| Word |
Description |
| A record |
An A record, also called a host record, is the record in your zone file that connects your domain name to your IP address. This allows a user to type in your domain name and access your Web files on the Internet. A records are the most common type of zone record.
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| .csv |
A .csv file is a list of comma-separated values. The comma-separated values (.csv) file format is a delimited data format where fields or values are separated with a comma and each record is on a new line. |
| 404 page |
A 404 page is an error page that displays when someone tries to access a page on your Web site that doesn't exist.
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| ADSL |
"Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line" Like ISDN, ADSL uses standard phone lines to deliver high-speed data communications. But while ISDN's transmission speed is limited to 64 kbps, ADSL technology can deliver upstream (from the user) speeds of 640 kbps and downstream (to the user) speeds of more than 6 mbps. Even better, ADSL uses the portion of a phone line's bandwidth not utilized by voice, allowing for simultaneous voice and data transmission. |
| API |
Historically, "application programming interface". Practically, an API is any interface that enables one program to use facilities provided by another, whether by calling that program, or by being called by it. At a higher level still, an API is a set of functionality delivered by a programming system, and as such the mix of APIs in a particular system tells you what that system can do |
| ASCII |
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard way to encode upper and lower case letters in the English alphabet, numbers, and special characters using only seven bits, and therefore limited to 128 characters. The basis for coding simple text files. |
| ASP |
server-side technology developed by Microsoft for dynamically-generated web pages that is marketed as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS). |
| AVI |
Audio Video Interleaved. A Microsoft video format where audio and video coding appears in alternate segments. AVI files will end with an .avi extension. |
| B2B |
Business to Business. A mode of conducting business between two or more companies over the Internet, rather than more traditional modes such as telephone, mail, and face to face. |
| B2C |
Business to Consumer. Another business model over the Internet. |
| Bandwidth |
Bandwidth is a measurement of the amount of data allowed to pass between a user’s Web site and the rest of the Internet. |
| baud |
Rate of transmission speed in a signal - the number of changes of state, such as voltage or frequency, per second in a signal. Named for the French teleprinter inventor Baudot. In simplest systems, it is synonymous with bits per second. In more complex systems, a baud may include more than one bit. |
| binary |
Binary means the use of only two values, zero and one, in encoding data. All digital computers primarily use some form of binary encoding, such as 8 or 16 or 32 binary digits at a time. Characters that you see on screen or type with your keyboard are normally encoded with 8 binary digits. For example, the binary value for the letter A is 01000001. |
| bit |
Short for binary digit (0 or 1). Lower case b is used in abbreviations to distinguish it from bytes. For example, KBps (thousand bytes per second) is 8 times as great as Kbps (thousand bits per second). |
| bitmap |
A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, Macintosh Paint, Microsoft Paint, BMP, PNG, FAX formats, and TGA. |
| blog |
Blog is short for "Web log". A blog is an easy-to-use Web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, pictures, or articles.
|
| bookmark |
Just as a paper bookmark is used as a reminder of the page you are on in a book, electronic bookmarks are used to bring you back to a website or other site you may want to return to. The Netscape browser lets you bookmark any site and save the bookmarks in a file you can recall at any time. Microsoft Internet Explorer uses the term "favorite" instead of bookmark for the same concept. |
| BOOLEAN LOGIC |
Way to combine terms using "operators" such as "AND," "OR," "AND NOT" and sometimes "NEAR." AND requires all terms appear in a record. OR retrieves records with either term. AND NOT excludes terms. Parentheses may be used to sequence operations and group words. Always enclose terms joined by OR with parentheses. |
| bot |
Short for robot, a program designed to search the Internet looking for information. A common use of bots is the variously named spiders, worms, and crawlers that support search engines by following links from site to site and within a site to dig out information to be indexed by the search engine. |
| browse |
To go around the internet looking for items of interest, also known as surfing. |
| browser |
A sotware for viewing web pages. An example is internet explorer and netscape. |
| CACHE |
In browsers, "cache" is used to identify a space where web pages you have visited are stored in your computer. A copy of documents you retrieve is stored in cache. When you use GO, BACK, or any other means to revisit a document, the browser first checks to see if it is in cache and will retrieve it from there because it is much faster than retrieving it from the server. |
| Case Sensitive |
Capital letters (upper case) retrieve only upper case. Most search tools are not case sensitive or only respond to initial capitals, as in proper names. It is always safe to key all lower case (no capitals), because lower case will always retrieve upper case. |
| CDSL |
Acronym for Consumer Digital Subscriber Line. Rockwell's new technology for digital modems that will use regular telephone lines and run at speeds up to 1 MBps. |
| CGI |
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI extends the capabilities of a Web server so that your Web site can communicate with another script or application. CGI programs are the most common way for Web servers to interact dynamically with users. |
| chat |
A form of real-time electronic communications where participants type what they want to say, and it is repeated on the screens of all other participants in the same chat. Internet Relay Chat or IRC is an Internet protocol for chat, and there are many other chat systems in services like Delphi. Other commonly used chat systems are iChat and ICQ. |
| CNAME |
A CNAME is an alias for a host record. CNAMEs allow you to have more than one DNS name for a host record.
