بحث عن برنامج Netscape - بحث علمى عن برنامج Netscape كامل بالتنسيق

بحث عن برنامج Netscape - بحث علمى عن برنامج Netscape كامل بالتنسيق

هذا الجزء هو يعتبر أهم جزء وأهم مماسبق وهو البرنامج الذى يتيح لك الدخول إلى معظم موارد الأنتر نت والتعامل معها بسهوله ويسر وهو برنامج ( Netscape ) واحدث أصدار له الأن هو ( Netscape 4.0 ) وهو من انتاج شركة ( Netscape ) وفى هذا البرنامج يتم دمج كل من خدمات الأنتر نت مع بعضها البعض مثل Web والبريد الألكتروني ( E- Mail ) ومجموعات النقاش ( Disscusion Group ) والدردشه ( Chat ) وخدمات نقل الملفات ( FTP ) فى حزمة متكامله ويسمح هذا البرنامج بمشاركة المعلومات بين المستخدمين من خلال بيئه واحدة سهله الإستخدام.

الملاحة فى بحر المعلومات :
يسمح لك ( Netscape ) بالوصول السريع إلى المعلومات التى تتراوح بين النسخ الحديث وبين البرامج والمعلومات عن السلع ( Products ) والمعلومات الماليه للشركات أو شراء السلع بأستخدام كارت الائتمان ( Credit Card ) من احد المتاجر التى تتعامل مع الأنترنت .
ومن خلال ( Netscape ) يمكنك توفير نكليف الطباعة من خلال النشر الالكتروني للمعلومات علي مسـتوى العـالم. فـاذا كان عمـلاؤك يستخدمـون ( Netscape ) فى الوصـول على الخادم ( Server ) الخاص بشركتك . فان المعلومات الخاصه بشركتك يتم تصديرها بطريقه مباشره ولن تحتاج إلى اعادة طباعة المعلومات الحديثه وارسالها إلى العملاء. هذه المعلومات المنقوله يمكن ان تشمل اى نوع من البيانات التى تضمن ( ,,,, ) ورسومات ( Graphic ) أو ( Video ) أو( Sound ) والتى تمثل في مجموعتها. بيئة أو ساط متعددة ( Multimedia ) .
وإذا كنت تريد شركه صغيرة فيمكنك أن تحقق تواجداً في الأنتر نت بكتابة صفحه خاصة بك على الوب ( Web ) ثم باستخدام ( Netscape ) يكون لعملائك دخول مباشر عليك وعلى شريكتك وعلى منتجاتك وأحدث معلومات خاصة بها .
ويوفـر ( Netscape ) واجهـة موحـدة تعمل مـن خـلال برنامـج ( Windows ) . ولأن ( Netscape ) متقـدم فنياً وشائع الاستخدام فأن هذا يؤكد انك سوف تكون قادر على الوصول إلى أنواع متعددة من المعلومات مهما كانت معقدة .
يعتبر برنامج ( Netscape ) أقوى واسرع برنامج على الانترنت يتميز بالخصائص الأتيه :
• التاعمل المتعدد ( Multiple ) مع أشكال مختلفه من المعلومات حيث يعمل مع النص (,,,, ) والصور ( Imeges ) والملفات التى يتم تحميلها على الشبكه .
• ويوفر البرنامج امكانية لتدفق ملفات الوثائق والفيديو والصوت.
• يسمح بالتعامل السريع والقوى نع الأوساط المتعددة.
• يتعامل بكفاءة مع الملفات المضغوطه.
• امكانية استدعاء البريد الالكتروني من خلال ( Netscape ) حيث يتم دمج وظائف البريد الالكترونى بحيث لاتصبح مجرد ( Drag & Drop ) بل تتضمن مجموعه جديدة من الوظائف .

التكامل مع ميكروسوفت ويندوز

يوفر برنامج( Netscape ) تكاملاً مع ( Win95 ) ويتضمن الخصائص الأضافيه الأتيه :
1-يتضمن خاصية الربط صفحات الوب ( Web Pages ).
2- يتيح البرنامج استخدام نظام البريد الالكترونى الخاص ببرنامج ( Win95 ) كبديل لنظام البريد الالكترونى الخاص بالانترنت .
3- يتيح اجراء عمليات ( Drag&Drop ) مع ملفات ( Win95 ) .
4- يتيح الارتباط بنظام الشبكه الخاص ببرنامج ( Win95 ) .
ويوفر ايضا برنامج Netscape خصائص فنيه آخرى منها :
1- يدعم عمليه نقل الملفات Ftp سواء خلال ارسالها أو استقبالها.
2- يدعم نظام قوى للعلامات الحاكمه ( Bookmarks ) الذى يؤدى إلى سهولة تخزين بيانات المواقع ( Sites ) التى يتم الاتصال بها كثيراً.
3- يدعم الوثائق الديناميكيه ( Dynamic Documemts ) حيث يستطيع ( Server ) دفع أى معلـومات حديثه غلى بعض الوثائق مثل خرائط الطقس ( Weather Map ) ومعدلات المخزون .
4- يدعم نظم الصوت AV،AIFF .

كيفية تجهيز الحاسب للعمل على Web ؟
يحتاج المستخدم على بعض التجهيزات للوصول على Web :
1- جهاز حاسب يعمـل عليـه نظـام (MS-Windows ) ومعه موديم لاتقل سرعته عن 14.400 ب/ث.
2- حساب انترنت ( Internet Account ) يسمح بالدخول على الشبكه بواسطه بروتوكول ( Ppp ) أو ( SLIP ) .
3- بـرنامج الأتصال مع أى من البروتوكولات السابقه مثل ( Tcpman ) وهـذا البرنامـج فى بيئه ( Win3.1 ) فقط أما فى بيئه ( Win95 ) فلست فى حاجه اليه.

