Glossary Of Terms
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A
Acronym
SMS, forums, chat rooms, and e-mail have spawned a rich set of acronyms for common phrases and not so common phrases.
A few acromyms you might come across are listed below.
Some Common Acronyms
ASAP - As Soon As Possible
BTW - ByThe Way
FWIW - For What It's Worth
FYI - For Your Information
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing
TIA - Thanks In Advance.
Adobe Acrobat
Acrobat is the software used to read PDF files.
ATA
An analog telephony adapter, or analog telephone adapter, (ATA) is a device used to connect one or more standard analog telephones to a digital and/or non-standard telephone system such as a Voice over IP based network.
ADSL -- (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
Is a form of receiving broadband internet where the upload speed is different from the download speed. Usually the download speed is much greater.
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B
Bandwidth
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (bps.) 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.
Blog -- (weB LOG)
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.
Broadband
Generally refers to connections to the Internet with much greater bandwidth than you can get with a modem. Clear Networks provides broadband wielessly.
Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
Examples Include;
Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
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.
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C
CDMA -- (Code Division Multiple Access)
A protocol for wireless data and voice communication, CMDA is widely used in cellphone networks, but also in many other data communications systems. CDMA uses a technique called "Spread Spectrum" whereby the data being transmitted is spread across multiple radio frequencies, making more efficent use of available radio spectrum. There are a number of additional protocols built on top of CDMA, such as 1xRTT (also called CMDA2000).
Cookies
The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.
Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the Browsers' settings, the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie, and may save the Cookie for either a short time or a long time.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.
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D
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general.
For Example: www.dubsec.com.au
Download
Transferring data (usually a file) from a another computer to the computer you are are using. The opposite of upload.
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E
Email
Email is a way of send information such as letters or memo's, it can also be used for sending files which can be attached to an email before you send it.
To send and receive messages via email you first need an email address, such as
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, usually your ISP will provide you with one or more email address for free when you sign up to using there internet services, you can also sign up to free email services provided on the internet, some popular email providers on the web are www.hotmail.com and www.gmail.com
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F
FAQ -- (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQs are documents that list and answerthe most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.
Fire Wall
A combination of hardware and software that separates a Network into two or more parts for security purposes.
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G
Gigabyte
1000 or 1024 Megabytes, depending on who is measuring.
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H
Home Page (or Homepage)
Several meanings. Originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. "Check out so-and-so's new Home Page."
Host
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It is quite common to have one host machine provide several services, such as SMTP (email) and HTTP (websites).
HTML -- (HyperText Markup Language)
The coding language used to create Hypertext documents or web pages. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear.
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I
ISP -- (Internet Service Provider)
An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money, Clear Networks is an example of an ISP which provides wireless internet
IT -- (Information Technology)
A very general term referring to the entire field of Information Technology - anything from computer hardware to programming to network management. Most medium and large size companies have IT Departments.
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J
Java
Java is a programming languge used for creating applications for the internet and operating systems
Javascript
A scripting language usually used for adding functionality to web pages. (While Java and Javascript share the same name they are two completely seperate programming languages)
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K
Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024 (210) bytes.
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L
LAN -- (Local Area Network)
A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.
Link
A peice of code in a website usualy represented by some text or an image that you can click on to take you to another page or a different spot on the web page. Also called a Hyperlink.
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M
Megabyte
Technically speaking, a million bytes. In many cases the term means 1024 kilobytes, which is a more than an even million.
Megapixel
A megapixele is one million pixels, usual used to convey how fine a picture a digital camera can take.
The more megapixels the bigger the picture can be enlarged without loosing quality
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.
The maximum practical bandwidth using a modem over regular telephone lines is currently around 57,000 bps.
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N
Netiquette
The etiquette on the Internet. eg. using capitals in a online chat room is considered shouting and is bad netiquette.
Netizen
Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet, or someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.
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O
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P
PDF -- (Portable Document Format)
A file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used, so a PDF document should look the same on Windows, Macintosh, linux, OS/2, etc. The PDF format is based on the widely used Postcript document-description language. Both PDF and Postscript were developed by the Adobe Corporation.
Plug-in
A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Firefox® web browser. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins.
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Q
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R
Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
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.
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S
Search Engine
A (usually web-based) system for searching the information available on the Web. eg. Google
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.
Spam (or Spamming)
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also have come from someone?s low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam® is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)
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T
Terabyte
1000 gigabytes.
Terrapin
A terrapin is a turtle that lives in fresh or brackish water
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U
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Is a connector which allows your computer to communicate with peripherals and other hardware devices
Upload
Transferring data (usually a file) from a the computer you are using to another computer. The opposite of download.
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V
Virus
A chunk of computer programming code that makes copies of itself without any concious 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.
VOIP -- (Voice Over IP)
A specification and various technologies used to allow making telephone calls over IP networks, especially the Internet.
Just as modems allow computers to connect to the Internet over regular telephone lines, VOIP technology allows humans to talk over Internet connections.
Costs for VOIP calls can be a lot lower than for traditional telephone calls. Because the IP networks are packet-switched this allows for vastly different ways of handling connections and more efficient use of network resources.
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W
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.
Wi-Fi -- (Wireless Fidelity)
A popular term for a form of wireless data communication, basically Wi-Fi is "Wireless Ethernet".
Wiki
A wiki is a web site for which the content can be easily edited and altered from the web browser in which you are viewing it. Typically there is an "edit" button on each page and the wiki is configured to allow either anyone or only people with passwords to edit each page. The word "wiki" comes from a Hawaiian word meaning "quick."
Worm
A worm is a virus that does not infect other programs. It makes copies of itself, and infects additional computers (typically by making use of network connections) but does not attach itself to additional programs; however a worm might alter, install, or destroy files and programs.
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X
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Y
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Z
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