A client computer is a tiny little individual personal computer that makes a request of a big important computer, the “server.” It also refers to the software that actually makes the request. For instance, your web browser (e.g., Firefox or Internet Explorer) is a client program that asks web servers to send web pages or files to your computer.
Anything on the web that isn’t findable with a search engine such as Google. Subscription-only library databases such as Historical Abstracts contain a great deal of “deep web” content. Other forms of “deep web” content can include pages that are unindexed at the request of the owner, dynamically-generated pages such as those that result from a search engine or form query, pages that aren’t linked to by other pages, and plain text (non-HTML) documents on the web.
Also folder, although “folder” implies a pictorial representation (a little folder icon) while “directory” implies a textual representation (as in C:\My Documents\ENLT255\syllabus.wpd or in http://aphdgital.org/projects). Servers, just like personal computers, have directories. Often (though not always), a web page’s URL reflects the directory structure of the server. The web page http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/jeffbiography.htm is an HTML file that sits on the server in a directory called “articles” that is in a directory called “coneyisland.”
A “domain” is basically the fundamental address of your web site. All web sites must have a “top-level domain” (TLD) such as .edu, .com, .org, .net .uk, .fr, .de and so on, but they must also have a registered domain name such as “nyu.edu.” There are many different companies that will register a domain name for you, including GoDaddy.com and NameCheap.com. Domains are managed by the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). You can look up who owns (or, really, who leases) a domain name using the WHOIS database.
A verb meaning to copy a file from a server to your personal computer. The opposite of upload.
File Transfer Protocol. Usually used now as a verb meaning to transfer files between clients and servers, as in “Luckily, I FTP’d my dissertation to the server just before my PC was hit by lightning.” Filezilla is a good free FTP program for Windows.
Hypertext Markup Language. The programming language used to make information readable on the web. Any file that is encoded using HTML and saved with the file extension .html can be read and understood by a browser, in exactly the same way that a sentence translated into French can be read and understood by a French-speaker.
Copyrighted works for which it is difficult or impossible to locate the copyright owner.
A big clicking and humming and blinking machine somewhere in the bowels of the University or the Pentagon–at least, that’s how I imagine it. A server is actually basically just a regular computer whose purpose is to fulfill requests from other computers. A server is in a way the opposite of a personal computer (PC), since it is a computer that serves a community rather than an individual. It is usually connected to several (or thousands) of personal computers. A whole bunch of servers in a particular location is called a “cluster.” A bunch of servers in a particular location that is connected to lots of PCs at a particular organization (such as NYU) forms a Local Area Network (LAN). All servers connected together form the Internet; they pass requests along to one another. (Note: the term “server” is used to refer both to software that allows a computer to fulfill requests from clients and to the computer on which such software is installed.)
The World Wide Web Consortium. The benign yet terrifying and inscrutable cabal that controls the World Wide Web. They decide what counts as valid HTML, for instance.
A web host is a company or organization with a bunch of servers that will rent (or give) you space on them so that you can have a web site. There are many, many companies that do this: one example is GoDaddy.com. NYU also offers members of its community some server space to build a personal web site: see Your NYU Home Page for more details.
What appears on a single screen when you visit a web site. (Often used interchangeably with the term “web site,” however.) A web page is analogous to a single room in the building that is a web site.
A discrete group of related web pages fronted by a home page. Web sites can be compared to the houses, offices, museums, universities, art galleries, bookstores, symphony halls, and coffee shops that you can get to by traveling the information superhighway. Those who have no web site of their own are homeless in the virtual universe.
Also “the web” or “the Web.” The capitalization issue has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, to my mind. The web is a graphical interface to the Internet. In other words, it’s a series of pretty pictures covering up the hard, cold, ugly surface of the Internet. It’s a subset of the Internet; files can be on the Internet without being on the web.
A verb meaning to copy a file from your personal computer to a server. The opposite of download.
