|
Glossary
- IAB
- Internet Architecture Board
- IETF
- Internet Engineering Task Force
- Internal modem
- A modem that is plugged into one of the bus slots on the motherboard (or
"riser-card") inside the computer.
- Internet
- Internet -- International network of millions of computers
and people. Did you expect more of a definition??--You're on it now, so
you define it! Isn't it different for everyone??
- InterNIC
- Internet Network Information Center
- I/O
- Input / Output
- IP
- Internet Protocol
See also: TCP/IP
See: RFC-791
- IP Address
- An IP address is a unique address assigned to every
computer that communicates with the internet. It is made up of 4
"octets" that each range from 0-255 and are separated by a period (.),
pronounced "dot." An example IP address is "207.68.137.53" and is
representative of the domain name,
"www.microsoft.com". In order to make navigation across the internet
easier for users, domain names are typically used in place of the IP
addresses when entering in the address of a computer on the internet.
A DNS server then converts the domain name into its
IP address so that the computers can communicate properly.
See: RFC-1366
- ISDN
- Integrated Services Digital Network --
a 64 or 128 kbps high-quality digital telephone/telecommunications network.
An end-user connects to an ISDN network via a BRI ISDN line.
See: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/getisdn/whatis.htm
- ITU
- International Telecommunication Union
-- formerly, CCITT (International Consultative Telegraph and Telephone Committee)
Common subdivisions of the ITU:
ITU-R -- Radiocommunications
ITU-T -- Telecommunications
- kilo
- kilo is a prefix to a unit of measurement representing 10^3 (1000) in SI (Systeme
International) terms, using base-10 (decimal) numbering. In
computer terms, it's the closest decimal number to 1000 based on base-2
(binary) and is equivalent to 2^10 (1024).
Abbreviation: k
See: Proposed prefixes for binary multiples
See also: Mega, Giga, Tera
- LAN
- Local Area Network -- group of computers linked
together into their own network that may or may not be connected by
some means to the outside world. LANs are typically made up of
computers that are subdivided into company departments/groups within
an office or building.
See also: WAN
- LCP
- Link Control Protocol
See: RFC-1570
- Line Noise
- Line noise is the same thing as actual noise that you may hear while
talking on the phone, but instead of hearing the noise, you will
commonly see it in the form of "garbage" text that sporadically pops
up while connected via modem. Those of you who have "Call Waiting" may be
familiar with this. When the "tone" comes through the line, the modem
interprets that as line noise and attempts to clear it using the
error control built into the modem (or software if
it's an RPI modem or WinModem.)
- Listserv
- See RFC-1429
- Lynx
- Lynx is a VT terminal-based WWW
browser. The name, Lynx is a tradename based on the word, links,
because of the many hypertext links found in the HTML
documents on the internet. Lynx was developed at
The University Of Kansas.
- Media Types
- CD-ROM -- Compact Disc-ROM
-- a very common storage medium for computers. Once data/music has been stored on
a CD-ROM, it cannot be altered/removed, hence the "ROM"--"Read
Only Memory." CDR's (CD Recorders) are available and
allow the user to write to a CD once, then read as often as he/she wants.
This form of media is sometimes refered to as "WORM"--"Write Once;
Read Many." They're quite useful for retreiving
large amounts of data, such as encyclopedias, phonebooks, dictionaries,
etc. CD-ROMs have a capacity of about 650MB or 74 minutes of
CD audio.
Common CD-ROM data-transfer rates:
150 kBps (kilobytes per second) -- "single speed"
300 kBps -- "double-speed" (2x)
450 kBps -- "triple-speed" (3x)
600 kBps -- "quad-speed" (4x)
900 kBps -- "6-speed" (6x)
1200 kBps -- "8-speed" (8x)
1800 kBps -- "12 speed" (12x)
- Floppy Disk -- relatively low-capacity removeable/portable media. The
original floppy disks were very thin, semi-flexible, flimsy, "floppy"
disks. The first floppy disks where 8" disks that closely resemble the
newer 5.25" disks that replaced them. Later, higher capacity 3.5" disks,
encased in hard, inflexible plastic replaced the 5.25" disks. Floppy
disks can be written to and erased many times.
- Hard Disk (Hard Drive) -- relatively high-capacity, usually internal,
semi-permanent, high-speed storage device
used for day-to-day storage/retreival of commonly accessed data. When a
computer is booted up and loads various software, they are usually loaded
from the hard drive because of the drive's high capacity and speed. The
first hard drives had typical capacities of 5 and 10 MB and sold for
about $100 per megabyte. As time went on, the
manufacturing technologies increased, decreasing production costs,
while increasing storage capacity, reliability, and decreasing the
physical dimensions of the drives. Now, typical hard drives have capacities
up to about 20GB and sell for a few pennies per
megabyte. Hard drives can be written to and erased many times.
