Basic Internet Terms

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Internet: An inter-networking of computers from around the world.

ISP: Internet Service Provider. A company that provides you with an Internet connection.

Internet Connection: A telephone number you dial to connect your computer to the Internet.

Browser: A piece of software that allows you to view the world wide web. The browser (aka viewer) takes downloaded computer information and converts it into a "webpage". The most popular browsers are Netscape and Microsoft Explorer.

Webpage: A "computer page" that may contain text, photos, graphics, sound and other multimedia. The computer language name is HTML.

Homepage: The homepage is the first webpage people see when they come to your website.

Website: A collection of webpages.

URL: An Internet address (such as

Search Engine: A website that allows you to search all or parts of the world wide web for the keywords that you input, such as, "Philadelphia Region real estate". Some famous search engines include Yahoo, Alta Vista, Lycos, Webcrawler, HotBot and Excite.

Internet University