Network+ Glossary & Acronyms

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This is a glossary of terms commonly used when studying for Network+ certification exam

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Contents

0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Top of page — See also — External links

[edit section] 0-9

10Base2

Ethernet LAN, runs on coax at 10Mbps and up to 185 meters. Also called Thinnet

10Base5

Ethernet LAN, runs on coax at 10Mbps and up tp 500 meters. Also called Thicknet

10BaseT

Ethernet LAN, runs on UTP cable at 10Mbps and yp to 100 meters

[edit section] A

ACL

Access Control List

AD

Active Directory

ADR

Advanced Data Recording

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

AFP

Apple File Protocol

AH 

Authentication Header

AM 

Amplitude Modulation

AMI

Alternate Mark Inversion

AP

Access Point

APIPA

Automatic Private IP Adressing

ARP

Address Resolution Protocol

ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

ATM cell

fixed size data packets (only 53 bytes in total, 48 data)

AV

Anti–Virus

[edit section] B

Bandwidth

Network speed

BDC

Backup Domain Controller

BERT

Bit-Error Rate Test

BGP

Borde Gateway Protocol

Bit

Binary digit. Can either be a 0 or 1 (on or off state)

BIND

Berkeley Internet Name Domain

BNC

British Naval Connector / Bayonet Niell-Concelman

BootP

Boot Protocol /Bootstrap Protocol

BPS

Bits per second

BRI

Basic Rate Interface

BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution

Byte

Set of 8 bits. Used to represent 1 character.

[edit section] C

CAN

Campus Area Network

Categories

Another word for grade of cable (Cat1,Cat5)

CDFS

CD-ROM File System

CHAP

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

CIFI

Common Internet File System

Client

C or workstation

CNAME

Canonical Name

CO

Central Office

Coax

Cable

CRAM-MD5

Challenge-Response Authentication Mechanism – Message Digest 5

Crosstalk

Unwanted interference between 2 signals

CSMA / CA

Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance

CSMA / CD

Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection

CSNW

Client Services for NetWare

CSU

Channel Service Unit

CSU/DSU

Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit

[edit section] D

dB

decibels

DC

Domain Controller

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DLC

Data Link Control

DNS

Domain Name Service / Domain Name Server / Domain Name System

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line

DSU

Data Service Unit

DSSS

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

[edit section] E

EAP

Extensible Authentication Protocol

EFS

Encrypting File System

EGP

Exterior Gateway Protocol

EMI

ElectroMagnetic Interference

ESD

Electrostatic Discharge

[edit section] F

FAT

File Allocation Table

FDDI

Fiber Distributed Data Interface

FDM

Frequency Division Multiplexing

FHSS

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

FM

Frequency Modulation

Fragmentation

Breaking packets into smaller chunks

Frame Relay networks

uses multiplexed data to maximize bandwidth

FQDN

Fully Qualified Domain Name

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

FYI

For Your Information

[edit section] G

GBIC

Gigabit Interface Converter

Gigabyte

1,024 megabytes

Gbps

Giga bits per second

GPO

Group Policy Object

GUI

Graphical User Interface

GSNW

Gateway Services for NetWare

[edit section] H

HDLC

High-Level Data Link Control

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (application level protocol)

