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AAA
Authentication, Authorization and Accounting, a system in IP-based networking to control what computer resources user have access to and to keep track of the activity of users over a network.

• Authentication is the process of identifying an individual, usually based on a username and password. Authentication is based on the idea that each individual user will have unique information that sets him or her apart from other users.
• Authorization is the process of granting or denying a user access to network resources once the user has been authenticated through the username and password. The amount of information and the amount of services the user has access to depend on the user's authorization level.
• Accounting is the process of keeping track of a user's activity while accessing the network resources, including the amount of time spent in the network, the services accessed while there and the amount of data transferred during the session. Accounting data is used for trend analysis, capacity planning, billing, auditing and cost allocation.

AAA services often require a server that is dedicated to providing the three services. RADIUS is an example of an AAA service.

AARP
AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol, is a way to map between the physical hardware addresses of computers, such as those known to an Ethernet or Token Ring local area network, and their temporarily assigned AppleTalk network addresses.

AAUI
Apple Attachment Unit Interface, is the 14- or 15-PIN port or connection interface on earlier models of Macintosh computers that allowed it to be connected by a short interface cable to an Ethernet cable.

ABEND
(1) abnormal end of task. It refers to software crashes or lossage. Derives from an error message on the IBM 360.

(2) Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation. Sent in e-mail subject lines warning friends and others of forced loss of Internet access (due to moving, network outages, or illness).

ACAP
Application Configuration Access Protocol, an e-mail protocol being developed by the IETF to complement IMAP4. ACAP supports related e-mail services such as subscribing to BBS, and organising and searching mailboxes and address books. ACAP was previously known as IMSP (Interactive Mail Support Protocol).

Accelerator
A financial backer who helps speed up the process, development and growth of an internet start-up.

Access Log
A list of data concerning visits made to a Website which can be analysed and which can provide the owners of the site with information about them.

ACD
Automatic Call Distributor, a telephone facility that handles incoming calls and manages them based on a database of handling instructions.

ACL
Access Control List, a set of data that informs a computer's operating system which permissions, or access rights, that each user or group has to a specific system object, such as a directory or file. Each object has a unique security attribute that identifies which users have access to it, and the ACL is a list of each object and user access privileges such as read, write or execute.

Active Matrix Display
A type of flat-panel display in which the screen is refreshed more frequently than in conventional passive-matrix displays. The most common type of active-matrix display is based on a technology known as TFT. The two terms, active matrix and TFT, are often used interchangeably.

ActiveX
A loosely defined set of technologies developed by Microsoft. ActiveX is an outgrowth of two other Microsoft technologies called OLE and COM. As a moniker, ActiveX can be very confusing because it applies to a whole set of COM-based technologies. Most people, however, think only of ActiveX controls, which represent a specific way of implementing ActiveX technologies.

ACTS
Automated Computer Time Service.

ADB
Apple Desktop Bus, a type of communications pathway built into all pre-G4 versions of the Apple Macintosh computer since the SE (except the iMac and the ibook). It is used to connect low-speed input devices such as the keyboard and mouse. ADB ports are designated with the icon. A single ADB port can support as many as 16 simultaneous input devices.

ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, is a new technology that allows more data to be sent over existing telephone lines POTS It supports from 1.5 to 9 Mbps receiving data and 16 to 640 Kbps sending. It requires a special ADSL modem.

ADSP
AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol, is a session-level protocol that provides symmetric, connection-oriented, full-duplex communication between two sockets on the Appletalk internet.

Adware
Software that is distributed free of charge, but includes advertisement banners to defray development and distribution expenses.

AEP
AppleTalk Echo Protocol, provides an echo service to AppleTalk hosts. It can specify up to 585 bytes of data for an echo transaction.

AFIS
Automated Fingerprint Identification System, is a biometric identification methodology that uses digital imaging technology to obtain, store, and analyse fingerprint data.

AGP
Accelerated Graphics Port, is an interface specification developed by Intel.  SIZE="2">AGP is based on PCI, but is designed especially for the throughput demands of 3-D graphics. Rather than using the PCI bus for graphics data, AGP introduces a dedicated point-to-point channel so that the graphics controller can directly access main memory. The AGP channel is 32 bits wide and runs at 66MHz. This translates into a total bandwidth of 266MBps, as opposed to the PCI bandwidth of 133MBps. AGP also supports two optional faster modes, with throughputs of 533MBps and 1.07GBps. In addition, AGP allows 3-D textures to be stored in main memory rather than video memory.

AI
Artificial Intelligemce.

AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format. An Apple Mac sound file format.

ALGOL
ALGOrithmic Language, is one of several high level languages designed specifically for programming scientific computations.

