2000migration/network documentation.doc.doc

Bloomington Public SchoolsDistrict 87

Network Documentation

v0.99 – Revised 10/26/99

Network Documentation Project

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................................2

PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT............................................................................................................................4

GOALS AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF DISTRICT 87 NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE........................5

THE BEGINNING........................................................................................................................................................6

HIGH LEVEL OVERVIEW.......................................................................................................................................7

HIGH-LEVEL LOGICAL NETWORK MAP..........................................................................................................8

IN-DEPTH TECHNICAL INFORMATION.............................................................................................................9

FILE AND PRINT SHARING.........................................................................................................................................10Overview...............................................................................................................................................................10File Sharing – Home Directories..........................................................................................................................10File Sharing – Group Folders...............................................................................................................................10File Sharing – Platform Independence.................................................................................................................10File Sharing – Technical Specifics.......................................................................................................................10Print Sharing – Lab Printers................................................................................................................................11Print Sharing – Department Printers...................................................................................................................11Print Sharing – Common Area Printers...............................................................................................................11

WINDOWS NT SERVER DETAIL.................................................................................................................................12Overview...............................................................................................................................................................12Hardware Specifications.......................................................................................................................................12NT Domain Model.................................................................................................................................................12WINS and DNS Details.........................................................................................................................................12DHCP Details.......................................................................................................................................................13Virus Protection....................................................................................................................................................13

E-MAIL AND COLLABORATION SERVICES.................................................................................................................14Overview...............................................................................................................................................................14E-Mail – Organizational and Site Structuring......................................................................................................14E-Mail – Server Detail..........................................................................................................................................14E-Mail – Internet Accessibility & Connectivity....................................................................................................15

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT SERVER.............................................................................................................................16Overview...............................................................................................................................................................16Details...................................................................................................................................................................16

NETWORKING HARDWARE................................................................................................................................17

ROUTERS...................................................................................................................................................................17FIREWALL..................................................................................................................................................................17HUBS.........................................................................................................................................................................17SWITCHES..................................................................................................................................................................17NETWORK INTERFACE CARDS...................................................................................................................................18

APPENDIX A – GLOSSARY....................................................................................................................................19

APPENDIX B – DISTRICT 87 TECHNOLOGY PLAN........................................................................................68

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT.......................................................................................69

District 87 – CONFIDENTIAL Revised 07/13/99

Network Documentation ProjectDISTRICT/COMMUNITY PROFILE...............................................................................................................................69EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................................71

Our vision is:.........................................................................................................................................................71Our goals are:.......................................................................................................................................................71How will we do this?.............................................................................................................................................72What will be the results?.......................................................................................................................................72What will it cost?..................................................................................................................................................72

VISION.......................................................................................................................................................................73CONNECTING TO THE ILLINOIS LEARNING STANDARDS & SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES............................74SCHOOL DISTRICT: BLOOMINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISTRICT 87 GAP: CURRENTLY, DISTRICT AND STATE LEARNING STANDARDS ARE LINKED WITHOUT REGARD FOR THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN MEETING THESE STANDARDS. 75

Goal(s): The technology plan links District and State learning standards.....................................................75Goal(s): The technology plan is linked to State and Federal programs.........................................................76Goal(s): Technology must become a part of the school improvement process...............................................78Goal(s): Establish automated media centers connected to the District wide area network...........................79

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.................................................................................................................................81Goal(s): Establish a basic District core of technology common to all...........................................................82Goal(s): Develop site based delivery options based on District basic core of technology and each school’s School Improvement Plan.................................................................................................................82Goal(s): Teachers will use technology to support engaged learning and administrative activities...............83

TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY.................................................................................................86Goal(s): Distribute state-of-the-art technology tools to all classrooms and learning labs in adequate ratios for continuous learning.........................................................................................................................................87

DISTRICT 87 INTERNET SOLUTION............................................................................................................................91Goal(s): The Instructional Technology Coordinator will coordinate support and will make sure that technical support is available when needed. In addition, a Network Administrator will be hired to set up and maintain the LANs and the WAN..........................................................................................................................94Goal(s): The Instructional Technology Coordinator will coordinate support and will make sure that technical support is available when needed. In addition, a Network Administrator will be hired to set up and maintain the LANs and the WAN..........................................................................................................................95Goal(s): Improve all District buildings structurally, electronically, or mechanically in order to provide adequate student and teacher access for work stations, networks, and telecommunications..............................95

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION.......................................................................................................................................97TECHNOLOGY PLAN EVALUATION MODEL...............................................................................................................98DISTRICT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES......................................................................................................................99COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING PLAN...............................................................................................................99GOAL(S): COMMUNITY WOULD BE AWARE OF STUDENT ACCESS TO COMPUTER, NETWORKS AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES........................................................................................................................................................100TIME LINE...............................................................................................................................................................102BUDGET/FINANCIAL PLAN......................................................................................................................................102BUDGET SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................................102

APPENDIX C – DISTRICT 87 TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS........................................................................103

PC BASED COMPUTER STANDARDS........................................................................................................................103NETWORK PRINTERS...............................................................................................................................................103

Appendix D – Technology Department Staff.........................................................................................................104



Purpose of this document

This document is intended to give an authorized audience a detailed technical overview of the network infrastructure of Bloomington Public Schools - District 87, Bloomington, Illinois. This document should be considered a “living” document and should be maintained as such, supported by constant updates and necessary changes.

An online version of this document is available at http://www.district87.org/technology/documentation at this URL you should be able to locate the latest revision of this document at any time. Only specific persons should be privy to the knowledge contained within as it describes in detail, the network infrastructure in both physical and logical arrangements, which could be used to gain unauthorized entry into the network.

In any event, this document should contain enough detailed information that anyone reading it (with proper background knowledge of technology as used herein) should be able to quickly and accurately begin constructive and proactive management of said network.


http://www.district87.org/technology/documentation

http://www.district87.org/


Goals and Guiding Principles of District 87 Network Infrastructure

The network and related infrastructure was designed to foster increased integration of technology and education, as well as provide for the business needs of the district.

Some of the goals and guiding principles of the network are:1) Ubiquitous access to district and public educational resources from every desktop at any time.2) Ease of use to a point that any person with limited knowledge can locate and utilize resources be they

network or Internet.3) Provide the district with a directory of all persons and objects connected to the network to provide easy

use of features such as group scheduling and online collaboration tools, etc.4) Increase productivity of district employees and students through technological enhancements to new

and existing procedures and processes.5) Bring interest to students about technology and the many uses it serves in everyday life.6) To build an infrastructure that doesn’t rely on full-time support from outside services 7) To provide a common meeting ground that facilitates improved communication between all connected

persons.



The Beginning

The district originally began detailed technical planning and the actual implementation in June ~ July, 1998. At that time, the network consisted of scattered disparate LANs in different buildings that shared resources such as networked printers, file servers, and even a Proxy Server that shared a dial-up ISDN connection at the High School to a local ISP (Dave’s World).

Now, the network consists of almost 1,000 computers, approximately 15 file/print/application servers, a high-speed dedicated Internet connection and a high-speed link to each building from the High School. The network has been designed in a manner that distributes building-level resources, such as user mailboxes and home directories to servers located at the respected building. This allows the network to maintain stability at a building level, should the High School (which is the “Hub” of all network functions) or the link thereto be down or in an unstable state. Thanks to State Farm, the district had an influx of an additional 370-some computers this year, putting us far ahead of schedule and greatly reducing the student to computer ratio at the district.

When complete*, the network should consist of approximately 2,500 nodes, around 20 file/application/print servers, and about 5,000 network accounts. More importantly, the network will be able to facilitate many more students in their ongoing quest for knowledge.

*In theory, the network will never actually be complete as upgrades and technological advances will always preclude an actual point of closure for all parties involved in project of this magnitude.


http://www.statefarm.com/

http://www.dave-world.net/


High Level Overview

The “Hub” of the network is the High School, where the Technology Department is located. In this location, all of the hardware, software, and services that facilitate the student data management and accounting is housed. Also in this location is the hardware that connects each of the remote locations to the district network and to the Internet. As with most networks in today’s market, the district network is based on TCP/IP as its primary communications protocol. TCP/IP provides platform independent communications between network and Internet resources. The network is distributed over many buildings via the Wide Area Network (WAN) connections in place. Each of the elementary schools and the Educational Services Center (ESC) is connected via what is called a “T1” circuit. These circuits provide a dedicated, end-to-end connection between the buildings. ESC also has an Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) circuit as a redundant link. Raymond Early Childhood and Ryder Bus Services each have ADSL connections back to the High School. The district currently has two T1 circuits to the Internet, providing just over 3mbps of connectivity to the district. Internet connectivity is provided at no cost to the district by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) network called “LincOn” and is supported by the Area IV Learning Technologies Hub.

Each building possesses a Local Area Network (LAN), which is used to connect all of the workstations, the server and other network enabled equipment to the district network. These LANs are based on Cisco’s switching and routing products providing the highest quality connections available to workstations.

The Technology Committee has created district standards for hardware and software to be used in conjunction to the network. These standards dictate the requirements for such hardware and software. As a result, the network is much more manageable and total cost of ownership is greatly lowered. These standards range from printers, x86-based machines, Macintosh machines, peripherals etc. These standards are the

Each x86-based workstation connected to the network must be running Microsoft Windows NT Workstation to be eligible for support and technical assistance from the Technology Department. A majority of the installed Macintosh base is running MacOS v8.5.1 or greater. With the exception of the IBM RS/6000 server which houses the student data management and accounting packages, all district servers are running Microsoft Windows NT Server v4.0 or greater.

The Microsoft BackOffice suite of products provides the backbone of the network, creating an open, integrated, and consistent platform. More specific detail on these products may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/backoffice, but a very brief overview of the BackOffice products in use by the district is below.

Microsoft Windows NT Server facilitates file and printer sharing as well as provides an application server platform for other network services and functions.

Microsoft Exchange Server provides the district’s communication and collaboration backbone, which ranges from simple E-Mail to Group Scheduling and eventually on-line meetings via Microsoft NetMeeting or other products.

Microsoft Systems Management Server allows easy remote troubleshooting of workstation and server issues as well as easing deployment of software packages on lab and individual computers within the WAN.


http://www.microsoft.com/sms

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver

http://www.microsoft.com/backoffice

http://www.ibm.com/rs6000

http://www.apple.com/

http://www.cisco.com/

http://www.area4.k12.il.us/

http://www.area4.k12.il.us/


High-level Logical Network Map

<<Insert Visio Drawing Here>>



In-Depth Technical Information

This section will be broken down into what we believe are “Major Components” of the network. A “Major Component” shall be defined as any significant service that is supported district-wide and is required to fulfill the goals and guiding principles set forth earlier in this document. These components make up the network as a whole from a service and functionality standpoint.

Due to the volatility and constant growth of this environment, the information herein is subject to change at any time without notice.



File and Print Sharing

Overview

The File and Print Sharing services make up the basic function of any network, to share information and resources. The ability to easily and concurrently share files between multiple users is by far the first and foremost function needed in any network environment. This facilitates the sharing of information in a secured environment. Print sharing allows multiple computers and hence users, to be able to share a single workgroup-class printer. This reduces the number of printers necessary and allows each user to have access to a higher-quality printer with reduced cost of ownership. These printers are generally installed in labs, departments, and common areas throughout each school.

File Sharing – Home Directories

Each user possesses a home directory that only that user can access. These home directories are intended to contain the user’s documents, personal settings, and any other data that the user would like to retain and secure. These directories are included in the nightly backup and the on-access virus scanning, ensuring quality and reliability on a real-time, ongoing basis.

File Sharing – Group Folders

There are also shared directories to facilitate groups of users that need to share documents or data in a secured environment with the same benefits of the user home directories. These shared directories

File Sharing – Platform Independence

Each of the shared folders is available on both the Macintosh and Windows-based platforms to allow users to freely move between these platforms. Windows-based computers simply double-click on the “Network Neighborhood” icon on their desktop to quickly and easily locate network resources.

File Sharing – Technical Specifics

Each server has the following shares enabled. Note that these may vary slightly from server to server and printer shares are not listed as they do not share common names, but the file share guidelines are as follows:

Share Name Physical Location Platform Support PurposeC$ C:\ Windows Administrative File ShareD$ D:\ Windows Administrative File ShareAdmin$ C:\WINNT Windows Administrative File ShareIPC$ N/A – Internal Windows Administrative ShareNetlogon C:\…\system32\repl\import\scripts Windows Share for Logon ScriptsPrint$ C:\…\system32\print Windows Printer DriversRepl$ C:\…\system32\repl\export Windows Logon Script ReplicationSMSLogon D:\SMSLogon Windows SMS Specific ShareResources C:\exchsrvr\res Windows Exchange Specific ShareAdd-Ins C:\exchsrvr\add-ins Windows Exchange Specific ShareAddress C:\exchsrvr\address Windows Exchange Specific ShareConnect$ C:\exchsrvr\connect Windows Exchange Specific ShareTracking.log C:\exchsrvr\tracking.log Windows Exchange Specific ShareUsers D:\Users Windows / Macintosh* User Home DirectoriesSkyward C:\program files\skyward Windows Skyward Program FilesProjects D:\Projects Windows / Macintosh* Shared Project FoldersMac Share C:\Microsoft UAM Volume Macintosh* Software Deployment, etc.

*Note that Macintosh shares are only available in the building within they are housed. This is an inherent limitation of native MacOS even in a routed TCP/IP environment. Most Windows shares are available even to Internet connected users via the TCP/IP suite of protocols.



Print Sharing – Lab Printers

Each lab should contain one workgroup-class laser printer for each 30 workstations. Again, these are district guidelines and not requirements. These printers are generally in the 17+ Pages-per-minute range and should have a paper tray capacity of at least 500 pages, enough to hold one ream of paper. These printers also have manual feed trays for heavier stock paper, envelopes, labels, etc. Due to the wide array of users on this network, the district does not recommend users print labels unless they have been instructed on the proper procedures by the Technology Department. Also, note that supplies for these printers are building responsibility

Print Sharing – Department Printers

Each department of any size may possess a network printer. The specifications for these printers are generally the same as lab printers, but student accounts are generally not permitted to use these printers as they are reserved for staff and faculty use.

Print Sharing – Common Area Printers

Each building has at least one Teachers Lounge, some of these lounges are equipped with a network printer and some even have network workstations for checking e-mail, composing documents, etc. Again, these printers are generally the same as those used in lab environments, per district standards.



Windows NT Server Detail

Overview

Microsoft Windows NT Server provides the district with almost all core network functions. It natively manages file and print sharing and it provides an application server platform that facilitates other network services such as Exchange, SMS, etc.

Hardware Specifications

Each Windows NT Server consists of at least the following minimum hardware:Compaq ProLiant Server (1600 or 3000 series)Intel Pentium II 300MHz Processor256 MB RAMThree 4.3gb 10,000 RPM SCSI-II Hard Disk Drives100 mbps Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC)Compaq PCI SmartRAID Controllers (3000 series servers only)ATAPI Compliant CD-ROM DriveOther insignificant specifications are not listed hereAll server hardware must be listed on the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List

NT Domain Model

Due to limitations inherent in Apple’s MacOS (at least up to v8.5.1 inclusive), Macintosh computers do not have a method to authenticate with a remote NT domain. Hence, the district has a flat domain model as far as the Macintosh computers are concerned, where a full-trust domain model with three domains is the actual model being used. Each of these domains trusts the other explicitly.

The largest domain (“DISTRICT87”) houses all student accounts, and staff/faculty accounts for persons that are not housed at the ESC building full-time. ESC has its own domain (“DISTRICT87-ESC”) that contains all staff (which are primarily administrative) located at the ESC building. There is also another domain, which is used to house information for the Special Education department (“DISTRICT87-SE”). This domain model is specifically tuned to the security model the district has chosen, keeping major departmental resources in separate domains where possible.

WINS and DNS Details

As resources are distributed across several LANs, the ability to access a workstation or server with its machine (NetBIOS) name vs. having to know its IP Address is a necessity. Due to inherent limitations in TCP/IP, the ability to resolve names of machines on different subnets without special naming services in place is very cumbersome if not impossible.

Enter Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS). WINS is used to provide a list of NetBIOS machine names to disparate networks and subnets. WINS is a Microsoft specific service and some platforms provide no support for it. All Windows platforms provide support for WINS. In the WINS model, each workstation or network resource must register its name and IP Address with the designated WINS server. Then, each workstation or network resource can query the WINS database for a machine name and it will resolve to an IP Address.

The district has a WINS server for each building and a “master” WINS server that’s sole purpose is to replicate the WINS database to all of the other WINS servers. By default, each WINS compliant workstation registers with and first queries its local WINS server, then it also has the master WINS server listed as a secondary WINS server. This gives the workstation the ability to query the master server should their primary server be down or unavailable. The master WINS server is michelangelo.district87.org.

The other aspect of IP name resolution is Internet-wide name resolution. With literally millions of hosts on the Internet, maintaining an accurate list of each networks hosts would be impossible to create and quite difficult to manage.



