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NUR 421: Nursing Informatics

Basic internet terms

Domain
While every computer has its own unique address, every user using the Internet
has a unique address called a domain. A domain recognizes one or more IP
addresses. An example of a domain is weather.com and is part of the URL such
as http://www.weather.com. The standard top-level domains are:

 com - Commercial business

 edu - Educational institutions
 gov - Government agencies
 mil - Military
 net - Networks organization
 org - Organizations (nonprofit)

There are additional top-level domains that are now recognized on the Internet.
They include:

 aero - Air-transport industry

 biz - Businesses
 coop - Cooperatives
 info - Unrestricted use
 museum - museums
 pro - Accountants, lawyers, physicians, and other professionals
 tv - Television
Some countries use a sub-domain or geographical domain as part of their
address. Fox example, an academic institution such as Oxford University in the
United Kingdom can use ac.uk. An example of a URL with this domain is
http://www.ox.ac.uk/.

App
A small software application that can be downloaded to a Smartphone.
Thousands of apps are released all the time, and they are popular with users of
Smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and the Google Android phone. Most cost
very little and some are free.

Baud
Baud is the number of thime per second that a medem converts digital signals to
analog sounds, so that it can transfer information over an analog telephone line.

Bit
Bit is a single digit in the binary numbering system (base 2). For example: 1 is a
bit or 0 is a bit.

Blog or Online Journal

A contraction of the term weblog, blogs or online journals are Web sites that are
frequently updated with new content or “posts”. Blogs are very easy to create and
update. The posts are usually displayed in reverse chronological order with the
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latest displayed at the top. Readers can post replies or make comments to each
post.

There are several types of blogs:

•Personal blogs: maintained by a single person and may focus on the daily life of
the writer or that individual's viewpoint on a subject or subjects
•Corporate blogs: written by companies. Used to help a company communicate
better with its customers or communicate internally within the organization.
•Journalistic blogs: typically written by journalists, these blogs undergo editorial
supervision, so they are not entirely personal, but they are also not corporate and
reflect a single person’s opinion.

Byte
A Byte generally consists of eight bits

Browser
A piece of software such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer that allows a
computer to access and display documents, view pictures, hear sound, and view
video clips from the World Wide Web.

DNS
DNS (Domain Name System) is a large database of domain names and their
correspondent Internet (IP Addresses) for example: www.widget.com corrisponds
to it's unique number 207.168.6.12

Domain Name
A domain name is a description or representation of a computer's location on the
Internet. It is usually separated by a dot.
For example:
www.comentum.com
sales.comentum.com
joespizza.comentum.com

In this example, comentum.com is at the hightest level (directly to the left of

.com), making it the best commercial and most protected name for the
Commentum Communications company. Any additional name information
following after (to the left) of .com is under that domain umbrella, as in the
joespizza.commentum.com example above, and does not hold the highest position
in the domain name heirarchy.
In the same example, it is better to hold a domain name like the following:
joespizza.com
(rather than)
joespizza.comentum.com

E-mail

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Mail that's electronically transmitted by your computer. As opposed to snail

mail, e-mail sends your messages instantaneously, anywhere in the world. It has
the capability to send messages at any time and to anyone.

File
A computer file is a block of information which is available to a computer
program. The file name is made up of:
•The name of the file, which is any name whoever creates the file chooses to give
•An extension that indicates what type of program is needed to be able to read
and/or display the contents of the file. For example: myfile.docx, mypic.jpg.
Some common file types are:
•Text File: Words or words and pictures. (.txt, .docx are some extension
examples)
•Image File: These are all different formats to display a picture or movie.( .bmp,
.jpg, .mpg, gif.)
•Audio File: This can be a sound file or one containing a song or entire album of
songs(.mp3)

Forum
An Internet forum is an online discussion site, where members can communicate
with other members. A member of a forum posts a message, which is visible to
all other forum members, who have the option of posting a reply, which is also
visible to all members. Thus, a discussion can build up without all users having
to be online at the same time.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The standard method for downloading and uploading files over the Internet.
With FTP, you can login to a server and transfer files (meaning you can "send" or
"receive" files).