Altair
The world's first personal computer to attract a substantial number of users.  The first Altairs shipped without an operating system with an Intel 8080 processor (the first 8-bit chip) on the CPU card, 256 bytes of memory, and toggle and switch LED panels on the front. In general, the buyer didn't know how the computer might be used or what it might be able to do (simple games and mathematical problems, as it turned out). There was no keyboard or application software: data was input by manipulating switches on the front for each bit.

Anchor
(1) In desktop publishing, to fix a graphical object so that its position relative to some other object remains the same during repagination. Frequently, for example, you may want to anchor a picture next to a piece of text so that they always appear together.

(2) A component of a hyperlink. Properly formatted hyperlinks are a source anchor which leads to a destination anchor.

Annie
Web page that has not been updated for a long time.

Angel
A wealthy businessman who invests in start-up companies.

ANSI
American National Standards Institute, was founded in 1918. It is a voluntary organisation with over 1300 members that creates standards for the computer industry.

AP
Access Point. A hardware device or a computer's software that acts as a communication hub for users of a wireless device to connect to a wired LAN. APs are important for providing heightened wireless security and for extending the physical range of service a wireless user has access to.

API
Application Program Interface. Enables programmers to write applications that can interact with other applications by providing all the necessary building blocks.

APIPA
Automatic Private IP Addressing. Part of Windows-based Operating Systems that enables a computer to assign itself an IP address when a DHCP server is not connactable to to this.

APNIC
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, one of three non-profit organisations that register and administer IP addresses. APNIC serves the Asia Pacific region, which consists of 62 economies.

APPC
Advanced Program-to-Program Communications. Also known as LU 6.2 and based on IBM's SNA. APPC is a communication protocol that transaction programs in a distributed computing environment can use to talk to each other. Using APPC, interconnected systems can communicate and share the processing of programs. It consists of two interfaces: programming and data-exchange. The programming interface replies to requests from programs requiring communication; the data-exchange interface establishes sessions between programs. APPC is an open standard and is supported on most platforms.

APPN
Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network.

Appleshare
An Apple Computer communications protocol, needed for sharing and exchanging files on a network with Apple computers and printers.

Applet
A program designed to be executed from within another application. Unlike an application, applets cannot be executed directly from the operating system. With the growing popularity of OLE, applets are becoming more prevalent. A well-designed applet can be invoked from many different applications. Web browsers, which are often equipped with Java virtual machines, can interpret applets from Web servers. Because applets are small in files size, cross-platform compatible, and highly secure (can't be used to access users' hard drives), they are ideal for small Internet applications accessible from a browser.

Appletalk
AppleTalk is a set of local area network communication protocols originally created for Apple computers.

Archangel
An extremely wealthy businessman who invests in start-ups.

Archie
An Archie site is an index for locating software and documents stored on ftp sites. Users can scan the contents of countless FTP sites.

ARIN
American Registry for Internet Numbers. ARIN, founded in 1997, is a non-profit organization that registers and administers IP numbers for North and South America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. ARIN is one of three Internet registries.

ARP
Address Resolution Protocol. This is a protocol able to convert an IP address into an Ethernet address.  It is possible to find a host's Ethernet address by broadcasting an ARP packet containing that host's Internet address.  This propts the return of the Ethernet address.

ARPANet
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, was the precursor to the Internet. Started in 1969, funded by the Pentagon. It finally closed in 1990.

ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127.

ASP
1. Active Server Pages. Microsoft's system for creating dynamic web pages, i.e. pages where the content is generated on request, such as from a database query.

2. Application Service Provision. A new system which leases applications (such as word processors and spreadsheets) to the user over the internet on a usage basis rather than requiring the user to buy the package outright.

ASPI
Advanced SCSI Programming Interface, an interface specification developed by Adaptec, Inc. for sending commands to a SCSI host adapter. ASPI has become a de facto standard that enables programmers to develop applications and drivers that work with all ASPI-compatible SCSI adapters.

ATA
SIZE="2">Advanced Technology Attachment, a disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee:

• ATA: Known also as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and PIO modes 0, 1 and 2.
• ATA-2: Supports faster PIO modes (3 and 4) and multiword DMA modes (1 and 2). Also supports LBA and block transfers. ATA-2 is marketed as Fast ATA and EIDE.
• ATA-3: Minor revision to ATA-2.
• Ultra-ATA: Also called Ultra-DMA, ATA-33, and DMA-33, supports multiword DMA mode 3 running at 33 MBps.
• ATA/66: A new version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that will double ATA's throughput to 66 MBps.

ATAPI
ATtachment PAcket Interface. An upgrade to EIDE which allows the hard disk controller to control CD drives as well. Almost all CD drives are controlled this way.

AtoM
Any Transport Over MPLS. A technology developed by Cisco for transporting Layer 2 packets over an IP/MPLS backbone. The technology is designed to let ISPs combine multiple disparate data networks -- such as Ethernet, ATM, Frame Relay, and Serial/PPP networks -- onto a single MPLS-based backbone to save operational costs.

ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode, is a network technology based on transferring data in packets of a fixed size. The packets used are relatively small compared to units of older technology. This enables ATM equipment to transmit video, audio, and computer data over the same network. Current implementations of ATM support data transfer of 25 to 622 Mbps.

AUI
Attachment Unit Interface, the portion of the Ethernet standard that specifies how a cable is to be connected to an Ethernet card. AUI specifies a coaxial cable connected to a transceiver that plugs into a 15-pin socket on the network interface card (NIC).

AUP
Acceptable Use Policy. Also known as TOS (Terms of Service). A contract specifying what a subscriber can and cannot do while using an ISP's service. Contains things like liability disclaimers, lists of actions or behavior that will result in the termination of a customers account, definition of terms such as "unlimited use," billing policies, SPAM clauses, etc.

Authentication
The process of identifying an individual, usually based on a username and password. In security systems, authentication is distinct from authorisation , which is the process of giving individuals access to system objects based on their identity. Authentication merely ensures that the individual is who he or she claims to be, but says nothing about the access rights of the individual.

Avatar
1. A graphical icon that represents a real person in a cyberspace system. When you enter the system, you can choose from a number of fanciful avatars. Sophisticated 3D avatars even change shape depending on what they are doing (e.g., walking, sitting, etc.).
2. A common name for the superuser account on UNIX systems. The other common name is root.

AVI
Audio Video Interleave, the file format for Microsoft's Video for Windows standard.

AWK
An interpreted programming language that is included in most versions of UNIX. The language is particularly designed for filtering and manipulating textual data. In this respect, it is similar to Perl, though Perl is more powerful.

b-blog
Short for Business BLOG, a blog used by a business to promote itself.

b-channel
Short for Bearer-channel, the main data channel in an ISDN connection. Basic Rate ISDN (BRI) service consists of two 64 Kbps B-channels, and one D-channel for transmitting control information. Primary ISDN service consists of 23 B-channels (in the U.S.) or 30 B-channels (in Europe).

B-ISDN
Broadband ISDN, is a standard for transmitting voice, video, and data at the same time over fiber optic telephone lines. It can support data rates of 1.5 Mbps. It has not been widely implemented.

B2B
Business-to-business. Transactions between businesses on the internet, e.g. commodity exchanges.

B2C
Business-to-consumer. Transactions between businesses and individual consumers.

Backbone
The main network connections at the heart of the internet.

Back End
The programming and technology that lies behind the web page that a user sees on their screen, for example enabling them to buy and sell on-line.

Bandwidth
The amount of data a connection can transfer over a fixed period of time.

Banner Ad
An advertisement strip at the top or bottom of a webpage.

Baud
Term used to describe the amount of oscillations of a souns wave.

Baud Barf
When a modem connection does not have the correct protocol setting, and the user sees gibberish on the screen.

Baud Rate
The amount of oscillations a modem can transmit and receive in 1 second.

BBS
Bulletin Board System or Service. An electronic message center, where people can review and post messages on a variety of subjects.

BEDO DRAM
Burst EDO DRAM, a new type of EDO DRAM that can process four memory addresses in one burst. Unlike SDRAM, however, BEDO DRAM can only stay synchronized with the CPU clock for short periods (bursts). Also, it can't keep up with processors whose buses run faster than 66 MHz.

Beta Bugs
Any problem that is found with a beta version of a piece of software or hardware.

Beta Testing
2nd phase of testing, for a pre-release version of software, hardware etc.

Beyond The Banner
A Web marketing term that implies that there are ways of marketing on the Internet other than the typical use of an ad banner.

BGP
Border Gateway Protocol, an Internet protocol that enables groups of routers (called autonomous systems) to share routing information so that efficient, loop-free routes can be established.

BICSI
Building Industry Consulting Services, International. It was formed in the early 1970's by a group of people who worked for the Bell operating companies. In the early 1990's, BICSI decided to simply refer to themselves as "BICSI: A Telecommunications Association".

BIOS
Basic Input/Output System. The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.

Bit
A Binary digit, the smallest unit of data forming the basis of all digital systems. Can hold two values: either 1 or 0.

Bit Bucket
The destination in cyberspace for lost or missing e-mails.

Bitlegging
The theft of online ideas or thoughts.

Black Hat
Someone who hacks into a website or system with the intent to do damage.

Blackberry
A line of mobile email devices and services. BlackBerry is a complete package that includes airtime, software and choice of BlackBerry mobile devices. In the UK, BlackBerry works over GPRS networks.

Blatherer
Someone who types much more than is necessary, particularly in the context of newsgroups and chat rooms.

blog
(n.) Short for Web log. A blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly-accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
(v.) To author a Web log.

Bluetooth
It refers to a short-range radio technology aimed at simplifying communications among Net devices and between devices and the Internet.