Enter Domain Name Server (DNS). DNS is a [more often than not] static database of hostnames that map to IP Addresses. Each host on the Internet should have at least two DNS records to be “properly” registered on the Internet. The first record, the “forward DNS” record, allows mapping of a hostname to IP Address, for example davinci.district87.org = 209.175.160.3. The second type of record, known as “reverse or inverse DNS” record maps an IP Address to a host name, for example 209.175.160.3 = davinci.district87.org. To understand how DNS functions, it is very important to first understand that DNS is based on a hierarchical environment, where the “root zone” which is simply a dot (“.”) and is implied at the end of each domain (i.e. “district87.org.”) contains pointers to the primary zones (edu, com, org, net, mil, gov, etc.). These in turn have pointers to the servers that make up the master and secondary DNS serves for a domain, for example district87.org’s primary DNS server is Michelangelo.district87.org and one of its secondaries is davinci.distric87.org, another secondary is at the Area IV Learning Technologies Hub for the sake of redundancy. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, DNS is not “replicated” or “propagated” over the Internet. Each step in a DNS resolution points the requesting client (actually that client’s DNS Server) to a higher level up the chain then directly to the server that houses the DNS for the domain in question. For more information, see the Request for Comment (RFC) documents available at http://www.itef.org.

District 87 owns district87.org as its primary domain, and it maintains bhs87.org and bhsms.org. These domains are “officially” supported but are added for convenience, as they existed before district87.org. The district also houses its own reverse DNS, although it is not authoritative for these zones. ISBE secondaries these zones and it is the authoritative body for them.

DHCP Details

In the realm of addressing each client machine all of the necessary information needed to effectively communicate within and outside of the district network, the district has chosen to implement Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP assigns all of the necessary information to any requesting client on the same physical subnet as the DHCP server. DHCP clients retain their IP Address and related information for the duration specified in the lease option at the server. It is said that the client actually “leases” the address from the server. The district has chosen to stay with the recommended default of three-day leases for DHCP clients.

This allows a central location for configuring items such as the default gateway, DNS Servers, WINS Servers, default search domain, etc. This also allows the administrator to make changes to literally hundreds of clients at a time with a single change at the DHCP server. For example, if a new DNS server were brought into the mix, only a single change to the DNS pointer at the DHCP server would redirect all clients to the new server as the renewed their lease.

Each building server provides DHCP services for all clients within that building. While this adds administrative overhead, the idea of having a building be autonomous and functional during a WAN outage is the guiding principle.

Virus Protection

Due to the violent and quick-spreading agenda of today’s viruses, the district has implemented Network Associates (formally McAfee) “Total Virus Defense” solution district-wide. Each server is armed with two major components.

The first component (NetShield NT) watches files as they are accessed and checks them for viruses as they are read from or written to. This component has the ability to clean most viruses on the fly and no user intervention is required. However, it will quarantine files that contain viruses that it cannot clean.

The second component (GroupShield Exchange) watches the Exchange database for viruses that are either attached to e-mail messages or embedded in folders whether public or personal. Each night, GroupShield checks the entire database for messages that contain viruses. GroupShield has the ability to clean many viruses on the fly as well. If it cannot clean a message, the attachment is moved to a public folder called the “Quarantine Folder” and replaced with a text file explaining the situation to the recipient. It also informs the sender, recipient, and administrator of the issue. For more information on the virus solution, see http://www.nai.com/.


http://www.nai.com/

http://www.itef.org/


E-Mail and Collaboration Services

Overview

E-Mail has become critical in district processes and general communications both with internal and external parties via the Internet. District E-Mail is provided by Microsoft Exchange Server (Exchange). Exchange provides each user in the district with what is called a Global Address List (GAL). This list, which is based on Exchange’s Directory Service and the objects contained therein, has the ability to contain a great amount of detailed information about each user. However, as every user has permissions to view information about other users, it has been decided that at least in the immediate future, these fields will not be populated with personal information. This GAL makes it very easy for any user to find any other user without having to know each user’s e-mail address and/or exact spelling of each user’s name.

Exchange also provides group scheduling, which allows users to view the schedules of other users and common resources listed on the GAL such as conference rooms, projectors, etc. and enables that user to coordinate meetings based on this information with great ease. Another feature of Exchange that has improved collaboration is Exchange’s contact management functions. Exchange, enhanced by Microsoft Outlook, has the ability to maintain very detailed information on contacts that are available only to a single user or to groups of users, as determined by the user who owns the contacts.

Public Folders allow storing common information, such as files, chat threads, e-mails, calendars, contacts, etc. in a location that all users can share amongst themselves. Public Folders are not officially supported yet, due to the complexity in user management issues and limited training time available. However, this shall not preclude their use. The Technology Department encourages use of any technology to improve on the abilities of any user or group of users.

Microsoft Netmeeting is (or soon will be) able to natively use Exchange’s GAL to facilitate on-line meetings where users can share documents, voice, and video in real-time with other users whether they are homed on the district network or are half-way around the world connected via the Internet. While the GAL is not necessary in this case, it is a great impact on ease of use and is therefore recommended. The district also has an Internet Locator Service (ILS) server. This simple, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) service allows users from disparate networks to connect to our network and participate in on-line meetings without having to know specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other technical information that can be difficult to communicate.

E-Mail – Organizational and Site Structuring

The Exchange Servers at District 87 are members of a single organization unit (“Bloomington Public Schools”), then there are two sites within the district. This was done to allow increased security as one of the sites (“ESC”) is in a separate Windows NT Domain. The common servers that are available to the majority of district users, are in another Exchange Site called “Multi Building Site” This was used for lack of a better term at the time. The Exchange Site connecter is used to connect the sites and replicate the directory between the sites.

E-Mail – Server Detail

Each building has at least one Exchange Server that houses the mailboxes for each user in that building. This allows the users to access their mailbox independently of WAN connectivity and other issues, which would impede proper connectivity to the High School. This also allows the users to have much faster access to their e-mail, calendars, contacts, public folders, etc. as they don’t have to traverse the WAN for each request or query. Most building servers act as POP3, IMAP, MAPI, and LDAP, etc. servers to users. Many of the services provided by Exchange are also available to users via the Internet, allowing even remote users to schedule meetings, add or view contacts, and even send Internet or internal e-mail from a variety of mail clients.



E-Mail – Internet Accessibility & Connectivity

As stated above, a number of Exchange’s core functions are available to users residing on remote Internet Service Providers (ISP) and these services are also available inside the district network, though they are not heavily used.

The first noteworthy function is Outlook Web Access (OWA). OWA provides an interface that looks very similar to the common Outlook interface seen on most desktops. OWA is a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Java based solution that is meant to provide access to Exchange functions across an array of platforms including Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, etc. OWA runs in almost any web browser that supports frames and Java. OWA can be located at the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://mail.district87.org. At this site, you will be given a list of available Exchange Servers that support OWA, simply follow the instructions on the screen presented to you. The OWA interface is so similar to Outlook, that we won’t go into much more detail at this point. We will however, note that some functions that exist in Outlook are not available in OWA, therefore we do not recommend using it as a primary interface to Exchange unless you are using it due to platform limitations or you have other conditions that hinder your ability to use the official Microsoft Outlook client.

Another feature is Exchange’s support for Post Office Protocol v3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and LDAP. These functions allow users to use almost any off-the-shelf mail client to access their Exchange mailbox, and in the case of IMAP, users can even access Public Folders. POP3 provides simple connect and download functionality of e-mail, but provides no access to calendar, contact, GAL, or public folder access. Some IMAP clients, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, support access to Public Folders, and LDAP access to the GAL, but access to calendar and contact information is still not available. IMAP has another inherent feature, which makes it a superior protocol over POP3 – it does not download mail until you attempt to open the actual message (or if you have the client software configured to download all messages). In addition, IMAP’s native method of mail access leaves the message on the server, where POP3 natively deletes the message from the server upon downloading. Deleting a message upon download makes it very difficult to have ubiquitous access to e-mail as all mail is removed from your mailbox or more specifically, your inbox every time you connect.

The district encourages users to either use OWA or a client that supports IMAP and LDAP if they are going to access their district mailboxes via the Internet. Overall, the district suggests Microsoft Outlook Express, as versions are available for several platforms. This will give users a similar interface across platforms.

Internet Mail to and from other domains (business, school districts, colleges, individuals, etc.) is transported by a protocol called Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). This is the Internet de facto standard for Internet communications. SMTP has the ability to transfer messages in many different formats and can carry attachments to and from disparate networks. This makes it very easy to collaborate with distant users via sharing documents, spreadsheets, etc. for direct file manipulation and modification (vs. the old standard of fax machines). This also opens up new and efficient ways to distribute information to a very wide array of people in a very short amount of time.

The district has three Exchange servers that are SMTP enabled, that is they have the Internet Mail Service (IMS) installed and properly configured. These servers bare the load of sending and receiving e-mail directed to or from the Internet. Inbound mail, which is directed by DNS, is first directed to michelangelo.district87.org, then if that server is down or unavailable, it is sent to davinci.district87.org, finally if that server is down or unavailable, the sending server is directed to franklin.district87.org. Each of these servers acts identically in respect to inbound mail delivery. The server receives the mail and directs the message to the appropriate server, which houses the mailbox of the intended recipient. If the destination server is down or unavailable, the message is queued for later delivery to that server.

As far as outbound Internet e-mail is concerned, there are three points of exit – these are the same as the points of entrance noted above. As a user sends a message destined for an Internet recipient, the server first looks at its internal Routing Table to determine what the best path is. As only a few servers have the IMS installed, some servers will route the mail to one of these servers for delivery. Exchange servers will attempt to use IMS’s on the same server, then on another server within the same site, then on any available server within the organization that


http://mail.district87.org/

Network Documentation Projecthas an IMS configured to allow access to the scope of the organization. For more information, see the Microsoft Exchange Server Documentation or http://www.microsoft.com/exchange.


http://www.microsoft.com/exchange


Systems Management Server

Overview

Currently, the District is in the process of upgrading to SMS 2.0, so SMS details will not be available until that upgrade is completed.

Details

SMS is not functioning correctly at this time.



Networking Hardware

RoutersBecause the district network spans more than one building and because of the distance between those buildings, it is necessary to employ the services of GTE, the local exchange carrier for the area to carry network traffic between our buildings. This traffic is carried on high-speed digital circuits, known as T1 lines. These lines carry traffic at a rate of 1.544 megabits/second (full-duplex). All of the elementary buildings and the administrative building (ESC) each have a single T1 circuit connecting to the High School.

At each end of the T1 circuit is a device known as a CSU/DSU. These devices translate the traffic from the TelCo’s data format to a serial format compatible with the Cisco Routing equipment in use by the district. The CSU/DSU devices are in turn connected to a device known as a Router. The Router is responsible for directing traffic between the buildings. Currently, the district’s routers are only configured to route TCP/IP. AppleTalk, NetBEUI, and IPX/SPX packets are ignored by the routers and are NOT passed between buildings.

At the High School, which is the center of the district network, a central router handles all of the traffic between all of the buildings. This router handles the T1 circuits, local Ethernet segments, as well as Frame Relay and ADSL circuits. The Ethernet Segments connect BHS, BJHS and the Cisco PIX Firewall to the district network. The Frame Relay circuit is used to connect the ADSL clients to the network through a single circuit.

FirewallThe Cisco PIX Firewall is responsible for protecting the district network from outside attacks and unauthorized access to district network resources. The firewall uses several mechanisms to proactively identify and trap attempts to access or damage district resources.

The firewall also allows the district to use more IP addresses than it was assigned via a technology known as Network Address Translation (NAT). This technology allows a network to be completely composed of private IP Address ranges internally. Yet, externally the network appears to have public addresses as the firewall replaces the packet headers to reflect public addresses for each packet that it is presented. Though the district still has a significant number of IP Addresses available externally, NAT may end up reducing the number of externally necessary IP Addresses as well as providing a method for connecting machines when the state allocations have been exceeded.

The Firewall can also act as a filter, which could limit viewing specific websites by students and/or staff as appropriate. In the same capacity, the Firewall has the capability to log every access or attempted access to these restricted sites or it can be configured to log all accesses to every site.

HubsA hub is a simple device that individual workstations or other hubs can connect to. The hub’s function is to repeat all traffic it receives to every other connected node or hub.

SwitchesA switch performs services similar to a hub, but generally has some intelligence. The switch can do things like Quality of Service guarantees, where an IP based telephone system could be guaranteed enough bandwidth to sustain a phone call, or a video stream could be guaranteed enough quality to maintain clarity. The switch can also monitor traffic and generate reports on utilization. The most basic function of the switch is to direct packets only onto segments that require the traffic. For example, if one workstation is talking to a server, there is generally no reason for those packets to be rebroadcast to the rest of the network, hence a switch will block those packets.



Network Interface CardsA Network Interface Card (NIC) is the interface used by a computer to talk to a network. These devices are available in a wide array of features, functions and speeds. The district generally uses 100mbps cards made by reputable vendors such as 3Com. It is imperative that all NICs use the same communications language that your backbone equipment uses (for example Ethernet or token-ring).



Appendix A – Glossary

Access - Access is simply being able to get to what you need. Data access is being able to get to (usually having permission to use) particular data on a computer. Web access means having a connection to the World Wide Web through an access provider or an online service such as America Online.

Active Server Page (ASP) - An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. An ASP is somewhat similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI) application in that all involve programs that run on the server, usually tailoring a page for the user. Typically, the script in the Web page at the server uses input received as the result of the user's request for the page to access data from a database and then builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the requestor.

ActiveX - ActiveX is the name Microsoft has given to a set of "strategic" object-oriented program technologies and tools. The main technology is the Component Object Model (COM). Used in a network with a directory and additional support, COM becomes the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). The main thing that you create when writing a program to run in the ActiveX environment is a component, a self-sufficient program that can be run anywhere in your ActiveX network (currently a network consisting of Windows and Macintosh systems). This component is known as an ActiveX control. ActiveX is Microsoft's answer to the Java technology from Sun Microsystems. An ActiveX control is roughly equivalent to a Java applet.

Analog - Analog technology refers to electronic transmission accomplished by adding signals of varying frequency or amplitude to carrier waves of a given frequency of alternating electromagnetic current. Broadcast and phone transmission have conventionally used analog technology.

Anonymous FTP - Using the Internet's File Transfer Protocol (FTP), anonymous FTP is a method for giving users access to files so that they don't need to identify themselves to the server. Using an FTP program or the FTP command interface, the user enters "anonymous" as a user ID. Usually, the password is defaulted or furnished by the FTP server. Anonymous FTP is a common way to get access to a server in order to view or download files that are publicly available.

Anti-Virus Software - Anti-virus (or "anti-viral") software is a class of program that searches your hard drive and floppy disks for any known or potential viruses. The market for this kind of program has expanded because of Internet growth and the increasing use of the Internet by businesses concerned about protecting their computer assets.

Appletalk - AppleTalk is a set of communication protocols for Apple computers. AppleTalk's network-layer protocol corresponds closely to the Datagram Delivery Protocol of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model.

Application - The term application is a shorter form of application program. An application program is a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program. Examples of applications include word processors, database programs, Web browsers, development tools, drawing, paint, and image editing programs, and communication programs. Applications use the services of the computer's operating system and other supporting applications. The formal requests and means of communicating with other programs that an application program uses is called the application program interface (API).

Application Server - An application server is a server program in a computer in a distributed network that provides the business logic for an application program. The application server is frequently viewed as part of a three-tier application, consisting of a graphical user interface (GUI) server, an application (business logic) server, and a database and transaction server.


Network Documentation ProjectASCII - ASCII is the most common format for text files in computers and on the Internet. In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-bit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined.

Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) - DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. xDSL refers to different variations of DSL, such as ADSL, HDSL, and RADSL. Assuming your home or small business is close enough to a telephone company central office that offers DSL service, you may soon be able to receive data at rates up to 6.1 megabits (millions of bits) per second (of a theoretical 8.448 megabits per second), enabling continuous transmission of motion video, audio, and even 3-D effects. More typically, individual connections will provide from 1.544 Mbps to 512 Kbps downstream and about 128 Kbps upstream. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals and the data part of the line is continuously connected. DSL installations began in 1998 and will continue at a greatly increased pace during 1999 in a number of communities in the U.S. and elsewhere. Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft working with telephone companies have developed a standard and easier-to-install form of ADSL called G.Lite that is expected to accelerate deployment. Within a few years, DSL is expected to replace ISDN in many areas and to compete with the cable modem in bringing multimedia and 3-D to homes and small businesses. Dataquest, a market research firm, forecasts 5.8 million lines installed by the end of the century.

Asynchronous - In computer programming, asynchronous (from Greek meaning "not at the same time" and pronounced "ay-SIN-kro-nus") pertains to processes that proceed independently of each other until one process needs to "interrupt" the other process with a request. Using the client- server model, the server handles many asynchronous requests from its many clients. The client is often able to proceed with other work or must wait on the service requested from the server.

ATAPI - ATAPI is an interface between your computer and attached CD-ROM drives and tape backup drives. Most of today's PC computers use the standard IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface to address hard disk drives. ATAPI provides the additional commands needed for controlling a CD-ROM player or tape backup so that your computer can use the IDE interface and controllers to control these relatively newer device types.