- Mega
- Mega is a prefix to a unit of measurement representing 10^6 (1,000,000) in SI (Systeme
International) terms, using base-10 (decimal) numbering. In
computer terms, it's the closest decimal number to 1,000,000 based on base-2
(binary) and is equivalent to 2^20 (1,048,576).
Abbreviation: M
See: Proposed prefixes for binary multiples
See also: kilo, Giga, Tera
- Modem
- Modulator/Demodulator -- a device that converts (modulates) digital
data from a computer to an analog signal to be transmitted across a
POTS (plain old telphone service) phoneline.
On the other end of the connection, another modem converts (demodulates) the analog
signal back into digital format.
- MP and MP+
- PPP Multilink Protocol -- an extension
protocol to PPP that allows a computer
that is connected to another computer (or network) by multiple channels
to send/receive data simultaneously on all channels, increasing the
overall data transfer rate between the machines.
See: RFC-1990
PPP MP+ -- Multilink Protocol Plus -- an
extension to the PPP MP protocol, developed by
Ascend Communications, Inc.
See: RFC-1934
- NAS
- Network Access Server -- This is a device that provides access to a network,
generally by allowing users to dial into it much in the same way a
modem allows access into an individual computer.
- NNTP
- Network News Transfer Protocol
See: RFC-977
See also: USENET
- Operating System (OS)
- An operating system is the primary software-foundation from which all
other software on that machine runs.
Example operating systems: Unix, MS-DOS,
Windows 98,
Windows 2000,
MacOS,
OS/2, etc.
See also: GUI (Graphical User Interface)
- Phosphor
- Phosphors are the tiny red, green, and blue dots or "bars" that are lined
up in an intricate matrix across the viewable area of a computer monitor
or TV. When the electron beam ("cathode ray") passes over these phosphors,
they become charged and light up. The amount they light up is dependent
on the intensity of the electron beam when it passed over the phosphor.
Phosphors are commonly mistaken for pixels. A pixel
is generated by the computer and is projected onto the monitor's phosphors,
and contains information on what colored phosphors will be lit and how
brightly.
See also: dot pitch and pixel
- Pixel
- Picture element -- an individual "dot" containing RGB
(red, green, and blue) values. Grouping many of these pixels together in
a matrix, produces an image or picture on a computer screen or printed
media. How much information is stored within a pixel, determines color
depth.
Common color depths:
1 bit per pixel (bpp) -- 2^1 (2) colors (black/white)
3 bpp -- 2^3 (8) colors
4 bpp -- 2^4 (16) colors
8 bpp -- 2^8 (256) colors ("palate-based" or "indexed")
15 bpp -- 2^15 (32,768) colors
16 bpp -- 2^16 (65,536) colors
24 bpp -- 2^24 (1,6777,216) colors ("true color" or "RGB color")
Each R,G, and B value can have a value of 0-255, so 256^3 = (2^8)^3 = 2^24.
See also: Resolution
- POP
- Post Office Protocol -- a protocol used to retrieve
e-mail from a network mail server, using client
software on a remote computer. Eudora
is an example of an e-mail program that retrieves e-mail from a network
server using the POP3 protocol (the 3 represents POP version 3).
See: RFC-1939
See also: SMTP
- Point Of Presence
- POTS
- Plain Old Telephone Service -- represents the
present analog phoneline network in the US.
- PPP
- Point to Point Protocol --
Info...
See: RFC-1661
PPP MP -- PPP Multilink Protocol -- see: MP and MP+
- PPTP
- Point to Point Tunneling Protocol --
PPTP is a networking technology that supports multiprotocol virtual
private networks (VPN), enabling remote users to access corporate
networks securely across the Internet. Using PPTP, remote users can
employ the Microsoft Windows 95/98 and Windows NT Workstation operating
systems and other point-to-point protocol (PPP)-enabled systems to
dial into a local Internet service provider to connect securely to
their corporate network via the Internet.
- PRI
- Primary Rate Interface -- A type of ISDN service
that offers 23 B-channels for data at 64 kbps and one D-channel for
signaling at 64 kbps (23B+D). In Europe, PRI provides for 30 B-channels
and two D-channels (30B+2D).
See also: BRI and ISDN
|