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Disabling Javascript in Netscape Navigator (r)

Javascript is Netscape's scripting language for client - server applications. Javascript is used by browsers to perform tasks that HTML would not be able to achieve by itself. For example, when you see POP-UP adverts they are normally controlled/scripted in Javascript and some navigation on certain websites are Javascript controlled. If you would like to disable Javascript in Netscape Navigator (r) then follow the simple instructions below.

 For more information about Javascript click here

First click on EDIT and then PREFERENCES, then select Advanced and then Scripts & Plugins as seen in fig 1.1 below.

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We have pointed out the area of interest in fig 1.1 from here you can enable or disable javascript for navigator (internet browsing) and mail & newsgroups, it is advisable to always disable javascript in your mail client unless you have a specific need for it.

You can also see more options regarding what you can let javascript control, they are fairly self explanatory.

When you are done simplay click the OK button.

Disabling Cookies in Netscape Navigator

First click on EDIT and then select PREFERENCES from the pull dowm menu and a dialogue box similar to that shown in fig 1.1 below will appear:

The first step is to click the small arrow type image: next to Privacy & Security to expand your options (Netscape 4.7 cookie control is under the advanced option).

Now select DISABLE COOKIES and then click OK.

Netscape clearing the cache

When you visit a website using Netscape Navigator (r) the program (unless you tell it otherwise) stores certain parts of the website, for instance pictures on your hard drive temporarily, this speeds up the process of loading the website next time you visit it. Follow the instructions below to delete these temporary files if and when you need to.

 First click on EDIT and then select PREFERENCES from the pull dowm menu.

You will be presented with a dialogue box simlar to that shown in fig 1.1 below:

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The first step is to click the small arrow type image: next to Advanced to expand your options.

Next select the Cache option that appears in the left hand pane and you should see your cache settings appear on the right as seen in fig 1.1.

To clear your cache is as simple as clicking on the Clear Cache button, notice the box to the left of the button, this can be used to specify how much diskspace Netscape will use for saving cache files, the value you give it will be in Megabytes (MB).

Another option here is how often NETSCAPE compares the document in CACHE to the document on the website you are visiting. You can change this to suit your needs, once per session is the default option and probably the best for most users. When done simply click OK.

Link Prefetching is used to automatically retrieve pages before they are requested, which pages are fetched will be specified by the website you are visiting.

Netscape Navigator Bookmarks - Adding - Editing Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a way of "bookmarking" a webpage so it is easy to find again, for instance, you might find a webpage that interests you but not sure how you got to it in the first place. By bookmarking a page you can return to it with just 2 clicks of the mouse.

Follow the instructions below to add bookmarks to webpages in Netscape Navigator®

First click on BOOKMARKS, then click on ADD BOOKMARK (or bookmark this page for NN 6/7) from the Menu.

After adding you will see the page you have bookmarked at the bottom of the bookmarks. When you want to go straight to this page all you do is click on Bookmarks and then click on the page you want.

Setting the homepage in Netscape Navigator

This section will show you how to change the homepage in Netscape Navigator®

First click on EDIT on the toolbar at the top of your screen, now click on PREFERENCES with the left mouse button.

Now you will see the screen as shown below in fig 1.1, make sure that the HOME PAGE option is selected as pointed out in fig 1.1.


Type in the location box the full name of the homepage you want ie www.yourhomepage.com and then simply click on the OK button or if the page you want is the page you are currently looking at then simply click USE CURRENT PAGE.

