Toshiba Portégé 650CT User Manual page 170

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Connecting with the World
The Internet and Other Fascinating Places
puter companies distribute minor upgrades to their programs
through FTP sites.
When you download a file you transfer the file from another
computer (or an FTP site) to your computer. Uploading is
sending one or more files from your computer to another.
Usenet sites maintain newsgroups, lists of messages dedicated
to a particular topic. Subscribers to a newsgroup can read and
respond to messages posted by others, and post messages of
their own.
LISTSERV sites administer mailing lists, which are lists of
people who are interested in the same topics. Individuals send
their message to the centralized LISTSERV site. The LIST-
SERV server "broadcasts" the message to all the members of
the mailing list. This way one person can correspond with lots
of people all at once. Mailing lists are different from news-
groups in that you receive all messages automatically.
Chat sites allow people to "talk" in real time. Compared to a
newsgroup that requires you to send a written message that is
read later, a chat session allows you to send your message and
get a response immediately.
Gopher sites provide lists of what is available elsewhere on the
Internet. Searching a gopher site is a good way to look for spe-
cific information.
Telnet sites let you log on to a computer somewhere else in the
world and use its resources as if it were on your own local net-
work.
A World Wide Web (WWW) site is a place where people can
publish their own home pages. Each page has a unique
address, in the form of a Universal Resource Locator (URL).
You can locate a specific home page by entering its URL or
you can click on a hypertext link—indicated by a different
color of text or some other obvious means—and jump to the
connecting page.
Part I: Getting To Know Your Computer