CIW Certification/Acronyms

You are here: CIW Home > CIW Acronyms This is a glossary of acronyms commonly used when studying for any of the ProSoft CIW Certification Exams To add new definitions, please use the format: ;item : the item's definition and explanation paragraph, if any A AADS Ameritech Advanced Data Systems Ameritech (NYSE: AIT) serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services including local and long-distance telephone and data, cellular, paging, security, cable TV, Internet and more. One of the world's 100 largest companies, Ameritech (www.ameritech.com) has 70,500 employees, 1 million shareowners and more than $30 billion in assets. Ameritech also operates the Internet Network Access Point (NAP) in Chicago, the largest Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) access point in the world. Ameritech has also been selected by the National Science Foundation as the global NAP for the next generation Internet initiative. iCAIR Press Release February 1999 ACH Automated Clearing House Automated Clearing House (ACH) is the name of an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. ACH processes large volumes of both credit and debit transactions which are originated in batches.- More From Wikipedia - ACL Access Control List In computer security, an access control list (ACL) is a list of permissions attached to an object. The list specifies who or what is allowed to access the object and what operations are allowed to be performed on the object. - More From Wikipedia - AD Active Directory Active Directory (AD) is an implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft for use primarily in Windows environments. The main purpose of Active Directory is to provide central authentication and authorization services for Windows based computers. - More From Wikipedia - ADO ActiveX Data Object Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is a set of Component Object Model objects for accessing data sources. It provides a layer between programming languages and OLE DB (a means of accessing data stores in a uniform manner), which allows a developer to write programs which access data, without knowing how the database is implemented. - More From Wikipedia - ADOdb ActiveX Data Object Database ADOdb is a database abstraction library for PHP and Python based on the same concept as Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects. It allows developers to write applications in a fairly consistent way regardless of the underlying database storing the information. The advantage is that the database can be changed without re-writing every call to it in the application. - More From Wikipedia - ADR Advanced Data Recording ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. - More From Wikipedia - AFP Apple File Protocol The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is a layer 6 (presentation layer) network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and Classic Mac OS. - More From Wikipedia - AH Authentication Header AH is a protocol that provides authentication of either all or part of the contents of a datagram through the addition of a header that is calculated based on the values in the datagram. - More From TCP/IP Guide - AM Amplitude Modulation Amplitude modulation (AM) is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. - More From Wikipedia - AMI Alternate Mark Inversion When used on a T-carrier, bipolar encoding is known as Alternate Mark Inversion because, in this context, a binary 1 is referred to as a "mark", while a binary 0 is called a "space".[2] The coding was used extensively in first-generation PCM networks, and is still commonly seen on older multiplexing equipment today. - More From Wikipedia - ANS Advanced Network Services ANSI American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute or ANSI (IPA pronunciation: [ænsiː]) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. - More From Wikipedia - AP Access Point In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP or AP) is a device that connects wireless communication devices together to form a wireless network. - More From Wikipedia - API Application Program Interface An application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that a computer application, operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by a computer program. - More From Wikipedia - APIPA Automatic Private IP Addressing Zeroconf or Zero Configuration Networking is a set of techniques that automatically create a usable IP network without configuration or special servers. (Redirected from APIPA) - More From Wikipedia - ARP Address Resolution Protocol In computer networking, the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is the standard method for finding a host's hardware address when only its network layer address is known. - More From Wikipedia - ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. (Redirected from Advanced Research Projects Agency) - More From Wikipedia - ARPANET Advanced Research Projects Agency Network The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) developed by DARPA of the United States Department of Defense was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet. - More From Wikipedia - ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a character encoding based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. - More From Wikipedia - ASF Advanced Streaming Format Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media. - More From Wikipedia - ASP Active Server Pages / Application Service Provider Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. It is marketed as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS). - More From Wikipedia - An application service provider (ASP) is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. - More From Wikipedia - ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a cell relay, packet switching network and data link layer protocol which encodes data traffic into small (53 bytes; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) fixed-sized cells. ATM provides data link layer services that run over Layer 1 links. [Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a cell relay, packet switching network and data link layer protocol which encodes data traffic into small (53 bytes; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) fixed-sized cells. ATM provides data link layer services that run over Layer 1 links. - More From Wikipedia - ATVEF Advanced Television Enhancement Forum AU Unix Audio AV Anti-Virus Antivirus software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify, thwart and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software (malware). - More From Wikipedia - AVI Audio Visual Interleaved Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a standard container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. - More From Wikipedia - Top of page B B2B Business to Business Business-to-business or B2B is a term commonly used to describe the transaction of goods or services between businesses. - More from Wikipedia - B2E Business to Employee Business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce uses an intrabusiness network which allows companies to provide products and/or services to their employees. - More from Wikipedia - B2G Business to Government Business-to-government e-commerce (B2G) networks allow businesses to bid on government RFPs in a reverse auction fashion. Public sector organizations (PSO's) post tenders in the form of RFP's, RFI's, RFQ's etc. and suppliers respond to them. - More from Wikipedia - BASH Bourne Again Shell Bash is a Unix shell written for the GNU Project. The name of the actual executable is bash. Its name is an acronym for Bourne-again shell. - More from Wikipedia - BDC Backup Domain Controller In Windows NT 4 server domains, the Backup Domain Controller (BDC) is a computer that has a copy of the user accounts database. - More from Wikipedia - BERT Bit-Error Rate Test BGP Border Gateway Protocol The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It works by maintaining a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems (AS). - More from Wikipedia - BIND Berkeley Internet Name Domain BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is the most commonly used DNS server on the Internet, especially on Unix-like systems, where it is a de facto standard. - More from Wikipedia - BLOB Binary Large Object A binary large object, also known as a blob, is a collection of binary data stored as a single entity in a database management system. - More from Wikipedia - BMP Bitmapped The BMP file format, sometimes called bitmap or DIB file format (for device-independent bitmap), is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images, especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. - More from Wikipedia - BNC Bayonet Nut Connector / Bayonet Neill Concelman / British Naval Connector The BNC connector is used for RF signal (typically pro-video) connections, both for analog and Serial Digital Interface video signals. - More from Wikipedia - BPS Bits per second In telecommunications and computing, bitrate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. - More from Wikipedia - BRI Basic Rate Interface Basic rate interface (BRI, 2B+D, 2B1D) is an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) configuration defined in the physical layer standard I.430 produced by the ITU. - More from Wikipedia - BSD Berkeley Software Distribution Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the UNIX derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. - More from Wikipedia - Top of page C C2B Consumer to Business Consumer-to-business (C2B ) is an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them. This business model is a complete reversal of traditional business model where companies offer goods and services to consumers (business-to-consumer = B2C). - More from Wikipedia - C2C Consumer to Consumer Consumer-to-consumer (or C2C) electronic commerce involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. - More from Wikipedia - CA Certification Authority In cryptography, a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity which issues digital certificates for use by other parties. It is an example of a trusted third party. CAs are characteristic of many public key infrastructure (PKI) schemes. There are many commercial CAs that charge for their services. Institutions and governments may have their own CAs, and there are also free CAs. - More from Wikipedia - CAN Campus Area Network A campus area network (CAN) is a computer network made up of an interconnection of local area networks (LANs) within a limited geographical area. It can be considered one form of a metropolitan area network, specific to an academic setting. - More from Wikipedia - CAU Controlled Access Unit CDF Channel Definition Format Channel Definition Format (CDF) is an XML standard used in conjunction with Microsoft Active Channel and Smart Offline Favorites technologies. Its use is to define a website's content and structure. - More from Wikipedia - CGI Common Gateway Interface The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server. This allows the server to pass requests from a client web browser to the external application. The web server can then return the output from the application to the web browser. - More from Wikipedia - CHAP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol CHAP is an authentication scheme used by Point to Point Protocol (PPP) servers to validate the identity of remote clients. - More from Wikipedia - CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR, pronounced "cider") was introduced in 1993 and is the latest refinement to the way IP addresses are interpreted. - More from Wikipedia - CIR Committed Information Rate Committed Information Rate or CIR in a Frame relay network is the average bandwidth for a virtual circuit guaranteed by an ISP to work under normal conditions. At any given time the bandwidth should not fall below this committed figure. It is usually expressed in kilobits per second (kbit/s). - More from Wikipedia - CNAME Canonical Name CO Central Office CODEC Compressor/Decompressor / Coder/Decoder A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: 'Compressor-Decompressor', 'Coder-Decoder', or 'Compression/Decompression algorithm'. - More from Wikipedia - COM Common Object Model Component Object Model (COM) is a platform for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in any programming language that supports the technology. - More