5 draft-ietf-userglos-glossary2-01.txt G. Malkin / Xylogics, Inc.
6 Obsoletes RFC 1392 (FYI 18) May 1996
8 Internet Users' Glossary
13 This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
14 documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
15 and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute
16 working documents as Internet-Drafts.
18 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
19 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
20 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
21 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
23 To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the
24 "1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow
25 Directories on ds.internic.net (US East Coast), nic.nordu.net
26 (Europe), ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast), or munnari.oz.au (Pacific
32 There are many networking glossaries in existence. This glossary
33 concentrates on terms which are specific to the Internet. Naturally,
34 there are entries for some basic terms and acronyms because other
35 entries refer to them.
40 This document is the work of the User Glossary Working Group of the
41 User Services Area of the Internet Engineering Task Force. I would
42 especially like to thank Ryan Moats/InterNIC for his careful review
43 and many contributions to this document.
48 non-letter . . 3 I . . . . . . . 26 R . . . . . . . 46
49 A . . . . . . . 3 J . . . . . . . 33 S . . . . . . . 49
50 B . . . . . . . 8 K . . . . . . . 33 T . . . . . . . 52
51 C . . . . . . . 11 L . . . . . . . 33 U . . . . . . . 55
52 D . . . . . . . 15 M . . . . . . . 35 V . . . . . . . 57
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61 E . . . . . . . 18 N . . . . . . . 39 W . . . . . . . 57
62 F . . . . . . . 20 O . . . . . . . 43 X . . . . . . . 59
63 G . . . . . . . 23 P . . . . . . . 43 Y . . . . . . . 60
64 H . . . . . . . 24 Q . . . . . . . 46 Z . . . . . . . 60
66 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
67 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
68 Editors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
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120 A physical layer communications specification for 10Mbps, baseband
121 data transmission over a coaxial cable (Thinnet) with a maximum
122 cable segment length of 200 meters.
125 A physical layer communications specification for 10Mbps, baseband
126 data transmission over a coaxial cable (Thicknet) with a maximum
127 cable segment length of 500 meters.
130 A physical layer communications specification for 10Mbps, baseband
131 data transmission over a fiber-optic cable.
134 A physical layer communications specification for 10Mbps, baseband
135 data transmission over a twisted-pair copper wire.
138 The set of IEEE standards for the definition of LAN protocols.
145 This odd symbol is one of the ways a person can portray "mood" in
146 the very flat medium of computers--by using "smiley faces". This
147 is "metacommunication", and there are literally hundreds of such
148 symbols, from the obvious to the obscure. This particular example
149 expresses "happiness". Don't see it? Tilt your head to the left
150 90 degrees. Smiles are also used to denote sarcasm.
154 A description of a data structure that is independent of machine-
155 oriented structures and encodings.
158 Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)
159 The language used by the OSI protocols for describing abstract
160 syntax. This language is also used to encode SNMP packets. ASN.1
161 is defined in ISO documents 8824.2 and 8825.2. See also: Basic
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173 Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
174 Many transit networks have policies which restrict the use to
175 which the network may be put. For example, some networks may only
176 be used for non-commercial purposes. Some AUPs limit the type of
177 material which can be made available to the public (e.g.,
178 pornographic material). Enforcement of AUPs varies with the
179 network. See also: netiquette.
181 Access Control List (ACL)
182 Most network security systems operate by allowing selective use of
183 services. An Access Control List is the usual means by which
184 access to, and denial of, services is controlled. It is simply a
185 list of the services available, each with a list of the hosts
186 permitted to use the service.
192 A type of message sent to indicate that a block of data arrived at
193 its destination without error. See also: Negative
198 See: Access Control List
201 See: Administrative Domain
204 There are four types of addresses in common use within the
205 Internet. They are email address; IP, internet or Internet
206 address; hardware or MAC address; and URL. See also: email
207 address, IP address, internet address, MAC address, Uniform
211 A bit mask used to identify which bits in an IP address correspond
212 to the network and subnet portions of the address. This mask is
213 often referred to as the subnet mask because the network portion
214 of the address (i.e., the network mask) can be determined by the
215 encoding inherent in an IP address. See also: Classless Inter-
219 Conversion of a network-layer address (e.g. IP address) into the
220 corresponding physical address (e.g., MAC address). See also: IP
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229 address, MAC address.
231 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
232 Used to dynamically discover the low level physical network
233 hardware address that corresponds to the high level IP address for
234 a given host. ARP is limited to physical network systems that
235 support broadcast packets that can be heard by all hosts on the
236 network. See also: proxy ARP, Reverse Address Resolution
239 Administrative Domain (AD)
240 A collection of hosts and routers, and the interconnecting
241 network(s), managed by a single administrative authority.
243 Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
244 An agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the
245 development of new technology for use by the military. ARPA
246 (formerly known as DARPA, nee ARPA) was responsible for funding
247 much of the development of the Internet we know today, including
248 the Berkeley version of Unix and TCP/IP.
251 Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)
252 A pioneering longhaul network funded by ARPA. Now retired, it
253 served as the basis for early networking research as well as a
254 central backbone during the development of the Internet. The
255 ARPANET consisted of individual packet switching computers
256 interconnected by leased lines. See also: Advanced Research
261 In the client-server model, the part of the system that performs
262 information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or
267 A name, usually short and easy to remember, that is translated
268 into another name, usually long and difficult to remember.
270 American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
271 This organization is responsible for approving U.S. standards in
272 many areas, including computers and communications. Standards
273 approved by this organization are often called ANSI standards
274 (e.g., ANSI C is the version of the C language approved by ANSI).
275 ANSI is a member of ISO. See also: International Organization for
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287 American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
288 A standard character-to-number encoding widely used in the
289 computer industry. See also: EBCDIC.
292 Anonymous FTP allows a user to retrieve documents, files,
293 programs, and other archived data from anywhere in the Internet
294 without having to establish a userid and password. By using the
295 special userid of "anonymous" the network user will bypass local
296 security checks and will have access to publicly accessible files
297 on the remote system. See also: archive site, File Transfer
298 Protocol, World Wide Web.
301 See: American National Standards Institute
304 See: Application Program Interface
307 A networking protocol developed by Apple Computer for
308 communication between Apple Computer products and other computers.
309 This protocol is independent of the network layer on which it is
310 run. Current implementations exist for Localtalk, a 235Kb/s local
311 area network; and Ethertalk, a 10Mb/s local area network.
315 A program that performs a function directly for a user. FTP, mail
316 and Telnet clients are examples of network applications.
319 The top layer of the network protocol stack. The application
320 layer is concerned with the semantics of work (e.g. formatting
321 electronic mail messages). How to represent that data and how to
322 reach the foreign node are issues for lower layers of the network.
325 Application Program Interface (API)
326 A set of calling conventions which define how a service is invoked
327 through a software package.
331 A system to automatically gather, index and serve information on
332 the Internet. The initial implementation of archie provided an
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341 indexed directory of filenames from all anonymous FTP archives on
342 the Internet. Later versions provide other collections of
343 information. See also: archive site, Gopher, Prospero, Wide Area
347 A machine that provides access to a collection of files across the
348 Internet. For example, an anonymous FTP archive site provides
349 access to arcived material via the FTP protocol. WWW servers can
350 also serve as archive sites. See also: anonymous FTP, archie,
351 Gopher, Prospero, Wide Area Information Servers, World Wide Web.
354 See: Address Resolution Protocol
357 See: Advanced Research Projects Agency
360 See: Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
363 See: Autonomous System
366 See: American Standard Code for Information Interchange
369 See: Abstract Syntax Notation One
372 The RFC [STD2] which documents the currently assigned values from
373 several series of numbers used in network protocol
374 implementations. This RFC is updated periodically and, in any
375 case, current information can be obtained from the Internet
376 Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). If you are developing a
377 protocol or application that will require the use of a link,
378 socket, port, protocol, etc., please contact the IANA to receive a
379 number assignment. See also: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority,
383 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
384 A standard which defines high-load, high-speed (1.544Mbps through
385 1.2Gbps), fixed-size packet (cell) switching with dynamic
386 bandwidth allocation. ATM is also known as "fast packet."
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398 See: Asynchronous Transfer Mode
401 See: Acceptable Use Policy
404 The verification of the identity of a person or process.
407 Autonomous System (AS)
408 A collection of routers under a single administrative authority
409 using a common Interior Gateway Protocol for routing packets.
412 The top level in a hierarchical network. Stub and transit
413 networks which connect to the same backbone are guaranteed to be
414 interconnected. See also: stub network, transit network.
417 Technically, the difference, in Hertz (Hz), between the highest
418 and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel. However, as
419 typically used, the amount of data that can be sent through a
420 given communications circuit.
423 A series of machine names used to direct electronic mail from one
424 user to another, typically by specifying an explicit UUCP path
425 through which the mail is to be routed. See also: email address,
426 mail path, UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy.
429 A transmission medium through which digital signals are sent
430 without complicated frequency shifting. In general, only one
431 communication channel is available at any given time. Ethernet is
432 an example of a baseband network. See also: broadband, Ethernet.
435 Basic Encoding Rules (BER)
436 Standard rules for encoding data units described in ASN.1.
437 Sometimes incorrectly lumped under the term ASN.1, which properly
438 refers only to the abstract syntax description language, not the
439 encoding technique. See also: Abstract Syntax Notation One.
443 See: Bulletin Board System
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457 The newest subseries of RFCs which are written to describe Best
458 Current Practices in the Internet. Rather than specifying a
459 protocol, these documents specify the best ways to use the
460 protocols and the best ways to configure options to ensure
461 interoperability between various vendors' products. BCPs carry
462 the endorsement of the IESG. See also: Request For Comments,
463 Internet Engineering Steering Group.
466 See: Basic Encoding Rules
468 Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND)
469 Implementation of a DNS server developed and distributed by the
470 University of California at Berkeley. Many Internet hosts run
471 BIND, and it is the ancestor of many commercial BIND
472 implementations. See also: Domain Name System.
474 Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)
475 Implementation of the UNIX operating system and its utilities
476 developed and distributed by the University of California at
477 Berkeley. "BSD" is usually preceded by the version number of the
478 distribution, e.g., "4.3 BSD" is version 4.3 of the Berkeley UNIX
479 distribution. Many Internet hosts run BSD software, and it is the
480 ancestor of many commercial UNIX implementations.
484 See: Border Gateway Protocol
487 A format for storage or transmission of binary data in which the
488 most significant bit (or byte) comes first. The term comes from
489 "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift. The Lilliputians, being
490 very small, had correspondingly small political problems. The
491 Big-Endian and Little-Endian parties debated over whether soft-
492 boiled eggs should be opened at the big end or the little end.
