Monday, February 26, 2001		Bits & Bytes

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. A compilation of answers to these. Many usernet newsgroups have these files that are posted once a month or so for beginners.

Fibre-optic Cable: A technology that uses very thin cables and light beams to carry data. The capacity is manifold that of conventional data links.

Flame: Online yelling and/or ranting directed at somebody else. Often results in flame wars that occasionally turn into holy wars.

Follow up: A Usernet posting that is a response to an earlier message.

Freeware: Software that doesn’t cost anything.

FTP: File-transfer Protocol. A system for transferring files across the Net.

Gateway: A computer that provides a link for a network into the Internet.

Handshake: Two modems trying to connect first do this to agree on how to transfer data.

Hang: When a modem fails to close a connection

Hits: Raw hits are the number of requests for distinct HTML objects from a Web site.

Hotlist: Same as to Bookmark page

Host system: A public access site; provides Net access to people outside the research and government community.