Glossary of useful Internet terms

Alt. Tag

An Alt. Tag is relevant wording that is hidden “behind” an image and is placed there for 2 main reasons.

1. To give relevant information about the image to the various
   Search Engine spiders.
2. To give
   the browser information in cases that the images are not uploaded due to browser incompatibility.

Applet

A small Java program that can be embedded in an
HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The common rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.See also: HTML,

Java

Application Server

Server software that manages one or more other pieces of software in a way that makes the managed software available over a network, usually to a
Web server. By having a piece of software manage other software packages it is possible to use resources like memory and database access more efficiently than if each of the managed packages responded directly to requests.See also: ASP,

Server

ASCII — (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

This is the defacto world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.

ASP — (Application Service Provider)

A organization (usually a business) that runs one or more applications on their own servers and provides (usually for a fee) access to others. Common examples of services provided this way include web-based software such as Calendar systems, Human Resources tools (timesheets, benefits, etc.), and various applications to help groups collaborate on projects.
See also:
Application Server,
Server

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Backbone

A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small
network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.See also: Network

Bandwidth

How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (bps.) A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.See also: Bit,
bps,
T-1

Baud

In common usage the “baud” of a modem is how many

bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300= 1200 bits per second).See also: Bit,