مشاهدة الانترنت :
لكى تشاهد الانترنت لابد من ان تحضر صفحات الانترنت على شاشة الحاسب الخاصة بك . وكما تم تعريف الانترنت من قبل فأن الانترنت هى عبارة تجميع للمعلومات ويتم تخزينها فى حاسبات موجودة عبر العالم . ومعظم المعلومات على شبكة الانترنت منظمة فى طريقة صفحات ( Pages ) . وعندما تحضر أحد صفحات الانترنت على شاشة الحاسب الخاص بك فأنك سوف تعرف محتويات الصفحة وتكون لك القدرة على أختيار صفحات كثيرة أخرى متاحة على الانترنت .
وتوجد بعض الصفحات على الانترنت غنية بالالوان والتوضيحات الرسومية وقادرة على أحضار بعض الاصوات والافلام أى متعددة الاوساط ( Multimedia ) . وبعض الصفحات الاخرى تكون غير جذابه ولا تحتوى على أى توضيحات أو رسومات . وتستطيع ان تتحرك من صفحة الى آخرى فقط بالضغـط علـى احـد مفاتيـح الـماوس ( Cliking Your Mouse ) علـى أحد الكلمات ( Highlighted ) أو أحد الصور وذلك لأحضار اى صفحات من المعلومات الاخرى . ونلاحظ ان الصفحات المجودة على شبكة الانترنت كلها متصلة مع بعضها البعض . وهنا يمكن اظهار المعلومات على صفحات الانترنت وذلك من خلال ظهور معلومات فى الصفحة الحالية ثم التفاصيل الاكثر تكون موجودة فى الصفحات التالية .
ويتم تصميم هذه الصفحات على الانترنت باستخدام الفنون والالوان والصور والصوت والصور المتحركة والنمـاذج ويتم ربـط هـذه الصفحات والتى تكون موزعة أنحاء العالم . وتستطيع بأستخدام ( Netscape ) ان تتعرف او تكشف صفحات الويب ( Web Pages ) وهناك صفحات على الانترنت غنية بالأوساط المتعددة ( Multimedia ) بالاضافة الى صفحات آخرى غالبا تحتـوى علـى بيانـات نصيـة فقـط . ويوجـد عديـد من خدمـات الانترنت مثـل المجموعات ( News Group ) ، البريد الالكترونى ، ........
كل هذه الخدمات يمكن الاستفادة منها عن طريق استخدام ( Netscape ) الذى يحتوى على كل هذه الخدمات فى برنامج واحد .
استخدامك لبرنامج ( Netscape ) يجعل عملية استكشافك للأنترنت وللمعلومات التى عليها اكثر انتاجية وكفاءة . ويحتوى برنامج Netscape على مجموعة من الخصائص التى تجعله سهل الحصول على معلومات من خلاله من هذه الخصائص ( Bookmark ) ليحتوى على الصفحات المفضلة عندك ، وكذلك استعراض الصفحات التى تم رؤيتها فى الجلسة الواحدة .
لكى تفهم كيف يتم حفظ المعلومات على شبكة الانتر نت فى أماكن وحيدة بمعنى أنها لكل صفحة عنوان وحيد على الانترنت وهذا العنوان يسمى ( Uniform Resource Locator - URL ) وكل صفحـة لهـا عنـوان وحيـد وذلك مثـل الافـراد . وليسـت الصفحـات فقـط التى لها ( Unique URL ) ولكن أيضا لكل الصور أيضا لها ( Unique URL ) ويمكن الوصول الى الصفحات والصور وذلك بأعطاء الحاسب ( URL ) الخاصة بهذه الصفحات أو الصور .
ومن هنا فأن ( Netscape ) يعطى أمكانيات عديدة ومختلفة لأدخال URL الى الحاسب مباشرة وذلك أما من خلال :
1- Location ,,,, Field .
2- File/Open Location Menu .
وهناك بعض الامثلة عن URL :
HTTP://Home.Netscape.Com/Index.Htm/
FTP://FTP.Netscape.Com/Pub
NEWS:News.Announce.Newusers

ونلاحظ ان URL يتكون من :
HTTP://Home.Netscape.Com/Index.Htm/

HTTP: Hyper ,,,, Transfer Protocol .
FTP : File Transfer Protocol .
NEWS : Protocol Used By Usenet News Groups .
GOPHER : Other Transfer Protocol .
والمكون الثانى هو اسم الخادم وحيث أنه لكل جهاز كمبيوتر يعمل كخادم على الشبكة اسم وحيد مثل ( Home.Netscape.Com ) . والمكون الثالث هو اسم ( Path ) ليعرف اسم المكان الذى تم تخزين عليه البيانات فى صورة ملف من النوع ( html ) .
وفيما يلى شرح تفصيلى لبرنامج ( Netscape ) وكل القوائم والامكانيات المتاحة به .

Toolbar

• Back
Displays the previous page in the history list. A history list references a hierarchy of pages you've already viewed.

• Forward
Displays the next page in the history list. When you use Back or a history menu item to retrieve a page, using Forward gets the proceeding page. Forward is only available after you use Back or a history item.

• Home
Displays the home page designated in the General Preferences|Appearance panel. The default is the Netscape home page location.

• Reload
Redisplays the current Netscape page, reflecting any changes made prior to the original loading. Netscape checks the network server to see if any change to the page has occurred. If there's no change, the original page is retrieved from the cache. If there's a change, the updated page is retrieved from the network server. If you press the Reload button while holding down the Shift key (Option key on
Macintosh), Netscape retrieves the page from the network server regardless of whether the page has been updated (the cache is not used).

• Images
Loads images into pages. This is useful when the Options|Auto Load Images menu item is unchecked and icons have been substituted for images. By loading images, you replace the icons with the intended images.

• Open
Lets you enter a URL to display the specified page in the ,,,,,,, area.

• Print
Prints the ,,,,,,, area of the current Netscape page. A dialog box lets you select printing characteristics.

• Find
Lets you specify a word or phrase to locate within the current Netscape page. You can specify case sensitivity and search direction. If a match is found, the ,,,, is selected and displayed.

• Stop
Halts any ongoing transfer of page information.

Directory buttons:
Directory buttons can also be accessed from the Directory or Help menus.

• What's New? (Directory|What's New?)
Information describing what's new on the Internet.

• What's Cool? (Directory|What's Cool?)
Information describing what's cool on the Internet.

• Destinations (Directory|Netscape Destinations)
Information leading you to Internet directories and tools.

• Net Search (Directory|Internet Search)
A directory of Internet search engines.

• People (Directory|People)
Links to Internet sites that can help you locate the names and email addresses of people using the Internet.

• Software (Help|Software)
Information on Netscape Navigator software upgrades.

Menus
File:
• New Web Browser
Creates a new Netscape window. This window has the same history items as the previous window and displays the oldest page in the history (usually the home page) to screen.
• New Mail Message
Lets you create and send a new mail message in the Message Composition window.
Mail ,,,,,,,,... (or Mail Frame...)
Lets you create and send a mail message in the Message Composition window with the current page automatically attached. The ,,,,,,, field contains the page's URL. The subject field contains the page's title.

• Open Location...
Lets you enter a URL to display the specified page in the ,,,,,,, area. Every page has a unique URL that identifies its protocol, server, and file pathname.
• Open File...
Lets you select a file to open.
• Save as... (or Save Frame as...)
Lets you save a file that contains the current Netscape page ,,,,,,,s. You can save the page in plain ,,,, format or in source (HTML) format. On UNIX, you also have the option to save in Post,,,,,, format.
• Upload File...
Lets you select a file to upload to the FTP server specified by the current URL. The command is only active when the current page accesses an FTP site. Alternatively, you can upload files to the FTP site by dragging and dropping files from the desktop to the Netscape window. Write permission is required.
• Page Setup... (Not on UNIX)
Lets you specify printing characteristics associated with the current page.
• Print... (or Print Frame...)
Prints the ,,,,,,, area of the current Netscape page. You can select various printing characteristics.
• Print Preview (Windows only)
Previews the printed page on screen.
• Close
Closes the current Netscape page. On Windows, exits the Netscape application when you close the last page.
• Exit (On Macintosh: Quit)
Closes the current Netscape page and exits the Netscape application.