ATM - ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) is a dedicated-connection switching technology that organizes digital data into 53-byte cells or packets and transmits them over a medium using digital signal technology. Individually, a cell is processed asynchronously relative to other related cells and is queued before being multiplexed over the line.

AUP - An AUP (acceptable use policy) is a policy that a network access user must agree to follow in order to be provided with access service. When you sign up with an Internet service provider (ISP), you will usually be presented with an AUP, which states that you agree to adhere to stipulations such as:

Not using the service as part of violating any law Not attempting to break the security of any computer network or user Not posting commercial messages to Usenet groups without prior permission Not attempting to send junk e-mail or spam to anyone who doesn't want to receive it Not attempting to mail bomb a site with mass amounts of e-mail in order to flood their server

Users also typically agree to report any attempt to break into their accounts. A number of spammers have had their access service terminated.

Authentication - Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be. In private and public computer networks (including the Internet), authentication is commonly done through the use of logon passwords. Knowledge of the password is assumed to guarantee that the user is authentic. Each user registers initially (or is registered by someone else), using an assigned or self-declared password. On each subsequent use, the user must know and use the previously declared password. The weakness in this system for transactions that are significant (such as the exchange of money) is that passwords can often be stolen, accidentally revealed, or forgotten.

Authorization - Authorization is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something. In multi-user computer systems, a system administrator defines for the system which users are allowed access to the system and what privileges of use (such as access to which file directories, hours of access, amount of allocated storage space,


Network Documentation Projectand so forth). Assuming that someone has logged on to a computer operating system or application program, the system or application may want to identify what resources the user can be given during this session. Thus, authorization is sometimes seen as both the preliminary setting up of permissions by a system adminstrator and the actual checking of the permission values that have been set up when a user is getting access.

Autonomous System - On the Internet, an autonomous system (AS) is the unit of routing policy, either a single network or a group of networks that is controlled by a common network administrator (or group of administrators) on behalf of a single administrative entity (such as a university, a business enterprise, or a business division). An autonomous system is also sometimes referred to as a routing domain. An autonomous system is assigned a globally unique number, sometimes called an Autonomous System Number (ASN).

Availability - In a telephone circuit, availability is the ratio between the time during which the circuit is operational and elapsed time.

Backbone - A backbone is a larger transmission line that carries data gathered from smaller lines that interconnect with it.

1) At the local level, a backbone is a line or set of lines that local area networks connect to for a wide area network connection or within a local area network to span distances efficiently (for example, between buildings).

2) On the Internet or other wide area network, a backbone is a set of paths that local or regional networks connect to for long-distance interconnection. The connection points are known as network nodes or telecommunication data switching exchanges (DSEs).

Back-end - Front-end and back-end are terms used to characterize program interfaces and services relative to the initial user of these interfaces and services. (The "user" may be a human being or a program.) A "front-end" application is one that application users interact with directly. A "back-end" application or program serves indirectly in support of the front-end services, usually by being closer to the required resource or having the capability to communicate with the required resource. The back-end application may interact directly with the front-end or, perhaps more typically, is a program called from an intermediate program that mediates front-end and back-end activities.

Backplane - A backplane is an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and sockets into which additional electronic devices on other circuit boards or cards can be plugged; in a computer, generally synonymous with or part of the motherboard.

Backup - Backup is the activity of copying files or databases so that they will be preserved in case of equipment failure or other catastrophe. Backup is usually a routine part of the operation of large businesses with mainframes as well as the administrators of smaller business computers. For personal computer users, backup is also necessary but often neglected. The retrieval of files you backed up is called restoring them.

Bandwidth - The bandwidth of a transmitted communications signal is a measure of the range of frequencies the signal occupies. The term is also used in reference to the frequency-response characteristics of a communications receiving system. All transmitted signals, whether analog or digital, have a certain bandwidth. The same is true of receiving systems.

Baseband - A baseband is the original frequency range of a signal before it is modulated into a higher and more efficient frequency range, usually in multiplexing the signal to send it on a carrier with other signals at the same time.

Batch - In a computer, a batch job is a program that is assigned to the computer to run without further user interaction. Examples of batch jobs in a PC are a printing request or an analysis of a Web site log. In larger commercial computers or servers, batch jobs are usually initiated by a system user. Some are defined to run automatically at a certain time.



Baud - Baud was the prevalent measure for data transmission speed until replaced by a more accurate term, bps (bits per second). One baud is one electronic state change per second. Since a single state change can involve more than a single bit of data, the bps unit of measurement has replaced it as a better expression of data transmission speed.

Benchmark - A set of conditions against which a product or system is measured. PC magazine laboratories frequently test and compare several new computers or computer devices against the same set of application programs, user interactions, and contextual situations. The total context against which all products are measured and compared is referred to as the benchmark.

Binary - Binary is the base two number system that computers use to represent data. It consists of only two numbers: "0" and "1".

BIOS - BIOS (basic input/output system) is the program a personal computer's microprocessor uses to get the computer system started after you turn it on. It also manages data flow between the computer's operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk, video adapter, keyboard, mouse, and printer.

BIS - The word (also used as a prefix or suffix) bis, applied to some modem protocol standards, is Old Latin for "repeat" (akin to Old High German "twice"). When a protocol ends with "bis," it means that it's the second version of that protocol.

Bit - A bit is the smallest unit of data in a computer. A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1. Although computers usually provide instructions that can test and manipulate bits, they generally are designed to store data and execute instructions in bit multiples called bytes. In most computer systems, there are eight bits in a byte. The value of a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a single capacitor within a memory device.

Blind Carbon Copy - In e-mail, a carbon copy (abbreviated "cc," and sometimes "fcc" for "first carbon copy") is a copy of a note sent to an addressee other than the main addressee. A blind carbon copy is a copy sent to an addressee that is not visible to the main and carbon copy addressees. For example, you may have a work colleague that acts as a back-up when you're on vacation or not at work. You don't necessarily want the people you correspond with to know that you have a back-up. So, to keep your back-up informed, you always send the back-up a blind carbon copy. The fact that a blind carbon copy was sent is not apparent to the main and carbon copy recipients.

Bookmark - Using a World Wide Web browser, a bookmark is a saved link to a Web page that has been added to a list of saved links. When you are looking at a particular Web site or home page and want to be able to quickly get back to it later, you can create a bookmark for it. You can think of your browser as a book full of (millions of ) Web pages and a few well-placed bookmarks that you have chosen. The list that contains your bookmarks is the "bookmark list" (and sometimes it's called a "hotlist.")

Boot - To boot (as a verb; also "to boot up") a computer is to load an operating system into the computer's main memory or RAM (random access memory). Once the operating system is loaded (and, for example, on a PC, you see the initial Windows or Mac desktop screen), it's ready for users to run application programs. Sometimes you'll see an instruction to "reboot" the operating system. This simply means to reload the operating system (the most familiar way to do this on PCs is pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time).

BOOTP - BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol) is a protocol that lets a network user be automatically configured (receive an IP address) and have an operating system booted or initiated without user involvement. The BOOTP server, managed by a network administrator, automatically assigns the IP address from a pool of addresses for a certain duration of time.

BPS - In data communications, bits per second (abbreviated bps) is a common measure of data speed for computer modems and transmission carriers. As the term implies, the speed in bps is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second. The duration d of a data bit, in seconds, is inversely proportional to the digital transmission speed s in bps:


Network Documentation ProjectBRI - In the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), there are two levels of service: the Basic Rate Interface (BRI), intended for the home and small enterprise, and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI), for larger users. Both rates include a number of B (bearer) channels and a D (delta) channel. The B channels carry data, voice, and other services. The D channel carries control and signaling information.

Bridge - In telecommunications networks, a bridge is a product that connects a local area network (LAN) to another local area network that uses the same protocol (for example, Ethernet or Token Ring). You can envision a bridge as being a device that decides whether a message from you to someone else is going to the local area network in your building or to someone on the local area network in the building across the street. A bridge examines each message on a LAN, "passing" those known to be within the same LAN, and forwarding those known to be on the other interconnected LAN (or LANs).

Broadband - Broadband refers to telecommunication that provides multiple channels of data over a single communications medium using frequency division multiplexing.

Brouter - A brouter (pronounced "BROW-ter") is a network bridge and a router combined in a single product. A bridge is a device that connects one local area network (LAN) to another local area network that uses the same protocol (for example, Ethernet or Token Ring). If a data unit on one LAN is intended for a destination on an interconnected LAN, the bridge forwards the data unit to that LAN; otherwise, it passes it along on the same LAN. A bridge usually offers only one path to a given interconnected LAN. A router connects a network to one or more other networks that are usually part of a wide area network (WAN) and may offer a number of paths out to destinations on those networks. A router therefore needs to have more information than a bridge about the interconnected networks. It consults a routing table for this information. Since a given outgoing data unit or packet from a computer may be intended for an address on the local network, on an interconnected LAN, or the wide area network, it makes sense to have a single unit that examines all data units and forwards them appropriately.

Browser - A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online. By the time the first Web browser with a graphical user interface was invented (Mosaic, in 1992), the term seemed to apply to Web content, too. Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user. A commercial version of the original browser, Mosaic, is in use. Many of the user interface features in Mosaic, however, went into the first widely-used browser, Netscape Navigator. Microsoft followed with its Internet Explorer. Today, these two browsers are highly competitive and the only two browsers that the vast majority of Internet users are aware of. Although the online services, such as America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy, originally had their own browsers, virtually all now offer the Netscape or Microsoft browser. Lynx is a text-only browser for UNIX shell and VMS users. Another recently offered browser is Opera.

Buffer - A buffer is a data area shared by hardware devices or program processes that operate at different speeds or with different sets of priorities. The buffer allows each device or process to operate without being held up by the other. In order for a buffer to be effective, the size of the buffer and the algorithms for moving data into and out of the buffer need to be considered by the buffer designer. Like a cache, a buffer is a "midpoint holding place" but exists not so much to accelerate the speed of an activity as to support the coordination of separate activities.

Bug - In computer technology, a bug is a coding error in a computer program. (Here we consider a program to also include the microcode that is manufactured into processors.) The process of finding bugs before program users do is called debugging. Debugging starts after the code is first written and continues in successive stages as code is combined with other units of programming to form a software product, such as an operating system or an application program. After a product is released or during public beta testing, bugs are still apt to be discovered. When this occurs, users have to either find a way to avoid using the "buggy" code or get a patch from the originators of the code.

Bus - In a computer or on a network, a bus is a transmission path on which signals are dropped off or picked up at every device attached to the line. Only devices addressed by the signals pay attention to them; the others discard the signals. According to Winn L. Rosch, the term derives from its similarity to autobuses that stop at every town or block to drop off or take on riders



C - C is a structured, procedural programming language that has been widely used both for operating systems and applications and that has had a wide following in the academic community. Many versions of UNIX-based operating systems are written in C. C has been standardized as part of the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX).

C++ - C++ is an object-oriented programming language that is now generally viewed as the best language for creating large-scale application programs. C++ is a superset of the C language.

Cable Modem - A cable modem is a device that enables you to hook up your PC to a local cable TV line and receive data at about 1.5 Mbps. This data rate far exceeds that of the prevalent 28.8 and 56 Kbps telephone modems and the up to 128 Kbps of ISDN and is about the data rate available to subscribers of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) telephone service. A cable modem can be added to or integrated with a set top box that turns your TV set into an Internet channel. For PC attachment, the cable line must be split so that part of the line goes to the TV set and the other part goes to the cable modem and the PC.

Cache - A cache (pronounced CASH) is a place to store something more or less temporarily. Web pages you request are stored in your browser's cache directory on your hard disk. That way, when you return to a page you've recently looked at, the browser can get it from the cache rather than the original server, saving you time and the network the burden of some additional traffic. You can usually vary the size of your cache, depending on your particular browser. Computers include caches at several levels of operation, including cache memory and a disk cache. Caching can also be implemented for Internet content by distributing it to multiple servers that are periodically refreshed. (The use of the term in this context is closely related to the general concept of a distributed information base.)

Canonical - In programming, canonical means "according to the rules." And non-canonical means "not according to the rules." In the early Christian church, the "canon" was the officially chosen text. In The New Hacker's Dictionary, Eric Raymond tells us that the word meant "reed" in its Greek and Latin origin, and a certain length of reed came to be used as a standard measure. In some knowledge areas, such as music and literature, the "canon" is the body of work that everyone studies.

Card - A card (or expansion card, board, or adapter) is circuitry designed to provide expanded capability to a computer. It is provided on the surface of a standard-size rigid material (fiberboard or something similar) and then plugged into one of the computer's expansion slots in its motherboard (or backplane). Cards may come in one of two sizes designed to match standard slot dimensions. A card can actually contain the capability within its circuitry (as a video card does) or it can control (through an extended connection) a device (such as a hard disk drive).

Carrier - In information technology, a carrier (or carrier signal) is a transmitted electromagnetic pulse or wave at a steady base frequency of alternation on which information can be imposed by increasing signal strength, varying the base frequency, varying the wave phase, or other means. This variation is called modulation. With the advent of laser transmission over optical fiber media, a carrier can also be a laser-generated light beam on which information is imposed.

CAT 1,2,3,4,5 - ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify "categories" (the singular is commonly referred to as "CAT") of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions, and connectors) in terms of the data rates that they can sustain. The specifications describe the cable material as well as the types of connectors and junction blocks to be used in order to conform to a category.

Collaboration Data Objects - Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) is Microsoft's technology for building messaging or collaboration application programs or adding these capabilities to existing applications. Part of the Microsoft Exchange Server product, CDO has evolved from what Microsoft formerly called OLE Messaging and, more recently, Active Messaging. Using Active Server Page (ASP) technology with CDO, a Web site builder can, for example, write a script that will exchange e-mail with users or with other Web sites, collaborate in discussions on other Web sites, or allow employees to schedule meetings with multiple recipients, review existing appointments, schedule new events, and so forth.


Network Documentation ProjectCD-ROM - In computers, CD-ROM technology is a format and system for recording, storing, and retrieving electronic information on a compact disk that is read using an optical drive. A CD-ROM player or drive does not allow writing to the disk.

CDSL - DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. xDSL refers to different variations of DSL, such as ADSL, HDSL, and RADSL. Assuming your home or small business is close enough to a telephone company central office that offers DSL service, you may soon be able to receive data at rates up to 6.1 megabits (millions of bits) per second (of a theoretical 8.448 megabits per second), enabling continuous transmission of motion video, audio, and even 3-D effects. More typically, individual connections will provide from 1.544 Mbps to 512 Kbps downstream and about 128 Kbps upstream. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals and the data part of the line is continuously connected. DSL installations began in 1998 and will continue at a greatly increased pace during 1999 in a number of communities in the U.S. and elsewhere. Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft working with telephone companies have developed a standard and easier-to-install form of ADSL called G.Lite that is expected to accelerate deployment. Within a few years, DSL is expected to replace ISDN in many areas and to compete with the cable modem in bringing multimedia and 3-D to homes and small businesses. Dataquest, a market research firm, forecasts 5.8 million lines installed by the end of the century.

CE - Windows CE is based on the Microsoft Windows operating system but is designed for including or embedding in mobile and other space-constrained devices. Although Microsoft does not explain the "CE," it is reported to have originally stood for "Consumer Electronics." Windows CE is used in several brands of handheld computers and as part of cable TV set-top boxes built for TCI. It competes with EPOC and also with similar operating systems from 3Com (for its PalmPilot) and other companies. Like the full-scale Windows systems, Windows CE is a 32-bit multitasking, multithreaded operating system. Microsoft emphasizes that the system was "built from scratch" while taking advantage of Windows architectural concepts and interfaces. Microsoft argues that Windows desktop system users will find that products with Windows CE provide a familiar user interface

Central Office (CO) - In telephone communication in the United States, a central office (CO) is an office in a locality to which subscriber home and business lines are connected on what is called a local loop. The central office has switching equipment that can switch calls locally or to long-distance carrier phone offices.

Centrex - Centrex (central office exchange service) is a service from local telephone companies in the United States in which up-to-date phone facilities at the phone company's central (local) office are offered to business users so that they don't need to purchase their own facilities. The Centrex service effectively partitions part of its own centralized capabilities among its business customers. The customer is spared the expense of having to keep up with fast-moving technology changes (for example, having to continually update their private branch exchange infrastructure) and the phone company has a new set of services to sell.

CERN - CERN, the high-energy particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, is where, in 1991, one researcher, Dr. Tim Berners-Lee, essentially invented the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee is credited with developing the idea of combining hypertext with the speed of today's electronic networks. Working with a small team, he developed the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on which the Web is based.

Certificate - A digital certificate is an electronic "credit card" that establishes your credentials when doing business or other transactions on the Web. It is issued by a certification authority (CA). It contains your name, a serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key (used for encrypting and decrypting messages and digital signatures), and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real. Some digital certificates conform to a standard, X.509. Digital certificates can be kept in registries so that authenticated users can look up other users' public keys.

Certificate Authority - A CA (certificate authority) is an authority in a network that issues and manages security credentials and public keys for message encryption and decryption. As part of a public key infrastructure (PKI), a CA checks with a registration authority (RA) to verify information provided by the requestor of a digital certificate. If the RA verifies the requestor's information, the CA can then issue a certificate.


