The following is a list of acronyms which may appear on the exams. Candidates are encouraged to review the complete list and attain a working knowledge of all listed acronyms as a part of a comprehensive exam preparation program.
The definitions posted here are based primarily on information found in Wikipedia. Links to the original documents or home pages in the case of specific companies or organizations have been provided.
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| AAA |
Authentication Authorization and Accounting - A security architecture for distributed systems, which enables control over which users are allowed access to which services, and how much of the resources they have used. Two network protocols providing this functionality are particularly popular: the RADIUS protocol, and its newer Diameter counterpart.
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| ACL |
Access Control List - In computer security, an access control list (ACL) is a list of permissions attached to an object. The list specifies who or what is allowed to access the object and what operations are allowed to be performed on the object.
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| ADSL |
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - A form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.
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| AES |
Advanced Encryption Standard - A specification for the encryption of electronic data that supersedes the Data Encryption Standard or DES. The algorithm described by AES is a symmetric-key algorithm, meaning the same key is used for both encrypting and decrypting the data. AES currently supports 128, 192 and 256-bit keys and encryption blocks.
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| AH |
Authentication Header - A protocol that provides authentication of either all or part of the contents of a datagram through the addition of a header that is calculated based on the values in the datagram
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| AM |
Amplitude Modulation - A technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave.
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| APIPA |
Automatic Private Internet Protocol Addressing - A common alternative to the use of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to request and retrieve an Internet Protocol (IP) address for a host. APIPA simplifies the assignment of IP address and subnet-mask configuration information to hosts in small networks. When APIPA is used, the operating system allows the assignment of a unique IP address to each station on a small local area network (LAN).
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| ARIN |
American Registry for Internet Numbers - The Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 address space.
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| ARP |
Address Resolution Protocol - In computer networking, the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is the standard method for finding a host's hardware address when only its network layer address is known.
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| ASP |
Application Service Provider - A business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network.
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| ATM |
Asynchronous Transfer Mode - A cell relay, packet switching network and data link layer protocol which encodes data traffic into small (53 bytes; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) fixed-sized cells. ATM provides data link layer services that run over Layer 1 links.
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| BERT |
Bit-Error Rate Test - A testing method for digital communication circuits that uses predetermined stress patterns consisting of a sequence of logical ones and zeros generated by a test pattern generator.
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| BGP |
Border Gateway Protocol - BGP is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It works by maintaining a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems (AS).
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| BNC |
British Naval Connector / Bayonet Niell-Concelman - The BNC connector is used for RF signal (typically pro-video) connections, both for analog and Serial Digital Interface video signals.
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| BootP |
Boot Protocol /Bootstrap Protocol - A network protocol used by a network client to obtain an IP address from a configuration server. BOOTP is usually used during the bootstrap process when a computer is starting up. A BOOTP configuration server assigns an IP address to each client from a pool of addresses. BOOTP uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as a transport on IPv4 networks only.
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| BPDU |
Bridge Protocol Data Unit - BPDUs are data messages that are exchanged across the switches within an extended LAN that uses a spanning tree protocol topology. BPDU packets contain information on ports, addresses, priorities and costs and ensure that the data ends up where it was intended to go. BPDU messages are exchanged across bridges to detect loops in a network topology. The loops are then removed by shutting down selected bridge interfaces and placing redundant switch ports in a backup, or blocked, state.
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| BRI |
Basic Rate Interface - Basic rate interface (BRI, 2B+D, 2B1D) is an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) configuration defined in the physical layer standard I.430 produced by the ITU.
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| CARP |
Common Address Redundancy Protocol - A protocol which allows multiple hosts on the same local network to share a set of IP addresses. Its primary purpose is to provide failover redundancy, especially when used with firewalls and routers. In some configurations CARP can also provide load balancing functionality.
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| CHAP |
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol - An authentication scheme used by Point to Point Protocol (PPP) servers to validate the identity of remote clients.
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| CIDR |
Classless inter domain routing - Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR, pronounced "cider") was introduced in 1993 and is the latest refinement to the way IP addresses are interpreted.
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| CNAME |
Canonical Name - A type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies that the domain name is an alias of another, canonical domain name. This helps when running multiple services (like an FTP server and a webserver; each running on different ports) from a single IP address. Each service can then have its own entry in DNS.
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| CRAM-MD5 |
Challenge-Response Authentication Mechanism ¡V Message Digest 5 - A challenge-response authentication mechanism based on the HMAC-MD5 MAC algorithm. It is employed by some SASL implementations, and it is quite often supported by SMTP-AUTH Mail submission agents.
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| CSMA / CA |
Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance - In computer networking, CSMA/CA belongs to a class of protocols called multiple access methods. CSMA/CA stands for: Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Avoidance. In CSMA, a station wishing to transmit has to first listen to the channel for a predetermined amount of time so as to check for any activity on the channel. If the channel is sensed "idle" then the station is permitted to transmit. If the channel is sensed as "busy" the station has to defer its transmission.
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| CSMA / CD |
Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection - Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is a network control protocol in which a carrier sensing scheme is used. A transmitting data station that detects another signal while transmitting a frame, stops transmitting that frame, transmits a jam signal, and then waits for a random time interval before trying to send that frame again.
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| CSU |
Channel Service Unit - In telecommunications, a channel service unit (CSU) is a line bridging device for use with T-carrier.
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| dB |
decibels - The decibel is used for a wide variety of measurements in science and engineering, most prominently in acoustics, electronics, and control theory. In electronics, the gains of amplifiers, attenuation of signals, and signal-to-noise ratios are often expressed in decibels.
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| DDoS |
Distributed Denial of Service - See DoS below.