Edit
• Undo
Reverses the last action you performed, when possible.
• Cut...
Removes the current selection and places a copy on the clipboard.
• Copy
Places a copy of the current selection on the clipboard.
• Paste
Puts the clipboard ,,,,,,,s into the current Netscape page at the position of the selection marker.
• Clear (Macintosh only)
Removes the current selection.

• Select All
Creates a selection composed of the entire ,,,,,,,s of the area
occupied by the selection marker.
• Find...
Lets you specify a word or phrase to locate within the current Netscape page. Press the Find button to begin the search. If a match is found, the ,,,, is selected and, if necessary, scrolled to a visible position in the ,,,,,,, area. If the Match Case option (Case Sensitive on Macintosh and UNIX) is checked, the case of each letter must match; otherwise a match can occur regardless of case. On Windows, check the Up or Down radio button to direct the search toward the beginning or end of the ,,,,,,,,. If there is a current selection, the search begins at the selection and does not wrap around to the opposite end of the ,,,,,,,,. On Macintosh and UNIX, check the Find Backwards check box to determine if the search starts from the beginning or end of the ,,,,,,,,.
• Find Again
Searches for another occurrence of the ,,,, specified after using Find.
View
• Reload
Brings a fresh copy of the current Netscape page to replace the one originally loaded. Netscape checks the network server to see if any change to the page has occurred. If there's no change, the fresh copy is retrieved from the cache. If there's a change, the fresh copy is transmitted from the network server and the reloaded page displays the updated page ,,,,,,,s. If you press the Reload button while holding down the Shift key (Option key on Macintosh), Netscape retrieves a fresh version from the network server regardless of whether the page has been updated (the cache is not used).
• Reload Frame
Brings a fresh copy of the currently selected page within a single frame on a Netscape page containing frames. In other respects, the command operates the same as Reload.
• Load Images
Displays images of the current Netscape page. Typically, images automatically load into pages. However, if the Options|Auto Load Images menu item is unchecked when a page loads, a small icon is substituted at the position of each image. Choosing Load Images replaces all small icons with their corresponding images. Images are loaded from their source files, however the page is not reloaded (links to images are not updated from the source page).

• ,,,,,,, (Not on Macintosh)
Brings a fresh copy of the current Netscape page from local memory to replace the one originally loaded. The ,,,,,,,ed page does not display changes made to the source page from the time of the original loading.
• ,,,,,,,, Source
Produces a View Source window showing the current page in the format of HTML (Hyper,,,, Markup Language). The HTML source ,,,, includes the commands used to create the ,,,,,,, and ,,,,,,, style of a single page. On Windows and Macintosh, you can specify an application of your choice to view the source ,,,, (bypassing the viewer window). Choose the ptions|General|Applications menu item to find the View Source field and a Browse button to specify the location of the viewing application you wish to use as the default viewer.
• ,,,,,,,, Info
Produces a page in a separate Netscape window stating the current ,,,,,,,,'s structure and composition including title, location (URL), date of last modification, character set encoding, and security status. Secure ,,,,,,,,s specify the type of encryption used and certificate data. The certificate states the version, serial number, issuer (identity of the certifier), and subject (identity of the server).
• Frame Source (UNIX only)
Produces a View Source window showing the HTML of the selected frame.
• Frame Info (UNIX only)
Produces a page in a separate Netscape window stating the selected frame's structure and composition.

Go
• Back
Displays the previous page in the history (or frame history) list. A history list references a thread of pages you have viewed. A frame history references a thread of frames you have viewed within a frameset.
• Forward
Displays the next page in the history (or frame history) list. If you have used Back or a history menu item to bring back a page, then Forward brings the page ahead in the history list. Forward is only offered after using Back or a history item.
• Home
Displays the home page whose location is specified in the General Preferences|Appearance panel. Netscape's home page is the default.
• Stop Loading
Halts the connection in progress to display a page. History items The Go menu appends the title of each page in the history list as a menu item. Choose the menu item to display the page. Choose Window|History to view the history list.
Bookmark
• Add Bookmark
Adds the title of the current Netscape page to the list of pages in the bookmark file. The Bookmarks menu grows as you add bookmarks. Initially, the menu contains two items: one that adds a bookmark item and another to view the Bookmarks window. Bookmarks are stored as a list and represented by a bookmark file on your hard disk. The bookmarks list can be viewed in the Bookmarks window. For a complete de,,,,,,ion of bookmarks and the tools for working with bookmarks, see the section on Mail, News, and Bookmarks
• Bookmark items
The Bookmarks menu appends an item with the title of each page you add as a bookmark. Choose the menu item to display the page. Choose Window|Bookmarks to view the bookmark list.
Option
• General Preferences...
Presents a dialog box containing tab buttons for selecting preference items. Each tab presents one or more panels that help you define Netscape's operation. The General Preferences panels cover a broad set of preference items. Panels for other preference items are displayed by subsequent menu items. Click the OK button to close the dialog box while accepting any changes in panel settings. Click Apply, if available, to accept changes without closing the dialog. Click Cancel to close the dialog box without accepting any changes. Click Defaults to reset panel items to initial out-of-box settings. Click Help, if available, for online help information about each panel.
• Mail and News Preferences...
Presents the tabbed panels for setting mail and news preference items.
• Network Preferences...
Presents the tabbed panels for setting preference items regarding cache, network connections, and proxy configurations.
• Security Preferences...
Presents the tabbed panels for setting preference items for security features.
• Show Menubar (UNIX only)
Toggles the visibility of the menubar. If checked, the menubar is visible. To show the menubar, click on the right mouse button and choose Show Menubar from the pop-up menu.
• Show Toolbar
Toggles the visibility of the toolbar buttons. If checked, the toolbar buttons are visible.

