Glossary of IT Terms & Acronyms

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Anti-Spam: Refers to any software, hardware, or process that is used to combat the proliferation of spam or to keep spam from entering a system.

Anti-virus software: are computer programs that attempt to identify, neutralize, or eliminate malicious software. The term "antivirus" is used because the earliest examples were designed exclusively to combat computer viruses; however most modern antivirus software is now designed to combat a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, and trojan horses.

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Backup: Refers to making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. These additional copies are typically called "backups." Backups are useful primarily for two purposes: (1) to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery), and (2) to restore small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or bytes per second. For analog devices, the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz). The amount of data that can travel through a circuit. This is measured in bits per second. The larger the bandwidth, the more data you can get through in a shorter period of time. Think of this as the difference between a small diameter hose and a larger one. You’ll have the advantage in a water fight with the larger hose.

Bit: Short for binary digit, the smallest unit of information on a machine. A single bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. More meaningful information is obtained by combining consecutive bits into larger units. For example, a byte is composed of 8 consecutive bits.

Blog: 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.

Browser: Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The most popular browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer – a graphical browser, which means that it 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.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP): An interdisciplinary concept used to create and validate a practiced logistical & tactical plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption.

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Chat Room: A virtual room where a chat session takes place. Technically, a chat room is really a channel, but the term room is used to promote the chat metaphor.

Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user's data, software and computation.

Convergence: The condition or process of combining complementary technologies such as telecommunications, networking and multimedia.

Cookies: The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a website using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same website, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

CPU (Central Processing Unit): A class of logic machines that can execute computer programs. The primary mathematical calculation IC (integrated circuit).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A database that stores all customer information for easy retrieval.

Cyber attack: The leveraging of a target's computers and information technology, particularly via the Internet, to cause physical, real-world harm or severe disruption.

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DHCP: Short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, DHCP is software that automatically assigns temporary IP addresses to client stations logging onto an IP network. It eliminates having to manually assign permanent "static" IP addresses. DHCP software runs in servers and routers.

Digitizing: The process of converting data, images, audio, video, etc. into a digital (binary) form.

DNS - Domain Name System: Computers on the Internet are kept separate by the use of names and addresses. These addresses are usually expressed as a sequence of four sets of numbers separated by a decimal (for example 172.18.1.0). Because this would be difficult to remember and also hard to type in without making a mistake, we use the www.address.com style names for us humans. They’re translated into the numbering system.

DSL: Short for Digital Subscriber Lines, DSL technologies use sophisticated modulation schemes to pack data onto copper wires. They are sometimes referred to as last-mile technologies because they are used only for connections from a telephone switching station to a home or office, not between switching stations.

Dynamic Sites: Through the use of Database programming, this type of website offers more than a static site since it can constantly be updated from any where there’s access to the internet. This type of site is also necessary if e-commerce is to be considered, search functions are require and secure transactions of any type are to be conducted.

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Electronic Commerce: Often referred to as simply e-commerce, business that is conducted over the Internet using any of the applications that rely on the Internet, such as e-mail, instant messaging, and shopping carts. Electronic commerce can be between two businesses transmitting funds, goods, services and/or data or between a business and a customer.

Electronic Funds Transfer: Often abbreviated as EFT, it is the paperless act of transmitting money through a secure computer network. Popular EFT providers are VeriSign and PayPal.

Electronic discovery: or e-discovery, is a type of cyber forensics and describes the process by where law enforcement can obtain, secure, search and process any electronic data for use as evidence in a legal proceeding or investigation. Electronic discovery may be limited to a single computer or a network-wide search.

Encryption: The translation of data into a secret code. Encryption is the most effective way to achieve data security. A way of coding the information in a file or e-mail message so that if it is intercepted by a third party as it travels over a network it cannot be read. Only the persons sending and receiving the information have the key and this makes it unreadable to anyone except the intended persons.

Ethernet: The format that all computers use to talk to each other. Used in conjunction with Internet Protocol.

E-Zine: Short for electronic magazine, the name for a website that is modeled after a print magazine. Some e-zines are simply electronic versions of existing print magazines, whereas others exist only in their digital format. Most e-zines are advertiser-supported but a few charge a subscription.

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Facebook: The name of a social networking site (SNS) that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, post photos, share links, and exchange other information. Facebook users can see only the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (We didn’t make this one up - honest!). You’ll find this acronym on many websites. It helps because many of your questions may have already been asked by someone else. This is where you can look to find the answers.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): This is the system that allows you to copy files from computers around the world onto your computer. Also see Unlimited FTP.