Netscape hotkeys - keyboard Shortcuts

These are achieved by holding down the CONTROL (CTRL) key and pressing the assigned key

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To open Navigator when in Communicator use CTRL and press 1

To open Messenger when in Communicator use CTRL and press 2

To select everything on a webpage use CTRL and press A

To edit your bookmarks use CTRL and B

To copy selected text to clipboard use CTRL and C

To bookmark the current page use CTRL and press D

To find text within a webpage use CTRL and F

To see a history of webpages that have been visited use CTRL and H

To see the page info for the current webpage use CTRL and I

To forward an email in Messenger use CTRL and L

To start writing a new message (email) use CTRL and M

To open a new navigator window use CTRL and N

To goto a new location use CTRL and O

To print the current page use CTRL and P

To close Netscape use CTRL and Q

To refresh the page use CTRL and R

To save a webpage use CTRL and S

To get new messages in Messenger use CTRL and T

To view the page source of a webpage use CTRL and U

To paste text that you have copied use CTRL and V

To close the current window use CTRL and W

To go to the top of the current page use CTRL and HOME

To go to the bottom of the current page use CTRL and END

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if you are having trouble reading a webpage you can use the following to increase/decrease the font on the page (sometimes you may have to left click on the page you want to alter first to select that frame).

To increase the font use CTRL and press ]

To decrease the font use CTRL and press [

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These are achieved by holding down the ALT key and pressing the assigned key :

To go back one page (the equivalent to the BACK button) hold down ALT and press the left cursor key.

To go forward one page (the equivalent to the forward button) hold down ALT and press the right cursor key.

(cursor key being the keys with arrows on)

Clear the Cache in Firefox

There are several reasons why you may want to delete the cached files that Firefox stores, including privacy concerns and technical problems. Privacy issues will relate to the fact that the files are stored locally, which means the files can be accessed and the images viewed by someone other than yourself. Technical issues can arise with cached files. For example, if you experience difficulties with certain websites, sometimes clearing the cached files can solve it.

Firefox makes it simple to delete any files that are being stored in the cache. This page will show you how to clear the cache in Firefox versions 2, 3 and 3.5.

For more information about CACHE click here Before you follow this tutorial you must read the terms of our disclaimer.

After opening Mozilla Firefox (if you don't have it open already). On the menu bar at the top of your screen, select TOOLS, click on OPTIONS from the pull down menu, see fig 1.1 below:

Firefox Version 2 This is the Firefox Options dialogue box, click on the PRIVACY icon (labeled A in fig 1.2) and then click on the CACHE tab (labeled B in fig 1.2). You have the option of changing the amount of disk space Firefox uses for its cache, the value is in MB (Megabytes). The default value is 50MB, this is about right for most users, change if required. Click the CLEAR CACHE NOW button to delete any files that are in the cache. Then click the OK button (fig 1.2).

Firefox Version 3 and 3.5

Below is the Firefox version 3 Options dialogue box. In Firefox version 3.5 the Privacy icon will appear different, but the rest of the options dialogue box is the same.

First click on the ADVANCED icon (labeled A in fig 1.3) and then click on the NETWORK tab (labeled B in fig 1.3).



Firefox gives you the choice of changing the amount of you hard drive's storage it takes up with its cached files. The default setting in Firefox version 3 is 5MB, if you visit a lot of web pages on a regular basis then you may want to increase the amount of space.

Click the CLEAR NOW button to delete the files currently stored in the cache.

Finally, click the OK button (fig 1.3).

Clearing the history in Firefox - Clear the Mozilla Firefox Browsing History

The Browsing History Firefox stores your webpage history on your computer, it can be very useful, especially if you forget the URL of a website you recently visited and wanted to return to. To view your webpage history hold down the CTRL key and press H. Sometimes you will want to clear the browsing history, Firefox allows you to do this easily. This page will guide you through clearing the history in Firefox versions 2, 3 and 3.5.

If you are unsure which version of Firefox you are currently using, click on HELP on the main menu bar and then click on ABOUT. Below are the steps for versions 2 and 3. For version 3.5, please scroll further down.

For more information about deleting windows temporary files see our guide

Versions 2 and 3 Click on TOOLS on the menu bar, then click on OPTIONS, see fig 1.1 below:

You will then see the Firefox Options dialogue box.

The next step is to click on the PRIVACY icon, which looks slightly different in each version. Examples are shown to the right:

version 2 version 3

You will then be presented with the Firefox Privacy settings. The following steps will differ depending which version of Firefox you are using.

