Acronyms2

intelligent character recognition

integrated drive electronics - PC specification for small- to medium- sized hard drives in which the controlling electronics for the drive are part of the drive itself, speeding up transfer rates and leaving only a simple adapter (or “paddle”). IDE only supported twodrives per sy stem of no more than 504 MB each, and has been completely supplanted by Enhanced IDE. EIDE supports four drives of over 8 GB each and more than doubles the transfer rate. The more common name for PATA drives. Also known as intelligent drive electronics.

Intrusion Detection System

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Leading standards-setting group in the United States.

Internet Information Services

Internet Message Access Protocol An alternative to POP3 that retrieves e-mail from an e-mail server, like POP3; IMAP uses TCP port 143

internet protocol Numeric address of a computer connected to the Internet. An IPv4 address is made up of four octets of 8-bit binary numbers translated into their shorthand numeric values. An IPv6 address is 128 bits long. The IP address can be broken down into a network ID and a host ID. Also called Internet address.

internet protocol configuration Command-line utility for Windows servers and workstations that display s thecurrent TCP/IP configuration of the machine. Similar to winipcfg and ifconfig.

internet printing protocol

internet protocol security Microsoft’s encryption method of choice for networksconsisting of multiple networks linked by a private connection, providing transparent encryption between the server and the client.

infrared

Infrared Data Association Protocol that enables communication through infrared devices, with speeds of up to 4 Mbps.

interrupt request Signal from a hardware device, such as a modem or a mouse,indicating that it needs the CPU’s attention. In PCs, IRQs are sent along specific IRQ channels associated with a particular device. IRQ conflicts were a common problem in the past when adding expansion boards, but the plug-and-play specification has removed this headache in most cases.

industry standard architecture Industry Standard Architecture design was foundin the original IBM PC for the slots that allowed additional hardware to be connected to the computer’s motherboard. An 8-bit, 8.33-MHz expansion bus was designed by IBM for its AT computer and released to the public domain. An improved 16-bit bus was also released to the public domain. Replaced by PCI in the mid-1990s.

integrated services digital network CCITT (Comité Consultatif Internationale deTélégraphie et Téléphonie) standard that defines a digital method for communications to replace the current analog telephone sy stem. ISDN is superior to POTS telephone lines because it supports a transfer rate of up to 128 Kbps for sending information from computer to computer. It also allows data and voice to share a common phone line. DSL reduced demand for ISDN substantially . (See also POTS.

• Industry Standards Organization
• ISO-9660 CD format to support PC file sy stems on CD media. Supplanted by the Joliet format.
• ISO file Complete copy (or image) of a storage media device, typically used for optical discs.

internet service provider Company that provides access to the Internet, usually for money .

just a bunch of disks

kilobit

Kilobyte or knowledge base

local area network Group of PCs connected via cabling, radio, or infrared that use this connectivity to share resources such as printers and mass storage.

logical block addressing Translation (algorithm) of IDE drives promoted by Western Digital as a standardized method for breaking the 504-MB limit in IDE drives.Subsequently universally adopted by the PC industry and now standard on all EIDE drives

Lucent connector

liquid crystal display Type of display commonly used on portable PCs. Also have mostly replaced CRTs as the display of choice for most desktop computer users, due in large part to rapidly falling prices and increasing quality . LCDs use liquid cry stals andelectricity to produce images on the screen.

lightweight directory access protocol

• light emitting diode Solid-state device that vibrates at luminous frequencies when current is applied.
• LED monitor LCD monitor that uses LEDs instead of CCFL tubes for backlighting, creating much higher contrast ratios and image quality .

lithium-ion Battery commonly used in portable PCs. Li-Ion batteries don’t suffer from the memory effects of Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries and provide much more power for a greater length of time

line printer daemon / line printer remote

line printer terminal

low voltage differential

media access control / mandatory access control Unique 48-bit address assigned to each network card. IEEE assigns blocks of possible addresses to various NIC manufacturers to help ensure that the address is always unique. The Data Link lay er of the OSI model uses MAC addresses for locating machines.

messaging application programming interface

media access unit, media attachment unit

megabit

megabyte

master boot record Tiny bit of code that takes control of the boot process from the system BIOS

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Micro Channel Architecture