Select
a letter to view the defination of the terms beginning with
that letter.
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- Packet
Switching
- The
method used to move data around on the Internet.
In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine
is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address of
where it came from and where it is going. This enables chunks
of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the
same lines, and be sorted and directed to different routes
by special machines along the way. This way many people
can use the same lines at the same time.
- Parking
(Domain Name)
- Registries
require the use of name servers or hosts for every domain
registered. Parking is the process by which someone selects
a domain name, and "parks" it by registering the domain
name under someone's name servers. Parking can be done by
anyone, to anyone else who has active name servers. However,
parking a domain name alone will result in no service (webhosting,
e-mail) for that particular domain name.
- Password
- A
code used to gain access to a locked system. Good passwords
contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations
such as virtue7. A good password might be: Hot-6
- Plug-in
- A
(usually small) piece of software that adds features to
a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins
for the Netscape® browser and web server.
Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins.
The
idea behind plug-in's is that a small piece of software
is loaded into memory by the larger program, adding a
new feature, and that users need only install the few
plug-ins that they need, out of a much larger pool of
possibilities. Plug-ins are usually developed by a third
party.
- POP
- (Point
of Presence, also Post Office Protocol) -- A Point of Presence
usually means a city or location where a network can be
connected to, often with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet
company says they will soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means
that they will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade
and/or a place where leased lines can connect to their network.
A second meaning, Post Office Protocol refers to the way
e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server.
When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell account you almost
always get a POP account with it, and it is this POP account
that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail.
- Port
- 3
meanings. First and most generally, a place where information
goes into or out of a computer, or both. E.g. the serial
port on a personal computer is where a modem would
be connected.
On
the Internet port often refers to a number that is part
of a URL, appearing after a colon (:) right after
the domain name. Every service on an Internet server
listens on a particular port number on that server. Most
services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers
normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on
non-standard ports, in which case the port number must
be specified in a URL when accessing the server, so you
might see a URL of the form:
gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/
shows
a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard
gopher port is 70). Finally, port also refers to translating
a piece of software to bring it from one type of computer
system to another, e.g. to translate a Windows program
so that it will run on a Macintosh.
- Posting
- A
single message entered into a network communications system.
E.g. A single message posted to a newsgroup or message
board.
- PPP
- (Point
to Point Protocol) -- Most well known as a protocol that
allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a
modem to make TCP/IP connections and thus
be really and truly on the Internet.
- Propagation
- The
process whereby the nameservers throughout the world have
updated their records for a specific domain. For example,
if you move your domain from one host to another, it will
take around 24 hours or so for the new address to broadcast
everywhere. During that 24 hour period, the traffic is decreasing
at the old location and increasing at the new location.
- PSTN
- (Public
Switched Telephone Network) -- The regular old-fashioned
telephone system.
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