• Show Location
Toggles the visibility of the location (URL) field. If checked, the location is visible.
• Show Directory Buttons
Toggles the visibility of the Directory menu buttons. If checked, the buttons are visible.
• Show Java Console
Displays the Java Console window. Some Java programs might display information here.
• Auto Load Images
Toggles the presentation of inline images as a page is brought to screen. If checked, images embedded in a page are automatically loaded. If unchecked, images are not loaded and are instead represented by small icons that can be loaded by choosing View|Load Images or Images from the toolbar. nchecking
this item increases the speed for displaying page ,,,,.
• ,,,,,,,, Encoding
Lets you select which character set encoding a ,,,,,,,, uses when ,,,,,,,, encoding is either not specified or unavailable. The proportional and fixed fonts associated with the default encoding are
designated using the General Preferences|Fonts panel items. Choose the Set Default item (Options|Save Options on UNIX) to establish the selected encoding as the default for any ,,,,,,,, whose encoding is unspecified or unavailable.
• Save Options (UNIX only)
Saves any changes made to the settings of the Options menu (not including the preferences panels whose items are saved by pressing OK). Changes remain in effect for subsequent Netscape sessions.

Window
• Netscape Mail
Displays the Mail window.
• Netscape News
Displays the News window.
• Address Book
Displays an Address Book window where you can create and modify files containing email addresses.
• Bookmarks
Displays a Bookmarks window where you can create and modify bookmark files.
• History
Displays a History window that lists, in two columns, the title and URL of each page you have recently viewed. The history list is sorted with the most recently viewed pages at the top. One item in the list is always selected. Pressing the Go to button, or double-clicking an item, brings the selected page back to the screen. Pressing the Add to Bookmark button puts the selected page into the bookmark list.
• Window items
Makes the selected window item the frontmost window. Each open window is listed as a menu item. The menu item name is derived from the window's type and title. The current window is designated with a check mark.

Help
• About Netscape
Version, copyright, and license information about the Netscape software.
• About Plug-ins
Presents MIME type information for currently installed plug-in modules. Plug-in modules are software programs that extend the capabilities of Netscape. The plug-in application programming interface (API) provides native support for new data types and additional features. After installing a plug-in on your hard disk (per instructions from the plug-in), the plug-in adds capabilities seamlessly to Netscape, performing like built-in Netscape features. A Netscape dialog box tries to inform you if there's an incompatibility with a version of a plug-in.
• Registration Information
Displays a page containing the registration number for your copy of Netscape Navigator. If you have not yet registered your copy of the software, the page tells you how to register.
• Software
Displays a page containing information on how to obtain the most recent upgrades to Netscape Navigator software.
• Handbook
Displays the online version of the ,,,,,,,,ation, with links to chapters and index entries.
• Release Notes
New feature information, links to helper applications, and tips for using a specific version of the software.
• Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions on a variety of Netscape topics.
• On Security
Questions and answers about Netscape's security features and links to additional technical information about Netscape's implementation of Internet security.
• How to Give Feedback
A feedback form for you to fill in and send your comments, requests for features, bug reports, and other information to Netscape.
• How to Get Support
Displays information on Netscape support programs and relevant email addresses.
• How to Create Web Services
A page with links to help you explore opportunities for creating and publishing your own ,,,,,,,,s on the Internet using Netscape software.

Pop-up Menu
On Windows and UNIX, clicking the right mouse button produces a pop-up menu with items that are shortcuts for several commands. On Macintosh, holding down the mouse button produces the pop-up menu. The items in the menu depend on the type or ,,,,,,,s of the window you are on. For example, when pressing the mouse button over a link, menu items refer to the page specified by the link; over an image, menu items refer to the image file specified by the image; over a pane in the Mail or News window, menu items apply specifically to mail or news features. When a frame is selected, Back and Forward menu items refer to the individual frame.
• Back (or Back in Frame) (Same as Go|Back item)
Displays the previous page in the history or frame history list.
• Forward (or Forward in Frame) (Same as Go|Forward item)
Displays the next page in the history or frame history list.
• Open this Link (filename)
Displays the specified page.
• Add Bookmark for this Link
Creates a bookmark in the bookmark list for the specified page.
• New Window with this Link
Displays the specified page into a newly opened window instead of the current window.
• Save this Link as...
Saves the specified page to disk (instead of displaying on screen).
• Copy this Link Location
Copies the specified page location (URL) to the clipboard.
• View (Open this) Image (filename)
Displays the specified image.
• Save this Image as...
Saves the specified image to disk (instead of displaying on screen).
• Save as Wallpaper (Windows only)
Lets you use a specified image as the screen background image. Point the mouse cursor over any image, press the right-mouse button, and select the menu item.
• Copy this Image (Macintosh only)
Copies the specified image to the clipboard.
• Copy this Image Location
Copies the specified image location (URL) to the clipboard.
• Load this Image
Displays the specified image. (Replaces an image icon with the corresponding image like the View|Load Images menu item.).
• Internet Shortcut (Windows 95 only)
Displays the Create Internet Shortcuts dialog box preset with information about the current page. To create a Internet shortcut icon on your desktop, you can accept the current information or supply a new de,,,,,,ion and URL for any page you wish. After you have created the icon, you can click it to open Netscape with the shortcut page automatically loaded.
• Show Menubar (UNIX only)
Displays the menubar. To hide the menubar, choose Options|Show Menubar using the menubar.

Setting Up Email
This section gives you some background about Internet protocols and the preference items you use to set up your email and news services.Upcoming sections describe mail and news services in more detail.Before you can exchange email or access any newsgroup news, you need to tell the Netscape application how to make the appropriate connection to the server computer handling various protocol. Where your World Wide Web server uses uses the HTTP protocol to transport page information, your outgoing and incoming Internet mail servers use mail protocols (SMTP and POP3) and your Usenet news server uses a news protocol (NNTP).

Do you know the name of your email servers and news server? If not, you will have to find out from your service provider, systems administrator, or resident know-it-all. After specifying the names of
these servers as preference items in the Servers panel, Netscape software lets you send and receive email and newsgroup postings.
Here are some of the preferences you can set in the Options|Mail panels.

• In the Servers panel, specify your mail server names in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server field and the Incoming Mail (POP3) Server field. You should specify local mail servers, if available. Often, the same server name is appropriate for both fields and the name can be as simple as mail. You should also enter your email id (the part of your email address to the left of the @ symbol; not the entire address and without the @ symbol) in the POP User Name field.

• In the Servers panel, specify your news server name in the News (NNTP) Server field. You should specify a local news server, if available. Often, the name can be as simple as news.

• In the Identity panel, specify your name, email address (the entire address including the @ symbol), and your reply-to address (if you want mail replies sent to a different address than your email address) in the designated fields. This and other information provided in the panel establishes your identity to those who receive your mail and news messages.

• In the Organization panel, specify whether you want mail and news messages threaded and the method messages are sorted. By default, news messages are threaded and mail messages are not. When messages are threaded, replies are displayed adjacent to the original message and other replies to the original message. When messages are unthreaded (the box unchecked), replies are displayed according to the sorting order without regard to the position of the original message or other replies.

• In the Appearance panel, specify font characteristics of your message ,,,, and quoted ,,,,. By default, when you reply to a message, the original ,,,, is quoted (restated) with each line preceded by the > symbol. You can specify the style and size of the quoted ,,,, in your messages. You can also specify the layout of the window panes.