from Wikipedia - CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) that enables software components written in multiple computer languages and running on multiple computers to work together. - More from Wikipedia - CPAN Comprehensive Perl Archive Network CPAN is an acronym standing for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, an archive of over 12,200 modules of software written in Perl, as well as documentation for it. - More from Wikipedia - CPU Central Processing Unit A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer capable of executing a program. - More from Wikipedia - CRC Cyclical Redundancy Check A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is a type of function that takes as input a data stream of any length and produces as output a value of a certain fixed size. The term CRC is often used to denote either the function or the function's output. - More from Wikipedia - CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance In computer networking, CSMA/CA belongs to a class of protocols called multiple access methods. CSMA/CA stands for: Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Avoidance. In CSMA, a station wishing to transmit has to first listen to the channel for a predetermined amount of time so as to check for any activity on the channel. If the channel is sensed "idle" then the station is permitted to transmit. If the channel is sensed as "busy" the station has to defer its transmission. - More from Wikipedia - CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is a network control protocol in which a carrier sensing scheme is used. A transmitting data station that detects another signal while transmitting a frame, stops transmitting that frame, transmits a jam signal, and then waits for a random time interval before trying to send that frame again. - More from Wikipedia - CSNW Client Services for NetWare CSS Cascading Style Sheet Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML. - More from Wikipedia - CSU Channel Service Unit In telecommunications, a channel service unit (CSU) is a line bridging device for use with T-carrier. - More from Wikipedia - CSU/DSU Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit A CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit) is a digital-interface device used to connect a router to a digital circuit such as a T1 or T3 line. A CSU/DSU operates at the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model. - More from Wikipedia - Top of page D DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DBMS Database Management Systems DC Domain Controller DCE Data Communication Equipment DCOM Distributed Component Object Model DDS Dataphone Digital Service / Digital Data Storage / Digital Data Service DES Data Encryption Service DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DHTML Dynamic HTML DLC Data Link Control DLL Data Link Library / Dynamic Linked Library DMZ Demilitarized Zone DNS Domain Name Service / Domain Name Server / Domain Name System DOD Department of Defense DOS Denial of Service DPN Dedicated Private Network DSL Digital Subscriber Line DSU Data Service Unit / Digital Service Unit DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum DTD Document Type Definition DTE Data Terminal Equipment DUN Dial-Up Network DVD Digital Versatile Disk / Digital Video Disk DVMRP Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol Top of page E EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol EBT Electronic Benefits Transfer ECMAScript European Computer Manufacturers Association Scripting EDI Electronic Data Interchange EFS Encrypting File System EGP Exterior Gateway Protocol EMI ElectroMagnetic Interference EPS Encapsulated PostScript ERP Enterprise Resource Planning ESD Electrostatic Discharge EULA End-User License Agreement Top of page F FAT File Allocation Table FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum FM Frequency Modulation FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name FTP File Transfer Protocol FTPd File Transfer Protocol Daemon Top of page G G2B Government to Business G2C Government to Consumer GBIC Gigabit Interface Converter GIF Graphics Interchange Format GPO Group Policy Object GUI Graphical User Interface GSNW Gateway Services for NetWare Top of page H HDLC High-Level Data Link Control HDML Handheld Device Markup Language HDSL High Data Rate Digital Subscriber Line HP Hewlett-Packard HTML Hypertext Markup Language HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTPd Hypertext Transfer Protocol Daemon HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure Top of page I IAB Internet Architecture Board IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority IBM International Business Machines ICA Independent Computer Architecture ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol ICS Internet Connection Sharing IE Internet Explorer IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IETF Internet Engineering Task Force IGMP Internet Group Multicast Protocol IHL Internet Header Length IIS Internet Information Server IKE Internet Key Exchange IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol IMAP4 Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 INI (file) Initialization File INND Internet News Daemon IOTP Internet Open Trading Protocol IP Internet Protocol IPP Internet Printing Protocol IPSec Internet Protocol Security IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4 IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange IPX/SPX Internetwork Packet Exchange / Sequence Packet Exchange IRC Internet Relay Chat IRQ Interrupt Request IRTF Internet Research Task Force ISA Industry Standard Architecture ISAPI Internet Server Application Programming Interface ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network ISM Industrial, Scientific, and Medical ISO International Organization for Standardization ISP Internet Service Provider IT Information Technology ITSP Internet Telephony Service Provider ITU International Telecommunications Union Top of page J JDBC Java Database Connectivity JPEG Joint Photographics Experts Group JSAPI Java Speech API JSML Java Speech Markup Language JSP Java Server Pages JVM Java Virtual Machine Top of page K Kbps Kilobits per second Top of page L L2F Layer 2 Forwarding