ARPANET: Advanced Research Projects Network, the precursor of today's Internet. Developed by Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN), the first packet-switched ARPAnet link connected the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in November, 1969. Other Defense Contractor and research sites were added to ARPAnet, while non-military TCP/IP-based networks evolved independently. Eventually, ARPAnet linked with other networks, creating the Internet. ARPAnet was formally retired in 1990.

Bitmap: A graphics file. Bitmaps store information one pixel at a time. Generally larger in file size than other graphics formats, and replaced on the Internet by JPG files.

bps: Bits Per Second, A measurement of data transfer speed.

byte: Measurement of storage space, composed of eight bits. A bit is like a switch; it's either 'on' or 'off'.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface, an Application Program Interface (API) peculiar to the UNIX operating system which allows a Web server to pass data from HTML document to a CGI script, which runs various programs as necessary and returns resulting data for display over the Web.

COMM port: Serial ports on the IBM PC compatible computer, usually, but not always used for data communications, are referred to by systems designators COM1, COM2, COM3.....etc.

CPU: The central processing unit; the "brains" of the computer. The Pentium, Pentium II, AMD, and Cyrix chips are examples of CPU's.

DNS: Domain Name Server, a two-column look-up table system of matching mnemonic machine names such as inet-asst.com to their numeric IP addresses. The tables are maintained at local, regional and global levels by various organizations, making it easier for people to find their way around the Internet or their LAN.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, a file established for many public discussion groups containing questions and answers new callers often ask. FDDI: Fiber Distributed Interface, an ANSI standard defining a 100-Mps token-passing network using fiber optic cable. Transmission distance may be up to 2 km without repeaters.

FIX: Federal Internet Exchange, a network of exchange points that interconnect federal government networks.

Frame Relay: A protocol used between user devices (such as hosts and routers) and network equipment (such as switching nodes).

FTP: File Transfer Protocol, and application program that uses TCP/IP internetworks as a medium for transferring files. You can logon to an ftp site using an ftp program and transfer files from their site to your local desktop using GET command. Many sites allow ANONYMOUS ftp. At the login prompt, enter ANONYMOUS as the login name, and at the password prompt enter your e-mail address as password. You will have access to a limited number of public directories from which you can retrieve files.

Home Page: The top level hypertext document in a collection of linked HTML documents. Often, the document implied in a WWW site's URL. For example: http://www.inet-asst.com/ will lead you to the "home page" of Internet Assistance, the first page that comes up on your screen. The actual name will probably be index.html or index.htm

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language, the programming language used to create WWW pages and define the functions to be performed when one clicks on the button, image or hypertext link embedded in the page.

HTTP: Hyper Text Transport Protocol. The method by which the World Wide Web provides hypertext links between web pages, often located on entirely different machines.

IP: Internet Protocol. The underlying packet protocol used to connect networks over the Internet. Usually used with TCP…that is, TCP/IP.

ISP: Internet Service Provider, an online provider of Internet Services.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network, an all digital telephone system specification. Basic Rate Interface (BRI) consists of two 64 Kbps bearers or "B" data channels and one 16 Kbps supervisory "D" channel, leading to the designation "2B+D". BRI ISDN can deliver data to the home at speeds up to 128 Kbps by combining the two B channels.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, a standard for compressing digital photographic images.

KB: Kilobyte, 10245 bytes, often generically applied to 1000 bytes as well.

Kbps: Kilo Bits Per Second, a measure of data transmission speed indicating 1024 bits transmitted in one second.

Mbps: Mega Bits Per Second, a measurement of data transmission speed indicating 1024 kilobits per second or 1048576 bits per second.

MB: Megabyte, technically 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes, often applied to the more rounded term of one million bytes as well.

MPEG: Motion Picture Experts Groups, a standard for compressing digital video images.

NAP: Network Access Point, one of four primary connections to the Internet designated by the National Science Foundation to provide connections to Regional Network Providers and Network Service Providers, which in turn provide connections to smaller entities.

NNTP: Net News Transfer Protocol, a protocol used to transfer USENET News Groups from one Internet Site to another via Internet Protocol.

Ping: A program that will tell you if a particular entity is presently connected to the Internet. To use it, open an MS-DOS prompt (click the Start menu, then Programs) and type ping www.inet-asst.com. You can also use
ping 209.127.67.17, substituting the domain name you want. To trace the route between you and your desired destination, type tracert www.inet-asst.com.

POP: Point of Presence, in the telephone world this is the geographical location of a particular switch or service.

POP3: Post Office Protocol, an alternative mail protocol used to service intermittent dialup connections to the Internet whereby mail is held until the caller makes the connection and requests mail. Most SLIP or PPP dialup account users will receive mail from a POP3 account using a program such as PC Eudora.

POTS: Plain Old Telephone Service, as opposed to ISDN, cable modem connections, etc.

PPP: Point to Point Protocol, a type of Internet protocol used via serial connections by modem. A dialup connection providing IP connectivity.

Protocol: A system of rules and procedures governing communications between two devices. File transfer protocols in your communications program refer to a set of rules governing how error checking will be performed on blocks of data. If two computers aren't using the same protocol, they won't be able to communicate.

Router: A device that connects two or more networks.

Server: A computer dedicated to providing specific services to client computer. Print servers, for example, do nothing but accept store and print out jobs sent to them by other computers. Network servers provide web pages on request.

SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol, an implementation of IP over serial ports/modems, usually on an intermittent dialup basis. SLIP is a predecessor of the Point to Point Protocol (PPP) also used for dialup IP connections.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the most common method for relaying electronic mail over the Internet.

T1: A classification of leased telephone line service offering 23 voice channels and 1 supervisory channel or 1.544 Mbps digital data service.

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The basic packet protocol used to connect machines globally on the Internet is referred to as the Internet Protocol or IP. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) interacts with IP to provide an application protocol interface.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator, a system of references to different Internet sites indicating both the site and type of protocol or application program used to reach it. For example, http://www.inet-asst.com

USENET: Users Network, one of the earliest networks of computers which exchange e-mail conferences via the Internet using UUCP and NNTP. Properly capitalized in full but often rendered as "Usenet".

WAN: Wide Area Network, a network typically spanning distances. If the computers of your company headquarters in Houston were connected to the computers of your branch office in Miami, that would be a WAN.