Firefox Version 2 An example of the privacy dialogue box in Version 2 is shown to the right. If required, alter the amount of days you wish Firefox to remember your history and then click on the CLEAR BROWSING HISTORY NOW button. Then click the OK button to close the OPTIONS dialogue box.

Firefox Version 3 In fig 1.3 to the right is an overview of the privacy dialogue box in Version 3. You can change the amount of days that Firefox will remember your history if required. You can also change other settings here, such as whether Firefox remembers what you enter into forms or into the search bar and also downloads. To clear the history click on the CLEAR NOW button and then click on the OK button.

© Copyright 2001-2010 helpwithpcs.com

Firefox Version 3.5 To clear the history in version 3.5 is very straightforward. First, click on tools on the main menu bar and then click on "Clear Recent History", as shown in fig 1.4 to the right. This opens the Clear Recent History dialogue box similar to that shown in fig 1.5.

The pulldown box allows you to choose the time range to clear, with the options of last hour, last two hours, last four hours, today and everything. By clicking on the arrow next to details you can select which part of your history is cleared. After selecting your required options click on the clear now button.

Change the Homepage in Firefox - Changing the Firefox Homepage

You can set your homepage to whatever webpage you like, but bear in mind it will be the first page that you see when you open Firefox, so make it a useful one! Some examples would include: Your email account, if you check your emails first thing, or maybe your preferred news website or search engine. In this guide we take you through changing your homepage in Mozilla Firefox versions 2 and 3. We show you how to set the homepage to either your current page, an existing bookmark, or alternatively, by typing in the address of the webpage.

Open up Mozilla Firefox if you haven't already. Click on TOOLS on the menu bar at the top of the Firefox screen, then click on OPTIONS see fig 1.1 on the right for a screenshot: After clicking options you will see the Firefox Options dialogue box, as shown below in fig 1.2 or fig 1.3, depending on your version of Firefox.

Firefox Versions up to and including Version 2

Firefox Version 3

Type the address of the webpage that you would like to use as your new homepage into the box provided (see Fig 1.2 or Fig 1.3 above), and click the OK button.

If it is the webpage you are currently viewing, just click the Use Current Page button, then simply click on the OK button.

Notice in Firefox you can also use one of your existing bookmarks as your new homepage.

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts for Mozilla Firefox

CTRL + A	Select all text on a webpage
CTRL + B	Open the Bookmarks sidebar
CTRL + C	Copy the selected text to the Windows clipboard
CTRL + D	Bookmark the current webpage
CTRL + F	Find text within the current webpage
CTRL + G	Find more text within the same webpage
CTRL + H	Opens the webpage History sidebar
CTRL + I	Open the Bookmarks sidebar
CTRL + J	Opens the Download Dialogue Box
CTRL + K	Places the cursor in the Web Search box ready to type your search
CTRL + L	Places the cursor into the URL box ready to type a website address
CTRL + M	Opens your mail program (if you have one) to create a new email message
CTRL + N	Opens a new Firefox window
CTRL + O	Open a local file
CTRL + P	Print the current webpage
CTRL + R	Reloads the current webpage
CTRL + S	Save the current webpage on your PC
CTRL + T	Opens a new Firefox Tab
CTRL + U	View the page source of the current webpage
CTRL + V	Paste the contents of the Windows clipboard
CTRL + W	Closes the current Firefox Tab or Window (if more than one tab is open)
CTRL + X	Cut the selected text
CTRL + Z	Undo the last action

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Windows Keyboard Shortcuts for Mozilla Firefox
F1	Opens Firefox help
F3	Find more text within the same webpage
F5	Reload the current webpage
F6	Toggles the cursor between the address/URL input box and the current webpage
F7	Toggles Caret Browsing on and off. Used to be able to select text on a webpage with the keyboard
F11	Switch to Full Screen mode

