Internet Terminologies

1. Internet -- a network of networks that globally collects computers around the world -- mostly through traditional communication channels that currently support phone and fax service. An Intranet is a similar interconnection within a company.

2. Internet Service Provider (ISP) -- a company you pay $0 to $50 per month to in order to access the Internet at varying speeds. ISPs include Earthlink, AT&T, Cox, RoadRunner, AOL, and many more.

3. Website -- a collection of webpages on the Internet that can be accessed with a software program called a browser if you have an account with an Internet Service Provider (or uses someone else's account). Websites are owned by businesses, organizations, individuals, and more.

4. Web Host -- a company that charges a business, organization, or individual a fee to act as a landlord, allowing a business to store the components of a Website on a computer that is up and running 24/7 and that is connected to a very fast Internet connection that will support many concurrent viewers. Such a computer is called a Server, since it serves up Websites.

5. Browser -- a made-up word that refers to a software program, like Internet Explorer and Firefox, that allows you to access Websites on the Internet -- such as http://www.iteachyou.com or http://www.yahoo.com.

6. URL -- stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is really just a Web address, such as http://www.iteachyou.com. The "http" portion stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol -- the set of rules used to identify a Website address. In most browsers you can omit the http:// portion of the URL and the browser will automatically type it in the address field for you. The "www" portion of the URL refers to the name of the Server the Website is stored on. Some URLs don't include the "www" portion and other URLs will work with or without the "www" portion. The "iteachyou.com" portion is referred to as a Domain Name. The "com" portion, referred to as the TLD (top level domain), indicates that this domain is a commercial domain. Other TLDs include net, biz, gov, edu, mil, plus others.

7. Search Engine -- a Website that acts like a Yellow Pages on the Internet -- allowing you to type in one or more keywords related to your search -- displaying for you a list of Websites that should be related to the keywords you entered. Examples of Search Engines include Google, Lycos, Alta Vista, and many more. Yahoo is often referred to as a Search Engine but is really a Directory or Index since Websites in their database are organized by theme or topic.

8. Cookie -- a file that's written to your browser's folder on your hard drive that generally contains info about you that you entered -- for example when registering for a site like the New York Times or when accumulating items in a "shopping cart" at Amazon.com.

9. Email -- Electronic mail is a text message you send to someone via the Internet. Email may also contain an attachment which is usually a non-text component such as an image, spreadsheet, etc. In some email programs you are able to include some non-text items within the body of the email message itself. How/If the recipient sees this non-text item is controlled by who they use as an Internet Service Provider, what email option they use, their email settings, and more.

2 Options for Email:

Your Internet Service Provider will choose which of the following email options you should use. Most ISPs use IMAP.

9-1. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) -- With IMAP, you use the WWW (with your browser) to do email. The main advantage of IMAP to you is that you can easily access your email from any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet. Your messages are not stored on your computer unless you "save" or "download" the message to your hard disk drive.

There are a few free IMAP email options that have limitations on size, capacity, and other features. These include the following:

- Yahoo Mail -- http://mail.yahoo.com

- GMail -- http://mail.google.com

- Hotmail -- http://www.hotmail.com

9-2. POP (Post Office Protocol) -- With POP, you use a software program on your own computer to do email. Most ISPs are moving away from this option.

When using POP, you need an email software program installed on your computer. When you check your email through your ISP, the messages are automatically "downloaded" to your computer's hard disk drive. Although this may seem like a major advantage to some people, it does make it impossible or more difficult to access your email from a different computer.

Examples of email software programs include Windows Mail (free as part of Windows Vista) and Outlook which comes in 2 flavors -- Outlook Express (free) which is for email only and Outlook (the full program, not free) which also includes contact management capabilities, calendaring, and the ability to integrate easily with Word and other programs.