493 See also: little-endian.
500 See: Berkeley Internet Name Domain
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509 Birds Of a Feather (BOF)
510 A Birds Of a Feather (flocking together) is an informal discussion
511 group. It is formed, often ad hoc, to consider a specific issue
512 and, therefore, has a narrow focus. See also: Working Group.
515 An academic computer network that provides interactive electronic
516 mail and file transfer services, using a store-and-forward
517 protocol, based on IBM Network Job Entry protocols. Bitnet-II
518 encapsulates the Bitnet protocol within IP packets and depends on
519 the Internet to route them.
522 See: Birds Of a Feather
525 The Bootstrap Protocol, described in RFC 1542, is used for booting
526 diskless nodes. See also: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol,
527 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol.
529 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
530 The Border Gateway Protocol is an exterior gateway protocol
531 defined in RFC 1771. It's design is based on experience gained
532 with EGP, as defined in RFC 904, and EGP usage in the NSFNET
533 Backbone, as described in RFCs 1092 and 1093. See also: Exterior
537 The return of a piece of mail because of an error in its delivery.
541 A device which forwards traffic between network segments based on
542 datalink layer information. These segments would have a common
543 network layer address. See also: gateway, router.
546 A transmission medium capable of supporting a wide range of
547 frequencies. It can carry multiple signals by dividing the total
548 capacity of the medium into multiple, independent bandwidth
549 channels, where each channel operates only on a specific range of
550 frequencies. See also: baseband.
553 A special type of multicast packet which all nodes on the network
554 are always willing to receive. See also: multicast, unicast.
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566 An incorrect packet broadcast onto a network that causes multiple
567 hosts to respond all at once, typically with equally incorrect
568 packets which causes the storm to grow exponentially in severity.
569 See also: Ethernet meltdown.
572 A device which bridges some packets (i.e. forwards based on
573 datalink layer information) and routes other packets (i.e.
574 forwards based on network layer information). The bridge/route
575 decision is based on configuration information. See also: bridge,
579 See: Berkeley Software Distribution
584 Bulletin Board System (BBS)
585 A computer, and associated software, which typically provides
586 electronic messaging services, archives of files, and any other
587 services or activities of interest to the bulletin board system's
588 operator. Although BBS's have traditionally been the domain of
589 hobbyists, an increasing number of BBS's are connected directly to
590 the Internet, and many BBS's are currently operated by government,
591 educational, and research institutions. See also: Electronic
592 Mail, Internet, Usenet.
595 Campus Wide Information System (CWIS)
596 A CWIS makes information and services publicly available on campus
597 via kiosks, and makes interactive computing available via kiosks,
598 interactive computing systems and campus networks. Services
599 routinely include directory information, calendars, bulletin
603 See: Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks
606 See: Comite Consultatif International de Telegraphique et
610 See: Computer Emergency Response Team
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622 A computed value which is dependent upon the contents of a packet.
623 This value is sent along with the packet when it is transmitted.
624 The receiving system computes a new checksum based upon the
625 received data and compares this value with the one sent with the
626 packet. If the two values are the same, the receiver has a high
627 degree of confidence that the data was received correctly. See
628 also: Cyclic Redundancy Check.
632 See: Classless Inter-domain Routing
635 A communications paradigm in which a dedicated communication path
636 is established between two hosts, and on which all packets travel.
637 The telephone system is an example of a circuit switched network.
638 See also: connection-oriented, connectionless, packet switching.
640 Classless Inter-domain Routing (CIDR)
641 A proposal, set forth in RFC 1519, to allocate IP addresses so as
642 to allow the addresses to be aggregated when advertised as routes.
643 It is based on the elimination of intrinsic IP network addresses;
644 that is, the determination of the network address based on the
645 first few bits of the IP address. See also: IP address, network
649 A computer system or process that requests a service of another
650 computer system or process. A workstation requesting the contents
651 of a file from a file server is a client of the file server. See
652 also: client-server model, server.
656 A common way to describe the paradigm of many network protocols.
657 Examples include the name-server/name-resolver relationship in DNS
658 and the file-server/file-client relationship in NFS. See also:
659 client, server, Domain Name System, Network File System.
662 See: Coalition for Networked Information
664 Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
665 A consortium formed by American Research Libraries, CAUSE, and
666 EDUCOM (no, they are not acronyms) to promote the creation of, and
667 access to, information resources in networked environments in
668 order to enrich scholarship and enhance intellectual productivity.
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677 Comite Consultatif International de Telegraphique et Telephonique (
679 This organization is now part of the International
680 Telecommunications Union and is responsible for making technical
681 recommendations about telephone and data communications systems.
682 Every four years CCITT holds plenary sessions where they adopt new
683 standards; the most recent was in 1992. Recently, the ITU
684 reorganized and CCITT was renamed the ITU-TSS. See also:
685 International Telecommunications Union - Telecommunications
688 Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)
689 The CERT was formed by ARPA in November 1988 in response to the
690 needs exhibited during the Internet worm incident. The CERT
691 charter is to work with the Internet community to facilitate its
692 response to computer security events involving Internet hosts, to
693 take proactive steps to raise the community's awareness of
694 computer security issues, and to conduct research targeted at
695 improving the security of existing systems. CERT products and
696 services include 24-hour technical assistance for responding to
697 computer security incidents, product vulnerability assistance,
698 technical documents, and tutorials. In addition, the team
699 maintains a number of mailing lists (including one for CERT
700 Advisories), and provides an anonymous FTP server, at "cert.org",
701 where security-related documents and tools are archived. The CERT
702 may be reached by email at "cert@cert.org" and by telephone at
703 +1-412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline). See also: Advanced Research
704 Projects Agency, worm.
707 Congestion occurs when the offered load exceeds the capacity of a
708 data communication path.
711 The data communication method in which communication proceeds
712 through three well-defined phases: connection establishment, data
713 transfer, connection release. TCP is a connection-oriented
714 protocol. See also: circuit switching, connectionless, packet
715 switching, Transmission Control Protocol.
718 The data communication method in which communication occurs
719 between hosts with no previous setup. Packets between two hosts
720 may take different routes, as each is independent of the other.
721 UDP is a connectionless protocol. See also: circuit switching,
722 connection-oriented, packet switching, User Datagram Protocol.
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733 Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networks (CCIRN)
734 A committee that includes the United States FNC and its
735 counterparts in North America and Europe. Co-chaired by the
736 executive directors of the FNC and the European Association of
737 Research Networks (RARE), the CCIRN provides a forum for
738 cooperative planning among the principal North American and
739 European research networking bodies. See also: Federal Networking
744 Historically, one of a set of gateways (routers) operated by the
745 Internet Network Operations Center at Bolt, Beranek and Newman
746 (BBN). The core gateway system formed a central part of Internet
747 routing in that all groups must advertise paths to their networks
751 Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN)
752 This organization was formed in October 1989, when Bitnet and
753 CSNET (Computer + Science NETwork) were combined under one
754 administrative authority. CSNET is no longer operational, but
755 CREN still runs Bitnet. See also: Bitnet.
759 A cracker is an individual who attempts to access computer systems
760 without authorization. These individuals are often malicious, as
761 opposed to hackers, and have many means at their disposal for
762 breaking into a system. See also: hacker, Computer Emergency
763 Response Team, Trojan Horse, virus, worm.
766 See: cyclic redundancy check
769 See: Corporation for Research and Educational Networking
772 Pronnounced "See you, See me," CU-SeeMe is a publicly available
773 videoconferencing program developed at Cornell University. It
774 allows anyone with audio/video capabilites and an Internet
775 connection to videoconference with anyone else with the same
776 capabilities. It also allows multiple people to tie into the same
780 See: Campus Wide Information system
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790 A term coined by William Gibson in his fantasy novel Neuromancer
791 to describe the "world" of computers, and the society that gathers
795 Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
796 A number derived from a set of data that will be transmitted. By
797 recalculating the CRC at the remote end and comparing it to the
798 value originally transmitted, the receiving node can detect some
799 types of transmission errors. See also: checksum.
803 A non-profit company founded in July 1993 to help the European
804 research community enhance their networking facilities. It
805 focuses on the establishment of a high-speed computer network
809 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
810 See: Advanced Research Projects Agency
812 Data Encryption Key (DEK)
813 Used for the encryption of message text and for the computation of
814 message integrity checks (signatures). See also: encryption.
816 Data Encryption Standard (DES)
817 A popular, standard encryption scheme. See also: encryption,
818 Pretty Good Privacy, RSA.
821 A self-contained, independent entity of data carrying sufficient
822 information to be routed from the source to the destination
823 computer without reliance on earlier exchanges between this source
824 and destination computer and the transporting network. See also:
829 See: Defense Information Systems Agency
832 Data Circuit-terminating Equipment
835 See: Distributed Computing Environment
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846 See: Defense Data Network
849 See: Defense Data Network Network Information Center
852 A proprietary network protocol designed by Digital Equipment
853 Corporation. The functionality of each Phase of the
854 implementation, such as Phase IV and Phase V, is different.
857 A routing table entry which is used to direct packets addressed to
858 networks not explicitly listed in the routing table.
861 Defense Data Network (DDN)
862 A global communications network serving the US Department of
863 Defense composed of MILNET, other portions of the Internet, and
864 classified networks which are not part of the Internet. The DDN
865 is used to connect military installations and is managed by the
866 Defense Information Systems Agency. See also: Defense Information
869 Defense Data Network Network Information Center (DDN NIC)
870 Previously called "The NIC", the DDN NIC's primary responsibility
871 was the assignment of Internet network addresses and Autonomous
872 System numbers, the administration of the root domain, and
873 providing information and support services to the Internet for the
874 DDN. Since the creation of the InterNIC, the DDN NIC performs
875 these functions only for the DDN. See also: Autonomous System,
876 network address, Internet Registry, InterNIC, Network Information
877 Center, Request For Comments.
879 Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
880 Formerly called the Defense Communications Agency (DCA), this is
881 the government agency responsible for managing the DDN portion of
882 the Internet, including the MILNET. Currently, DISA administers
883 the DDN, and supports the user assistance services of the DDN NIC.
884 See also: Defense Data Network.
887 See: Data Encryption Key
890 See: Data Encryption Standard
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902 A temporary, as opposed to dedicated, connection between machines
903 established over a phone line (analog or ISDN). See also:
904 Integrated Services Digital Network.
906 Directory Access Protocol
907 X.500 protocol used for communication between a Directory User
908 Agent and a Directory System Agent.
911 Directory System Agent (DSA)
912 The software that provides the X.500 Directory Service for a
913 portion of the directory information base. Generally, each DSA is
914 responsible for the directory information for a single
915 organization or organizational unit.
918 Directory User Agent (DUA)
919 The software that accesses the X.500 Directory Service on behalf
920 of the directory user. The directory user may be a person or
921 another software element.
