Welcome to Profit Gate's basic Internet Dictionary. Click Here to find your word.

As in any Internet dictionary, to define some words often requires yet more web-related definitions, in order to understand them. Unlike most basic dictionaries, however, this one is designed with the key words within a definition linked to their meanings for convenience. This dictionary is designed to be the best kind of system to fully understand the words.

This allows a newcomer to click on any web-related term within a defintion and quickly define that word. You then simply click your Back Button to return to the original word and continue with that definition.

We invite you to send us any words you feel should be added to this Internet dictionary. Send requests with this form: e-mail form

access provider: Any organization that arranges for others to connect to the Internet. By connect is meant - the ability to surf the Internet. Well known access providors are AOL, CompuServe, and Microsoft. Access does not include hosting web sites, only looking at them. 

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back button: The device on most web browsers that takes you back one "click", to the web page you just left. Normally it is found in the top left corner of the browser window and labeled "Back".

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Bandwidth:  On the Net,  bandwidth is used to mean how fast data flows on a given transmission path. Any signal has a bandwidth. Generally speaking, bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received per unit time. 

Bandwidth is proportional to the complexity of the data for a given level of system performance. For example, it takes more bandwidth to download a photograph in one second than it takes to download a page of text in one second. Large sound files, computer programs, and animated videos require still more bandwidth for acceptable system performance.

In computer systems, bandwidth is expressed as data speed in bits per second (bps). Thus, a modem that works at 57,600 bps has twice the bandwidth of a modem that works at 28,800 bps. 

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In telecommunication, the bit rate is the number of bits that are transmitted in a given time period, usually a second. 

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A bit map does not need to contain a bit of color-coded information for each pixel on every row. It only needs to contain information indicating a new color as the display scans along a row. Thus, an image with much solid color will tend to require a small bit map. 

Because a bit map uses a fixed or raster graphics method of specifying an image, the image cannot be immediately rescaled by a user without losing definition. A vector graphics image, however, is designed to be quickly rescaled. Typically, an image is created using vector graphics and then, when the artist is satisifed with the image, it is converted to (or saved as) a raster graphic file or bit map. 

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Booting or loading an operating system is different than installing it, which is generally an initial one-time activity. When you install the operating system, you may be asked to identify certain options or configuration choices. At the end of installation, your operating system is on your hard disk ready to be booted (loaded) into random access memory, the computer storage that is closer to the microprocessor and faster to work with than the hard disk. 

Typically, when an operating system is installed, it is set up so that when you turn the computer on, the system is automatically booted as well. If you run out of RAM or the operating system or an application program encounters an error, you may get an error message or your screen may "freeze", so you can't do anything. If this happens, you may have to reboot the operating system. 

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Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user.

The first widely-used browser was Netscape Navigator. Microsoft followed with Internet Explorer. Today, these two browsers are the only two browsers that the vast majority of Internet users are aware of. Although the online services, such as America Online, originally had their own browsers, virtually all now offer the Netscape or Microsoft browser. 

While some browsers also support e-mail (indirectly through e-mail Web sites) and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a Web browser is not required for those Internet Protocols and more specialized client programs are more popular. 

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A byte is abbreviated with a "B". A bit is abbreviated with a small "b".

A byte can also hold a string of bits that are used in some larger unit for application purposes (for example, the stream of bits that constitute a visual image for a program that displays images, or the string of bits that constitutes the machine code of a computer program).

In some computer systems, four bytes constitute a word, a unit that a computer processor can be designed to handle efficiently as it reads and processes each instruction. Some computer processors can handle two-byte or single-byte instructions. 

Computer storage is usually measured in bytes. For example, 64 KB (kilobyte) of memory is about 64 thousand bytes of memory; 128 MB (megabyte) of RAM means about 128 million bytes of random access memory. A 40 GB (gigabyte) hard drive holds about 40 billion bytes - or  - of data. 

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The format of the CD-ROM is the same as for audio CDs.  A standard CD is 120 mm (4.75 inches) in diameter and 1.2 mm (0.05 inches) thick and is composed of a polycarbonate plastic underlayer - this is the main body of the disc, one or more thin reflective metal (usually aluminum) layers, and a lacquer coating.