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| DHCP |
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - A network configuration protocol for hosts on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Computers that are connected to IP networks must be configured before they can communicate with other hosts. The most essential information needed is an IP address, and a default route and routing prefix. DHCP eliminates the manual task by a network administrator. It also provides a central database of devices that are connected to the network and eliminates duplicate resource assignments.
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| DLC |
Data Link Control - A transport protocol used by IBM SNA mainframe computers and peripherals and compatible equipment. In computer networking, it is typically used for communications between network-attached printers, computers and servers.
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| DMZ |
Demilitarized Zone - In computer security, a DMZ (sometimes referred to as a perimeter network) is a physical or logical subnetwork that contains and exposes an organization's external services to a larger untrusted network, usually the Internet. The purpose of a DMZ is to add an additional layer of security to an organization's local area network (LAN); an external attacker only has access to equipment in the DMZ, rather than any other part of the network.
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| DNS |
Domain Name Service / Domain Name Server / Domain Name System - A hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide.
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| DOCSIS |
Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specification - An international telecommunications standard that permits the addition of high-speed data transfer to an existing cable TV (CATV) system. It is employed by many cable television operators to provide Internet access (see cable Internet) over their existing hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) infrastructure.
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| DoS |
Denial of Service - An attempt to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users, generally consisting of the concerted efforts of a person, or multiple people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely.
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| DSL |
Digital Subscriber Line - A family of technologies that provides digital data transmission delivered simultaneously with wired telephone service on the same telephone line.
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| DSU |
Data Service Unit - A data service unit, sometimes called a digital service unit, is a piece of telecommunications circuit terminating equipment that transforms digital data between telephone company lines and local equipment.
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| DWDM |
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing - A technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e colours) of laser light. This technique enables bidirectional communications over one strand of fiber, as well as multiplication of capacity.
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| E1 |
E-Carrier Level 1 - In digital telecommunications, where a single physical wire pair can be used to carry many simultaneous voice conversations by time-division multiplexing, worldwide standards have been created and deployed. The E-carrier standards form part of the Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) where groups of E1 circuits may be bundled onto higher capacity E3 links between telephone exchanges or countries. This allows a network operator to provide a private end-to-end E1 circuit between customers in different countries that share single high capacity links in between.
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| EAP |
Extensible Authentication Protocol - An authentication framework frequently used in wireless networks and Point-to-Point connections. EAP is an authentication framework providing for the transport and usage of keying material and parameters generated by EAP methods. EAP is not a wire protocol; instead it only defines message formats. Each protocol that uses EAP defines a way to encapsulate EAP messages within that protocol's messages.
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| EDNS |
Extension Mechanisms for DNS - A specification for expanding the size of several parameters of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol. The restrictions in size of several flags fields, return codes and label types available in the basic DNS protocol were not sufficient to support some desirable features. Since no new flags could be added in the DNS header, the differentiation of the new protocol extensions format was achieved with optional pseudo-resource-records, the OPT resource records.
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| EGP |
Exterior Gateway Protocol
Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) was the first TCP/IP exterior routing protocol for the Internet but is now considered somewhat obsolete. Routing was done using a small number of centralized core routers that maintained complete information about network reachability on the Internet. They exchanged information using the historical interior routing protocol, the Gateway-to-Gateway Protocol (GGP). Around the periphery of this core were located other non-core routers, sometimes standalone and sometimes collected into groups, that exchange network reachability information with the core routers using EGP.
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| EIGRP |
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol - A Cisco proprietary routing protocol loosely based on their original IGRP. EIGRP is an advanced distance-vector routing protocol, with optimizations to minimize both the routing instability incurred after topology changes, as well as the use of bandwidth and processing power in the router. Routers that support EIGRP will automatically redistribute route information to IGRP neighbors by converting the 32 bit EIGRP metric to the 24 bit IGRP metric. Most of the routing optimizations are based on the Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) work from SRI, which guarantees loop-free operation and provides a mechanism for fast convergence.
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| EMI |
Electromagnetic Interference - Disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic induction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source.[1] The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of the circuit. These effects can range from a simple degradation of data to a total loss of data.
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| ESD |
Electrostatic Discharge - Electrostatic discharge is a serious issue in solid state electronics, such as integrated circuits which can suffer permanent damage when subjected to high voltages. One of the causes of ESD events is static electricity. Static electricity is often generated through tribocharging, the separation of electric charges that occurs when two materials are brought into contact and then separated. Examples of tribocharging include walking on a rug, rubbing a plastic comb against dry hair, rubbing a balloon against a sweater, ascending from a fabric car seat, or removing some types of plastic packaging. In all these cases, the friction between two materials results in tribocharging, thus creating a difference of electrical potential that can lead to an ESD event.
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| ESSID |
Extended Service Set Identifier - The Extended Service Set Identification (ESSID) is one of two types of Service Set Identification (SSID). In an ad hoc wireless network with no access points, the Basic Service Set Identification (BSSID) is used. In an infrastructure wireless network that includes an access point, the ESSID is used, but may still be referred to as SSID.
An SSID is a 32-character (maximum) alphanumeric key identifying the name of the wireless local area network. Some vendors refer to the SSID as the network name. For the wireless devices in a network to communicate with each other, all devices must be configured with the same SSID.
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| ESP |
Encapsulated security packets - A member of the IPsec protocol suite. In IPsec it provides origin authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality protection of packets. ESP in transport mode does not provide integrity and authentication for the entire IP packet. However, in Tunnel Mode, where the entire original IP packet is encapsulated with a new packet header added, ESP protection is afforded to the whole inner IP packet (including the inner header) while the outer header (including any outer IPv4 options or IPv6 extension headers) remains unprotected. ESP operates directly on top of IP.
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| FDDI |
Fiber Distributed Data Interface - A 100 Mbit/s optical standard for data transmission in a local area network that can extend in range up to 200 kilometers (120 mi). In addition to covering large geographical areas, FDDI local area networks can support thousands of users. As a standard underlying medium it uses optical fiber, although it can use copper cable, in which case it may be referred to as CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface).
