| AAC | Advanced Audio Coding - An audio Compression method that is one of the MPEG standards, rather like MP3 but newer. AAC's proponents claim that AAC is superior to MP3. Apple's famous music Downloading shop supplies music encoded in AAC, but with the addition of Digital Rights Management (DRM). AAC is used a lot in the telecommunications industry, notably in mobile phones. |
| Access Point | A key component of a Wireless Network. The access point is the point at which the wireless network is connected to the wired network. Although the term is not actually used, a more familiar name might be "base station". In most wireless networks, the wireless computers communicate with an access point, not directly with each other. A wireless network may have several access points to increase the area coverage and/or Traffic capacity. Theoretically even a basic access point can support 256 simultaneously connected computers, but since they all have to share the same limited Bandwidth, this is not very practical. Some access points are able to daisy-chain with one another in order to extend the wireless reach of the network. The access point is usually responsible for the security of the wireless links, providing Authentication, Encryption and sometimes a Firewall between the wired and wireless neworks. Wireless networks have their own security Protocols, the most common being WEP and WPA. |
| Acrobat | The colloquial name for the most important document format in the world, PDF (Portable Document Format), which has become the Internet de facto standard for "paper" documents, because the free reader/printer program is available in versions to suit almost every type of computer on the planet. Acrobat is to PDF as Hoover is to vacuum cleaner. Acrobat is a trade mark of the software producer Adobe, whose marketing department has recently (stupidly) changed the name of the reader program to "Adobe Reader". What is an adobe, and who wants to read one? PDF is the important bit, and Adobe's competitors use sensible names such as "CutePDF", "PDF Creator" and "PrimoPDF". |
| ActiveX | A proprietary Microsoft technology that really has no place on the Internet because it is Windows-specific, but quite a few Web Sites insist on using ActiveX to enhance their users' browsing experience, and block out all the non-Windows potential users in the process. Not very clever, especially as there are lots of alternatives. |
| Active Directory | A proprietary Microsoft technology that aims to make large Networks more user-friendly. As the name "Directory" suggests, it is basically a system to allow users to find resources on a network, and for the Servers to keep track of users. Active Directory was introduced in Windows 2000 Server and replaces the old Windows NT security system, and it adds many facilities and advantages including mechanisms for controlling user desktops and installing software remotely. However, Client computers need to be using Windows 2000 or Windows XP in order for anybody to gain any benefit from a network based on Active Directory. This is a typical Microsoft tactic. |
| Address | Usually short for IP Address or E-mail Address, depending on context. |
| ADSL | Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - A type of telephone connection that allows both talking and computer connections simultaneously, using existing old-fashioned telephone wiring. Sounds great, but it is only available if you are close to (e.g. within 3km of) the telephone exchange. The A indicates that the Download speed is higher than Upload speed, although both will be faster than using a dial-up Modem. ADSL is commonly used for domestic Broadband connections. Typical speeds are 256Kbs (0.25Mbs) upload and 0.5 to 2Mbs download. |
| Adware | Software that controls advertising displayed on your computer, usually on Web Pages in your Browser. Adware surreptitiously installs itself on your computer, and then quietly communicates with a Web Server whenever you are on the Internet. The purpose is to try to target adverts at you that you are more likely to respond to. Most people see it as an invasion of privacy, which is why tools exist to scan your computer for the presence of known culprits and the loopholes they use, and get rid of them for you. The best known of these tools is "Ad-Aware" by LavaSoft, although we prefer Spybot Search & Destroy. Some virus-checkers also detect adware and its close but nastier relation, Spyware. See also Web Bug. |
| Alias | In E-mail parlance, an E-mail Address that is not a Mailbox in its own right, i.e. it redirects or points to another address that is usually a mailbox. If you or your organisation owns a Domain Name such as "our-domain.com", then you would typically set up more e-mail addresses than mailboxes, and so some of these addresses would be aliases. For example, you could have a mailbox called secretary@our-domain.com and set up aliases of enquiries@, admin@, manager@ and underpaid@ all redirecting to the mailbox secretary@. The lucky secretary would then pick up all those e-mails from the one mailbox. Senders cannot tell whether they are sending to an alias or a mailbox because all (Internet) e-mail addresses have the same format. See also Forwarder. |
| Anchor | The HTML anchor Tag <a> to is used to create a HyperText Link to another document or specific place in a document. Long Web Pages often have names or identities (id attributes) embedded at strategic points such as section headings that enable a link to be made directly to that point in the document. |