• In the Composition panel, specify whether you want your replies to automatically quote the original message, and whether you want a copy of your messages automatically sent to yourself, sent to another email address, or stored on a disk file.

Message Compostion window
You can create and send email and newsgroup messages using the Message Composition window. When sending email, you can transmit Internet pages and disk files as attachments, including fully formatted HTML pages displayed within your mail message.
Netscape automatically recognizes the ,,,, of URLs and displays the ,,,, as highlighted, clickable links. For example, when you send a mail or news message using the Message Composition window, the recipient of the your message sees any URLs you've entered as links.
To display the Message Composition window, choose File|New Mail Message or File|Mail ,,,,,,,,, or one of several toolbar buttons and menu items in the Mail and News windows. You can also display the Message Composition window by clicking on a page link or a button designed to initiate email.
The View menu items let you hide or display numerous types of address fields. Fields can contain more than one address.
• The From field shows your email address.
• The Reply To field contains the email address where you want replies to your email sent.
• The Mail To contains the email address where you want your message sent.
• The Mail Cc field contains the email address where you want a copy of your message sent.
• The Mail Bcc field contains the email address where you want a blind copy of your message sent. A blind copy does not display the address of the copy recipient.
• The File Cc field contains the location where you want to store a copy of the message you're sending. By default, messages are stored in the folder specified in the Mail and News|Servers panel.
• The Newsgroups field contains the name of the newsgroup where you want to post your news message. If you're posting from a newsgroup listing or message, this field is preset with the name of the newsgroup.
• The Followup To field contains the name of the newsgroup where you want replies to your message posted.
• The Subject field contains a de,,,,,,ion of your email or posting. If you're sending mail or posting from news messages, this field is preset with the name of the current page.
• The Attachment field shows the page name or file name of any attachments you've designated.

Enter a message or include the ,,,, of the current page in the large message field. If you're sending mail, this field is preset with the current page's URL. If the Mail and News|Identity panel specifies a ,,,, file containing your signature, the signature is appended.
On Windows, you can click on some field labels to produce the Address Book window or Attachment file dialog to simplify ,,,, entry. On Macintosh, you can click the small triangle icon in the upper-left of the window to show or hide the address and attachment fields.

Here are the Message Composition buttons:
• Send (Now), available when you check Options|Immediate Delivery, distributes the current message into the network and closes the window.
• Send (Later), available when you check Options|Deferred Delivery, stores the current message in the Outbox folder on your disk for distribution into the network at a later time. Choose File|Send Mail in Outbox to distribute deferred messages.
• Quote puts the current message into the quoted ,,,, format.
• Attach lets you send a separate ,,,,,,,, along with the email message. Press Attach Location (URL) to specify an HTML page. Press Attach File to specify any other type of file. Press Delete to remove a selected entry. The dialog also offers radio buttons for choosing how to send the attachment. Select the default, As Is (Source), to send files in their original form. Choose Convert to Plain ,,,, if you want your attachment sent as ordinary ASCII ,,,,. By attaching an HTML page in source format, the recipient of the attachment can use Netscape to view the page fully formatted directly in the Mail window. The View menu in the Mail window offers options that let you view attachments either inline (the page appears within the message body) or as links (a link to the page appears within the message body).
• Address opens the Address Book window.
• Stop halts transmission of the message you are sending.

Here are the Message Composition menu items:

• File|Send Now (Same as Send Now toolbar button.)
• File|Send Later (Same as Send Later toolbar button.)
• File|Attach File (Same as Attach toolbar button.)
• File|Include Original ,,,, imports the ,,,, of the current page into the message field. The imported ,,,, is appended to any other ,,,,,,, in the field and each line is preceded with a greater-than (>) symbol.
• Edit|Paste as Quotation inserts the ,,,,,,,s of the clipboard into the message as quoted ,,,, (each line preceded by the greater-than (>) symbol.
• View|Show All displays all possible address fields available in the Message Composition window. Other View menu items let you individually select the fields you want visible in the window.
• View|Wrap Long Lines, when checked, automatically line-wraps the messages you send such that no line is longer than 72 characters. The width of the Message Composition window does not affect line-wrapping, nor are the line breaks you see necessarily the wrapping that is sent. When unchecked, messages are sent without automatic line-wrapping and the line breaks that you see are sent. The default is checked.
• Options|Mail and News Preferences (Same as the Options menu item in the Netscape, Mail, or News window.)
• Options|Immediate Delivery, when checked, specifies that the Message Composition window offer a Send Now menu item and toolbar button so that messages you have written are sent over the network immediately. The option is saved across sessions.
• Options|Deferred Delivery, when checked, provides a Send Later menu item and toolbar button so that the messages you've written are stored in your Outbox folder (deferred) until you explicitly decide to send them. Choose the Mail window's File|Send Mail in Outbox menu item to deliver deferred messages. If you close the Mail window with mail in your Outbox, a dialog asks you whether you want to send the deferred messages now. The option is saved across sessions.
Mail Window Choose Window|Mail to display the Mail window and check for new messages. Alternatively, you can click on the mail icon (the small envelope in the bottom-right of the Netscape and News windows).
When you first open the Mail window, you're prompted to enter your email password. Use the password that you established with your Internet service provider or system administrator when you set up your Internet account. You'll have to enter your email password once per session or specify in the Mail and News|Organization panel that Netscape remember your password.
When you open the Mail window, Netscape checks the server and retrieves any new mail. Thereafter, Netscape can periodically recheck the server for new incoming messages, though does not automatically retrieve the messages. You can set the number of minutes between checks in the Mail and News|Servers panel.
To retrieve new messages, press the Get Mail toolbar button or click the mail icon. You can also click on the mail icon from the Mail window to manually check the server and retrieve new messages.
The mail icon shows you of the availability of new messages.
• A question mark (?) adjacent to the envelope indicates Netscape cannot automatically check the status of the mail server. This appears before you've opened the Mail window or if you haven't supplied your password.
• The envelope alone indicates there are no new messages for you.
• An exclamation point (!) adjacent to the envelope indicates that new messages are available for retrieval. On Macintosh, you'll also be notified of new messages by a mail icon flashing in the menu bar.
The Mail window consists of three panes: the mail folder pane, the message header pane, and the message ,,,,,,, pane. The mail folder pane contains a hierarchical list of your mail folders and three columns:
• Mail Folder shows the name of the mail folder.
• Unread shows the number of unread messages.
• Total shows the number of messages within the folder.

