TECHIE TERMS

A question about : TECHIE TERMS

Godders has suggested a glossary which is a great idea. This thread is for anyone to either add or ask.

If experienced pc users could post terms etc. that they think would be useful, that would be great. Also this would be a great place to ask what those initials really mean. For instance have you ever wondered what "chap", "gopher", "sock", "boot" or a "slip connection" is? Or what those initials stand for?

Let me kick off with a question:-

What does PPPoE refer to and what does it mean? What is Ethernet?

Best answers:

• PPPoA - Point to point protocol over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM): A networking method used to connect DSL and cable modems to the Internet. Note that all UK ADSL uses PPPoA. For more info see here.
  Ethernet - A packet-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). It defines wiring and signaling for the physical layer, and packet formats and protocols for the media access control (MAC)/data link layer of the OSI model. Ethernet is mostly standardized as IEEE's 802.3. It has become the most widespread LAN technology in use during the 1990s to the present (2003), and has largely replaced all other LAN standards such as token ring, FDDI, and ARCNET. For more info see here.
• LAN - Local Area Network, a network describing machines that are physically near you connected by ethernet
  WAN - Wide area Network - A network such as the internet that covers a large geographical area through a series of comms links such as adsl or dialup
  CHAP !- challenge handshake authentication protocol - !a means of communication where two machines agree on a way to exchange data - i ask you a question give me the right answer and we can talk.
  GOPHER - Used in the early days of the internet as a means of getting information from one place to another. Completely superceded by the web.
  BOOT - generally some kind of initialisation sequence
  SLIP - Serial Line interface protocol - a means of communication generally utilised on older unix and VMS machines
  NIC - Network Interface card - !a physical device that lets a machine participate on a LAN see above
  Modem - short for modulator/demodulator - converts a digital signal to an anlogue signal back to a digital one for communication down a phone line
  POP - Post office protocol - a way of communication to receive email
  SMTP - Simple mail transfer protocol - A means of communication to send email
  DNS - Domain name service translates host names into ip addresses
  IP address - a unique identifier for every machine onthe internet used in conjucntion with dns
  host name - the name of a machine on the internet or your local network
  FTP - File transfer protocol - !an efficient protocol for transferring files over the internet.
  Proxy server - A server that caches web pages for fast retrievel. only queries updates for a web page if it is in its cache rather than the whole page.
  end of part 1
  maninblack
• I did an HNC eCommerce course last year (web design and business on the net) and these websites were handy for computer references -
  www.whatis.com
  https://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/ -
  (Free Online Dictionary of Computing)
• Well, its says at the top about MP4 - was that a mistake? Or is there something called MP4? And if so, what is it?!
• MP4 is a video compression technology.
  Divx is based around it.
  maninblack
• OEM - see my separate thread under this one !
• A quickie term I've used a lot over the last couple of days:
  ISP = Internet Service Provider. A company who provide access onto the Internet either through you ringing them using a modem when you require access(Dial-Up) or through an 'Always On' connection such as ADSL or Cable. They then charge you for providing this service to you.
• And another
  DHCP = Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.
  Bored of trying to guess what your IP address should be? where your nearest DNS server's are? which gateways to use and other interesting things? ??? Then forget it all and just ask your local DHCP server what it should be and it will fill the blanks in for you.
  When you connect to any TCP/IP based network (including the Internet) then the commonest way to establish where eveything is around you is to ask a local DHCP server to give you all the information you need (most ISP's have them). This includes a TCP/IP address (who you are), DNS server addresses (computers that act like a huge directory of where everthing else is), and a Gateway (another topic!).
  These settings are generally found in the Network / Network Connections section of your Control Panel (using Windows anyway) under a section labelled TCP/IP. Unless you are told otherwise then normally these are left at 'Automatically obtain a xxxxxxx'
• Patch Cable
  Cable used to connect computer equipment using Ethernet.
  Fully described as Category 5 Enhanced Unshielded Twisted Pair - Cat5E UTP. Each end of the cable has a plastic male RJ45 connector.
  There are other categories but 5E is the most common today and will support Fast Ethernet and copper Gigabit Ethernet.
  Also available for specialised uses as Shielded Twisted Pair (STP - for reduced electromagnetic interference) and exterior grade for outdoor use.
  There are two types of wiring configuration, straight and crossover.
  Straight is used to connect PCs to hubs, switches, modems and routers. Crossover is used for direct PC to PC connections.
  Many newer network adaptors and hubs/switches have Auto-sensing Uplink which means they will work with either cable wiring pattern.
  Cables come in many lengths from about 0.2m upwards and many colours.
• Port Scanning:
  'Hackers' will try to scan the ports of your PC to see if any are open and vulnerable to attack. A hacker may be able to gain access to your PC via an open port. Firewalls are designed to prevent just such an occurence.
  Quote provided from here Thanks Lincslad
• Denial Of Service Attack:
  Many viruses which hit the headlines are ones which try to carry out Denial Of Service attacks on popular websites. The basic idea is to drive a website off the internet by flooding it with traffic from hundreds (if not thousands) of sources at once.
  Rather than go into techie detail about what such an attack is This firsthand account by Steve Gibson makes great reading and explains several of the concepts. (I am not affiliated with this site at all - but I have learned lots from it)
  NOTE: You don't have to try and understand everything - theres quite a lot on it.
• I'm not very good, with all this techie stuff so just some simple stuff would be good like:
  I know HTH is "hope this helps", but what does LOL mean?
  How do you go about putting pictures in the threads?
  How do you do links?
  Sorry, I did say I'm not very good :-[
• You'll find LaughOutLoud and many other acronyms here.
  To post an image use [img][/img]where the url of your image goes between the pair of square brackets. The image must be hosted on a website to do this. Use your own or one like www.uploadit.org
  To abbreviate urls use [ url= .....][/url] with the word you want to use as the link.
  So to type a link using the word 'here' you would put in without the spaces here
  Hence, upload images for free here
• Thanks for that ;D
  Will look in to it all more fully tomorrow when hubby is not trying to get on computer!
  Thanks again
  Squidgy
• You will find most of those subjects discussed more fully in the newly-renamed This Site - Questions & Suggestions Forum.
• I upgraded the crappy dvd burner that came with my Dell computer a couple of months ago for an all singing all dancing pioneer 108 dual layer burner errr what does dual layer do??? :
  Cheers,
  Pete.
• It's a way of doubling the capacity of a DVD by having two recordable 'Layers' within the disk instead of one.
  Click Here for details from Philips
• PURL - Presistent Uniform Resource Locator
  Functionally, a PURL is a URL. However, instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet resource, a PURL points to an intermediate resolution service. The PURL resolution service associates the PURL with the actual URL and returns that URL to the client. The client can then complete the URL transaction in the normal fashion. In Web parlance, this is a standard HTTP redirect.
  Really this is just a way of redirecting one link to another
• Thanks for that Godders. So I can now put 2 films on one DVD great.
  Pete.