925 See: Defense Information Systems Agency
927 Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)
928 An architecture of standard programming interfaces, conventions,
929 and server functionalities (e.g., naming, distributed file system,
930 remote procedure call) for distributing applications transparently
931 across networks of heterogeneous computers. Promoted and
932 controlled by the Open Software Foundation (OSF), a consortium led
933 by Digital, IBM and Hewlett Packard.
937 A collection of several different data repositories that looks
938 like a single database to the user. A prime example in the
939 Internet is the Domain Name System.
945 See: Domain Name System
948 "Domain" is a heavily overused term in the Internet. It can be
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957 used in the Administrative Domain context, or the Domain Name
958 context. See also: Administrative Domain, Domain Name System.
960 Domain Name System (DNS)
961 The DNS is a general purpose distributed, replicated, data query
962 service. The principal use is the lookup of host IP addresses
963 based on host names. The style of host names now used in the
964 Internet is called "domain name", because they are the style of
965 names used to look up anything in the DNS. Some important domains
966 are: .COM (commercial), .EDU (educational), .NET (network
967 operations), .GOV (U.S. government), and .MIL (U.S. military).
968 Most countries also have a domain. The country domain names are
969 based on ISO 3166. For example, .US (United States), .UK (United
970 Kingdom), .AU (Australia). See also: Fully Qualified Domain Name,
971 Mail Exchange Record.
973 dot address (dotted decimal notation)
974 Dot address refers to the common notation for IP addresses of the
975 form A.B.C.D; where each letter represents, in decimal, one byte
976 of a four byte IP address. See also: IP address.
980 See: Directory System Agent
983 Data Terminal Equipment
986 See: Directory User Agent
988 dynamic adaptive routing
989 Automatic rerouting of traffic based on a sensing and analysis of
990 current actual network conditions. NOTE: this does not include
991 cases of routing decisions taken on predefined information.
995 The basic building block for European multi-megabit data rates,
996 with a bandwidth of 2.048Mbps. See also: T1.
999 A European standard for transmitting data at 57.344Mbps. See
1003 European Academic and Research Network. See: Trans-European
1004 Research and Education Networking Association.
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1014 See: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
1017 A pan-European backbone service.
1020 See: Electronic Frontier Foundation
1023 See: Exterior Gateway Protocol
1025 Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
1026 A foundation established to address social and legal issues
1027 arising from the impact on society of the increasingly pervasive
1028 use of computers as a means of communication and information
1031 Electronic Mail (email)
1032 A system whereby a computer user can exchange messages with other
1033 computer users (or groups of users) via a communications network.
1034 Electronic mail is one of the most popular uses of the Internet.
1038 See: Electronic mail
1041 The domain-based or UUCP address that is used to send electronic
1042 mail to a specified destination. For example an editor's address
1043 is "gmalkin@xylogics.com". See also: bang path, mail path, UNIX-
1048 The technique used by layered protocols in which a layer adds
1049 header information to the protocol data unit (PDU) from the layer
1050 above. For example, in Internet terminology, a packet would
1051 contain a header from the physical layer, followed by a header
1052 from the datalink layer (e.g. Ethernet), followed by a header
1053 from the network layer (IP), followed by a header from the
1054 transport layer (e.g. TCP), followed by the application protocol
1059 Encryption is the manipulation of a packet's data in order to
1060 prevent any but the intended recipient from reading that data.
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1069 There are many types of data encryption, and they are the basis of
1070 network security. See also: Data Encryption Standard.
1073 The examination of received data for transmission errors. See
1074 also: checksum, Cyclic Redundancy Check.
1077 A 10-Mb/s standard for LANs, initially developed by Xerox, and
1078 later refined by Digital, Intel and Xerox (DIX). All hosts are
1079 connected to a coaxial cable where they contend for network access
1080 using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection
1081 (CSMA/CD) paradigm. See also: 802.x, Local Area Network, token
1085 An event that causes saturation, or near saturation, on an
1086 Ethernet. It usually results from illegal or misrouted packets
1087 and typically lasts only a short time. See also: broadcast storm.
1090 Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC)
1091 A standard character-to-number encoding used primarily by IBM
1092 computer systems. See also: ASCII.
1094 Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)
1095 A protocol which distributes routing information to the routers
1096 which connect autonomous systems. The term "gateway" is
1097 historical, as "router" is currently the preferred term. There is
1098 also a routing protocol called EGP defined in RFC 904. See also:
1099 Autonomous System, Border Gateway Protocol, Interior Gateway
1102 eXternal Data Representation (XDR)
1103 A standard for machine independent data structures developed by
1104 Sun Microsystems and defined in RFCs 1014 and 1832. It is similar
1105 to ASN.1. See also: Abstract Syntax Notation One.
1109 A non-profit corporation, established in 1987, whose mission is to
1110 advance the use of computer networks to improve research and
1114 Frequently Asked Question
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1122 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1126 See: Fiber Distributed Data Interface
1128 Federal Information Exchange (FIX)
1129 One of the connection points between the American governmental
1130 internets and the Internet.
1133 Federal Networking Council (FNC)
1134 The coordinating group of representatives from those federal
1135 agencies involved in the development and use of federal
1136 networking, especially those networks using TCP/IP and the
1137 Internet. Current members include representatives from DOD, DOE,
1138 ARPA, NSF, NASA, and HHS. See also: Advanced Research Projects
1139 Agency, National Science Foundation.
1141 Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
1142 A high-speed (100Mb/s) LAN standard. The underlying medium is
1143 fiber optics, and the topology is a dual-attached, counter-
1144 rotating token ring. See also: Local Area Network, token ring.
1148 The copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer
1149 network. See also: File Transfer Protocol, Kermit, Gopher, World
1152 File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
1153 A protocol which allows a user on one host to access, and transfer
1154 files to and from, another host over a network. Also, FTP is
1155 usually the name of the program the user invokes to execute the
1156 protocol. See also: anonymous FTP.
1159 A protocol, defined in RFC 1288, that allows information about a
1160 system or user on a system to be retrived. Finger also refers to
1161 the commonly used program which retrieves this information.
1162 Information about all logged in users, as well is information
1163 about specific users may be retrieved from local or remote
1164 systems. Some sites consider finger to be a security risk and
1165 have either disabled it, or replaced it with a simple message.
1168 See: Federal Information Exchange
1171 A strong opinion and/or criticism of something, usually as a frank
1172 inflammatory statement, in an electronic mail message. It is
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1178 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1181 common to precede a flame with an indication of pending fire (i.e.
1182 FLAME ON!). Flame Wars occur when people start flaming other
1183 people for flaming when they shouldn't have. See also: Electronic
1187 See: Four Letter Extended Acronym
1190 See: Federal Networking Council
1192 Four Letter Extended Acronym (FLEA)
1193 A recognition of the fact that there are far too many TLAs. See
1194 also: Three Letter Acronym.
1197 See: Fully Qualified Domain Name
1200 A piece of a packet. When a router is forwarding an IP packet to
1201 a network that has a maximum transmission unit smaller than the
1202 packet size, it is forced to break up that packet into multiple
1203 fragments. These fragments will be reassembled by the IP layer at
1204 the destination host. See also: Maximum Transmission Unit.
1207 The IP process in which a packet is broken into smaller pieces to
1208 fit the requirements of a physical network over which the packet
1209 must pass. See also: reassembly.
1212 A frame is a datalink layer "packet" which contains the header and
1213 trailer information required by the physical medium. That is,
1214 network layer packets are encapsulated to become frames. See
1215 also: datagram, encapsulation, packet.
1218 Community-based bulletin board system with email, information
1219 services, interactive communications, and conferencing. Freenets
1220 are funded and operated by individuals and volunteers -- in one
1221 sense, like public television. They are part of the National
1222 Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), an organization based in
1223 Cleveland, Ohio, devoted to making computer telecommunication and
1224 networking services as freely available as public libraries.
1228 See: File Transfer Protocol
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1237 Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
1238 The FQDN is the full name of a system, rather than just its
1239 hostname. For example, "venera" is a hostname and
1240 "venera.isi.edu" is an FQDN. See also: hostname, Domain Name
1244 For Your Information
1247 A subseries of RFCs that are not technical standards or
1248 descriptions of protocols. FYIs convey general information about
1249 topics related to TCP/IP or the Internet. See also: Request For
1253 Gatedaemon. A program which supports multiple routing protocols
1254 and protocol families. It may be used for routing, and makes an
1255 effective platform for routing protocol research. The software is
1256 freely available by anonymous FTP from "gated.cornell.edu".
1257 Pronounced "gate-dee". See also: Exterior Gateway Protocol, Open
1258 Shortest-Path First, Routing Information Protocol, routed.
1261 The term "router" is now used in place of the original definition
1262 of "gateway". Currently, a gateway is a communications
1263 device/program which passes data between networks having similar
1264 functions but dissimilar implementations. This should not be
1265 confused with a protocol converter. By this definition, a router
1266 is a layer 3 (network layer) gateway, and a mail gateway is a
1267 layer 7 (application layer) gateway. See also: mail gateway,
1268 router, protocol converter.
1271 A distributed information service, developed at the University of
1272 Minnesota, that makes hierarchical collections of information
1273 available across the Internet. Gopher uses a simple protocol,
1274 defined in RFC 1436, that allows a single Gopher client to access
1275 information from any accessible Gopher server, providing the user
1276 with a single "Gopher space" of information. Public domain
1277 versions of the client and server are available. See also:
1278 archie, archive site, Prospero, Wide Area Information Servers.
1281 See: Government OSI Profile
1283 Government OSI Profile (GOSIP)
1284 A subset of OSI standards specific to U.S. Government
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1290 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1293 procurements, designed to maximize interoperability in areas where
1294 plain OSI standards are ambiguous or allow excessive options.
1297 A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the
1298 internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in
1299 particular. The term is often misused in a pejorative context,
1300 where "cracker" would be the correct term. See also: cracker.
1303 The portion of a packet, preceding the actual data, containing
1304 source and destination information. It may also error checking and
1305 other fields. A header is also the part of an electronic mail
1306 message which precedes the body of a message and contains, among
1307 other things, the message originator, date and time. See also:
1308 Electronic Mail, packet, error checking.
1310 heterogeneous network
1311 A network running multiple network layer protocols. See also:
1312 DECnet, IP, IPX, XNS, homogeneous network.
1314 hierarchical routing
1315 The complex problem of routing on large networks can be simplified
1316 by reducing the size of the networks. This is accomplished by
1317 breaking a network into a hierarchy of networks, where each level
1318 is responsible for its own routing. The Internet has, basically,
1319 three levels: the backbones, the mid-levels, and the stub
1320 networks. The backbones know how to route between the mid-levels,
1321 the mid-levels know how to route between the sites, and each site
1322 (being an autonomous system) knows how to route internally. See
1323 also: Autonomous System, Exterior Gateway Protocol, Interior
1324 Gateway Protocol, stub network, transit network.
1326 High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC)
1327 High performance computing encompasses advanced computing,
1328 communications, and information technologies, including scientific
1329 workstations, supercomputer systems, high speed networks, special
1330 purpose and experimental systems, the new generation of large
1331 scale parallel systems, and application and systems software with
1332 all components well integrated and linked over a high speed
1336 High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI)
1337 An emerging ANSI standard which extends the computer bus over
1338 fairly short distances at speeds of 800 and 1600 Mb/s. HIPPI is
1339 often used in a computer room to connect a supercomputer to
1340 routers, frame buffers, mass-storage peripherals, and other
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1349 computers. See also: American National Standards Institute
1353 See: High Performance Parallel Interface
1356 See: Hypertext Markup Language
1359 A network running a single network layer protocol. See also:
1360 DECnet, IP, IPX, XNS, heterogeneous network.
1363 A term used in routing. A path to a destination on a network is a
1364 series of hops, through routers, away from the origin.
