THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 8, 1996 TAG: 9607060240
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: 51 lines
What's the Internet?
It's tens of millions of computers in homes and offices throughout the world all hooked together.
The Internet allows computer users to send and receive electronic e-mail and computer files around the world, for pennies a day.
Started in 1969 as a research and military network, it took almost 25 years to make it into the commercial world. Once there, it has exploded in growth.
There are over 15 million people who use the Internet regularly. World Wide Web users have grown from about 1 million users in 1994 to more than 14 million in 1996.
In 1994 there were about 1,700 business sites registered. This year, the number will hit 60,000.
Here's a short glossary of Internet terms:
Archie - a program that lets you search file archives stored on the Internet and accessible by FTP.
BBS - bulletin board system.
Browser - generic term for programs that allow a person to navigate and view documents on the World Wide Web.
FTP - file transfer protocol, the standard used to transfer files between computers.
Lynx - a text-based Web browser.
Home page - the main or opening page of a Web site or document.
HTML - hypertext markup language, the programming code used to write Web pages, which allows the creation of links between pages activated by a mouse or cursor clicked on a highlighted word.
HTTP - hypertext transfer protocol, the programming protocol that acts as an electronic agreement between computers, allowing them to connect to form the Web.
Internet - the global network of computer networks.
ISP - Internet service provider, a reseller of access to the Internet.
T1 or T3 - levels of high-grade, high-capacity phone lines. Many companies have T1 lines. T3 lines are found at a few big corporations, government and military facilities and within a phone companies' network.
PPP or SLIP - Two kind of protocols (point-to-point protocol and serial line Internet protocol) which allow personal computers to connect to the Internet at high speeds.
URL - stands for uniform resource locator, an address on the Web.
World Wide Web, WWW, or The Web - an information space on the Internet, unified by a common addressing system and distinguished by documents that can contain text, graphics and sound files and are capable of being linked from one computer to another. by CNB