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| FDM |
Frequency Division Multiplexing - A form of signal multiplexing which involves assigning non-overlapping frequency ranges to different signals or to each "user" of a medium. Digital Subscriber Lines have used a Discrete multitone (DMT) system to divide their spectrum into frequency channels. The concept corresponding to frequency-division multiplexing in the optical domain is known as wavelength division multiplexing.
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| FHSS |
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum - A method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. It is utilized as a multiple access method in the frequency-hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA) scheme. Spread-spectrum signals are highly resistant to deliberate jamming.
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| FM |
Frequency Modulation - In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation (FM) conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. Digital data can be sent by shifting the carrier's frequency among a range of settings, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FSK (digital FM) is widely used in data and fax modems.
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| FQDN |
Fully Qualified Domain Name / Fully Qualified Distinguished Name - A fully qualified domain name (FQDN), sometimes also referred as an absolute domain name,[1] is a domain name that specifies its exact location in the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS). It specifies all domain levels, including the top-level domain and the root domain. A fully qualified domain name is distinguished by its unambiguity; it can only be interpreted one way.
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| FTP |
File Transfer Protocol - A standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control (tcp port 21) and data (tcp port 20) connections between the client and server. FTP operates on the application layer of the OSI model, and transfers files using TCP/IP.
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| GBIC |
Gigabit Interface Converter - A gigabit interface converter (GBIC) is a standard for transceivers, commonly used with Gigabit Ethernet and fibre channel in the 1990s. By offering a standard, hot swappable electrical interface, one gigabit port can support a wide range of physical media, from copper to long-wave single-mode optical fiber, at lengths of hundreds of kilometers.
A variation of the GBIC called the small form-factor pluggable transceiver (SFP), also known as mini-GBIC, has the same functionality but in a smaller form factor. Announced in 2001, it largely made the GBIC obsolete.
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| Gbps |
Giga bits per second - A unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,000 megabits per second or 1,000,000,000 bits per second.
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| GPG |
GNU Privacy Guard - GnuPG is a hybrid encryption software program in that it uses a combination of conventional symmetric-key cryptography for speed, and public-key cryptography for ease of secure key exchange, typically by using the recipient's public key to encrypt a session key which is only used once. This mode of operation is part of the OpenPGP standard and has been part of PGP from its first version.
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| HDLC |
High-Level Data Link Control - A bit-oriented synchronous data link layer protocol developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). HDLC provides both connection-oriented and connectionless service and can be used for point to multipoint connections.
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| HSRP |
Hot Standby Router Protocol - A Cisco proprietary redundancy protocol for establishing a fault-tolerant default gateway. The protocol establishes a framework between network routers using UDP port 1985 in order to achieve default gateway failover if the primary gateway should become inaccessible. HSRP is not a routing protocol as it does not advertise IP routes or affect the routing table in any way.
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| HTTP |
Hypertext Transfer Protocol - An application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP functions as a request-response protocol in the client-server computing model and is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. HTTP is an upper level Application Layer protocol that typically uses TCP port 80.
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| HTTPS |
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure - Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with SSL/TLS protocol. It provides encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server. HTTPS connections are often used for payment transactions on the World Wide Web and for sensitive transactions in corporate information systems. HTTPS is a lower level Application Layer protocol that typically uses TCP port 443 by default.
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| Hz |
Hertz - A unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications, such as the frequency of musical tones.
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| IANA |
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority - IANA is a department of ICANN responsible for the control of numbers for protocols, the Country Code Top Level Domains and maintains the IP Address allotments.
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| ICA |
Independent Computer Architecture - Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) is a proprietary protocol for an application server system, designed by Citrix Systems. ICA is broadly similar in purpose to window servers such as the X Window System. It also provides for the feedback of user input from the client to the server, and a variety of means for the server to send graphical output, as well as other media such as audio, from the running application to the client. ICA runs natively over TCP port 1494 or may be encapsulated in Common Gateway Protocol (CGP) on TCP 2598.
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| ICANN |
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers.
- ICAAN Home Page - Back to Top - |
| ICMP |
Internet Control Message Protocol - One of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is chiefly used by the operating systems of networked computers to send error messages indicating, for example, that a requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be reached. ICMP differs from transport protocols such as TCP and UDP in that it is not typically used to exchange data between systems. It is assigned protocol number 1.
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| ICS |
Internet Connection Sharing - The use of a device with Internet access as an access point for other devices. It was implemented by Microsoft as a feature of its Windows operating system for sharing a single Internet connection on one computer between other computers on the same local area network. ICS makes use of DHCP and network address translation (NAT).
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| IDF |
Intermediate Distribution Frame - In a central office or customer premises, a frame that (a) cross-connects the user cable media to individual user line circuits and (b) may serve as a distribution point for multipair cables from the main distribution frame (MDF) or combined distribution frame (CDF) to individual cables connected to equipment in areas remote from these frames.
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| IDS |
Intrusion Detection System - A device or software application that monitors network and/or system activities for malicious activities or policy violations and produces reports to a Management Station. Some systems may attempt to stop an intrusion attempt but this is neither required nor expected of a monitoring system. Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) are primarily focused on identifying possible incidents, logging information about them, and reporting attempts. In addition, organizations use IDPSes for other purposes, such as identifying problems with security policies, documenting existing threats, and deterring individuals from violating security policies. IDPSes have become a necessary addition to the security infrastructure of nearly every organization.
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| IEEE |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - A non-profit professional association that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence. The IEEE serves as a major publisher of scientific journals and organizer of conferences, workshops, and symposia. It is also a leading standards development organization for the development of industrial standards.