1367 A computer that allows users to communicate with other host
1368 computers on a network. Individual users communicate by using
1369 application programs, such as electronic mail, Telnet and FTP.
1373 See: internet address
1376 The name given to a machine. See also: Fully Qualified Domain
1384 See: High Performance Computing and Communications
1387 See: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
1390 A device connected to several other devices. In ARCnet, a hub is
1391 used to connect several computers together. In a message handling
1392 service, a hub is used for the transfer of messages across the
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1402 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1406 A pointer within a hypertext document which points (links) to
1407 another document, which may or may not also be a hypertext
1408 document. See also: hypertext.
1411 A document, written in HTML, which contains hyperlinks to other
1412 documents, which may or may not also be hypertext documents.
1413 Hypertext documents are usually retrieved using WWW. See also:
1414 hyperlink, Hypertext Markup Language, World Wide Web.
1416 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
1417 The language used to create hypertext documents. It is a subset
1418 of SGML and includes the mechanisms to establish hyperlinks to
1419 other documents. See also: hypertext, hyperlink, Standardized
1420 General Markup Language.
1422 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
1423 The protocol used by WWW to transfer HTML files. A formal
1424 standard is still under development in the IETF. See also:
1425 hyperlink, hypertext, Hypertext Markup Language, World Wide Web.
1431 See: Internet Architecture Board
1434 See: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
1437 See: Internet Control Message Protocol
1440 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
1446 See: Internet Experiment Note
1449 See: Internet Engineering Planning Group
1452 See: Internet Engineering Steering Group
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1458 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1462 See: Internet Engineering Task Force
1465 See: Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network
1468 See: Interior Gateway Protocol
1471 In My Humble Opinion
1474 See: Internet Monthly Report
1476 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
1477 An emerging technology which is beginning to be offered by the
1478 telephone carriers of the world. ISDN combines voice and digital
1479 network services in a single medium, making it possible to offer
1480 customers digital data services as well as voice connections
1481 through a single "wire." The standards that define ISDN are
1482 specified by CCITT. See also: CCITT.
1485 Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network (IINREN)
1486 An evolving operating network system. Near term (1992-1996)
1487 research and development activities will provide for the smooth
1488 evolution of this networking infrastructure into the future
1492 Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP)
1493 A protocol which distributes routing information to the routers
1494 within an autonomous system. The term "gateway" is historical, as
1495 "router" is currently the preferred term. See also: Autonomous
1496 System, Exterior Gateway Protocol, Open Shortest-Path First,
1497 Routing Information Protocol.
1499 Intermediate System (IS)
1500 An OSI system which performs network layer forwarding. It is
1501 analogous to an IP router. See also: Open Systems
1502 Interconnection, router.
1504 Intermediate System-Intermediate System (IS-IS)
1505 The OSI IGP. See also: Open Systems Interconnection, Interior
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1514 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1517 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
1518 A voluntary, nontreaty organization founded in 1946 which is
1519 responsible for creating international standards in many areas,
1520 including computers and communications. Its members are the
1521 national standards organizations of the 89 member countries,
1522 including ANSI for the U.S. See also: American National Standards
1523 Institute, Open Systems Interconnection.
1526 International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
1527 An agency of the United Nations which coordinates the various
1528 national telecommunications standards so that people in one
1529 country can communicate with people in another country.
1531 International Telecommunications Union -
1532 Telecommunications Standards Sector (ITU-TSS)
1533 The new name for CCITT since the ITU reorganization. The function
1534 is the same; only the name has been changed
1537 While an internet is a network, the term "internet" is usually
1538 used to refer to a collection of networks interconnected with
1539 routers. See also: network.
1542 (note the capital "I") The Internet is the largest internet in the
1543 world. Is a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks
1544 (e.g. Ultranet), mid-level networks (e.g., NEARnet) and stub
1545 networks. The Internet is a multiprotocol internet. See also:
1546 backbone, mid-level network, stub network, transit network,
1550 A IP address that uniquely identifies a node on an internet. An
1551 Internet address (capital "I"), uniquely identifies a node on the
1552 Internet. See also: internet, Internet, IP address.
1554 Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
1556 The IAB has been many things over the years. Originally the
1557 Internet Activities Board, it was responsible for the development
1558 of the protocols which make up the Internet. It later changed its
1559 name and charter to become the group most responsible for the
1560 architecture of the Internet, leaving the protocol details to the
1561 IESG. In June of 1992, it was chartered as a component of the
1562 Internet Society; this is the charter it holds today. The IAB is
1563 responsible for approving nominations to the IESG, architectural
1564 oversight for Internet Standard Protocols, IETF standards process
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1570 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1573 oversight and appeals, IANA and RFC activities, and liaison to
1574 peer standards groups (e.g., ISO). See also: Internet Engineering
1575 Task Force, Internet Research Task Force, Internet Engineering
1576 Steering Group, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, Request for
1579 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
1580 The central registry for various Internet protocol parameters,
1581 such as port, protocol and enterprise numbers, and options, codes
1582 and types. The currently assigned values are listed in the
1583 "Assigned Numbers" document [STD2]. To request a number
1584 assignment, contact the IANA at "iana@isi.edu". See also:
1585 assigned numbers, STD.
1587 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
1588 ICMP is an extension to the Internet Protocol. It allows for the
1589 generation of error messages, test packets and informational
1590 messages related to IP.
1593 Internet-Draft (I-D)
1594 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the IETF, its Areas, and
1595 its Working Groups. As the name implies, Internet-Drafts are
1596 draft documents. They are valid for a maximum of six months and
1597 may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
1598 time. Very often, I-Ds are precursors to RFCs. See also:
1599 Internet Engineering Task Force, Request For Comments.
1601 Internet Engineering Planning Group (IEPG)
1602 A group, primarily composed of Internet service operators, whose
1603 goal is to promote a globally coordinated Internet operating
1604 environment. Membership is open to all.
1606 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)
1607 The IESG is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the IETF
1608 Chair. It provides the first technical review of Internet
1609 standards and is responsible for day-to-day "management" of the
1610 IETF. See also: Internet Engineering Task Force.
1612 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
1613 The IETF is a large, open community of network designers,
1614 operators, vendors, and researchers whose purpose is to coordinate
1615 the operation, management and evolution of the Internet, and to
1616 resolve short-range and mid-range protocol and architectural
1617 issues. It is a major source of proposals for protocol standards
1618 which are submitted to the IAB for final approval. The IETF meets
1619 three times a year and extensive minutes are included in the IETF
1620 Proceedings. See also: Internet, Internet Architecture Board.
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1631 Internet Experiment Note (IEN)
1632 A series of reports pertinent to the Internet. IENs were
1633 published in parallel to RFCs and were intended to be "working
1634 documents." They have been replaced by Internet-Drafts and are
1635 currently of historic value only. See also: Internet-Draft,
1636 Request For Comments.
1638 Internet Monthly Report (IMR)
1639 Published monthly, the purpose of the Internet Monthly Reports is
1640 to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments,
1641 milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating
1645 See: internet address
1647 Internet Protocol (IP, IPv4)
1648 The Internet Protocol (version 4), defined in RFC 791, is the
1649 network layer for the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. It is a
1650 connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. See also:
1651 packet switching, TCP/IP Protocol Suite, Internet Protocol Version
1654 Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPng, IPv6)
1655 IPv6 (version 5 is a stream protocol used for special
1656 applications) is a new version of the Internet Protocol which is
1657 designed to be an evolutionary step from its predecessor, version
1658 4. There are many RFCs defining various portions of the protocol,
1659 its auxiliary protocols, and the transition plan from IPv4. The
1660 core RFCs are 1883 through 1886. The name IPng (IP next
1661 generation) is a nod to STNG (Star Trek Next Generation).
1663 Internet Registry (IR)
1664 The IANA has the discretionary authority to delegate portions of
1665 its responsibility and, with respect to network address and
1666 Autonomous System identifiers, has lodged this responsibility with
1667 an IR. The IR function is performed by the DDN NIC. See also:
1668 Autonomous System, network address, Defense Data Network...,
1669 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
1671 Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
1672 A world-wide "party line" protocol that allows one to converse
1673 with others in real time. IRC is structured as a network of
1674 servers, each of which accepts connections from client programs,
1675 one per user. See also: talk.
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1685 Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG)
1686 The "governing body" of the IRTF. See also: Internet Research
1690 Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
1691 The IRTF is chartered by the IAB to consider long-term Internet
1692 issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups,
1693 similar to IETF Working Groups, which are each tasked to discuss
1694 different research topics. Multi-cast audio/video conferencing
1695 and privacy enhanced mail are samples of IRTF output. See also:
1696 Internet Architecture Board, Internet Engineering Task Force,
1697 Privacy Enhanced Mail.
1699 Internet Society (ISOC)
1700 The Internet Society is a non-profit, professional membership
1701 organization which facilitates and supports the technical
1702 evolution of the Internet, stimulates interest in and educates the
1703 scientific and academic communities, industry and the public about
1704 the technology, uses and applications of the Internet, and
1705 promotes the development of new applications for the system. The
1706 Society provides a forum for discussion and collaboration in the
1707 operation and use of the global Internet infrastructure. The
1708 Internet Society publishes a quarterly newsletter, the Internet
1709 Society News, and holds an annual conference, INET. The
1710 development of Internet technical standards takes place under the
1711 auspices of the Internet Society with substantial support from the
1712 Corporation for National Research Initiatives under a cooperative
1713 agreement with the US Federal Government.
1716 Internetwork Packet eXchange (IPX)
1717 Novell's protocol used by Netware. A router with IPX routing can
1718 interconnect LANs so that Novell Netware clients and servers can
1719 communicate. See also: Local Area Network.
