Damm Coyote's

Glossary Of Terms

Packet
A block of data sent over a network. The packet includes the identities of the sending and receiving stations, error-control information, and a message.

Packet sniffing
The intentional and usually illegal act of intercepting packets of data being transmitted over the net and searching for them for information.

Packet-switching
The communications technology on which the Internet is based. Packets of digital data are transmitted from many people simultaneously between computers.

Parse
Analysis and segmentation of data in order to represent it correctly.

Pascal
A high-level programming language named for the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). Developed in the early 1770s by Niklaus Wirth for teaching programming and designed to support the concept of structured programming. Easy to learn and often the first language taught in school.

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 fred. A good password might be:zxst135}[.

Path
The hierarchical description of where a directory, folder, of file is located on your computer.

PCM
Pulse Code Modulation. A method of encoding an audio signal in digital format.

PDF
Portable Document Format. The file format for documents created using Adobe Acrobat. PDF documents allow people to share formatted documents across different platforms. To create a PDF document, you use Adobe Acrobat Exchange and print the existing document to a file. The PDF file can be viewed using the Acrobat reader, which is distributed free. Adobe Acrobat Reader.

PDN
Public Data Network. A telecommunications service that gives access to a nationwide data network through a local phone call.

Pel
Picture element(pixel).The smallest graphic unit that can be displayed on the screen, usually a single-coloured dot. See pixel

Perl
Practical Extraction Report Language, a language created by Larry Wall that offers superb string-handling and pattern- matching capabilities. It is the de facto standard for CGI programs.The Perl Language Home Page.

Permissions
Files on a UNIX operating system are protected by permission settings. For example in order for Perl CGI script to run, the directory and the script file must have the permissions set to allow the program to be executed. You change permissions by using the chmod command and specifying the number that indicate the permission settings to which you want the file or directory set.

Ping
A connection testing program that sends a self-returning packet to a host and times how long it takes to return.

Pixel
Picture element. The smallest unit displayable on a computer screen. HTML uses pixels as the standard method of defining the size settings of displayable elements, such as horizontal rules and table borders, rows, and columns. See Pel

Plug-in
An application that is set up to run from a browser. Plug-ins let you view files that you would normally need a stand alone program to display, such as sound and audio files. Numerous plug-ins exist for Netscape Navigator, including Adobe Acrobat, RealAudio, and Shockwave.
2)
A program that attaches itself to a Web browser. The functionality of the program than becomes an integral part of the browser. An example is WebFX, a VRML plug-in for Netscape.Plug Ins.

PNG
Portable Network Graphics, a file format that was designed as a successor to GIF. PNG (pronounced "ping") files, unlike GIF files are not subject to developer royalties.

POP
Point of Presence. The closest location or telephone access number for a network or telephone company. Leased-line charges are based in part on how far your location is from a pop.
2)
A local dial in point for an Internet Service Provider. Post Office Protocol. (pop3) refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell 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.

POP 3
Post Office Protocol version 3. The mail protocol used by Netscape Navigator and most mail applications to retrieve mail from an SMTP server.

Port
A connection or socket on a computer. Ports are used for connecting devices, such as modems, monitors, and printers to your computer. Ports are used to send information between computer and devices.COM (serial ports) and LPT (parallel ports) are the most commonly used ports.

Post
To send a message, called an article, to a network newsgroups.

Postmaster
The name given to the person in charge of administrating e-mail for a site. According to convention, mail sent to [email protected] should be read by a real live person.

PostScript
Adobe's proprietary page description language , designed to relay instructions about fonts and objects to a printer. The de facto standard for Macintosh, UNIX, and desktop publishing. PostScript files can be displayed using programs such as Ghostview, and can be converted to adobe's format using Adobe's Distiller. Adobe Systems.

POTS
Plain Old Telephone Service. Used to describe standard voice telephone lines. In terms of bandwidth, these lines are at the bottom of the telecommunications hierarchy

PPP
Point to Point Protocol. A protocol that allows a computer to use the TCP/IP protocols and be directly connected to the Internet using a standard voice telephone line and a high-speed modem. PPP is rapidly replacing SLIP.
2)
The most common protocol used to allows computers to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connection to the Internet.

PRI
Primary Rate Interface. An industrial grade ISDN line. In Canada, The U. S. and Japan, a PRI consists of 23 64K bearer channels and a 64K delta (controller) channel. In Europe, a PRI consists of 30 bearer channels and a delta channel.

Program
The instructions that tell your computer what to do and how to operate.

Programming language
The language programmers use to create programs. For example C, C++, Perl, Java, and visual Basic. In Fact, programming languages are translators that take words and symbols and convert them to binary code that the CPU can understand.

Protocol
A specification that describes the rules and procedures that allow computers to communicate. Most Internet tools are named after the protocols they use. For example, FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is also the name of the program used for transferring files.

Proxy
A connection through a modem and telephone line to the Internet that enables you to use full-screen programs, such as Mosaic and Netscape, to browse the Internet.

PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network.

Publish
To make a Web page available to the World Wide Web community at large.

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