Network Documentation ProjectCGI - The common gateway interface (CGI) is a standard way for a Web server to pass a Web user's request to an application program and to receive data back to forward to the user. When the user requests a Web page (for example, by clicking on a highlighted word or entering a Web site address), the server sends back the requested page. However, when a user fills out a form on a Web page and sends it in, it usually needs to be processed by an application program. The Web server typically passes the form information to a small application program that processes the data and may send back a confirmation message. This method or convention for passing data back and forth between the server and the application is called the common gateway interface (CGI). It is part of the Web's HTTP protocol.

Chassis - In a computer, the chassis houses the main electronic components, including the motherboard (with places to insert or replace microchips for the main and possibly specialized processors and random access memory (RAM) and places for adding optional adapters (for example, for audio or video capabilities). Typically, room is provided for a hard disk drive and a CD-ROM drive.

Checksum - A checksum is a count of the number of bits in a transmission unit that is included with the unit so that the receiver can check to see whether the same number of bits arrived. If the counts match, it's assumed that the complete transmission was received. Both TCP and UDP communication layers provide a checksum count and verification as one of their services.

Chipset - A chipset is a group of microchips designed to work and sold as a unit in performing one or more related functions. A typical chipset is the Intel 430HX PCIset for the Pentium microprocessor, a two-chip set that provides a PCI bus controller and is designed for a business computer that "optimizes CPU, PCI and ISA transactions for faster, smoother multimedia performance in video conferencing, playback, and capture applications." This chipset includes support for the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

CIDR - CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) is a way to allocate and specify the Internet addresses used in inter-domain routing more flexibly than with the original system of Internet Protocol (IP) address classes. As a result, the number of available Internet addresses has been greatly increased. CIDR is now the routing system used by virtually all gateway hosts on the Internet's backbone network. The Internet's regulating authorities now expect every Internet service provider (ISP) to use it for routing.

CIR - In frame relay networks, a CIR (Committed Information Rate) is a bandwidth (expressed in bits per second) associated with a logical connection in a Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC). Frame relay networks are digital networks in which different logical connections share the same physical path and some logical connections are given higher bandwidths than others. For example, a connection conveying a high proportion of video signals (which require a high bandwidth) could be set up for certain workstations in a company (or on a larger network) and other connections requiring less bandwidth could be set up for all other workstations. Using statistical multiplexing, frame relay assemblers and dissemblers (FRADs), the devices that interconnect to the frame relay network, manage the logical connections so that, for example, those with the video signals (and higher CIRs) get more use of the paths. Because the CIR is defined in software, the network's mix of traffic bandwidths can be redefined in a relatively short amount of time

Circuit - In telecommunications, a circuit is a discrete (specific) path between two or more points along which signals can be carried. Unless otherwise qualified, a circuit is a physical path, consisting of one or more wires and possibly intermediate switching points. A network is an arrangement of circuits. In a dial-up (switched) connection, a circuit is reserved for use by one user for the duration of the calling session. In a dedicated or leased line arrangement, a circuit is reserved in advance and can only be used the owner or renter of the circuit.

Circuit-switched - Circuit-switched is a type of network in which a physical path is obtained for and dedicated to a single connection between two end-points in the network for the duration of the connection. Ordinary voice phone service is circuit-switched. The telephone company reserves a specific physical path to the number you are calling for the duration of your call. During that time, no one else can use the physical lines involved.

CISC - The term "CISC" (complex instruction set computer or computing) refers to computers designed with a full set of instructions that were intended to provide needed capabilities in the most efficient way. Later, it was discovered that, by reducing the full set to only the most frequently used instructions, the computer would get more


Network Documentation Projectwork done in a shorter amount of time for most applications. Since this was called reduced instruction set computing (RISC), there was now a need to have something to call full-set instruction computers - thus, the term CISC.

Class - In object-oriented programming, a class is a template definition of the methods and variables in a particular kind of object. Thus, an object is a specific instance of a class; it contains real values instead of variables

CLEC - In the United States, a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) is a company that competes with the already established local telephone business by providing its own network and switching. The term distinguishes new or potential competitors from established local exchange carriers (LECs) and arises from the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was intended to promote competition among both long-distance and local phone service providers.

Client - A client is the requesting program or user in a client/server relationship. For example, the user of a Web browser is effectively making client requests for pages from servers all over the Web. The browser itself is a client in its relationship with the computer that is getting and returning the requested HTML file. The computer handling the request and sending back the HTML file is a server.

Client/Server - Client/server describes the relationship between two computer programs in which one program, the client, makes a service request from another program, the server, which fulfills the request. Although the client/server idea can be used by programs within a single computer, it is a more important idea in a network. In a network, the client/server model provides a convenient way to interconnect programs that are distributed efficiently across different locations. Computer transactions using the client/server model are very common. For example, to check your bank account from your computer, a client program in your computer forwards your request to a server program at the bank. That program may in turn forward the request to its own client program that sends a request to a database server at another bank computer to retrieve your account balance. The balance is returned back to the bank data client, which in turn serves it back to the client in your personal computer, which displays the information for you.

Cloud - In telecommunications, a cloud is the unpredictable part of any network through which data passes between two end points. Possibly the term originated from the clouds used in blackboard drawings or more formal illustrations to describe the nonspecifiable or uninteresting part of a network. Clouds exist because between any two points in a packet-switched network, the physical path on which a packet travels can vary from one packet to the next and, in a circuit-switched network, the specific circuit that is set up can vary from one connection to the next.

Cluster - In information technology marketing and infrastructure terminology, a cluster is a group of terminals or workstations attached to a common control unit or server or a group of several servers that share work and may be able to back each other up if one server fails. As of mid-1997, a two-server Windows NT cluster in which each system could back up the other in case of failure was priced at about $23,000. (The cost of writing failure scripts, considered to be a sophisticated programming task, would be extra.)

Collision - In an Ethernet network, a collision is the result of two devices on the same Ethernet network attempting to transmit data at exactly the same time. The network detects the "collision" of the two transmitted packets and discards them both. Collisions are a natural occurrence on Ethernets. Ethernet uses Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detect (CSMA/CD) as its method of allowing devices to "take turns" using the signal carrier line. When a device wants to transmit, it checks the signal level of the line to determine whether someone else is already using it. If it is already in use, the device waits and retries, perhaps in a few seconds. If it isn't in use, the device transmits. However, two devices can transmit at the same time in which case a collision occurs and both devices detect it. Each device then waits a random amount of time and retries until successful in getting the transmission sent.

COM - COM (Component Object Model) is Microsoft's framework for developing and supporting program component objects. It is aimed at providing similar capabilities to those defined in CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), a framework for the interoperation of distributed objects in a network that is supported by other major companies in the computer industry. Whereas Microsoft's OLE provides services for the compound document that users see on their display, COM provides the underlying services of interface negotiation, life cycle management (determining when an object can be removed from a system), licensing, and event services (putting one object into service as the result of an event that has happened to another object).



Command Interpreter - A command interpreter is the part of a computer operating system that understands and executes commands that are entered interactively by a human being or from a program. In some operating systems, the command interpreter is called the shell.

Compiler - A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular programming language and turns them into machine language or "code" that a computer's processor uses. Typically, a programmer writes language statements in a language such as Pascal or C one line at a time using an editor. This file contains what is called the source statements. The programmer then runs the appropriate language compiler, specifying the name of the file that contains the source statements.

Compression - Compression is the reduction in size of data in order to save space or transmission time. For data transmission, compression can be performed on just the data content or on the entire transmission unit (including header data) depending on a number of factors.

Computer - A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digital data) and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different programs may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started by an administrator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

Concentrator - As generally used, a concentrator is a device that acts as an efficient forwarder of data transmission signals. A remote access hub is sometimes referred to as a concentrator. The term aggregator is also frequently used with approximately the same meaning. A typical concentrator or remote access hub is a device that handles incoming dial-up calls for an Internet (or other network) point-of-presence and performs other services. A concentrator or hub may be able to handle up to 100 dial-up modem calls, support a certain number of ISDN connections, and support leased-line and frame relay traffic while also functioning as a router.

Connectoid - A connectoid is a dial-up connection profile using the Microsoft Windows 95 or the Windows 98 operating system. The connection profiles allow a user to dial out (or really have the computer dial out) to a number of different Internet connection points such as Compuserve or a local Internet service provider (ISP).

Convergence - In information technology, convergence is a term for the combining of personal computers, telecommunication, and television into a user experience that is accessible to everyone. In the U.S., an estimated 30% of homes have computers with modems. Virtually, 100% of homes have a TV set. Studies show a large populace of TV users who would embrace the Internet, video-on-demand, and greater interaction with content, but who are diffident about buying and using a personal computer. For these reasons, both the computer and the television industries are embarked on bringing digital TV and the Internet to a larger market.

Cookie - A cookie is a special text file that a Web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time. Typically, a cookie records your preferences when using a particular site. Using the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), each request for a Web page is independent of all other requests. For this reason, the Web page server has no memory of what pages it has sent to a user previously or anything about your previous visits. A cookie is a mechanism that allows the server to store its own file about a user on the user's own computer. The file is stored in a subdirectory of the browser directory (for example, as a subdirectory under the Netscape directory). The cookie subdirectory will contain a cookie file for each Web site you've been to that uses cookies.

CPU - CPU (central processing unit) is an older term for processor and microprocessor, the central unit in a computer containing the logic circuitry that performs the instructions of a computer's programs.

Cracker - A cracker is someone who breaks into someone else's computer system, often on a network. A cracker can be doing this for profit, maliciously, for some altruistic purpose or cause, or because the challenge is there. Some breaking-and-entering has been done ostensibly to point out weaknesses in a site's security system.


Network Documentation ProjectCrash - A crash is the sudden failure of a software application or operating system or of a hardware device such as a hard disk drive.

CRC - Cyclic redundancy checking is a method of checking for errors in data that has been transmitted on a communications link. A sending device applies a 16- or 32-bit polynomial to a block of data that is to be transmitted and appends the resulting cyclic redundancy code (CRC) to the block. The receiving end applies the same polynomial to the data and compares its result with the result appended by the sender. If they agree, the data has been received successfully. If not, the sender can be notified to resend the block of data.

Crossover Cable - A crossover cable is a cable that is used to interconnect two computers by "crossing over" (reversing) their respective pin contacts. Either an RS-232C or an RJ-45 connection is possible. A crossover cable is sometimes known as a null modem.

CSMA/CD - CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detect) is the protocol for carrier transmission access in Ethernet networks. On Ethernet, any device can try to send a frame at any time. Each device senses whether the line is idle and therefore available to be used. If it is, the device begins to transmit its first frame. If another device has tried to send at the same time, a collision is said to occur and the frames are discarded. Each device then waits a random amount of time and retries until successful in getting its transmission sent.

CSU/DSU - A CSU/DSU (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit) is a hardware device about the size of an external modem that converts digital data frames from the communications technology used on a local area network (LAN) into frames appropriate to a wide-area network (WAN) and vice versa. For example, if you have a Web business from your own home and have leased a digital line (perhaps a T-1 or fractional T-1 line) to a phone company or a gateway at an Internet service provider, you have a CSU/DSU at your end and the phone company or gateway host has a CSU/DSU at its end.

Cyber - "Cyber" is a prefix used to describe a person, thing, or idea as part of the computer and information age. Taken from kybernetes, Greek for "steersman" or "governor," it was first used in cybernetics, a word coined by Norbert Wiener and his colleagues. Common usages include cyberculture, cyberpunk, and cyberspace. Terms with this prefix are being coined so rapidly that there will soon be a need for a cyberdictionary.

Cyberspace - Cyberspace is the total interconnectedness of human beings through computers and telecommunication without regard to physical geography.

DAT - DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is a standard medium and technology for the digital recording of audio on tape at a professional level of quality. A DAT drive is a digital tape recorder with rotating heads similar to those found in a video deck. Most DAT drives can record at sample rates of 44.1 KHz, the CD audio standard, and 48 KHz. DAT has become the standard archiving technology in professional and semi-professional recording environments for master recordings. Digital inputs and outputs on professional DAT decks allow the user to transfer recordings from the DAT tape to an audio workstation for precise editing. The compact size and low cost of the DAT medium makes it an excellent way to compile the recordings that are going to be used to create a CD master.

Data - In computing, data is information that has been translated into a form that is more convenient to move or process. Relative to today's computers and transmission media, data is information converted into binary or digital form.

Data Transfer Rate - A data transfer rate (or often just data rate) is the amount of digital data that is moved from one place to another in a given time, usually in a second's time. The data transfer rate can be viewed as the speed of travel of a given amount of data from one place to another. In general, the greater the bandwidth of a given path, the higher the data transfer rate.

Database - A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. The most prevalent type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. A distributed database is one that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network. An object-oriented database is one that is congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses.



DCE - In network computing, DCE is an industry-standard software technology for setting up and managing computing and data exchange in a system of distributed computers. DCE is typically used in a larger network of computing systems that include different size servers scattered geographically. DCE uses the client/server model. Using DCE, application users can use applications and data at remote servers. Application programmers need not be aware of where their programs will run or where the data will be located.

DDE - In the Windows, OS/2, and (with third-party development kits) other operating systems, DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) allows information to be shared or communicated between programs. For example, when you change a form in your database program or a data item in a spreadsheet program, they can be set up to also change these forms or items anywhere they occur in other programs you may use. DDE is interprocess communication (IPC) that uses shared memory as a common exchange area and provides applications with a protocol or set of commands and message formats. DDE uses a client/server model in which the application requesting data is considered the client and the application providing data is considered the server.

Deadlock - A deadlock is a situation in which two computer programs sharing the same resource are effectively preventing each other from accessing the resource, resulting in both programs ceasing to function.

Debugging - In computers, debugging is the process of locating and fixing or bypassing bugs (errors) in computer program code or the engineering of a hardware device. To debug a program or hardware device is to start with a problem, isolate the source of the problem, and then fix it. A user of a program that does not know how to fix the problem may learn enough about the problem to be able to avoid it until it is permanently fixed. When someone says they've debugged a program or "worked the bugs out" of a program, they imply that they fixed it so that the bugs no longer exist.

Decryption - Decryption is the process of converting encrypted data back into its original form, so it can be understood.

Dedicated Line - A dedicated line is a telecommunications path between two points that is available 24 hours a day for use by a designated user (individual or company). It is not shared in common among multiple users as dial-up lines are. A dedicated line can be a physical path owned by the user or rented from a telephone company, in which case it is called a leased line. A synonym is nonswitched line (as opposed to a switched or dial-up line).

Default - In computer technology, a default (noun, pronounced dee-FAWLT) is a predesigned value or setting that is used by a computer program when a value or setting is not specified by the program user. The program user can be either an interactive user of a graphical user interface or command line interface, or a programmer using an application program interface. When the program receives a request from an interactive user or another program, it looks at the information that has been passed to it. If a particular item of information is not specified in the information that is passed, the program uses the default value that was defined for that item when the program was written. In designing a program, each default is usually preestablished as the value or setting that most users would probably choose. This keeps the interface simpler for the interface user and means that less information has to be passed and examined during each program request.

Demarc - A demarc (an abbreviation for demarcation point) marks the point where communications facilities owned by one organization interface with that of another organization. In telephone terminology, this is the interface between customer-premises equipment and network service provider equipment.

Demilitarized Zone - In computer networks, a DMZ (demilitarized zone) is a computer host or small network inserted as a "neutral zone" between a company's private network and the outside public network. It prevents outside users from getting direct access to a server that has company data. (The term comes from the geographic buffer zone that was set up between North Korea and South Korea following the war in the early 1950s.) A DMZ is an optional and more secure approach to a firewall and effectively acts as a proxy server as well.

DES - Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a widely-used method of data encryption using a private (secret) key that was judged so difficult to break by the U.S. government that it was restricted for exportation to other countries. There are 72,000,000,000,000,000 (72 quadrillion) or more possible encryption keys that can be used. For each


Network Documentation Projectgiven message, the key is chosen at random from among this enormous number of keys. Like other private key cryptographic methods, both the sender and the receiver must know and use the same private key.

Desktop - Using an office metaphor, a desktop is a computer display area that represents the kinds of objects one might find on a real desktop: documents, phonebook, telephone, reference sources, writing (and possibly drawing) tools, project folders. A desktop can be contained in a window that is part of the total display area or can be "full-screen" (the total display area). Conceivably, you can have multiple desktops (for different projects or work environments you may have) and switch among them

Desktop Computer - A desktop computer is a personal computer that is designed to fit conveniently on top of a typical office desk. A desktop computer typically comes in several units that are connected together during installation: (1) the processor, which can be in a microtower or minitower designed to fit under the desk or in a unit that goes on top of the desk, (2) the display monitor, (3) and input devices - usually a keyboard and a mouse. Today, almost all desktop computers include a built-in modem, a CD-ROM drive, a multi-gigabyte magnetic storage drive, and sometimes a floppy disk drive. At home, most desktop computer users also purchase a printer. In businesses and increasingly at home, desktop computers can be interconnected and can share resources such as printers by being connected to a local area network (LAN).

