Glossary of Internet Service Related Terms

Access Provider

A access provider is the remote computer system to which you connect your personal computer and through which you connect to the Internet. An access provider is the company that provides you with Internet access and in some cases, an online account on their computer system. An access provider can be a large commercial service like Compuserve or America Online, which may charge you by the hour for your Internet access, or a small local company like CPU-NET, which charge you a flat rate per month for unlimited hours. If you access the Internet directly from a company account, then your company is your access provider. The range of services and the cost can vary widely depending on your geographic location and the number of service providers in your area. Of course, there is no limit on the number of providers you can have, and for various reasons, you may find that you want or need more than one provider

Account Manager

Web hosts and registrars usually provide clients with an account manager where they can alter password, contact and billing information. Domain name registration account managers are especially useful in keeping track of domain expiration dates.

Accreditation

A formal declaration by a VeriSign-designated approving authority that a particular information system, professional or other employee or contractor, or organization is approved to perform certain duties and to operate in a specific security mode, using a prescribed set of safeguards. ICANN insures that domain registrars are operating in a upstanding manner. Look for ICANN accredited registrars.

Accredited Registrar

About Registrar Accreditation- "ICANN is a technical coordination body. Our primary objective is ensuring the stability of the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers. This objective is furthered by the requirement that every business desiring to become a registrar with direct access to ICANN-designated top-level domains must first become accredited for this purpose by ICANN."

ActiveX

Since most web pages are static documents with little interactivity, Microsoft created a programing language, called ActiveX, to remedy this situation. ActiveX "controls" promise to make the web-surfing experience comparable to that of highly produced CD-ROMS, where you can listen to music, watch animation and video clips, and interact with the program.

Add-on

Services and features that are not included in a hosting package but that may be ordered later for a fee are called add-ons.

Address

The identification of a physical or virtual distinct entity in a network. On the Internet, this network address is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). For instance: http://www.gsh.org. [It is important to type these accurately.]

ADN - Advanced Digital Network

ADN stands for the Advanced Digital Network. This refers to a 56k bites per second leased line, or line that is rented and dedicated to one connection for more efficient use.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

The Acrobat Reader, a software program developed by Adobe Systems, Inc., is used to view files in PDF format. The software displays documents with the same layout and design as the original.

Adsense

Google AdSense is for web publishers who want to make more revenue from advertising on their site while maintaining editorial quality. AdSense delivers Google ads that are relevant to what your readers see on your pages and Google pays you.

ADSL

An acronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, ADSL is a method of transmitting data over traditional copper telephone lines at speeds higher than were previously possible. Data can be downloaded at speeds of up to 1.544 Megabits per second and uploaded at speeds of 128 Kilobits per second. (That's why it's termed asymmetric.) This technology is well suited to the Web, where much more data is sent from a server to your computer than you send to the server.

Adwords

With Google AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to help match your ads to your audience and pay only when someone clicks on your ads. This is the advertiser side of Google Adsense.

Affiliate Network

An affiliate network is an organization that facilitates the relationship between merchants and affiliates, providing links, banners, program sign-up, sales tracking, and payment services. Ex. Commission Junction

Affiliate Program

An affiliate program is any type of revenue sharing program where a webmaster or web site receives a portion of income for generating leads, traffic, or sales through a graphic or text link to a merchant web site. A potentially lucrative Internet marketing model for both parties.

Agent

An agent is a type of software program that is instructed to go out onto the Internet and perform a specific function on behalf of a user. The most common type of agents are programs called spiders and worms, which roam the Internet, collecting and indexing its content and creating their own searchable databases of the content found. New and custom uses for agents are being developed that will let users do such things as searching online music sites to compare prices for a specific CD title

Algorithm

A procedure or formula for solving a problem. In this industry algorithm is referred to in reference to a search engine's way of indexing and ranking web sites/pages.

Alias

A name that points to another name, such as a domain name or URL. Aliases are used to make the original name easier to remember, to protect the site's identity, or to transfer traffic from one site to another.