Four Netscape-generated folders can appear at the top of the list of folders:

• The Inbox folder holds incoming mail messages to you. The folder always appears. The Outbox folder holds your unsent messages. The folder is created when the Message Composition window's Options|Deferred Delivery item is checked and you specify that a message be sent later.
• The Sent folder holds copies of your sent messages. The folder is created when a mail file is specified in the Mail and News|Composition panel and you send a message.
• The Trash folder holds mail messages you are deleting. The folder is created when you delete a message.

Using menu items, you can add more mail folders to help organize your mail. Any new folders you create will appear after the automatically created folders.
When you select a mail folder by clicking on it, the message heading
pane displays the titles of messages contained in that folder and the following columns:

• Sender shows the name of the sender of the mail message. In the Outbox and Sent folders, you'll see the title Recipient instead of Sender, and the column shows the email address of the mail recipient.
• The Flag icon shows if the message has been marked as noteworthy. Click the icon to toggle the flag status.
• The Read icon shows if the message has been viewed. Click the icon to toggle the read status.
• Subject shows the subject line of the message.
• Date shows the date and time the message arrived at your Inbox.
You can move a message stored in one folder to another by dragging the message icon in the message list to a message folder. You can also use Message|Move or Message|Copy to put messages or message copies inside folders.
Mail messages are unthreaded by default. You can change the setting in the Mail and News|Organization panel. On Macintosh, the message headings pane offers an area above the scroll bar that you can click on to show the current headings threaded or unthreaded. When you select a message heading by clicking on it, the message gets displayed in the message ,,,,,,, pane along with header information such as Subject, Date, From, To, and CC.
You can use toolbar buttons or menu items to move on to the next message or read a previous message. You can resize each of the three panes to accommodate mail information by positioning the cursor on the border lines between two panes (the cursor changes shape) and dragging to the proportions you desire. You can also modify the layout of the panes using options in the Mail and News|Appearance panel. If the message sender has included a page attachment, you can check the View|Attachments Inline menu item to display fully formatted HTML page information appended to the message body or check the View|Attachments as Links menu item to display a link to the attached page. If the message sender has included a file attachment, you can click on a link that presents the Save As dialog for saving the file to your hard disk. Beside each link to an attachment, you'll find information detailing the attachment's name, file type, and encoding. The Mail toolbar buttons and menu items offer further options for viewing, creating, sending, and storing mail messages.

Mail toolbar buttons
• Get Mail
Connect to the mail server and bring any available mail messages into the Inbox.
• Delete
Puts the currently selected message in the message heading field into the Trash folder.
• To: Mail
Displays the Message Composition window for creating a new mail message. The To field is blank.
• Re: Mail
Displays the Message Composition window for replying to the current mail message. The To field is pre-addressed to the original message's sender.

• Re: All
Displays the Message Composition window for replying to the current mail message. The To field is pre-addressed to the original message's sender and all other recipients of the current message.
• Forward
Displays the Message Composition window for forwarding the current mail message as an attachment. The To field is blank. The original Subject field is prefixed with Fwd.
• Previous
View the previous unread message in the message list.
• Next
View the next unread message in the message list.
• Print
Prints the currently selected message in the message heading field.
• Stop
Halts any ongoing transmission of messages from the mail server.

Mail menu item
When you position the mouse over each Mail window pane, you can use the pop-up menu as a shortcut to several of the menu bar items listed here.
• File
New Web Browser creates a new Netscape window.
New Mail Message displays the Message Composition window for writing a new mail message.
New Folder creates a new mail folder.
Add Folder (Open Folder) displays the standard Open Folder dialog box.
Save As produces a dialog box for saving the current message as a file.
Get New Mail connects to the mail server and retrieves messages addressed to you.
Send Mail in Outbox connects to the mail server and sends any outgoing messages you have stored in the Outbox folder for deferred delivery.
Empty Trash Folder permanently removes messages placed in the Trash folder.
Compress Folder recovers disk space from deleted messages.
Page Setup displays the standard Page Setup dialog box.
Print Messages prints a selected message.
Close closes the Mail window.
Exit/Quit exits the Netscape application.

• Edit
Undo/Redo reverses the last action.
Cut removes the current selection and places a copy on the clipboard.
Copy places a copy of the current selection on the clipboard.
Paste puts a copy of the ,,,,,,,s of the clipboard at the position of the selection marker.
Delete Message moves the current message to the Trash folder.
Delete Folder permanently removes the selected folder.
Select Thread selects all messages in the current thread.
Select Flagged Messages selects messages in the current thread that are designated in the Mark column of the message headings pane.
Select All Messages selects all messages in all threads.
Find searches for ,,,, in the current message.
Find Again searches for the same ,,,, as the previous search.

• View
Sort lets you arrange the position of messages in the message heading field according to Date, Subject, Sender, or Message Number and can specify Ascending order. Choose Again to sort again. Choose Thread Messages to sort messages so that messages and their responses are grouped together.
Unscramble (ROT-13) lets you decode a certain type of message in which the sender has shifted the message's characters.
Wrap Long Lines, when checked, displays long lines in the message in shorter, more numerous lines. When unchecked, long lines are more likely to extend off the screen and require the horizontal scroll bar for viewing. The default is unchecked.
Reload brings the message from the server again.
Load Images displays the images of the current message if they have not been automatically loaded.
,,,,,,, redraws the current message.
,,,,,,,, Source produces a View Source window showing the current page in HTML format.
Attachments Inline, when checked, lets you to view a page attachment as part of the message. If the sender has included an TML
page as an attachment, the formatted page is appended to the message
body.
Attachments as Links, when checked, lets you to access a page attachment using a link. If the sender has included an HTML page as in attachment, a link to the formatted page is appended to the message body. Clicking on the link displays the page in the message ,,,,,,, pane.

• Message
Reply displays the Message Composition window for writing a response with the Send To field pre-addressed to the sender of the previous message.
Reply to All displays the Message Composition window for writing a response with the Send To field pre-addressed to the sender and other recipients of the previous message.
Forward displays the Message Composition window for sending
the current messages as an attachment with the Subject field and Attachment field automatically filled in.
Forward Quoted displays the Message Composition window for sending the current message as quoted ,,,, in the ,,,,,,, area.
Mark as Read designates that the current message has been viewed.
Mark as Unread designates that the current message has not been viewed.
Flag Message distinguishes the current message with a small icon in the flag column of the message headings field.
Unflag Message removes the current message's distinguishing icon.
Add to Address Book creates an address book entry of the sender of the current message.
Move transfers the current message to the folder you select.
Copy transfers a copy of the current message to the folder you select.

• Go
Next Message displays the next message listed in the message heading pane.
Previous Message displays the previous message.
First Unread displays the first unread message.
Next Unread displays the next unread message.
Previous Unread displays the previous unread message.
First Flagged displays the first marked message.
Next Flagged displays the next marked message.
Previous Flagged displays the previous marked message.
Stop Loading halts any ongoing transmission of messages from the mail server.