Microsoft Word

'Webbed ' Tables
A 'Web look' can be imparted to your documents by using a Web formatting style. Select the Table and fro the Table menu, select Table AutoFormat. in the list of styles in the Formats box, three new Web styles have been added. Click on any of them for a 'Webby' look.
Watermark Your Documents
Creating your own watermark for professional looking documents is pretty simple in Work. First go to view > Header and Footer and click on the Show/Hide Text toolbar button located on the Header and Footer toolbar (insert icon image). This should temporarily hide the text. Now you can insert a graphics object using Clip Art, Word Art or even AutoShape. Place the graphics where you want it to be seen, and adjust the color of the watermark by right clicking on the object and choosing properties.
Convert Tables to Plain Old Text
Sometimes copying to and fro with a browser result in unwanted tables being created. this can be easily removed by converting into individual paragraphs and click on Table to Text option under Convert in the Table menu. the separation character can also be specified instead of normal column lines using the "Separate text with" option
Center Text Vertically
Text in Word can be centered horizontally as well as vertically. For the vertical centering, open File > Page Setup and click on the Layout tab. Select the Center option in the Alignment pill-down menu. Format you r document as usual and view its positioning using the print preview button.
Get Rid of Curly Quotes
Typing quotes in Word results in straight quotes being converted to small quoted automatically. This is done by Autocorrect function. Pressing Ctrl+Z (Shortcut for Undo) after typing single or double quoted will give you straight quotes. To permanently turn the feature off, click on Tools > Autocorrect > AutoFormat as you type and disable Straight quotes with smart quotes.
Collate Documents
Collating documents copies can be done automatically in Word. To collate documents while you print, click on the Print option from the File menu and click the "Collate" check box in the Copies heading. then fill the number of copies you want tin the box labeled "Number of copies". Simple click Print to get the collated multiple copes you want.
Bring Straying Lines Back Into Fold
A cool feature for your squeezers; get those extra lines on the last page of your document. Click on File > Print Preview. in the Print Preview window, click the Shrink to Fit button to fit the few overflowing lines onto the last page.
Create Email Signatures
Word allows you to create multiple signatures for your emails created in Word. To create to add a new signature, go to Tools > Options and click on the General tab, click the Email Option button. Type the signature it the text box below, type its name and click Add to add it to the set of signatures you can use. You can also set the default signatures for New and Forwarded/Replied Messages.
Take the Synonym Shortcut
Checking out synonyms of a word generally involves looking it up in the thesaurus in the Tools > Language menu. A faster way is to just select the word and right click it. In the menu, select synonyms and you will be presented with a list of synonyms to choose from. You can also click on Thesaurus to lookup more synonyms. often, Word will also present a few antonyms when you know what you don't mean to say.

StartOffice

Impressive Insert
Ever wanted to place slides from other files in your newest one? You can insert StartOffice Impress slides from multiple files into your own without even opening. Click on Insert > File and locate the file. click on Insert and expand the tree on the Insert Slides/Objects dialog box to select specific slides.
Spaced out Lines
Line spacing can be doubled in StartOffice Writer. To change the line spacing, click on Format > Paragraph > Indents and Spacing. Under Line Spacing, select Double and click OK.
Hidden Views
If inserting a picture in your document results in a frame and the name of the image, don't fret. Its just that the option to display pictures has been disabled. To enable it, click on Tools > Options > Text Document > Contents. Enable the Picture and Objects option in the Display section. Click OK to make those hidden pictures appear. You can disable the option in your document contains a number of images and refreshed slowly.
Change your Default Directory
You can change the default directories for most items. This can be useful if the document you work on are located in different locations. To change default paths for StartOffice documents, open Tools > Options > General > Paths. then scroll down and select 'Work Folder' in the list. Click on the Edit button to edit the default folder. Similarly, you can edit other default folders form the list.
Honey!, I shrunk the File
If you delete slides in StarImpress, you might be surprised to see absolutely no change in the file size. This is because it maintains the deleted slides anyway. To purge deleted slides form the presentation, click on Format > Styles & Templates > Slide design. Click on Remove unused master pages and click OK.
Frozen Rows and Columns
Ever wanted to have the headings of your StartOffice Calc file visible even when you scrolled down the window? Split the window across the rows and columns you wish to keep visible. To do this, drag the split tool above and to the right of the scrollbars. Click on Window > Freeze to lock the split areas.
PostScript Save
Creating a PostScript file of your documents allows you to store the file in a format that can be printed form a system that does not have StartOFfice installed. To save a file as a PostScript file, click on the File > Print. enable the Print to File option in the Print dialog box. Save the output to a file with a .PS extension.
Numbered Pages
To insert page numbers in your StarOffice documents, click on Format > Page > Footer (Header, if you want to insert page numbers in the header). Enable the Footer on check box and click OK. Move the insertion point to the footer and click on Insert > Fields > Page Numbers to insert page numbers.
Changing Templates
You can add a template to a slide without changing the remaining ones. Select the slide you want to change; the name of the template being used is visible in the lower right corner on the stats bar. Double click to bring up the Slide Design dialog box. Click on the Load button and select Presentation Layouts from the list of available templates. Select the template you want and click OK. Make sure that the Exchange background page option is unchecked and click OK.