The CD-ROM, like other CD adaptations, has data encoded in a spiral track beginning at the center and ending at the outermost edge of the disc. The track holds about 650 MB of data. That's about 5.5 billion bits. 

A CD-ROM drive or "player" uses a lazer beam to decode the contents of each disk. For a detailed explaination of how a CD player actually works, see How it Works.

CD-ROM's started out with a single speed transfer rate of 150 KBps. Their speeds are now expressed as multiples of the old single speed transfer rate, 2X, 4X, 6X, and so on.
Recent models are over 50X. 

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character: Each key on your computer keyboard represents one character. Examples might include: B, f, ", ?, & +. 

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click: Using the mouse, a user positions the cursor over a link on a web page, and presses the left button on the mouse. This results in the user's browser being transferred to a new web page to view.

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client/server: On the Internet, your Web browser is a client program that requests services (the sending of Web pages) from a Web server in another computer somewhere on the Internet. 

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To code (verb) is to write the actual instructions within a program that operates in a computer.

Web Master's Note: This has become one of Mankind's most amazingly overcomplicated, and difficult to keep up with, sciences in all history. To define this further would require a formidable sized library, and before you could read half of it, would be mainly obsolete. 

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computer: A device that computes (determines by mathematics), especially a programmable electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information.

Web Master's Note - Warning: Computers rarely do what you WANT them to, they do only what you TELL them to. In other words, they cannot think. 

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cursor: a marker on a computer's monitor indicating the point of focus of the user. This marker appears as an arrow, a little hand, a symbol resembling a capitol letter- I - or a blinking verticle bar, depending on where it is placed. The position of the cursor is determined by either the mouse or the keyboard.

On the web, the cursor behaves as follows:

• I = cursor is over text.
• = cursor is over nothing interactive.
• = cursor is over an interactive link.

Off the web, users may see the cursor as a blinking verticle bar in many types of programs. In a text editor, for instance, the blinking verticle bar shows where the computer will place any text typed with the keyboard. Basically, it indicates the focus point of the computer.

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Each server on the Web has an HTTPD or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Daemon that continually waits for requests to come in from Web clients and their users. 

In mythology, a daemon, according to Webster's, was "an attendant power or spirit." 

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digital: refers to electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and negative. Positive is represented by the number 1 and negative by the number 0. Data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0's and 1's. These strings of digits are called bits. 

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directory: See folder

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A domain is also part of, and sometimes confused with, a URL. 

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Profit Gate's IP Address is 204.251.180.160 - its domain name is profitgate.net.

To better understand how connections are actually made, see our Internet Diagram.

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The first personal computer version of DOS, called PC-DOS, was developed for IBM by Bill Gates and his new Microsoft Corporation. He retained the rights to market a Microsoft version, called MS-DOS. DOS was (and still is) a non-graphical operating system, with a relatively simple, but not overly "friendly" interface . Its prompt to enter a command looks like this: 

C:>

The first Microsoft Windows operating system was really an application that ran on top of the MS-DOS operating system. Today, Windows operating systems continue to support DOS (or a DOS-like user interface) for special purposes by emulating the operating system. 

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Uploading is transmission in the other direction: from one computer to another. From an Internet user's point-of-view, uploading is sending a file to a computer that is set up to receive it. 

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As a place for direct retail shopping, with its 24-hour availability, a global reach, the ability to interact and provide custom information and ordering, and multimedia prospects, the Web is rapidly becoming a multibillion dollar source of revenue for the world's businesses. A number of businesses already report considerable success. As early as the middle of 1997, Dell Computers reported orders of a million dollars a day. By early 1999, projected e-commerce revenues for business were in the billions of dollars and the stocks of companies deemed most adept at e-commerce were skyrocketing.

The Security of Business Transactions includes authenticating business transactors, controlling access to resources such as Web pages for registered or selected users, encrypting communications, and in general, ensuring the privacy and effectiveness of transactions. Among the most widely-used security technologies is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is built into both of the leading Web browsers. 

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E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and is still THE most popular use of it. A large percentage of the total traffic over the Internet is e-mail.

E-mail is one of the protocols included in Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCPIP). 

A popular protocol for sending e-mail is - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
The two popular protocols for receiving it are POP3 and IMAP. 

Both Netscape and Microsoft include an e-mail utility with their Web browsers. 

