World Wide Webfx Internet Glossary of Computer Terms

Glossary of Computer Terms
from World Wide Webfx

FARNET: A non-profit corporation, established in 1987, whose mission is to advance the use of computer networks to improve research and education. You can reach FARNET at infb@farnet.org.
FAQ: See Frequently Asked Questions.See also RTFM.
Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI): A high-speed (100Mb/sec.) LAN standard. The underlying medium is fiber optics. See also Local Area Network.
file: An contiguous information packet, either data or code, identified by a filename and accesible by a filing system.
File menu: The first drop-down menu in a windows application.
file server: a computer which is mainly used to store and distribute files or programs.
file transfer: The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network. See also File Transfer Protocol, Kermit.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): A protocol that allows a user on one host to access, and transfer files to and from, another host over a network. Also, FTP is usually the name of the program the user invokes to execute the protocol. See also anonymous FTP; archive.
Finger: A program that will check to see if someone is currently logged on to a system and displays information about a particular user, or all users, logged on to the local system or on a remote system. It typically shows the full name, last login time, idle time, terminal line, and terminal location (where applicable). It may also display plan and project files left by the user.
firewall: A hardware device (or collection of devices) that is placed between two networks. One network is considered inside the company (safe) and one is considered outside the company (not safe). All traffic, both from the inside and outside, must pass through this device. The firewall limits access to authorized users and systems by filtering packets as they come in based on the source or destination address, as well as an application's TCP/IP port. On the Internet, firewall, bastion host, and secure Internet Connection are synonymous.
flame: See also e-mail, Frequently Asked Questions, kill file.
flame: A strong opinion and/or criticism of something, usually in a deliberately insulting tone, in an electronic mail message or news posting. Flames usually come in the form of grumpy, irritated, sometimes downright angry responses to questions or to inflammatory statements you make. Flaming is frowned upon in polite Internet society. It is common to precede a flame with an indication of pending fire (such as "FLAME ON!"). "Flame wars" occur when people start flaming other people for flaming when they shouldn't have. They can also start when a new reader in a newsgroup asks a question that older readers have answered many times, and which has been incorporated into a FAQ. A warning to new users: some folks enjoy flame wars and deliberately try to provoke one. Sometimes, you'll be gang-flamed, in which case many (sometimes many, many, many) users will seek revenge on you (for whatever reason) by dumping your E-mail address with thousands upon thousands of worthless messages. Avoid flames. Be nice.
floppy disk: A storage device that stores files/documents. Originally 8" in diameter it has been periodically replaced by smaller packages. They are curently almost exclusively 3.5". It's storage has progressively increased from.72MB to 1.44 MB and they now can hold 2.88MB of data.
floppy drive: a piece of computer hardware used to store and retrieve information from floppy disks.
folder: 1) refers to a collection of files or other folders on Macintosh computers;the same as a directory on another operating system (q.v) 2) collection of electronic mail messages; also refered to as 'mail folder'.
forms-capable browser: A World Wide Web browser which allows users to "fill in the blank" in questionnaires and other user-response items. Most GUI browsers are forms-capable, as are some of the line-mode browsers
For Your Information (FYI): A subseries of RFCs that are not technical standards or descriptions of protocols. FYIs convey general information about topics related to TCP/IP or the Internet. See also Request for Comments, STD.
forwarding: Passing mail from one mailbox to another, particularly when the user is not reading mail regularly on the first system. Some users with accounts on many computers prefer to read mail on one of them (for convenience, better user interface, cost, or other reasons), and so have all their mail forwarded to one account. Forwarding is also used to have mail come to a well-known public name (such as info@host, postmaster@host, or help@host without the need for a specific separate mailbox for that name. See also alias.
freenet: Community-based bulletin board system with e-mail, information services, interactive communications, and conferencing. Freenets are funded and operated by individuals and volunteers-in one sense, like public television. They are part of the National Public 'Thlecomputing Network (NPTN), an organization based in Cleveland, Ohio, devoted to making computer telecommunication and networking services as freely available as public libraries. See also Bulletin Board System.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): A document containing answers to a set of such questions. Many newsgroups put out these FAQ documents so that each new person does not ask the same questions; many computer product companies, as well as organizations that distribute information or do business over the Internet, have begun creating FAQs for their product, service, or information. Many FAQs are stored in an anonymous FTP archive, and many are broadcast across interested mailing lists at least once per month. See also flame.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol, which defines the communications standards used to upload and download files to and from an FTP server.
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN): The FQDN is the full name of a host computer on the Internet, rather than just its host name. For example, "xrayf' is a host name and xrayf.ge.com is an FQDN. The host named "xrayf" is located within the institutional domain.ge (General Electric), which is within the top-level domain.com (commercial institutions). An FQDN corresponds to an IP address, but this correspondence is not fixed. If the service provided by "xrayf' is moved to a different computer, the administrator will be able to reassign the FQDN to the new computer's IP address. See also host name, Domain Name System.
FYI: See For Your Information.