. Ping sends data packets
to a network connection to measure the response
time (or to check whether the packets were arrived).
|
| Plug-in |
Small
piece of software, usually from a third party developer,
that adds new features to another (larger) software
application.
|
| PoP
- Point of Presence |
Local
phone service area where your ISP
provides dial
up access to the Internet.
|
| POP
- Post Office Protocol |
Internet
protocol used by your ISP
to handle email
for its subscribers. A POP account is just a synonym for
an email account.
|
| Port |
Related
to the Internet,
a port is a part of a Web
server that handles requests for particular services
(FTP,
TELNET,
WWW).
Each of those services has its own port number, where it
"listens" for requests. For example, WWW
servers normally listen on port 80. When you use a
non-standard port number, it must be specified in the URL
after a colon (:).
|
| Portal |
A
Web
site that attracts visitors by offering free
information, or free services on a daily basis. When you
are on a portal site, you can use this site as a basis
to explore the Web.
The most famous portals are these major search
engines: AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, InfoSeek
and Yahoo.
|
| Posting |
A
single message posted to a newsgroup,
bulletin board or mailing
list.
|
| Power
Newbie |
Phase
in the evolution of an Internet
user (somewhere half way between newbie
and knowbie).
|
| PPP
- Point to Point Protocol |
Protocol
that handles the sending of data packets
over dial-up
and leased-line
connections to your ISP.
PPP gets you online.
|
| Prodigy |
Commercial
online
service.
|
| Protocol |
A
set of rules and conventions that describes the
behaviour that computers must follow in order to
understand each other.
|
| Proxy |
Form
of security on the Internet.
When you use a proxy or proxy server,
you send a request to a server on the Internet via this
proxy. For the server on the Internet it looks like the
request is coming from the proxy, not from your machine.
|
| Push
Media |
New
method to collect information on the Internet.
You can subscribe to some push agency to deliver you all
the information you need about a particular subject, so
you won't have to scour the news by yourself.
|
| Query |
Request
for specific information from a database.
|
| Query
String |
Your
input to a server
on the Internet.
For example, when you perform a search on Yahoo!, you'll
see a question mark in the URL,
followed by some strange text-string. Everything after
that question mark belongs to the query string. A query
string is data input for the CGI
script on that particular Internet server.
|