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| IGMP |
Internet Group Multicast Protocol - A communications protocol used by hosts and adjacent routers on IP networks to establish multicast group memberships. IGMP is an integral part of the IP multicast specification. It is analogous to ICMP for unicast connections. IGMP can be used for online streaming video and gaming, and allows more efficient use of resources when supporting these types of applications. IGMP is used on IPv4 networks.
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| IGP |
Interior Gateway Protocol
Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) is a routing protocol that is used to exchange routing information within an autonomous system (AS).
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| IIS |
Internet Information Services - A web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. The current shipping version of IIS is IIS 7.5, included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NNTP. It is an integral part of Windows Server family of products, as well as certain editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. IIS is not turned on by default when Windows is installed.
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| IKE |
Internet Key Exchange - The protocol used to set up a security association (SA) in the IPsec protocol suite. IKE builds upon the Oakley protocol and ISAKMP. IKE uses X.509 certificates for authentication which are either pre-shared or distributed using DNS (preferably with DNSSEC), and a Diffie–Hellman key exchange to set up a shared session secret from which cryptographic keys are derived. In addition, a security policy for every peer which will connect must be manually maintained.
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| IMAP4 |
Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 - One of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the Post Office Protocol (POP). Virtually all modern e-mail clients and mail servers support both protocols as a means of transferring e-mail messages from a server. IMAP is an Application Layer Internet protocol that allows an e-mail client to access e-mail on a remote mail server. An IMAP server typically listens on well-known port 143.
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| InterNIC |
Internet Network Information Center - InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998. In 1998 both IANA and InterNIC were reorganized under the control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
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| IP |
Internet Protocol - The principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet.
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| IPS |
Intrusion Prevention System - Also known as intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), are network security appliances that monitor network and/or system activities for malicious activity. The main functions of intrusion prevention systems are to identify malicious activity, log information about said activity, attempt to block/stop activity, and report activity.
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| IPSec |
Internet Protocol Security - A protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet of a communication session. IPsec also includes protocols for establishing mutual authentication between agents at the beginning of the session and negotiation of cryptographic keys to be used during the session.
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| IPv4 |
Internet Protocol version 4 - IPv4 is a connectionless protocol for use on packet-switched Link Layer networks (e.g., Ethernet). It operates on a best effort delivery model, in that it does not guarantee delivery, nor does it assure proper sequencing or avoidance of duplicate delivery. These aspects, including data integrity, are addressed by an upper layer transport protocol , such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). IPv4 is the fourth revision in the development of the Internet Protocol (IP) and the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed.
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| IPv6 |
Internet Protocol version 6 - IPv6 is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the need for more IP addresses than are possible with IPv4. Like IPv4, IPv6 is an internet-layer protocol for packet-switched internetworking and provides end-to-end datagram transmission across multiple IP networks. The main advantage of IPv6 over IPv4 is its larger address space. The length of an IPv6 address is 128 bits, compared to 32 bits in IPv4.
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| ISAKMP |
Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol - A protocol for establishing Security Associations (SA) and cryptographic keys in an Internet environment. ISAKMP only provides a framework for authentication and key exchange and is designed to be key exchange independent; protocols such as Internet Key Exchange and Kerberized Internet Negotiation of Keys provide authenticated keying material for use with ISAKMP.
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| ISDN |
Integrated Services Digital Network - A set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network. It also provides access to packet switched networks, designed to allow digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in potentially better voice quality than an analog phone can provide.
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| ISP |
Internet Service Provider - A company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers (colocation). Transit ISPs provide large amounts of bandwidth for connecting hosting ISPs to access ISPs.
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| IT |
Information Technology - Information technology (IT) is concerned with technology to treat information. The acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications are its main fields.
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| IV |
Initialization Vector - In cryptography, an initialization vector (IV) is a fixed-size input to a cryptographic primitive that is typically required to be random or pseudorandom. Randomization is crucial for encryption schemes to achieve semantic security, a property whereby repeated usage of the scheme under the same key does not allow an attacker to infer relationships between segments of the encrypted message. For block ciphers, the use of an IV is described by so-called modes of operation. Randomization is also required for other primitives, such as universal hash functions and message authentication codes based thereon.
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| Kbps |
Kilobits per second - A unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,000 bits per second.
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| L2F |
Layer 2 Forwarding - A tunneling protocol developed by Cisco Systems, Inc. to establish virtual private network connections over the Internet. L2F does not provide encryption or confidentiality by itself; It relies on the protocol being tunneled to provide privacy. L2F was specifically designed to tunnel Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) traffic.
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| L2TP |
Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol - A tunneling protocol used to support virtual private networks (VPNs) or as part of the delivery of services by ISPs. It does not provide any encryption or confidentiality by itself; it relies on an encryption protocol that it passes within the tunnel to provide privacy.
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| LACP |
Link aggregation control protocol - Within the IEEE specification the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) provides a method to control the bundling of several physical ports together to form a single logical channel. LACP allows a network device to negotiate an automatic bundling of links by sending LACP packets to the peer (directly connected device that also implements LACP).
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| LAN |
Local Area Network - A computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building using network media.
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| LC |
Local Connector -
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| LDAP |
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol - An application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an IP network. Directory services may provide any organized set of records, often with a hierarchical structure, such as a corporate electronic mail directory.
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| LEC |
Local Exchange Carrier - A regulatory term in telecommunications for the local telephone company.
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| LED |
Light Emitting Diode - A semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting.
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| LLC |
Logical Link Control - In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the logical link control (LLC) data communication protocol layer is the upper sublayer of the data link layer, which is itself layer 2. The LLC sublayer provides multiplexing mechanisms that make it possible for several network protocols (IP, IPX, Decnet and Appletalk) to coexist within a multipoint network and to be transported over the same network media. It can also provide flow control and automatic repeat request (ARQ) error management mechanisms. The LLC sublayer acts as an interface between the media access control (MAC) sublayer and the network layer.