Glossary of Internet Terms

A

ADN -- (Advanced Digital Network)
Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line.

ADSL -- (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
A DSL line where the upload speed is different from the download speed. usually the download speed is much greater.

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.

Archie
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it. By 1999 Archie had been almost completely replaced by web-based search engines. back when FTP was the main way people moved files over the Internet Archie was quite popular.

ARPANet -- (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60's and early 70's by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking to connect together computers that were each running different system so that people at one location could use computing resources from another location.

ASCII -- (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
This is the defector 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. 

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B

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.

Bandwidth
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. 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.

Baud
In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bitsit 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).

BBS -- (Bulletin Board System)
A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. In the early 1990's there were many thousands (millions?) of BBS?s around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like AOL gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.

Binary
Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used to refer to files that are not simply text files, e.g. images.

Binhex -- (BINary HEXadecimal)
A method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII. This is needed because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII.

Bit -- (Binary DigIT)
A single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero. The smallest unit of computerized data. Bandwidthis usually measured in bits-per-second.

BITNET -- (Because It's Time NETwork (or Because It's There NETwork))
A network of educational sites separate from the Internet, but e-mail is freely exchanged between BITNET and the Internet. Listservs®, a popular form of e-mail discussion groups, originated on BITNET. BITNET machines are usually mainframes running the VMS operating system, and the network is probably the only international network that is shrinking.

bps -- (Bits-Per-Second)
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.

Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

BTW -- (By The Way)
A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.

Byte
A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more, depending on how the measurement is being made.

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C

CATP -- (Caffeine Access Transport Protocol)
Common method of moving caffeine across Wide Area Networks such as the Internet
CATP was first used at the Binary Cafe in Cybertown and quickly spread world-wide.
There are reported problems with short-circuits and rust and decaffinated beverages were not supprted until version 1.5.3

Certificate Authority
An issuer of Security Certificates used in SSL connections.

CGI -- (Common Gateway Interface)
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the CGI program) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.

cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGIprograms are stored.

Client
A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer, often across a great distance. EachClient program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.

co-location
Most often used to refer to having a server that belongs to one person or group physically located on an Internet-connected network that belongs to another person or group. Usually this is done because the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed Internet connection and/or they do not want the security risks of having the server on their own network.

Cookie
The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.
Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the Browsers' settings, the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie, and may save the Cookie for either a short time or a long time.
Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online "shopping cart" information, user preferences, etc.
When a Server receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie, the Server is able to use the information stored in the Cookie. For example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user, or keep a log of particular users' requests.
Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their "expire time" has not been reached.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.

Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk was originally a cultural sub-genre of science fiction taking place in a not-so-distant, dystopian, over-industrialized society. The term grew out of the work of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and has evolved into a cultural label encompassing many different kinds of human, machine, and punk attitudes. It includes clothing and lifestyle choices as well.
See also: Cyberspace

Cyberspace
Term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer the word Cyberspace is currently used to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer networks.

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D

Digerati
The digital version of literati, it is a reference to a vague cloud of people seen to be knowledgeable, hip, or otherwise in-the-know in regardsto the digital revolution.

Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine. For example, the domain names:

softwaretipsandtricks.com
vistaarticles.com

can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine.
Usually, all of the machines on a given Network will have the same thing as the right-hand portion of their Domain Names (matisse.net in the examples above). It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name.

DSL -- (Digital Subscriber Line)
A method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber's premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased line (howeverr a DSL circuit is not a leased line.
A common configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.
Another common configuration is symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second in both directions.
In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second.
DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN, being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.

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E

Email -- (Electronic Mail)
Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.

Ethernet
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN.
There is more than one type of Ethernet. By 2001 the standard type was "100-BaseT" which can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.

Extranet
An intranet that is accesible to computers that are not hysically part of a companys' own private network, but that is not accessible to the general public, for example to allow vendors and business partners to access a company web site.
Often an intranet will make use of a Virtual Private Network. (VPN.)

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F

FAQ -- (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQs are documents that list and answerthe most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.

FDDI -- (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as 10-BaseTEthernet, about twice as fast as T-3).

Finger
An Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.

Fire Wall
A combination of hardware and software that separates a Network into two or more parts for security purposes.

Flame
Originally, "flame" meant to carry forth in a passionate manner in the spirit of honorable debate. Flames most often involved the use of flowery language and flaming well was an art form. More recently flame has come to refer to any kind of derogatory comment no matter how witless or crude.

Flame War
When an online discussion degenerates into a series of personal attacks against the debaters, rather than discussion of their positions. A heated exchange.

FTP -- (File Transfer Protocol)
A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites.
FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name "anonymous", thus these sites are called "anonymous ftp servers".
FTP was invented and in wide use long before the advent of the World Wide Web and originally was always used from a text-only interface.

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G

Gateway
The technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols, for example America Online has a gateway that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail format and Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe any mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway to the Internet.

GIF -- (Graphic Interchange Format)
A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.

Gigabyte
1000 or 1024 Megabytes, depending on who is measuring.

Gopher
Invented at the University of Minnesota in 1993 just before the Web, gopher was a widely successful method of making menus of material available over the Internet.
Gopher was designed to be much easier to use than FTP, while still using a text-only interface.
Gopher is a Client and Server style program, which requires that the user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher spread rapidly across the globe in only a couple of years, it has been largely supplanted by Hypertext, also known as WWW (World Wide Web). There are still thousands of Gopher Servers on the Internet and we can expect they will remain for a while.

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H

Hit
As used in reference to the World Wide Web, ?hit? means a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server; thus in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 ?hits? would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics.

Home Page (or Homepage)
Several meanings. Originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. Check out so-and-so's new Home Page.

Host
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It is quite common to have one host machine provide several services, such as SMTP (email) and HTTP (web).

HTML -- (HyperText Markup Language)
The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear.
The "hyper" in Hypertext comes from the fact that in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or an image, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a "Web Browser".
HTML is loosely based on a more comprehensive system for markup called SGML.

HTTP -- (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
The protocol for moving hypertextfiles across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).

Hypertext
Generally, any text that contains links to other documents - words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.

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I

IMAP -- (Internet Message Access Protocol)
IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by email clients in communicating with email servers.
Using IMAP an email client program can not only retrieve email but can also manipulate message stored on the server, without having to actually retrieve the messages. So messages can be deleted, have their status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc. IMAP is defined in RFC 2060

IMHO -- (In My Humble Opinion)
A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the writer is aware that they areexpressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion. One of many such shorthands in common use online, especially in discussion forums.

internet (Lower case i)
Any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet - as in inter-national or inter-state.

Internet (Upper case I)
The vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's.
The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet and is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world.

Intranet
A private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use. Compare with extranet.

IP Number -- (Internet Protocol Number)
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g.
165.113.245.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Many machines (especially servers) also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

IRC -- (Internet Relay Chat)
Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.

ISDN -- (Integrated Services Digital Network)
Basically a way to move more dataover existing regular phone lines. ISDN is available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000or 64,000 bits-per-second.
Unlike DSL, ISDN can be used to connect to many different locations, one at a time, just like a regular telephone call, as long the other location also has ISDN.

