Glossary of Terms and Brief History of the Internet |
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Glossary of Terms and Brief History of the Internet |
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At ICIR we feel it's better to spend our time using common vocabulary instead of explaining such. Consequently we've created the below list of what we loosely refer to as "useful" vocabulary (just try using it in public and see what kind of looks you get) along with a brief history of the Internet in case you ever wonder how did all this get started in the first place. However, you're on your on as to "why" it got started.
Anonymous FTP: A
way to obtain publicly-accessible files from the Internet. Anonymous means
that you don't need a user ID and password to download files. FTP stands
for File Transfer Protocol.
Articles: Messages posted to Usenet newsgroups.
ASCII: An acronym
for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. For Internet purposes,
ASCII stands for straight text formatting. The opposite of ASCII for file
transfer purposes is binary.
Backbone: A system
of high-speed connections that routes long-haul Internet traffic by connecting
the slower regional and local datapaths.
Bandwidth: The amount
of data that can flow through a channel. The higher the bandwidth, the
more information that can flow through it.
BBS: An acronym for
Bulletin Board System.
Binary: Not ASCII.
For file transfer purposes, any file that is not in an ASCII format is
considered a binary file. In newsgroups, a binary is a graphical image
(or sometimes audio or video.)
Bookmark: In Netscape,
a user-maintained index of frequently used URLs. In Internet Explorer these
are called favorites.
Boolean Logic: A
system that uses operators such as AND, NOT, OR and NEAR to link key words
together to make searching databases more precise. Such as:
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x AND y - Result is TRUE if both x and y are TRUE. Otherwise the result is FALSE. |
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x OR y - Result is TRUE if either x or y is TRUE. Otherwise the result
is FALSE. |
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x XOR y - Result is TRUE only if x and y have different values. Otherwise
the result is FALSE. |
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NOT x - Result is TRUE if x is FALSE. Result is FALSE if x is TRUE. |
If none of this still makes sense click here and select any of the three hyperlinks titled:
"Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques""How to Choose a Search Engine or Research Database""The Finer Points of Web Search Engines"Browser: A computer
program that is used to access the World Wide Web. Examples of browsers
are Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Lynx.
Client: A computer
or software program that requests services from another computer, called
a server. Eudora is an example of an e-mail client; ws_ftp is an example
of an FTP client.
Compress: To make
a file smaller, usually to conserve space or to speed up file transfers.
Many of the files and programs available on the Internet are compressed.
The most common compression format you will encounter is .zip; you need
a program such as pkunzip to uncompress these files and make them usable.
DNS: An acronym for
Domain Name Server. The DNS is everything after the @ in an e-mail address.
When expressed numerically rather than alphabetically, the DNS is an IP
address.
Domain: An Internet
domain is a major subsection of the Internet. It is indicated by the last
group of letters in an Internet address. Such Domains include:
.com (commercial, such as icir.com).mil (military, as in army.mil).org (organization, as in eff.org).net (network, as in internic.net).gov (government, as in whitehouse.gov).edu (educational, as in lonestar.utsa.edu.)The domains listed above
are used only in the United States. Other countries use a country code
- such as .au for Australia or .ca for Canada as their domain. Domain Name
Server: see DNS
Download: Transfer
a file from a remote computer to your own computer. The opposite of upload.
Hint: the formula to calculate download time is filesize/modem speed/6,
for example, 1,665,780/28,000/6=9.6 minutes, the time to download one 3.5"
floppy disk using a 28.8 bps modem.
Email: Electronic
mail, or messages sent to other users over the Internet.
Finger: A Unix command
that returns information about an Internet user. To finger someone you
must at least know their DNS.
Firewall: Used by
some networks to provide security by blocking access to certain services
from the rest of the Internet.
Flame: A rude response
to an e-mail message or newsgroup article. Flames are usually directed
at someone who violates the informal rules of the Internet and are out
of proportion to the severity of the "offense."
FAQ: An acronym for
Frequently Asked Questions. These are text documents in a question-and-answer
format that answer the most common questions posted to Usenet newsgroups.
FTP: An acronym for
file transfer protocol, a way of downloading files and programs from a
remote computer to your own directory or computer, and vice-versa.
Gateway: A computer
that moves data from one network to another.
GIF: An acronym for
the Graphical Interchange Format. This was developed by Compuserve and
is a popular way of exchanging pictures over the Internet. JPEG or .JPG
(Joint Photographic Experts Group) is another acronym used to express the
technical name for a graphics file format.
Gopher: A protocol
and client program that lets users retrieve Internet resources. Gopher
is a text-based menu system that serves a similar function to the World
Wide Web.
GUI: (sometimes pronounced
gooey) An acronym for Graphical User Interface. Windows is a GUI; DOS is
a text-based interface.
Helper Application: Mainly
used in browsers, such as Netscape. A helper application is a software
program that works within another program to help it accomplish its tasks.
For example, you can use the helper application WPLANY within Netscape
to listed to audio files, or the Adobe Acrobat Reader to look at and print
.pdf files.
HTML: An acronym
for HyperText Markup Language, the formatting system for World Wide Web
documents.
HTTP: An acronym
for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the system used to request documents from
the World Wide Web.
Home Page: An individual's
or organization's presence on the World Wide Web.
HyperText: A text
document that contains links to other documents. HyperText is used in the
World Wide Web and also in Windows help documents.
Internet: A world-wide
network of computer networks using the TCP/IP protocol. It is a three level
hierarchy composed of backbone networks (e.g. ARPAnet, NSFNet, MILNET),
mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or
.co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net)
and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks
around the world with various protocols including the Internet Protocol.
IP address: An Internet
DNS expressed in numbers rather than letters.