• Options
Show All Messages, when checked, displays both read and
unread messages in the message header pane.
Show Only Unread Messages, when checked, displays only
unread messages in the message header pane.
Show Headers, lets you control the number of header information fields displayed when viewing messages. All displays all possible header fields. Normal displays the primary address fields.
Brief displays only subject and recipient fields.
,,,,,,,, Encoding lets you select which character set
encoding a ,,,,,,,, uses when ,,,,,,,, encoding is either not
specified or unavailable.
Save Options (UNIX only) preserves any changes made to your
menu settings for subsequent sessions (excluding the preferences
panel items, which are saved by pressing OK).

• Window
This menu lets you switch among Netscape's primary or currently open windows.

• Help
This menu contains the same items as Netscape's main window.

Glossary of Internet Terms

• Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

A method for moving data over regular phone lines. An ADSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber’s premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. An ADSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased line.
A commonly discussed configuration of ADSL would allow a subscriber to receive data (download) at speeds of up to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and to send (upload) data at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. Thus the “Asymmetric” part of the acronym.
Another commonly discussed configuration would be symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second in both directions. In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second. ADSL is often discussed as an alternative to ISDN, allowing higher speeds in cases where the connection is always to the same place.

• Applet
A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The current rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.

• Archie
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it.

• ARPANet
(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) --
The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60’s and early 70’s by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.

• ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
This is the de facto world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.

• Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

• Bandwidth
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English ,,,, is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.

• Baud
In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300 = 1200 bits per second).

• Bulletin Board System
A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. There are many thousands (millions?) of BBS’s around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.

• BITNET
(Because it’s time Network)
A network of educational sites separate from the Internet, but e-mail is freely exchanged between BITNET and the Internet. Listservs, the most popular form of e-mail discussion groups, originated on BITNET. BITNET machines are usually mainframes running the VMS operating system, and the network is probably the only international network that is shrinking.

• Bits-Per-Second
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits per second.

• Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

• CGI
(Common Gateway Interface) --
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the “CGI program”) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard. Usually a CGI program is a small program that takes data from a web server and does something with it, like putting the ,,,,,,, of a form into an e-mail message, or turning the data into a database query. You can often see that a CGI program is being used by seeing “cgi-bin” in a URL, but not always.

• cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. The “bin” part of “cgi-bin” is a shorthand version of “binary”, because once upon a time, most programs were refered to as “binaries”. In real life, most programs found in cgi-bin directories are ,,,, files -- ,,,,,,s that are executed by binaries located elsewhere on the same machine.

• Client
A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer, often across a great distance. Each Client program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.

• Cyberspace
Term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer the word Cyberspace is currently used to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer networks.

• Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine. For example, the domain names:
matisse.net
mail.matisse.net
workshop.matisse.net
can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine. Usually, all of the machines on a given Network will have the same thing as the right-hand portion of their Domain Names (matisse.net in the examples above). It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name.

• Electronic Mail
Messages, usually ,,,,, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses (Mailing List).

• Ethernet
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN. Ethernet will handle about 10,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.

• Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs are ,,,,,,,,s that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.

• Fiber Distributed Data Interface
A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as Ethernet, about twice as fast as T-3).

• Finger
An Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.

• Fire Wall
A combination of hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or more parts for security purposes.

• File Transfer Protocol
A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers.

• Gateway
The technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols, for example Prodigy has a gateway that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail format and Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe any mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway to the Internet.

• Gigabyte
1000 Megabytes

• Gopher
A widely successful method of making menus of material available over the Internet. Gopher is a Client and Server style program, which requires that the user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher spread rapidly across the globe in only a couple of years, it has been largely supplanted by Hyper,,,,, also known as WWW (World Wide Web). There are still thousands of Gopher Servers on the Internet and we can expect they will remain for a while.

• hit
As used in reference to the World Wide Web, “hit” means a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server; thus in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 “hits” would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics.
“hits” are often used as a very rough measure of load on a server, e.g. “Our server has been getting 300,000 hits per month.” Because each “hit” can represent anything from a request for a tiny ,,,,,,,, (or even a request for a missing ,,,,,,,,) all the way to a request that requires some significant extra processing (such as a complex search request), the actual load on a machine from 1 hit is almost impossible to define.

• Home Page
Several meanings. Originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. “Check out so-and-so’s new Home Page.”
Another sloppier use of the term refers to practically any web page as a “homepage,” e.g. “That web site has 65 homepages and none of them are interesting.”

• Host
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It is quite common to have one host machine provide several services, such as WWW and USENET.

• HTML
Hyper,,,, Markup Language
The coding language used to create Hyper,,,, ,,,,,,,,s for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of ,,,, with codes that indicate how it should appear, additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block of ,,,,, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web Client Program, such as Netscape or Mosaic.

• HTTP
(Hyper,,,, Transport Protocol) --
The protocol for moving hyper,,,, files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).

• Hyper,,,,
Generally, any ,,,, that contains links to other ,,,,,,,,s - words or phrases in the ,,,,,,,, that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another ,,,,,,,, to be retrieved and displayed.

• IMHO
(In My Humble Opinion) --
A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the writer is aware that they are expressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion. One of may such shorthands in common use online, especially in discussion forums.

• Internet
The vast collection of inter-connected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60’s and early 70’s. The Internet now (July 1995) connects roughly 60,000 independent networks into a vast global internet.

• Intranet
A private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use.
As the Internet has become more popular many of the tools used on the Internet are being used in private networks, for example, many companies have web servers that are available only to employees.

• IP Number
Internet Protocol Number
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g.
165.113.245.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

• IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.

• Integrated Services Digital Network
Basically a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines. ISDN is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000 or 64,000 bits-per-second.

• Internet Service Provider
An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

• Java
Java is a network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.
We can expect to see a huge variety of features added to the Web using Java, since you can write a Java program to do almost anything a regular computer program can do, and then include that Java program in a Web page.

• Java Development Kit
A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debug Java applications and applets

• Kilobyte
A thousand bytes. Actually, usually 1024 (2^10) bytes.

• LAN
Local Area Network
A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.

• Leased-line
Refers to a phone line that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7 -days-a-week use from your location to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased line.

• Listserv
The most common kind of maillist, Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.

• Login
Noun or a verb. Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret (contrast with Password).
Verb: The act of entering into a computer system, e.g. Login to the WELL and then go to the GBN conference.

• Maillist
or Mailing List A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.

• Megabyte
A million bytes. A thousand kilobytes.

• Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
The standard for attaching non-,,,, files to standard Internet mail messages. Non-,,,, files include graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor ,,,,,,,,s, sound files, etc.
An email program is said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send and receive files using the MIME standard.
When non-,,,, files are sent using the MIME standard they are converted (encoded) into ,,,, - although the resulting ,,,, is not really readable.
Generally speaking the MIME standard is a way of specifying both the type of file being sent (e.g. a Quicktimeپ video file), and the method that should be used to turn it back into its original form.
Besides email software, the MIME standard is also universally used by Web Servers to identify the files they are sending to Web Clients, in this way new file formats can be accommodated simply by updating the Browsers’ list of pairs of MIME-Types and appropriate software for handling each type.

• Mirror
Generally speaking, “to mirror” is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common use of the term on the Internet refers to “mirror sites” which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain exact copies of material originated at another location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource.
Another common use of the term “mirror” refers to an arrangement where information is written to more than one hard disk simultaneously, so that if one disk fails, the computer keeps on working without losing anything.

• Modem
MOdulator, DEModulator
A device that you connect to your computer and to a phone line, that allows the computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.

• Mosaic
The first WWW browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX all with the same interface. Mosaic really started the popularity of the Web. The source-code to Mosaic has been licensed by several companies and there are several other pieces of software as good or better than Mosaic, most notably, Netscape.

• Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension
A (usually ,,,,-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development, or education purposes and all that lies in between. A significant feature of most MUDs is that users can create things that stay after they leave and which other users can interact with in their absence, thus allowing a world to be built gradually and collectively.

• Netiquette
The etiquette on the Internet.

• Netizen
Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet, or someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.

• Netscape
A WWW Browser and the name of a company. The Netscape (tm) browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Netscape has grown in features rapidly and is widely recognized as the best and most popular web browser. Netscape corporation also produces web server software.
Netscape provided major improvements in speed and interface over other browsers, and has also engendered debate by creating new elements for the HTML language used by Web pages -- but the Netscape extensions to HTML are not universally supported.
The main author of Netscape, Mark Andreessen, was hired away from the NCSA by Jim Clark, and they founded a company called Mosaic Communications and soon changed the name to Netscape Communications Corporation.

• Network
Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an internet.

• Newsgroup
The name for discussion groups on USENET.

• Networked Information Center
Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous of these on the Internet is the InterNIC, which is where new domain names are registered.
Another definition: NIC also refers to Network Interface Card which plugs into a computer and
adapts the network interface to the appropriate standard. ISA, PCI, and PCMCIA cards are all examples of NICs.

• NNTP
Network News Transport Protocol
The protocol used by client and server software to carry USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IP network. If you are using any of the more common software such as Netscape, Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to participate in newsgroups then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.

• Node
Any single computer connected to a network.

• Packet Switching
The method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address of where it came from and where it is going. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines, and be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.

• Password
A code used to gain access to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such as virtue7. A good password might be:
Hot$1-6

• Plug-in
A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins.
The idea behind plug-in’s is that a small piece of software is loaded into memory by the larger program, adding a new feature, and that users need only install the few plug-ins that they need, out of a much larger pool of possibilities. Plug-ins are usually created by people other than the publishers of the software the plug-in works with.

• POP
Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol
Two commonly used meanings: Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol. A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network can be connected to, often with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet company says they will soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means that they will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade and/or a place where leased lines can connect to their network. A second meaning, Post Office Protocol refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or ,,,,l account you almost always get a POP account with it, and it is this POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail.

• Port
3 meanings. First and most generally, a place where information goes into or out of a computer, or both. E.g. the serial port on a personal computer is where a modem would be connected.
On the Internet port often refers to a number that is part of a URL, appearing after a colon ( right after the domain name. Every service on an Internet server listens on a particular port number on that server. Most services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard ports, in which case the port number must be specified in a URL when accessing the server, so you might see a URL of the form:
gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/
shows a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard gopher port is 70).
Finally, port also refers to translating a piece of software to bring it from one type of computer system to another, e.g. to translate a Windows program so that is will run on a Macintosh.

• Posting
A single message entered into a network communications system.
E.g. A single message posted to a newsgroup or message board.

• PPP
Point to Point Protocol
Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections and thus be really and truly on the Internet.

• PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network
The regular old-fashioned telephone system.

• RFC
Request For Comments
The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and published on line, as a Request For Comments. The Internet Engineering Task Force is a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC, e.g. the official standard for e-mail is RFC 822.

• Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.

• Security Certificate
A chunk of information (often stored as a ,,,, file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.
Security Certificates contain information about who it belongs to, who it was issued by, a unique serial number or other unique identification, valid dates, and an encrypted “fingerprint” that can be used to verify the ,,,,,,,s of the certificate.
In order for an SSL connection to be created both sides must have a valid Security Certificate.

• Server
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g.Our mail server is down today, that’s why e-mail isn’t getting out. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

• SLIP
Serial Line Internet Protocol
A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem to connect a computer as a real Internet site. SLIP is gradually being replaced by PPP.

• SMTP
Simple Mail Transport Protocol
The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet.
SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.
Almost all Internet email is sent and received by clients and servers using SMTP, thus if one wanted to set up an email server on the Internet one would look for email server software that supports SMTP.

SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol
A set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network. Examples of these devices include routers, hubs, and switches.
A device is said to be “SNMP compatible” if it can be monitored and/or controlled using SNMP messages. SNMP messages are known as “PDU’s” - Protocol Data Units.
Devices that are SNMP compatible contain SNMP “agent” software to receive, send, and act upon SNMP messages.
Software for managing devices via SNMP are available for every kind of commonly used computer and are often bundled along with the device they are designed to manage. Some SNMP software is designed to handle a wide variety of devices.

• SQL
Structured Query Language
A specialized programming language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength and many smaller database applications can be addressed using SQL. Each specific application will have its own version of SQL implementing features unique to that application, but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL.

• Secure Sockets Layer
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet.
SSL used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s that begin with “https” indicate that an SSL connection will be used.
SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity.
In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient can de-crypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered with.

• Sysop
System Operator
Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. A System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.

• T-1
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet.

• T-3
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video.

• TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

• Telnet
The command and program used to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet command/program gets you to the login: prompt of another host.

• Terminal
A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.

• Terminal Server
A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.

• UNIX
A computer operating system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets). UNIX is designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

• URL
Uniform Resource Locator
The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this:
Seminars by Matisse
or telnet://well.sf.ca.us
or news:new.newusers.questions
etc. The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Lynx.

• USENET
A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on the Internet, maybe half. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.

• Veronica
Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives
Developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica is a constantly updated database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopher servers. The Veronica database can be searched from most major gopher menus.

• WAIS
Wide Area Information Servers
A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities of information, and then making those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet. A prominent feature of WAIS is that the search results are ranked (scored) according to how relevant the hits are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last batch and thus refine the search process.

• WAN
Wide Area Network
Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.

• WWW
World Wide Web
Two meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hyper,,,, servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow ,,,,, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.