A network is a system of computers interconnected by telephone wires, ethernet cables, or other means in order to share information.
| ARPAnet | A loosely organized research network of university, government and corporate computer systems that used a common communications protocol, funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, later ARPA). The ARPAnet has evolved into the Internet. | More about ARPAnet at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| DNS | Abbreviation for domain name system. | More about DNS at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| domain name | A name of a service, website, or computer. It exists in a hierarchical system called the domain name system. | w3.org, yahoo.com, webwalker.to are all domain names. | More about domain name at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| domain name system | Domain names are for the use of humans, to identify machines, or such entities as websites or email servers. The computers actually are identified by IP number, and the domain name system translates the names to numbers, much like your mobile phone dials a number when you enter someone's name. | More about domain name system at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| hierarchy | “An organisation with few things, or one thing, at the top and with several things below each other thing.” | The unix filesystem is hierarchical: Each directory may contain files or other directories | More about hierarchy at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| http:// | ... | As in http://www.w3.org | More about http:// at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| internet | A world-wide network of networks. Each network is made of computers connected by cables or by wireless links. Computers communicate through the internet by sending information in packets, using a common language, or protocol, that they can all understand. One of the most common languages is TCP/IP. The web and email are two of many services which get to us through the internet. | More about internet at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| Internet Protocol | The protocol (language) that computers use to talk to each other across the internet. Sometimes shortened to IP. IP sends packets, which are defined by the Transmission Control Protocol (and so together they are known as TCP/IP). The IP protocol was designed by Vint Cerf and Bob Khan. | More about Internet Protocol at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| internet service provider | A person or organisation that provides connection to the internet. The connection to the ISP may be by phone line, cable, wireless connection, satellite connection, etc. The ISP then forwards the packets over the internet. | More about internet service provider at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| IP | Common abbreviation for Internet Protocol, or Intellectual Property | More about IP at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| ISP | Common abbreviation for internet service provider | More about ISP at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| MIT | Common abbreviation for Massachusetts Institute of Technology | More about MIT at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| mobile devices | Pagers, phones, handheld computers, etc. | More about mobile devices at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| net | Short for internet. Sometimes used instead of web. | "I saw it on the net." | More about net at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| network | a system of computers interconnected by telephone wires, ethernet cables, or other means in order to share information | More about network at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: Computer networking at wikipedia |
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| Network News Transfer Protocol | A protocol (language) that defines how news articles are passed around between computers. | More about Network News Transfer Protocol at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| NNTP | Common abbreviation for Network News Transfer Protocol | More about NNTP at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| packet | A unit, or a piece, into which information is divided for transmitting across the internet. The rules (or protocols) saying how this packet is built are called TCP and IP. | More about packet at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| PGP | Common abbreviation for Pretty Good Privacy | More about PGP at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| PKC | Common abbreviation for public key cryptography. | More about PKC at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| PKI | Common abbreviation for Public Key Infrastructure. | More about PKI at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| Pretty Good Privacy | An email security system that uses public key cryptography. Often known as PGP | More about Pretty Good Privacy at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| protocol | "language"; also "rules of behavior". The language and set of rules that define how computers will interact. | Examples of protocols are FTP and HTTP. | More about protocol at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| public key cryptography | Mathematical basis of a security system in which people do not need to exchange secret keys. Instead people have one "private" key that only they know, and one "public" key that everyone knows. Often known as PKC | More about public key cryptography at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| Public Key Infrastructure | A hierarchy of "certification authorities" which allows individuals and organisations to identify each other, mostly for the purpose of doing business electronically. Often known as PKI | More about Public Key Infrastructure at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| remote procedure call | When one part of a program calls on another part to do something, this is called a procedure call. RPC is a set of tools that allow you to write a program whose different parts are on a different computers, without having to write the code for how the communication happens. RPC is a generic technique; it is not a specific product. | More about remote procedure call at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| RPC | Common abbreviation for remote procedure call | More about RPC at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| RSA | A public key encryption system. The letters are for its inventors: Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman. | More about RSA at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| server | A program that provides a service to another program (called the client). | A web server can access web pages, and pass them to the client programs. | More about server at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| TCP | Common abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol | More about TCP at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| Transmission Control Protocol | (TCP) A computer protocol that allows one computer to send to the other a continuous stream of information by breaking it into packets which the other computer can reassemble. The sending computer can resend any packets that get lost in the internet. TCP uses IP to send the packets. The two together are referred to as TCP/IP | More about Transmission Control Protocol at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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| X | The X Window system - a standard interface between a program and a screen, that is used on unix systems. Invented by Bob Schiefler. "Unlike Microsoft Windows, from the beginning X allowed programs running on one machine to display on another", across the network. "Schiefler ran the X Consortium from MIT/LCS for many years, then spun it off, and eventually closed it." However X is still widely used on unix systems. | More about X at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
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