Firewall: A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

Flash Drive: A small, portable flash memory card that plugs into a computer’s USB port and functions as a portable hard drive. USB flash drives are touted as being easy-to-use as they are small enough to be carried in a pocket and can plug into any computer with a USB drive. USB flash drives have less storage capacity than an external hard drive, but they are smaller and more durable because they do not contain any internal moving parts.

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Geographic Information System (GIS): An organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information.

GIF (Graphics Interface Format): This is a standard format used to save line art such as graphics and logos in a compressed form. GIF’s can be seen in all browsers. It’s limitations are the number of colors that can be used - 256 (8-bit). That’s why it’s best not to use this type of format for color photographs that can be made of millions of colors. Some advantages are that you can have these graphics load onto your page in an interlaced style. This means that you don’t have to wait until the entire logo is ready to show on your page. You’ll first see a fuzzy form and then over a short period of time, it becomes clearer and sharper. What’s nice about this is that many people don’t want to wait to see a graphic if it’s going to take a while, but as long as they see something, they’ll hang on. Another advantage is that you can have any color in the image transparent, thus allowing the background to show through. This eliminates that ugly white box that can show up around the image as it appears on the page. One other effect that is made from several GIFs is the Animated GIF. This is the motion you’ll see on an internet page. For example, when you see a dog run across the screen, that’s an Animated GIF.

Gigabit interface converter (GBIC): a standard for transceivers, commonly used with Gigabit Ethernet and fibre channel. By offering a standard, hot swappable electrical interface, one gigabit ethernet port can support a wide range of physical media, from copper to long-wave single-mode optical fiber, at lengths of hundreds of kilometers. The appeal of the GBIC standard in networking equipment, as opposed to fixed physical interface configurations, is its flexibility. Where multiple different optical technologies are in use, an administrator can purchase GBICs as needed, not in advance, and they can be the specific type needed for each link. This lowers the cost of the base system and gives the administrator far more flexibility.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit): A processor attached to a graphics card dedicated to calculating floating point operations and the like.

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Hacker: A person who enjoys exploring the details of computers and how to stretch their capabilities. A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around. A person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who prefer to learn the minimum necessary.

HTML (Hypertext Mark Up Language): That’s the programming language that’s universally accepted for internet programming.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): The underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page. These are the rules in which a web user’s browser accesses files from a web server.

HTTPS: Same as above, using rules from a secure web server.

Hub: A common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports. When a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

Hybrid VoIP: A traditional / legacy PBX with a VoIP card added. Allows for some VoIP functionality and can allow toll bypass. Does not lower MAC charges, maintenance costs remain, offers less features, and may require significant upgrades.

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Identity theft: Identity theft occurs when somebody steals your name and other personal information for fraudulent purposes. Identity theft is a form of identity crime (where somebody uses a false identity to commit a crime).

Internet Protocol (IP): The format that all computers use to talk over the Internet.

IP Address: Short for Internet Protocol address, an IP address is the address of a device attached to an IP network (TCP/IP network). Every client, server, and network device must have a unique IP address for each network connection (network interface). Every IP packet contains a source IP address and a destination IP address. An IP network is somewhat similar to the telephone network in that you have to have the phone number to reach a destination. The big difference is that IP addresses are often temporary. Each device in an IP network is either assigned a permanent address (static IP) by the network administrator or is assigned a temporary address (dynamic IP) via DHCP software.

ISP (Internet Service Provider): A company that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly fee, the service provider gives you a software package, username, password, and access phone number. Equipped with a high-speed device, you can then log on to the Internet and browse the World Wide Web, and send and receive e-mail.

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Java Applets: Miniature applications that bring your web pages to life! You can add sound, action and interactivity. It’s a shame you can’t use these Java Applets on people!

Java Script: This is an extension of HTML that allows ‘true’ interactivity with your website. It’s not as involved as Java Programming.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. This type of file is used primarily for color photographs. Because most color pictures have millions of colors, a GIF would not be a good choice. The JPEG can use over 16 million colors (24-bit) and has several levels of compression. Of course there’s always a trade off. The more compressed the file, the faster it will load, but the greater the chance of losing quality in the final photo. The disadvantage of the JPEG format is that it’s not transparent and you can’t have it interlace when it loads. If you’re confused about those last two, you skipped the GIF definition.

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Key Words: See Meta Tags

Keylogger: A computer program that captures the keystrokes of a computer user and stores them. Modern keyloggers can store additional information, such as images of the user’s screen. Most malicious keyloggers send this data to a third party remotely (such as via email).

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LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): An application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.

Local Area Network (LAN): An Ethernet switch and the cables that go to computers that are geographically close together.

