Internet Glossary

Archie
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. The user will need to know the exact filename or a part of the filename in order to find the file.
Anonymous FTP or FTP
This stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a way to "login" or gain access to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositorities of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name "anonymous". Hence these sites are called "anonymous ftp servers".
Bit
A single digit number in base 2. In other words, either a 1 or a 0 is used. This is the smallest unit of computerized data.
Browser
A program (software) that is used to look at various Internet resources. An example of a browser would be Netscape or Mosaic, two of the most commonly used browsers.
Byte
A set of bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 or 10 bits in a byte.
Cyberspace
A term originated by author William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer". The word Cyberspace is mainly used to describe the broad range of information resources available throught computer networks.
E-mail
This stands for Electronic Mail. E-mail sending messages, usually text, from one person to another by using a computer.
FAQ
This stands for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions about a particular subject.
Finger
An Internet software tool used to locate people on other Internet sites.
Gopher
This is a method of making menus of material available over the Internet.
Host
Any computer on a network that has a repository for services available to other computers on the network.
HTML
This stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is used to create hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a browser such as Netscape or Mosaic.
Hypertext
This is text that contains "links" to other documents. Links are words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.
Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Usually this number is closer to 1024 bytes.
LAN
This stands for Local Area Network. This is a computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or a particular floor in a building.
Megabyte
A million bytes or a thousand kilobytes.
Modem
This stands for MOdulator DEModulator. This is a device that can be connected to a computer and a phone line, which will allow the user's computer to talk to other computers through the phone system.
Mosaic
This is a WWW browser that is available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX.
Newsgroups
The name for discussion groups on Usenet. See also Usenet.
Telnet
A command and program used to login from one Internet site to another.
UNIX
A computer operating system. UNIX is designed to be used by many people at the same time.
URL
This stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is the standard way to giver the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this: http://www.cs.mun.ca
Usenet
A world-wide system of discussion groups. Usenet has over 10 000 discussion areas known as newsgroups.
Veronica
This stands for Very Easay Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives. Veronica is a constantly updated database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopher servers. The Veronica database can be searched from most major gopher menus.


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