Internet Related Terminology


Email
Short for electronic mail.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. Allows transfer of files between computers on the internet.
Gopher
Gopher is a way of accessing documents on the internet, a predecessor to the WWW. The University of Minnesota has more information about gopher.
Listservers
Listservers allow you to subscribe to mailing lists through email, in this case, PINE. Some mailing lists process a large number of messages daily. If you subscribe, check your email often.
Usenet News
Usenet News can be thought of as a form of online conferencing. Imagine a bulletin board where people of similar interests post messages. Messages are posted and read through a newsreader, The CCN uses TIN. These 'bulletin boards' aka newsgroups can have a local distribution, or can be read by people all over the world. For more information on Usenet News, refer to the documentation on TIN in the Online Users' Guide.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Hypertext markup language. Formatting plain text with special codes to allow documents to be viewed by Lynx, Netscape, or any other WWW browser.
Telnet
Telnet is a way to connect to a computer elsewhere in the world. For example, if you have an account on the CCN, you can visit other Community Nets and Free-Nets around the world. If you visit Community, Support, and Development on the CCN home page, you will find links to Free-Nets around the world. One way of traveling to these remote Community Nets and Free-Nets is to use telnet. It can be compared to dialing long distance, but without the charges.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The address of a WWW site or document. For example, the CCN address (URL) is http://www.chebucto.ns.ca. Think of it as a one Dewey Decimal system for all the libaries in the world. (Side note: the numerical address is http://129.173.4.90).
World Wide Web (WWW)
A collection of information on the Internet which is connected by hypertext. You can imagine having documents stored in computers all over the world and accessed by cross-referencing a hypertext link. Hypertext links contain the address of another (usually related) document.
WWW browser
Software on your computer that allows you to use the WWW.
WWW Searching
There are ways you can search the World Wide Web (WWW). On the CCN, whenever you follow a link, it may take you to a place elsewhere on the WWW. Search tools such as Webcrawler and Yahoo are used to search the WWW for topics of interest. There is no repository on the Chebucto Community Net for search tools, but if you explore, you will find them.