Glossary

BROWSER :
The program installed on your computer that allows you to type in the address (URL) of a website or webpage that you want to view.  Browsers would be Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.

CLIENT:
A computer (most of the time the client computer is your computer) that has client software installed and usually requests information from a server to get things done. For example, any computer with a browser functions as a client because it requests information from other web-servers allowing us to view the webpage. The client-server model is typically used in many applications to get things done.

DOMAIN NAME :
Since every computer connected to the Internet has unique IP Address (consisting of numbers) and we as humans are more fond of names, Domain Names exist. Domain Names represent one or many IP addresses. So instead of typing '123.234.32.1' in our browser, we type in 'www.yahoo.com.'

FLASH:
A vector graphic technology used to create web animations and in some cases very interactive websites.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol
A protocol used in a client-server model to transfer files between a client computer(your computer) and server computer(the server/hosting computer).

GIF/JPEG :
These are formats for image files. GIF is typically used for logos and simple graphics. JPEG's are typically used for photos or graphics that incorporate many colors and detail.

HOSTING :
The computer that contains the website files is known as the Host computer. Web design firms usually charge a fee for hosting your files on their computers.

HTML : HyperText Markup Language
The computer language (instructions) used to define how text, images, colors, and tables appear in a webpage.

INTERNET :
The world wide network of computers connected together.

IP ADDRESS:
Every computer hooked up to the Internet has a unique address. Currently there are two formats of writing these addresses. IPv6 address consists of 128 bits - an IPv4 address consists of 32 bits. And IPv6 is written as a series of 8 hexadecimal strings separated by colons([2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7344]). An IPv6 is commonly written in dot decimal notation(128.123.0.1)

LINK:
In a webpage, a link is a reference to another webpage.

PHP :
A scripting language for computers that run at the Server computer and is used in making dynamic sites.

SERVER:
Any computer that manages resources or in other words, serves something. Often these computers are dedicated to that unique function. For example a web-server will serve webpages so when a request comes in to serve a page, it will send out those files to whatever computer requested to view it.

URL : Uniform Resource Locator
The global address of a document or a file. The first part of the address indicates what protocol (HTML, FTP), to use, and the second part specifies the Ip address or the Domain of where the file is located. Ex. typing 'ftp://www.yahoo.com/list.txt' or 'html://www.yahoo.com/index.html' into your browser will return either a file list.txt or the main front page of Yahoo.

WEB BASED E-MAIL:
An e-mail system where one can check e-mail from any computer in the world with Internet access. The biggest web-based e-mail providers are Yahoo, Gmail and MSN.

WEB PAGE:
A single HTML document. Basically the page you see in Internet Explorer, Firefox or whatever browser you use.