Applet
A small program written in Java™ and is embedded with a web page.

ASCII - (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
This is the world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case letters, numbers, punctuation, etc.

Bandwidth
The amount of data you can send through a connection. It is measured in bits-per-second.

Bit - (Binary DigIT)
A single digit number in binary (base-2) It’s the smallest unit of data and can represent either zero or one. 8 Bits make 1 Byte

Blog - (weB LOG)
A blog is a journal that is available for others to view and contribute to on the Internet. They are usually updated daily and are about specific topics, the postings are arranged in chronological order. The act of adding to a blog is known as blogging. Someone who keeps a blog is a blogger.

Browser
A software program that is used to view Internet resources. Most common browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Netscape and Firefox

Byte
A set Bits that represent a single character. There are 8 Bits in a Byte

CGI - (Common Gateway Interface)
Describes communicates between software programs on the same machine, and how the software talks to the web server. Any software is considered a CGI program if it follows the CGI standards to handle input and output.

cgi-bin
Commonly refers to the directory on a web server that contains the CGI programs

Client
Any software program that contacts and obtains data from Server software program on another computer. A web browser is a kind of client software that communicates with web servers

Cookie
Refers to a piece of information that is sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser. The browser is asked to save the information and then to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from that Server. Depending on the browser’s settings, the browser may or may not accept the Cookie, or may save the Cookie for either a short time or a long time. Cookies typically are used to retain information such as registration info for online shopping carts or to save specific user preferences for the web site associated with it. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the browser is closed. Cookies do not read your hard drive or send information that you did not specify, they can be used to gather information about a user to help enhance and improve the web sites functionality.

CSS - (Cascading Style Sheet)
A standard for defining the appearance of text and other elements on a web page.

Cyberspace
The term is currently used to refer to the whole range of information and resources available on the Internet. The word originated in the novel “Neuromancer” by author William Gibson

DHTML - (Dynamic HyperText Markup Language)
Refers to web pages that contain a mix of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

DNS - (Domain Name System)
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. When you type in a URL into your browser (www.pixelgems.com for example), your browser contacts the DNS Server and it then translates the URL into the IP Address of the server that contains the web site.

Domain Name
Unique name that identifies an Internet web site.

Download
The process of transferring data from a computer to the computer you are using.

Email -- (Electronic Mail)
Messages sent from one person to another using a computer.

Fire Wall
Can be either software, hardware or a combination of both. It provides a method of security by separating networks into two or more parts.

FTP - (File Transfer Protocol)
The method connecting to an Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files.

GIF - (Graphic Interchange Format)
An image file format especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. Its great for simple images that do not contain too many different colors because they can be stored as small files, but they do not represent photographic images as well as JPEG.

Gigabyte - (GB)
1024 Megabytes

hit
A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. For example if a web page contained text and two images, three hits would be registered – one for the page and two for the images.

Homepage
The web page your browser is set to when it starts up. Also refers to the main web page for a web site

Host|
A computer on a network that contains services available to the other computers on the network.

HTML - (HyperText Markup Language)
The language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the web.

Hypertext
Text that contains links to other documents - words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed

Internet
Refers to the collection of networks connected using TCP/IP protocol. It started in the late 60's and early 70's. Today it connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet.

Intranet
A private network that is inside a company or organization. It uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the Internet, but is only for their internal use.

IP Number - (Internet Protocol Number)
A unique number that identifies every computer connected to the Internet.

ISP - (Internet Service Provider)
A company that provides access to the Internet

Java™
Java™ is a programming language invented by Sun Microsystems. It can be used to build large applications across networks and can run on different platforms. Because Java™ create small efficient code, it is ideal for use in small mobile devices like phones. Also because it is not platform independent (can run on a variety of operation systems and computers) it's great for use on the Internet. Java™ applets which run on the Internet and are safe – no fear of viruses or harm to your computer.

JavaScript
A programming language used in web pages to add features that make the web page more interactive.

JPEG - (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Commonly file format for image files. JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images

Kilobyte - (KB)
1024 bytes

Linux
Open Source Unix-like operating system. It was first released in 1991 by its inventor Linus Torvalds. Being open source means it’s available for anyone to examine and change as long as they make their changes available to everyone else.

Megabyte - (MB)
1024 kilobytes.

Meta Tag
Web page HTML tag that contains information not displayed to the user. They contain things like keywords and page descriptions.

Mirror
To mirror a web site means to maintain an exact copy of the site somewhere. Often used to help keep traffic for getting too heavy on a single site, especially for file downloads

Modem - (MOdulator, DEModulator)
Connects a computer to a phone line, it allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system.

Mosaic
The first web browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX. It started the popularity of the Web. Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, in Illinois, USA. The first version was released in late 1993.

Node
Any single computer connected to a network.

PDF - (Portable Document Format)
Developed by the Adobe Corporation, this file format can enable printing and viewing of documents and maintain appearance regardless of the operating system used.

Plug-in
Small software addition that adds features to a larger piece of software. For example, if you want your web browser to be able play media files or view PDF documents, you will need to obtain the plug-ins for your web browser

PNG - (Portable Network Graphics)
A graphics format that enables compression of images without any loss of quality.

RSS - (Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication)
A commonly used protocol for syndication and sharing of content, originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles, now widely used to share the contents of blogs.

Search Engine
A web site for searching for information available on the Web.

SEO - (Search Engine Optimization)
The method of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines.

Server
A computer, or software that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers

Spam (or Spamming)
Refers generally to unsolicited bulk email and is a growing problem because of the waste of time and resources required to deal with and sort through it.

Spyware
Software that is secretly installed on a users computer and that monitors use of the computer in some way without the users' knowledge or consent. Often used to serve up targeted ads to the user. It’s now a growing problem because of it is installed without consent and ties us computer resources. No one asks for the software, its usually installs itself when the user downloads some type of free software for things like music or file sharing.

SQL - (Structured Query Language)
Script language for sending queries to databases to retrieve specified data

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

Sysop - (System Operator)
Person responsible for operations of a computer system or network resource.

TCP/IP - (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
Originally designed for use with Unix, it is now part of every major operating system. It is the Internet protocol and to be on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software installed.

Trojan Horse
A malicious computer program (often a virus) that is either hidden inside another program or that masquerades as something it is not in order to trick users into running it.

Unix
Computer operating system designed to be used by many people at the same time and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

Upload
Transferring data from the computer you are using to another computer

URI - (Uniform Resource Identifier)
An address for a resource available on the Internet.

URL - (Uniform Resource Locator)
The term URL is synonymous with URI.

Virus
A chunk of malicious computer code that makes copies of itself without concious human intervention. Not all are dangerous, some simply will display a message but other can delete data and programs. In any event, they still are unwanted and waste resources. They can often spread through email attachments and downloads.

Web
Short for "World Wide Web."

Web page
A document to be viewed in a web browser.

Web site
A collection of web pages that are available to users from the same basic URL

Worm
A virus that does not infect programs, but makes copies of itself, and infects additional computers. Worms might alter, install, or destroy files and programs.

WWW - (World Wide Web)
World Wide Web (or simply Web for short) a term frequently used to refer to the Internet