Internet Dictionary
Click on a letter to see the relevant terms: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z
Acrobat This outstanding software from Adobe Systems Incorporated is rapidly becoming the standard for publishing and reading multimedia documents on the Internet and CD ROMS. If you do not have the Acrobat Reader on your hard disk, you can download a copy free of charge from the Adobe Website by clicking here ---> Adobe.com. Whenever you see a file with an extension of pdf at this web site or others, you can read the file with the Acrobat reader.
Alphanumeric An adjective that refers to alphabet letters, numbers, etc. A text document contains alphanumeric characters because it has letters, numbers, and other characters. Examples of alphanumeric characters are a, m, c, 4, 7, 3, $, ~, :, /, and so on. Simply put, alphanumeric refers to any of the characters on a computer keyboard, plus some other characters used by programmers to control printers and other devices.
Analog signal A signal that changes gradually or continuously during the cycle. A sine wave is an example of an analog signal. On the other hand, a square wave is an example of a digital signal.
Anonymous FTP With restricted FTP, a server lets you download its files only if you have received a log in ID and password from the people hosting the site. With anonymous FTP, you don't need a special ID and password to download files. In other words, it's wide-open access because anyone can download the files. The access is not always anonymous, however, because some servers may ask you to enter your e-mail address.
Applet A small program designed to be used within a larger program. An applet performs only one useful task, like calculating the day of the week given a date, calculating how long it would take to pay off a mortage, calculating sales tax, etc.
Archie An online system for finding files on the Internet. It consists of a program and servers that compile and index all archived files (Archie is derived from archive) on the Internet.
Archive A file that combines one or more compressed files for efficient storage. An archived file takes up much less space than the original files (typically half). You need a decompression program to get the original files back. PKZIP is an example of a compression program, while PKUNZIP is a decompression program. A file with the .zip extension is an archived file.
Arcnet Attached Resources Computer Network. This network architecture uses coaxial cables to network a maximum of 256 computers. It was the first commercially available LAN. At its fastest, Arcnet can reach speeds of 2.5 Mbps.
Arpanet Advanced Research Project Agency Network. Arpanet was a world-wide network of computers funded by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1960's. It was the basis for early networking research, as well as facilitating communication between universities and research organizations. Born during the cold war, Arpanet was specifically designed to withstand nuclear attack, which may be one of the reasons why today's Internet is beyond the control of any nation. Although Arpanet has since been dismantled, it is considered the forefather of the Internet because it created the initial backbone.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange. To get data into and out of a computer, we need to convert letters and numbers into bytes that the computer can work with. Pronounced "ask-key", ASCII is the standard code used to convert each alphanumeric character into a unique byte. At one time, every manufacturer used his own code for this alphanumeric-byte conversion, which led to all kinds of confusion. Eventually, industry settled on the ASCII code as the standard input-output code. The ASCII code allows manufacturers to standardize input-output hardware such as keyboards, printers, video displays, and so on.
At-sign @ In an e-mail address, the @ sign separates the user ID from the domain name of the mail server. A typical e-mail address has the form of user@domain or jsmith@aol.com.
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