1722 A five year project, partially supported by the National Science
1723 Foundation, to provide network information services to the
1724 networking community. The InterNIC began operations in April of
1725 1993 and is now a collaborative project of two organizations:
1726 AT&T, which provides Directory and Database Services from South
1727 Plainsfield, NJ; and Network Solutions, Inc., which provides
1728 Registration Services from their headquarters in Herndon, VA.
1729 Services are provided via the Internet, and by telephone, FAX, and
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1738 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1742 The ability of software and hardware on multiple machines from
1743 multiple vendors to communicate meaningfully.
1746 See: Internet Protocol
1749 See: Internet Protocol Version 6
1752 The 32-bit address defined by the Internet Protocol in RFC 791.
1753 It is usually represented in dotted decimal notation. See also:
1754 dot address, internet address, Internet Protocol, network address,
1755 subnet address, host address.
1761 See: Internetwork Packet eXchange
1764 See: Internet Registry
1767 See: Internet Relay Chat
1770 See: Internet Research Steering Group
1773 See: Internet Research Task Force
1776 See: Intermediate System
1779 See: Intermediate System-Intermediate System
1782 See: Integrated Services Digital Network
1785 See: International Organization for Standardization
1787 ISO Development Environment (ISODE)
1788 Software that allows OSI services to use a TCP/IP network.
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1794 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1797 Pronounced eye-so-dee-eee. See also: Open Systems
1798 Interconnection, TCP/IP Protocol Suite.
1801 See: Internet Society
1804 See: ISO Development Environment
1807 See: International Telecommunications Union -
1808 Telecommunications Standards Sector
1811 See: International Telecommunications Union
1817 A popular implementation of TCP/IP and associated protocols for
1818 amateur packet radio systems. See also: TCP/IP Protocol Suite.
1822 Kerberos is the security system of MIT's Project Athena. It is
1823 based on symmetric key cryptography. See also: encryption.
1826 A popular file transfer protocol developed by Columbia University.
1827 Because Kermit runs in most operating environments, it provides an
1828 easy method of file transfer. Kermit is NOT the same as FTP. See
1829 also: File Transfer Protocol
1833 A "Knowledge Robot" is a program which seeks out information based
1834 on specified criteria. "Knowbot," as trademarked by CNRI, refers
1835 specifically to the search engine for Knowbot Information
1836 Services. See also: Corporation for National Research
1837 Initiatives, X.500, white pages, whois, netfind.
1839 Knowbot Information Services
1840 An experimental directory service. See also: white pages, whois,
1844 See: Local Area Network
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1850 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1854 Communication networks for computers may be organized as a set of
1855 more or less independent protocols, each in a different layer
1856 (also called level). The lowest layer governs direct host-to-host
1857 communication between the hardware at different hosts; the highest
1858 consists of user applications. Each layer builds on the layer
1859 beneath it. For each layer, programs at different hosts use
1860 protocols appropriate to the layer to communicate with each other.
1861 TCP/IP has five layers of protocols; OSI has seven. The
1862 advantages of different layers of protocols is that the methods of
1863 passing information from one layer to another are specified
1864 clearly as part of the protocol suite, and changes within a
1865 protocol layer are prevented from affecting the other layers.
1866 This greatly simplifies the task of designing and maintaining
1867 communication programs. See also: Open Systems Interconnection,
1868 TCP/IP Protocol Suite.
1871 See: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
1873 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
1874 This protocol provides access for management and browser
1875 applications that provide read/write interactive access to the
1876 X.500 Directory. See also: X.500.
1879 A pointer which may be used to retreive the file or data to which
1883 An automated mailing list distribution system. List servers
1884 handle the administrivia of mailing list maintenance, such as the
1885 adding and deleting of list members.
1888 A format for storage or transmission of binary data in which the
1889 least significant byte (bit) comes first. See also: big-endian.
1893 See: Logical Link Control
1895 Local Area Network (LAN)
1896 A data network intended to serve an area of only a few square
1897 kilometers or less. Because the network is known to cover only a
1898 small area, optimizations can be made in the network signal
1899 protocols that permit data rates up to 100Mb/s. See also:
1900 Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface, token ring,
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1906 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
1909 Metropolitan Area Network, Wide Area Network.
1912 Logical Link Control (LLC)
1913 The upper portion of the datalink layer, as defined in IEEE 802.2.
1914 The LLC sublayer presents a uniform interface to the user of the
1915 datalink service, usually the network layer. Beneath the LLC
1916 sublayer is the MAC sublayer. See also: 802.x, layer, Media
1920 No active participation on the part of a subscriber to an mailing
1921 list or USENET newsgroup. A person who is lurking is just
1922 listening to the discussion. Lurking is encouraged for beginners
1923 who need to get up to speed on the history of the group. See
1924 also: Electronic Mail, mailing list, Usenet.
1928 Lycos, Inc. is a new venture formed in late June 1995, to develop
1929 and market the Lycos technology originally developed under the
1930 direction of Dr. Michael ("Fuzzy") Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon
1931 University. The part of Lycos you see when you do a search is the
1932 search engine. "Lycos" comes from Lycosidae, a cosmopolitan
1933 family of relatively large active ground spiders (Wolf Spiders)
1934 that catch their prey by pursuit, rather than in a web.
1935 [Source: Lycos's FAQ]
1938 See: Media Access Control
1941 The hardware address of a device connected to a shared media. See
1942 also: Media Access Control, Ethernet, token ring.
1946 A mail gateway that forwards electronic mail between two or more
1947 networks while ensuring that the messages it forwards meet certain
1948 administrative criteria. A mail bridge is simply a specialized
1949 form of mail gateway that enforces an administrative policy with
1950 regard to what mail it forwards. See also: Electronic Mail, mail
1954 Mail Exchange Record (MX Record)
1955 A DNS resource record type indicating which host can handle mail
1956 for a particular domain. See also: Domain Name System, Electronic
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1969 Part of an electronic mail delivery system which allows a message
1970 to be delivered to a list of addresses. Mail exploders are used
1971 to implement mailing lists. Users send messages to a single
1972 address and the mail exploder takes care of delivery to the
1973 individual mailboxes in the list. See also: Electronic Mail,
1974 email address, mailing list.
1978 A machine that connects two or more electronic mail systems
1979 (including dissimilar mail systems) and transfers messages between
1980 them. Sometimes the mapping and translation can be quite complex,
1981 and it generally requires a store-and-forward scheme whereby the
1982 message is received from one system completely before it is
1983 transmitted to the next system, after suitable translations. See
1984 also: Electronic Mail.
1988 A series of machine names used to direct electronic mail from one
1989 user to another. This system of email addressing has been used
1990 primarily in UUCP networks which are trying to eliminate its use
1991 altogether. See also: bang path, email address, UNIX-to-UNIX
1995 A software program that distributes files or information in
1996 response to requests sent via email. Internet examples include
1997 Almanac and netlib. Mail servers have also been used in Bitnet to
1998 provide FTP-like services. See also: Bitnet, Electronic Mail,
2003 A list of email addresses, used by a mail exploder, to forward
2004 messages to groups of people. Generally, a mailing list is used
2005 to discuss certain set of topics, and different mailing lists
2006 discuss different topics. A mailing list may be moderated. This
2007 means that messages sent to the list are actually sent to a
2008 moderator who determines whether or not to send the messages on to
2009 everyone else. Requests to subscribe to, or leave, a mailing list
2010 should ALWAYS be sent to the list's "-request" address (e.g.
2011 ietf-request@cnri.reston.va.us for the IETF mailing list) or
2012 majordomo server. See also: Electronic Mail, mail exploder, email
2016 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 36]
2018 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2021 address, moderator, majordomo.
2024 A program which handles mailing list maintenance (affectionately
2025 known as administrivia) such as adding and removing addresses from
2026 mailing lists. See also: email address, mailing list.
2029 See: Metropolitan Area Network
2031 Management Information Base (MIB)
2032 The set of parameters an SNMP management station can query or set
2033 in the SNMP agent of a network device (e.g. router). Standard,
2034 minimal MIBs have been defined, and vendors often have Private
2035 enterprise MIBs. In theory, any SNMP manager can talk to any SNMP
2036 agent with a properly defined MIB. See also: client-server model,
2037 Simple Network Management Protocol.
2041 A humorous term applied to packets that turn up unexpectedly on
2042 the wrong network because of bogus routing entries. Also used as
2043 a name for a packet which has an altogether bogus (non-registered
2044 or ill-formed) internet address.
2047 Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
2048 The largest frame length which may be sent on a physical medium.
2049 See also: frame, fragment, fragmentation.
2052 The Multicast Backbone is based on IP multicasting using class-D
2053 addresses. The mbone concept was adopted at the March 1992 IETF
2054 in San Diego, during which it was used to audiocast to 40 people
2055 throughout the world. At the following meeting, in Cambridge, the
2056 name mbone was adopted. Since then the audiocast has become full
2057 two-way audio/video conferencing using two video channels, four
2058 audio channels, and involving hundreds of remote users. See also:
2059 multicast, Internet Engineering Task Force.
2064 Media Access Control (MAC)
2065 The lower portion of the datalink layer. The MAC differs for
2066 various physical media. See also: MAC Address, Ethernet, Logical
2067 Link Control, token ring.
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2074 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2077 Message Digest (MD-2, MD-4, MD-5)
2078 Message digests are algorithmic operations, generally performed on
2079 text, which produce a unique signature for that text. MD-2,
2080 described in RFC 1319; MD-4, described in RFC 1320; and MD-5,
2081 described in RFC 1321 all produce a 128-bit signature. They
2082 differ in their operating speed and resistance to crypto-analytic
2083 attack. Generally, one must be traded off for the other.
2086 See: packet switching
2088 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
2089 A data network intended to serve an area approximating that of a
2090 large city. Such networks are being implemented by innovative
2091 techniques, such as running fiber cables through subway tunnels.
2092 A popular example of a MAN is SMDS. See also: Local Area Network,
2093 Switched Multimegabit Data Service, Wide Area Network.
2097 See: Management Information Base
2099 Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP)
2100 A series of protocols built into most modems which error-check or
2101 compress data being transmitted over a phone line.
2104 Mid-level networks (a.k.a. regionals) make up the second level of
2105 the Internet hierarchy. They are the transit networks which
2106 connect the stub networks to the backbone networks. See also:
2107 backbone, Internet, stub network, transit network.
2110 See: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
2113 See: Microcom Networking Protocol
2116 A person, or small group of people, who manage moderated mailing
2117 lists and newsgroups. Moderators are responsible for determining
2118 which email submissions are passed on to list. See also:
2119 Electronic Mail, mailing list, Usenet.
2122 Multicast Open Shortest-Path First. See: Open Shortest-Path First.
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2130 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2134 See: Maximum Transmission Unit
2137 See: Multi-User Dungeon
2140 A packet with a special destination address which multiple nodes
2141 on the network may be willing to receive. See also: broadcast,
2145 A host which has more than one connection to a network. The host
2146 may send and receive data over any of the links but will not route
2147 traffic for other nodes. See also: host, router.
