their own national or international backbones. Examples of true Internet Providers:
Netcom, UUNet, CERFNet, SprintNet, and Spry. Examples of partial Internet Providers &
partial Information Service Providers: CompuServe, Prodigy, and America On-Line.IRC
"Internet Relay Chat". A program or feature popularly used on the Internet by
individuals to chat with others, by typing and watching text-based dialog. Many topic
specific IRC channels have been created on the Internet by users. These channels form a
sort of forum for conference room discussion.Newsgroups
A collection of forums which gather Email from Internet users about a specific subject.
The collected Email entries (known as news articles) can then be perused by all Internet
users. Some are simply for recreational discussions, while others may allow people to form
self-supporting user groups.PGP
"Pretty Good Privacy" encryption. A protocol for using private and public key
encryption to secure Email and other Internet transactions.TCP/IP
"Transfer Control Protocol / Internet Protocol". The network communication
protocol used by all Internet computers. Similar in function to NetBIOS, SNA, or Novell
Netware’s IPX/SPX.Telnet
A program or feature popularly used on the Internet by individuals to log into, and take
control of other computers on the Internet.VRML
"Virtual Reality Markup Language" A new emerging language becoming supported by
the World Wide Web, for programming virtual reality content on the Internet.Web Browser
A type of program used by individuals which reads HTML files on the Internet and presents
them to the user in a friendly way and interactive way. Many such programs exist for many
platforms. For UNIX several GUI browsers are popular. For those UNIX based terminals or
DOS based PCs, Lynx provides a text interface to browse Web Pages. All Web Browsers allow
the user to interactively jump from place to place by selecting hotspots (highlighted text
or graphics). Some browsers allow the user to print page contents.Web Page or Web Document
A single viewable unit of Web information. Often be comprised of an HTML file with several
referenced graphics files. Generally, each Web Page has hypertext links to other Web
Pages.Web Site
A collection of Web Pages built for or by a single company or individual. Usually provides
one theme of content. A Web Site is not to be confused with a single physical location
where a Web Server exists. It is a Cyber-Location.Web Server
A combination of computer hardware, telecomm. lines, and HTTP server software.World Wide Web, WWW, or The Web
An intricate and vast web of information, tied together by hypertext links between
multimedia documents residing on thousands of Internet computers around the globe.