| ICQ | I Seek You - The onomatopoeic acronym used as the brand name of the first Instant Messaging service. ICQ is now part of AOL. |
| ICRA | Internet Content Rating Association - ICRA is an international, independent organisation that aims make it possible for the public, especially parents, to control what type of content they and/or their dependents are subjected to via electronic media, primarily through promoting their objective content-labelling system, which is used by this site. Most filtering Software will recognise content-rating systems such as ICRA's, and can be set to block sites that are not rated, or that have any particular ratings such as "contains nudity". |
| ICT | Information and Communication Technology - Government-speak for what everyone else calls "IT" or "computing". |
| IE | Internet Explorer - Microsoft's Browser. See Internet Explorer. |
| IETF | Internet Engineering Task Force - The independent international organisation that publishes and maintains the core technical standards of the Internet, such as TCP/IP. |
| IM | Instant Messaging - Systems that allow people to "chat" across the Internet by typing messages. See Instant Messaging. |
| IMAP | Internet Messaging Access Protocol - A method of collecting e-mail, favoured by larger organisations. The main alternative is POP3. IMAP is generally only used by organisations that have their own mail Servers. |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion - Shorthand often used by people who regularly contribute to Internet discussions such as Newsgroups. |
| IMO | In My Opinion - Shorthand often used by people who regularly contribute to Internet discussions such as Newsgroups. |
| Inbox | This is where E-mails sent to you eventually appear on your computer when you collect them with your E-mail Client. The inbox should not be confused with the Mailbox from which you collect your e-mails, and which is not usually on your computer. |
| Instant Messaging | (IM) Systems that allow people to "chat" in "Real Time" across the Internet by typing messages. ICQ, now owned by AOL, was the first IM system. AOL also has its own, AIM. IM is very popular with school children (and paedophiles), especially in conjunction with a Webcam. Children tend to use Microsoft's MSN Messenger, which requires you to register an E-mail Address with Microsoft, and users need to know each other's e-mail address in order to "talk" to each other. Of course, there are Web Sites devoted to the swapping of e-mail addresses for this purpose. Ironically, using Webcams is probably safer than not, but only if both/all parties use one. |
| Internet | A mind-bogglingly massive worldwide Network of computers that are publicly accessible. No one organisation owns the infrastructure (see "Free Lunch"), and no one set of laws (in the legal sense) governs it (see "Web Standards"). The Internet is more or less an anarchy, with totalitarian pockets (literally in the case of some countries), and various co-existing cultures. Socially, the Internet is a cross-section of human life, from the highest to the lowest on whatever scale you choose. Historically the Internet has been dominated by America, because they invented it, but this is definitely changing. The Internet as a whole is always "on", although individual parts may come and go. It is almost impossible for the Internet itself to stop working completely (see ISP). It was originally designed for US military use and thus is extremely "fault-tolerant" (read that how you like). Physically, the Internet consists of two basic types of computers, Clients and Servers. The servers are situated all over the world and are permanently connected together by a web of high-speed telecommunications. The clients are the "consumer" computers belonging to the likes of you and me, which consume the services of servers and do not give anything back except as part of that consumption (all sounds very American). Indeed, it is wise not to attempt to make your computer accessible to other Internet users, for example by setting up your own Web Server or E-mail server, even if you have read a computer magazine or two and you think you know how - Hackers will eat it for lunch. NB: THE Internet always has a capital "i". AN "internet" is any collection of otherwise separate networks that are connected together. |
| Internet Explorer | Microsoft's ubiquitous Browser. Internet Explorer (IE or MSIE) took over from Netscape as the dominant browser because Microsoft decided to build it into Windows so that it became the Default browser on the majority of desktop computers. For Windows users it takes a conscious choice to use a different browser, so regardless of merit IE is the most widely used browser. Unfortunately even the latest version of IE has little merit, and is years behind the leading browsers such as Firefox, particularly in its support for Web Standards, and functionally it is very limited compared to the most sophisticated browsers such as Opera. Because of these factors, IE is not usually the choice of the cognoscenti, and there are clear reasons for using one or more of the several better alternatives. The main Windows alternatives are Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera. Mac and Linux users have additional choices including Konqueror and Safari. Linux has never been blessed with a version of IE, and is unlikely to be, can't think why. |
| Intranet | An "internal Internet", in the sense that it looks and feels like the Internet (because it uses the same technology) but it is only accessible from within an organisation and it doesn't have pop-up gambling adverts and pornography. Many organisations now run their own intranet, helping communication and replacing paper newsletters, Tannoy announcements and memos. Schools can (and do) have their own Intranet, which can be designed to be maintained by pupils and teachers. Security and safety is much less of a problem than with the Internet because access is very restricted. Parts of the Lancashire Grid for Learning (LGfL) are an intranet - these parts are only accessible if you are browsing on a computer connecting via LGfL. |
| IP | Internet Protocol - Commonly used to refer to the whole suite of network Protocols that comprise TCP/IP, although technically IP is only part of that suite. See also IP Address |
| IP Address | Straightforwardly, this is the address of a computer on an IP Network, which may or may not be part of the Internet. Internet IP addresses are in short supply and it costs money to get a real, fixed Internet IP address, so most computers are on "private" networks. IP addresses really consist of two long numbers (each is 32bits, to be precise). The first number is the "IP address" itself and is unique within a given network, e.g. the Internet. The second number is called a "Subnet Mask" and indicates how to interpret the IP address. To make it easier for humans, both numbers are usually shown as four numbers in the range 0-255 (see Byte for the reason why) separated by dots: e.g. IP Address 10.100.1.3 / Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0. Certain ranges of numbers are designated as "private", meaning anyone can use them for their own network (and most organisations do). If a computer has a private address then to connect to the Internet it must use at least one of a Firewall, Proxy Server or Router that has a public IP address. See also DHCP. |
| IPX/SPX | Internetwork Packet eXchange - A widely used but now obsolete suite of Network Protocols. Novell's proprietary equivalent of TCP/IP. All versions of Windows since 95 include support for IPX/SPX, but it is not installed by default. Some network-aware games use only IPX/SPX, which means they won't work on typical network. |
| IRC | Internet Relay Chat - One of the major Instant Messaging systems, providing "Chat Rooms". |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network - BT's digital public telephone system, used by many UK organisations but very few UK consumers, because of its pricing structure. Many Lancashire primary schools still use ISDN for their Internet connection. A single ISDN line is only slightly faster than a dial-up modem, but has the advantage of connecting in less than a second rather than taking nearly a minute. ISDN is being superseded by DSL as the next step up from a modem. |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider - Organisations that provide access to the Internet for the great unwashed. Unlike universities, government agencies and large corporations who all own computers that are part of the physical infrastructure of the Internet, your average punter has to pay someone else for the privilege of connecting their computer or network to the Internet (see also "Free Lunch"). There is a wholesaler/retailer hierarchy of ISPs. If the Internet appears not to be working properly today, but it was yesterday and nothing at your end has changed, it is almost certainly your ISP's fault, whatever they tell you! For most Lancashire schools, your ISP is CLEO. |
| Issue | Euphemism for "problem" or "fault". Computer Hardware and Software does not have issues, it has design faults and programming errors - unless you are speaking as the manufacturer of course. |