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Glossary of Terms Glossary Antispam server - A device that helps to prevent Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) or spam from being sent to a users email account. A antispam server will tag or delete spam before it reaches the mailbox. Appliance Server - An appliance server is an easy to adminster, single or multi-function devices that is less expensive than a traditional server and can still handle all the tasks required by businesses today. Appliance servers allow businesses to set up a full array of network and internet features from firewall protection to web hosting. Cable modem see Dedicated Internet connections Caching - see Proxy server CGI (Short for Common Gateway Interface), is the most common way for web servers to interact dynamically with users. Common uses include online feedback and online forms. Content Filtering - Web site content filtering is a program that uses a blacklist as well as custom admin created lists to block users from accessing inappropriate web sites. Cable modem Type of broadband Internet connection sent through co-axial TV cables. The bandwidth of co-axial cable is far greater than that of standard telephone lines, allowing cable Internet access to be extremely fast. Other advantages include the fact that most home and businesses are already wired for cable television making it easy to set up. XDSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) DSL use sophisticated modulation schemes to pack data onto copper wires (telephone wires) DSL can reach speeds of up to 32 Mbps downstream, but it is limited to short runs from the central office (usually around 20,000 feet.) ADSL Short for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines. ADSL supports data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). SDSL Short for symmetric digital subscriber line, a new technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines. It supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. SDSL works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires. T1 A dedicated phone connection supporting data rates of 1.544Mbits per second. A T-1 line actually consists of 24individual channels, each of which supports 64Kbits per second. Each 64Kbit/second channel can be configured to carry voice or data traffic. Most telephone companies allow you to buy just some of these individual channels, known as fractional T-1 access. DHCP Short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a protocol used to dynamically assign IP addresses to client computers on a network. DHCP simplifies network administration because the software keeps track of IP addresses rather than requiring an administrator to manage the task. This means that a new computer can be added to a network without the hassle of manually assigning it a unique IP address. DHCP also supports a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses. Dial up Internet connection Dial up Internet connections requires a modem that dials an access number provided by your local ISP. The user must submit a username and password to authenticate. Dial up Internet is slower than other forms, and is not dedicated, meaning it is not always on you must dial the service provider every time you want to connect to the Internet. Disk Mirroring see RAID1 DNS Directory Name Service, is a TCP/IP based name resolution service. It is used to resolve a host name to its associated IP address. Domain Name - A domain name is a unique name, which used to be up to fifteen characters in length, but can now be up to sixty-seven characters, assigned to identify the domain on the network. A domain name must be different than all other domain names, workgroup names, and computer names on the network. DSL see dedicated Internet connections Email (Electronic Mail.) Messages, usually text, sent from one computer to another via the Internet or between Mail Servers via direct modem connections. Sent messages are stored in electronic mailboxes until the recipient fetches them. To see if you have any e-mail, you may have to check your electronic mailbox periodically, although most systems today alert you when e-mail is received. Email Appliance - An email appliance is an easy to configure device that include hardware and software to provide email services to your network. ETRN (Abbreviation for Extended Turn) An ESMTP command with which a client computer, asks the mail server to deliver queued mail to the client via ESMTP. Firewall Appliance - A firewall appliance is an easy to configure device that include hardware and software to provide firewall security to your network. FTP (Abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol.) The most common protocol used to move files between two sites. FTP allows login to another Internet site for the purpose of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP. Gateway A gateway is often associated with both a router, which directs the packets of data that arrive at the gateway, and a switch, which furnishes the path in and out of the gateway for a given packet. Hostname The unique name by which a computer is known on a network, used to identify it. HTML (Short for Hyper Text Mark-up Language), is a set of codes that are displayed over a web browser. It is guide for the browser with instructions on how the page is set-up, where and how text and graphics should be placed. HTTP (Short for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), a protocol for exchanging files over the world wide web, including text, graphics, sound, video and other multimedia files. IDS - (Short for Intrusion Detection System) - A system that works alongside the firewall to help eliminate the threat outside attackers gaining access to a network. The IDS will log, block and send an alert message to the administrator if suspicious or malicious traffic is detected. IDS Appliance - An ids appliance is an easy to configure device that include hardware and software to provide IDS protection to your network. IMAP (Short for Internet Message Access Protocol) a mail protocol that provides management of received messages on a remote server. The user can review headers, create or delete folders and messages, and search contents remotely without having to download the mail. It includes more functions than the similar and popular POP mail protocol. Internet The vast collection of interlaced networks that all use the TCP/IP protocol and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent from all other hosts. IP address Every machine that is on a network (a local network, or the network of the Internet) has a unique IP number [four sets of numbers divided by period with up to three numbers in each set. (I.e. 64.139.27.165)] - If a machine does not have an IP address it cannot be on a network. