Here are more terms that you should be familiar with for future reference.
Address Typically refers to either a website or email address. A website address appears in the form of a
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and is prefixed with http:// or https://.
Bandwidth Refers to the speed of a user's connection. User's with slow connection methods such as dial-up modems are considered to have low bandwidth. Users with high speed connections such as DSL, cable modems and other high speed lines are considered to have high bandwidth.
Banner An advertisement that appears across the top of a page.
Browser A browser is a software programming for viewing web pages. A browser must be installed on every computer where pages are to be viewed. Popular browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
Cookie A small block of text that a web site stores on the client's computer. Cookies are typically used to keep track of a visitor, including information such as what is in the user's shopping cart and whether or not the user is logged in. Cookies are only sent back to the website that sent them. Cookies can contain plain text only, they cannot contain programs that execute on your computer.
Domain Name A human readable name that is used to access an internet address. For example: streamingsound.net. Domain names reference an IP address, which is the machine readable address to a website.
DNS An acronym for Domain Name Server. A Domain Name Server translates human readable domain names, such as streamingsound.net, to machine readable IP addresses such as 192.168.1.1.
E-commerce Electronic commerce. Although it could refer to many different concepts, it typically refers to buying products via the world wide web.
Encryption A sophisticated process of scrambling information so that it cannot be read by unauthorized parties. Encryption is used for many different applications, both on and off the internet. Web browsers and web servers often encrypt data using SSL to protect sensitive information as it is transferred across the internet.
GIF Pronounced jiff or giff. The Graphics Interchange Format is bitmap image file format that is popular on the web. GIF images are limited to 256 colors which makes them better suited for illustrations than photographs.
Flash A browser plug-in developed by Macromedia for developing Rich Internet Applications. Flash applications can be as simple as an animated logo, or as complicated as a full browser based application. Flash uses a vector graphic format to keep files small.
Flash Site A website where the entire interface is build using Flash instead of HTML markup. A drawback to Flash sites are that they cannot be viewed unless the user has installed the Flash plug-in.
Fully Qualified Domain A fully qualified domain name is comprised of a hostname, domain name, and top-level domain. For example in www.weather.com, www is the host name, weather is the domain name and .com is the top-level domain name.
HTML The HyperText Markup Language. A page formatting language that defines the appearance of web pages. HTML standards are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is a standard for communication between a client and server. One use of HTTP is for browser to web server communication on the World Wide Web. HTTP standards are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
HTTPS HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. The protocol used for secure, encrypted communication over the World Wide Web. HTTPS is typically used when sending credit card or other sensitive information via the internet.
IE An acronym for the Internet Explorer browser. Web developers and designers often use this acronym. Internet Explorer The web browser developed by Microsoft Corporation. Internet Explorer is currently the most popular web browser on the internet.
IP Address A numerical address that is assigned to every computer connected to the internet. An IP address is required in order to connect to any server on the internet. DNS servers automatically translate simple, memorable domain names to IP addresses.
JPEG See JPG. JPG A graphics format developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Pronounced jay-peg. JPG is the preferred format for storing photographic images on the World Wide Web.
Mozilla An open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla is the browser upon which Netscape Navigator is based.
Netscape A division of America Online (AOL) that distributes the Netscape Navigator browser. Web developers and designers typically refer to Netscape Navigator as simply Netscape. Netscape Navigator Netscape Navigator was once the most popular browser on the internet, but has lost position to Microsoft Internet Explorer in the past few years. Netscape is developed by Netscape Communications Corporation, a division on Time Warner.
Opera A web browser developed by Opera Software. The opera browser comes in two version, a commercial version, which can be purchased and downloaded online, and advertising supported version which can be downloaded for free online.
Plug-in Add-on software that adds additional functionality to a web browser. Plug-ins are typically used to display specialized multimedia content such as video and 3d models. The most well known plug-in is the Macromedia Flash player.
PNG The Portable Network Graphic format. PNG was developed as a replacement for GIF as the standard World Wide Web graphics format.
URL Uniform Resource Locator. The address of a page on the world wide web. A URL consists of a protocol, server address and page location. For example, in http://www.websiteadvice.net/index.htm, http is the protocol, www.websiteadvice.net is the address and index.htm is the page location.
Search Engine A tool for locating information on a network, such as the internet. A search engine crawls the internet, following links from page to page and site to site. The search engine stores page content in its index. The index is searchable by web users through a website. Popular search engines are Google, Excite, Lycos and Hotbot.
Server A computer on a network which is dedicated to serve a specific purpose. A server typically serves one or more clients. On the internet, web servers display web pages, FTP servers send and receive files, and mail servers send and receive email.
Site Refers to a group of pages which reside under a single domain name. For example, http://www.cnn.com. SSL
The Secure Sockets Layer. A standard for securing data for transportation between two computers. On the World Wide Web, SSL is implemented over the https protocol.
Top Level Domains The last part of a fully qualified domain name. The traditional top level domains are: .com (Commercial bodies), .edu (Educational institutions), .gov (U.S. government), .mil (U.S. armed services), .net (Network operators) and .org (Other organizations). In 2001, seven new top level domains were added: .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, and .museum. Additionally, over 240 countries have registered 2 letter top level domains such as .us, .uk and .jp.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains standards for the World Wide Web. Two popular standards maintained by the W3C are HTML and HTTP.
Web Page A specific page within a website. Web pages are built using HTML and accessed using a URL.
Web Server A server with the specific purpose of returning web pages.
Website A group of web pages that fall under a specific fully qualified domain.
World Wide Web A large network of web servers that use HTTP to display HTML formatted web pages.
If you havn't already purchased a domain, web hosting company or search engine service, please go to our
Copyright 2004 Streaming Sound Corp. All rights reserved.