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To execute a program is to run it in the computer, to start it.  Typically, we don't say that a program is executing; we say that it is running.

Users who receive an .exe file as an attachment to an e-mail should always beware!  Sometimes this could be a computer virus. 

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Some common examples of extensions are .exe - .gif - .jpg - .doc - and .txt 

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floppy: A small, removable data storage medium that can be used with personal computers. These magnetic diskettes are convenient for storing individual files and small programs.

The term usually refers to the flexible plastic (magnetic) disk housed in a rigid plastic cartridge measuring 3.5 inches square and about 1/8th inch thick. Also called a "3.5-inch diskette," it can store up to 1.44 megabytes (MB) of data. Most personal computers today come with a 3.5-inch diskette drive pre-installed.

Some older computers provide drives for magnetic diskettes that were 5.25 inches square, about 1 millimeter thick, and capable of holding 1.2 megabytes of data. These were sometimes called "floppy disks" or "floppies" because their housings were flexible. In recent years, 5.25-inch diskettes have been largely replaced by 3.5-inch diskettes, which are physically more rugged. Many people still call the newer hard-cased diskette a "floppy." 

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folder: Also called a directory, a folder is a place in a computer where files are stored. Similar to a hanging folder in your office filing cabinet, it holds individual files, and can have sub directories which may in turn contain files. It is a group of related files that are separated into a specific place with its own unique name. On the Windows operating system, you can view all folders in your computer using the Windows Explorer program. You can find this from the main Start Button, under Programs, sometimes under Accessories.

Folders are generally set up as you would a "family tree", like this:  

Main Directory |-- folder 1 ||__ some files | |-- folder 2 ||__ more files | Backup Directory |-- folder 1 ||__ and more files | |-- folder 2

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Data formats tend to fall into bitmaps (strings of 0s and 1s) that describe images or sound patterns (or both), text formats (in which usually each byte value is mapped to a character), and numeric data formats (used by spreadsheet and other database programs). 

Hard disks and other storage devices are also said to be formatted when their space has been organized and divided into pieces that can be controlled for convenient storage and access. For example, a hard disk may be formatted (divided into areas called sectors, tracks, and clusters).

To format (verb) a document or file for printing or displaying is to add the necessary information to it so that the output device will know how to present the output. 

To format (verb) a hard disk or diskette is to set up the space divisions and initiate a space allocation table (table of contents) that will know exactly how to reach each bit of data that may be stored there later. 

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When users request a Web page that uses frames, the address requested is actually that of the "master" file that defines the frames. The result is that multiple HTML files are displayed, one for each part. 

Links in one frame can request a file that will appear in another (or the same) frame. A common use of frames is where one frame contains a selection menu and another frame that contains the space where the selected (linked to) files will appear. 

Surveys of users indicate that many people do not like sites using frames. For more on this, click here. 

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FTP uses the Internet's TCPIP protocols and is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as the server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers. 

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A hard disk is really a set of stacked "disks," each of which has data recorded magnetically in concentric circles or "tracks" on the disk. Two heads, one on each side of a disk, read or write the data as the disk spins. A "head" records (writes) or reads the information on the tracks, something like a phonograph arm but in a more fixed position. 

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The browser is usually preset to go to the browser manufacturer's web site. However, you can set it to open to any Web site. 

For example, you can specify that http://www.profitgate.net be your home page. If you want to,  Click here to make Profit Gate your default homepage. 

You can also specify that there be no home page in which case a blank space will be displayed.

2) For a Web site developer, a home page is the first page presented when a user selects a site or presence on the World Wide Web. The usual address for a Web site is the home page address, although you can enter the address (URL Uniform Resource Locator) of any page and have that page sent to you. 

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More important than the computer space that is provided for Web site files is the fast connection to the Internet. Typically, an individual business hosting its own site would require a fast connection that would be very expensive. Using a hosting service lets many companies share the cost of a fast Internet connection for serving files.

Some Internet access providers, such as America Online, offer subscribers free space for a small Web site that is hosted by one of their computers. Geocities is a Web site that offers registered visitors similar free space for a Web site. While these services are free, they are also very basic and often include "forced" advertising banners.

