Adjust The righthand button on the mouse. Clicking it enables alternative functions for some commands or buttons.
Alias Either the shortform of a user's name in your Marcel address book or an alternative address used for remailing by the Configuration utility.
Anonymous FTP A system which lets you download files from remote computers without having to have a named account on them.
Archie A special server on the Internet which contains a searchable index of FTP sites.
Article An individual contribution to a newsgroup discussion.
Bandwidth The amount of data which can be transferred at once, dependent on the type of Internet connection you have: a wider connection allows more data to be transferred at once and is therefore quicker. Often used metaphorically in the sense of a limited and precious resource.
BinHex A file transmission format typically used by Apple Macintosh computers.
Bookmark A stored Internet address. This term is used by some programs as an equivalent to Hotlist.
Cache A set of temporary files stored on a computer or server, often used to speed repeated access.
Charter A document describing the purpose of a Usenet newsgroup, produced when the group is first set up.
Cross-post Post copies of the same article to several different newsgroups.
DNS Domain Name Server. The computer which translates the names you know computers as into the numerical codes which the Internet knows them as.
Domain The latter parts of an Internet address, usually the parts after the @ in an email address, denoting the name of the computer, and area or country codes, where the user's account can be found.
Download Transfer a copy of a file from another server to store on your own computer.
Expiry Process of removing downloaded news articles from your hard disc automatically once they have reached a certain age or occupy a certain amount of disc space.
FAQ Stands for Frequently Asked Questions. Usually a list of answers to questions on a particular topic.
Field A section of a dialogue box in which information is entered or stored.
finger An Internet utility which enables you to gather basic information about an Internet user or server.
Firewall A computer or program which protects internal network traffic from access by external users via the Internet.
Flame A discussion which has got heated and out of hand, perhaps descending to personal abuse.
FTP Stands for File Transfer Protocol.
Gateway A computer on a network which transfers all Internet communications from the other computers on the network.
Gopher (A program which you can use to) search special servers by subject to find documents which contain mentions of the subject you are interested in.
Header The part of an email message or news article which contains information used by the program to process it, such as the subject, sender, date etc.
Home page The page loaded when you start up a Web browser, or a page containing personal information.
Hotlist A list of favourite Internet addresses maintained by the Suite.
HTML Stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language. The mark-up language (set of formatting codes) used to create Web pages. HTML is a published standard, under development: HTML 2.0 is the current version, with HTML 3.2 still under discussion.
HTTP Stands for Hypertext transfer protocol. The URL code of Web pages.
IMAP Mail server protocol used on networks.
ISP Stands for Internet Service Provider. A (usually commercial) provider of Internet accounts.
Link Live part of a World Wide Web page which will take you to another document, site or page if you click on it. Usually distinguished by colour, underlining or a special border.
Lurking Subscribe to a newsgroup and read its messages but make no postings to it. The vast majority of newsgroup readers are `lurking': in this context it has no negative connotations.
mailto The URL type of email addresses.
Menu The middle mouse button. Click it to display the current menu.
MIME Format used to send mail attachments and retain their original formats.
Netscape The company which produces the Netscape Navigator Web browser. Also refers to the Netscape extensions, which add extra formatting commands to the HTML language.
Newsgroup Discussion group in Usenet containing articles and threads about a set topic.
NNTP The Usenet news transfer protocol.
Node Demon's term for part of the user's address:
e.g any@node.demon.co.uk
Offline Working with files while disconnected from the Internet, for example reading and replying to news and mail downloaded to your local computer and stored earlier.
Online Working with the Internet while connected to it, for example reading mail and news which are stored on the server to which you are connected, and replying to them directly.
Packet The smallest unit of data which is transmitted across networks and the Internet.
Ping Test an Internet connection by sending packets to and from your computer: utility which does this for you and helps you analyse the results.
PoP Point of Presence: the local phone number you dial to log into your Internet service.
POP Post Office Protocol. A mail transfer protocol used by many service providers for dial-up users, as either POP2 or (more usually) POP3.
Post Publish a message in a newsgroup: the metaphor is posting a message on a notice- or bulletin board.
Proxy Another computer which gains Internet access on your behalf either because of a firewall or to speed access.
rlogin Remote login to a server (usually) for administrative purposes.
SMTP Simple mail transfer protocol. A mail transfer protocol used by some service providers (for example, Demon) for dial-up users.
Spam An unwanted cross-posting to a newsgroup, irrelevant to the subject of the group.
Telnet (Program which enables you to) connect to a remote computer across the Internet as a terminal.
Terminal Computer which simply sends commands to and receives data from a more powerful computer: program which lets your computer act as a terminal.
Thread A newsgroup discussion about a particular subject, consisting of an original posting and follow-up messages to it.
URL Stands for Uniform Resource Locator: includes two parts, a code to tell you the type of resource and an address which tells you where it is located on the Internet; for example:
http://www.riscos.com/ which tells you that the address is a Web (http) address.
Usenet Name for the collection of newsgroup discussions found on the Internet.
UUencode A file compression and transfer format.
WWW Stands for World Wide Web.