Device - In the context of computer technology, a device is a unit of hardware, outside or inside the case or housing for the essential computer (processor, memory, and data paths) that is capable of providing input to the essential computer or of receiving output or of both. When the term is used generally (as in computer devices), it can include keyboards, mouses, display monitors, hard disk drives, CD-ROM players, printers, audio speakers and microphones, and other hardware units. Some devices such as a hard disk drive or a CD-ROM drive, while physically inside the computer housing, are considered devices because they are separately installable and replaceable. With notebook and smaller computers, devices tend to be more physically integrated with the "non-device" part of the computer.

DHCP - DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network. Using the Internet's set of protocols (TCP/IP), each machine that can connect to the Internet needs a unique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a connection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and distribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IP address when a computer is plugged into a different place in the network.

DHTML - Dynamic HTML is a collective term for a combination of new Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags and options, style sheets, and programming that will let you create Web pages more animated and more responsive to user interaction than previous versions of HTML. Much of dynamic HTML is specified in HTML 4.0. Simple examples of dynamic HTML pages would include (1) having the color of a text heading change when a user passes a mouse over it or (2) allowing a user to "drag and drop" an image to another place on a Web page. Dynamic HTML can allow Web documents to look and act like desktop applications or multimedia productions.

Dial-Up - Dial-up pertains to a telephone connection in a system of many lines shared by many users. A dial-up connection is established and maintained for a limited time duration. The alternative is a dedicated connection, which is continuously in place. Dial-up lines are sometimes called switched lines and dedicated lines are called nonswitched lines. A dedicated line is often a leased line that is rented from a telephone company

Directory - A directory is, in general, an approach to organizing information, the most familiar example being a telephone directory.

DirectX - DirectX is an application program interface (API) for creating and managing graphic images and multimedia effects in applications such as games or active Web pages that will run in Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. (Such an application program might be written in C++, or Visual C/C++, or Java.) The capability to "play" DirectX applications comes as an integrated part of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 Web browser. (A 3-D player is optionally downloadable.)


Network Documentation ProjectDisk Cache - A disk cache is a mechanism for improving the time it takes to read from or write to a hard disk. Today, the disk cache is usually included as part of the hard disk. A disk cache can also be a specified portion of random access memory (RAM). The disk cache holds data that has recently been read and, in some cases, adjacent data areas that are likely to be accessed next. Write caching is also provided with some disk caches.

DLC - DLC (Data Link Control) is the service provided by the Data Link Layer of function defined in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model for network communication. The Data Link Layer is responsible for providing reliable data transfer across one physical link (or telecommunications path) within the network. Some of its primary functions include defining frames, performing error detection or correction on those frames, and performing flow control (to prevent a fast sender from overwhelming a slow receiver).

DMI - DMI (Desktop Management Interface) is an industry interface for keeping track of and monitoring the status of components in a system of desktop personal computers. The DMI was created by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF). Each component in a PC system must provide a Management Information File (MIF) that describes its characteristics. Intel's LANDesk Client Manager (LDCM) is based on DMI.

DMZ - In computer networks, a DMZ (demilitarized zone) is a computer host or small network inserted as a "neutral zone" between a company's private network and the outside public network. It prevents outside users from getting direct access to a server that has company data. (The term comes from the geographic buffer zone that was set up between North Korea and South Korea following the war in the early 1950s.) A DMZ is an optional and more secure approach to a firewall and effectively acts as a proxy server as well.

DNA - In the computer industry, DNA (Distributed interNet Applications Architecture) is the Microsoft name for a group of technologies intended to make it possible for a company to build applications that take advantage of both the Windows platform and the distributed application and data possibilities of the Internet. In Microsoft's view, users and companies want both the capabilities of the Windows interface and applications on their PCs and the ability to locate and use other applications and data on the Internet. DNA is Microsoft's framework for fitting Windows and the PC into the 3-tier application concept in which presentation and local applications and data are performed on the PC while business processing and database management take place at other places in a network.

DNS - The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain names are located and translated into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. A domain name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an Internet address.

Documentation - In computer hardware and software product development, documentation is the information that describes the product to its users. It consists of the product technical manuals and online information (including online versions of the technical manuals and help facility descriptions). The term is also sometimes used to mean the source information about the product contained in design documents, detailed code comments, white papers, and blackboard session notes.

Downloading - Downloading is the transmission of a file from one computer system to another, usually smaller computer system. From the Internet user's point-of-view, to download a file is to request it from another computer (or from a Web page on another computer) and to receive it.

DSLAM - A Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) is a network device, usually at a telephone company central office, that receives signals from multiple customer Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections and puts the signals on a high-speed backbone line using multiplexing techniques. Depending on the product, DSLAM multiplexers connect DSL lines with some combination of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, or IP networks. DSLAM enables a phone company to offer business or homes users the fastest phone line technology (DSL) with the fastest backbone network technology (ATM).

DSx - Digital signal X is a term for the series of standard digital transmission rates or levels based on DS0, a transmission rate of 64 Kbps, the bandwidth normally used for one telephone voice channel. Both the North American T-carrier system and the European E-carrier systems of transmission operate using the DS series as a base multiple. The digital signal is what is carried inside the carrier system.


Network Documentation ProjectDTE - In computer data transmission, DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) is the RS-232C interface that a computer uses to exchange data with a modem or other serial device. For further information about the DTE interface and its relationship to the Data Communication Equipment (DCE) interface, see RS-232C.

Duh - In general, duh (pronounced DUH, prolonging the UH, pitching the voice a bit low, and inflecting it with an intonation of imbecility or sarcasm or both, depending on the usage, is a colloquial comment on one's (or someone else's) lack of knowledge or brain power.

Duplex - In telecommunication, duplex communication means that both ends of the communication can send and receive signals at the same time. Full-duplex communication is the same thing. Half-duplex is also bidirectional communication but signals can only flow in one direction at a time. Simplex communication means that communication can only flow in one direction and never flow back the other way.

DVD - DVD (digital versatile disk) is an optical disk technology that is expected to rapidly replace the CD-ROM disk (as well as the audio compact disc) over the next few years. The digital versatile disk (DVD) holds 4.7 gigabytes of information on one of its two sides, or enough for a 133-minute movie. With two layers on each of its two sides, it will hold up to 17 gigabytes of video, audio, or other information. (Compare this to the current CD-ROM disk of the same physical size, holding 600 megabytes.

Dynamic Packet Filter - A dynamic packet filter is a firewall facility that can monitor the state of active connections and use this information to determine which network packets to allow through the firewall. By recording session information such as IP addresses and port numbers, a dynamic packet filter can implement a much tighter security posture than a static packet filter.

Easter Egg - An Easter egg is an unexpected surprise, perhaps a message, an image, or a sound, hidden in a Web site or in an application program. Netscape's Navigator browser has hidden a number of Easter eggs behind or among the "About" pages you get to from the Help pulldown menu. Among these are pictures of Netscape's mascot, Mozilla. Over the years many application developers have hidden more than their names behind rarely-clicked Credit buttons.

Edge Device - An edge device is a physical device that can pass packets between a legacy type of network such as an Ethernet network and an ATM network, using data-link layer and network layer information. An edge device does not have responsibility for gathering network routing information, but simply uses the routing information it finds in the network layer using the route distribution protocol. An edge router is an edge device.

Edge Router - A term used in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, an edge router is a network device that routes data between one or more legacy local area networks (LANs) and an ATM backbone network, whether a campus network or a wide area network (WAN). An edge router is a example of an edge device and is sometimes referred to as a boundary router. An edge router is sometimes contrasted with a core router, which forwards packets to computer hosts within a network (but not between networks).

EDI - EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a standard format for exchanging business data. The standard is ANSI X12 and it was developed by the Data Interchange Standards Association. ANSI X12 is either closely coordinated with or is being merged with an international standard, EDIFACT.

E-Mail - E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication. (Some publications spell it email; we prefer the currently more established spelling of e-mail.) E-mail messages are usually encoded in ASCII text. However, you can also send non-text files, such as graphic images and sound files, as attachments sent in binary streams. E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and is still the most popular use. A large percentage of the total traffic over the Internet is e-mail. E-mail can also be exchanged between online service users and in networks other than the Internet, both public and private.

Encapsulation - In general, encapsulation is the inclusion of one thing within another thing so that the included thing is not apparent. Decapsulation is the removal or the making apparent a thing previously encapsulated.


Network Documentation ProjectEncryption - Encryption is the conversion of data into a form, called a cipher, that cannot be easily understood by unauthorized people.

End User - In information technology, the term end user is used to distinguish the person for whom a hardware or software product is designed from the developers, installers, and servicers of the product. The "end" part of the term probably derives from the fact that most information technologies involve a chain of interconnected product components at the end of which is the "user." Frequently, complex products require the involvement of other-than-end users such as installers, administrators, and system operators. The term end user thus distinguishes the user for which the product is designed from other users who are making the product possible for the end user. The term is used mostly with mainframe computer products and seldom with personal consumer products. Often, the term user would suffice.

Engine - In computer programming, engine is a jargon term for a program that performs a core or essential function for other programs. An engine can be a central or focal program in an operating system, subsytem, or application that coordinates the overall operation of a coordinated set of programs. It is also used to describe a special-purpose program containing an algorithm that can sometimes be changed. The best known usage is the term search engine which uses an algorithm to search an index of topics given a search argument. A search engine is designed so that its approach to searching the index can be changed to reflect new rules for finding and prioritizing matches in the index. In artificial intelligence, the program that uses rules of logic to derive output from a knowledge base is called an inference engine.

Enterprise - In the computer industry, an enterprise is an organization that uses computers. A word was needed that would encompass corporations, small businesses, non-profit institutions, government bodies, and possibly other kinds of organizations. The term enterprise seemed to do the job. In practice, the term is applied much more often to larger organizations than smaller ones.

Environment - In computers, the term environment when unqualified usually refers to the combination of hardware and software in a computer. In this usage, the term platform is a synonym. We often tend to think of environment as short for operating system environment, but, with the exception of UNIX-based operating systems, the operating system usually implies an underlying hardware microprocessor that the operating system is designed to run on.

Ergonomic - The ergonomic aspect of computers deals with their usability for humans. Ergonomics is the use of research in designing systems, programs, or devices that are easy to use for their intended purposes and contexts. The terms human factors and usability are related.

Ethernet - Ethernet is the most widely-installed local area network technology. Now specified in a standard, IEEE 802.3, Ethernet was originally developed by Xerox and then developed further by Xerox, DEC, and Intel. An Ethernet LAN typically uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires. The most commonly installed Ethernet systems are called 10BASE-T and provide transmission speeds up to 10 Mbps. Devices are connected to the cable and compete for access using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.

Exabyte - An exabyte (EB) is a large unit of computer data storage, two to the sixtieth power bytes. The prefix exa means one billion billion, or one quintillion, which is a decimal term. Two to the sixtieth power is actually 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes in decimal, or somewhat over a quintillion (or ten to the eighteenth power) bytes. It is common to say that an exabyte is approximately one quintillion bytes. In decimal terms, an exabyte is a billion gigabytes.

Extranet - An extranet is a private network that uses the Internet protocols and the public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company. It has also been described as a "state of mind" in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with other companies as well as to sell products to customers. The same benefits that HTML, HTTP, SMTP, and other Internet technologies have brought to the Internet and to corporate intranets now seem designed to accelerate business between businesses.


Network Documentation ProjectEye Candy - Eye candy is a term used in information technology for visual elements displayed on computer monitors that are aesthetically appealing or attention-compelling.

FAQ - The FAQ (pronounced FAk) or list of "frequently-asked questions" (and answers) has become a feature of the Internet. The FAQ seems to have originated in many of the Usenet groups as a way to acquaint new users with the rules. Today, there are thousands of FAQs on the World Wide Web.

Fast Ethernet - Fast Ethernet is a local area network (LAN) transmission standard that provides a data rate of 100 megabits per second (referred to as "100BASE-T10"). Workstations with existing 10 megabit per second (10BASE-T) Ethernet cards can be connected to a Fast Ethernet network. (The 100 megabits per second is a shared data rate; input to each workstation would be constrained by the 10 Mbps card.)

FDDI - FDDI is a standard for data transmission on fiber optic lines in a local area network that can extend in range up to 200 km (124 miles). The FDDI protocol is based on the token ring protocol. In addition to being large geographically, an FDDI local area network can support thousands of users.

Fiber Optic - Fiber optic (or "optical fiber") refers to the medium and the technology associated with the transmission of information as light impulses along a glass or plastic wire or fiber. Fiber optic wire carries much more information than conventional copper wire and is far less subject to electromagnetic interference. Most telephone company long-distance lines are now fiber optic.

Field - A field is an area in a fixed or known location in a unit of data such as a record, message header, or computer instruction that has a purpose and usually a fixed size. A field can be subdivided into smaller fields.

File Sharing - File sharing is the public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network with various levels of access privilege. While files can easily be shared outside a network (for example, simply by handing or mailing someone your file on a diskette), the term file sharing almost always means sharing files in a network, even if in a small local area network. File sharing allows a number of people to use the same file or file by some combination of being able to read or view it, write to or modify it, copy it, or print it. Typically, a file sharing system has one or more administrators. Users may all have the same or may have different levels of access privilege. File sharing can also mean having an allocated amount of personal file storage in a common file system.

File System - In a computer, a file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in the tree structure.

Filter - In computer programming, a filter is a program or section of code that is designed to examine each input or output request for certain qualifying criteria and then process or forward it accordingly. This term was used in UNIX systems and is now used in other operating systems. A filter is "pass-through" code that takes input data, makes some specific decision about it and possible transformation of it, and passes it on to another program in a kind of pipeline. Usually, a filter does no input/output operation on its own. Filters are sometimes used to remove or insert headers or control characters in data.

Firewall - A firewall is a set of related programs, located at a network gateway server, that protects the resources of a private network from users from other networks. (The term also implies the security policy that is used with the programs.) An enterprise with an intranet that allows its workers access to the wider Internet installs a firewall to prevent outsiders from accessing its own private data resources and for controlling what outside resources its own users have access to.

Flow Control - Flow control is the management of data flow between computers or devices or between nodes in a network so that the data can be handled at an efficient pace. Too much data arriving before a device can handle it causes data overflow, meaning the data is either lost or must be retransmitted. For serial data transmission locally or in a network, the Xon/Xoff protocol can be used. For modem connections, either Xon/Xoff or CTS/RTS (Clear to Send/Ready to Send) commands can be used to control data flow.


Network Documentation ProjectForm Factor - In computers, the form factor (sometimes hyphenated as form-factor) is the size, configuration, or physical arrangement of a computer hardware object. The term is commonly used in describing the size and/or arrangement of a computer case or chassis or one of its internal components such as a daughterboard. If you see the term applied to software or programming, it will usually mean the size of the program or the amount of memory required to run the program effectively. When used to refer to the size of a free-standing computer or other device, it's close in meaning to footprint.

Format - A format (noun, pronounced FOHR-mat) is a pre-established layout for data. Programs accept data as input in a certain format, process it, and provide it as output in the same or another format. All data is stored in some format with the expectation that it will be processed by a program that knows how to handle that format. Generically, data formats tend to fall into bitmaps (strings of 0s and 1s) that describe images or sound patterns (or both), text formats (in which usually each byte value is mapped to a character), and numeric data formats (used by spreadsheet and other database programs).

FTP - FTP (File Transfer Protocol), a standard protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

Full-Duplex - Full-duplex data transmission means that data can be transmitted in both directions on a signal carrier at the same time. For example, on a local area network with a technology that has full-duplex transmission, one workstation can be sending data on the line while another workstation is receiving data. Full-duplex transmission necessarily implies a bi-directional line (one that can move data in both directions).

Functional Specification - A functional specification (or sometimes functional specifications) is a formal document used to describe in detail for software developers a product's intended capabilities, appearance, and interactions with users. The functional specification is a kind of guideline and continuing reference point as the developers write the programming code. (At least one major product development group used a "Write the manual first" approach. Before the product existed, they wrote the user's guide for a word processing system, then declared that the user's guide was the functional specification. The developers were challenged to create a product that matched what the user's guide described.) Typically, the functional specification for an application program with a series of interactive windows and dialogs with a user would show the visaul appearance of the user interface and describe each of the possible user input actions and the program response actions. A functional specification may also contain formal descriptions of user tasks, dependencies on other products, and usability criteria. Many companies have a guide for developers that describes what topics any product's functional specification should contain.

GBPS - Gbps stands for billions of bits per second and is a measure of bandwidth on a digital data transmission medium such as optical fiber. With slower media and protocols, bandwidth may be in the Mbps (millions of bits or megabits per second) or the Kbps (thousands of bits or kilobits per second) range.

Geek - In computers and the Internet, a geek is a person who is inordinately dedicated to and involved with technology to the point of sometimes not appearing to be normal. Being a geek also implies a capability with the technology. Although historically, computer and Internet programming and hacking has been a male thing, there are now many "girl geeks." The term "hacker" generally connotes competence more strongly than "geek" does. The term "geek" emphasizes dedication and weirdness, although recent use of the term suggests greater social acceptance and tolerance for geeks. (Historically, a geek was a circus person whose role in the side-show was to bite off chicken's heads or perform other bizarre feats. Eric Raymond describes "computer geek" as "one who eats (computer) bugs for a living.")