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember. I.e. www.greencomputer.com. Within an isolated network, such as an office, you can assign IP addresses at random as long as each one is unique. However, connecting a private network to the Internet requires using registered IP addresses (called Internet addresses) to avoid duplicates. ISP An institution that provides access to the Internet. Examples of ISP's include AOL, Earthlink, @home LAN A local area network is a computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building. LANs are capable of transmitting data at very fast rates, much faster than the data that is transmitted to you over the Internet; there is no limit on the number of computers that can be attached to a single LAN. Perl (Short for Practical Extraction and Report Language), is a programming language specifically designed for processing text, and because of this trait is one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts. Mail Server Antivirus - This is an antivirus scanner that scans mail as it enters the mail server and qurantines or deletes infected emails. The advantage of mail server antivirus protection is that it stops viruses as soon as they reach the server so they make it to the users mailbox. PHP (Short for Hypertext Pre-processor) is a server-side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web content. PHP scripts can be embedded in HTML code and use similar syntax to the Perl and C programming languages. POP (Short for Post Office Protocol) it is the protocol used by most email clients to retrieve email. Proxy Sever Proxy servers have two main functions, one is to improve performance, and the second is to filter requests. Proxy servers can dramatically improve network performance by storing requested information in memory (caching), so the next time the information is requested it comes from memory instead of being retrieved from the source. The server can also be used to filters requests, RAID1 (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or disk mirroring) A technique in which data is simultaneously written to two hard drive for redundancy. If one of the drives fails the other will continue to function keeping the network operational. Remote access Logging on to a local network from a remote location. Forms of remote access include VPN, Telnet and SSH. Remote access is useful for remotely administering a network, accessing network function when away from the office or for network diagnostic. The only difference a user will notice when attached to the network remotely is that the speed will be slower than if he/she were physically connected to the LAN. Server Appliance - A server appliance is a easy to adminster, single or multi-function devices that is less expensive than a traditional server and can still handle all the tasks required by businesses today. Server appliances allow businesses to set up a full array of network and internet features from firewall protection to web hosting. Eg. PowerElf, Cobalt Qube, etc. SSH encryption Secure Shell is a program developed by SSH Security Communication Ltd. It is used to remotely login to a network computer. It uses strong encryption, and even the login is encrypted making it even more difficult for hackers to get into the network. T1 see Dedicated Internet connections Telnet Telnet is a user command using TCP/IP protocols to access a computer remotely. To have access to that computer, you must have permission, meaning you must authenticate to the system with a valid username and password. When you are connected to the network using telnet, you can enter commands and they will be executed as if the were being entered directly onto the server console. URL (Short for Uniform Resource Locator), the address of the resource that your browser will fetch from the Internet. It is divided into two parts, the first being the protocol used the second being the IP address or domain where the information is located. An example is http://www.greencomputer.com. In this URL the protocol is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the domain name where the information will be accessed from is the second part of the URL www.greencomputer.com. FTP://www.domainname.com is also a URL with the protocol used being the File Transfer Protocol and the domain name www.domainname.com being the destination. Virtual Domain A virtual domain is when one IP address is shared between multiple domains. VPN (Short for Virtual Private Network), using an encrypted tunnel to access private network information over a public network. Using a virtual private network involves encrypting data before sending it through the public network, such as the Internet, and decrypting it at the receiving end. An additional level of security involves encrypting not only the data but also the originating and receiving network addresses, to avoid anyone gaining access to usernames, or passwords. WAN (Short for Wide Area Network), the largest WAN is the Internet, but a WAN can also be a group of two or more LANs connected to each other. Most WANs are connected through a public network, either through a telephone system, satellite or leased line. Web based manager The web manager is a simple control console that allows you to administer your network through an Internet browser. Also called a browser-based manager. Web cache see proxy server Web server A web server is a computer that delivers web pages to your Internet browser. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a Domain name. In the beginning of the Web server, it was designed to serve static content to a web browser. Today web servers do more than serve simple HTML content, and image files. The concept of content has evolved through the years to include application data, streaming multimedia, security models, and integration with other data and content servers. WebMail WebMail is an email service that uses your web browser as an email client, allowing you to send and receive emails directly through your browser, from any computer on the Internet. Hotmail email is an example of We based mail. Since the Internet is a public network WebMail uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption to protect the data from being intercepted, keeping emails private and secure. Web site A collection of files Web files, including a home page. The home page is usually the address that is given, as it is usually the easiest to remember. I.e. www.greencomputer.com, as opposed to a web page inside the site, such as www.greencompiter.com/services.html (in actuality the first page of the site is www.greencomputer.com/index.html, the server is told that www.greencomputer.com really means www.greencomputer.com/index.html making it easier to remember web addresses.
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