The NetWin Glossary of Terms

NetWin has tried its best to provide clear and well thought out definitions on this page for the commonly used internet jargon found in web pages and user manuals. This page is provided as a help to NetWin customer's only and is not intended as a definitive technical glossary. However, if you think you have a better, or clearer definition of any of these terms we would be glad to hear about it so we can improve this glossary.

Please note that this page must cater for both experts and novices alike, hopefully the two different audiences will tend to look at different words within it. So please don't be offended or put off by any definition that seems either patronising or overly technical.

Use at your own risk, and please email us at netwin@netwinsite.com if you think you have a nicer definition for a term than the one shown on this page.

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Select the first letter of the word from the list above to jump to appropriate section of the glossary. If the term you are looking for starts with a digit or symbol, choose the '#' link.

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browser

The program that you use to view World Wide Web pages and do other internet related tasks.

e.g. Netscape, Internet Explorer etc.

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client

Refers to the program or machine that connects to a server. A client would normally only take in information or give out information that it had created, such as an email message. It would not distribute information like a server would.

e.g. An email client such as Pegasus Mail connects to an email server to read or send mail, a news client would connect to a news server to read internet news articles.

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email server

As used by NetWin for brevity the term "email server" refers to the two servers required for sending and receiving email, i.e. the SMTP and POP servers.

e.g. The DMail package which combines the DPOP server and DSMTP server along with other components to provide a full email receiving and distribution package.

 

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hyperlink or link

Any piece of text or image which when clicked on with the mouse takes or links you to another web page or section within a web page. They are normally represented by underlined text and a blue font if you haven't clicked on them before.

Hint: hold your mouse over a link and your browser will probably indicate in the bottom message bar where it is going to take you if you click on it.

eg https://netwinsite.com is a text hyperlink that when clicked on will point your browser at the page indicated by the text, in this case Netwin's home page.

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POP or POP3

A POP3, or POP for short, server handles the distribution of incoming mail. Email clients connect to a POP server to retrieve new mail messages.

Your POP server is the part of an email server package which receives mail addressed to you. Your mail is stored on the server until you log on to the POP server and collect it. The POP server may reside on your local network or on the network of your Internet Service Provider.

eg The NetWin office uses DSMTP to receive incoming mail. A particular staff member then uses and email client package which connects to DPOP to retreive their new messages.

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server

Any machine that performs the role of a receiver/supplier or passer-on of information to one or more clients and as such has a built in storage facility.

NB A server normally performs access checks to control the acces to the information it stores.

e.g. a POP server which performs the task of receiving email and storing it untill a client connects to receive their messages.

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username

The name that an individual uses to specify uniquley who they are to a computer, servers etc. Usually it is used to identify who you are when logging in to some sort of server and is often accompanied by a password to restrict access. Thus you might have several different usernames if you have access to several machines but it might save confusion if you are given the same username (and password) on each of the machines you have access to. If your username is BigFred on a particular machine then noone else can have the username BigFred on that machine.

eg To read your email you may have to login to the email server with a username. Tom Jones might have the username t.jones to uniquly identify him.

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URL

Uniform Resource Locator is the name that you type into your browser to point it at a specific location on the Internet. It gives the address of the file that your browser tries to locate and identifies which Internet service to use, eg WWW or FTP.

eg The URL for our home page is: https://netwinsite.com which says use the HTTP protocol on the file at the registered network location netwinsite.com.

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Revised: February 25, 1999.
Copyright © 1995 by [Netwin Ltd].
All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.