Blog

A shortened version of Web Log, an online log that serves as a venue for a variety of observations. You can subscribe to the log through a feed reader or a news aggregator.

Broadband

A perpetually "plugged-in" high-speed internet connection such as ADSL, SDSL or Cable broadband. The higher capacity of broadband is seen by many as essential for sending video etc "down the wire" and for coping with large amounts of electronic traffic.

Byte

A group of 8 bits — bytes, Kilobytes, megabytes and Gigabytes are common measures of file size, memory and disk capacity.

Collaboration

An umbrella term for a variety of technologies designed to help businesses and individuals work more closely together. Such technologies might include, for example, an electronic interface enabling users to receive orders and send back dispatch details, or a project support system that allows cross-business teams in different geographical locations to work together.

Collaboration Environment

An application that enables teams to share data, execute tasks jointly, and communicate smoothly.

Cookie

A cookie is a small file, stored on a web-user's computer. Web servers use the data in the file to identify the user, enabling them to present personalised information, and avoiding repeated entry of standard information such as e-mail addresses and telephone numbers.

CRM

Short for Customer Relationship Management. CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it be sales or service related.

Data Protection Act

The Act that places legal requirements on businesses and individual agents to adequately protect and manage personal data. The Act now applies to not only data stored on a computer, but to any personal data you hold.

Dial-up Connection

A connection to the Internet that is made by dialing an Internet Service Provider through a normal telephone line; dial-up connections are significantly slower than broadband connections.

Domain

The name of a location on the Internet that is used in both website addresses and Email addresses. There are many different types of domains, the major ones are known as top level domains (TLD). UK TLD's are .co.uk, .org.uk and .ac.uk.

Ecommerce

Electronic commerce is a shorthand for any kind of commercial transaction carried out over electronic networks. The concept is also loosely used in relation to marketing online. Rapidly growing, its success depends on developing secure systems for payment online, and probably also the growth of "ecash" (i.e. currency or credits only operating in the online world).

Email Software

Software that provides access to an Email account as well as organisational features; examples includes Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

Encryption

The process of converting information into a form unintelligible to anyone except holders of a specific cryptographic key.

Firewall

A piece of hardware or software that creates a digital boundary between two or more networks. A firewall acts as a gateway that limits access between networks based on a security policy enforced by the firewall. They will be many modems coming into the firewall but then only one that will let you gain access into the rest of the network.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol.

Hardware Failure

The failure of or damage to a piece of equipment; for example, a disk drive malfunctions or a laptop gets stolen.

Hosted

A type of web site that is held and managed by a vendor's computers.

HTML

This stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, this is the authoring language used to create world wide web documents. HTML dictates the structure and the layout of a document by using different HTML tags and attributes.

Inadequate Backup

The result of an imperfect method of backing up data; for example, the backup looks like it is running successfully when it actually is not.

Internet

The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers through over 100 countries. It is not centrally controlled by a server unlike other types of networks. Each computer called a host acts independently of other hosts unless instructed otherwise. An operator can chose what Internet services to use and what local services to make available to other hosts on the Internet. Once connected to the Internet a host has a choice of services that it can use from email, chatting, file sharing, web radio, webTV etc.

Internet Service Provider

An organisation that provides websites that allow users to connect to the internet.

Intranet

A network belonging usually to a corporation, accessible only by the corporation's members, employees, or others with authorization. An intranet's Web sites look and act just like any other Web site, but the firewall surrounding an intranet fends off unauthorised access. Like the Internet itself, intranets are used to share information. Secure intranets are now the fastest-growing segment of the Internet because they are cheap to run and maintain.

IP Address

Internet Protocol address; a unique address given to everyone and everything attached to the network. IP addresses can be fixed (the address of the person or device is always known), or variable (the addresses are allocated by an intermediary as they are needed).

Modem

A device that connects a PC to a telephone line. Modems connect with other modems over the telephone line to allow PCs to connect to each other and/or the Internet.

Network

Several different technologies allow computers to communicate with each other; when computers are connected this way, they are usually described as a 'network'.

Operating Systems

Programming that boots automatically when you start a computer and provides you with the desktop and all of the facilities needed for applications such as word processing, your Internet browser, and your accounting software to run.

PDAs

Personal Digital Assistants; often referred to as 'handhelds' or 'Palms'.

Phishing Attacks

Illegal action that prompts people to go to fake web pages in order to extract sensitive information; for example, a page that appears to be a bank's log in screen but is actually a false creation that captures user IDs and passwords, thereby giving the authors access to bank accounts.

Proxy Server

Software that mediates between a network and the Internet and that manages multiple people connecting through the same Internet service.

Remote Workers

People who work on the move. This could include people working from client sites, hotels, Internet-connected public places, as well as people connected to the mobile phone network.

SFTP

Secure File Transfer Protocol; there are several SFTP variants of FTP that incorporate encryption.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transport Protocol; a mechanism for sending Emails out into the Internet.

Software Failure

Damage or loss to your business involving software; for example, a new version of a program contains a bug that inputs incorrect information to your database.

USB

Universal Serial Bus.

Viruses

Programs designed to exploit weaknesses in your security so as to replicate themselves between computers, usually causing damage as they go.

WAP

Wireless application protocol. WAP is a secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld devices such as mobile phones, smart phones and some two-way radios. WAP enabled devices run what are called Micro-Browsers, they are designed to be able to deal with the low bandwidth restrictions that are found on wireless handheld devices.

Web Browser

Software that allows you to see web sites on the Internet; for example, Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox.

Webmail

A service that allows you to read Emails from your inbox on the Internet as well as allowing you to create and send Emails using Internet forms.

WiFi

A standard for connecting PCs wirelessly to communications equipment (such as a broadband connection), each other (if you have more than one PC at home), and to devices such as printers using radio communication. WiFi allows many people to set up home offices without expensive and/or unsightly cables throughout the building.