| Anti-Virus | A computer program that tries to ensure that despite doing all the wrong things (see Virus) you don't get infected by a virus, or at least that when you do get infected you know about it quickly enough to have a chance of getting rid of it before it's too late. The global battle against viruses is like an arms race - your virus checker will always be at least one step behind the latest outbreak. According to anti-virus specialists Sophos, about 1000 new viruses are written every month although most don't make it into the wild. Knowing a bit about viruses, particularly the key infection methods and how to avoid them, is at least as important as having an up-to-date virus scanner installed on your computer. Installing a Firewall will protect you against many viruses which anti-virus software will only inform you that you've just been infected by, which could be too late. |
| AOL | America Online - One of the earliest and most successful ISPs. AOL is unusual in that it provides a lot of content for its subscribers, in addition to giving them access to the Internet. This is not surprising given that AOL is part of the massive AOL Time Warner media conglomerate. AOL generally appeals much more to beginners than to experienced Internet users, and spends vast sums on mass-market advertising. Ironically, AOL's Browser is based on Internet Explorer even though Netscape is owned by AOL. AOL software is notorious for being non-standard, and for being difficult to remove properly from PCs. |
| AP | See Access Point. |
| Apache | By far the most-used Web Server Software in the world, accounting for over 60% of the market in most surveys. Apache is a testament to the importance and power of the Open Source movement. Its nearest rival is Microsoft's IIS, which accounts for most of the rest, although there are a myriad of also-rans. |
| Apple | Purveyor of beautiful "iMac" computers and the lovely MacOS Operating System. Once upon a time Apple Computer was a serious rival to Intel and Microsoft, but now it is an "also ran" of the computer industry, serving niche markets and struggling from crisis to crisis. Apple has seen a recent upturn in its fortunes as a result of its successful iPod music player and its closely related iTunes website. Apple is the darling of business schools however, because its history is an interesting one of how not to be successful even when you've got the best product. |
| Applet | Not a dwarf apple, but a "small Application". Usually means a small Java program that is part of a Web Page. Allowing Web Sites to run programs on your computer is a always a security risk, but applets are not as threatening as proper Java programs because they are more restricted in what they can do. Most people therefore allow Java Applets to run, which is the Default setting in most Browsers. |
| Application | In common parlance, a piece of Software that carries out a specific task or set of tasks, and (usually) requires a human sitting in front of the computer to tell it what to do. Applications are the raison d'être of a desktop computer. By far the most common type of application is the Word Processor. Maybe everyone really does have a novel inside them, just waiting for the moment. My guess is that the next most common application is the E-mail Client. Applications run on (need, and operate in the context of) a specific Operating System (OS), usually a specific version of Windows. Some applications are available in versions to suit several OSs; this is called "cross-platform compatibility". For example Microsoft Word, the most widespread word processor, is available in both Apple Mac and Windows versions, but not in a Unix version. That is because Microsoft hates (feels threatened by) Unix. |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange - (pronounced "askee") Normally used to mean "plain text", because ASCII is a set of codes to represent characters such as letters, numbers and punctuation. The standard ASCII set has 128 characters, although not all the characters are "printable". The weakness of ASCII is that it is white American-Anglo-Saxon-centric, and was designed with complete disregard for non-Latin character sets such as Chinese and Greek. However, it is one of the oldest standards in the book, and still in widespread use. |
| ASL | Age/Sex/Location - A part of the shorthand code used by Instant Messaging Users, typically as a question at the beginning of an encounter between strangers. A typical answer to the question ASL? might be 16/m/uk. |
| ASP | Active Server Pages - One of the technologies used for creating the more sophisticated Web Sites. ASP is a Microsoft technology, requiring a Microsoft Web Server, but the generated Web Pages do not have to be Internet Explorer specific. ASP is similar in concept to, but more limited than, PHP (which we use). |
| ATM | Asynchronous Transfer Mode - An alternative to Ethernet. It tends only to be used in particular niche markets, where its advantages outweigh its additional cost. |
| Attachment | See E-mail Attachment. |
| Authenticate | Proving who you are, usually by providing a Username and its associated Password. The most obvious form of authentication is user Login, but computer systems are also continually authenticating each other. For example, every time you check your E-mail Inbox, your mail Server authenticates the details provided by your E-mail Client before allowing access to your Mailbox. |
| Avatar | Computer-generated representation of a human, such as the Action Man and Barbie-esque figures that populate virtual worlds on the Internet or in computer games such as "The Sims". See also VRML. |