Internet glossary

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Access Provider - A remote computer system to which you connect your personal computer and through which you connect to the Internet.

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Technology to carry high speed data over ordinary phone lines. It is up to 70 times as fast as a 28.8 modem, and can be used concurrently with voice over the same line. It is gradually being offered to homes commercially now. It is called "asymmetric" because download speeds to the subscriber are faster than upload speeds from the subscriber.

Adware - Any software which serves banner ads or pop-up ads to you while in use.

Afk - Chat abbreviation for "away from keyboard".

AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format. A common audio file format originally for Macs, but used with other systems, too. Internet glossary.

API - Application Program Interface. An interface between the operating system and application programs that specifies how the two communicate with each other.

Applet - An application that is downloaded from a web page and executed by browser software. Also, an HTML tag that defines an applet program.

Archie - A play on the word 'archive', it is a distributed database of archive files. Internet glossary.

Archive - 1. A storage repository for software, data, or other materials to be saved and preserved. 2. A technique of combining multiple files into a single file to enable easier backup, handling or transmission. Some of the software programs used to archive files are PKZIP, WinZip, Stuffit, and tar. Files with the following extensions are likely to be archived: sea, tar, taz, taZ, tgz, and zip.

Arpanet - The network created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) that became the Internet. 

ASP - 1. Active Server Pages. 2. Application Service Provider

ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A packet switching model for fast long distance communications that uses fixed packet size and allows for intelligent decisions on routing, handling, prioritization, and costing. This allows for special handling and routing for data that must be reassembled quickly and accurately, such as live Video.