World Wide Webfx Internet Glossary of Computer Terms

Glossary of Computer Terms
from World Wide Webfx

Veronica: Internet gossip has it that this actually stands for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Network Index to Computerized Archives, but that's beside the point. More simply put, Veronica is an index of all Gopher menu items. Since a Veronica search is based on the name on a menu rather than keywords within databases, these searches tend to be less reliable than other methods,
viewer: A software utility that allows you to open and view any of a variety of file formats (typically GIF and JPEG)images online.
virtual domain: A domain that exists as a software entity on a server as contrasted with a domain that actually is comrised of a dedicated hardware location. A virtual domain has a numeric IP address and can include websites, mailservers, FTP sites or any other resource type.
virus: A program that replicates itself by incorporating itself into other programs that are shared among computer systems. See also Trojan Horse, worm.
VT1OO Terminal: The "standard" ASCII text terminal for which applications are designed. Originally manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), this terminal has a monochrome screen and attached keyboard. As you connect to services across the Internet via Telnet, you will frequently be asked what terminal your client is emulating. Choose VT1OO.
W3: See World Wide Web.
WAIS: See Wide Area Information Servers.
WAN: See Wide Area Network.
Web: See World Wide Web.
Web Page: Typically used to refer to a site on the Internet that uses HTML as its interface. Web pages can be downloaded with an HTML based browser and viewed on a local computer. A page may include graphics, text, sounds, and movies.
WHOIS: An Internet program that allows users to query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts kept at the NIC. The information for people shows a person's company name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. See white pages. Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) A distributed information service that offers simple natural language input, indexed searching for fast retrieval, and a "relevance feedback" mechanism that allows the results of initial searches to influence future searches. Public domain implementations are available. See also Archie, Gopher.
Wide Area Information Server: Wide Area Information Server, which is an Internet text search and retrieval system that works much like Gopher in that you use keywords to locate items within an online database. Unlike Gopher, WAIS searches are limited to keyword searches; you can't navigate databases through a series of menus. A Gopher server uses WAIS to conduct a search.
Wide Area Network: Wide Area Network is connection of PC's over a wide geographical area using high speed long distance communications hardware such as long-distance phone line and satellites.
WinSock: One of several Windows implementations of the Berkeley Sockets TCP/IP stack for UNIX. Trumpet WinSock is the most common of these.
word: a fundamental unit of storage in a computer, usually the size used to represent an integer.
Word Processing: Method used to create, edit, proof-read, format and print documents on a computer.
workstation: usually refers to a computer that is well-suited to running science or engineering applications. Some characteristics: large (15" or larger)monitor, floating point processor.
World Wide Web (WWW or W3): A hypertext-based distributed information system for linking databases, servers, and pages of information available across the Internet. Created by researchers at CERN in Switzerland it allows users to create, edit, or browse hypertext documents. The clients and servers are freely available from www.w3.org.
worm: A computer program that replicates itself and is self-propagating. Worms, as opposed to viruses, are meant to spawn in network environments. The Internet worm of November 1988 is perhaps the most famous;