ISP -- (Internet Service Provider)
An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

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J

Java
Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.
Java is often used to build large, complex systems that involve several different computers interacting across networks, for example transaction processing systems.
Java is also becoming popular for creating programs that run in small electronic devices, such as mobile telephones.
A very common use of Java is to create programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.

JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is included in an HTML file it relies upon the browser to interpret the JavaScript. When JavaScript is combined with Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called DHTML.

JDK -- (Java Development Kit)
A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debugJava applications and applets
See also: Applet, Java

JPEG -- (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed to line art or simple logo art.

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K

Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024 (210) bytes.

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L

LAN -- (Local Area Network)
A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.

Leased Line
Refers to line such as a telephone line or fiber-optic cable that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7-days-a-week use from your location to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased line.

Listserv ®
The most common kind of maillist, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.

Login
Noun or a verb.
Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret (contrast with Password).
Verb: the act of connecting to a computer system by giving your credentials (usually your "username" and "password")

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M

Maillist
(or Mailing List) A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.

Megabyte
A million bytes. Actually, technically, 1024 kilobytes.

MIME -- (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Originally a standard for defining the types of files attached to standard Internet mail messages. The MIME standard has come to be used in many situations where one cmputer programs needs to communicate with another program about what kind of file is being sent.
For example, HTML files have a MIME-type of text/html, JPEG files are image/jpeg, etc.

Mirror
Generally speaking, "to mirror" is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common use of the term on the Internet refers to "mirror sites" which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain copies of material originated at another location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource. For example, one site might create a library of software, and 5 other sites might maintain mirrors of that library.

Modem -- (MOdulator, DEModulator)
A device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a computer. A modem allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.

MOO -- (Mud, Object Oriented)
One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments.

Mosaic
The first WWW browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows,and UNIX all with the same interface. Mosaic really started the popularity of the Web. The source-code to Mosaic was licensed by several companies and used to create many other web browsers.
Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the Univeristy of Urbana-Champange in Illinois, USA. The first version was released in late 1993.

MUD -- (Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension)
A (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development, or education purposes and all thatlies in between. A significant feature of most MUDs is that users can create things that stay after they leave and which other users can interact within their absence, thus allowing a world to be built gradually and collectively.

MUSE -- (Multi-User Simulated Environment)
One kind of MUD - usually with little or no violence.

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N

Netiquette
The etiquette on the Internet.

Netizen
Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet or someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.

Netscape
A WWW Browser and the name of a company. The Netscape (tm) browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Network
Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an internet.

Newsgroup
The name for discussion groups on USENET.

NIC -- (Network Information Center)
Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous of these on the Internet was the InterNIC, which was where most new domain names were registered until that process was decentralized to a number of private companies.

NNTP -- (Network News Transport Protocol)
The protocol used by clientand server software to carry USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IP network. If you are using any of the more common software such as Netscape, Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to participate in newsgroups then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.
See also: Client, Server, TCP/IP

Node
Any single computer connected to a network.

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O

Open Source Software
Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes. There are many types of Open Source Software, mainly differing in the licensing term under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or must be) redistributed.

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P

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 along different routes by special machines along the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.
You might think of several caravans of trucks all using the same road system. to carry materials.

Password
A code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such as virtue7. A good password might be:
5%df(29)
But don't use that one!

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.

POP -- (Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol)
Two commonly used meanings:
Point of Presence and 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 a way that e-mail client software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain an account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 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. Another protocol called IMAP is replacing POP for email.

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/
This 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 is will run on a Macintosh.

Portal
Usually used as a marketing term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other service to entice people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to the Web.

Posting
A single message entered into a network communications system.

PPP -- (Point to Point Protocol)
The most common protocol used to connect home computers to the Internet over regular phone lines.
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.

Proxy Server
A Proxy Server sits in between a Client and the "real" Server that a Client is trying to use. Client's are sometimes configured to use a Proxy Server, usually an HTTP server. The clients makes all of it's requests from the Proxy Server, which then makes requests from the "real" server and passes the result back to the Client. Sometimes the Proxy server will store the results and give a stored result instead of making a new one (to reduce use of a Network). Proxy servers are commonly established on Local Area Networks.

