Microsoft's version of COM that brings complete integration with Internet technologies. .NET Framework components are able to implement their interfaces as services, which allows applications to use the functions of a component across the Internet without being required to load the component on the client machine.

A 16Bit component or application is only compatible with operating systems that support 16Bit microprocessors or 16Bit mode, such as Windows 9x, Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, and MS-DOS.

A 32Bit component or application is only compatible with operating systems that support the 32Bit architecture of the 80386 (and up) microprocessors, such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000.

A 64Bit component or application is only compatible with operating systems that support 64Bit microprocessors such as the Intel Itanium™ and Sun UltraSPARC™. These operating systems include Sun Solaris (Unix), Trillian Linux, and 64Bit Windows 2000.

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) -- A method for moving data over regular phone lines. An ADSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber's premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service.

Application Programming Interface. An API is an interface to a specific environment. For example: The Windows API exposes interfaces to the Windows environment, allowing developers to access and control Windows functions. The Java API provides similar interfaces to a Java Virtual Machine. Even components, such as ActiveX or JavaBean components expose their interfaces to be accessed via their particular component APIs.

Any stand-alone program that accomplishes a pre-determined task, such as converting Microsoft Word documents to Adobe PDF files. Not generally used in development, but rather used to support development.

Active Server Pages. A specification that enables Web pages to be dynamically created using HTML, scripts, and reusable ActiveX server components.

Additional resources or duplicate copies of data on different storage media for emergency purposes.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) -- A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the 'CGI program') talks to the web server.

Cold Fusion is a scripting language for web designers that wish to do advanced development and/or database interfacing.

Microsoft's Component Object Model. It is a reference model for how components are built, and it specifies how components "speak" to each other and how they are referenced within an application.

Self-contained object with pre-determined functionality and accessed via exposed interfaces. Examples include ActiveX components, JavaBeans, Enterprise JavaBeans, and VCLs.

Cookies are files that are downloaded via a client browser to identify a user to a particular Web site. It can contain a variety if information including username, password, profile, etc. Cookies are used to enhance a user's Web experience by "remembering" session information, user preferences, etc. Most browsers allow you to either notify the user before accepting cookies or simply not accept them.

Stands for Central Processing Unit which is the computing part of the computer. Also called the "processor," it is made up of the control unit and ALU. Today, the CPU's of almost all computers are contained on a single chip. Newer computers have dual core processors.

A database consits of an organised collection of information stored on a computer.

DLLs are "callable" dynamically-linked libraries that can be used in any environment with call capability. A DLL can contain one or more functions that can be used by other applications or components. Not to be confused with ActiveX DLLs.

Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses.

The unique name that identifies an Internet web site address. Translated by DNS (see Glossary: DNS)

An End User License Agreement is a legal contract between the publisher of a software application or component and the user of that software. Often referred to as the "license agreement" or "software license", it is similar to a rental agreement: The user agrees to pay for the privilege of using the software and promises to comply with all of the publishers restrictions.

An executable is essentially a program. It can be run independently of a host application. The only requirements for an executable are a compatible operating system and any associated runtime library.

A very fast and robust way to design bespoke database applications. Excellent for the SME (Small to Medium Enterprises). Very extensible offering web publishing (XML) and ODBC (See Glossary: ODBC and XML)

Protects a computer network from unauthorised access. Can be in a hardware and/or software form.

The File Transfer Protocol is an Internet Standard Protocol for transferring files between computers over TCP/IP. It is most commonly used to download files from an Internet server to the local machine. FTP servers require the client to logon, but can be configured to allow that logon to be anonymous.

A place where files (most commonly web pages) are stored for access on the internet

The Hypertext Markup Language is a "tagged" language for transferring data using HTTP. It allows you to format text, include pictures, and insert hyperlinks to other data. The Web browser reads the "tags" and displays the data accordingly.

The Hypertext Transmission Protocol is an Internet standard protocol for exchanging files (text, images, sound, video, etc.) over the Internet. It is generally used to copy a Web page from an Internet Web server to the client machine, and to send the client page requests to the server.

The Secure Hypertext Transmission Protocol is an Internet standard protocol that allows Web clients to create a secure connection to a Web server. All data (text, images, sound, etc.) is encryptedbefore being sent by the server, then decrypted by the client. HTTPS requires that the server has a digital certificate in order to validate its identity to the client.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is an Internet Web browser used to display information downloaded from Web sites. It is also a component container capable of using ActiveX components. This gives IE the ability to display dynamic content that is impossible to display with only HTML.

Internet Information Server is Microsoft's Web server software for making content available on the Internet. It consists of a WWW service for providing Web pages and Web applications on the World Wide Web, an FTP service to allow files to be uploaded/downloaded, an SMTP service for sending email, and an NNTP service for hosting newsgroup forums. IIS V3.0 and higher also provide Active Server Page functionality.

The Internet Message Access Protocol is an Internet standard protocol for accessing E-Mail from your local server. It is a client/server protocol in which the e-mail is received and held for you by the Internet Server. Using IMAp requires a continuous connection to the server during the email session.