Link Exchange: A confederation of websites that operates similarly to a web ring. Webmasters register their websites with a central organization, that runs the exchange, and in turn receive from the exchange HTML code which they insert into their web pages. In contrast to a web ring, where the HTML code simply comprises simple circular ring navigation hyperlinks, in a link exchange the HTML code causes the display of banner advertisements, for the sites of other members of the exchange, on the member websites, and webmasters have to create such banner advertisements for their own websites.

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Malware: Short for MALicious softWARE, software designed to destroy, aggravate, and otherwise make life unhappy.

Meta Tags: A list of approximately thirty (30) words that are ‘Key’ to helping search engines find your website. This list should be made in the order of importance as well as common misspellings since it’s a human entering the search words into a search engine. For example: Harbor Freight: Harbor, Harbour, Freight, Frieght

Mouse Over: A cool function that modifies a graphic (button, text, photo, etc.) to change when you place the mouse over it. This can be used to add some animation to the site as well as some functionality. For example, when you ‘mouse over’ a navigational button, it can ‘light up’, ‘push in’, ‘move over’, etc. to let you know this is the button you’re choosing! Or place the mouse over a section of a graphical montage and words can pop up to help you see other options within the site.

Moves/Adds/Changes (MACs): The industry term used when phones are moved, added, or information changes.

MP3: Short for MPEG Audio Layer 3, an MP3 is an audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. MP3 compresses CD-quality sound by a factor of roughly 10, while retaining most of the original fidelity; for example, a 40MB CD track is turned into a 4MB MP3 file. MP3 files are played via media player software in the computer, such as iTunes or Windows Media Player, as well as in countless iPods and other handheld players that use flash memory or hard disks for storage. MP3 sound quality cannot fully match the original CD, but millions of people consider it "good enough" especially because they can pack thousands of songs into a tiny pocket-sized player.

Multi-mode optical fiber (MM fiber): a type of optical fiber mostly used for communication over shorter distances, such as within a building or on a campus. Typical multimode links have data rates of 10 Mbit/s to 10 Gbit/s over link lengths of up to 600 meters—more than sufficient for the majority of premises applications.

MySpace: Founded in 2003, MySpace is the name of a social networking site (SNS) that consists of a network of member's profiles, Web logs, photos, e-mail, forums, groups, and more.

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NDPS: Novell Distributed Print Services

Network: A group of two or more computer systems linked together. There are many types of computer networks, including: local-area networks (LANs) where the computers are geographically close together (that is, in the same building); and wide-area networks (WANs) where the computers are farther apart and are connected by telephone lines or wireless radio waves.

Novell: A global software corporation based in the United States specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Linux Enterprise and Novell NetWare.

NTP (Network Time Protocol): A protocol for distributing the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by means of synchronizing the clocks of computer systems.

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Office 365: Microsoft Office 365 is a secure, anywhere access to email and calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing. Through Office 365 a business has access to:

• Exchange Online: sync Outlook email, calendar and contacts across PC, phone, and browser.
• Lync Online: Find and connect with colleagues and customers from virtually anywhere.
• Microsoft Web Apps: Easily access, view, edit and print Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote® documents from a web browser.
• Microsoft SharePoint: share business information in one centralized place.

Optical fiber: a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher data rates (a.k.a "bandwidth"), than other forms of communications. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss, and they are immune to electromagnetic interference. Optical fibers are also used to form sensors, and in a variety of other applications.

Oracle: A popular relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Oracle Corp.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity): A standard database access method developed with the goal to make it possible to access any data from any application, regardless of which database management system (DBMS) is handling the data.

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Packet: A unit or "manageable chunk" of voice data into which complete messages are divided to be routed across the Internet or other TCP/IP networks.

Packet switching: Newer, more efficient technology used for IP communications on the Internet, by which data is broken into parts called packets. Different packets can take different routes to the destination, arriving out of order. They are reassembled into the original order at the destination.

Patch: Also called a service patch, it is a fix to a program bug. A patch is an actual piece of object code that is inserted into (patched into) an executable program. Patches typically are available as downloads over the Internet.

Pharming: Involves Trojan programs, worms, or other virus technologies that attack the Internet browser address bar and is much more sophisticated than phishing. When users type in a valid URL they are redirected to the criminals' websites instead of the intended valid website.

Phishing: A form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, SSNs, user IDs, and passwords. A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimate organization, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company. An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes.

Podcasting: Similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated website content. With podcasting however, you have a set of subscriptions that are checked regularly for updates and instead of reading the feeds on your computer screen, you listen to the new content on your iPod (or like device).

Plug-and-Play: Refers to the ability of a computer system to automatically configure expansion boards and other devices. You should be able to plug in a device and play with it, without worrying about setting DIP switches, jumpers, and other configuration elements.