PSTN -- (Public Switched Telephone Network)
The regular old-fashioned telephone system.

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R

RFC -- (Request For Comments)
The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and published on the Internet, as a Request For Comments. The proposal is reviewed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/), a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC, e.g. the official standard for e-mail message formats is RFC 822.

Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
See also: Network, Packet Switching

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S

SDSL -- (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
A version of DSL where the upload speeds and download speeds are the same.

Search Engine
A (usually web-based) system for searching the information available on the Web.
Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents of other systems and creating a database of the results. other search engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in a database, and some combine the two approaches.

Security Certificate
A chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.

Server
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g. "Our mail server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out."
A single server machine can (and often does) have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

SLIP -- (Serial Line Internet Protocol)
A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem to connect a computer as a realInternet site. SLIP has largely been replaced by PPP.

SMDS -- (Switched Multimegabit Data Service)
A standard for very high-speed data transfer.

SMTP -- (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
The main protocol used to send electronic mail from server to server on the Internet.
SMTP is defined in RFC 821 and modified by many later RFC's

SNMP -- (Simple Network Management Protocol)
A set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network. Examples of these devices include routers, hubs, and switches.
SNMP is defined in RFC 1089

Spam (or Spamming)
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn?t ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also have come from someone?s low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam® is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)

SQL -- (Structured Query Language)
A specialized language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength and many smaller database applications can be addressed using SQL. Each specific application will have its own slightly different version of SQL implementing features unique to that application, but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL.
A example of an SQl statement is:
SELECT name,email FROM people_table WHERE contry='uk'

SSL -- (Secure Socket Layer)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet.

Sysop -- (System Operator)
Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. For example, a System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.

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T

T-1
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 lines are commonly used to connect large LANs to the Internet.

T-3
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video.

TCP/IP -- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now included with every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

Telnet
The command and program used to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet command/program gets you to the login: prompt of another host.

Terabyte
1000 gigabytes.

Terminal
A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.

Terminal Server
A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine onthe other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Mostterminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.

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U

UDP -- (User Datagram Protocol)
One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. UDP is a "stateless" protocol in that UDP makes no provision for acknowledgement of packets received.

Unix
A computer operating system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets). Unix is designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.
Apple computers' Macintosh operating system, as of version 10, is based on Unix.

URI -- (Uniform Resource Identifier)
An address for s resource available on the Internet.
The first part of a URI is called the "scheme". the most well known scheme is http, but there are many others. Each URI scheme has its own format for how a URI should appear.

Here are examples of URIs using the http, telnet, and news schemes:
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com
telnet://well.sf.ca.us
news:new.newusers.questions

URL -- (Uniform Resource Locator)
The term URL is basically synonymous with URI. URI has replaced URL in technical specifications.

URN -- (Uniform Resource Name)
A URI that is supposed to be available for along time. For an address to be a URN some institution is supposed to make a commitment to keep the resource available at that address.

USENET
A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on the Internet. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

UUENCODE -- (Unix to Unix Encoding)
A method for converting files from Binaryto ASCII (text) so that they can be sent across the Internet via e-mail.

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V

Veronica -- (Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives)
Developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica was a constantly updated database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopherservers. The Veronica database could be searched from most major gophermenus.
Now made obsolete by web-bases search engines.

VPN -- (Virtual Private Network)
Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.

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W

WAIS -- (Wide Area Information Servers)
A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities of information, and then making those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet. A prominent feature of WAIS is that the search results are ranked (scored) accordingto how relevant the hits are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last batch and thus refine the search process.

WAN -- (Wide Area Network)
Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.

WWW -- (World Wide Web)
Frequently used (incorrectly) when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two major meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.

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X

XML -- (eXtensible Markup Language)
A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.
As long as a programmer has the XML definition for a collection of data (often called a "schema") then they can create a program to reliably process any data formatted according to those rules.