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

Hz 

Hertz

[edit section] I

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

ICA

Independent Computer Architecture

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol

ICS

Internet Connection Sharing

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IETE

Internet Engineering Task Force

IGMP

Internet Group Multicast Protocol

IIS

Internet Information Server

IKE

Internet Key Exchange

IMAP4

Internet Message Access Protocol version 4

IP

Internet 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

ISA

Industry Standard Architecture

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

ISM

Industrial, Scientific, and Medical

ISP

Internet Service Provider

IT

Information Technology

[edit section] J

Jabbering

Endless stream of unintelligible data

[edit section] K

Kbps

Kilobits per second

[edit section] L

L2F

Layer 2 Forwarding

L2TP

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol

LAN

Local Area Network

LC

Local Connector

LDA

P Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

LED

Light Emitting Diode

LLC

Logical Link Control

LPD

Line Printer Daemon

LPR

Line Printer Remote

[edit section] M

MAC

Media Access Control / Medium Access Control

MAU

Multistation Access Unit

Mbps

Megabits per second

MBps

Megabytes per second

MDI

Media Dependent Interface

MDIX

Media Dependent Interface Crossover

MIB

Management Information Base

MMF

MultiMode Fiber

MSAU

MultiStation Access Unit

MS-CHAP

Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

MT-RJ

Mechanical Transfer-Registered Jack

MX

Mail Exchanger

MS-CHAP

Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol

[edit section] N

NAT

Network Address Translation

NCP

NetWare Core Protocol

NDS

NetWare Directory Services

NetBEUI

Network Basic Inuput / Output Extended User Interface

NetBIOS

Network Basic Input / Output System

NFS

Network File System

NIC

Network Interface Card

NIS

Network Information Service

NLM

NetWare Loadable Modulue

nm

nanometer

NNTP

Network News Transport Protocol

NOS

Network Operating System

NT

New Technology

NTFS

New Technology File System

NTP

Network Time Protocol

[edit section] O

OCx

Optical Carrier

OS

Operating Systems

OSI

Open Systems Interconnect

OSPF

Open Shortest Path First

OTDR

Optical Time Domain Reflectometer

OU

Organizational Unit

OUI

Organizationally Unique Identifier

[edit section] P

Packet

A unit of data

Packet Switching networks

sends each data packet individually

PAD

Packet Assembler/Disassembler

PAP

Password Authentication Protocol

Parked

Reference to an inactive slave devices

PBX

Private Branch Exchange

PC

Personal Computer

PCI

Peripheral Component Interconnect

PCMC

IA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association

PDC

Primary Domain Controller

POP3

Post Office Protocol version 3

Populated segment

Ethernet segment with at least one machine directly connected

POTS

Plain Old Telephone Service

PPP

Point to Point Protocal

PPPoE

Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet

PRI

Primary Rate Interface

PPTP

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

Profiles

Services supported by Bluetooth (Generic Access, Intercom, Fax, etc.)

PSTN

Public Switched Telephone Network

PVC

Permanent Virtual Circuit

[edit section] Q

QoS

Quality of Service

[edit section] R

RADIUS

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service

RAID

Redundant Array of Independent Disks / Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

RARP

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

RAS

Remote Access Service

RDP

Remote Desktop Protocol

Repeater

Takes data packets it receives from one segment and sends them out on another segment. Operates at Level 1 (Physical) of OSI model

RFC

Request for Comment

RFI

Radio Frequency Interface

RG

Radio Grade

Rip

Routing Information Protocol

RJ

Registered Jack

RSA

Rivest, Shamir, Adelman

[edit section] S

S / MIME

Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

SAM

Security Access Manager

SC

Standard Connector / Subscriber Connector

SCP

Secure Copy Protocol

SDH

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

Segment

Distance between connections of cable (like UPT)

SFF

Small Form Factor

SFTP

Secure File Transfer Protocol

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol

SMB

Server Message Block

SMF

Single Mode Fiber

SMS

Storage Management Services

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (to send mail across TCP/IP network)

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol

SOA

Start of Authority

SOHO

Small Office / Home Office

SONET

Synchronous Optical Network

SPS

Standby Power Supply

SPX

Sequence Packet Exchange

SSH

Secure Shell

SSID

Service Set Identifier

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer

ST

Straight Tip

STA

Spanning Tree Algoritm

STDs

Standards documents

STP

Shielded Twisted Pair

[edit section] T

T1

T-Carrier Level 1

TA

Terminal Adapter

TCL

Terminal Control Language

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

tcsh

turbo C shell

TDR

Time-domain reflectometer

TFTP

Trivial File Transfer Protocol

TLDs

Top Level Domains

TTL

Time to Live

[edit section] U

UDP

User Datagram Protocol (connectionless)

UNC

Universal Naming Convention

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

USB

Universal Serial Bus

UTP

Unshielded Twisted Pair

UPS

Uninterruptible Power Supply

[edit section] V

VLAN

Virtual LAN

VPN

Virtual Private Network

[edit section] W

WAN

Wide Area Network

WAP

Wireless Access Point

WEP

Wired Equivalent Privacy

WINS

Windows Internet Naming Service

WPA

Wi-Fi Protected Access

WTS

Windows Terminal Server

www

World Wide Web

[edit section] X

XML

Extensible Markup Language

XMS

Extended Memory Services

[edit section] Y

[edit section] Z

Zeroconf

Zero Configuration

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[edit section] Page Credits

Page Conceptualized By: spy1954