C

Cookie

A "cookie" is a small file that a website deposits into your browser, typically they are used to collect information and send it back to the web server (of the site that is being visited). Cookies cannot read your hard drive, and will not send a copy of your life story to every website you visit. They do however allow a site/server to collect more information than a user may want passed on.

Browsers can be set to manage cookies in many different ways. Consult the help files on your web browser for more information.

F

Feed

Often called web feed, syndicated feed, or news feed. Essentially, feeds are content which are organized by a distributor, usually a website with the content being articles, news, videos, or popular searches. Users are able to subscribe to feeds using an "aggregator" which organizes feeds listed by most recent. Aggregators periodically request data from the server and update it for your viewing.

H

Home page

A home page may refer to either: the main or starting page of information for a web site or the default page that opens when you open a new browser window. A website's home page often states the purpose of the website, along with supplying numerous links to navigate the content of the site.

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the backbone of every webpage on the Internet. HTML is a markup language designed to allow the construction of structured web pages where forms, interactive fields, images, and text are read by your browser and visualized. HTML can incorporate various other languages such as CSS, Javascript, PHP, among others within it for more dynamic pages.

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the method by which pages are requested and downloaded.

HTTP defines the method used by the browser running on your computer to make a request for a web document and the format a web server returns the document to the browser.

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a protocol supported by certain e-commerce servers that support the required security software

Hypertext

Highlighted words or images that are linked to other web pages

I

IMAP

Internet Mail Access Protocol. Similar e-mail protocol to POP, with noticeable differences. Unlike POP which downloads messages to the clients computer and deletes them from the server, IMAP keeps messages on the server until explicitly deleted by the user. IMAP also maintains a connection to the mail server, opposed to POP which connects only long enough to access new mail before disconnecting. Recommended and supported by Academic Computing. With this protocol, Mozilla and Outlook connect and read mail from the RMail (Ryerson E-mail) server.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. An ISP is a company which provides access to the internet to it's customers through data transmission means such as DSL, dial-up, cable, or wireless.

K

Keyword

Keywords are specific words used in a search which the search engine uses to crawl the web (or specific website) with, filtering out any pages or articles without the specific keyword. The result will display only pages with the requested keyword. However, most search engines remove common words such as "the", "a", "or", etc. as they often result in inaccurate search results.

Certain websites have their own collection of keywords to allow users to find common topics, these are usually called tags. In most cases, tags can be added by users as well as publishers which connect common articles, pages, images, and videos.

M

Multimedia

The web can display files containing animations, videos and sound. These files can be downloaded by the browser and then played or in some cases streamed (play as the information arrives) on your computer

P

P2P

Peer-To-Peer. This is a unique type of network that does not use servers, but rather direct connection between computers within a network. This allows things such as files, bandwidth, processing power available to others. Peer-to-peer services are unique from server-based systems in that each computer supplies information as well as requesting it from others. Whereas servers only wait for requests from the client, sending information based on that request but never receiving. Due to this direct link with other clients, P2P connections can often consume heavy amounts of bandwidth compared to the simple server-client model. As a result of this P2P connections are often throttled by ISPs and is generally discouraged for use on the Ryerson network.

Plug-in

A hardware or software module that adds a specific service or feature to a larger system. There are a number of plug-ins for the web browsers that enable them to display different types of audio or video message

POP

Post Office Protocol. While SMTP is responsible for outgoing e-mail, POP is one of the various protocols focused on managing and accessing incoming mail. POP allows users with the right client software to download and read their mail from an E-mail server. POP is available at Ryerson, but not recommended nor supported by Academic Computing. It is often referred to as POP3 referring to it's current standard version. Almost all e-mail clients support POP3, the other protocol widely supported is IMAP.

S

SFTP

Secure File Transfer Protocol. Allows the transfer of files from one computer to another over the Internet. You may use the Secure File Transfer Protocol to "put" or "get" information between another host (computer system) and your own machine. SFTP requires authorized user name and password to gain permission to transfer files.

Server-side Scripting

Server-side scripting creates dynamic web pages which take users requests and execute them entirely on the server for specific and customized content tailored to the users request. Server-side scripting manages data tables on the server allowing users to have highly customized information presented to them. Common uses of server-side scripting include internal search bars which filter pages that apply to a search term or user comments where a user may add their own comment to the server, having it appear on the website in real time.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. An basic e-mail protocol that typically applies to outgoing mail transfer. Incoming mail protocols are dependent on the e-mail client and user settings. SMTP uses a TCP port to transfer outgoing mail.

T

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol are the two main components of the Internet. These refer to a family of protocols or conventions that enable a variety of computers to communicate with each other. IP manages data and communication between individual computers, while TCP focuses on computer to server communication. These protocols manage data flow and exchange rate, as well as e-mail and file transfer.

U

URL

Uniform Resource Locator is the unique address for a document or resource. The access method is not restricted to http. FTP and other protocols may be used to retrieve other forms of information using a web browser. An example of a URL would be:http://www.ryerson.ca

Usenet

Provides access to the hundreds of newsgroups available on the Internet.

W

WAIS

Wide Area Information Server. A powerful utility that searches for information on the Internet by issuing search commands rather than through menu selections.

More Definitions

For more classification on web and internet terminology, visit http://www.webopedia.com/ one of the Internet’s most comprehensive technical dictionaries. Alternatively, definitions for almost any word (not just technical jargon) can be found by typing the word “define” and then the word(s) or acronyms of interest into Google.