A number of hosting companies describe their services as virtual hosting. Virtual hosting usually implies that their services will be transparent and that each Web site will have its own domain name and set of e-mail addresses. In most usages, hosting and virtual hosting are the same. Some hosting companies let you have your own virtual server, the appearance that you are controlling a server that is dedicated entirely to your site.

Dedicated hosting is the provision of a server machine that is dedicated to the traffic to one, or a small group of Web sites. Only very busy sites require their own dedicated hosting. Profit Gate manages its own servers which are connected directly to the main backbone of the Internet.

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HTML is a formal Recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is generally adhered to by the major browsers, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator, which also provide some additional non-standard codes. The current version of HTML is HTML 4.0. However, both Internet Explorer and Netscape implement some features differently and provide non-standard extensions. This makes building web site very challenging, even for the professional.

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Any Web server machine contains, in addition to the HTML and other files it can serve, an HTTP daemon, a program that is designed to wait for HTTP requests and handle them when they arrive. 

Your Web browser is an HTTP client, sending requests to server machines. When the browser user enters file requests by either "opening" a Web file or clicking on a hypertext link, the browser builds an HTTP request and sends it to the Internet Protocol address indicated by the URL. The HTTP daemon in the destination server machine receives the request and, after any necessary processing, the requested file is returned. 

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Hypertext was the main concept that led to the invention of the World Wide Web, which is nothing more (or less) than an enormous amount of information connected by an enormous number of hypertext links. The term was first used by Ted Nelson. 

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Specifically, ICANN coordinates the assignment of the following identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function:

Internet domain names 
IP address numbers 
protocol details

In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the Internet's root server system.

As a non-profit, private-sector corporation, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy through private-sector, bottom-up, consensus-based means. ICANN welcomes the participation of any interested Internet user, business, or organization. 

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With IMAP, your e-mail stays on the Internet server. You view your e-mail at the server as though it was on your computer. An e-mail message deleted on your computer is still on the server.

You can view just the heading and the sender of the letter and then decide whether to download the mail. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or search for certain parts or an entire note. IMAP requires continual access to the server during the time that you are working with your mail.

A simpler protocol is Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3). With POP3, your mail is saved for you in your mail box on the server. When you read your mail, all of it is immediately downloaded to your computer and no longer maintained on the server. 

POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service. IMAP can be thought of as a remote server. 

POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the Internet. You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on the recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. 

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It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster. 

Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of public communication networks. Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCPIP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol).

Anyone may access the Internet through an ISP ( Internet Service Provider). Using a browser, one may visit web sites across the World. There currently are over a billion pages to see.

For many Internet users, electronic mail (e-mail) has practically replaced the Postal Service for short written transactions. Electronic mail is the most widely used application on the Net. You can also carry on live "conversations" with other computer users, using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). More recently, Internet hardware and software allows real-time voice conversations.

The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated "WWW" or called "the Web"). Its outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of instant cross-referencing from one place to another on the Internet. Although the Web is only a part of the Internet, many people use the terms interchangeably.

In most Web sites, certain words appear in text of a different color than the rest, usually blue, and often underlined. When you click on one of these words, you get transferred to another place. This is how hypertext works.

Sometimes there are buttons, images, or portions of images that are "clickable." If you move the pointer over a spot on a Web site and the pointer changes into a hand, this indicates that you can click on it and be transferred to another site.

Using the Web, you have access to millions of pages of information. Web browsing (surfing the Net) is done with a Web browser, the most popular of which are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The appearance of a particular Web site may vary slightly depending on the browser you use. Also, later versions of a particular browser are able to render more "bells and whistles" such as animation, virtual reality, sound, and music files, than earlier versions.

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When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain. That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is specified. Once all the packets which made up the original message are received, they are re-assembled into the page or message.

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In addition, Internet users can also get access through online service providers (OSP) such as America Online and Compuserve. 

An ISP is also sometimes referred to as an IAP (Internet access provider). ISP is sometimes used as an abbreviation for independent service provider to distinguish a service provider that is an independent, separate company from a telephone company. 

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Together with the Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) , the JPEG is one of the image file formats commonly used on the World Wide Web, usually with the file suffix of ".jpg". 

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2) A word or phrase used in search engine optimization of a web page, soas to make the page easy to find in search engines. 

