Hardware A computer and the associated physical equipment directly involved in the performance of data-processing or communication functions.

Hits A hit is simply any request to the web server for any type of file. This can be an HTML page, an image (jpeg, gif, png, etc.), a sound clip, a cgi script, and many other file types. An HTML page can account for several hits: the page itself, each image on the page, and any embedded sound or video clips. Therefore, the number of hits a website receives is not a valid popularity gauge, but rather is an indication of server use and loading.

HTML Hyper Text Markup Language is used to write documents for the World Wide Web and to specify hypertext links between related objects and documents.

HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a web server and a web browser.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

IP Address An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. The format of an IP address is a numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number ranges from 0 to 255. These are the addresses of the web servers on the Internet.

ISP Internet service provider. A company which provides other companies or individuals with access to, or presence on, the Internet. Most ISPs are also Internet Access Providers -- extra services include help with design, creation and administration of WWW sites, etc.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

Java Object-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.

JavaScript Small element of code embedded on web pages and executed by the browser when the page is viewed by a visitor.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

Keyword A keyword is a database index entry that identifies a specific record or document. Keyword searching is the most common form of text search on the web. Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords.

Unless the author of the web document specifies the keywords for her document (this is possible by using meta tags), it's up to the search engine to determine them. Essentially, this means that search engines pull out and index words that are believed to be significant. Words that are mentioned towards the top of a document and words that are repeated several times throughout the document are more likely to be deemed important.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

Local Area Network (LAN) A more-or-less self-contained network of interconnected computers (that may connect to the Internet), usually in a single office or building.

Log file A file created by a web or proxy server which contains all of the access information regarding the activity on that server.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

Meta Tag A special HTML tag that provides information about a web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices.

Module A generic term for self-contained sections of a program that perform a specialized function, such as a spelling checker or e-Urchin.

Multihome A multihome, or load balanced, network means distributing processing and communications activity evenly across a computer network so that no single device is overwhelmed. Load balancing is especially important for networks where it's difficult to predict the number of requests that will be issued to a server. Busy websites typically employ two or more web servers in a load balancing scheme. If one server starts to get swamped, requests are forwarded to another server with more capacity.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary

Navigation Movement within a computer environment (for example, navigation of a website.)

Network A set of computers connected so that they can communicate and share information. Most major networks are connected to the global network-of-networks, called the Internet.

Back to Top of Internet Terms Glossary