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| MAC |
Mandatory Access Control / Media Access Control - In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, media access control (MAC) data communication protocol is a sublayer of the data link layer, which itself is layer 2. The MAC sublayer provides addressing and channel access control mechanisms that make it possible for several terminals or network nodes to communicate within a multiple access network that incorporates a shared medium, e.g. Ethernet. The hardware that implements the MAC is referred to as a medium access controller. The MAC sublayer acts as an interface between the logical link control (LLC) sublayer and the network's physical layer. The MAC layer emulates a full-duplex logical communication channel in a multi-point network. This channel may provide unicast, multicast or broadcast communication service.
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| Mbps |
Megabits per second - A unit of data transfer rate equal to 1,000,000 bits per second or 1,000 kilobits per second.
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| MBps |
Megabytes per second - A unit of data transfer rate equal to 8,000,000 bits per second, or 1,000,000 bytes per second.
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| MDF |
Main Distribution Frame - A termination point within the local telephone exchange where exchange equipment and terminations of local loops are connected.
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| MDI |
Media Dependent Interface - The interface (both physical and electrical) in a computer network from a physical layer implementation to the physical medium used to carry the transmission.
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| MDIX |
Media Dependent Interface Crossover - An Ethernet port connection that allows networked end stations (i.e., PCs or workstations) to connect to each other using a null-modem, or crossover, cable.
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| MIB |
Management Information Base - A virtual database used for managing the entities in a communications network. Most often associated with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the term is also used more generically in contexts such as in OSI/ISO Network management model. While intended to refer to the complete collection of management information available on an entity, it is often used to refer to a particular subset, more correctly referred to as MIB-module.
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| MMF |
Multimode Fiber - A type of optical fiber mostly used for communication over short 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 (300 m for 10 Gbit/s)—more than sufficient for the majority of premises applications.
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| MPLS |
Multi-Protocol Label Switching - A mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, avoiding complex lookups in a routing table.
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| MSCHAP |
Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol - MS-CHAP is the Microsoft version of the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol, CHAP. The protocol exists in two versions, MS-CHAPv1 and MS-CHAPv2. MS-CHAPv2 was introduced with Windows NT 4.0 SP4 and was added to Windows 98 in the "Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking Security Upgrade Release" and Windows 95 in the "Dial Up Networking 1.3 Performance & Security Update for MS Windows 95" upgrade. Windows Vista dropped support for MS-CHAPv1.
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| MT-RJ |
Mechanical Transfer-Registered Jack - A fiber-optic Cable Connector that is very popular for small form factor devices due to its small size.
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| MX |
Mail Exchanger - A server running SMTP Message Transfer Agent software that accepts incoming electronic mail and either delivers it locally or forwards it to another server.
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| NAC |
Network Access Control - A computer networking solution that uses a set of protocols to define and implement a policy that describes how to secure access to network nodes by devices when they initially attempt to access the network. NAC might integrate the automatic remediation process (fixing non-compliant nodes before allowing access) into the network systems, allowing the network infrastructure such as routers, switches and firewalls to work together with back office servers and end user computing equipment to ensure the information system is operating securely before interoperability is allowed.
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| NaaS |
Network as a Service - An emerging business model for telecommunications operators.
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| NAS |
Network Attached Storage - File-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to clients.
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| NAT |
Network Address Translation - The process of modifying IP address information in IP packet headers while in transit across a traffic routing device.
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| NCP |
Network Control Protocol - A protocol that runs atop the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and that is used to negotiate options for a network layer protocol running atop PPP.
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| NetBEUI |
Network Basic Input / Output Extended User Interface - An enhanced version of the NetBIOS protocol used by network operating systems such as LAN Manager, LAN Server, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95 and Windows NT. Netbeui was originally designed by IBM for their Lan Manager server and later extended by Microsoft and Novell. See NetBIOS below.
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| NetBIOS |
networked basic input/output system - A service related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network.
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| NFS |
Network File Service - A distributed file system protocol allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed.
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| NIC |
Network Interface Card - A computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plug into a computer bus; the low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard.
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| NIPS |
Network Based Intrusion Prevention System - A network security appliance that monitors network and/or system activities for malicious activity. The main functions of intrusion prevention systems are to identify malicious activity, log information about said activity, attempt to block/stop activity, and report activity.
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| nm |
Nanometer - A unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billionth of a meter.
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| NNTP |
Network News Transport Protocol - An application protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles (netnews) between news servers and for reading and posting articles by end user client applications.
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| NTP |
Network Time Protocol - A networking protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks.
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| NWLINK |
Microsoft IPX/SPX Protocol - Microsoft's implementation of Novell's IPX/SPX protocols. NWLink includes an implementation of NetBIOS atop IPX/SPX. NWLink packages data to be compatible with client/server services on NetWare networks but does not provide access to NetWare File and Print Services. To access the File and Print Services, the Client Service for NetWare needs to be installed.
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| OCx |
Optical Carrier - Optical Carrier transmission rates are a standardized set of specifications of transmission bandwidth for digital signals that can be carried on Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) fiber optic networks. Transmission rates are defined by rate of the bitstream of the digital signal and are designated by hyphenation of the acronym OC and an integer value of the multiple of the basic unit of rate.
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| OS |
Operating Systems - A set of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is a vital component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs require an operating system to function.
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| OSI |
Open Systems Interconnect - An effort to standardize networking that was started in 1977 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
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| OSPF |
Open Shortest Path First - An adaptive routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing algorithm and falls into the group of interior routing protocols, operating within a single autonomous system (AS). OSPF is perhaps the most widely-used interior gateway protocol (IGP) in large enterprise networks.
