Aardvark

Lovely word. Nocturnal burrowing creature.

ADSL

Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line, or what we would more commonly call Broadband.
Asynchronous means that the ‘upload’ speed is normally slower than the ‘download’ speed. It takes longer to send files than receive them. On Paros a typical ADSL connection will have a download speed of 1Mbs(1024Kbs)and an upload speed of 256Kbps.

Bit

Binary Digit. A bit can either contain 0 or 1.

Broadband

In common parlance, a DSL or ADSL internet connection.

Browser

A Browser allows us to look at pages on the World Wide Web. The one most of us are familiar with is Internet Explorer, though there are several others, including Mozilla Firefox.

Byte

A unit of storage on computers which can contain 1 character, for instance an ‘A’ or ‘?’.
A byte is made up of 8 bits.

Cookie

A small parcel of data put on your computer when you access websites. Typically they may hold login information or items you may have bought on a shopping site. They are generally very useful and harmless, but can be used to track which sites you visit.

Domain Name

A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet. For instance the domain name of this site is chrisfixit.eu.

DLL

Dynamic Link Library, routines used by programs that are loaded when the program starts.

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line, or what we would colloquially call Broadband.

Ethernet

The way of networking computers so they can talk to each other on a LAN (Local Area Network). Each computer will have an Ethernet card, and they are joined by an Ethernet cable.

Firewall

The method of keeping unwanted visitors out of your computer. Firewalls can also stop outgoing traffic such as that generated by any spyware that may have got on your machine.

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format. A popular format for storing pictures and graphics on the web.

Gigabyte (GB)

1,024 Megabytes.(actually 1,073,741,824 bytes).

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It’s the protocol used to transmit web pages between the server and your browser.

Internet

The network of millions of computers connected throughout the world.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address. Every computer or device on a network has an IP address, a bit like a phone number. IP addresses are in the format of four decimal numbers seperated by a period, e.g. 170.195.0.7.

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network, is a system of digital phone connections which has been available for over a decade. This system allows voice and data to be transmitted simultaneously .Very common on Paros, ISDN lines allow use of fax and phone simultaneously.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. A company that provides an Internet connection.

JPEG

Joint Photograhic Experts Group – a common image format. Art and photographic pictures are usually encoded as JPEG files.

Kilobyte (KB)

1024 Bytes.

LAN

A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a local area, like a home, office or small group of buildings such as a college.

Megabyte (Mb)

1 MB (Megabyte) is 1024 KB.

Modem

Short for modulator/demodulator. A device that converts the digital signal from a computer to an analogue signal that can be transmitted along an ordinary phone line (and vice versa). This allows computers to connect to the Internet through a telephone line.

PDF

Files saved in a format from Adobe Acrobat software, otherwise known as Portable Document Format (PDF). These files can be read with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Plug-in

A program added to a web browser in order to add multimedia capabilities. eg Flash plug-in, Java plug-in.

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PNG

Portable Network Graphics. A compressed image file format similar to JPEG.

Podcast

Podcasting, a portmanteau of Apple’s “iPod” and “broadcasting”, is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost. It first became popular in late 2004, and is used largely for audio and files.

PSTN

Public Switched Telephone Network. The traditional, wired telephone network.

Router

A piece of hardware that routes data from a local area network (LAN) to a phone line.
In effect a router connects our computer or network of computers to the Internet. It usually also acts as a Firewall.

Server

A computer that delivers information and software to other computers linked by a network.
For instance, websites are stored on servers, and the server sends the page you request to your computer.

Spam

Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.

Spyware

Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer. Used by most commerce servers on the World Wide Web, this high-level security protocol protects the confidentiality and security of data while it is being transmitted through the internet.

Terabyte

1,024 gigabytes.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator; an address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet (eg http://chrisfixit.eu/).

Virus

A virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents .

VOIP

Voice over Internet Protocol. A technology for transmitting ordinary telephone calls over the Internet.

WAN

Wide Area Network. A network of computers that covers a large geographical distance. The Internet is a WAN.

Website

A site (location) on the World Wide Web. Each website contains a homepage, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each site is owned and managed by an individual, company, or organization.

Wi-Fi

A popular term for a form of wireless data communication, basically Wi-Fi is