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The markup indicators are often called "tags." For example, this particular paragraph is preceded by a: <p> (or paragraph tag)  so that it will be separated by an empty line from the preceding line. 

Markup can be inserted by the document creator directly by typing the symbols in, by using an editor and selecting prepackaged markup symbols (to save keystrokes), or by using a more sophisticated editor that lets you create the document as you want it to appear (this is called a WYSIWYG editor). 

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The only meta tag that is visible to a browser is the Title tag, which is where that title at the very top of your browser window comes from. On this page, for example, you see the title: "Internet Dictionary by Profit Gate". All other meta tags are invisible to browsers.

The information that you provide in a meta tag is used by some search engines to help index a page so that someone searching for the kind of information the page contains will be able to find it. The meta tag is placed near the top of the HTML in a Web page as part of the heading.

There are several kinds of meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the keywords meta tag and the description meta tag. The keywords meta tag lists the words or phrases that best describe the contents of the page. The description meta tag includes a brief one or two sentence description of the page. Both the keywords and the description are used by some search engines in adding a page to their index. Some search engines also use the description to show the searcher a summary of the page's contents. 

Although most search engines also use the contents of a page as a way to determine how to index it, Web authors should be sure to include meta tags with appropriate keywords and description. Well-written meta tags can help make the page rank higher in search results. 

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Servers insert the MIME header at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use this header to select an appropriate "player" application for the type of data the header indicates. Some of these players are built into the Web browser (for example, all browsers come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML files); other types of players may need to be downloaded. 

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In more technical terms, it changes outgoing digital signals from a computer, or other digital device, to analog signals for a conventional telephone line. It also changes the incoming analog signal back to a digital signal for the digital device.

In recent years, the 2400 bits per second modem that could carry e-mail has become obsolete. 14.4 Kbps and 28.8 Kbps modems were temporary landing places on the way to the much higher bandwidth devices and carriers of tomorrow. 

From early 1998, most new personal computers came with 56 Kbps modems. By comparison, using a digital ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) adapter instead of a conventional modem, the same telephone wire can now carry up to 128 Kbps. With Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) systems, now being deployed in a number of communities, bandwidth on a phone line can be in the megabit range. 

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monitor: A computer display, similar to a television. This is a unit separate from the computer itself, but connected to it. It provides the user with visual interface with the computer. Laptop displays are not called monitors, since they are not a separate unit, but are built into the computer itself.

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mouse: A device used to communicate human instructions to a computer. About the size of a normal human hand, the mouse has a sensor that detects any movement on a flat surface. This movement causes a corresponding motion of the cursor on a computer's monitor. When this cursor is positioned over an object on the monitor screen, and one of the buttons are pressed, various actions may be caused. On the Internet, placing the mouse cursor over a link and pressing the left mouse button is known as a "click" or "clicking on a link". Clicking such a link results in the user being transferred to a new web page.

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In other words, it finds websites by taking a name like profitgate.net and locating the address numbers assigned to that domain name, then sending a browser the data contained on that website. This is a vital, basic function that allows the Internet to work. 

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Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP/IP at the receiving end). 

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In order to verify that someone entering that username really is that person, a second identification, the password, known only to that person and to the system itself, is entered by the user.

A password is typically somewhere between four and 16 characters, depending on how the computer system is set up, and has no spaces in it. When a password is entered, the computer system is careful not to display the characters on the display screen, in case others might see it.

Good criteria when choosing a password or setting up password guidelines include the following: 

• Not a password that someone can easily guess if they know who you are (for example, not your Social Security number, birthday, or maiden name) 
• Not a word that can be found in the dictionary (since there are programs that can rapidly try every word in the dictionary!) 
• Not a word that is currently newsworthy 
• Not a password that is similar to your previous password 
• A mixture of letters and at least one number 
• A word that you can easily remember 
• Many networks require that you change your password on some periodic basis.

Napster and Gnutella are examples of this kind of peer-to-peer software. Corporations are looking at the advantages of using P2P as a way for employees to share files without the expense involved in maintaining a centralized server and as a way for businesses to exchange information with each other directly. 

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The specific color that a pixel describes is some blend of three components of the color spectrum - Red, Green, Blue. Up to three bytes of data are allocated for specifying a pixel's color, one byte for each color. 