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| OTDR |
Optical Time Domain Reflectometer - An instrument used to characterize an optical fiber. An OTDR injects a series of optical pulses into the fiber under test. It also extracts, from the same end of the fiber, light that is scattered or reflected back from points along the fiber. The strength of the return pulses is measured and integrated as a function of time, and is plotted as a function of fiber length.
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| PAP |
Password Authentication Protocol - An authentication protocol that uses a password. PAP is used by Point to Point Protocol to validate users before allowing them access to server resources. Almost all network operating system remote servers support PAP. PAP transmits unencrypted ASCII passwords over the network and is therefore considered insecure. It is used as a last resort when the remote server does not support a stronger authentication protocol, like CHAP or EAP.
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| PAT |
Port Address Translation - Port Address Translation (PAT), is an extension to network address translation (NAT) that permits multiple devices on a local area network (LAN) to be mapped to a single public IP address. The goal of PAT is to conserve IP addresses.
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| PC |
personal computer - Any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator.
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| PGP |
Pretty Good Privacy - A data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security of e-mail communications.
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| PKI |
public key infrastructure - A set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates. In cryptography, a PKI is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate authority (CA). The user identity must be unique within each CA domain.
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| PoE |
Power over Ethernet - A system to pass electrical power safely, along with data, on Ethernet cabling. The IEEE standard for PoE requires category 5 cable or higher for high power levels, but can operate with category 3 cable if less power is required. Power is supplied in common mode over two or more of the differential pairs of wires found in the Ethernet cables and comes from a power supply within a PoE-enabled networking device such as an Ethernet switch or can be injected into a cable run with a midspan power supply.
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| POP3 |
Post Office Protocol version 3 - An application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and servers support both.
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| POTS |
Plain Old Telephone System - The voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world.
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| PPP |
Point-to-Point Protocol - A data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes. It can provide connection authentication, transmission encryption, and compression.
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| PPPoE |
Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet - A network protocol for encapsulating Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) frames inside Ethernet frames. It is used mainly with DSL services where individual users connect to the DSL modem over Ethernet and in plain Metro Ethernet networks.
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| PPTP |
Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol - A method for implementing virtual private networks. PPTP uses a control channel over TCP and a GRE tunnel operating to encapsulate PPP packets. The PPTP specification does not describe encryption or authentication features and relies on the PPP protocol being tunneled to implement security functionality.
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| PRI |
Primary Rate Interface - A standardized telecommunications service level within the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) specification for carrying multiple DS0 voice and data transmissions between a network and a user. PRI is the standard for providing telecommunication services to offices. It is based on the T-carrier (T1) line in the US and Canada, and the E-carrier (E1) line in Europe. The T1 line consists of 24 channels, while an E1 has 31.
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| PSTN |
Public Switched Telephone Network - The network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by switching centers, thus allowing any telephone in the world to communicate with any other. Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital in its core and includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
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| PVC |
Permanent Virtual Circuit - A permanent virtual circuit (PVC) is a virtual circuit established for repeated/continuous use between the same DTE. In a PVC, the long-term association is identical to the data transfer phase of a virtual call. Permanent virtual circuits eliminate the need for repeated call set-up and clearing.
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| QoS |
Quality of Service - Several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements. In particular, much technology has been developed to allow computer networks to become as useful as telephone networks for audio conversations, as well as supporting new applications with even stricter service demands.
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| RADIUS |
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service - A networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) management for computers to connect and use a network service.
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| RARP |
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol - An obsolete computer networking protocol used by a host computer to request its Internet Protocol (IPv4) address from an administrative host, when it has available its Link Layer or hardware address, such as a MAC address.
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| RAS |
Remote Access Service - Any combination of hardware and software to enable the remote access tools or information that typically reside on a network of IT devices. A RAS server is a specialized computer which aggregates multiple communication channels together.
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| RDP |
Remote Desktop Protocol - A proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with a graphical interface to another computer.
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| RFI |
Radio Frequency Interference - Disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic induction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source.
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| RG |
Radio Guide -
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| RIP |
Routing Information Protocol - A distance-vector routing protocol, which employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from the source to a destination.
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| RJ |
Registered Jack - A standardized physical network interface for connecting telecommunications or data equipment to a service provided by a local exchange carrier or long distance carrier.
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| RSA |
Rivest, Shamir, Adelman - An algorithm for public-key cryptography that is based on the presumed difficulty of factoring large integers, the factoring problem. RSA stands for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who first publicly described it in 1978. A user of RSA creates and then publishes the product of two large prime numbers, along with an auxiliary value, as their public key. The prime factors must be kept secret. Anyone can use the public key to encrypt a message, but with currently published methods, if the public key is large enough, only someone with knowledge of the prime factors can feasibly decode the message.
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| RSH |
Remote Shell - A command line computer program that can execute shell commands as another user, and on another computer across a computer network.
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| RTP |
Real Time Protocol - A standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over IP networks. RTP is used extensively in communication and entertainment systems that involve streaming media, such as telephony, video teleconference applications, television services and web-based push-to-talk features.
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| RTSP |
Real Time Streaming Protocol - A network control protocol designed for use in entertainment and communications systems to control streaming media servers. The protocol is used for establishing and controlling media sessions between end points. Clients of media servers issue VCR-like commands, such as play and pause, to facilitate real-time control of playback of media files from the server.
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| RTT |
Round Trip Time or Real Transfer Time - The length of time it takes for a signal to be sent plus the length of time it takes for an acknowledgment of that signal to be received. This time delay therefore consists of the transmission times between the two points of a signal.
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| SA |
Security Association - The establishment of shared security attributes between two network entities to support secure communication. An SA may include attributes such as: cryptographic algorithm and mode; traffic encryption key; and parameters for the network data to be passed over the connection.
