Business Glossary

a protocol for viewing e-mail on a personal computer while leaving it in place on the host system. Contrast pop, which delivers the mail and deletes it from the server.

system of linked smaller computer networks, international in scope, that facilitates data communication such as file transfer, electronic mail, and newsgroups between different entities.

1. Post Office Protocol, a standard protocol for delivering e-mail to personal computers.See protocol.
2. point of purchase (point of sale). For example, a POP computer is a computer used as a cash register.See point-of-sale system.
3. point of presence, a place where an Internet service provider can be accessed, such as a local telephone number.

a standard format for transmitting data in packets from one computer to another. It is used on the Internet and various other networks. The two parts of TCP/IP are TCP, which deals with construction of data packets, and IP, which routes them from machine to machine.

guidelines and principles associated with the workings of a network. Rules surround data and electrical signals on the network, the manner of information transmissions, the way in which the network is accessed, and the processing of applications on the network.