Glossary of terms used on this site
There are 88 entries in this glossary.All
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| URL |
Uniform Resource Locator. A URL provides a standard way to address any resource on the internet. URLs are expressed as a text string of the form: Where protocol is any valid protocol, such as http, ftp, gopher etc. One example of a URL that most people are now familiar with is the web address of each site and page. URLs are defined by RFC1738 and RFC1808. Whilst the HTTP specification does not limit the length of a URL, most browsers do have a limiting maximum size. Whilst this limit is far in excess of most browsing requests, current limits are:
Browser / Server Limit Source
Internet Explorer (browser) 2083 characters Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 208427
Netscape (browser) No limit |
| USB |
Universal Serial Bus. USB provides a single common interface to peripherals and plug-and-play configuration (at the host/pc). The original standard for USB (occasionally referred to as USB 1.0, but normally simply as USB) supported transfer speeds of 1.5Mbps and 12Mbps. USB 1.1 is a revised version of the USB specification, but the transfer rate remains unchanged. USB 2.0 (also referred to as "USB Hi-Speed) also supports 480Mbps and is otherwise backwards compatible with earlier versions. The USB specification limits maximum cable lengths to 5m for high speed USB devices and 3m to low speed devices USB. USB Version Supported speeds Maximum cable length 1.5Mbps 12Mbps 480Mbps USB 2.0 Supported Supported Supported 5m USB 1.1 Supported Supported Not supported 3m USB 1.0 Supported Supported Not supported 3m |
| V-LAN |
Virtual Local Area Network (LAN). System for allowing a set of computers to behave and interact as though they were on the same LAN, even though they may be on physically separate and distinct networks. |
| VGA |
Video Graphics Array. An analogue graphics standard which supports a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. |
| Vista |
Windows Vista. Refers to the Windows Vista operating system from Microsoft. Vista is available in four different editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. |
| VOIP |
Voice over IP. Sending voice data (i.e. human conversations) using IP packets across a network (such as the internet) instead of across a (traditional) telephone network. A number of companies offer VoIP services. Typically these provide free telephone calls between people using the same software, but do not support calls between people using different software. Some provide additional facilities such as VoIP to landline numbers (call-out) or landline numbers to VoIP (call-in), and video. |
| WAN |
Wide Area Network. Typically much slower than a LAN. Typical speeds start at 56kbps but are typically much faster. WANs typically provide connections between LANs that are at different geographical locations. |
| WAP |
|
| Wiki |
What I Know Is. Typically used to describe a collaborative (or community) project allowing visitors to edit webpages and add content for the benefit of the group or community. |
| WLAN |
Wireless LAN. |
| WWW |
World Wide Web. Often abbreviated to just "Web". The World Wide Web is the collection of all web pages available across the world. It is referred to as a web because each page can contain links to other pages, and these links (links to pages which link to other pages which link to other pages and so forth) making a network or web of pages. Page links may be to pages on the same site, or to other sites - since the network of links ultimately straddles the globe it is truly a world wide web. |
| WYSIWYG |
What You See Is What You Get. Normally applied to document or HTML editors (and historically to Word Processors) that allow you to view the document while editing it as it will appear when printed or viewed as a web page. |
| ZIP |
To zip a file is to compress a file (or folder) using lossless compression. Correspondingly, to unzip a file is to decompress the file. |
