In the mid-1990s, the internet began to attract attention on a grand scale. A dotcom boom and bust later, many of the claims made for its influence have been exposed as hopelessly wrong. But it is a technology that has transformed our lives both at work and play - and it will continue to do so. This book is a guide to the essentials of the technology and impact of the internet, with entries that stretch from A to Z and cover such topics, terms and jargon as: ADSL, Applet, Bluetooth, Burn rate, Chatbot, Copyleft, Drive-by hacker, Encryption, Firewall, Grid computing, Honeypot, Instant messaging, Java, Key escrow, Linkrot, Lurker, Mail rage, Netiquette, Open source, Pagejacking, Query, Rich media, RTFM, Stickiness, Tiger team, Typosquatting, UDDI, Virus, Vortal, Warchalking, Weblog, XML, Yahoo and Zip. Appendices provide a brief history of the internet and include hundreds of recommended websites.