Next Previous Contents

9. Glossary.

ISP

An Internet Service Provider (often called a ``server,'' although this is a misnomer).

DNS

A Domain Name Server. DNS provides name-to-IP-address mapping on the Internet (and vice versa), which allows humans to be able to use easily-remembered names (hostnames) of Internet sites rather than having to use IP addresses.

IP Address

A dotted-quad address (123.123.123.123). Every computer on the Internet has its own unique IP address. Computers use IP addresses to find each other rather than hostnames, which are for human benefit.

baud

The rate that a modem communicates with another modem, measured in bits per second (bps).

SMTP

Simple Mail Transport Protocol--the protocol used to send email on the Internet.

POP or POP3

Post Office Protocol--the protocol used to retrieve email that is stored on a mail server.

Web browser

A web browser is software that connects to a web server, requests a certain document there, receives it, and displays the formatted document on the user's screen.

Email software

Email software is used to compose, send, and retreive email from a mail server. Typically they have other features such as an address book.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is of the form protocol://hostname/path and is most often used as a location for WWW sites and documents. For example, http://www.coinet.com/ is a URL.

http

Hypertext transfer protocol--the protocol that is used to send hypertext over the Internet. Hypertext is the kind of documents you see on WWW pages. Named thusly because WWW pages have links to other WWW pages, which have links to other WWW pages, etc.

WWW

The World-Wide Web. A collection of machines across the Internet that have web servers on them and serve hypertext documents to browsers that request them.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol--the long-time standard protocol for the downloading and uploading of files on the Internet. Computers on the Internet that have an FTP server running are called ``FTP sites''.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol--the protocols that define how packets of data are to be sent and received on the Internet.

Written with LaTeX2e


Next Previous Contents