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| SC |
Standard Connector / Subscriber Connector - A standard-duplex fiber-optic connector with a square molded plastic body and push-pull locking features. SC connectors are typically used in data communication, CATV, and telephony environments.
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| SCP |
Secure Copy Protocol - A means of securely transferring computer files between a local host and a remote host or between two remote hosts. It is based on the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol.
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| SDSL |
Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line - A collection of Internet access technologies based on DSL that offer symmetric bandwidth upstream and downstream. It is considered the opposite of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technologies where the upstream bandwidth is lower than the downstream bandwidth.
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| SFTP |
Secure File Transfer Protocol - A command-line interface client program implementing the client-side of the SSH File Transfer Protocol as implemented by the sftp-server command by the OpenSSH project, which runs inside the encrypted Secure Shell connection. It provides an interactive interface similar to that of traditional FTP clients.
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| SFP |
Small Form-factor Pluggable - A compact, hot-pluggable transceiver used for both telecommunication and data communications applications.
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| SIP |
Session Initiation Protocol - An IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used[citation needed] for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol (IP).
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| SLIP |
Serial Line Internet Protocol - An encapsulation of the Internet Protocol designed to work over serial ports and modem connections.
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| SMF |
Single Mode Fiber - An optical fiber designed to carry only a single ray of light (mode).
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| SMTP |
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - An Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. SMTP uses TCP port 25.
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| SNAT |
Secure Network Address Translation - The process of network address translation done in a secure way involves rewriting the source and/or destination addresses of IP packets as they pass through a router or firewall.
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| SNMP |
Simple Network Management Protocol - An "Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks." Devices that typically support SNMP include routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, and more. It is used mostly in network management systems to monitor network-attached devices for conditions that warrant administrative attention.
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| SNTP |
Simple Network Time Protocol - A networking protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks.
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| SOA |
Start of Authority - Specifies authoritative information about a DNS zone, including the primary name server, the email of the domain administrator, the domain serial number, and several timers relating to refreshing the zone.
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| SOHO |
Small Office / Home Office - Refers to the category of business that involves from 1 to 10 workers.
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| SONET |
Synchronous Optical Network - A standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
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| SPS |
Standby Power Supply - An electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source, typically mains power, fails.
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| SSH |
Secure Shell
Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic remote login protocol for secure data communication over an unsecured network. Designed as a replacement for telnet and rlogin, which send information in plaintext, SSH client and server programs provide strong host-to-host and user authentication as well as a number of securely encrypted methods of communication to provide confidentiality and integrity of data. SSH supports data stream compression between the client and the server.
There are two major versions of the SSH protocol in widespread use, SSH v1 and SSH v2. SSH v2 is more secure, and includes SFTP, which is similar to FTP, but is SSH v2 encrypted. - More From Wikipedia - Back to Top -
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| SSID |
Service Set Identifier - A 32-character unique identifier attached to the header of packets sent over a WLAN that acts as a password when a mobile device tries to connect to the BSS. The SSID differentiates one WLAN from another, so all access points and all devices attempting to connect to a specific WLAN must use the same SSID. A device will not be permitted to join the BSS unless it can provide the unique SSID. Because an SSID can be sniffed in plain text from a packet it does not supply any security to the network. An SSID is also referred to as a network name because essentially it is a name that identifies a wireless network.
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| SSL |
Secure Sockets Layer - A cryptographic protocol that provides communication security over the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Application Layer for the Transport Layer, using asymmetric cryptography for key exchange, symmetric encryption for privacy, and message authentication codes for message integrity.
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| ST |
Straight Tip or Snap Twist - A high-performance fiber-optic connector with round ceramic ferrules and bayonet locking features.
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| STP |
Shielded Twisted Pair - Twisted pair cables are often shielded in an attempt to prevent electromagnetic interference. Because the shielding is made of metal, it may also serve as a ground. However, usually a shielded or a screened twisted pair cable has a special grounding wire added called a drain wire.
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| T1 |
T-Carrier Level 1 - the generic designator for any of several digitally multiplexed telecommunications carrier systems originally developed by Bell Labs and used in North America, Japan, and South Korea. The T-1 channel combines 24 x 64 kbit/s channels into one single channel, using a technique known as Channel Bonding or Channel Aggregation.
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| TA |
Terminal Adaptor - Equipment used to adapt Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) channels to existing terminal equipment standards such as EIA-232 and V.35. A Terminal Adaptor is typically packaged like a modem, either as a stand-alone unit or as an interface card that plugs into a computer or other communications equipment (such as a router or PBX). A Terminal Adaptor does not interoperate with a modem; it replaces it.
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| TACACS+ |
Terminal Access Control Access Control System+ - An access control network protocol for routers, network access servers and other networked computing devices. Unlike RADIUS, TACACS and XTACACS, TACACS+ provides separate authentication, authorization and accounting services. Like RADIUS, TACACS and XTACACS, TACACS+ is an open, publicly documented protocol.
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| TCP |
Transmission Control Protocol - one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol (IP), and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP. TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery of a stream of octets from a program on one computer to another program on another computer. TCP is the protocol used by major Internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email, remote administration and file transfer. Other applications, which do not require reliable data stream service, may use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which provides a datagram service that emphasizes reduced latency over reliability.
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| TCP/IP |
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and similar networks, and generally the most popular protocol stack for wide area networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP, because of its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first networking protocols defined in this standard.
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| TDM |
Time Division Multiplexing - A type of digital (or rarely analog) multiplexing in which two or more bit streams or signals are transferred apparently simultaneously as sub-channels in one communication channel, but are physically taking turns on the channel.
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| TDR |
Time Domain Reflectometer - An electronic instrument used to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables (for example, twisted wire pairs, coaxial cables). It can also be used to locate discontinuities in a connector, printed circuit board, or any other electrical path. The equivalent device for optical fiber is an optical time-domain reflectometer.
