Browser: See Web Browser

Client: A computer program which is capable of accessing information in a computer server. See Netscape and Mosaic.

FAQ Frequently Asked Question: . This is often a file which new users can refer to when using a new service or piece of Internet software. It contains answers to frequently asked questions, hence the name.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A common file transfer format used on the Internet. FTP is used to transfer files from one internet-connected computer to another.

Home Page: A Web page that is the normal starting point of a web site’s file of web pages. All web pages at a particular web site have links back to their home page. Users normally go to a web home page when first entering a web site.

HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language): A simple text-based computer language for representing the design and contents of documents that World-Wide Web browsers can display. Web pages are created using HTML.

HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol): A fast, efficient information-retrieval protocol designed to distribute information to as many users as possible. HTTP is the underlying protocol of the World-Wide Web. All web sites have HTTP at the beginning of their internet address.

Hyperlinks: Words within a web page that are links to other web pages. One need only click on a hyperlink to link to another web page. These hyperlinks are highlighted in someway. On Netscape the hyperlinked words are blue and underlined.

Hypermedia: Like hypertext except that the concept is extended to multimedia objects such as graphics, video and audio.

Hypertext: Text which contains hyperlinks -- connections to other texts.

Lynx: A WWW full screen, text only browser. Hyperlinks in the Lynx browser are navigated by using the key. This web browser can be accessed from remote locations without using resident software.

Markup Tags: These are the language/symbols/code of HTML that define the components of a Web Page. These symbols are always in brackets.

Netscape: A graphical web browser which runs on UNIX, PC and Macintosh computers. It is an interface to the WWW and allows hyperlinking between documents via hypertext. Netscape is the most popular Web browser and is used by most internet-linked computers on campus. It requires a PPP connection to run from remote locations.

PPP (Point to Point Protocol): A newer protocol that supports an Internet connection to a main frame computer over a dial-up line. A PPP connection consists of resident software in both the mainframe computer and the computer at the rem ote location. Graphical web browsers like Netscape require PPP connections to operate from remote locations.

Server: A computer which runs a computer program designed to allow client computers to
perform tasks on it.

UNIX: A class of computers popular with high-end computer users, academics and the research community.

URL (Universal Resource Locator): A pointer to a file or resource available on the Internet; the Internet’s shorthand for directions to Internet-bound resources, used most often with WWW browsers such as Explorer and Netscape. Example: http://www.cofc.edu

W3: An acronym for the World Wide Web.

The Web: Internet shorthand for the World Wide Web

Web Browser: A program that allows one to interface with or "browse" the Web. A web browser can read documents or web pages, fetch documents, access files by FTP, read Usenet newsgroups, telnet into remote sites, and access gopherspace.

Web Editor: A software program that helps you to produce and edit a web page by inputting the HTML code when you click on certain menus and buttons. Some web editors, like "Front Page," are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) that allow a user to input on the web page exactly as it will look when seen on a browser. The program inserts all the necessary HTML code.

Web Page: The basic unit of information access on the WWW. A web page is an electronic source document on the WWW which contains hyperlinks to other web pages. A web site is made up of hyperlinked web pages.

Web Site: A server that contains a web home page and its associated web pages.

World Wide Web: A hypermedia retrieval system for information from the Internet. The WWW's important achievement is in creating a standard for hypermedia which gives universal access to information in a hyperlinked environment. Netscape , Lynx and Explorer are web browsers (interfaces) to the WWW.

WWW: An acronym for the World Wide Web.

Compiled and edited by Jerry Seay
May 1996

Updated May 1997