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Archie lets you search all publicly
available FTP sites that contain files with the key word you are searching for. To use it
you have to login to an Archie server and type some commands. It will do a search and turn
up a list of all the sites applicable.
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Bot, spider, robot -- all of these are software programs that perform
searches without the aid of a human.
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Chat -- a synchronous connection between two or more computers. MOOs,
MUDs and chatlines use this type of communication.
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FAQ -- frequently asked questions.
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Homepage -- the main page of any website. This is the page that
indexes the information available to you at that site.
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Hypertext -- a document which contains links to other
information embedded within the document. Reading this type of information can often be
frustrating especially if the designer of the website does not link back to the page where
you started reading. Remember to use the back button on your browser to help you return to
the original site.
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Link -- connections to other documents, either at the site or on
other computers. Usually a link is underlined, highlighted or somehow different from the
text surrounding it but not always.
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Website -- a location on the WWW which houses information that can
be accessed by other users of the WWW.
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WWW -- the world wide web, is a connection through the Internet of
millions of computers around the world through which all types of businesses,
organizations, educational entities and individual users make graphical information
available.
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Online -- this can mean through the Internet although the actual
meaning includes any electronic connection.
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Offline -- to manipulate data while not connected to the Web.
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Download -- transferring information from a computer located at a
different site and putting it into your own computer. Upload is the opposite of
this.
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FTP -- file transfer protocol, is one way of transferring information
from one computer to the next.
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HTTP -- hypertext transfer protocol, transferring information through
a graphical interface.
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Telnet -- the ability to visit someone else's computer and to use
the services available there.
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Gopher -- a transfer protocol that allows users to view in text
form directories and files located at specific computers.
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WAIS -- is an acronym for Wide Area Information Servers
which is a networked information retrieval system. Unlike Gopher, which searches files by
their titles, WAIS servers search the full text of files and return a list of documents
that contain the key word you are searching for. The WAIS method of search and retrieval
is what most search engines on the Web are based upon.
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Veronica -- acronym for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index
to Computerized Archives which is a keyword search of most gopher-server menu titles. A
Veronica search produces a menu of Gopher items, each of which is a direct pointer to a
Gopher data source. Jughead is another, less powerful search utility for Gopher.
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Server -- a computer that allows access from other users and
hosts different programs and information.
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Search Engines -- software programs designed to search for and
retrieve information on the WWW based on keywords provided by the user. Most use some form
of Boolean operator to help narrow searches. A metasearch engine will search
three or more sites for your query.
A Boolean operator works like this:
if you enter four keywords for example, high school learning disabilities, all the pages
with these modifiers will be shown to you.
if you use the word "and" between your keywords, pages with all the terms will
be shown
you can also use the words "not" or "or"
using learn*, will bring pages that have the root work included.
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jpg, gif and wav -- each of these indicate file extensions-- the first
two are graphics; the third is audio.
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Web Directories -- the card catalogues of the Web.
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Java, Perl, C++ -- types of programming language.
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