Glossary of Internet Service Related Terms

TCP/IP

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the language governing communications between all computers on the Internet. TCP/IP is a set of instructions that dictates how packets of information are sent across multiple networks. It also includes a built-in error-checking capability to ensure that data packets arrive at their final destination in the proper order. IP, or Internet Protocol, is the specification that determines where packets are routed to, based on their destination address. TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol, makes sure that the packets arrive correctly at their destination address. If TCP determines that a packet was not received, it will try to resend the packet until it is received properly. You must be running TCP/IP to have full Internet access. In UNIX, TCP/IP is a part of the operating system. In the DOS and Windows world, the functionality of TCP/IP is handled by WinSock. This piece of software takes care of your TCP/IP configuration information.

Tech Support - Customer Support

Tech support refers to the method that web hosting providers use to answer questions from the web site owners. Since most webmasters have questions and run into problems either setting up the site or maintaining it, there needs to be a good communication method in place for information to be exhanged in a timely manner. All hosts will offer an email tech support system, but the best is a live chat, or toll-free phone support line. You should be sure the hosting service you choose provides excellent tech support.

Technical Contact

When you register a domain name you must specify a technical contact for that domain. This individual will be responsible for any technical issues regarding the domain name. The technical contact may be the same as the billing or administrative contact

Telnet

Telnet is a software program that allows you to log in to other remote computers on the Internet to which you have access. Once you are logged into the remote system, you can download files, engage in conferencing, and perform the same commands as if you were directly connected by computer. You need an Internet account to be able to use a telnet program.

Templates

A ready-prepared document layout. Many word-processors have simple pre-formed letterheads, fax headers, memos, and invoices. To customise them for your own needs, you simply change the sample text.

Terabyte

A terabyte is equal to 1000 gigabytes.

Terminal

A terminal allows you to send commands to a computer that is somewhere else. (Like an air terminal sends planes to terminals in other locations

Text-based Internet account

The user must use Unix commands to navigate the Internet.

Thread

A thread is a series of related newsgroups, BBS, or e-mail messages on a given subject, including the original message and the subsequent replies

Tiny Text

Basically the same concept as hidden text, tiny text is a technique used by search engine optimizers to artificially increase the relevancy of their site by placing very small text on the page, usually invisible to the human eye, but readable by search engines through the code.

Title Tag

An HTML tag with text describing a specific Web page (but not visually displayed on the page). The title tag should contain strategic keywords for the page and be constructed following specific guidelines. The title tag is important because it usually becomes the text link to the page found in search engine listings, and because search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing pages.

TLD - Top Level Domain

TLD is the last part of the domain name. For example, the .com in www.mysite.com is the top level domain. (‘mysite’ would be the second-level domain)

Toolbar

A toolbar is a bar that contains buttons for the most commonly-used commands in an application. Typically, a toolbar appears under a menubar.

Topic Drift

Topic drift refers to getting off-track or off-topic in the middle of a newsgroup or BBS discussion or thread on a specific subject.

Tower

The tower is where the critical components of a desktop computer are housed. Critical components inside the tower may include the hard drive, disk drives, or processors.

Traffic

Traffic refers to the amount of bandwidth used by your web site, or the number of unique and repeat visitors who use your web pages. Each new peson who accesses your site is termed a "Unique visitor" and each time a different page is looked at is termed a "page view" or "hit." Many sites limit the daily and monthly traffic amount because it ties up their data lines.

Trojan Horse

A masked program that tricks potential users into running it by posing as another program, game or image file.