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WAIS | WAN | Web Page
| Web Ring
| Web Site
| Webmaster
| White Paper
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WHOIS
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Wi-fi | Win32 |
Windows
| Wizard
| WWW
WAIS
Stands for "Wide Area
Information Server." This is a program that can index enormous amounts of
information and make it searchable across large networks (including the
Internet). People can search the WAIS index and it will return results by
relevance. Searches can then be narrowed down by subsequent searches on the
original results. Search engines are a new and improved version of WAIS,
specifically for the Web.
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WAN
Stands for "Wide Area Network." It is similar to a Local Area Network (LAN), but
it's a lot bigger. Unlike LANs, WANs are not limited to a single location. Many
wide area networks span long distances via telephone lines, fiber-optic cables,
or satellite links. They can also be composed of smaller LANs that are
interconnected. The Internet could be described as the biggest WAN in the world.
You could even call the Internet a Super WAN BAM if you wanted to.
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Web Page
Web pages are what make up the World Wide Web. These documents are written in
HTML (hypertext markup language) and are translated by your Web browser. Web
pages can either be static or dynamic. Static pages show the same content each
time they are viewed. Dynamic pages have content that can change each time they
are accessed. These pages are typically written in scripting languages such as
PHP, Perl, ASP, or JSP. The scripts in the pages run functions on the server
that return things like the date and time, and database information. All the
information is returned as HTML code, so when the page gets to your browser, all
the browser has to do is translate the HTML.
Please note that a Web page is not the same thing as a Web site. A Web site is a
collection of pages. A Web page is an individual HTML document. This is a good
distinction to know, as most techies have little tolerance for people who mix up
the two terms.
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Web Ring
A Web ring is a way of interlinking related Web sites so that people can visit
many similar Web sites by just following the "Web ring" link on each page. Most
Web rings allow people to browse backwards or forwards through the sites in the
ring, or choose to visit individual sites from a list. The rings are typically
run from a main site which uses a Web scripting application to select random
sites and keep the ring up to date. This includes getting rid of outdated pages
and links, and adding new ones. There are tens of thousands of Web rings for
things like football, cars, celebrities, computers, TV shows, etc. You can tell
if a Web page is part of Web ring if on the bottom of the page it has some huge,
obtrusive, off-color, button linking to other sites in the ring.
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Web Site
No, this is not the same thing as a Web page. Though the two terms are often
used interchangeably, they should not be. So what's the difference? To put it
simply, a Web site is a collection of Web pages. For example, Amazon.com is a
Web site, but there are millions of Web pages that make up the site. Knowing the
difference between these two terms can save you a lot of embarrassment.
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Webmaster
The webmaster is the person in charge of maintaining a Web site. The jobs of a
webmaster include writing HTML for Web pages, organizing the Web site's
structure, responding to e-mails about the Web site, and keeping the site
up-to-date. On some Web sites you might see a phrase that says, "send dead links
and other Web site problems to webmaster@domainame.com." At times, being a
webmaster can be a rather arduous job. I received some dead links in the mail
one time, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.
White
Paper
This term has historically been used to describe a report that states the social
or political position of an organization. In recent years, however, the IT
industry has adopted the term to describe articles that explain an certain
technology or product. For example, a company may release a white paper to the
public in order to educate consumers about one of their products. The
terminology used may be somewhat technical, but the goal of a white paper is
usually to describe the technology or product in terms most people can
understand. That way nerds don't get to have all the fun each time a new
technology is invented.
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WHOIS
This is an Internet service that finds information about a domain name or IP
address. If you enter a domain name in a WHOIS search engine, it will scour a
huge database of domains and return information about the one you entered. This
information typically contains the name, address, and phone number of the
administrative, billing, and technical contacts of the domain name. WHOIS can
also be used to simply check if a certain domain name is available or if it has
already been registered. To see the WHOIS service in action, check out
Allwhois.com or BetterWhois.com.
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Wi-Fi
Short for "Wireless Fidelity." (Yes, it is pretty much a rip-off of the term
"Hi-Fi," or High Fidelity, which refers to high-quality audio or surround
sound.) Wi-Fi refers to wireless network components that are based on one of the
Wi-Fi Alliance's 802.11 standards.
The Wi-Fi Alliance created the 802.11 standard so that manufacturers can make
wireless products that work with other manufacturers' equipment. So, if you have
a "Wi-Fi Certified" wireless network card, it should be recognized by any "Wi-Fi
Certified" access point, and vice-versa. Why there is a Wi-Fi Alliance and why
they named the wireless standard 802.11, I am not sure.
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Win32
This is the Windows application programming interface (API) for developing
32-bit applications. It has been used for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT,
and newer Windows operating systems. This means that if you use Windows 95 or
later, you can run 32-bit applications on your computer. Win32 is a term that is
important to programmers, but is not crucial for the average user to know. Just
know that if you have Windows 95 or later, you can run Win32 applications. If
you want to learn more about Win32, including a bunch of technical jargon, you
can visit Microsoft's Win32 Developer Page for more information.
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Windows
This is the most popular operating system for personal computers. It is
developed and distributed by Microsoft. There are several versions of the
Windows operating system, including Windows XP (for home users) and Windows 2000
(for professional users). Earlier versions of Windows include Windows 3.1, 95,
98, ME, and NT. All Windows platforms use a graphical user interface (GUI), like
the Mac OS, and also offer a command-line interface for typing text commands.
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Wizard
When most people think of a wizard, they think of an old man with magical
powers. This, as with many other computer definitions, has no correlation with
the technical term. In computer terminology, a wizard is a part of a program
that guides you through certain steps. For example, a wizard in Microsoft Word
would help you create and format a new document according to your needs. This is
helpful when creating a résumé, outline, invoice, etc. Some other examples of
wizards are the Finale 2000 wizard, which helps you create a new music
composition with your desired instruments, and the PowerPoint wizard, which
helps you set up a presentation using a certain theme.
Basically, a wizard acts as a guide for creating a new document in a software
program. Though wizards can be helpful, sometimes they can be more of a hassle
than a help for experienced users. Some users would rather just create a new
document from scratch, without using a wizard. This is because wizards typically
don't offer as much customization as an experienced user may want. Finally, be
sure not to confuse a "wizard" with a "template." A template is a pre-formatted
document that has already been created, whereas a wizard is a step-by-step guide
that helps you create your own document.
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WWW
Stands for "World Wide Web." It is important to know that this is not a synonym
for the Internet. The World Wide Web, or just "the Web," as ordinary people call
it, is a subset of the Internet. The Web consists of pages that can be accessed
using a Web browser. The Internet is the actual network of networks where all
the information resides. Things like Telnet, FTP, Internet gaming, Internet
Relay Chat (IRC), and e-mail are all part of the Internet, but are not part of
the World Wide Web. The Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used
to transfer Web pages to your computer. With hypertext, a word or phrase can
contain a link to another Web site. All Web pages are written in the hyper-text
markup language (HTML), which works in conjunction with HTTP.
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