PoE (Power over Ethernet): A method of sending electrical power over Ethernet cable to alleviate the requirement to plug equipment into an electrical outlet or other power source.

Primary Rate Interface (PRI): a telecommunications standard for carrying multiple DS0 (Digital Signal 0: a basic digital signaling rate of 64 kbit/s, corresponding to the capacity of one voice-frequency-equivalent channel) voice and data transmissions between two physical locations. All data and voice channels are ISDN and operate at 64 kbit/s.

Private Cloud: Private cloud is custom cloud infrastructure for an individual organization that can be managed internally or by an IT service company such as ITX, and can be hosted internally or collocated depending on the businesses security and risk tolerance. Undertaking a private cloud project requires a degree of engagement between the organization and the IT company to virtualize the business environment.

At ITX we are confident, knowledgeable and can build trust with a business to ensure the best possible private cloud environment. When it is done right, it can have a positive impact on a business. Working together with a trusted company like ITX will allow each step of the engineered design to be addressed; security, risk tolerance, back-up and recovery, etc., to avoid possible vulnerabilities. Unlike public cloud options, private clouds do not share server resources with other customers, but use resources dedicated to only one business. A private cloud lets you capitalize on existing IT investments while making IT more dynamic.

Public Cloud: Public cloud applications, storage, and other resources are made available to the general public by a service provider such as what ITX offers in Microsoft Office 365. Generally, public cloud service providers like Microsoft own and operate the infrastructure and offer access only via Internet. Public clouds share server resources and other standard resources such as CPU, RAM, and drive space.

If your business is comfortable with sharing resources, then a public cloud could be the computing model for your business. Public clouds are beneficial for newer companies and start-ups not wanting the heavy expenses of IT gear and established companies with aging infrastructure. Or businesses that see the cloud value; well understood and widely used, and that public clouds do not require rethinking your IT from the ground up.

Pure IP: Digital phone system that digitizes analog speech into bits to transmit them along with data bits over a unified network.

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QoS (Quality of Service): A term used when describing IP phone systems, QoS is a guaranteed or predictable level of bandwidth, transmission speed, and freedom from dropped packets, delay, jitter, and error that is necessary to ensure adequate performance of particular applications.

Quad-Core: A multi-core CPU (or chip-level multiprocessor, CMP) combines four independent cores into a single package composed of a single integrated circuit (IC).

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Router: A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs, or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect.

RSS: Often referred to as an RSS feed, it is the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for the syndication of Web content. It’s most widespread usage is in distributing news headlines on the Web, events listings, news stories, project updates, excerpts from discussion forums, or even corporate information. A website that wants to allow other sites to publish some of its content creates an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A user that can read RSS-distributed content can use the content on a different site.

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Search Engine: A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and MSN that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web.

Security: In the computer industry, refers to techniques for ensuring that data stored in a computer cannot be read or compromised by any individuals without authorization. Most security measures involve data encryption and passwords. Data encryption is the translation of data into a form that is unintelligible without a deciphering mechanism. A password is a secret word or phrase that gives a user access to a particular program or system.

Server: This is where your website programming actually resides. Think of this as one very, huge hard drive! A computer or device on a network that manages network resources. For example, a file server is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store files on the server. A print server is a computer that manages one or more printers. A network server is a computer that manages network traffic. A database server is a computer system that processes database queries.

Single-mode: in fiber-optic communication, a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) is an optical fiber designed to carry only a single ray of light (mode). This ray of light often contains a variety of different wavelengths. Although the ray travels parallel to the length of the fiber, it is often called the transverse mode since its electromagnetic vibrations occur perpendicular (transverse) to the length of the fiber. Single-mode optical fibers are also called monomode optical fibers, single-mode optical waveguides, or unimode fibers.

Skype: A computer program that can be used to make free voice calls over the Internet to anyone else who is also using Skype. It's free and considered easy to download and use, and works with most computers. Once you download, register, and install the software, you need to plug in a headset, speakers, or USB phone to start using Skype.

Social Networking Site: Short for social networking site, a SNS is the phrase used to describe any website that enables users to create public profiles within that website and form relationships with other users of the same website who access their profile. The most popular sites are MySpace and Facebook. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based websites, online discussions, forums, chatrooms, and other social spaces online.

Softphone: IP phone software that runs on your desktop, laptop, or handheld computer and provides an onscreen telephone interface to allow you to make phone calls through your computer using its keyboard, speakers or headset, and microphone without a traditional telephone handset.