IRC: An acronym for
Internet Relay Chat, a world-wide live chat system with a text based interface.
ISDN: An acronym
for Integrated Services Digital Network, a service offered by an ISP or
local telephone companies, but most readily in Australia, France, Japan
and Singapore, with the UK somewhat behind and availability in the USA
rather spotty.
ISP: An acronym for
Internet Service Provider, a company that provides Internet connections
for individuals and businesses. Lurk: Follow a newsgroup or sitting in
on an IRC channel without contributing anything. Not necessarily a bad
thing!
Lynx: A text-based
World Wide Web Browser.
Modem: Short for
Modulate-Demodulate, a modem is a computer peripheral that allows transmission
of digital information over an analog phone line. Modems are rated by the
number kilobytes-per-second that they are able to send and receive.
MIME: An acronym
for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. This is a protocol for sending
audio, graphics and other binary data as attachments to e-mail messages.
Netiquette: Etiquette
on the Internet. Violating netiquette may get you flamed.
Netscape: A GUI browser
used to access the World Wide Web.
Newbie: Someone new
to the Internet. >
Newsgroup: One of
more then 20,00 discussion forums carried on the Internet and some other
networks, such as Fidonet.
NNTP: An acronym
for the Network News Transport Protocol. This is the protocol used to distribute
Usenet news.
Online Service: A
provider such as America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy that started out
in business providing unique and proprietary content but now also includes
a gateway to the Internet.
Packet: The basic
unit of information transmitted over the Internet. The TCP/IP protocols
break messages down into packets and route them.
Plug-in: A file containing
data used to alter, enhance, or extend the operation of a parent application
program. World-Wide Web browsers support plug-ins which display or interpret
a particular file format or protocol such as Shockwave, RealAudio, Adobe
PDF, Corel CMX (vector graphics), Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
etc. Plug-ins can usually be downloaded for free and are stored locally
coming in different versions specific to a particular operating system
and may even come "preloaded" within a Web browser.
Search Engine: The
tool that allows a user to search the Internet by keywords and/or categories.
(i.e. Yahoo, Excite, HotBot, Alta Vista, etc.)
Shareware & Freeware:
Software distributed through the Internet; designers hope they will be
paid for it if people use it regularly. "Freeware", on the other
hand, is distributed for free.
Spam: To post irrelevant
or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups or mailing lists
in deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette. To indiscriminately
send large amounts of unsolicited e-mail meant to promote a product or
service. Spam in this sense is sort of like the electronic equivalent of
junk mail sent to "Occupant."
TCP/IP: Transmission
Control Protocol over Internet Protocol. The de facto standard Ethernet
protocols incorporated into 4.2BSD Unix. TCP/IP was developed by DARPA
for internetworking and encompasses both network layer and transport layer
protocols. While TCP and IP specify two protocols at specific protocol
layers, TCP/IP is often used to refer to the entire DoD protocol suite
based upon these, including telnet, FTP and others.
Telnet: The Internet
standard protocol for remote login. Runs on top of TCP/IP. Defined in STD
8, RFC 854 and extended with options by many other RFCs. Unix BSD networking
software includes a program, telnet, which uses the protocol and acts as
a terminal emulator for the remote login session. Sometimes abbreviated
to TN. TOPS-10 had a similar program called IMPCOM.
UNIX: Text-based
operating system that supports the many applications capable of operating
two or more programs at the same time and performing two or more actions
at the same time.
URL: Uniform Resource
Locator. Standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet
that is part of the WWW. A draft standard for specifying the location of
an object on the Internet, such as a file or a newsgroup. URLs are used
extensively on the World-Wide Web. They are used in HTML documents to specify
the target of a hyperlink which is often another HTML document (possibly
stored on another computer). Usenet: Wide-ranging set of newsgroups that
create discussions of serious and not-so-serious natures. A distributed
bulletin board system supported mainly by Unix machines and the people
who post and read articles thereon. Originally implemented in 1979 - 1980
by Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University,
it has swiftly grown to become international in scope and is now probably
the largest decentralized information utility in existence. Usenet encompasses
government agencies, universities, high schools, businesses of all sizes
and home computers of all descriptions. As of early 1993, it hosts well
over 1200 newsgroups ("groups" for short) and an average of 40
megabytes (the equivalent of several thousand paper pages) of new technical
articles, news, discussion, chatter, and flameage every day. To join in
you need a news reader. Several web browsers include news readers and URLs
beginning "news:" refer to Usenet newsgroups. Is this more information than what you really needed? :-)
World Wide Web (WWW):
Commonly referred to as "The Web". An Internet client-server
hypertext distributed information retrieval system which originated from
the CERN High-Energy Physics laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland. The system
or universe of hypertext severs (HTTP servers), which allows text, graphics,
video, and sound to be mixed together and used at the same time. Usually
requires a WWW browser like Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.
Late 1960's to early 1970's Dept. of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)¨ ARPANET
served as basis for early networking research as well as a central backbone
during the development of the Internet.¨ TCP/IP evolved as the standard
networking protocol for exchanging data between computers on the network.Mid-To-Late 1970's
Basic services were developed that make up the Internet: - Remote connectivity- File Transfer- Electronic mail
1979-80Usenet systems for newsgroups
1982Internet gopher
1991
Public introduction to World Wide Web (mostly text based)
- In
the early 1990s, the developers at CERN spread word of the Web's capabilities
to scientific audiences worldwide.
- By September 1993, the share of
Web traffic traversing the NSFNET Internet backbone reached 75 gigabytes
per month or one percent. By July 1994 it was one terabyte per month.
1994
Prior to this time the WWW was not used for commercial business purposes
- The Internet is one-third research and education network
- Commercial
communications begin to take over the majority of Internet traffic
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