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F
Fast Ethernet
A faster version of Ethernet. Instead of the network running at 10Mbps, the performance is increased ten fold to 100Mbps.
File Compression
File compression is a way of reducing the size of one or more files, so that they don't take up a lot of space on a server or hard drive and can travel faster over a network. File compression is accomplished with software that uses mathematical equations (algorithms) to condense repeated data into smaller codes. You need another separate software program to decompress (expand) the data, and restore it to its original form.
File Permissions
When you place files on a UNIX system, you can assign the files various levels of permission, specifying who can access them, and what type of access they can have. The permission levels regarding who can access files are: owner (the person who created the files), group (such as a group of individuals specifically identified), or global (anyone). The type of access can be set to permit the users to read (look at the contents and copy it), write (edit or change the contents, rename and/or move the files), or execute (run a file as a UNIX program).
See also UNIX
Finger
A finger is a program that displays information about someone on the Internet. When you are logged in type finger followed by the e-mail address of the person you want to know more about and you will learn whether or not a person is logged on, what their actual name is, and when they last logged on. Not all Internet service providers support this feature. Even for the ones that do, the user has to give file permission to allow people from other hosts to see this information.
Firewall
A firewall is a combination hardware and software buffer that many companies or organisations have in place between their internal networks and the Internet. A firewall allows only specific kinds of messages from the Internet to flow in and out of the internal network. This protects the internal network from intruders or hackers who might try to use the Internet to break into those systems. Star offers a range of firewall security solutions, which are available on a fully-managed or supported basis.
See also Managed Services
See Firewalls for full details
Forms
Forms are web pages comprised of text and "fields" for a user to fill in with information. They are an excellent way of collecting and processing information from people visiting a web site, as well as allowing them to interact with web pages. Forms are written in HTML and processed by CGI programs. The output can be sent as an e-mail form, stored online, printed, and/or returned to the user as an HTML page. When you enter a keyword in the search field of an Internet directory, you are filling in a form. This is then processed by a CGI program, returning a list of possible matches with your keyword. Forms are also used for online catalogues, surveys, requests for information, and conferencing.
See also HTML; CGI
FrontPage 2000
An application used for developing web sites. It is the most popular on the market today.
FTP
This is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol -- a very common method of transferring one or more files from one computer to another. FTP is a specific way to connect to another Internet site to retrieve and send files. FTP was developed in the early days of the Internet to copy files from computer to computer. With the advent of the World Wide Web, and web browser software, you no longer need to know arcane FTP commands to copy to and from other computers. In your browser, you can use FTP by typing the URL into the location box at the top of your screen. For example, typing http://name.of.site/directory/filename.zip transfers the file filename.zip to your computer's hard disk. Typing ftp://name.of.site/directory/ gives you a listing of all the files available in that directory.
If your web browser doesn't have built-in FTP capability, or if you want to upload files to a remote computer, you will need to use an FTP client program to transfer files. To use FTP, you need to know the name of the file, the computer where it resides, and the directory it's in. Most files are available via "anonymous FTP", which means you can log into the machine with the user name "anonymous" and use your e-mail address as your password.
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