General Protection Fault - "General protection fault" (or general protection error) is a phrase that users of personal computers see when an application program they are running (for example, Microsoft Word or the Netscape Web browser) tries to access storage that is not designated for their use. An operating system (such as Windows 95) manages the use of random access memory (RAM) for its own needs and for those of the application programs that it manages. The application programs are actually managed as tasks. When a task attempts to write to a place in


Network Documentation ProjectRAM that is outside its assigned storage area, the operating system requires that the task or application be closed. Users usually get a message that tells you this is happening, but there isn't much you can do about it other than to restart the program and hope it will run successfully the next time.

Gigabit - In data communications, a gigabit is one billion bits, or 1,000,000,000 (that is, 109) bits. It's commonly used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. For example, Gigabit Ethernet is a high-speed form of Ethernet (a local area network technology) that can provide data transfer rates of about 1 gigabit per second. Gigabits per second is usually shortened to Gbps.

Gigabyte - A gigabyte (pronounced GIG-a-bite with hard G's) is a measure of computer data storage capacity and is "roughly" a billion bytes. A gigabyte is two to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 in decimal notation.

GUI - A GUI (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer. As you read this, you are looking at the GUI or graphical user interface of your particular Web browser. The term came into existence because the first interactive user interfaces to computers were not graphical; they were text-and-keyboard oriented and usually consisted of commands you had to remember and computer responses that were infamously brief. The command interface of the DOS operating system (which you can still get to from your Windows operating system) is an example of the typical user-computer interface before GUIs arrived. An intermediate step in user interfaces between the command line interface and the GUI was the non-graphical menu-based interface, which let you interact by using a mouse rather than by having to type in keyboard commands.

Hacker - Hacker is a term used by some to mean "a clever programmer" and by others, especially journalists or their editors, to mean "someone who tries to break into computer systems."

Half-Duplex - Half-duplex data transmission means that data can be transmitted in both directions on a signal carrier, but not at the same time. For example, on a local area network using a technology that has half-duplex transmission, one workstation can send data on the line and then immediately receive data on the line from the same direction in which data was just transmitted. Like full-duplex transmission, half-duplex transmission implies a bidirectional line (one that can carry data in both directions).

Hard Disk - A hard disk is part of a unit, often called a "disk drive," "hard drive," or "hard disk drive," that stores and provides relatively quick access to large amounts of data on an electromagnetically charged surface or set of surfaces. Today's computers typically come with a hard disk that contains several billion bytes (gigabytes) of storage space.

Hardware - Hardware is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications, and other information technology devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish the "box" and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the program you put in it to make it do things. The program came to be known as the software.

HDLC - HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) is a group of protocols or rules for transmitting data between network points (sometimes called nodes). In HDLC, data is organized into a unit (called a frame) and sent across a network to a destination that verifies its successful arrival. The HDLC protocol also manages the flow or pacing at which data is sent. HDLC is one of the most commonly-used protocols in what is Layer 2 of the industry communication reference model called Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). (Layer 1 is the detailed physical level that involves actually generating and receiving the electronic signals. Layer 3 is the higher level that has knowledge about the network, including access to router tables that indicate where to forward or send data. On sending, programming in layer 3 creates a frame that usually contains source and destination network addresses. HDLC (layer 2) encapsulates the layer 3 frame, adding data link control information to a new, larger frame.

Host - On the Internet, the term "host" means any computer that has full two-way access to other computers on the Internet. A host has a specific "local or host number" that, together with the network number, forms its unique Internet Protocol address. If you use PPP to get access to your access provider, you have a unique IP address for the duration of any connection you make to the Internet and your computer is a host for that period. In this context, a "host" is a node in a network.


Network Documentation ProjectHTML - HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of "markup" symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser. The markup tells the Web browser how to display a Web page's words and images for the user.

HTTP - The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. Relative to the TCP/IP suite of protocols (which are the basis for information exchange on the Internet), HTTP is an application protocol.

HTTPS - HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a Web protocol developed by Netscape and built into its browser that encrypts and decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned by the Web server. HTTPS is really just the use of Netscape's Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a sublayer under its regular HTTP application layer. (HTTPS uses port 443 instead of HTTP port 80 in its interactions with the lower layer, TCP/IP.) SSL uses a 40-bit key size for the RC4 stream encryption algorithm, which is considered an adequate degree of encryption for commercial exchange.

Hub - In general, a hub is the central part of a wheel where the spokes come together. The term is familiar to frequent fliers who travel through airport "hubs" to make connecting flights from one point to another. In data communications, a hub is a place of convergence where data arrives from one or more directions and is forwarded out in one or more other directions. A hub usually includes a switch of some kind. (And a product that is called a "switch" could usually be considered a hub as well.) The distinction seems to be that the hub is the place where data comes together and the switch is what determines how and where data is forwarded from the place where data comes together. Regarded in its switching aspects, a hub can also include a router.

Infrastructure - In information technology and on the Internet, infrastructure is the physical hardware used to interconnect computers and users. Infrastructure includes the transmission media, including telephone lines, cable television lines, and satellites and antennas, and also the routers, aggregators, repeaters, and other devices that control transmission paths. Infrastructure also includes the software used to send, receive, and manage the signals that are transmitted.

Initialization - Initialization is the process of locating and using the defined values for variable data that is used by a computer program. For example, an operating system or application program is installed with default or user-specified values that determine certain aspects of how the system or program is to function. Typically, these values are stored in initialization files (in Windows, these can be identified as files with an INI suffix). When the operating system or an application program is first loaded into memory, a part of the program performs initialization - that is, it looks in the initialization files, finds definite values to substitute for variable values, and acts accordingly. For example, the desktop appearance and application programs that are to be started along with the operating system are identified and loaded.

Interface - A user interface, consisting of the set of dials, knobs, operating system commands, graphical display formats, and other devices provided by a computer or a program to allow the user to communicate and use the computer or program. A graphical user interface (GUI) provides its user a more or less "picture-oriented" way to interact with technology. A GUI is usually a more ergonomically satisfying or user-friendly interface to a computer system.

Internet - The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers). It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANet. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster.

Internet2 - Internet2 is a collaboration among more than 100 U.S. universities to develop networking and advanced applications for learning and research. Since much teaching, learning, and collaborative research may require real-time multimedia and high-bandwidth interconnection, a major aspect of Internet2 is adding sufficient network


Network Documentation Projectinfrastructure to support such applications. But Internet2 also intends to investigate and develop new ways to use the Internet and the Internet2 infrastructure for its educational purposes. Although Internet2 is not envisioned as a future replacement for the Internet, its organizers hope to share their developments with other networks, including the Internet. Internet2 will include and further develop the National Science Foundation's very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) that currently interconnects research supercomputers in the U.S. The involved institutions plan to continue using the existing Internet for "ordinary" services such as e-mail, personal Web access, and newsgroups.

Internetworking - Internetworking is a term used by Cisco, BBN, and other providers of network products and services as a comprehensive term for all the concepts, technologies, and generic devices that allow people and their computers to communicate across different kinds of networks. For example, someone at a computer on a token ring local area network may want to communicate with someone at a computer on an Ethernet local area network in another country using a wide area network interconnection. The common internetwork protocols, routing tables, and related network devices required to achieve this communication constitute internetworking.

InterNIC - Unitl recently, InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center), a cooperative activity between the U.S. government and Network Solutions, Inc., was the organization responsible for registering and maintaining the com, net, and org top-level domain names on the World Wide Web. The actual registration was performed by Network Solutions, Inc. As a result of a new U. S. Government Statement of Policy (known as "the white paper") in October, 1998, competition will be introduced in domain name registration for these top-level domains and a new, non-profit global organization, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has been designated to conduct the registrar accreditation process. ICANN has initially designated five new registrar companies - in addition to Network Solutions - for a two-month test period. After that period, additional registrars are expected to be accredited.

Interoperability - Interoperability (pronounced IHN-tuhr-AHP-uhr-uh-BIHL-ih-tee) is the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort on the part of the customer. Interoperability becomes a quality of increasing importance for information technology products as the concept that "The network is the computer" becomes a reality. For this reason, the term is widely used in product marketing descriptions

Intranet - An intranet is a network of networks that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks and also use leased lines in the wide area network. Typically, an intranet includes connections through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among employees. An intranet can also be used to facilitate working in groups and for teleconferences.

IP - The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet. When you send or receive data (for example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the message gets divided into little chunks called packets. Each of these packets contains both the sender's Internet address and the receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a gateway computer that understands a small part of the Internet. The gateway computer reads the destination address and forwards the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn reads the destination address and so forth across the Internet until one gateway recognizes the packet as belonging to a computer within its immediate neighborhood or domain. That gateway then forwards the packet directly to the computer whose address is specified.

IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packets across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up the domain name in the URL you requested or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received.

IPX - IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) is a networking protocol from Novell that interconnects networks that use Novell's NetWare clients and servers. IPX is a datagram or packet protocol. IPX works at the network layer of


Network Documentation Projectcommunication protocols and is connectionless (that is, it doesn't require that a connection be set up before packets are sent to a destination as, for example, a regular voice phone call does).

ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of CCITT/ITU standards for digital transmission over ordinary telephone copper wire as well as over other media. Home and business users who install ISDN adapters (in place of their modems) can see highly-graphic Web pages arriving very quickly (up to 128 Kbps). ISDN requires adapters at both ends of the transmission so your access provider also needs an ISDN adapter. ISDN is generally available from your phone company in most urban areas in the United States and Europe.

ISO - ISO (International Organization for Standardization ), founded in 1946, is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 100 countries, one from each country. Among the standards it fosters is Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), a universal reference model for communication protocols. Many countries have national standards organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that participate in and contribute to ISO standards making.

Isynchronous - In information technology, isochronous (from the Greek "equal" and "time"; pronounced "eye-SAH-krun-us") pertains to processes that require timing coordination to be successful, such as voice and digital video transmission. A sound or picture going from a peripheral computer device or across a network into a computer or television set needs to arrive at close to the same rate of data flow as the source. In feeding digital image data from a peripheral device (such as a video camera) to a display mechanism within a computer, isochronous data transfer ensures that data flows continously and at a steady rate in close timing with the ability of the display mechanism to receive and display the image data. (FireWire, the IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus, includes an isochronous interface.)

ISP - An ISP (Internet service provider) is a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet and other related services such as Web site building and hosting. An ISP has the equipment and the telecommunication line access required to have points-of-presence on the Internet for the geographic area served. The larger ISPs have their own high-speed leased lines so that they are less dependent on the telecommunication providers and can provide better service to their customers. Among the largest national and regional ISPs are AT&T WorldNet, IBM Global Network, MCI, Netcom, UUNet, and PSINet.

ISV - An ISV (independent software vendor) makes and sells software products that run on one or more computer hardware or operating system platforms. The companies that make the platforms like Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and others encourage and lend support to ISVs, often with special "business partner" programs. In general, the more applications that run on a platform, the more value it offers to customers. Of course, platform manufacturers such as Microsoft and IBM make applications, too, but don't have the resources and, in many cases, the special knowledge required, to make them all. Think of all the programs that run on your Windows 95 or Mac platform and you'll realize how many ISVs there are. Some ISVs focus on a particular operating system like IBM's small business AS/400 for which there are thousands of ISV applications. Other ISVs specialize in a particular application area, such as engineering, and develop software primarily for high-end UNIX-based workstation platforms.

Java - Java is a programming language expressly designed for use in the distributed environment of the Internet. It was designed to have the "look and feel" of the C++ language, but it is simpler to use than C++ and enforces a completely object-oriented view of programming. Java can be used to create complete applications that may run on a single computer or be distributed among servers and clients in a network. It can also be used to build small application modules or applets for use as part of a Web page. Applets make it possible for a Web page user to interact with the page.

KBPS - In the U.S., Kbps stands for kilobits per second (thousands of bits per second) and is a measure of bandwidth (the amount of data that can flow in a given time) on a data transmission medium. Higher bandwidths are more conveniently expressed in megabits per second (Mbps, or millions of bits per second) and in gigabits per second (Gbps, or billions of bits per second).

Kerberos - Kerberos is a secure method for authenticating a request for a service in a computer network. Kerberos was developed in the Athena Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The name is taken from


Network Documentation ProjectGreek mythology; Kerberos was a three-headed dog who guarded the gates of Hades. Kerberos lets a user request an encrypted "ticket" from an authentication process that can then be used to request a particular service from a server. The user's password does not have to pass through the network. A version of Kerberos (client and server) can be downloaded from MIT or you can buy a commercial version.

Kernel - The kernel is the essential center of a computer operating system, the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system. A synonym is nucleus. A kernel can be contrasted with a shell, the outermost part of an operating system that interacts with user commands. Kernel and shell are terms used more frequently in UNIX and some other operating systems than in IBM mainframe systems.

Key - In cryptography, a key is a variable value that is applied using an algorithm to a string or block of unencrypted text to produce encrypted text. The length of the key generally determines how difficult it will be to decrypt the text in a given message.

K-12 - K-12, a term used in education and educational technology in the United States, Canada, and possibly other countries, is a short form for the publicly-supported school grades prior to college. These grades are kindergarten (K) and the 1st through the 12th grade (1-12). (If the term were used, "13th grade" would be the first year of college.)

Knowledge Management - Knowledge management is the name of a relatively new concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge to further its aims. In early 1998, it was believed that few enterprises actually had a comprehensive knowledge management practice (by any name) in operation. Instead, many companies are focusing on existing processes and striving to bring them together. Some aspects of knowledge management such as data mining and pushing information to users are new; others, such as data entry and OCR are very familiar. Some vendors are now offering products that address the newer ideas. Since the process is complex, involving many stages and addressing many different needs, no vendor provides a comprehensive suite of products, according to industry experts. The concensus is that an enterprise's knowledge management plan can only be implemented with a meld of different products.

Local LAN - A LAN is a network of interconnected workstations sharing the resources of a single processor or server within a relatively small geographic area. Typically, this might be within the area of a small office building. However, FDDI extends a local area network over a much wider area. Usually, the server has applications and data storage that are shared in common by multiple workstation users. A local area network may serve as few as four or five users or, in the case of FDDI, may serve several thousand.

LATA - LATA (local access and transport area) is a term in the U.S. for a geographic area covered by one or more local telephone companies, which are legally referred to as local exchange carriers (LECs). A connection between two local exchanges within the LATA is referred to as intraLATA. A connection between a carrier in one LATA to a carrier in another LATA is referred to as interLATA. InterLATA is long-distance service. The current rules for permitting a company to provide intraLATA or interLATA service (or both) are based on the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

LDAP - LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a software protocol for enabling anyone to locate organizations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network, whether on the Internet or on a corporate intranet. LDAP is a "lightweight" (smaller amount of code) version of DAP (Directory Access Protocol), which is part of X.500, a standard for directory services in a network. LDAP is lighter because in its initial version it did not include security features. LDAP originated at the University of Michigan and has been endorsed by at least 40 companies. Netscape includes it in its latest Communicator suite of products. Microsoft includes it as part of what it calls Active Directory in a number of products including Outlook Express. Novell's NetWare Directory Services interoperates with LDAP. Cisco also supports it in its networking products.

LEC - LEC (local exchange carrier) is the term for a public telephone company in the U.S. that provides local service. Some of the largest LECs are the Bell operating companies (BOCs) which were grouped into holding companies known collectively as the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) when the Bell System was broken up by a 1983 consent decree. In addition to the Bell companies, there are a number of independent LECs, such as GTE.



Link - Using hypertext, a link is a selectable connection from one word, picture, or information object to another. In a multimedia environment such as the World Wide Web, such objects can include sound and motion video sequences. The most common form of link is the highlighted word or picture that can be selected by the user (with a mouse or in some other fashion), resulting in the immediate delivery and view of another file. The highlighted object is referred to as an anchor. The anchor reference and the object referred to constitute a hypertext link.

Logarithm - A logarithm is an exponent used in mathematical calculations to depict the perceived levels of variable quantities such as visible light energy, electromagnetic field strength, and sound intensity.

Logon - In general computer usage, logon is the procedure used to get access to an operating system or application, usually in a remote computer. Almost always a logon requires that the user have (1) a user ID and (2) a password. Often, the user ID must conform to a limited length such as eight characters and the password must contain at least one digit and not match a natural language word. The user ID can be freely known and is visible when entered at a keyboard or other input device. The password must be kept secret (and is not displayed as it is entered). A similar procedure, called registration, is required to enter some Web sites.

Loopback - In telephone systems, a loopback is a test signal sent to a network destination that is returned as received to the originator. The returned signal may help diagnose a problem. Sending a loopback test to each telephone system piece of equipment in succession, one at a time, is a technique for isolating a problem. (The loopback can be compared to the Internet's ping utility, which lets you send a message out to a host computer on the Internet. The ping echo tells you whether or not the host computer is available and the time the signal took to return.)