|
| Coldfusion |
A tag-based, middleware programming language used chiefly for writing web-based applications. |
| content |
Generally, the information provided on a web page, as opposed to its design and layout. content can take the form of text, graphics, audio, video, or a searchable database. |
| database |
A collection of data records. On web databases, records may consist of web pages, or graphics, or audio files, or newspaper files, or books, or movies, or press releases, or almost anything from very general to very specific areas of interest. Records may or may not be further broken into fields. Database records are usually indexed and come with a search interface to find records of interest. |
| delimiter |
A sequence of characters used to separate the columns. |
| DLL |
A DLL (dynamic link library) is a Windows file that houses a library of functions or data that can be shared across multiple calling applications. When applications use a DLL, they create either a static or dynamic link to the file. |
| DNS |
DNS or Domain Name is a program running on a server which automatically translates Internet domain names into IP numbers. |
| Domain Name |
A domain name is a Web address. The domain name is mapped to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). Thus, a domain name locates an organization or other entity on the Internet. |
| DTD |
Acronym for Document Type Definition or optionally Document Type Declaration, used in SGML and XML markup languages to specify the set of rules or grammar processed in a particular language. HTML versions each have their own DTD, for example. |
| FAQ |
Acronym for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ files are collections of common questions and answers for a particular subject area. |
| FastCGI |
FastCGI is an extension to CGI that efficiently manages CGI processes for better application performance. It is language-independent and exists between the application and Web server. |
| firewall |
Firewall refers to the concept of a security interface or gateway between a closed system or network and the outside Internet that blocks or manages communications in and out of the system. The security may be provided by passwords, authentication techniques, software, and hardware. |
| frames |
Frames are a technique used in web pages to divide the page into multiple windows, where each window is called a frame and can contain its own separate page. The advantage of frames is that one window can be scrolled or changed while other windows remain fixed for such purposes as keeping a menu in view all the time. The disadvantage is that not all browsers support them. |
| FTP |
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It lets you connect to a remote computer, such as a hosting server in another state. Using FTP, you can move files from your machine to the remote one and create folders for those files on that computer. |
| GIF |
Graphical Interchange Format. A bitmap graphical format originally developed for CompuServe that is widely used in WWW pages. It is particularly good for text art, cartoon art, poster art, and line drawings- -all types with solid colors and distinct lines or borders between different colors. GIF files use a .gif extension. |
| gopher |
A friendly menu system for exploring the Internet developed at the University of Minnesota. |
| GUI |
Graphical User Interface. Pronounced "gooey". An operating system interace between the user and the computer based on graphics. GUIs typically use a mouse or other tracking device and icons. |
| HTML |
HTML (or XHTML) is a coding language used to create Web pages. With HTML, you surround a block of text with tags that indicate how the text should appear or what purpose it has in a document. |
| http |
HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is the main protocol used on the World Wide Web that enables linking to other web sites. Addressing to other web pages begins with "http://" and is followed by the domain name or IP address. |
| hyperlink |
A link in a web page that brings you to another location or resource when activated. Hyperlinks usually appear as underlined text and printed in a contrasting color, but they may also appear as graphics, such as buttons to click. |
| hypertext |
A form of text which includes visible links to other pages of text or media, accessible by clicking or selecting the links. |
| ICANN |
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, also know as ICANN serves as the governing body for Domain Name registration. |
| IEEE |
Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional organization which sets standards for telecommunications and computers. |
| IMAP |
Internet Message Access Protocol (sometimes listed as Internet Mail Access Protocol). A mail protocol that provides management of received messages on a remote server. The user can review headers, create or delete folders/mailboxes and messages, and search contents remotely without downloading. |
| inlining |
The practice of putting an IMG tag in a web page that calls a graphic from another site. Many sites, particularly those offering free storage, now view this as bandwidth theft and block remote IMG calls from other sites to their site. It is particularly bad netiquette and very likely a copyright violation to display a graphic called from someone else's web page. |
| integer |
A positive, negative or equal to zero number without a fractional part.
