General Definitions

Learn what General words mean and how to use them

SPAM
A term for unsolicited email sent out in mass quanities that is often commercial.

Forum
This is a term for a bulletin board online where people can post messages on a variety of subtopics which relate to certain specific topics.

Newsgroup
This is a term for a type of bulletin board online popular in the past in which people could post messages through email on a variety of specific topics. Newsgroups were also known as usenet. Newsgroups were limited in that not all ISP's allowed their customers to post to all newsgroups. Later as the world wide web took hold postings occured often via dejanews which allowed anyone to post to any newgroup through their servers and not through email. Newsgroups are now archived and can be posted to via Google groups which was created when Google acquired the newsgroup assets from Deja.

Usenet
Another term for newsgroups

IRC
An acronym for Internet Relay Chat which is a popular way of chatting and organizing online which is done via a special browser such as Mirc or Pirch. IRC is a popular download means and has been around far longer than the peer to peer solutions and Napster like methods. IRC is a haven for illegal information and data of all sorts. Webservers that host IRC servers are also victims of attack often from members of the IRC community for various reasons.

Netsplit
Term for a unique event in which one Irc server is cut off from its related Irc Network isolating everyone that connected to that lone Irc Server that split off from the rest. If for example one connects to an Irc server in Charlotte, NC in the US and it is experiencing a netsplit then those who connected to that server would be unreachable to the rest of the members of that Irc Network. In effect it could be said that the Charlotte was lost due to a netsplit.

Ghost
Term for what happens sometimes when an Irc user disconnects and relogs on to an Irc Network and it appears that they through their previous connection and nickname are still there. The nickname that can not respond is a ghost.

Warbot
Term for a malicious Irc software script that is designed to go around banning people from chat rooms or otherwise limiting users experiences.

K-lined, G-lined
These are terms for a type of ban from Irc that is instituted on an Ip or ISP level due to extreme abuse. To keep those who are dangerous away all of those who fall in their Ip range or use their ISP are also banned.

Kicked
To be removed from a given chatroom or Irc Channel but be able to go back in. The kicking is done to make an example of someone and to deter their conduct before having to banning them.

Banned
On Irc this is to be barred from participation in a given chat room or channel.

Flooding
This is a term for sending out lots of text very fast in an Irc Channel. In effect through flooding you shut down the channel by making it difficult for real people's words to get through. Some people who type fast are also banned sometimes for flooding including myself.

Troll
Term for a message board or chat room poster that posts commercial information or contentless posts that just wastes everyone's time.

Sniping
This is a term used in regards to online auctions it means to wait until the last possible minute in an auction to bid. In an ebay auction for example many people will bid one price but will reconsider if outbid and bid again if given the chance, if you bid high at the last possible moment through sniping they can not bid again

Default Home Page
Term for the website url set up as the one that opens automatically when your internet browser is opened. By default Internet Explorer sets MSN.com as the default home page for internet explorer users unless you change it. Many popups try to trick novice internet users into allowing their default home pages to be changed to some ad oriented homepage.

P2P
Acronym for peer to peer which is a way that internet users can exchange data between themselves. Peer to Peer systems are commonly used to trade music through things like Kazaa and Napster in the past.

ASCII
This term refers to a standard text format. For example ASCII artwork would be artwork created by using text characters alone.

Attachment
This is a file that is sent along with an email message. An attachment can be a picture, a compressed Zip file containing images or other things, or a virus.

Broadband
Term for high speed internet either from Satelite, Cable, or ADSL. Broadband is generally 40 to 200K a second or more.

Dial up
This is a connection to the internet established by connecting to the internet via a phone line.

404 Error
This is a term for a dead webpage on a website. If the whole server or site itself is down there will be no 404 error.


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