Dial-up connection. Your link to the Internet via your telephone.  

Direct connect. Permanent connection to the Web, probably a leased line.

Directory. An indexer of webpages. When you submit your site, they review it manually (as opposed to automatically, as does a search engine.). You enter a query, and they return to you pages they found at the site, according to the information which they stored after the review. Because of the way that you use it, the terms directory and search engine are often confused. Also see search engine.

DNS. Domain name server. The address of your Internet server as known by the Web. Example: 123.456.789.876. You type in the domain name, it gets translated to the DNS number, an inquiry is sent to that server, and it is directed to your chosen domain. Thus, you are connected to the website.

Document. In Internet terms, it is any webpage to which you can link.

Domain name.A mnemonic device used to identify a website. abc.com may translate to a dns such as 123.456.789.876, but abc.com is easier to remember and to market. If your domain name registration is not current, then your website will be "disconnected" from the Web. See InterNIC.

Doorway page. See gateway page.

Download. To transfer a file from the server to your computer.

DSL. Digital subscriber link. Uses telephone links similar to dial-up, but it is only point-to-point, similar to a leased line. Thus, it is a hybrid. It is faster than a dial-up connection. A typical DSL sends you information at 1.544 Mbps (Megabits per second) and you send info back up at 128 Kbps.

DSU. Digital services unit. Basically, a synchronous "modem" but no modulation is used.

Dynamic content. webpage information which changes automatically, or sometimes depending upon an entry that you make.

EDI. Electronic data interchange.A protocol for conducting business via telecommunications.

Email. E-mail. Electronic mail. The Post Office's worst profit nightmare.

FAQ. Frequently asked questions. Instead of your having to wait for a personal response from the website owner (if ever), a FAQ page on the site lets you look for a possible instant answer to your question.

Finger. Please see who-is.

FFA. Free-for-all. All you need to do to get on the list is to post your website. Since there is no real organization or control (free for all) they tend to be worthless for finding anything. Search engines often consider this kind of site as spam. See also link farm.

Font. Typeface.

FTP. File transfer protocol. A method of moving files to/from your local PC and a remote server.

Gateway page. This is a document on your website designed for search engines, not necessarily for human users. Gateway pages are often disqualified from modern search engines because they do not have usable content.

GIF. Graphic interchange format. A compressed graphic format. The most common formats for the Internet remain .gif and .jpg. The .gif format is most useful for graphics which use large areas of the same, flat color.

Gigabyte. 1024 Megabytes, or 1000 Megabytes. It depends upon how pedantic the person is. See also Megabyte.

Gopher. Archaic. Largely replaced by html pages. A text-oriented method of accessing data on the network.

Graphic. Grammarians, please close your eyes. An adjective in the rest of the world, on the Internet graphic has become a noun. It's an image.

GUI. Graphical user interface. Generally, a mouse-oriented way of using your computer, instead of entering DOS commands. Windows is a GUI interface.

Hacker. Originally, it meant someone extremely skilled at computing. The hacker was one who created original and ingenious programs. Unfortunately, the current popular meaning of the term is used to describe those who break into systems, destroy data, steal copyrighted software, and perform other destructive or illegal acts with computers and networks. See also cracker.

Hexadecimal or Hex Code. In Hexadecimal, which means "16," each bit is a switch, 0 = off, 1 = on. See also bit and byte. In binary math, 1 + 1 = 3. True! Each position is worth twice the position to the right. So, the far right = 1. Next to left = 1 x 2 = 2. So a 1 there plus the right hand 1 = 1x2 + 1x1 = 3. 1+1= 3. So, 0000 = 0, 0001 = 1, 0011 = 3, and 1111 = 15 (bit positions 8 + 4 + 2 + 1), for 16 positions, 0-15, and they get represented by the number 0-9 plus the letters A-F. 1111 = 15 = F.

Hit. A single visit by a Web browser which reaches all the way to the target website. A full visit to a webpage containing one graphic element consists of two hits, one for the page and a second to request the image. See also page view.

Home page. This is your website's primary entrance. It is not the only one. If a search engine indexes ten pages on your site, then you have potentially ten entrance ways. But the Home Page remains the primary way in. It's the page to which your domain name points.

Host.This is the company/server where your website resides -- your Internet Presence Provider (IPP). The same company may also be your Internet Access Provider (dial-up or cable), but it doesn't have to be. Shared hosting means that your site is on the same computer as many others. Dedicated hosting means that yours is the only site on that host -- usually that's because you chew up a lot of disk space -- but they still own the computer itself. Co-location means that you own the server, but it's at the provider's physical location.A Virtual host is -- pedantically -- a shared host. It is also used to describe an alias.

HTML. Hypertext markup language. This is the language used to create a basic webpage. Select "view source" on your browser to see what it looks like. All the <tags> are used to format the text and to give link instructions. "Hypertext" is any text that contains a link from one document to another. HTML is derived from SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language.

HTTP. Hypertext transfer protocol. The first few characters of a URL --such as in http://www.neguide.com -- it identifies how the information is to be sent over the network, so that your browser can read it.