Internet Terms
DSL
DSL, short for "Digital Subscriber Line", employs an unused portion of your telephone line, so there's no need to install another one in your home or office. The service is typically provided by your local phone company. To connect, you need a digital modem, usually provided by the phone company.
Http
Http stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol--the method used to transfer hypertext files across the Internet. On the World Wide Web, pages written in HTML use hypertext to link to other documents. When you click on hypertext, you jump to another web page, sound file, video or graphic.
Spam
Originally just a canned sandwich filler product, spam now also refers to the practice of blindly posting commercial messages or advertisements to a large number of unrelated and uninterested groups and blogs, and bulk e-mailing unsolicited commercial messages.
Download
Downloading is the method by which users access and save or "pull down" software or other files to their own computers from a remote computer, usually via a modem.
Web Browser
A browser is 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.
Hyperlink
A hyperlink is text or a graphic in an HTML document. Text links are usually in a different color from the rest of the text or underlined . Clicking on the hyperlink connects to another part of the same document, to another website, web page or resource on the Web.
Hacker
Hacker is a slang term for a technically sophisticated computer user who enjoys exploring computer systems and programs, sometimes to the point of obsession.
Search Engine
A search engine is a type of software tool that creates indexes of Internet sites based on the titles of files, keywords, or the full text of files. The search engine has an interface that allows you to type what you're looking for into a blank field. It then gives you a list of the results of the search. When you use a search engine on the Web, the results are presented to you in hypertext, which means you can click on any item in the list to get the actual file.
Html
An acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is the computer language used to create hypertext documents. HTML uses a finite list of tags that describe the general structure of various kinds of documents linked together on the World Wide Web.
ISP
An acronym for Internet Service Provider, it refers to the company you connect to in order to access the Internet. Usually there is a monthly fee for this service.
LAN
An acronym for Local Area Network, LAN refers to a local network that connects computers located on the same floor or in the same building or nearby buildings.
URL
An acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, a URL is the address for a resource or site (usually a directory or file) on the World Wide Web and the convention that web browsers use for locating files and other remote services.
WAN
An acronym for Wide Area Network, WAN refers to a network that connects computers over long distances via telephone lines or satellite links. In a WAN, the computers are physically and sometimes geographically far apart.
Chat Room
An electronic space, typically a website or a section of an online service, where people can go to communicate online in real time. Chat rooms are often organized around specific interests, such as small business owners, gardening, politics, etc.
Modem
Short for Modulator/Demodulator, a modem is a device that allows remote computers to communicate, to transmit and receive data using telephone lines.
Short for electronic mail, e-mail consists of messages, often just text, sent from one user to another via a network. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a number of addresses.
Domain Name
The domain name is the unique name that identifies an Internet site. The Internet is made up of millions 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.
Dial-up account
This is a type of account available for connecting to the Internet. With a dial-up account, you have a login name and a password that lets you access some parts of a computer 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 Internet.
Bookmark
With hundreds of millions of websites and more coming online daily, Bookmarks (and Favorites) are a feature of web browsers that save web addresses so you can return to them quickly, without having to retype them. Whether you are using Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome or another browser, the procedure is similar.
WWW
World Wide Web