2150 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
2151 An extension to Internet email which provides the ability to
2152 transfer non-textual data, such as graphics, audio and fax. See
2153 also: Electronic Mail
2155 Multi-User Dungeon (MUD)
2156 Adventure, role playing games, or simulations played on the
2157 Internet. Devotees call them "text-based virtual reality
2158 adventures." The games can feature fantasy combat, booby traps
2159 and magic. Players interact in real time and can change the
2160 "world" in the game as they play it. Most MUDs are based on the
2161 Telnet protocol. See also: Telnet.
2165 See: Mail Exchange Record
2168 See: Negative Acknowledgment
2171 The process of mapping a name into its corresponding address. See
2172 also: Domain Name System.
2176 A commonly distributed set of names in which all names are unique.
2179 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
2180 United States governmental body that provides assistance in
2184 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 39]
2186 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2189 developing standards. Formerly the National Bureau of Standards.
2192 National Research and Education Network (NREN)
2193 The NREN is the realization of an interconnected gigabit computer
2194 network devoted to Hign Performance Computing and Communications.
2195 See also: HPPC, IINREN.
2198 National Science Foundation (NSF)
2199 A U.S. government agency whose purpose is to promote the
2200 advancement of science. NSF funds science researchers, scientific
2201 projects, and infrastructure to improve the quality of scientific
2202 research. The NSFNET, funded by NSF, was once an essential part
2203 of academic and research communications. It was a highspeed,
2204 hierarchical "network of networks." At the highest level, it had
2205 a backbone network of nodes, interconnected with T3 (45Mbps)
2206 facilities which spaned the continental United States. Attached
2207 to that were mid-level networks, and attached to the mid-levels
2208 were campus and local networks. See also: backbone network, mid-
2211 Negative Acknowledgment (NAK)
2212 Response to the receipt of either a corrupted or unnexpected
2213 packet of information. See also: Acknowledgement.
2216 A research prototype to provide a simple Internet "white pages"
2217 user directory. Developed at the University of Colorado, Boulder,
2218 it tries to locate telephone and email information given a
2219 person's name and a rough description of where the person works.
2220 See also: Knowbot, whois, white pages, X.500.
2221 [Source: Ryan Moats]
2224 A pun on "etiquette" referring to proper behavior on a network.
2225 RFC 1855 (FYI 28) contains a netiquette guide produced by the User
2226 Services area of the IETF. See also: Acceptable Use Policy,
2227 Internet Engineering Task Force.
2233 A computer network is a data communications system which
2234 interconnects computer systems at various different sites. A
2235 network may be composed of any combination of LANs, MANs or WANs.
2236 See also: Local Area Network, Metropolitan Area Network, Wide Area
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2242 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2248 The network portion of an IP address. For a class A network, the
2249 network address is the first byte of the IP address. For a class
2250 B network, the network address is the first two bytes of the IP
2251 address. For a class C network, the network address is the first
2252 three bytes of the IP address. In each case, the remainder is the
2253 host address. In the Internet, assigned network addresses are
2254 globally unique. See also: Internet, IP address, subnet address,
2255 host address, Internet Registry.
2257 Network File System (NFS)
2258 A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems, and defined in RFC 1094
2259 (RFC 1813 defines Version 3), which allows a computer system to
2260 access files over a network as if they were on its local disks.
2261 This protocol has been incorporated in products by more than two
2262 hundred companies, and is now a de facto Internet standard.
2265 Network Information Center (NIC)
2266 A NIC provides information, assistance and services to network
2267 users. See also: Network Operations Center.
2269 Network Information Services (NIS)
2270 A set of services, generally provided by a NIC, to assist users in
2271 using the network. See also: Network Information Center.
2273 Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
2274 A protocol, defined in RFC 977, for the distribution, inquiry,
2275 retrieval, and posting of news articles. See also: Usenet.
2281 See: network address
2283 Network Operations Center (NOC)
2284 A location from which the operation of a network or internet is
2285 monitored. Additionally, this center usually serves as a
2286 clearinghouse for connectivity problems and efforts to resolve
2287 those problems. See also: Network Information Center.
2290 Network Time Protocol (NTP)
2291 A protocol that assures accurate local timekeeping with reference
2292 to radio and atomic clocks located on the Internet. This protocol
2296 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 41]
2298 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2301 is capable of synchronizing distributed clocks within milliseconds
2302 over long time periods. See also: Internet.
2306 See: Network File System
2309 See: Network Information Center
2312 This is the domain name of the DDN NIC. See also: Defense Data
2313 Network, Domain Name System, Network Information Center.
2316 See: Network Information Services
2319 See: National Institute of Standards and Technology
2322 See: Network News Transfer Protocol
2325 See: Network Operations Center
2327 Nodal Switching System (NSS)
2328 Main routing nodes in the NSFnet backbone. See also: backbone,
2329 National Science Foundation.
2333 An addressable device attached to a computer network. See also:
2337 See: National Research and Education Network
2340 See: National Science Foundation
2343 See: Nodal Switching System
2346 See: Network Time Protocol
2352 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 42]
2354 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2358 See: Online Computer Library Catalog
2361 An octet is 8 bits. This term is used in networking, rather than
2362 byte, because some systems have bytes that are not 8 bits long.
2364 Online Computer Library Catalog
2365 OCLC is a nonprofit membership organization offering computer-
2366 based services to libraries, educational organizations, and their
2367 users. The OCLC library information network connects more than
2368 10,000 libraries worldwide. Libraries use the OCLC System for
2369 cataloging, interlibrary loan, collection development,
2370 bibliographic verification, and reference searching.
2373 Open Shortest-Path First (OSPF)
2374 A link state, as opposed to distance vector, routing protocol. It
2375 is an Internet standard IGP defined in RFCs 1583 and 1793. The
2376 multicast version, MOSPF, is defined in RFC 1584. See also:
2377 Interior Gateway Protocol, Routing Information Protocol.
2379 Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)
2380 A suite of protocols, designed by ISO committees, to be the
2381 international standard computer network architecture. See also:
2382 International Organization for Standardization.
2385 See: Open Systems Interconnection
2388 A seven-layer structure designed to describe computer network
2389 architectures and the way that data passes through them. This
2390 model was developed by the ISO in 1978 to clearly define the
2391 interfaces in multivendor networks, and to provide users of those
2392 networks with conceptual guidelines in the construction of such
2393 networks. See also: International Organization for
2398 See: Open Shortest-Path First
2401 The unit of data sent across a network. "Packet" a generic term
2402 used to describe unit of data at all levels of the protocol stack,
2403 but it is most correctly used to describe application data units.
2404 See also: datagram, frame.
2408 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 43]
2410 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2413 Packet InterNet Groper (PING)
2414 A program used to test reachability of destinations by sending
2415 them an ICMP echo request and waiting for a reply. The term is
2416 used as a verb: "Ping host X to see if it is up!" See also:
2417 Internet Control Message Protocol.
2420 Packet Switch Node (PSN)
2421 A dedicated computer whose purpose is to accept, route and forward
2422 packets in a packet switched network. See also: packet switching,
2427 A communications paradigm in which packets (messages) are
2428 individually routed between hosts, with no previously established
2429 communication path. See also: circuit switching, connection-
2430 oriented, connectionless.
2436 See: Protocol Data Unit
2439 See: Privacy Enhanced Mail
2442 See: Pretty Good Privacy
2445 See: Packet INternet Groper
2447 Point Of Presence (POP)
2448 A site where there exists a collection of telecommunications
2449 equipment, usually digital leased lines and multi-protocol
2452 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
2453 The Point-to-Point Protocol, defined in RFC 1661, provides a
2454 method for transmitting packets over serial point-to-point links.
2455 There are many other RFCs which define extensions to the basic
2456 protocol. See also: Serial Line IP.
2460 See: Post Office Protocol and Point Of Presence
2464 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 44]
2466 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2470 A port is a transport layer demultiplexing value. Each
2471 application has a unique port number associated with it. See
2472 also: Transmission Control Protocol, User Datagram Protocol.
2474 Post Office Protocol (POP)
2475 A protocol designed to allow single user hosts to read electronic
2476 mail from a server. Version 3, the most recent and most widely
2477 used, is defined in RFC 1725. See also: Electronic Mail.
2479 Postal Telegraph and Telephone (PTT)
2480 Outside the USA, PTT refers to a telephone service provider, which
2481 is usually a monopoly, in a particular country.
2484 The person responsible for taking care of electronic mail
2485 problems, answering queries about users, and other related work at
2486 a site. See also: Electronic Mail.
2490 See: Point-to-Point Protocol
2492 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
2493 A program, developed by Phil Zimmerman, which cryptographically
2494 protects files and electronic mail from being read by others. It
2495 may also be used to digitally sign a document or message, thus
2496 authenticating the creator. See also: encryption, Data Encryption
2499 Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM)
2500 Internet email which provides confidentiality, authentication and
2501 message integrity using various encryption methods. See also:
2502 Electronic Mail, encryption.
2505 A distributed filesystem which provides the user with the ability
2506 to create multiple views of a single collection of files
2507 distributed across the Internet. Prospero provides a file naming
2508 system, and file access is provided by existing access methods
2509 (e.g. anonymous FTP and NFS). The Prospero protocol is also used
2510 for communication between clients and servers in the archie
2511 system. See also: anonymous FTP, archie, archive site, Gopher,
2512 Network File System, Wide Area Information Servers.
2515 A formal description of message formats and the rules two
2516 computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can
2520 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 45]
2522 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2525 describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g.,
2526 the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or
2527 high-level exchanges between allocation programs (e.g., the way in
2528 which two programs transfer a file across the Internet).
2532 A device/program which translates between different protocols
2533 which serve similar functions (e.g. TCP and TP4).
2535 Protocol Data Unit (PDU)
2536 "PDU" is internationalstandardscomitteespeak for packet. See
2540 A layered set of protocols which work together to provide a set of
2541 network functions. See also: layer, protocol.
2544 The technique in which one machine, usually a router, answers ARP
2545 requests intended for another machine. By "faking" its identity,
2546 the router accepts responsibility for routing packets to the
2547 "real" destination. Proxy ARP allows a site to use a single IP
2548 address with two physical networks. Subnetting would normally be
2549 a better solution. See also: Address Resolution Protocol
2553 See: Packet Switch Node.
2556 See: Postal, Telegraph and Telephone
2559 A backup of packets awaiting processing.
2562 Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne. See: Trans-
2563 European Research and Education Networking Association.
2566 See: Reverse Address Resolution Protocol
2569 Regional Bell Operating Company
2576 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 46]
2578 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2581 Read The F*cking Manual (RTFM)
2582 This acronym is often used when someone asks a simple or common
2585 Read The Source Code (RTSC)
2586 This acronym is often used when a software developer asks a
2587 question about undocumented code.