L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol LAN Local Area Network LC Local Connector LCP Link Control Protocol LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LLC Logical Link Control LPD Line Printer Daemon LPQ Line Printer Queue LPR Line Printer Remote Top of page M MAC Media Access Control / Medium Access Control MAPI Message Application Programming Interface MAU Multistation Access Unit MD5 Message Digest 5 MDI Media Dependent Interface MDIX Media Dependent Interface Crossover MIB Management Information Base MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension MMF MultiMode Fiber MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group MSAU MultiStation Access Unit MX Mail Exchange Top of page N NADN Nearest Active Downstream Neighbor NAP Network Access Point NAT Network Address Translation NAUN Nearest Active Upstream Neighbor NCP NetWare Core Protocol NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications NES Netscape Enterprise Server NDS Novell Directory Services / NetWare Directory Services NetBEUI NetBIOS Enhanced User Interface NetBIOS Network Basic Input Output System NFS Network File System NIC Network Interface Card NIS Network Information Service NLM NetWare Loadable Modulue NLSP NetWare Link Services Protocol NNTP Network News Transfer Protocol NOS Network Operating System NT New Technology NT1 Network Terminator 1 NTFS New Technology File System NTP Network Time Protocol Top of page O OBI Open Buying on the Internet ODBC Open Database Connectivity OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer OLAP Online Analytical Processing OLTP Online Transition Processing OODB Object-Oriented Database ORB Object Request Broker OS Operating Systems OSI Open Systems Interconnect OSPF Open Shortest Path First OTDR Optical Time Domain Reflectometer OTP Open Trading Protocol OU Organizational Unit OUI Organizationally Unique Identifier Top of page P PAD Packet Assembler/Disassembler PAP Password Authentication Protocol PBX Private Branch Exchange PC Personal Computer PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect PCMC IA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association PERL Practical Extraction and Report Language PDC Primary Domain Controller PDF Portable Document Format PDL Page Description Language PGP Pretty Good Privacy PHP Hypertext Processing PICS Platform for Internet Content Selection PKI Public Key Infrastructure PNG Portable Network Graphics POP Post Office Protocol / Point of Presence POP3 Post Office Protocol version 3 POTS Plain Old Telephone Service ppi Pixels Per Inch PPP Point-to-Point Protocol PPPoE Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet PPTP Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol PRI Primary Rate Interface PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network PVC Permanent Virtual Circuit Top of page Q QoS Quality of Service QTVR QuickTime Virtual Reality Top of page R RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks / Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks RAM Random Access Memory RARP Reverse Address Resolution Protocol RAS Remote Access Service RDBMS Relational Database Management System RDP Remote Desktop Protocol RFC Request for Comment RFI Radio Frequency Interface RG Radio Grade RIP Routing Information Protocol RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computing RJ Registered Jack RMF Rich Music Format RTF Rich Text Format RTP Realtime Transport Protocol RTSP Real Time Streaming Protocol Top of page S S/MIME Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions SAM Security Accounts Manager SAPI Speech Application Programming Interface SC Standard Connector / Subscriber Connector SCP Secure Copy Protocol SCSI Small Computer System Interface SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy SDSL Single Line Digital Subscriber Line SET Secure Electronic Transaction SFF Small Form Factor SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language SHA-1 Secure Hash Algorithm 1 SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol SMAU Smart Multistation Access Unit SMB Server Message Block SMF Single Mode Fiber SMS Storage Management Services SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol SOA Start of Authority SOHO Small Office / Home Office SONET Synchronous Optical Network SOP Standard Operating Procedures SPARC Scalable Processor Architecture SPS Standby Power Supply SPX Sequence Packet Exchange SQL Structured Query Language SSH Secure Shell SSI Server Side Include SSID Service Set Identifier SSL Secure Sockets Layer ST Straight Tip STP Shielded Twisted Pair SVC Switched Virtual Circuit Top of page T T1 T-Carrier Level 1 TA Terminal Adapter TCL Terminal Control Language / Tool Command Language TCP Transmission Control Protocol TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TDM Time Division Multiplexing TDR Time-Domain Reflectometer TELNET Terminal Emulation for Networks TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol TIFF Tagged Image File Format TM Trademark TOS Type of Service TP Transaction Processing TTL Time to Live Top of page U UDP User Datagram Protocol UID User ID UNC Universal Naming Convention UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply URL Uniform Resource Locator USB Universal Serial Bus USPTO United States Patent and Trademark Office UTP Unshielded Twisted Pair UUCP Unix to Unix Copy Top of page V VAN Value Added Network VB Visual Basic VBI Vertical Banking Interval VDSL Very High Data Rate Digital Subscriber Line VLAN Virtual LAN VoIP Voice Over IP VPN Virtual Private Network VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language Top of page W W3 World Wide Web W3C World Wide Web Consortium WAN Wide Area Network WAP Wireless Access Point / Wireless Application Protocol WAV Wave File WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy WINS Windows Internet Naming Service WinSock Windows Socket WMA Windows Media Audio WML Wireless Markup Language WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language WSH Windows Script Host WTS Windows Terminal Server WWW World Wide Web Top of page X XHTML Extensible TyperText Markup Language XML Extensible Markup Language XMS Extended Memory Services XSL Extensible Style Language Top of page Y Top of page Z Top of page