Tech Glossary 

Attachment - A file embedded in an e-mail message. It is possible to have one or more attachments embedded in an e-mail message. If you are sending or receiving attachments, you must have an e-mail client that supports MIME encoding, or the attachments will show up in encoded form, which basically looks like a large block of numbers and letters.

Backbone - A segment of a network that's often a higher speed than the rest of the network and that connects all the other segments. If you don't have a backbone faster than the rest of your network your network could lag.

Bandwidth - A measure, in some amount of bits per second, of the maximum amount of data that can be sent over a particular cable, interface, or bus.

Beta - A term given to a product that isn't ready for public consumption, but is good enough for a wider testing scope. Many companies publicly release their beta software to a fraction of their users to let them get experience with the new software while the company gets feedback on bugs and features.

Bit - The smallest unit of measure in a computer. It is represented by a 0 (off) or 1 (on). You can think of a bit as a switch. If it's in the on position it's a 1, and if the switch is off it's a 0. All parts of your computer communicate in bits at the lowest level.

Broadband - A technology that refers to the transfer of multiple signals over a single medium. In slang terms, it is any Internet connection that allows for higher transfer speeds than an analog modem most often applied to cable modem or DSL access. It can be used to describe satellite and wireless Internet services as well.

Bus - A bus is simply a data path between devices. The computer's system bus is what peripherals use to send and receive data from the processor and main memory. You can think of a bus as a set of wires connecting multiple devices.

Byte - Simply put, it's 8 bits. Think of it as a string of 1s and 0s that represents a number from 0 to 255. For example 01100101 is one byte of information, whereas 0 or 1 are bits of information.

Category 5 cable standard (Cat 5) - This was a very common copper wire standard between 1996-2002 and today. It uses an RJ-45 plug and four-pair wire like Cat 3 and Cat 4, but it is certified to run up to 100MHz and is suitable for 100Mbps wiring standards.

Client/Server - Client server technology came about when computers began to cost less. Mainframes are very expensive, and didn't give users much personal freedom. The client/server model promised to change that scenario, and it's much more popular today. Basically, a client computer with its own memory and hard drive communicates with a server whenever it needs data from the server. The client can run by itself without the server and communicate with different servers as it needs to.

Cyberspace - This term was coined to refer to the vast expanses of the Internet. Just as space is infinite, the Internet is, well, pretty darn big. It just sounded cooler than Internet to the news media.

Data - Information. Any series of bits, characters, or objects that has meaning. Data is stored and transmitted by computers.

Digital - This implies a value represented by a group of discrete steps. Some claim that digital representations of images and sound are more accurate; others that the translation of analog sounds and pictures into digital representations causes loss in realism. The bonus to digital reproduction is that if done well enough and designed to correct errors, digital reproduction can sound good over a long period of time. Records and tapes are analog, CDs are digital. Play a CD a million times and it should sound the same. Play a record a million times and it will degrade due to the weight of the stylus changing the physical record over time and the inherent friction involved in analog systems.

Domain - This term describes the Internet's addressing scheme, and also a security construct in Windows operating systems. For the Internet, domains are represented by domain names such as Geek.com or UGeek.org. These domains are mapped to TCP/IP addresses by DNS servers so that browsers can find websites. Under Windows, domains are groups of server and client machines that exist in the same security structure.

Ethernet - A network topology that is able to send data at 10 Mbits/second. Workstations can exist on the same cable, but only one can communicate at a time. To get by these limitations, switched Ethernet and Fast Ethernet were invented, and were also combined.

Fiber Optic - A method of physical data transmission that is a newer alternative to sending electrical signals over copper wires. The way it works is by pulsing light down a strand of glass. These pulses represent binary code--so far that's no better than copper. The advantage is that a single strand of fiber optic can carry thousands and thousands of different frequencies at once without data loss.

Firewall - A security device that stands between a private network and the Internet. It is like a wall in that it can prevent unwanted traffic from passing either way. True firewalls generally support packet-filtering, proprietary application filtering, and some proxy functions, combining the features of other devices or software into one unified package.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - A common method of moving files from system to system using TCP/IP. To work properly, it requires an FTP client to contact an FTP server in order to transmit data back and forth.