2590 The IP process in which a previously fragmented packet is
2591 reassembled before being passed to the transport layer. See also:
2598 See: mid-level network
2601 Operating on a remote computer, using a protocol over a computer
2602 network, as though locally attached. See also: Telnet.
2604 Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
2605 An easy and popular paradigm for implementing the client-server
2606 model of distributed computing. In general, a request is sent to
2607 a remote system to execute a designated procedure, using arguments
2608 supplied, and the result returned to the caller. There are many
2609 variations and subtleties in various implementations, resulting in
2610 a variety of different (incompatible) RPC protocols.
2614 A device which propagates electrical signals from one cable to
2615 another. See also: bridge, gateway, router.
2617 Request For Comments (RFC)
2618 The document series, begun in 1969, which describes the Internet
2619 suite of protocols and related experiments. Not all (in fact very
2620 few) RFCs describe Internet standards, but all Internet standards
2621 are written up as RFCs. The RFC series of documents is unusual in
2622 that the proposed protocols are forwarded by the Internet research
2623 and development community, acting on their own behalf, as opposed
2624 to the formally reviewed and standardized protocols that are
2625 promoted by organizations such as CCITT and ANSI. See also: BCP,
2632 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 47]
2634 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2637 Reseaux IP Europeenne (RIPE)
2638 A collaboration between European networks which use the TCP/IP
2641 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
2642 A protocol, defined in RFC 903, which provides the reverse
2643 function of ARP. RARP maps a hardware (MAC) address to an
2644 internet address. It is used primarily by diskless nodes when
2645 they first initialize to find their internet address. See also:
2646 Address Resolution Protocol, BOOTP, internet address, MAC address.
2649 See: Request For Comments
2652 The Internet standard format for electronic mail message headers.
2653 Mail experts often refer to "822 messages." The name comes from
2654 RFC 822, which contains the specification. 822 format was
2655 previously known as 733 format. See also: Electronic Mail.
2659 See: Routing Information Protocol
2662 See: Reseaux IP Europeenne
2664 Round-Trip Time (RTT)
2665 A measure of the current delay on a network.
2669 The path that network traffic takes from its source to its
2670 destination. Also, a possible path from a given host to another
2671 host or destination.
2674 Route Daemon. A program which runs under 4.2BSD/4.3BSD UNIX
2675 systems (and derived operating systems) to propagate routes among
2676 machines on a local area network, using the RIP protocol.
2677 Pronounced "route-dee". See also: Routing Information Protocol,
2681 A device which forwards traffic between networks. The forwarding
2682 decision is based on network layer information and routing tables,
2683 often constructed by routing protocols. See also: bridge,
2684 gateway, Exterior Gateway Protocol, Interior Gateway Protocol.
2688 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 48]
2690 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2694 The process of selecting the correct interface and next hop for a
2695 packet being forwarded. See also: hop, router, Exterior Gateway
2696 Protocol, Interior Gateway Protocol.
2699 A set of routers exchanging routing information within an
2700 administrative domain. See also: Administrative Domain, router.
2702 Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
2703 A distance vector, as opposed to link state, routing protocol. It
2704 is an Internet standard IGP defined in RFC 1058. See also:
2705 Interior Gateway Protocol, Open Shortest-Path First.
2708 See: Remote Procedure Call
2711 A public-key cryptographic system which may be used for encryption
2712 and authentication. It was invented in 1977 and named for its
2713 inventors: Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. See also:
2714 encryption, Data Encryption Standard, Pretty Good Privacy.
2717 See: Read The F*cking Manual
2720 See: Read The Source Code
2723 See: Round-Trip Time
2726 See: Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
2728 Serial Line IP (SLIP)
2729 A protocol used to run IP over serial lines, such as telephone
2730 circuits or RS-232 cables, interconnecting two systems. SLIP is
2731 defined in RFC 1055, but is not an Internet Standard. It is being
2732 replaced by PPP. See also: Point-to-Point Protocol.
2735 A provider of resources (e.g. file servers and name servers). See
2736 also: client, Domain Name System, Network File System.
2739 See: Standardized Generalized Markup Language
2744 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 49]
2746 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2750 Special Interest Group
2753 The three or four line message at the bottom of a piece of email
2754 or a Usenet article which identifies the sender. Large signatures
2755 (over five lines) are generally frowned upon. See also:
2756 Electronic Mail, Usenet.
2758 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
2759 A protocol used to transfer electronic mail between computers. It
2760 is specified in RFC 821, with extensions specified in many other
2761 RFCs. It is a server to server protocol, so other protocols are
2762 used to access the messages. See also: Electronic Mail, Post
2763 Office Protocol, RFC 822.
2765 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
2766 The Internet standard protocol developed to manage nodes on an IP
2767 network. The first version is defined in RFC 1157 (STD 15).
2768 SNMPv2 (version 2) is defined in too many RFCs to list. It is
2769 currently possible to manage wiring hubs, toasters, jukeboxes,
2770 etc. See also: Management Information Base.
2776 See: Switched Multimegabit Data Service
2779 See: Structure of Management Information
2782 See: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
2785 See: Systems Network Architecture
2788 A pejorative term referring to the U.S. postal service.
2791 See: Simple Network Management Protocol
2794 See: Synchronous Optical NETwork
2800 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 50]
2802 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2805 Standardized Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
2806 An international standard for the definition of system-
2807 independent, device-independent methods of representing text in
2808 electronic form. See also: Hypertext Markup Language.
2811 A subseries of RFCs that specify Internet standards. The official
2812 list of Internet standards is in STD 1. See also: Request For
2816 A type of transport service that allows its client to send data in
2817 a continuous stream. The transport service will guarantee that
2818 all data will be delivered to the other end in the same order as
2819 sent and without duplicates. See also: Transmission Control
2823 Structure of Management Information (SMI)
2824 The rules used to define the objects that can be accessed via a
2825 network management protocol. These rules are defined in RFC 1155
2826 (STD 17). The acronym is pronounced "Ess Em Eye." See also:
2827 Management Information Base. .br [Source: RFC1208]
2830 A stub network only carries packets to and from local hosts. Even
2831 if it has paths to more than one other network, it does not carry
2832 traffic for other networks. See also: backbone, transit network.
2835 A portion of a network, which may be a physically independent
2836 network segment, which shares a network address with other
2837 portions of the network and is distinguished by a subnet number.
2838 A subnet is to a network what a network is to an internet. See
2839 also: internet, network.
2843 The subnet portion of an IP address. In a subnetted network, the
2844 host portion of an IP address is split into a subnet portion and a
2845 host portion using an address (subnet) mask. See also: address
2846 mask, IP address, network address, host address.
2856 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 51]
2858 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2862 An aggregation of IP network addresses advertised as a single
2863 classless network address. For example, given four Class C IP
2864 networks: 192.0.8.0, 192.0.9.0, 192.0.10.0 and 192.0.11.0, each
2865 having the intrinsic network mask of 255.255.255.0; one can
2866 advertise the address 192.0.8.0 with a subnet mask of
2867 255.255.252.0. See also: IP address, network address, network
2868 mask, Classless Inter-domain Routing.
2870 Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS)
2871 An emerging high-speed datagram-based public data network service
2872 developed by Bellcore and expected to be widely used by telephone
2873 companies as the basis for their data networks. See also:
2874 Metropolitan Area Network.
2877 Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
2878 The European standard for high-speed data communications over
2879 fiber-optic media. The transmission rates range from 155.52Mbps
2882 Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET)
2883 SONET is an international standard for high-speed data
2884 communications over fiber-optic media. The transmission rates
2885 range from 51.84Mbps to 2.5Gbps.
2887 Systems Network Architecture (SNA)
2888 A proprietary networking architecture used by IBM and IBM-
2889 compatible mainframe computers.
2893 A term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit a DS-1
2894 formatted digital signal at 1.544 megabits per second.
2897 A term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit a DS-3
2898 formatted digital signal at 44.746 megabits per second.
2902 See: Terminal Access Controller (TAC)
2905 A protocol which allows two people on remote computers to
2906 communicate in a real-time fashion. See also: Internet Relay
2912 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 52]
2914 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2918 See: Transmission Control Protocol
2920 TCP/IP Protocol Suite
2921 Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol. This is a
2922 common shorthand which refers to the suite of transport and
2923 application protocols which runs over IP. See also: IP, ICMP,
2924 TCP, UDP, FTP, Telnet, SMTP, SNMP.
2927 The original name for what is now SprintNet. It should not be
2928 confused with the Telnet protocol or application program.
2931 Telnet is the Internet standard protocol for remote terminal
2932 connection service. It is defined in RFC 854 and extended with
2933 options by many other RFCs.
2936 See: Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association
2938 Terminal Access Controller (TAC)
2939 A device which was once used to connect terminals to the Internet,
2940 usually using dialup modem connections and the TACACS protocol.
2941 While the device is no longer in use, TACACS+ is a protocol in
2945 A program that allows a computer to emulate a terminal. The
2946 workstation thus appears as a terminal to the remote host.
2950 A device which connects many terminals to a LAN through one
2951 network connection. A terminal server can also connect many
2952 network users to its asynchronous ports for dial-out capabilities
2953 and printer access. See also: Local Area Network.
2955 Three Letter Acronym (TLA)
2956 A tribute to the use of acronyms in the computer field. See also:
2957 Extended Four Letter Acronym.
2960 A field in the IP header which indicates how long this packet
2961 should be allowed to survive before being discarded. It is
2962 primarily used as a hop count. See also: Internet Protocol.
2968 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 53]
2970 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
2974 See: Three Letter Acronym
2977 A variant of the Telnet program that allows one to attach to IBM
2978 mainframes and use the mainframe as if you had a 3270 or similar
2983 A token ring is a type of LAN with nodes wired into a ring. Each
2984 node constantly passes a control message (token) on to the next;
2985 whichever node has the token can send a message. Often, "Token
2986 Ring" is used to refer to the IEEE 802.5 token ring standard,
2987 which is the most common type of token ring. See also: 802.x,
2991 A network topology shows the computers and the links between them.
2992 A network layer must stay abreast of the current network topology
2993 to be able to route packets to their final destination.
2997 A program available on many systems which traces the path a packet
2998 takes to a destination. It is mostly used to debug routing
2999 problems between hosts. There is also a traceroute protocol
3000 defined in RFC 1393.
3002 Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA)
3003 TERENA was formed in October 1994 by the merger of RARE and EARN
3004 to promote and participate in the development of a high quality
3005 international information and telecommunications infrastructure
3006 for the benefit of research and education. See also: Reseaux
3007 Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne, European Academic and
3009 [Source: TERENA Statutes]
3012 Transmitter-receiver. The physical device that connects a host
3013 interface to a local area network, such as Ethernet. Ethernet
3014 transceivers contain electronics that apply signals to the cable
3015 and sense collisions.