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| Telco |
Telephone Company - Telco Systems is a telecommunications company based in Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA.
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| TFTP |
Trivial File Transfer Protocol - A file transfer protocol notable for its simplicity. It is generally used for automated transfer of configuration or boot files between machines in a local environment. Compared to FTP, TFTP is extremely limited, providing no authentication, and is rarely used interactively by a user.
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| TKIP |
Temporal Key Integrity Protocol - A security protocol used in the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard. TKIP was designed by the IEEE 802.11i task group and the Wi-Fi Alliance as a solution to replace WEP without requiring the replacement of legacy hardware. This was necessary because the breaking of WEP had left WiFi networks without viable link-layer security, and a solution was required for already deployed hardware.
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| TLS |
Transport Layer Security - Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Application Layer for the Transport Layer, using asymmetric cryptography for key exchange, symmetric encryption for privacy, and message authentication codes for message integrity. Several versions of the protocols are in widespread use in applications such as web browsing, electronic mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and voice-over-IP (VoIP).
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| TTL |
Time to Live - A mechanism that limits the lifespan of data in a computer or network. TTL may be implemented as a counter or timestamp attached to or embedded in the data. Once the prescribed event count or timespan has elapsed, data is discarded. In computer networking, TTL prevents a data packet from circulating indefinitely. In computing applications, TTL is used to improve performance of caching or improve privacy.
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| UDP |
User Datagram Protocol - One of the core members of the Internet protocol suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network without requiring prior communications to set up special transmission channels or data paths.
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| UNC |
Universal Naming Convention - Specifies a unique location in a file system.
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| UPS |
Uninterruptible Power Supply - An electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source, typically mains power, fails. A UPS differs from an auxiliary or emergency power system or standby generator in that it will provide near-instantaneous protection from input power interruptions, by supplying energy stored in batteries or a flywheel. The on-battery runtime of most uninterruptible power sources is relatively short (only a few minutes) but sufficient to start a standby power source or properly shut down the protected equipment.
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| URL |
Uniform Resource Locator - A specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource.
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| USB |
Universal Serial Bus - An industry standard that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices.
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| UTP |
Unshielded Twisted Pair - Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs. UTP cable is the most common cable used in computer networking. Modern Ethernet, the most common data networking standard, utilizes UTP cables. Twisted pair cabling is often used in data networks for short and medium length connections because of its relatively lower costs compared to optical fiber and coaxial cable.
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| VDSL |
Variable Digital Subscriber Line - A digital subscriber line (DSL) technology providing data transmission over a single flat untwisted or twisted pair of copper wires (up to 52 Mbit/s downstream and 16 Mbit/s upstream), and on coaxial cable (up to 85 Mbit/s down- and upstream) using the frequency band from 25 kHz to 12 MHz.
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| VLAN |
Virtual Local Area Network - A group of hosts with a common set of requirements, which communicate as if they were attached to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical local area network (LAN), but it allows for end stations to be grouped together even if not on the same network switch.
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| VNC |
Virtual Network Connection - A graphical desktop sharing system that uses the RFB protocol (remote framebuffer) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network.
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| VoIP |
Voice Over Internet Protocol - The communication protocols, technologies, methodologies, and transmission techniques involved in the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.
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| VPN |
Virtual Private Network - A private computer network that interconnects remote (and often geographically separate) networks through primarily public communication infrastructures such as the Internet. VPNs provide security through tunneling protocols and security procedures such as encryption.
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| VTP |
Virtual Trunk Protocol - A Cisco proprietary protocol that propagates the definition of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) on the whole local area network.
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| WAN |
Wide Area Network - A telecommunication network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network that links across metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries).
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| WAP |
Wireless Access Point - A device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards. The WAP usually connects to a router (via a wired network) if it's a standalone device, or is part of a router itself.
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| WAP |
Wireless Application Protocol - A technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones (called "cellular phones" or "mobile phones") that uses the protocol.
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| WEP |
Wired Equivalent Privacy - A security algorithm for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Introduced as part of the original 802.11 standard ratified in September 1999, its intention was to provide data confidentiality comparable to that of a traditional wired network. WEP, recognizable by the key of 10 or 26 hexadecimal digits, is widely in use and is often the first security choice presented to users by router configuration tools. Although its name implies that it is as secure as a wired connection, WEP has been demonstrated to have numerous flaws and has been deprecated in favor of newer standards such as WPA2.
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| WINS |
Windows Internet Name Service - Microsoft's implementation of NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS), a name server and service for NetBIOS computer names. Effectively WINS is to NetBIOS names what DNS is to domain names — a central mapping of host names to network addresses. Like DNS it is broken into two parts, a Server Service (that manages the encoded Jet Database, server to server replication, service requests, and conflicts) and a TCP/IP Client component which manages the client's registration and renewal of names, and takes care of queries.
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| WPA |
Wi-Fi Protected Access - Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) are two security protocols and security certification programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks.
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| www |
World Wide Web - A system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia, and navigate between them via hyperlinks.
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| X.25 |
CCITT Packet Switching Protocol - An ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network (WAN) communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange (PSE) nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links. While X.25 has been, to a large extent, replaced by less complex protocols, especially the Internet protocol (IP), the service is still used and available in niche and legacy applications.
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| XML |
eXtensible Markup Language - A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
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| XDSL |
Extended Digital Subscriber Line - Refers collectively to all types of digital subscriber lines, the two main categories being ADSL and SDSL. Two other types of xDSL technologies are High-data-rate DSL (HDSL) and Very high DSL (VDSL).
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| Zeroconf |
Zero Configuration - A set of techniques that automatically creates a usable Internet Protocol (IP) network without manual operator intervention or special configuration servers.
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