Macintosh - The Macintosh (often called "the Mac"), introduced in 1984 by Apple Computer, was the first widely-sold personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). The Mac was designed to provide users with a natural, intuitively understandable, and, in general, "user-friendly" computer interface. Many of the user interface ideas in the Macintosh derived from experiments at the Xerox Parc laboratory in the early 1970s, including the mouse, the use of icons or small visual images to represent objects or actions, the point-and-click and click-and-drag actions, and a number of window operation ideas. Microsoft was successful in adapting user interface concepts first made popular by the Mac in its first Windows operating system.

MAC Address - On a local area network (LAN) or other network, the MAC (Media Access Control) address is your computer's unique hardware number. (On an Ethernet LAN, it's the same as your Ethernet address.) When you're connected to the Internet from your computer (or host as the Internet protocol thinks of it), a correspondence table relates your IP address to your computer's physical (MAC) address on the LAN.

MacOS - Mac OS is the computer operating system for Apple Computer's Macintosh line of personal computers and workstations. A popular feature of its latest version, Mac OS 8.5, is Sherlock, a search facility similar to a "find a file" command. However, Sherlock searches popular directories and search engines on the Internet and then formats the results somewhat as though they were clickable files in the Macintosh file system.

Machine Code - Machine code is the elemental language of computers, consisting of a stream of 0's and 1's. Ultimately, the output of any programming language analysis and processing is machine code. After you write a program, your source language statements are compiled or (in the case of assembler language) assembled into output that is machine code. This machine code is stored as an executable file until someone tells the computer's operating system to run it. (In personal computer operating systems, these files often have the suffix of ".exe".)

Macro - In computers, a macro (for "large"; the opposite of "micro") is any programming or user interface that, when used, expands into something larger. The original use for "macro" or "macro definition" was in computer assembler language before higher-level, easier-to-code languages became more common. In assembler language, a macro definition defines how to expand a single language statement or computer instruction into a number of instructions. The macro statement contains the name of the macro definition and usually some variable parameter information. Macros were (and are) useful especially when a sequence of instructions is used a number of times (and possibly by different programmers working on a project). Some pre-compilers also use the macro concept. In


Network Documentation Projectgeneral, however, in higher-level languages, any language statement is about as easy to write as an assembler macro statement.

Mail Bomb - A mail bomb is the sending of a massive amount of electronic mail to a specific person or system. A huge amount of mail may simply fill up the recipient's disk space on the server or, in some cases, may be too much for a server to handle and may cause the server to stop functioning. In the past, mail bombs have been used to "punish" Internet users who have been egregious violators of netiquette (for example, people using e-mail for undesired advertising, or spamming).

Main Storage - Main storage is the main area in a computer in which data is stored for quick access by the computer's processor. This term originated in the days of the mainframe computer to distinguish the more immediately accessible data storage from auxiliary storage. On today's computers, especially personal computers and workstations, the term random access memory (RAM) is usually used instead of main storage, and the hard disk, diskettes, and CD-ROMs collectively describe auxiliary storage.

MAPI - MAPI (Messaging Application Program Interface) is a Microsoft Windows program interface that enables you to send e-mail from within a Windows application and attach the document you are working on to the e-mail note. Applications that take advantage of MAPI include word processors, spreadsheet, and graphics applications. MAPI-compatible applications typically include a Send Mail or Send in the File pulldown menu of the application. Selecting one of these sends a request to a MAPI server.

Megabyte (MB) - As a measure of computer processor storage and real and virtual memory, a megabyte (abbreviated MB) is 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation.

MBone - The MBone, now sometimes called the Multicast Internet, is an arranged use of a portion of the Internet for Internet Protocol (IP) multicasting (sending files - usually audio and video streams - to multiple users at the same time somewhat as radio and TV programs are broadcast over airwaves). Although most Internet traffic is unicast (one user requesting files from one source at another Internet address), the Internet's IP protocol also supports multicasting, the transmission of data packets intended for multiple addresses. Since most IP servers on the Internet do not currently support the multicasting part of the protocol, the MBone was set up to form a network within the Internet that could transmit multicasts. The MBone was set up in 1994 as an outgrowth of earlier audio multicasts by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and has multicast a number of programs, including some well-publicized rock concerts.

MBPS - Mbps stands for millions of bits per second and is a measure of bandwidth (the total information flow over a given time) on a data transmission medium such as twisted-pair copper cable, coaxial cable, or optical fiber. Depending on the medium and the transmission method, bandwidth may also be in the Kbps (thousands of bits or kilobits per second) range or the Gbps (billions of bits or gigabits per second) range.

Megabit - In data communications, a megabit is a million bits, or 1,000,000 (that is, 106) bits. It's commonly used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. For example, a U.S. phone company T-1 line is said to sustain a data rate of 1.544 megabits per second. Megabits per second is usually shortened to Mbps.

Memory - Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data that your computer's microprocessor can reach quickly. When your computer is in normal operation, its memory usually contains the main parts of the operating system and some or all of the application programs and related data that are being used. Memory is often used as a shorter synonym for random access memory (RAM). This kind of memory is located on one or more microchips that are physically close to the microprocessor in your computer. Most desktop and notebook computers sold today include at least 16 megabytes of RAM, and are upgradeable to include more. The more RAM you have, the less frequently the computer has to access instructions and data from the more slowly accessed hard disk form of storage.

Merced - Merced is the code name for a new 64-bit microprocessor from Intel that will begin to appear in new workstations and enterprise servers over the next few years. It's the first of Intel's IA-64 series and, because of its


Network Documentation Projectgreatly increased I/O bandwidth relative to today's 32-bit microprocessors, it will make possible visual computing or the ability to interact dynamically with visual (and therefore high bandwidth) images as models of work objects.

Messaging - Messaging (also called electronic messaging) is the creation, storage, exchange, and management of text, images, voice, telex, fax, e-mail, paging, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) over a communications network

Metric - In software development, a metric (noun) is the measurement of a particular characteristic of a program's performance or efficiency. Similarly in network routing, a metric is a measure used in calculating the next host to route a packet to. A metric is sometimes used directly and sometimes as an element in an algorithm. In programming, a benchmark includes metrics.

MHz - The megahertz, abbreviated MHz, is a unit of alternating current (AC) or electromagnetic (EM) wave frequency equal to one million hertz (1,000,000 Hz). The megahertz is commonly used to express microprocessor clock speed. The unit is occasionally used in measurements or statements of bandwidth for high-speed digital data, analog and digital video signals, and spread-spectrum signals.

Microcomputer - A microcomputer is a complete computer on a smaller scale and is generally a synonym for the more common term, personal computer or PC, a computer designed for an individual. A microcomputer contains a microprocessor (a central processing unit on a microchip), memory in the form of ROM and RAM, I/O ports and a bus or system of interconnecting wires, housed in a unit that is usually called a motherboard.

MIME - MIME (Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of data files on the Internet: audio, video, images, application programs, and other kinds, as well as the ASCII handled in the original protocol, the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). In 1991, Nathan Borenstein of Bellcore proposed to the Internet Engineering Task Force that SMTP be extended so that Internet (but mainly Web) clients and servers could recognize and handle other kinds of data than ASCII text. As a result, new file types were added to "mail" as a supported Internet Protocol file type.

Minicomputer - A minicomputer, a term no longer much used, is a computer of a size intermediate between a microcomputer and a mainframe. Typically, minicomputers have been stand-alone computers (computer systems with attached terminals and other devices) sold to small and mid-size businesses for general business applications and to large enterprises for department-level operations. In recent years, the minicomputer has evolved into the "mid-range server" and is part of a network. IBM's AS/400e is a good example.

MIPS - The number of MIPS (million instructions per second) is a general measure of computing performance and, by implication, the amount of work a larger computer can do used by some computer manufacturers (including IBM). For large servers or mainframes, it is also a way to measure the cost of computing: the more MIPS delivered for the money, the better the value. Historically, the cost of computing measured in the number of MIPS has been reduced by half on an annual basis for a number of years.

MIS - MIS (management information systems) is a general term for the computer systems in an enterprise that provide information about its business operations. It's also used to refer to the people who manage these systems. Typically, in a large corporation, "MIS" or the "MIS department" refers to a central or centrally-coordinated system of computer expertise and management, often including mainframe systems but also including by extension the corporation's entire network of computer resources.

Modem - A modem modulates outgoing digital signals from a computer or other digital device to analog signals for a conventional copper twisted-pair telephone line and demodulates the incoming analog signal and converts it to a digital signal for the digital device.

MTS - The Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), called "Viper" while it was being developed, is a program that runs on an Internet or other network server and manages application and database transaction requests on behalf of a client computer user. The Transaction Server screens the user and client computer from having to formulate requests


Network Documentation Projectfor unfamiliar databases and, if necessary, forwards the requests to database servers. It also manages security, connection to other servers, and transaction integrity.

Multicast - Multicast is communication between a single sender and multiple receivers on a network. Typical uses include the updating of mobile personnel from a home office and the periodic issuance of online newsletters. Together with anycast and unicast, multicast is one of the packet types in the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

Multihomed - Multihomed describes a computer host that has multiple IP addresses to connected networks. A multihomed host is physically connected to multiple data links that can be on the same or different networks.

Multimedia - Multimedia is more than one concurrent presentation medium (for example, on CD-ROM or a Web site). Although still images are a different medium than text, multimedia is typically used to mean the combination of text, sound, and/or motion video.

Multiplexing - Multiplexing is sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier at the same time in the form of a single, complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the receiving end. Analog signals are commonly multiplexed using frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), in which the carrier bandwidth is divided into subchannels of different frequency widths, each carrying a signal at the same time in parallel. Digital signals are commonly multiplexed using time-division multiplexing (TDM), in which the multiple signals are carried over the same channel in alternating time slots. In some optical fiber networks, multiple signals are carried together as separate wavelengths of light in a multiplexed signal using dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM).

Multiprocessing - Multiprocessing is the coordinated processing of programs by more than one computer processor. Multiprocessing is a general term that can mean the dynamic assignment of a program to one of two or more computers working in tandem or can involve multiple computers working on the same program at the same time (in parallel).

Multiprogramming - Multiprogramming is a rudimentary form of parallel processing in which several programs are run at the same time on a uniprocessor. Since there is only one processor, there can be no true simultaneous execution of different programs. Instead, the operating system executes part of one program, then part of another, and so on. To the user it appears that all programs are executing at the same time

Multitasking - In computer programming, a task is the basic unit of programming that an operating system controls. Depending on how the operating system defines a task in its design, this unit of programming may be an entire program or each successive invocation of a program. Since one program may make requests of other utility programs, the utility programs may also be considered tasks (or subtasks). All of today's widely-used operating systems support multitasking, which allows multiple tasks to run concurrently, taking turns using the resources of the computer.

Multitiered - In general, a tier (pronounced TEE-er; from the medieval French tire meaning rank, as in a line of soldiers) is a row or layer in a series of similarly arranged objects. In computer programming, the parts of a program can be distributed among several tiers, each located in a different computer in a network. Such a program is said to be tiered, multitier, or multitiered.

Multithreading - In computer programming, a thread is placeholder information associated with a single use of a program that can handle multiple concurrent users. From the program's point-of-view, a thread is the information needed to serve one individual user or a particular service request. If multiple users are using the program or concurrent requests from other programs occur, a thread is created and maintained for each of them. The thread allows a program to know which user is being served as the program alternately gets re-entered on behalf of different users. (One way thread information is kept is by storing it in a special data area and putting the address of that data area in a register. The operating system always saves the contents of the register when the program is interrupted and restores it when it gives the program control again.)

Named Pipe - In computer programming, a named pipe is a method for passing information from one computer process to other processes using a pipe or message holding place that is given a specific name. Unlike a regular pipe,


Network Documentation Projecta named pipe can be used by processes that do not have to share a common process origin and the message sent to the named pipe can be read by any authorized process that knows the name of the named pipe.

Narrowband - Narrowband is a transmission medium or channel with a single voice channel (with a carrier wave of a certain modulated frequency). The term is usually contrasted with wideband. Also see bandwidth.

NAT - NAT (Network Address Translation) is the translation of an Internet Protocol address (IP address) used within one network to a different IP address known within another network. One network is designated the inside network and the other is the outside. Typically, a company maps its local inside network addresses to one or more global outside IP addresses and unmaps the global IP addresses on incoming packets back into local IP addresses. This helps ensure security since each outgoing or incoming request must go through a translation process that also offers the opportunity to qualify or authenticate the request or match it to a previous request. NAT also conserves on the number of global IP addresses that a company needs and it lets the company use a single IP address in its communication with the world.

NCSA - NCSA at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois is the home of the first Web browser that had a graphical user interface. Its inventor, Marc Andreessen, then 22 years old, later lead the creation of the Netscape browser and became a founder of that company. The original browser, Mosaic, exists in a more advanced version.

Nerd - A nerd is a technically bright but socially inept person. The classic image of the nerd has been the wild-haired genius kid with thick-lensed glasses surrounded by test tubes and computers. Microsoft's Bill Gates is sometimes considered the walking embodiment of the older, successful nerd. As computer technology becomes less frightening and "nerdish" to larger numbers of people, society seems to be developing a more tolerant, even somewhat fond view of the nerd.

NetBEUI - NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface) is a new, extended version of NetBIOS, the program that lets computers communicate within a local area network. NetBEUI (pronounced net-BOO-ee) formalizes the frame format (or arrangement of information in a data transmission) that was not specified as part of NetBIOS. NetBEUI was developed by IBM for its LAN Manager product and has been adopted by Microsoft for its Windows NT, LAN Manager, and Windows for Workgroups products. Hewlett-Packard and DEC use it in comparable products.

NetBIOS - NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System) is a program that allows applications on different computers to communicate within a local area network (LAN). It was created by IBM for its early PC Network, was adopted by Microsoft, and has since become a de facto industry standard. NetBIOS is used in Ethernet, token ring, and Windows NT networks. It does not in itself support a routing mechanism so applications communicating on a wide area network (WAN) must use another "transport mechanism" (such as TCP) rather than or in addition to NetBIOS.

Network - In information technology, a network is a series of points or nodes interconnected by communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain subnetworks.

Network Computer - A network computer (NC) is a concept from Oracle and Sun Microsystems for a low-cost personal computer for business networks that, like the Net PC, would be configured with only essential equipment, devoid of CD-ROM players, diskette drives, and expansion slots, and intended to be managed and maintained centrally (any new software would be downloaded). Unlike the Net PC, the network computer could be based on microprocessors other than Intel's and might include a Java-base operating system rather than Windows.

Network Interface Card (NIC) - A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network. Personal computers and workstations on local area networks (LANs) typically contain a network interface card specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology, such as Ethernet or Token Ring. Network interface cards provide a dedicated, full-time connection to a network. Most home and portable computers connect to the Internet through as-needed dial-up connection. The modem provides the connection interface to the Internet service provider.

NNTP - NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is the predominant protocol used by computers (servers and clients) for managing the notes posted on Usenet newsgroups. NNTP replaced the original Usenet protocol, UNIX-


Network Documentation Projectto-UNIX Copy Protocol (UUCP) some time ago. NNTP servers manage the network of collected Usenet newsgroups and include the server at your Internet access provider. The NNTP client may is included as part of your Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, or other Web browser or you may use a separate client program called a newsreader.

NOC - A network operations center (NOC) is a place from which a telecommunications network is supervised, monitored, and maintained. Enterprises with large networks as well as large network service providers such as GTE Internetworking typically have a network operations center, a room containing visualizations of the network or networks that are being monitored, workstations at which the detailed status of the network can be seen, and the necessary software to manage the networks. The network operations center is the focal point for network troubleshooting, software distribution and updating, router and domain name management, performance monitoring, and coordination with affiliated networks.

Node - In a network, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or an end point for data transmissions. In general, a node has programmed or engineered capability to recognize and process or forward transmissions to other nodes.

Normalization - In creating a relational database, normalization is the process of organizing it into tables in such a way that the results of using the database are always unambigious and as intended. Normalization may have the effect of reducing the duplication of data items within the database and often results in the creation of additional tables. Normalization is typically a refinement process after the initial exercise of identifying the data objects that should be in the database, identifying their relationships, and defining the tables required and the columns within each table.

Network Operating System (NOS) - A network operating system (NOS) is a computer operating system that is designed primarily to support workstations, PCs, and, in some instances, older terminals that are connected on a local area network (LAN). Artisoft's LANtastic, Banyan VINES, Novell's Netware, and Microsoft's LAN Manager are examples of network operating systems. In addition, some multi-purpose operating systems, such as Windows NT and Digital's OpenVMS come with capabilities that enable them to be described as a network operating system.

NT - Windows NT is the Microsoft Windows personal computer operating system designed for users and businesses needing advanced capability. Windows NT (which may originally have stood for "New Technology," although Microsoft doesn't say) is actually two products: Microsoft NT Workstation and Microsoft NT Server. The Workstation is designed for users, especially business users, who need faster performance and a system a little more fail-safe than Windows 95 (and perhaps Windows 98). The Server is designed for business machines that need to provide services for LAN-attached computers. The Server is required, together with an Internet server such as Microsoft's IIS, for a Windows system that plans to serve Web pages.