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With POP3 e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you check your mail-box on the server and download any mail. POP3 is built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. 

The other main protocol being used is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). With IMAP, your e-mail stays on the Internet server. You view your e-mail at the server as though it was on your computer. An e-mail message deleted on your computer is still on the server.

POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service. IMAP can be thought of as a remote server. 

POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the Internet. You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. 

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Typically, the program is put into a storage area accessible to the computer. The computer gets one instruction and performs it and then gets the next instruction. The memory can also contain the data that the instruction operates on. (Note that a program is also a special kind of "data" that tells how to operate on "application or user data.")

Programming (verb) is the science and art of creating programs. 

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In information technology, a protocol is the special set of rules that both ends must use in a communication when they "talk" to each other. Both end points must recognize and follow a protocol in order for things to work properly. Protocols are often described in an industry or international standard.

On the Internet, there are the TCP/IP protocols, which uses a set of rules to exchange messages with other Internet points at the information packet level, and to send and receive messages at the Internet address level. 

Additional protocols that are usually packaged with a TCP/IP system include the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), each with defined sets of rules for use on the Internet. 

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RAM is much faster to read from, and write to, than the other kinds of storage in a computer - the hard disk, floppy disk, and CD-ROM. However, the data in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. When you turn the computer off, RAM loses its data. When you turn your computer on again, your operating system and other files are once again loaded into RAM, usually from your hard disk. 

RAM can be compared to a person's short-term memory and the hard disk to the long-term memory. The short-term memory focuses on work at hand, but can only keep so many facts in view at one time. If short-term memory fills up, your brain sometimes is able to refresh it from facts stored in long-term memory. A computer also works this way. If RAM fills up, the processor needs to continually go to the hard disk to overlay old data in RAM with new, slowing down the computer's operation. Unlike the hard disk which can become completely full of data so that it won't accept any more, RAM never runs out of memory. It keeps operating, but much more slowly than you may want it to. 

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A raster file is usually larger than a vector graphics image file. A raster file is usually difficult to modify without loss of information, although there are software tools that can convert a raster file into a vector file for refinement and changes. Examples of raster image file types are: BMP, GIF, and JPEG files. 

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Everyone wants that good listing. Unfortunately, many web sites appear poorly in search engine rankings, or may not be listed at all, because they fail to consider how search engines work. Knowledge of "search engine optimization" can help many of these sites. 

Optimizing a web page consists of:

a) focusing the page on one "key word" (usually a phrase).
b) including carefully structured "metatags".
c) avoiding spamdexing (tricks intended to fool search engines).
d) structuring the page to contain the optimum number of total words vs keywords, in each of the basic parts of the page, i.e., title, keyword metatag, description metatag, body, alternate text tags on graphics, link text, and linked URL's. For more information on this click here.

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2) The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may contain a number of server and client programs). 

3) In the client/server programming model, a server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. 

Specific to the Web, a Web server is the program (housed in a computer) that sends out requested HTML pages or files. A Web client is the requesting program associated with the user. The Web browser in your computer is a client that requests HTML files from Web servers. 

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For example, our home page address is http://www.profitgate.net. 

In this case, the actual file name of the home page file doesn't have to be included because Profit Gate has named this file index.html and told the server that this address really means http://www.profitgate.net/index.html.

A Web site is rather easily confused with a Web server. A server is a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. On one hand, a very large Web site may "live" on a number of servers that may be in different geographic locations. But a more typical example is probably the site you are looking at, profitgate.net. We reside on a commercial server with a number of other sites that have nothing to do with Internet services. 

A synonym and less frequently used term for Web site is "Web presence." That term seems to better express the idea that a site is not tied to specific geographic location, but is "somewhere in cyberspace." However, "Web site" seems to be used much more often. 

You can have multiple Web sites that cross-link to files on each others' sites. This simply means that you've identified two starting places or home pages for all the files. 

Some publications have begun using the term "Website." 

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In other words, users typically have a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail, and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving e-mail. 

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Software can be thought of as the variable or programmable part of a computer, and hardware is the physical, unchanging parts. 

Software is often divided into application software (programs that do work for users) and system software (which includes operating systems and any program that supports application software). 

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From the sender's point-of-view, it's a form of bulk mail, often to a list culled from somewhere, or obtained from companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists. 