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| Internet |
An electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world.
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| Intranet |
A network of networks that interconnects within a single widespread organization and uses the Internet Protocol (IP). The sites within an Intranet are generally closed to the Internet and are accessible to organization members only. |
| IRC |
Internet Relay Chat. An Internet protocol that allows people all over the world to meet in conference groups (called channels) and chat with each other by typing. |
| ISDN |
Integrated Services Digital Network. A technology that carries data over phone lines at up to 128Kbps for dialup users, but extends to fast broadband communications, too. |
| ISP |
Internet Service Provider. |
| IXC |
Inter eXchange Carrier. Another name for a long distance telephone company. |
| Java |
A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems based on C++. It is used with web pages to create applets that will run on different platforms. |
| Javascript |
A scripting language (with little in common with Java) developed by Netscape for writing short programs embedded in a web page. |
| JPEG |
Joint Photographic Experts Group, a graphical format that is widely used in WWW pages. It is particularly well suited to photographs and 3D or VRML images where there is a continuous range of colors or shades. It is a lossy format that can be reduced in file size by reducing the detail in the image. JPEG files use a .jpg or less commonly, .jpeg or .jpe extension. |
| LAN |
Local Area Network. |
| linebreak |
A sequence of characters used to separate the lines. |
| link |
An active connection to another web page, location in a web page, file, or other Internet resource. Selecting the link takes you to the new location or resource. |
| Linux |
Pronounced lee-nucks, Linux is an open source operating system within the Unix family. It is popular as a web server and other high-performance computing environments |
| mega |
Prefix meaning one million (106) or in computer usage, the similar value 1,048,576 (220). |
| meta |
A prefix meaning "information about". |
| metadata |
Information about data, or more specifically, the descriptive information provided in meta tags in an HTML or XML document header about that document. |
| MIDI |
Musical Instrument Digital Interface. |
| MX |
MX or Mail Record controls where email that is sent to your domain will go.
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| Name Server |
Name servers are the Internet's equivalent to phone books. A name server maintains a directory of domain names that match certain IP addresses (computers). The information from all the name servers across the Internet is gathered in a central registry. |
| NAP |
Network Access Point. A point where networks and service providers hand off traffic to each other. NAPs are typically the points with the worst congestion problems. When you encounter slow responses and run a traceroute, you will usually see the slowest connections occur where one network hands off to another. |
| NIC |
Acronym for Network Interface Card, for example, an ethernet card in a network. |
| packet |
A packet is a self-contained bundle of data sent over a packet switching network. Packets are typically less than 1500 bytes in size. Longer files are broken into multiple packets for transmission and reassembled at the other end. A packet includes a header with to and from addresses, relation to other packets (sequencing), and error checking information. On the Internet, datagram is a synonym for packet. |
| PDF |
Adobe's Portable Document Format. It is often used as a format which allows much more complete, controlled layout of a page and its graphics and text than conventional HTML does. It requires a browser plug-in to see a web page in PDF format. Files will usually have a .pdf extension. |
| Perl |
Practical Extraction and Reporting Language is an open source server side programming language extensively used for web scripts and to process data passed via the Common Gateway Interface from HTML forms etc. Perl scripts are not embedded within HTML pages and do not download to the web browser but reside on the server. |
| PING |
Packet InterNet Groper. An Internet utility used to check the connection with another site. It repeatedly bounces a signal off the remote site and shows you how long it took to complete the round trip each time. If you get no returns at all, the site is either down or unreachable. If only a portion of the signals are returned, it indicates some trouble with the connection that will slow down performance. You can run PING software on your own system with a PPP or net account, or you can use it as a command from Delphi's NavNet textside Utilities menu and from most shell accounts. |
| pixel |
One dot on a computer screen. Todays least expensive monitors typically are 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high. Larger and more expensive monitors range up to 1600 x 1200 pixels and special purpose monitors may go much higher than that. |
| POP |
Post Office Protocol. A protocol for client-server e-mail systems. If you are using software like Eudora or Pegasus or the mail clients in Netscape or MSIE, your address to collect mail often will begin with pop. For example, Delphi e-mail accounts use an address of pop.delphiforums.com to collect mail. |
| protocol |
A standard for the exchange of information. Different computers and operating systems and software are able to communicate with each other on the Internet, because of the adoption of protocols. |
| Python |
Python is a popular interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language similar to Perl. Python is known for its versatility and very clear syntax. |
| rtf |
Rich Text Format. A text format that allows a lot of specific formatting and layout. Uses the .rtf extension. |
| Ruby |
Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web framework built on the Ruby scripting language for the creation of database Web applications. |
| script |
A set of commands written in an interpreted language to automate certain application tasks.