Spam: Refers to electronic junk mail, unsolicited e-mail, or junk newsgroup postings. In addition to being a nuisance, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Because the Internet is a public network, little can be done to prevent spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most spam sent through e-mail.

Spyware: Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else.

Static Sites: Websites that don’t need constant modifications to text or photos/graphics are usually static based. This is a less expensive alternative to a Dynamic site which uses a database to control the pages and its contents. When modifications are necessary, additional costs are based on a time and materials basis. This does not mean the site sits motionless. Movement can be obtained incorporating animated graphics, mouse over programming and even eye-catching web design using graphics and photographs.

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T1: a telecommunications line rate speed that now seems to mean any data circuit that runs at the original 1.544 Mbit/s line rate. Originally the T1 format carried 24 pulse-code modulated, time-division multiplexed speech signals each encoded in 64 kbit/s streams, leaving 8 kbit/s of framing information which facilitates the synchronization and demultiplexing at the receiver. T2 and T3 circuit channels carry multiple T1 channels multiplexed, resulting in transmission rates of 6.312 and 44.736 Mbit/s, respectively.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): A routable protocol, and the IP "network" layer in TCP/IP provides this capability. The header prefixed to an IP packet contains not only source and destination addresses of the hosts, but source and destination addresses of the networks they reside in. Data transmitted using TCP/IP can be sent to multiple networks within an organization or around the globe via the Internet, the world's largest TCP/IP network. The terms "TCP/IP network" and "IP network" are synonymous.

Telco: Short for Telephone Company.

Text Messaging: Sending short text messages to a device such as a cell phone, PDA, or pager. Text messaging is used for messages that are no longer than a few hundred characters. The term is usually applied to messaging that takes place between two or more mobile devices.

Thumbnail: Not that thing at the end of a finger, this refers to small photos and graphics that download quickly due to there size, but usually can be ‘clicked’ to show a larger image. People are usually willing to wait when they purposely download a larger picture.

Toll bypass: Callers are not charged for making long-distance calls because they utilized a computer network versus traditional long-distance analog lines. Used in conjunction with IP phone systems or VoIP phones.

Traditional PBX: Analog phone systems that move phone calls around by utilizing 100 year-old technology.

Trojan: Using a term from Greek mythology, a Trojan program appears legitimate, but performs some illicit activity when it is run. It may be used to locate password information, or make the system more vulnerable to future entry, or simply destroy programs or data on the hard disk. A Trojan is similar to a virus, except that it does not replicate itself. It stays in the computer doing its damage or allowing somebody from a remote site to take control of the computer. Trojans often sneak in attached to a free game or other utility.

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Unified messaging: The integration of different streams of messages (e-mail, FAX, voice, video, etc.) into a single in-box, accessible from a variety of different devices.

Unlimited FTP: FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. All it means is that you can upload an unlimited # of files to the web at no cost. Uploading via FTP is one way to publish pages to a website. If a site is developed with MS FrontPage, the program has its own built-in publishing mechanism. The unlimited FTP claim is kind of a meaningless statement since it is a given with most webhosts. It is not truly unlimited anyway since you can't upload more files than the amount of web space your site will hold.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. This is your street address that no one else can have. It’s your www.yourname.com.

USB (Universal Serial Bus): An external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards.

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Virtual Private Network (VPN): A secure connection created over a public network by using tunneling-mode encryption.

Virus: A computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. Some viruses are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Others are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages.

VoIP: Short for Voice over Internet Protocol, a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP rather than by traditional circuit transmissions (analog lines). One advantage of VoIP is that the telephone calls over the Internet do not incur a surcharge beyond what the user is paying for Internet access, much in the same way that the user doesn't pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet.

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Web App: Short for Web Application. An application that is accessed via web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, JavaScript, Java, etc.) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.

Web-based Interface: Using any common browser such as Microsoft Explorer.

Web 2.0: A term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. Blogs, wikis, and Web services are all viewed as components of Web 2.0. It basically refers to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving Web applications to users. Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information.

Web Hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

Web Portal: Commonly referred to as a portal, a website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.

Wide Area Network (WAN): Two or more Ethernet LANs connected with long-distance data lines.

Wiki: Wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian. First created in 1995, a wiki is a collaborative website that comprises the perpetual collective work of many authors. Similar to a blog in structure and logic, a wiki allows anyone to edit, delete, or modify content that has been placed on the website using a browser interface, including the work of previous authors. In contrast, a blog, typically authored by an individual, does not allow visitors to change the original posted material; only add comments to the original content.

Worm: A self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computer terminals on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms always harm the network (if only by consuming bandwidth), whereas viruses always infect or corrupt files on a targeted computer.

 

Most glossary definitions were obtained from Wikipedia and then edited for content.