Glossary

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
A special type of DSL line where the upload speed is different from the download speed.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
A set of 128 alphanumeric and special control characters used for computer storing and printing of text. Used by HTML when transmitting data over the web.

ASP (Active Server Pages)
A Microsoft technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages.

BBS (Bulletin Board System)
A web based public system for sharing discussions, files, and announcements.

Bookmark
In web terms: A link to a particular web site, stored (bookmarked) by a web user for future use and easy access.

Browse
Term to describe a user's movement across the web, moving from page to page via hyperlinks, using a web browser.

Cache
In web terms: A web browser or web server feature which stores copies of web pages on a computer's hard disk.

Computer Virus
A computer program that can harm a computer by displaying messages, deleting files, or even destroying the computer's operating system.

Cookie
Information from a web server, stored on your computer by your web browser. The purpose of a cookie is to provide information about your visit to the website for use by the server during a later visit.

Database
Data stored in a computer in such a way that a computer program can easily retrieve and manipulate the data.

DHTML (Dynamic HTML)
A term commonly to describe HTML content that can change dynamically.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
An Internet connection over regular telephone lines, but much faster. Speed may vary from 128 kilobit per second, up to 9 megabit per second.

E-mail (Electronic Mail)
Messages sent from one person to another via the Internet.

E-mail Address
The address used for sending e-mails to a person or an organization. Typical format is username@hostname.

Encryption
To convert data from its original form to a form that can only be read by someone that can reverse the encryption. The purpose of encryption is to prevent unauthorized reading of the data.

Firewall
Software that acts as a security filter that can restrict types of network communication. Most often used between an individual computer (or a LAN) and the Internet.

Flash
A vector-based multimedia format developed by Adobe for use on the web.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
One of the most common methods for sending files between two computers.

FTP programs, such as CuteFTP, Microsoft FrontPage, and FTP Voyager, can be used to upload (transfer) your website files to your website, so that when you type in your website address all of the website files that you have created will appear.

Gateway
A computer program for transferring (and reformatting) data between incompatible applications or networks.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
A compressed format for storing images developed by CompuServe. One of the most common image formats on the Internet.

Graphics
In web terms graphics describe pictures (opposite to text).

Home Page
The top-level (main) page of a web site. The default page displayed when you visit a web site.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML is the language of the web. HTML is a set of tags that are used to define the content, layout and the formatting of the web document. Web browsers use the HTML tags to define how to display the text.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
The standard set of rules for sending text files across the Internet. It requires an HTTP client program at one end, and an HTTP server program at the other end.

Internet Explorer
A browser by Microsoft. The most commonly used browser today.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)
A unique number identifying every computer on the Internet (like 197.123.22.240)

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
An Internet system that enables users to take part in on-line discussions.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)
Your ISP is the company that allows you access to the internet by providing various ways to connect, such as through a modem, ISDN, or DSL, for a fixed monthly cost. Some of the most common ISPs are AOL, MSN, and At&T Worldnet. Most ISPs offer other services, such as email and website addresses, search engines, and informative sites based on various topics.

JavaScript
The most popular scripting language on the internet, developed by Netscape.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group)
The organization that promotes the JPG and JPEG graphic formats for storing compressed images.

JSP (Java Server Pages)
A Java based technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages. Mostly used on Linux, Unix and Solaris platforms.

KB
Same as kilobyte 10KB is ten kilobytes.

Keyword
In web terms: A word used by a search engine to search for relevant web information.
In database terms: A word (or index) used to identify a database record.

Kilobyte
1024 bytes. Often called 1K, and rounded down to 1000 bytes.

LAN (Local Area Network)
A network between computers in a local area (like inside a building), usually connected via local cables. See also WAN.

Link
The same as a hyperlink.

Linux
Open source computer operating system based on Unix. Mostly used on servers and web servers.

Megabyte
1024 kilobytes. Commonly rounded down to one million bytes.

Meta Tags
Tags inserted into documents to describe the document.

Mosaic
The first commonly available web browser. Mosaic was released in 1993 and started the popularity of the web.

Node
In web terms: A computer connected to the Internet, most often used to describe a web server.

Open Source Software
Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes.

Opera
The browser from the company Opera.

OS (Operating System)
The software that manages the basic operating of a computer.

Page Hits
The number of times a web page has been visited by a user.

