Internet glossary

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Image map - A graphic on a web page used for navigation. Clicking on different representative areas of the graphic links you to different related pages. Web designers should always consider alternate menus for image maps or else those without graphical browsers are unable to proceed.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) - IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by email clients in communicating with email servers. Using IMAP an email client program can not only retrieve email but can also manipulate message stored on the server, without having to actually retrieve the messages. So messages can be deleted, have their status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc.

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) - A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the writer is aware that they areexpressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion. One of many such shorthands in common use online, especially in discussion forums. Internet glossary.

Inlining - The practice of putting an IMG tag in a web page that calls a graphic from another site. Many sites, particularly those offering free storage, now view this as bandwidth theft and block remote IMG calls from other sites to their site. It is particularly bad netiquette and very likely a copyright violation to display a graphic called from someone else's web page.

Internet - 1. A network of many networks that interconnect worldwide and use the Internet Protocol (IP). 2. An internet (lower case i) describes more than one local network interconnected by bridges or routers.

The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet and is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world.

Intranet - A private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use. Compare with extranet. Internet glossary.

IP Number (Internet Protocol Number) - Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots. Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Many machines (especially servers) also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

IPv4 (Internet Protocol, version 4) - The most widley used version of the Internet Protocol (the "IP" part of TCP/IP.) IPv4 allows for a theoretical maximum of approximately four billion IP Numbers (technically 232), but the actual number is far less due to inefficiencies in the way blocks of numbers are handled by networks. The gradual adoption of IPv6 will solve this problem.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol, version 6) - The successor to IPv4. Already deployed in some cases and gradually spreading, IPv6 provides a huge number of available IP Numbers - over a sextillion addresses (theoretically 2128). IPv6 allows every device on the planet to have its own IP Number.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) - Basically a way to move more dataover existing regular phone lines. ISDN is available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000or 64,000 bits-per-second. Internet glossary.

ISP (Internet Service Provider) - An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.

IT (Information Technology) - A very general term referring to the entire field of Information Technology - anything from computer hardware to programming to network management. Most medium and large size companies have IT Departments.

IXC - Inter eXchange Carrier. Another name for a long distance telephone company.