Hooray, we have some new friends. That lovely team of

developers at MWM is open to questioning on all things,

well, webbie. So don't be shy now, please ask away by

emailing  askmaurice@copyshopnews.co.uk

To start off we have used some historical unanswered

questions aimed at CSN when we previously did not have the

nous to come up with the answers. Well we now have the

MWM mouse, Maurice, who is to be our on line agony aunt.

A bit like that famous song by whoever - "There are more

questions than answers". So here we go, which coincidently

is a song by the famous Brighton and Hove Albion on their

way to Wembley

What's a Domain Name? 

A domain name is a qualified name, or set of names,

connected by dots. If you take the website,

www.interprinter.co.uk, the domain name is

interprinter.co.uk. The ".co" indicates it's a commercial

organisation, and the ".uk" indicates it's UK based. Domain

names are registered for one or more years for a fee, and the

provider you buy the domain from will normally

provide you with remote control of DNS.

What's DNS? 

DNS stands for domain name service. This is normally

running on servers provided by your ISP (Internet Service

Provider) and operates in a kind of pyramid fashion, with

just seven master servers at the very top. These servers

update each other regularly, and maintain a kind of yellow

pages translating each domain name into the numeric

internet protocol address which is unique to your website.

What's a website? 

A website is one or more pages which appear under a domain

name - for example, www.interprinter.co.uk.

What's a web browser? 

The most common web browsers are Microsoft's Internet

Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. These two browsers constitute

the vast majority of browser traffic across the internet,

although there are a small number of other browsers out

there as well. Most websites are built to operate correctly

with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

ISP 

Internet Service Provider - this is the organisation that

provides you with access to the internet. There are many

such companies with a wide variety of pricing structures.

IP Address 

IP, or Internet Protocol address, is a unique numeric address

given to any device connected to the internet directly. There

are two private ranges intended for use internally to homes

and businesses, which cannot be routed across the internet

- this is for security. These ranges are 192.168.X.X, and

10.X.X.X

LAN 

Local Area Network - if you have multiple machines

connected together, this is most likely achieved using a LAN.

Modem 

Modulater/Demodulator. This device turns data into audible

tones that can be sent over a telephone line, and back again.

Dial Up 

Normally associated with a modem, this indicates a

connection which is made on demand, rather than classic

broadband, which is "always on".

Desktop 

The common term for a computer which sits flat on a desk,

often with the monitor sitting on top of it.

RAM 

Random Access Memory - this is the volatile storage within

your computer.

CPU 

Central Processing Unit - this is the processor which

performs most of the calculations in your computer.

Tower 

The common term for a desktop PC which stands upright.

Server 

The common term for any computer which typically runs

unattended - web servers, mail servers, or in fact anything

serving a back office function.

TCP/IP 

Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocal. Pretty

much all traffic running over the internet will be done

through packets of data transmitted using TCP/IP as a

communications system.

RSS 

Really Simple Syndication - a standardised method of

distributing information, usually news stories to subscribers

who often republish.

Mouse 

This is a pointing device which controls your computer

pointer. These come in many different sizes and flavours,

but it's important to get one which fits comfortably in your

hand. Optical mice do not suffer from the same problem as

"ball" mice, which pickup grease and dirt from the desktop,

accumulating internally until the rollers stop working

properly giving you a poor experience.

HTML 

Hyper Text Mark-up Language. This is a standardised (in

theory!) language which web sites use to explain to the web

browser how to display information.

Javascript 

This is a client side

scripting language -

so it runs in your

browser rather than

on the server hosting

the website, which

can enrich your web

browsing experience.

MWM FAQs - Ask Maurice