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
A technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages. Mostly for Unix, Linux and Solaris platforms.

Platform
In web terms: The computer's operating system like Windows, Linux, or OS X.

Proxy Server
A proxy server is a computer that offers a computer network service to allow clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests a connection, file, or other resource available on a different server. The proxy provides the resource either by connecting to the specified server or by serving it from a cache. In some cases, the proxy may alter the client's request or the server's response for various purposes. The use of a proxy server can help to hide, conceal, otherwise make your identity anonymous, by not showing your IP address.

To achieve strong anonymity, intermediate services may be employed to thwart attempts at identification, even by governments. These attempt to use cryptography, passage through multiple legal jurisdictions, and various methods to thwart traffic analysis to achieve this. Examples include anonymous remailers, Anonymous P2P systems, and services of the Anonymizer company, among others. There are a wide variety of software packages available that allow you to hide/conceal your IP address by using proxy servers. These packages include: Anonymizer, Anonymous Surfing, Proxify, NetConceal, Privacy Pro, Ghost Surf, Hide IP, Stealth Surf, and many more.

Visiting a site such as this one, when using a proxy server, will show the IP address of the proxy server, unless the proxy server passes along the original/real IP address of the user.

Quicktime
A multimedia file format created by Apple.

Real Video
A common multimedia video format created by Real Networks.

Redirect
In web terms: The action when a web page automatically forwards (redirects) the user to another web page.

Router
A hardware (or software) system that directs (routes) data transfer to different computers in a network.

RSS Feed

A feed, also known as RSS feed, XML feed, syndicated content, or web feed, is frequently updated content published by a website. It is usually used for news and blog websites, but can also be used for distributing other types of digital content, including pictures, audio or video. Feeds can also be used to deliver audio content (usually in MP3 format) which you can listen to on your computer or MP3 player. This is referred to as podcasting.

Search Engine
Computer program used to search and catalog (index) the millions of pages of available information on the web. Common search engines are Google and AltaVista.

Shockwave
A format (technology) developed by Adobe for embedding multimedia content in web pages.

SPAM
In web terms: The action of sending multiple unwelcome messages to a newsgroup or mailing list.

Tag
In web terms: Notifications or commands written into a web document. (See HTML Tags)

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol)
A collection of Internet communication protocols between two computers. The TCP protocol is responsible for an error free connection between two computers, while the IP protocol is responsible for the data packets sent over the network.

Trojan Horse
Computer program hidden in another computer program with the purpose of destroying software or collecting information about the use of the computer.

Upload
To transfer a file from a local computer to a remote computer. In web terms: to transfer a file from a web client to a web server. (see also Download).

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
A web address. The standard way to address web documents (pages) on the Internet (like: http://www.teamdiscovery.eu/)

Visit
In web terms: A visit to a web site. Commonly used to describe the activity for one visitor of a web site.

Visitor
In web terms: A visitor of a web site. Commonly used to describe a person visiting (viewing) a web site.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A private network between two remote sites, over a secure encrypted virtual Internet connection (a tunnel).

WAN (Wide Area Network)
Computers connected together in a wide network, larger than a LAN, usually connected via phone lines. See also LAN.

Web Browser
A software program used to display web pages.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
In Web terms: To display a web page being edited exactly the same way it will be displayed on the web.

XForms
A future version of HTML Forms, based on XML and XHTML. Differs from HTML forms by separating data definition and data display. Providing richer and more device independent user input.

XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML reformulated as XML. XHTML is the latest version of HTML. Developed by W3C.

XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
A simplified version of SGML especially designed for web documents, developed by the W3C.

Y2K
Stands for "Year 2000." However, this term is more often used to refer to the "Millenium Bug." This bug is a little creature that lives inside older computers.

Yahoo!
Yahoo! is one of the Internet's leading search engines.

YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website owned by Google that allows users to watch others.

Zebibyte
A zebibyte is a unit of data storage that equals 2 to the 70th power, or 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes.

Zero Day Exploit
A zero day exploit is a malicious computer attack that takes advantage of a security hole before the vulnerability is known. This means the security issue is made known the same day as the computer attack is released.

ZIP
A compressing format for computer files. Commonly used for compressing files before downloading over the Internet. ZIP files can be compressed (ZIPPED) and decompressed (UNZIPPED) using a computer program like WINZIP.