Boil The Ocean
To attempt something over-ambitious or impossible on the internet.

Boilerplate
Text or graphics elements designed to be used over and over. For example, you could create a boilerplate for a fax message that contains all the standard fax information that doesn't change, such as your name, address, and phone number. Then whenever you want to create a new fax, you need only insert the boilerplate rather than retyping the information. A boilerplate is similar to a template, but whereas a template holds layout and style information, a boilerplate contains actual text or graphics. Many applications, however, combine the two concepts.

BOOTP
Short for Bootstrap Protocol, an Internet protocol that enables a diskless workstation to discover its own IP address, the IP address of a BOOTP server on the network, and a file to be loaded into memory to boot the machine. This enables the workstation to boot without requiring a hard or floppy disk drive. The protocol is defined by RFC 951.

BOT
Any sort of automated software that covers a wide range of programmes.

Bozo Filter
A program that screens out e-mail and newsgroups postings from those who are on a user's b-list.

BPDU
Bridge Protocol Data Unit. BPDUs are data messages that are exchanged across the switches within an extended LAN that uses a STP topology. BPDU packets contain information on ports, addresses, priorities and costs and ensure that the data ends up where it was intended to go.

bps
Bits per second. A measurement of the transmission of data.

Bread Crumbs
A Web site navigation technique. Bread crumbs typically appear horizontally near the top of a Web page, providing links back to each previous page that the user navigates through in order to get to the current page. Basically, they provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting/entry point of a Web site and may look something like this:
home page --> section page --> sub section page This technique also is referred to as a bread crumb trail.

BREW
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, an open-source on-line application development platform for wireless CDMA devices.

BRI
Basic-Rate Interface, the basic ISDN configuration, which consists of 2 B-channels and 1 D-channel.
See PRI.

Bricks and Mortar
A company that has an established business in the high street.

Bridge
A network device that connects two local-area networks (LANs), or two segments of the same LAN that use the same protocol, such as Ethernet or Token-Ring.

Broadband
In general usage, a fast connection to the internet, so called because a fast connection requires a wide bandwidth capacity. Broadband connections allow applications such as high-quality video streaming over the internet and video on demand. The term is usually applied to connections of 256kbps and above, although strictly a connection from 64kbps - 1.5Mbps is 'wideband', while connections above 1.5MBps are broadband. Anthing less than 64kbps (i.e. a modem) is 'narrowband'.

Broadcast
To simultaneously send the same message to multiple recipients. Broadcasting is a useful feature in e-mail systems. It is also supported by some fax systems. In networking, a distinction is made between broadcasting and multicasting. Broadcasting sends a message to everyone on the network whereas multicasting sends a message to a select list of recipients.

Broadcast Storm
A state in which a message that has been broadcast across a network results in even more responses, and each response results in still more responses in a snowball effect. A severe broadcast storm can block all other network traffic, resulting in a network meltdown. Broadcast storms can usually be prevented by carefully configuring a network to block illegal broadcast messages.

Browser
Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The two most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they require plug-ins for some formats.

Browser Hijacking
When your browser is forced to look at another home page and you can't reset it.

Buffer
(n) A temporary storage area, usually in RAM. The purpose of most buffers is to act as a holding area, enabling the CPU to manipulate data before transferring it to a device. Because the processes of reading and writing data to a disk are relatively slow, many programs keep track of data changes in a buffer and then copy the buffer to a disk.

(v) To move data into a temporary storage area.

Buffer Overflow
A buffer overflow occurs when a program or process tries to store more data in a buffer (temporary data storage area) than it was intended to hold. Since buffers are created to contain a finite amount of data, the extra information - which has to go somewhere - can overflow into adjacent buffers, corrupting or overwriting the valid data held in them. Although it may occur accidentally through programming error, buffer overflow is an increasingly common type of security attack on data integrity. In buffer overflow attacks, the extra data may contain codes designed to trigger specific actions, in effect sending new instructions to the attacked computer that could, for example, damage the user's files, change data, or disclose confidential information. Buffer overflow attacks are said to have arisen because the programming language supplied the framework, and poor programming practices supplied the vulnerability.

Bus
(1) A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to personal computers, the term bus usually refers to internal bus. This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory. There's also an expansion bus that enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory. All buses consist of two parts -- an address bus and a data bus. The data bus transfers actual data whereas the address bus transfers information about where the data should go. The size of a bus, known as its width, is important because it determines how much data can be transmitted at one time. Every bus has a clock speed measured in MHz.

(2) In networking, a bus is a central cable that connects all devices on a local-area network. It is also called the backbone.

Byte
A series of 8 bits treated as a single value.

Bytecode
The compiled format for Java programs. Once a Java program has been converted to bytecode, it can be transferred across a network and executed by JVM. Bytecode files generally have a .class extension.

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