W

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium. An international industry consortium founded in 1994 to develop common standards for the World Wide Web.

WAIS

(Wide Area Information Servers) an architecture for a distributed information retrieval system. WAIS is based on the client-server model of computation, and allows users of computers to share information using a common computer-to-computer protocol.

Also see Protocol

WAN

(Wide Area Network). Group of computers located geographically apart, usually belonging to a single company or organisation, connected together using dedicated lines or by satellite to simulate a local network.

A communications network that covers a wide area. A WAN can cover a large geographic area, and may contain several LANs within it. The true definition of a WAN is a network that uses the main telephone network to connect its parts, but more generally it is used to describe a network that spans a very large area.

Also see LAN Network

Web

See WWW

Web-Commerce

The process of performing commerce over the Web.

well-formed documents

A document that conforms only to the XML standard but not to any particular document-type definition (DTD).

Wide Area Network (WAN)

See WAN

WIDL (Web Interface Definition Language)

An XML DTD that defines Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Web services and information.

WinSock

(WINdows SOCKets) Windows utility program allowing users connected by SLIP, PPP or other direct connection to communicate with other computers on the Internet by TCP/IP.

Also see PPP SLIP TCP/IP

Wire Speed

Wire speed refers to the maximum capacity of a connection. For Ethernet and Fast Ethernet connections this is normally defined by the maximum rate of packets that can be transmitted over a connection. Ethernet wire speed is 14,880 packets per second and Fast Ethernet wire speed is 148,809 packets per second.

Also see Bit Ethernet Fast Ethernet Packet

Wizard

A Windows application that automates a procedure such as installation or configuration.

World Wide Web (WWW)

See WWW

Worm

A search utility on the World Wide Web that locates resources following user-determined guidelines.

WWW

World Wide Web (or Web) is an Internet service that allows easy access to information on servers around the world. Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer allow users to "browse the Web" in order to access this information. WWW documents are structured using HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) and can incorporate JAVA and Javascript applications.

Also see HTML Hypertext Internet Server