Glossary of Common Internet Terms

.AU

An audio sound format developed for Sun workstations which is often used to distribute sound clips via the Web. See also: .WAV, RealPlayer

 

.GIF

Graphic Interchange File format created by CompuServe. A .GIF file can contain at most 256 unique colors and the compression is not as great as .JPG. The latest version of this format includes many extensions, such as the ability to have a Web browser's background show through parts of the image ("transparency"), and animation. According to official documentation, the proper pronunciation is "jiff".

 

.hqx

File converted from extended characters to a standard ASCII format that can be understood by most computers. Commonly used on the Macintosh platform. See also: .sit

 

.JPG

Graphics file format created by the Joint Photographers Expert Group. To conserve disk space and transfer time, a JPEG image can be compressed to varying degrees using a "lossy" method (meaning the resulting image is not of the same quality as the original.)

 

.MOV

File in Quicktime format. Developed by Apple Computer for viewing moving images. See also: .MPG

 

.MPG

File created in the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) format. This format is related to .JPG. See also: .JPG, .MPG

 

.PDF

Portable Document Format. Adobe Acrobat's format for complex documents, which allows you to create one file which can be viewed on a variety of different computers (even without a web browser) by simply "printing" in a special way.

 

.QT

See .MOV

 

.sit

File compressed in the StuffIt format commonly used on Macintosh computers. See also: .hqx

 

.WAV

File containing an audio sound in Microsoft format. Most commonly used on Windows-based PCs. See also: .AU, RealPlayer

 

.ZIP

File compressed in the ZIP format commonly used on PCs.

 

absolute URL

A URL which includes the name of a server, as well as the full path to a document. For instance, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/marylyon/. See also: relative URL, URL

 

anonymous FTP

An FTP commection established using the username "anonymous" and the email address of the person making the request as the password. This is the type of connection established by a Web browser by default. See also: FTP

 

bps

Bits per second. A measure of the speed at which modems and other forms of communication hardware talk to each other.

 

C, C++

Two flavors of a very popular and flexible programming language.

 

CGI

The Common Gateway Interface specification, which governs how browsers can request services from Web servers; a format and syntax for passing information via HTML forms and queries. See also: Perl

 

chat

A service available on computer bulletin boards, on-line services and the Internet that lets users type messages to each other. The messages appear almost instantly on the screens of others participating in the chat session.

 

DNS

Domain Name Server. A database of Internet names and addresses which translates the names to the official Internet Protocol numbers and vice-versa.

 

finger

A Unix command that retrieves user information remotely.

 

FTP

File Transfer Protocol allows the transfer of files from one computer to another. It can be invoked from a commandline using the "ftp" command, or from a Web browser using a URL beginning with the ftp: media type.

See also: anonymous FTP

 

Gopher

A menu-oriented tool used to locate online resources, Gopher was the precursor to the World Wide Web. Many locations, including MHC, no longer support Gopher.

 

Home Page

This is the first or main page that a particular site or person has. It allows access to the main areas of the particular subject or topic.

 

HTML

An acronym for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is the language used to tag various parts of a Web document so browsing software will know how to display its links, text, and graphics. See also: SHTML

 

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is used to link and transfer hypertext documents.

 

image map

A text file which describes what regions of a graphical image are different hypertext links. The term is often used to refer to the graphical image as well.

 

IMAP

Internet MAil Protocol. A system that allows a user to download email from a host computer. See also: SMTP POP

 

ISP

Internet Service Provider. A company which gives its subscribers access to the Internet.

 

Java

A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Its major advantage is that it is cross-platform, meaning a program only needs to be written once to run on a number of different computers. See also: JavaScript

 

JavaScript

A scripting language in which the code is included in the HTML document. See also: Java

 

JPEG

See .JPG

 

MPEG

See .MPG

 

MIME

Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extentions. The standard protocol for sending non-text files via the Internet. It is often used to send compressed files, or images by email.

 

Perl

A programming language geared toward handling text data. It is often used to create CGI programs for the Web. See also: CGI

 

POP

Post Office Protocol. A system that allows a user to download email from a host computer. See also: IMAP SMTP

 

PPP

Point to Point Protocol. A method of Internet connection that enables computers to use phone lines and a modem to connect to the Internet. See also: SLIP

 

Quicktime

See .MOV

 

RealPlayer

A commercial product for playing compressed audio and video via the Internet. The audio portion used to be called RealAudio. See also: .AU, .MOV, .MPG, .WAV

 

relative URL

A URL which refers to a document by using a shortened form of its path, relative to the document containing the URL. For instance, if the file http://www.mtholyoke.edu/marylyon/index.html is to contain a link to http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cic/index.html, it might be made using the relative URL ../cic/index.html. See also: absolute URL, URL

 

Search Engine

A program that helps users find information in databases of Web pages or other text files.

 

Shockwave

A commercial Web browser plug-in which allows you to view interactive multimedia files.

 

SHTML

Scripted HyperText Markup Language. This is a modified version of HTML which includes special commands for performing certain tasks. MHC's Document Interface uses this. See also: HTML

 

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol. A method of Internet connection that enables computers to use phone lines and a modem to connect to the Internet. SLIP is not supported at MHC. See also: PPP

 

SMTP

Simply Mail Transfer. A protocol for transferring email to a remote computer. See also: IMAP POP

 

Spam

Unsolicited email or newsgroup postings, often consisting of commercial advertising, which is sent to a large number of individuals or newsgroups. (The name is a reference to a sketch by the British comedy troupe Monty Python.)

 

Telnet

The program used to login from one Internet site to another. Telnet is a way of accessing a text-based environment, and is frequently used on MHC for email access via Pine.

 

TCP-IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The basic protocols programs use when communicating on the Internet.

 

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. The addressing system used in the World Wide Web and other Internet resources. The URL contains information about the method of access, the server to be accessed and the path of any file to be accessed. See also: absolute URL, relative URL

 

Virtual Reality

Computer Generated technology which allows the user to interact with data that gives the appearance of a 3D environment. The user can navigate around a 3D world and interact with objects in that world. See also: VRML

 

VRML

Virtual Reality Markup Language. The formatting language used to bring interactive 3D animations to the Web. See also: Virtual Reality