Homepage
The first page that is viewed when the browser starts. It is also the page of a
Web site that provides the introduction or content with links. For example, if a
user opens Netscape or Internet Explorer and types the URL,
http://www.commentum.com, that would open the home Page of the Commentum
Communications company.

Java
Java is an object-oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems
Company. It can operate on any type ("virtual machine") of operating system, or
computer system (PC, Mac, Solaris, etc.). It is a flexible tool for integrating
interactivity and multimedia, and a very secure language, making it a useful
language for networking or the Internet.

JavaScript

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JavaScript is a powerful scripting language created by Netscape, and is

supported by Netscape 2.0 and higher, and Explorer 4.0 and higher. It is
primarily used to add interactivity and multimedia to web pages.

JScript
JScript is a scripting language created by Microscoft, similar to JavaScript.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is a coding language used to tell a browser how to
place pictures, text, multimedia and links to create a web page. When a user
clicks on a link within a web page, that link, which is coded with HTML, links
the user to a specific linked web page.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The abbreviation for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the set of rules by which
Web pages are transferred across the Internet.

Host
A computer that is used to transfer data on the Internet.

Internet
The Internet is a world wide network of computers that are connected
(networked) and are using the communication method called TCP/IP. The
Internet was named ARPANET in 1969 by the Advanced Research Projects
Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense with just four computers connected
together.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address

The Internet is composed of local, regional, national, and worldwide computer
networks. Each computer on the Internet can be identified by a set of unique
numbers that is called an internet protocol (IP) address. The IP address is
composed of four different numbers separated by periods such as 205.134.120.60.

Port
In relationship to the Internet, a Port is a channel that a server software would
listen to, for any inquiries, there are certain standard default channels set for
certain server software. For example, a web server software by default will listen
to port 80 for any inquiry. Web server software can also listen to any other port,
for example: http://www.commentum.com:5000

Proxy
Example of how a proxy server works.
In simple terms a proxy is an intermediate server or a network that enables
indirect communication between computer networks. In some cases the proxy
server serves as a separation point between an organization and the outside
world and enables monitoring, blocking or changes in HTML pages based on
different criteria.

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A proxy server enables the blocking of web pages with undesirable content and
access to illegal downloads.
The anonymous proxy enables privacy and anonymity, by replacing the IP
address of a user on the internal (protected) network with its own IP address for
all traffic passing through it.
The proxy provides the same ability to browse the Internet as any other Web
browser. A proxy site allows the user to type in a specific web address and be
directed to that specific page in a window.

Link or Hypertext Link

An underlined word(s), phrase(s), or graphics on a Web page that transports the
reader to additional or related information on the Internet.

Server
A server is a computer with a software program set up for serving web pages to a
user on the same computer or another computer. The server computer coupled
with server software, listens for inquiries from a client computer (a computer
other than the server).

Spam
Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail, generally e-mail advertising for some
product, sent directly to individual users on a mailing list or newsgroup. It is
also known as “bulk e-mail”, or “junk e-mail”.

TelNet
A terminal emulation protocol (or Internet program) used to connect a computer
to a remote host or server. Telnet is one of the oldest Internet activities and is
primarily used to access online databases or to read articles stored on university
servers.

Upload
To upload is to transfer data from your computer to another computer.

Download
To download is to transfer data from another computer to your computer.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

An addressing scheme that is used on the Internet to locate resources and/or
services on the World Wide Web. Basically the URL is the address of a computer
file that has been put on a computer server to access the Internet. For example:
https://www.comentum.com
ftp://ftp.comentum.com
telnet://info.comentum.com

Web Hosting
To store and make web pages available and ready for inquiries, or a computer
that has a consistent connection to the Internet.

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Web Page
A single hypertext file or a page that is part of a Web site.

Website
A collection of World Wide Web pages or files.

World Wide Web

Also called web or www, it is a collection of information, resources, pictures,
sounds, multimedia on the internet that are linked and connected together.
Using a software product such as Netscape makes accessing and linking to web
pages containing information, easy. The world wide web was invented by Tim
Bernes-lee in the CERN Laboratory in March 1989.