Internet Access Industry Lingo

Empower yourself with the language of insiders. We decipher the arcane terms, epigrammatic abbreviations, and weird words used in the industry.

Banner ad

An ad placed on web sites that promote and link back to your web site. The majority of banner ads are formatted as GIF images, although many sites accept HTML banners as well. Standard banners measure 468 wide by 60 pixels high. Ads are charged at their rate of impressions, or amount of times the ad is viewed by web visitors, usually in groups of 1000.

Branding

A marketing concept used to create a greater awareness of your company's services and its products. Companies that are interested in branding try to get as many web users as possible to view their banner ads and logos, with less concern for the number of clickthroughs to their web sites.

Bulletin board

An online forum for a threaded conversation. Users can browse through previously posted messages or add their own message. Often used as a community-building tool.

Campaign

Refers to the schedule in which a banner ad will run or fly.

CERN

European Laboratory for Particle Physics. The World Wide Web protocols were originally developed at CERN, and the Lab remains an important center for developing Internet standards.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface. A CGI script is a small program that results in an action based on the user's input. Unlike HTML, CGI scripts require programming knowledge to write, but are necessary for any interaction between a visitor and the site.

Chat

Allows web surfers to "speak" to one another on a real-time basis. Generally, messages typed in can be viewed immediately. Like a bulletin board, chat is also considered to be another community building tool.

Clickthrough rate

The percentage of web visitors who actually click on a banner ad to get to a web site. Clickthrough rates vary from as low as 0.1% to 1% for Run of Network campaigns, to as high as 3% to 5% for more targeted campaigns.

Co-located server

When your site is hosted on a co-located server, an Internet service provider (ISP) provides high speed Internet access for a web server that you provide and set up. Generally, the ISP is responsible for making sure the connection is up, while you are responsible for making sure the site works.

Cookie

Web sites use browser-assigned cookies to collect user information and to deliver customized content.

Cost per click

Cost per clickthrough to your site.

CPM

Cost per thousand. Ads are charged at their rate of impressions, or amount of times the ad is viewed by web visitors, usually in groups of 1000.

Dedicated line

A type of telecommunications service where a high-speed open connection is maintained between two points. In the case of the Internet, a dedicated line can be used to provide an Internet connection to all employees in a large organization.

Dedicated server

When your site is hosted on a dedicated server, the Internet service provider (ISP) provides an NT or UNIX server and connects it to a high-speed Internet network. All you have to do is develop content for your site and install the necessary applications on the server.

Domain name

A domain name is a text-based address used to locate a specific set of web pages. Most for-profit businesses end their domain name with .com; non-profit organizations generally use the .org ending.

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line. A way of sending digital data over regular copper telephone lines. A DSL line is dedicated and fast. Speeds are about up to 3.2Mbps download and up to 1Mbps upstream.

Dynamic pages

Web pages that are automatically generated based on user input and activity.

File transfer protocol (FTP)

FTP software allows you to upload or download files from sites on the Internet.

Firewall

A way to insure that data on a web server or connected computer will not be available to anyone on the Internet. Firewalls block outsiders from accessing private information or altering your web site.

Frame relay:

A type of high-speed Internet connection between and 56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps, often used with wide-area networks (WAN).

GIF file

Also called CompuServe GIF, it is a common way that images are stored on web sites. Another popular type of image is JPEG. Some sites limit the number of GIFs that the banner can consist of, so pay close attention to this.

Host, web host

The server that stores the pages of your web site, offered both by ISPs and by dedicated hosting companies.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the code used to write a web page. The language uses text commands to create a series of 'tags' that specify how information should appear on the web page.

HTTP

HyperText Transport Protocol. HTTP is the protocol used to access pages across the web.

Impression

Another term for page view. The number of web users that view a particular page.

Internet

A worldwide network of interconnected computers. The Internet uses the TCP/IP protocol to send information between disparate systems.

Inventory

The number of banner ad impressions that are available during any period of time.

IP address

A string of numbers that is used to identify the location for your domain name on the web. The domain name system translates domain names into these addresses, which are represented by a series of numbers looking something like this: 123.123.23.2.

ISDN

A digital dial-up service that can be used for a high-speed Internet connection.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. ISPs offer connections to the Internet to businesses and home consumers. Some offer web hosting and site development services as well.

Java

A programming language developed for web sites. Java gives web sites the ability to create small interactive applications for visitors.

Key Word Campaign

A type of targeted campaign in banner advertising that allows you to buy key words that people search for. Key words target solely those users who have searched a particular topic using a key word that they typed in.

Leased line:

The fastest connection you can get, leased lines come in two configurations: T-1 and T-3. A T-1 line offers a data transfer rate of 1.5 million bits per second. (T-3 lines are significantly faster, at 45 million bits per second, and out of the price range of most businesses) Data is transferred over telephone wires. Leased lines aren't limited to a T-1 connection, but this is the most common and what is usually meant by "leased line."

POP

Point of presence. A physical location maintained by an Internet service provider to provide a local connection to the Internet.

Portal

Another term for search engine. A portal is basically an Internet hub that acts as a starting point for locating information on the web. Some examples of portals are Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite, and InfoSeek.

Real-time credit card approval

With real-time credit card approval, buyers can submit their credit card information along with their order and find out online whether the order has been approved by the credit card company.

Run of Channel (ROC)

A type of targeted banner ad campaign. Banner ads appear in a particular channel or section of the site. Many large search engines have multiple channels (i.e. education, science, business, etc.) in which you can run targeted banner ads.

Run of Network (RON)

The least targeted of banner ad campaigns. With RON, banners appear randomly throughout an entire web site.

Secure pages

Pages that are encrypted to ensure privacy, used typically for forms where sensitive information, like a credit card number, is being relayed. You can tell if a page is secure by the web page location--you will see https: instead of the more familiar http: tag at the beginning of the address.

Shared hard drive

A type of web site hosting service that allots you a certain amount of hard drive space for your web site. Generally, you are given a folder into which you can upload your web pages and images. While setup is easy and this hosting method is relatively cheap, its functionality can be limited and you could outgrow it.

Static pages

Web pages that consist only of HTML and images.

T1, T2, T3 lines

These dedicated lines are typically used by companies with substantial connection requirements. Dedicated lines carry enormous amounts of data per second, with T1 having the smallest capacity and T3 the largest. They can be used to connect a user to an Internet service provider (typically T1), or to connect an Internet service provider to other locations on the Internet (T2 and T3).

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol These two protocols were developed by the U.S. military to allow computers to talk to each other over long distance networks. IP is responsible for moving packets of data between nodes. TCP is responsible for verifying delivery from client to server. TCP/IP forms the basis of the Internet, and is built into every common modern operating system (including all flavors of Unix, the Mac OS, and the latest versions of Windows).

Telnet

Telnet is a powerful program that allows users to access another computer from a remote location and run commands and programs as if you were sitting at that remote computer.

URL

Depending on whom you talk to, stands for Uniform or Universal Resource Locator. Essentially, a web address that represents a particular web page on the Internet. You can recognize URLs by their prefix "http."

Virtual domain name

A service offered by Internet web site hosting companies that allows you to utilize a domain name as your web site address. Companies that do not offer this will require that the hosting company's domain name be part of your web site address.

Web site

A collection of web pages (or files) that are extensions of a particular domain name.