Java Database Connectivity is an API for connecting Java applications to databases. JDBC is very similar to ODBC. You can use JDBC to connect to any ODBC-compliant database from a Java application. (see Glossary: API, ODBC)

A Java Server Page is a technology for displaying dynamic content on Web pages. JSPs use servlets (see Glossary: Servlet) that run on the Web server to create content that is sent as HTML to the Web client.

A binding legal agreement between the component or software publisher and the end user. In the case of a component, "End User" refers to the developer who purchased the component, not end users of that developer's application built with the component. License agreements specify terms of use for the software.

Linux is an open source version of Unix that is available in several implementations from different companies such as RedHat, Slackware, Caldera, and TurboLinux. These companies offer Linux distributions that run on Intel x86 processors, Sun Solaris, COMPAQ Alpha, and more.

MAC refers to the Macintosh platform which consists of Apple Macintosh hardware and the MAC-OS operating system.

The Media Access Control address is a 48-bit address that is burned into the circuits of a Network Interface Card (NIC). It is globally unique and identifies that machine on the network. In a TCP/IP network, the IP address is resolved to the MAC address in order to deliver packets to the correct computer.

Microsoft Data Access Components are the connectors that allow Microsoft Development Environments to access heterogeneous data sources. It includes connectors for MS Access, MS SQL, data files, and more.

Metadata refers to an organization's entire accumulated data. In addition to traditional warehouse data such as personnel, products, prices, services, etc., metadata also refers to documented processes, formats, even intellectual property.

An open-source free RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). Extremely popular on the internet and offered with most web hosting packages.

Open Database Connectivity is an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides access to a variety of data sources. It is an industry standard for exchanging data. As such, it allows computers in a multi-platform environment to access data on a SQL (or any ODBC-compliant) database.

Object Oriented Programming is the process of building applications by encapsulating functionality into individual objects. These objects feature polymorphism and inheritance. OOP is the foundation of component-based development (CBD)

Many component and tool types are only supported by specific operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, Unix, Linux, etc. This information is specified to provide the developer with the supported operating systems for the product.

A scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. Was first introduced as Personal Home Page, now referenced as Hypertext Preprocessor, executed server side.

The Post Office Protocol 3 is an Internet standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which email is received and held for you by the Internet server. Once the client connects, the POP3 server forwards all messages to the client and terminates the connection.

Relational Database Management System. Refers to the database system that stores ones data. There are several types of RDBMS including FileMaker, SQL, Oracle, dBase, Paradox, and more.

A runtime license is a restriction that is placed on a component or application which specifies how it can be used by the end-user. Some runtime licenses consist simply of a legal agreement entered into by the manufacturer and the end user. Other runtime licenses are actually enforced by the software and can limit its functionality based upon a license key. As it pertains to components, a runtime license specifies how the developer can deploy a component within their application.

A Servlet is a self contained Java program designed for Web applications. Servlets are run on the Web server and data is sent to the client via HTML or XML.

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard protocol for sending and receiving E-Mail. It is limited in its ability to queue messages and, as such, is usually used with either the POP3 or IMAP protocols at the receiving end. (see Glossary: POP3, IMAP)

Source code is a listing of the actual commands of a component or application and is written in a particular development language such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, or Java. Components that come with source code are referred to as "White box" components, since all of the underlying logic is exposed. Developers can modify source code to add functionality.

The Structured Query Language is an industry standard programming language for accessing and updating a database. SQL is also used to refer to the the database management system (DBMS) that stores this data. SQL queries allow you to select, insert, update, and find data in the SQL database.

The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the base protocol used for communication over the Internet. It allows both connection-based and non connection-based (fire and forget) transmission of data over the Internet. Essentially, TCP/IP is tha language spoken by the Internet Protocols/Services such as HTTP, SMTL, FTP, etc.)

A thread is the smallest unit of execution. It is what the operating system allocates CPU time to. A process consists of one or more threads. An application or component consists of one or more processes.

The Unified Modeling Language is designed to specify and document the structure of and interfaces to a software component or system. It is a graphical language for expressing program design in a standard way. A UML model is essentially a blueprint for the construction of that component or system.

The Wireless Application Protocol is a specification for standard protocols used by wireless devices such as cellular phone, handheld and palmsize computers, etc., for Internet access, E-Mail, newsgroups, and more.

A Web Service is programmable logic that is accessible via standard Web protocols. It uses SOAP to describe the interfaces to the service, enabling cross-platform Internet clients to use that logic via XML protocols.

The Wireless Markup Language allows the text of Web pages to be displayed on handheld devices and cellular telephones. It is part of the Wireless Application Protocol (see Glossary: WAP).

The Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that is used to describe Web services. It is the language used by the UDDI registry to allow businesses to list their Web services.

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an industry standard method for using "tags" to describe data for exchange between different platforms, languages, and applications. Since it is an open standard, it is ideal for exchanging data over the Internet

The Extensible Stylesheet Language is used to describe XML data that is sent over the Web is presented to the user. It is an industry standard language that gives the Web page author control over how XML data is displayed, which fields are presented, where they are displayed on the page, and in what order.

XSL Transformations is an industry standard that describes how to change an XML document from one structure to another structure. It is used to transform the source tree of one XML document into a result tree for a new XML document.