ALT Text

"Alternative text" that is placed in the code for an image in an HTML page. Text provided with an image as an alternative to viewing the actual image. It will appear before the image is fully loaded, if your visitor has their graphics turned off, and if your visitor positions their mouse on the image. Alt text is also important because search engine spiders often read it. The code for alt text is as follows:

Alta Vista

A popular search engine with the largest database on the web, indexing more than 140 million pages. Its main URL is http://www.altavista.com. Until 1998, this search engine provided the search facility for Yahoo. Altavista indexes all the words in a web page, and new pages are normally added to the database fairly quickly, within a couple of working days. You are asked to submit just the main page of your site. The Altavista spider will then explore your site and index a representative sample of the pages. Some problems with spamming have been noticed. The use of keyword meta tags is penalized. Altavista places various alternative options before its search results, including suggested questions (using the Ask Jeeves service), RealNames. Paid entries are beginning to appear at the start of the search results.

Anchor

An anchor is an HTML tag that marks a specific point in an HTML document as either the source or destination of a hypertext link. This allows you to create links from one hypertext document to another, as well as to different sections within the same document. Anchors that point to different places in the same document use the tag and are frequently used to navigate a long document with many sections. Anchors that point to other hypertext documents use the tag

Anonymous ftp

A publicly available Internet file site. Users must sign on as anonymous and enter their email address to connect to an anonymous ftp site.

AOL - America Online

AOL stands for America Online, a leading online service. America Online provides Internet access plus a number of member services, such as news, special-interest areas, and virtual chat rooms.

Apache

An open source Web server package, mostly used on Linux and Solaris platforms.

Applet

An applet is a small software application, typically in the Java programming language

Application servers

Software used to provide an interface between systems to enable Web services.

Archie

A software utility for finding files stored on FTP servers, Archie is a system for locating files on the Internet. Using Archie you can search through millions of files available on the Internet and find a specific one you are looking for. The Archie database is made up of only the names (and sometimes short descriptions) of the files, so it is best to know the actual name of the file you are looking for. The more specific your request, the more likely you will find the file you want. Because Archie can be very slow, you might want to first try a more general search using a search engine such as Yahoo or AltaVista

ARPANET

This is an acronym for Advanced Research Projects Administration Network, the computer network system that gave birth to the Internet. ARPANET began in 1969 as a U.S. Department of Defense experiment in packet-switched networking

ASCII

ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a 7-bit code that represents the most basic letters of the Roman alphabet, numbers, and other characters used in computing. ASCII characters allow us to communicate with computers, which use their own language called binary made up of 0s and 1s. When we type ASCII characters from the keyboard (which looks like words to us), the computer interprets them as binary so they can be read, manipulated, stored and retrieved. ASCII files are called text files.

AskJeeves

Also ask.com. Search engine where users can enter a question and the engine will find 'the answer' with their listings.

ASP

Active Server Pages - a scripting language created by Microsoft for dynamically created web pages and database functions. Web pages created with ASP usually have an .asp suffix.

Attachment

A binary file (such as a document, spreadsheet, or graphic) which is delivered as part of an email message. [NB - some mailing systems will not accept attachments.]

Attribute

An attribute is an addition to an HTML tag that extends or qualifies its meaning. For example you can extend the (image) tag by including the ALIGN attribute that lets you specify how you want a block of text to line up with an image. With the ALIGN attribute you can align text to the left, right, center, top, middle, or bottom of an image. Another attribute used to extend an tag is the BORDER attribute that allows you to specify the size of the border in pixels, that appears around an image that is a hotlink.

Audio Streaming

The process of providing audio content on a web site, such as sound clips, music files, and video. Audio streaming makes it possible for the sounds to be heard clearly and continuously. This requires a lot of bandwidth so some hosts do not offer or allow it.

AUP

Acceptable Use Policy. A binding document signed by all users that explains the rules of Internet use at an institution.

Authority Site

Google ranks page links from an Authority Site higher than others. An authority site is a central site in a community determined by counting inbound and outbound links.

Auto responder

An email message that is sent automatically in response to a message to another email address. Also known as Autobot or Infobot.

Avatar

An avatar is a graphic facsimile that you can use in chat rooms. Anyone who has participated in a web chat realizes that exchanging typed messages can get boring very quickly. But what if you could assume a visual identity, say a frog or a clown? An avatar lets you role play and interact with people you meet online. The term was popularized in the novel Snow Crash written by Neal Stephenson