To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail. In general, it's not considered good 'netiquette' to send spam. It's generally equivalent to unsolicited phone marketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet.

Some apparently unsolicited e-mail is, in fact, e-mail people agreed to receive when they registered with a site and checked a box agreeing to receive postings about particular products or interests. This is known as both opt-in e-mail and permission-based e-mail. 

The term is reportedly derived from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. Spam is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. 

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SSH commands are encrypted and secure in several ways. Both ends of the client/server connection are authenticated using a digital certificate, and passwords are protected by being encrypted. 

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SSL is included as part of both the Microsoft and Netscape browsers and most Web server products. Developed by Netscape, SSL also gained the support of Microsoft and other Internet client/server developers and became the de facto standard until evolving into TLS. 

The "sockets" part of the term refers to the sockets method of passing data back and forth between a client and a server program in a network, or between program layers in the same computer.

TLS and SSL are an integral part of most Web browsers (clients) and Web servers.

TLS and SSL are not interchangeable. However, a message sent with TLS can be handled by a client that handles SSL but not TLS. 

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Primary storage is much faster to access than secondary storage because it is closer to the processor, and because of the mechanical nature of the storage devices. On the other hand, secondary storage can hold much more data than primary storage.

Devices that hold storage are collectively known as storage media. 

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The set of tags for a document is sometimes referred to as markup, a term that dates to pre-computer days when writers and copy editors "marked up" documents with editing symbols or shorthand. 

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TCP-IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets (see packet) that are transmitted over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. 

The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they are reassembled at the destination. 

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Text is usually distinguished from non-character encoded data, such as graphic images such as a bitmap and program code, which is sometimes referred to as being in "binary". 

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UNIX has evolved as a kind of large freeware product, with many extensions and new ideas provided in a variety of versions by different companies, universities, and individuals. 

Partly because it was not owned by any one of the leading computer companies and partly because it is written in a standard language and embraced many popular ideas, UNIX became the first open or standard operating system that could be improved or enhanced by anyone. 

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The URL contains: 
1. the name of the protocol required to access the resource, 
2. a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and 
3. a description of a file location on that computer.

Each of the above 3 parts is separated by a  /  (forward slash). Notice that after #1, the protocal type, there are two forward slashes. On the Web, an example of a URL is: 

       http://www.profitgate.net/music/music.html

which describes a Web page to be accessed with an http (Web browser application) that is located on a computer named www.profitgate.net. The directory named music contains the specific file music.html.

A URL can be used for any Web page, not just a home page, or individual file. 

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Generally a username has a password associated with it to provide better security of access. 

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In physics, a vector is a representation of both a quantity and a direction at the same time. In vector graphics, the file that results from a graphic artist's work is created and saved as a sequence of vector statements. 

For example, instead of containing a bit in the file for each part of a line drawing, a vector graphic file describes a series of points to be connected. One result is a much smaller file. 

At some point, a vector image is converted into a raster graphics image, which maps bits directly to a display space (and is sometimes called a bitmap). The vector image can be converted to a raster image file prior to its display. 

A vector file is sometimes called a geometric file. Most images created with tools such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw are in the form of vector image files. Vector image files are easier to modify than raster image files (which can, however, sometimes be reconverted to vector files for further refinement). 

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In information technology, there seems to be a virtual version of (virtually) everything. These include the virtual circuit, virtual memory, and virtual private network.

"Virtual" is derived from the Latin word "vir" ("man" in an idealized sense), from which developed the Latin "virtus" (strength, manliness, virtue). In Middle English, the adjective meant "possessed of certain physical virtues." By modern times, it had come to mean, as defined in Webster's, "being in essence or effect but not in fact." 

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Viruses can be transmitted by sending them as attachments to an e-mail note, by downloading infected programs from other sites, or from a diskette or CD. 

The source of the e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette is often unaware of the virus. Some viruses cause their effect as soon as their code is executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. 

Some viruses are playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. 

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a) The "visibility" of the site on the Internet, particularly within the major Search Engines.
b) The informational value of the site, from its target public's point of view.
c) The aesthetic / professional appearance of the pages.

