Basic Terms
- Online: Being online refers to having access to the Internet. Often people will say they are online - meaning they have access to the Internet and have an e-mail address, but may not necessarily be connected to the Internet at that moment.
- Net: An abbreviated name for the Internet.
- Load: Short for download and upload. If someone asks how long did the page take to load, he/she is referring to the time it takes a page to appear on your screen. If a web page is loading slow it means that it's taking a long time to fully appear on your screen. You can often scroll through a page and look at the parts that have loaded while the rest of the page continues to load. Also, you can usually click a link on the page you are loading and link to another page without waiting for the current page to fully load.
- Location: An Internet address. While you are in your browser you will see a section at the top of the page that is entitled "location.” If you type in the address of someone's web page and hit enter, your browser will take you to that page. However the address you type in the location bar must be an exact match.
- Modem: This is short for Modulator-demodulator devices. Modems allow computers to transmit information to one another via an ordinary telephone line.