3019 A transit network passes traffic between networks in addition to
3020 carrying traffic for its own hosts. It must have paths to at
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3026 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3029 least two other networks. See also: backbone, stub network.
3031 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
3032 An Internet Standard transport layer protocol defined in RFC 793.
3033 It is connection-oriented and stream-oriented, as opposed to UDP.
3034 See also: connection-oriented, stream-oriented, User Datagram
3038 A computer program which carries within itself a means to allow
3039 the creator of the program access to the system using it. See
3049 Tunnelling refers to encapsulation of protocol A within protocol
3050 B, such that A treats B as though it were a datalink layer.
3051 Tunnelling is used to get data between administrative domains
3052 which use a protocol that is not supported by the internet
3053 connecting those domains. See also: Administrative Domain.
3056 A type of cable in which pairs of conductors are twisted together
3057 to produce certain electrical properties.
3060 See: User Datagram Protocol
3063 An address which only one host will recognize. See also:
3064 broadcast, multicast.
3066 Uniform Resource Locators (URL)
3067 A URL is a compact (most of the time) string representation for a
3068 resource available on the Internet. URLs are primarily used to
3069 retrieve information using WWW. The syntax and semantics for URLs
3070 are defined in RFC 1738. See also: World Wide Web.
3072 Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)
3073 This is Greenwich Mean Time.
3080 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 55]
3082 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3085 UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy (UUCP)
3086 This was initially a program run under the UNIX operating system
3087 that allowed one UNIX system to send files to another UNIX system
3088 via dial-up phone lines. Today, the term is more commonly used to
3089 describe the large international network which uses the UUCP
3090 protocol to pass news and electronic mail. See also: Electronic
3094 A story, which may have started with a grain of truth, that has
3095 been embroidered and retold until it has passed into the realm of
3096 myth. It is an interesting phenonmenon that these stories get
3097 spread so far, so fast and so often. Urban legends never die,
3098 they just end up on the Internet! Some legends that periodically
3099 make their rounds include "The Infamous Modem Tax," "Craig
3100 Shergold/Brain Tumor/Get Well Cards," and "The $250 Cookie
3105 See: Uniform Resource Locators
3108 A collection of thousands of topically named newsgroups, the
3109 computers which run the protocols, and the people who read and
3110 submit Usenet news. Not all Internet hosts subscribe to Usenet
3111 and not all Usenet hosts are on the Internet. See also: Network
3112 News Transfer Protocol, UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy.
3115 User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
3116 An Internet Standard transport layer protocol defined in RFC 768.
3117 It is a connectionless protocol which adds a level of reliability
3118 and multiplexing to IP. See also: connectionless, Transmission
3122 See: Universal Time Coordinated
3125 See: UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy
3128 A program which reverses the effect of uuencode. See also:
3132 A program which reversibly converts a binary file in ASCII. It is
3136 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 56]
3138 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3141 used to send binary files via email, which generally does not
3142 allow (or garbles) the transmission of binary information. The
3143 original binary can be restored with uudecode. The encoding
3144 process generally creates an ASCII file larger than the original
3145 binary, so compressing the binary before running uuencode is
3149 A Gopher utility which effectively searches Gopher servers based
3150 on a user's list of keywords. The name was chosen to be a "mate"
3151 to another utility named "Archie." It later became an acronym for
3152 Very Easy Rodent Oriented Netwide Index to Computer Archives. See
3153 also: archie, Gopher.
3156 A network service which provides connection-oriented service
3157 without necessarily doing circuit-switching. See also:
3158 connection-oriented.
3161 A program which replicates itself on computer systems by
3162 incorporating itself into other programs which are shared among
3163 computer systems. See also: Trojan Horse, worm.
3169 See: Wide Area Information Servers
3172 See: Wide area network
3175 A WWW search engine. The aim of the WebCrawler Project is to
3176 provide a high-quality, fast, and free Internet search service.
3177 The WebCrawler may be reached at "http://webcrawler.com/".
3178 [Source: WebCrawler's "WebCrawler Facts"]
3184 The Internet supports several databases that contain basic
3185 information about users, such as e-mail addresses, telephone
3186 numbers, and postal addresses. These databases can be searched to
3187 get information about particular individuals. Because they serve
3188 a function akin to the telephone book, these databases are often
3192 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 57]
3194 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3197 referred to as "white pages." See also: Knowbot, netfind, whois,
3201 An Internet program which allows users to query a database of
3202 people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and
3203 hosts. The primary database is kept at the InterNIC. The
3204 information stored includes a person's company name, address,
3205 phone number and email address. The latest version of the
3206 protocol, WHOIS++, is defined in RFCs 1834 and 1835. See also:
3207 InterNIC, white pages, Knowbot, netfind, X.500.
3209 Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)
3210 A distributed information service which offers simple natural
3211 language input, indexed searching for fast retrieval, and a
3212 "relevance feedback" mechanism which allows the results of initial
3213 searches to influence future searches. Public domain
3214 implementations are available. See also: archie, Gopher,
3217 Wide Area Network (WAN)
3218 A network, usually constructed with serial lines, which covers a
3219 large geographic area. See also: Local Area Network, Metropolitan
3223 A working group, within the IETF, is a group of people who work
3224 under a charter to achieve a certain goal. That goal may be the
3225 creation of an Informational document, the creation of a protocol
3226 specification, or the resolution of problems in the Internet.
3227 Most working groups have a finite lifetime. That is, once a
3228 working group has achieved its goal, it disbands. There is no
3229 official membership for a working group. Unofficially, a working
3230 group member is somebody who is on that working group's mailing
3231 list; however, anyone may attend a working group meeting. See
3232 also: Internet Engineering Task Force, Birds Of a Feather.
3234 World Wide Web (WWW, W3)
3235 A hypertext-based, distributed information system created by
3236 researchers at CERN in Switzerland. Users may create, edit or
3237 browse hypertext documents. The clients and servers are freely
3241 A computer program which replicates itself and is self-
3242 propagating. Worms, as opposed to viruses, are meant to spawn in
3243 network environments. Network worms were first defined by Shoch &
3244 Hupp of Xerox in ACM Communications (March 1982). The Internet
3248 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 58]
3250 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3253 worm of November 1988 is perhaps the most famous; it successfully
3254 propagated itself on over 6,000 systems across the Internet. See
3255 also: Trojan Horse, virus.
3264 What You See is What You Get
3267 X is the name for TCP/IP based network-oriented window systems.
3268 Network window systems allow a program to use a display on a
3269 different computer. The most widely-implemented window system is
3270 X11 - a component of MIT's Project Athena.
3273 A data communications interface specification developed to
3274 describe how data passes into and out of public data
3275 communications networks. The CCITT and ISO approved protocol
3276 suite defines protocol layers 1 through 3.
3279 The CCITT and ISO standard for electronic mail. It is widely used
3280 in Europe and Canada.
3283 The CCITT and ISO standard for electronic directory services. See
3284 also: white pages, Knowbot, whois.
3287 See: eXternal Data Representation
3289 Xerox Network System (XNS)
3290 A protocol suite developed by Xerox Corporation to run on LAN and
3291 WAN networks, where the LANs are typically Ethernet.
3292 Implementations exist for both Xerox's workstations and 4.3BSD,
3293 and 4.3BSD-derived, systems. XNS denotes not only the protocol
3294 stack, but also an architecture of standard programming
3295 interfaces, conventions, and service functions for authentication,
3296 directory, filing, email, and remote procedure call. XNS is also
3297 the name of Xerox's implementation. See also: Ethernet, Berkeley
3298 Software Distribution, Local Area Network, Wide Area Network.
3299 [Source: Jeff Hodges]
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3306 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3310 See: Xerox Network System
3314 Yahoo! is a hierarchical subject-oriented guide for the World Wide
3315 Web and Internet. Yahoo! lists sites and categorizes them into
3316 appropriate subject categories. Yahoo! may be reached at
3317 "http://www.yahoo.com/".
3318 [Source: Yahoo's "What is Yahoo?"]
3321 A historic (i.e., no longer in use) service used by UNIX
3322 administrators to manage databases distributed across a network.
3328 A logical group of network devices.
3360 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 60]
3362 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3367 BIG-LAN "BIG-LAN Frequently Asked Questions Memo", BIG-LAN DIGEST
3368 V4:I8, February 14, 1992.
3370 COMER Comer, Douglas, "Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles,
3371 Protocols and Architecture", Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
3374 FYI4 Malkin, G., A. Marine, "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers
3375 to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions", RFC 1325
3376 (FYI 4), Xylogics, SRI, May 1992.
3378 HACKER "THIS IS THE JARGON FILE", Version 2.9.8, January 1992.
3380 HPCC "Grand Challenges 1993: High Performance Computing and
3381 Communications", Committee on Physical, Mathmatical and
3382 Engineering Sciences of the Federal Coordinating Council for
3383 Science, Engineering and Technology.
3385 MALAMUD Malamud, Carl, "Analyzing Sun Networks", Van Nostrand
3386 Reinhold, New York, NY, 1992.
3388 NNSC "NNSC's Hypercard Tour of the Internet".
3390 LAQUEY LaQuey, Tracy, with Jeanne C. Ryer, "The Internet Companion:
3391 A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking", Addison-Wesley,
3394 NWNET Kochmer, Jonathan, and NorthWestNet, "The Internet Passport:
3395 NorthWestNets Guide to Our World Online", NorthWestNet,
3398 RFC1208 Jacobsen, O., D. Lynch, "A Glossary of Networking Terms", RFC
3399 1208, Interop, Inc., March 1991.
3401 STD1 Postel, J., "INTERNET OFFICIAL PROTOCOL STANDARDS", RFC 1920
3402 (STD 1), March 1996.
3404 STD2 Reynolds, J., J. Postel, "ASSIGNED NUMBERS", RFC 1700 (STD
3405 2), ISI, October 1994.
3407 TAN Tanenbaum, Andrew S., "Computer Networks; 2nd ed.", Prentice
3408 Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
3410 ZEN Kehoe, Brendan P., "Zen and the Art of the Internet",
3416 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 61]
3418 Internet Draft Glossary May 1996
3421 Security Considerations
3423 While security is not explicitly discussed in this document, some of
3424 the glossary's entries are security related. See the entries for
3425 Access Control List (ACL), authentication, Computer Emergency
3426 Response Team (CERT), cracker, Data Encryption Key (DEK), Data
3427 Encryption Standard (DES), encryption, Kerberos, Message Digest (MD-
3428 2, MD-4, MD-5), Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), Privacy Enhanced Mail
3429 (PEM), RSA, Trojan Horse, virus, and worm.
3437 Burlington, MA 01803
3439 Phone: (617) 238-6237
3440 EMail: gmalkin@Xylogics.COM
3472 Malkin Expires: 2Nov96 [Page 62]