ISP Definition Stands for "Internet Service Provider." An ISP provides access to the Internet. Whether you're at home or work, each time you connect to the Internet, your connection is routed through an ISP. Early ISPs provided Internet access through dial-up modems. This type of connection took place over regular phone lines and was limited to 56 Kbps. In the late 1990s, ISPs began offering faster broadband Internet access via DSL and cable modems. Some ISPs now offer high-speed fiber connecti...

IMAP Definition Stands for "Internet Message Access Protocol" and is pronounced "eye-map." It is a method of accessing e-mail messages on a server without having to download them to your local hard drive. This is the main difference between IMAP and another popular e-mail protocol called "POP3." POP3 requires users to download messages to their hard drive before reading them. The advantage of using an IMAP mail server is that users can check their mail from multiple computers and always see the ...

POP3 Definition Stands for "Post Office Protocol." POP3, sometimes referred to as just "POP," is a simple, standardized method of delivering e-mail messages. A POP3 mail server receives e-mails and filters them into the appropriate user folders. When a user connects to the mail server to retrieve his mail, the messages are downloaded from mail server to the user's hard disk. When you configure your e-mail client, such as Outlook (Windows) or Mail (Mac OS X), you will need to enter the type of m...

SSH Definition Stands for "Secure Shell." SSH is a method of securely communicating with another computer. The "secure" part of the name means that all data sent via an SSH connection is encrypted. This means if a third party tries to intercept the information being transferred, it would appear scrambled and unreadable. The "shell" part of the name means SSH is based on a Unix shell, which is a program that interprets commands entered by a user. Because SSH is based on a Unix shell, standard Un...

NNTP Definition Stands for "Network News Transfer Protocol." NNTP is the protocol used to connect to Usenet servers and transfer newsgroup articles between systems over the Internet. It is similar to the SMTP protocol used for sending email messages, but is designed specifically for newsgroup articles. NNTP enables both server/server and client/server communication. NNTP servers, for example, can communicate with each other and replicate newsgroups among each other. This is how the Usenet netwo...

SSL Definition Stands for "Secure Sockets Layer." SSL is a secure protocol developed for sending information securely over the Internet. Many websites use SSL for secure areas of their sites, such as user account pages and online checkout. Usually, when you are asked to "log in" on a website, the resulting page is secured by SSL. SSL encrypts the data being transmitted so that a third party cannot "eavesdrop" on the transmission and view the data being transmitted. Only the user's computer and ...

Client Definition In the real world, businesses have clients. In the computer world, servers have clients. The "client-server" architecture is common in both local and wide area networks. For example, if an office has a server that stores the company's database on it, the other computers in the office that can access the datbase are "clients" of the server. On a larger scale, when you access your e-mail from a mail server on the Internet, your computer acts as the client that connects to the ma...

Web Design Definition Web design is the process of creating websites. It encompasses several different aspects, including webpage layout, content production, and graphic design. While the terms web design and web development are often used interchangeably, web design is technically a subset of the broader category of web development. Websites are created using a markup language called HTML. Web designers build webpages using HTML tags that define the content and metadata of each page. The layou...

Cookie Definition A cookie is a small amount of data generated by a website and saved by your web browser. Its purpose is to remember information about you, similar to a preference file created by a software application. While cookies serve many functions, their most common purpose is to store login information for a specific site. Some sites will save both your username and password in a cookie, while others will only save your username. Whenever you check a box that says, "Remember me on this...

Ajax Definition Ajax is a combination of Web development technologies used for creating dynamic websites. While the term "Ajax" is not written in all caps like most tech acronyms, the letters stand for "Asynchronous JavaScript And XML." Therefore, websites that use Ajax combine JavaScript and XML to display dynamic content. The "asynchronous" part of Ajax refers to the way requests are made to the Web server. When a script sends a request to the Web server, it may receive data, which can then b...