Words W-Z

 

*  WAIS (Wide Area Information System): A database retrieval system on the Internet that supports full-text searches, which are not supported by Veronica in Gopherspace. WAIS gives users the ability to search existing databases of articles, books, references, abstracts, and special information (such as Newsgroup archives and FTP site listings).

*  WAN (Wide-Area Network): A network spanning hundreds or thousands of miles.

*   Web: See World Wide Web.

*   Web browser: Any of the collection of shareware and commercial applications available for the Windows, Macintosh, and Unix platforms that enable an Internet user to browse through the information provide by the World Wide Web as hypertext linked documents. Most Webb browser allow a user to record the Web sites they have visited for access.

*   WebTV: A method of connecting to the Internet using a television set. WebTV uses a set-top box that allows you to view World Wide Web sites on your television using standard telephone lines, eliminating the need to buy a computer. Navigation is accomplished using a remote control.

*   Whois: A whois database lists information about people and organizations. The whois command allows you to search this database. This command helps to determine if an individual or organization has a registered address or domain on the Internet. you should specify two things in a whois command:

  • the name of the server which has the database you want to search
  • the user name, organization, or domain name of the organization for which you want to search.

The largest and most frequently used whois database is the InterNIC Registration Services Host (rs.internic.net) maintained by the InterNIC Information Center. For MILNET Information, specify nic.ddn.mil as the name of the server. Other businesses and institutions also have whois servers.

The name of the server is not required in the whois command.

*  Wildcard: An operator that represents all other sets of characters at a given location in a query term.

*  World Wide Web ("WWW" or "W3" or simple "the Web"): A hypertext-based, distributed information system created by researchers at the Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. Users may create, edit, or browse hypertext documents. The most popular Web browsers for the Web are Netscape (see Netscape) and NCSA Mosaic (see Mosaic).

*  Worm: A computer program which replicates itself. The Internet worm put in place by Robert Morris, J. was perhaps the most famous. The worm successfully (and accidentally) duplicated itself on systems across the Internet.

*  WWW: See World Wide Web.

*   X.500: There are many phone books and X.500 servers on the Internet, each containing information on different groups of users. Phone books are used primarily by universities and other institutions, while X.500 servers are used primarily by businesses. The services appear on Gopher servers letting you access information on the Internet via menus.

 

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