Computer Jargon

There are various terms that everybody just expects you to know about, but never explains. “404 Error” is one of them. This term generally pops up in your Internet explorer. The “404 Error” means the web page you are trying to access either doesn’t exist or is unavailable at the URL address you gave.

URL is also another term that no one generally explains. It is an abbreviation for Universal Resource Locator. It would be like a postal address for computer or friend, except it is used on the Internet. All web addresses are URL’s. Another abbreviated term is ADSL. This stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.

It is a way to connect your PC up to the Internet, via a telephone line. This is known as Ethernet office network technology, as opposed to an ordinary modem connection. There are thousands of abbreviations when chatting online, such as LOL standing for Laugh Out Loud. BRB stands for Be Right Back, and BTW is for By the Way.

In chat rooms, forums or any other type of social media, users might ask you for an Avator. This is a picture or image to represent a person in an online environment. If you visit a forum or site often, you will notice when you start typing the URL in, that the explorer will remember the rest of the address for you.

This is due to the “cache”, which is a temporary storage system for computers. PCs store frequently or recently used data in the cache, which is either in the memory or on your hard drive. A File Server is a type of computer that is shared on a network. It is there to provide files and other services to the rest of the computer on the network. It is often just called a Server.

E-commerce is a term used to describe business that is conducted over the Internet. Encrypting is a term for when data is coded to prevent hackers, spammers and other threats when information is transmitted over the Internet. An example would be when you give a company your credit card details to buy something online. A good website would encode your details.

A Firewall, originally, was purely used as dedicated line you and the Internet. This was used to prevent hackers, spammers and other undesirables from taking over your PC. Today you can just use a program running on your computer to perform the same task. But to do this, you will need to have a permanent Internet connection such as ADSL.

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