Gbit (Gigabit) - This refers to approximately one billion bits. More exactly, it is 2^30, or 1,073,741,824 bits.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - The way the data in an HTML document is transferred. A document coming in over the HTTP protocol, usually TCP/IP port 80, is read as an HTML document. You may notice in our Internet browser's address bar that the address begins with "HTTP://" in order to tell the browser to expect HTML files.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) - A standard language initially created for typesetting. Although it is a language, it isn't really a programming language. It is mainly used for creating documents on the World Wide Web. Included in the language are provisions for displaying graphics and links to other pages.

Internet - The global network of computers constantly connected to each other using standardized communications protocols, specifically TCP/IP.

Intranet - A local network of computers using TCP/IP as the standard communications protocol. Usually an intranet features some sort of HTML content that you can use a browser to look at. Think of it as a mini, private Internet. Many companies have intranets that contain information only of use to their employees.

IP Address - The specific network address of a computer on a network using TCP/IP as its networking protocol.

LAN - A small isolated network at one office or physical location. Most office computers are connected to a LAN, but may also be connected to the Internet or a WAN.

MAC Address (Media Access Control Address) - A unique 128-bit address of a network card or device. The first part of the address is unique to the company that produced the device, and beyond that it is a sequence of digits unique to a single device manufactured by a company.

Megabyte - This is roughly one million bytes. This is exactly 1,048,576 bytes (that's 1024 x 1024, or 2^20).

Network - A group of interconnected computers. The computers must be capable of transferring data to form a true network.

OS (Operating System) - The program that allows you to access the basic functions of your computer. It is the minimum software required to run a program. Thus, you must have an operating system installed and then the programs run on top of it--unless you have a program with an entire operating system embedded into it, which is possible.

Platform - A means of generically grouping like computers. Macintosh computers are a platform; so are PCs running Windows. It's not very specific, and multi-platform support can mean many things. If someone says to you this application supports multiple platforms, ask that person which ones he or she is talking about.

Protocol - A general behavior that computers and network devices must follow to understand one another. Think of it as a language. If two computers don't use the same network protocol then they cannot communicate. If devices don't adhere to the protocol they are intended to use, they will not be understood by other devices.

Queue - A data construct that is first-in, first-out (FIFO). Think of a check-out line at a supermarket, or any type of line formed by people in society. Queues are used throughout the architecture of computers and are necessary in programming languages to accomplish certain tasks. See also stack.

Root directory - The base directory of an operating system. This term is typically used for the UNIX OS, but can apply to a web server as the directory to which a browser defaults. It refers to the directory represented by a slash, or /, character in UNIX, or a c haracter in Windows. To change to the root directory use the command cd / in UNIX or cd in Windows.

Server - A machine whose sole purpose is to supply data so that other machines can use that data. This also describes any software process that runs on a server machine and responds to client processes or programs locally or across a network.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) - The TCP/IP suite first saw use on the original Department of Defense Internet in 1983. Its first implementation was amazingly successful, and it is still THE protocol of the Internet. In fact, it has grown even more, and is being used in private networks around the world. TCP/IP is a suite of communications protocols that allows communication between groups of dissimilar computer systems from a variety of vendors. It scales better than NetBEUI because NetBEUI is not routable, and beat out IPX/SPX as it was easier to route than that once-dominant protocol.

Virtual Classroom - Any means of live or pre-programmed Internet broadcast of information meant to function in a teaching capacity. For example, you could say "see you in the virtual classroom and meet at a particular URL that is dispensing information.

Web - A synonym for the term ;World Wide Web, often referred to as "The Web.

Webmaster - A blanket term that refers to the person responsible for running a website. It is associated more with server administration and HTML coding than other Web development, such as CGI scripting.

World Wide Web (WWW or Web) - This is basically a means of communicating text, graphics, and other multimedia objects over the Internet. Web servers on the Internet are set to respond to particular requests sent on TCP/IP port 80 by sending HTML documents to the requester. The requester usually uses a browser to receive this data. Think of the Internet as a 100-lane highway, and the Web as one of those lanes. Of course traffic in the Web lane is probably very high compared to traffic in most other lanes.