Applet:
A small program or application, usually written in Java, that runs on a Web browser
and powers many of the fancier features (such as animation or computation).

Attachment:
A file added to an email message.
Attachments can be documents files, PDF's or other graphical images such as digital photographs.

Bandwidth:
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second.
A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in
one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second,
depending on compression.

bps: -- (Bits-Per-Second)
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.

Browser:
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

Byte:
A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte,
sometimes more, depending on how the measurement is being made.

CD-RW:
Abbreviation for "Re-write CD-ROM."
This is a peripheral storage drive that enables the user to copy CD's and CD-ROMS that contain
either music or software applications to a blank CD, or compact disc.

CGI: -- (Common Gateway Interface)
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on
the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the ?CGI program?) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.

cgi-bin:
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored.

Cookie:
A term given to small amounts of information about a user stored on that user's hard drive by a web site to be accessed by the server to track and search characteristics of that user. Most computers contain an option to refuse cookies from servers before they enter on to a user's hard drive.

CSS: -- (Cascading Style Sheet)
A format used to separate style from structure on Web pages, it is a feature of HTML that gives both Web developers and users more control over how Web pages are displayed. With CSS, designers create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, will appear.

DHTML: -- (Dynamic HyperText Markup Language)
DHTML refers to web pages that use a combination of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to create features such as letting the user drag items around on the web page, some simple kinds of animation, and many more.

DNS: -- (Domain Name System)
The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain names into IP numbers. A "DNS Server" is a server that performs this kind of translation.

Domain:
Within the Internet, domains are defined by the IP (Internet Protocol) address. All devices sharing a common part of the IP addresses (www.yahoo.com, for instance) are said to be on the same domain.

Download:
Transferring data (usually a file) from a another computer to the computer your are using. The opposite of upload.

DSL:
Digital Subscriber Line. DSL is a service that offers faster Internet connection than a standard dial-up connection. DSL technology uses existing 2-wire copper telephone wiring to deliver high-speed data services to business and homes. DSL's are dedicated lines for connection to the Internet. Similar to ISP's, DSL users are required to pay a subscription fee for the high speed connection.

Email: -- (Electronic Mail)
Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer.
E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.

EPS:
Encapsulated Post Script. EPS is the graphics file format used by the World Wide Web.
The term EPS usually implies that the file contains a bit-mapped representation of the graphics
for display purposes.

Ethernet:
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN. There is more than one type of Ethernet. By 2001 the standard type was "100-BaseT" which can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.

Fire Wall:
A combination of hardware and software that separates a Network into two or more parts for security purposes.

FTP:
File Transfer Protocol. A common procedure for transferring files over the Internet.

GIF: -- (Graphic Interchange Format)
A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.

Home Page: (or Homepage)
also seen as Home -or- Home Page
The first page or front page of a Web site.

Host:
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network.

HTML: -- (HyperText Markup Language)
The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web.
HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear. The "hyper" in Hypertext comes from the fact that in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or an image, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a "Web Browser".

HTTP: -- (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).

IP Number: -- (Internet Protocol Number)
A numeric address that is given to servers and users connected to the Internet.
For servers, it is translated into a domain name, by a Domain Name Server (DNS).
For users, it is assigned by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) when the user goes online.
This IP address might be the same number each time you log on (called a static IP), or
it might be a newly assigned number each time you connect.ISP -- (Internet Service Provider)
An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

Java:
Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems. Java is often used to build large, complex systems that involve several different computers interacting across networks, for example transaction processing systems.

JavaScript:
JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is included in an HTML file it relies upon the browser to interpret the JavaScript.
When JavaScript is combined with Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called DHTML.

JPEG: -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
One of the two most common types of image formats used on the World Wide Web (the other being GIF). The shorter extension, JPG (without the E), is usually used in association with PC platform files.

Megabyte:
A million bytes. Actually, technically, 1024 kilobytes.

Meta Tag:
A specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not normally displayed to the user. Meta tags contain information about the page itself, hence the name ("meta" means "about this subject") Typical uses of Meta tags are to include information for search engines to help them better categorize a page.

Modem: -- (MOdulator, DEModulator)
A device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a computer. A modem allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.

MP3:
a.k.a. "MPEG-1, audio layer 3"
A standard for storing and transmitting music in digital format across the Net.

Network:
Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network.

Router:
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks.

Search Engine:
A (usually web-based) system for searching the information available on the Web. Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents of other systems and creating a database of the results. other search engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in a database, and some combine the two approaches.

Security Certificate:
A chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.

Server:
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running,
e.g. "Our mail server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out." A single server machine can (and often does) have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

SSL: -- (Secure Socket Layer)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted,
authenticated communications across the Internet.

TCP/IP: -- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet.
TCP/IP software is now included with every major kind of computer operating system.

Upload:
Transferring data (usually a file) from a the computer you are using to another computer. The opposite of download.

URL: -- (Uniform Resource Locator)
The term URL is basically synonymous with URI. URI has replaced URL in technical specifications.

Virus:
A chunk of computer programming code that makes copies of itself without any conscious human intervention.
Some viruses do more than simply replicate themselves, they might display messages, install other software or files, delete software of files, etc. A virus requires the presence of some other program to replicate itself. Typically viruses spread by attaching themselves to programs and in some cases files, for example the file formats for Microsoft word processor and spreadsheet programs allow the inclusion of programs called "macros" which can in some cases be a breeding ground for viruses.

Web:
Short for "World Wide Web."

Web page:
A document designed for viewing in a web browser. Typically written in HTML. A web site is made of one or more web pages.

XML: -- (eXtensible Markup Language)
A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.