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Companies vary in their use of the term. In a smaller company, a Webmaster typically "does it all." In a larger company, a Webmaster tends to be someone with either a writing and/or graphics design background who has acquired Web site creation skills (mainly knowledge and experience with HTML) or a more technical person with some programming skills.

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You can think of a Web site like a book that arrives a page at a time as you request each one. Each page of this book is an individual HTML file with its own Web address. 

The first page you usually request at a site is known as the home page. (Most home pages have a default name like "index.html" that doesn't have to be specified; you only need to enter the domain name for the site itself.) 

With frames, multiple pages (HTML files) can be downloaded to a browser and presented on designated sections of the display screen at the same time. 

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The most popular Web servers are the Apache, for UNIX-based operating systems, followed by Microsoft's Internet Information Server, which comes with Windows NT; and then Netscape FastTrack and Enterprise servers.

Other Web servers include Novell's Web Server for users of its NetWare operating system and IBM's family of Lotus Domino servers, primarily for IBM's OS/390 and AS/400 customers. 

Because it is the most popular and also the most secure system, Profit Gate uses  - a UNIX-based Apache program.

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Most companies, organizations, or individuals that own Web sites have a single address that they give you. This is their home page address. From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. 

For example, our home page address is http://www.profitgate.net. From there, you may visit any one of hundreds of web pages by clicking on the many links. 

For convenience, the actual file name of the home page file doesn't have to be included when you enter our site, because Profit Gate has named this file index.html and told our Web server that - http://www.profitgate.net - really means http://www.profitgate.net/index.html.

A Web site is rather easily confused with a Web server. A Web server is a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. On one hand, a very large Web site may "live" on a number of servers that may be in different geographic locations. But a more typical example is probably the site you are looking at, profitgate.net. We reside on a commercial server with a number of other sites that that belong to our clients.

A synonym and less frequently used term for Web site is "Web presence." That term seems to better express the idea that a site is not tied to specific geographic location, but is "somewhere in cyberspace." However, "Web site" seems to be used much more often. 

You can have multiple Web sites that cross-link to files on each others' sites. This simply means that you've identified two starting places or home pages for all the files. 

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WWW (World Wide Web): A technical definition of the World Wide Web is: all the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

A broader definition comes from the organization that Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee helped found, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): 

"The World Wide Web is the universe of network-accessible information, an embodiment of human knowledge." 

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The Consortium is international; jointly hosted by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science in the United States and in Europe by INRIA who provide both local support and performing core development. The W3C was initially established in collaboration with CERN, where the Web originated, and with support from DARPA and the European Commission." 

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For example, this page was created with a very handy tool called Dream Weaver, that conceals the markup and allows the developer to think entirely in terms of how the content should appear. (One of the trade-offs, however, is that a WYSIWYG editor does not always make it easy to fine-tune its results.) 

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It's called an "extensible" markup language because anyone can invent a particular set of markup for a particular purpose and as long as everyone uses it (the writer and an application program at the receiver's end), it can be adapted and used for many purposes - including, as it happens, describing the appearance of a Web page. That being the case, it seemed desirable to rename HTML in terms of XML. The result is XHTML, a particular application of XML for "expressing" Web pages. 

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For example, computer makers might agree on a standard or common way to describe the information about a computer product (processor speed, memory size, or whatever) and then describe the product information format with XML. Such a standard way of describing data would enable a user to send a program) to each computer maker's Web site, gather data, and then make a valid comparison. XML can be used by any individual or group of individuals or companies that wants to share information in a consistent way. 

XML, a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is similar to the language of today's Web pages, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Both XML and HTML contain markup symbols to describe the contents of a page or file. 

HTML, however, describes the content of a Web page (mainly text and graphic images) only in terms of how it is to be displayed and interacted with. For example, the letter "p" placed within markup tags starts a new paragraph. 

XML describes the content in terms of what data is being described. For example, the word "faxnum" placed within markup tags could indicate that the data that followed was a fax number. This means that an XML file can be processed purely as data by a program or it can be stored with similar data on another computer or, like an HTML file, that it can be displayed. For example, depending on how the application in the receiving computer wanted to handle the fax number, it could be stored, displayed, or dialed. 

XML is "extensible" because, unlike HTML, the markup symbols are unlimited and self-defining. It is expected that HTML and XML will be used together in many Web applications. XML markup, for example, may appear within an HTML page. 

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