|
| search engine |
A utility that will search the Internet, an Intranet, a site, or a database for terms that you select. |
| server |
A computer in a network that provides access to other computers in the network to programs, web pages, data, or other files and services, such as printer access or communications access. |
| SGML |
Acronym for Standard Graphics Markup Language. It was adopted in 1986 as an international standard (ISO 8879) for the creation, management, storage, and delivery of information products. HTML and its possible successor, XML, are both subsets of SGML. |
| shareware |
Software that is offered for free download in hopes that the user will decide to keep it and pay a fee for it after trying it out. |
| SMTP |
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The protocol used to send mail between servers and to send mail from your client to a mail server. Your address to send mail using software like Eudora, Pegasus, or the mail clients in Netscape and MSIE will often begin with smtp. |
| SSH |
SSH "Secure Shell" is a program that you can use to log in to another computer over a network so that you can execute commands on a remote machine and move files from one machine to another.
|
| SSL |
Secure Sockets Layer. A security protocol developed by Netscape for commercial transactions on the Internet. Using public-key cryptography, it provides server authentication, data encryption, and data integrity. You can recognize its use with URLs beginning https instead of http. |
| stopword |
Stopwords are very commonly used words that are normally excluded from automated searches. Examples: a, an, the, for, to, in, on, and, etc. |
| string |
A linear sequence of symbols (characters or words or phrases).
|
| Subdomain |
Subdomains are extensions of your own domain(s).For example, if your domain name is example.com, you can create a subdomain like subdomain.example.com.
|
| tag |
In reference to web pages, a tag is an HTML command used in laying out a web page and providing links to resources. |
| TCP/IP |
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The protocols that are the basis for transmitting and routing data packets on the Internet. |
| thread |
A series of messages with the same subject. It consists of an original message and all the replies and replies to replies that follow. |
| TLD |
A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot ( . ). The most common top-level domains are .com, .net, and .org. |
| Unicode |
A standard character set which uses two bytes or 16 bits to code each character. Compare it to ASCII, which uses only one byte or 8 bits per character. ASCII is limited to 256 characters, enough for most European languages, but too limited for languages like Chinese and Japanese with their many characters. |
| unix |
A computer operating system widely used on computers big and small, and very commonly used on the Internet. Many of MSDOS' commands were adapted from the short, cryptic commands characteristic of unix, such as rm, cd, and mv. |
| upload |
To transfer a file from your computer system to another system. |
| WAN |
Wide Area Network. |
| web hosting |
The service of providing space on Internet servers for the storage of World Wide Web sites which can be accessed by others through the internet. |
| website |
A collection of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization. |
| whois |
An Internet utility that you can use to look up information about an Internet site in the registry database at Internic or elsewhere. |
| WYSIWYG |
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product. It is commonly used for applications such as Web (HTML) authoring. |
| XML |
Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language. |
| XSL |
Acronym for eXtensible Stylesheet Language, a style sheet companion to XML.
|
| zip |
A method of file compression. |