Object - In object-oriented programming, objects are the things you think about first in designing a program and they are also the units of code that are eventually derived from the process. In between, each object is made into a generic class of object and even more generic classes are defined so that objects can share models and reuse the class definitions in their code. Each object is an instance of a particular class or subclass with the class's own methods or procedures and data variables. An object is what actually runs in the computer.

ODBC - Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard or open application programming interface (API) for accessing a database. By using ODBC statements in a program, you can access files in a number of different databases, including Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. In addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or driver is needed for each database to be accessed. The main proponent and supplier of ODBC programming support is Microsoft.

On the Fly - In relation to computer technology, "on the fly" describes activities that develop or occur dynamically rather than as the result of something that is statically predefined. For example, the content of a page that is sent to you from a Web site can be developed (and varied) "on the fly" based on dynamic factors such as the time of day, what pages the user has looked at previously, and specific user input. The Web server calls an application program to produce the "on-the-fly" page that is to be returned. There are several techniques for on-the-fly page development,


Network Documentation Projectincluding the server side include, the use of cookies (information previously stored about you that is located in a special file on your hard disk), and Microsoft's Active Server Page.

OSP - An OSP (online service provider) is a term sometimes used to distinguish the very largest Internet service providers (ISPs) such as America Online (AOL), Compuserve, and Prodigy from all the other ISPs. In general, the companies sometimes identified as OSPs offer an extensive online array of services of their own apart from the rest of the Internet and sometimes their own version of a Web browser. Connecting to the Internet through an OSP is an alternative to connecting through one of the national Internet service providers, such as AT&T or MCI, or a regional or local ISP. As of May, 1998, the service distinctions between OSPs and other ISPs were becoming less clear, the so-called OSPs themselves did not seem to use the term, and the term itself seemed not to be used much.

OpenVMS - OpenVMS is an operating system from the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that runs in both its VAX and Alpha computers. OpenVMS evolved from VMS, which originated as the operating system for the VAX in 1979. VMS exploited the concept of virtual memory. DEC is now part of Compaq.

Operating System (OS) - An operating system (sometimes abbreviated as "OS") is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a bootstrap program, manages all the other programs in a computer. The other programs are called applications. The applications make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface (API). In addition, users can interact directly with the operating system through an interface such as a command language.

Packet - A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, GIF file, URL request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).

Paradigm - A paradigm (pronounced PEHR-uh-daim, from Greek paradeiknyai - to show side by side) is a pattern or an example of something. The word also connotes the ideas of a mental picture and pattern of thought. Thomas Kuhn uses the word to mean the model that scientists hold about a particular area of knowledge. Kuhn's famous book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is his view of the stages through which a science goes in getting from one paradigm to the next.

Parallel - In the context of the Internet and computing, parallel means more than one event happening at a time. It is usually contrasted with serial, meaning only one event happening at a time. In data transmission, the techniques of time division and space division are used, where time separates the transmission of individual bits of information sent serially and space (in multiple lines or paths) can be used to have multiple bits sent in parallel.

Parity - In computers, parity (from the Latin paritas: equal or equivalent) refers to a technique of checking whether data has been lost or written over when it's moved from one place in storage to another or when transmitted between computers.

Partition - In personal computers, a partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple users, or other purposes. A partition is created when you format the hard disk. Typically, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition, the "E:" drive.)

Password - A password is an unspaced sequence of characters used to determine that a computer user requesting access to a computer system is really that particular user. Typically, users of a multiuser or securely protected single-user system claim a unique name (often called a user ID) that can be generally known. In order to verify that someone entering that user ID really is that person, a second identification, the password, known only to that person and to the system itself, is entered by the user. A password is typically somewhere between four and 16 characters,


Network Documentation Projectdepending on how the computer system is set up. When a password is entered, the computer system is careful not to display the characters on the display screen, in case others might see it.

Patch - A patch (sometimes called a "fix") is a quick-repair job for a piece of programming. During a software product's beta distribution or try-out period and later after the product is formally released, problems (called bugs) will almost invariably be found. A patch is the immediate solution that is provided to users; it can sometimes be downloaded from the software maker's Web site. The patch is not necessarily the best solution for the problem and the product developers often find a better solution to provide when they package the product for its next release.

PBX - A PBX (private branch exchange) is a telephone system within an enterprise that switches calls between enterprise users on local lines while allowing all users to share a certain number of external phone lines. The main purpose of a PBX is to save the cost of requiring a line for each user to the telephone company's central office.

PC - In its more general usage, a PC (personal computer) is a computer designed for use by one person at a time. Prior to the PC, computers were designed for (and only affordable by) companies who attached terminals for multiple users to a single large computer whose resources were shared among all users. Beginning in the late 1980s, technology advances made it feasible to build a small computer that an individual could own and use.

PCL - PCL (Printer Control Language) is a language (a set of command codes) that enable application progams to control Hewlett-Packard DeskJet, LaserJet, and other HP printers. Many personal computer users find themselves in need of PCL drivers after purchasing a new HP or HP-compatible printer and attaching it to their existing PC and operating system. These drivers (which are small programs that work between the operating system and the printer) are available for downloading from Hewlett-Packard's Web site.

PDA - PDA (personal digital assistant) is a term for any small mobile hand-held device that provides computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use, often for keeping schedule calendars and address book information handy. The term handheld computer is a synonym. Many people use the name of one of the popular PDA products as a generic term. These include Hewlett-Packard's Palmtop and 3Com's PalmPilot.

Peer-to-Peer - Peer-to-peer is a communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session. Other models with which it might be contrasted include the client/server model and the master/slave model.

Pentium/Pro/II - The Pentium is a widely-used personal computer microprocessor from the Intel Corporation. First offered in 1993, the Pentium quickly replaced Intel's 486 microprocessor as the microchip-of-choice in manufacturing a PC. The Pentium actually contains two processors on one chip that contains 3.1. million transistors.

Pentium III - The Pentium III is a microprocessor, code-named Katmai, designed by Intel as a successor to its Pentium II. The Pentium III is faster, especially for applications written to take advantage of its "Katmai New Instructions." The 70 new computer instructions make it possible to run 3-D, imaging, streaming video, speech recognition, and audio applications more quickly . In addition, the Pentium III offers clock speeds of 450 MHz or more. A 500 MHz version is planned and, by the end of 1999, 600 MHz.

Performance - The speed at which a computer operates, either theoretically (for example, using a formula for calculating Mtops - millions of theoretical instructions per second) or by counting operations or instructions performed (for example, MIPS - millions of instructions per second) during a benchmark test. The benchmark test usually involves some combination of work that attempts to imitate the kinds of work the computer does during actual use. Sometimes performance is expressed for each of several different benchmarks.

Peripheral - A peripheral (pronounced peh-RIHF-uh-ruhl, a noun truncation of peripheral device, ) is any computer device that is not part of the essential computer (the processor, memory, and data paths) but is situated relatively close by. A near synonym is input/output (I/O) device. Some peripherals are mounted in the same case with the main part of the computer as are the hard drive, CD-ROM drive, and network interface cards. Other peripherals are outside the computer case, such as the printer and image scanner, attached by a wired or wireless connection.


Network Documentation ProjectPermanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) - A PVC (Permanent Virtual Circuit) is a software-defined logical connection in a frame relay network. A feature of frame relay that makes it a highly flexible network technology is that users (companies or clients of network providers) can define logical connections and required bandwidths between end points and let the frame relay network technology worry about how the physical network is used to achieve the defined connections and manage the traffic. The end points and a stated bandwidth called a Committed Information Rate (CIR) constitute a PVC, which is defined to the frame relay network devices. The bandwidth may not exceed the possible physical bandwidth. Typically, multiple PVCs share the same physical paths at the same time. To manage the variation in bandwidth requirements expressed in the CIRs, the frame relay devices use a technique called statistical multiplexing.

Petabyte - A petabyte is a measure of memory or storage capacity and is 2 to the 50th power bytes or, in decimal, approximately a thousand terabytes.

Piracy - Software piracy is the illegal copying, distribution, or use of software. According to one source, about 40% of all software in current use is stolen. In 1998, revenue losses from software piracy were estimated at $11 billion worldwide. North America, Asia, and Western Europe account for 80% of revenue losses with the United States ranking highest in dollar losses. It is such a profitable "business" that it has caught the attention of organized crime groups in a number of countries. Software piracy causes significant lost revenue for publishers, which in turn results in higher prices for the consumer. Some software publishers go out of business because of software piracy. Others are discouraged from entering markets where software piracy rates are high.

Platform - A platform consists of an operating system, the computer system's coordinating program, and a microprocessor, the microchip in the computer that performs logic operations and manages data movement in the computer. The operating system must be designed to work with the particular microprocessor's set of instructions. As an example, Microsoft's Windows 95 is built to work with a series of microprocessors from the Intel Corporation that share the same or similar sets of instructions. There are usually other implied parts in any computer platform such as a motherboard and a data bus, but these parts have increasingly become modularized and standardized.

Plug-and-Play - Plug-and-Play (PnP) is a standard that gives computer users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. The user doesn't have to tell the computer. While this is not a new capability, operating systems have traditionally needed to have any variable machine configuration (including the attachment of additional devices) defined to them by a user. Microsoft has made "Plug-and-Play" a selling point for its latest Windows operating systems. (A similar capability has long been built into Macintosh computers.)

Plug-in - Plug-in applications are programs that can easily be installed and used as part of your Web browser. Initially, the Netscape browser allowed you to download, install, and define supplementary programs that played sound or motion video or performed other functions. These were called helper applications. However, these applications run as a separate application and require that a second window be opened. A plug-in application is recognized automatically by the browser and its function is integrated into the main HTML file that is being presented.

Point-of-Presence (POP) - A point-of-presence (POP) is the location of an access point to the Internet. A POP necessarily has a unique Internet (IP) address. Your independent service provider (ISP) or online service provider (OSP) has a point-of-presence on the Internet. POPs are sometimes used as one measure of the size and growth of an ISP or OSP.

Polymorhpism - In object-oriented programming, polymorphism (from the Greek meaning "having multiple forms") is the characteristic of being able to assign a different meaning to a particular symbol or "operator" in different contexts.

POP3 - POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client-server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your mail-box on the server and download any mail. POP3 is built into the Netmanage suite of Internet products and one of the most popular e-mail products, Eudora. It's also built into the Netscape browser.



Port - In programming, a port (noun) is a "logical connection place" and specifically, using the Internet's protocol, TCP/IP, the way a client program specifies a particular server program on a computer in a network. Higher-level applications that use TCP/IP such as the Web protocol, HTTP, have ports with preassigned numbers. These are known as "well-known ports" that have been assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Other application processes are given port numbers dynamically for each connection. When a service (server program) initially is started, it is said to bind to its designated port number. As any client program wants to use that server, it also must request to bind to the designated port number.

Portability - Portability is a characteristic attributed to a computer program if it can be used in an operating system other than the one in which it was created without requiring major rework. Porting is the task of doing any work necessary to make the computer program run in the new environment. In general, programs that adhere to standard program interfaces such as the X/Open UNIX 95 standard C language interface are portable. Ideally, such a program needs only to be recompiled for the operating system to which it is being ported. However, programmers using standard interfaces also sometimes use operating system extensions or special capabilities that may not be present in the new operating system. Uses of such extensions have to be removed or replaced with comparable functions in the new operating system. In addition to language differences, porting may also require data conversion and adaptation to new system procedures for running an application.

Portal - Portal is a new term, generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site. In July 1998, leading portals included Yahoo, Excite, Netscape, Lycos, CNet, and Microsoft Network. With its own private array of sites when you dial in, America Online (AOL) could be thought of as a portal to its own Web portal at AOL.com. A number of large access providers offer portals to the Web for their own users. Most portals have adopted the Yahoo style of content categories with a text-intensive, faster loading page that visitors will find easy to use and to return to. Companies with portal sites have attracted much stock market investor interest because portals are viewed as able to command large audiences and numbers of advertising viewers.

Postscript - Postscript is a programming language that describes the appearance of a printed page. It was developed by Adobe in 1985 and has become an industry standard for printing and imaging. All major printer manufacturers make printers that contain or can be loaded with Postscript software, which also runs on all major operating system platforms. A Postscript file can be identified by its ".ps" suffix.

POTS - POTS is a term sometimes used in discussion of new telephone technologies in which the question of whether and how existing voice transmission for ordinary phone communication can be accommodated. For example, ADSL and ISDN provide some part of their channels for "plain old telephone service" while providing most of their bandwidth for digital data transmission.

Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) - PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) is a protocol for communication between two computers using a serial interface, typically a personal computer connected by phone line to a server. For example, your Internet server provider may provide you with a PPP connection so that the provider's server can respond to your requests, pass them on to the Internet, and forward your requested Internet responses back to you. PPP uses the Internet protocol (IP) (and is designed to handle others). It is sometimes considered a member of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. Relative to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, PPP provides layer 2 (data-link layer) service. Essentially, it packages your computer's TCP/IP packets and forwards them to the server where they can actually be put on the Internet.

PPTP - PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) is a protocol (set of communication rules) that allows corporations to extend their own corporate network through private "tunnels" over the public Internet. Effectively, a corporation uses a wide-area network as a single large local area network. A company no longer needs to lease its own lines for wide-area communication but can securely use the public networks. This kind of interconnection is known as a virtual private network (VPN).

Preamble - A preamble is a signal used in network communications to synchronize the transmission timing between two or more systems. Proper timing ensures that all systems are interpreting the start of the information transfer


Network Documentation Projectcorrectly. This is something like how a rock band drummer "lays down a beat" prior to beginning a song. By setting up the proper tempo, the band members are more likely to be synchronized and begin the song at the same moment.

Preemptive Multitasking - Preemptive multitasking is multitasking in which a computer operating system uses some criteria to decide how long to allocate to any one task before giving another task a turn to use the operating system. The act of taking control of the operating system from one task and giving it to another task is called preempting. A common criterion for preempting is simply elapsed time (this kind of system is sometimes called time sharing or time slicing). In some operating systems, some applications can be given higher priority than other applications, giving the higher priority programs control as soon as they are initiated and perhaps longer time slices.

Presence - A Web presence (or Web site) is a collection of Web files on a particular subject that includes a beginning file called a home page. For example, most companies, organizations, or individuals that have Web sites have a single address that they give you. This is their home page address. From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. For example, the Web site for IBM has the home page address of http://www.ibm.com. (In this case, the actual file name of the home page file doesn't have to be included because IBM has named this file index.html and told the server that this address really means http://www.ibm.com/index.html.)

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) - PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a popular program used to encrypt and decrypt e-mail over the Internet. It can also be used to send an encrypted digital signature that lets the receiver verify the sender's identity and know that the message was not changed en route. Available both as freeware and in a low-cost commercial version, PGP is the most widely used privacy-ensuring program by individuals and is also used by many corporations. Developed by Philip R. Zimmermann in 1991, PGP has become a de facto standard for e-mail security. PGP can also be used to encrypt files being stored so that they are unreadable by other users or intruders.

PRI - In the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), there are two levels of service: the Basic Rate Interface (BRI), intended for the home and small enterprise, and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI), for larger users. Both rates include a number of B (bearer) channels and a D (delta) channel. The B channels carry data, voice, and other services. The D channel carries control and signaling information.

Printer - In computers, a printer is a device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to paper, usually to standard size sheets of paper. Printers are sometimes sold with computers, but more frequently are purchased separately. Printers vary in size, speed, sophistication, and cost. Larger printers used in Fortune 500 companies can cost many thousands of dollars (U.S.) but can print at very high speeds - for example, a 300-page technical manual in 20 minutes. Personal computer printers under $500 print only a few pages a minute. In general, more expensive printers are used for higher-resolution color printing.

Private Key - In cryptography, a private or secret key is an encryption/decryption key known only to the party or parties that exchange secret messages. In traditional secret key cryptography, a key would be shared by the communicators so that each could encrypt and decrypt messages. The risk in this system is that if either party loses the key or it is stolen, the system is broken. A more recent alternative is to use a combination of public and private keys. In this system, a public key is used together with a private key. See public key infrastructure (PKI) for more information.

Process - A process is an instance of a program running in a computer. It is close in meaning to task, a term used in some operating systems. In UNIX and some other operating systems, a process is started when a program is initiated (either by a user entering a shell command or by another program). Like a task, a process is a running program with which a particular set of data is associated so that the process can be kept track of. An application program that is being shared by multiple users will generally have one process at some stage of execution for each user.

Processor - A processor is the logic circuitry that responds to and processes the basic instructions that drive a computer.

Program - In computing, a program is a specific set of ordered operations for a computer to perform. In the modern computer that John von Neumann outlined in 1945, the program contains a one-at-a-time sequence of instructions that the computer follows. Typically, the program is put into a storage area accessible to the computer. The computer gets one instruction and performs it and then gets the next instruction. The storage area or memory can


Network Documentation Projectalso contain the data that the instruction operates on. (Note that a program is also a special kind of "data" that tells how to operate on "application or user data.")

Protocol - In information technology, a protocol (pronounced PROH-tuh-cahl, from the Greek protocollon, which was a leaf of paper glued to a manuscript volume, describing its contents) is the special set of rules for communicating that the end points in a telecommunication connection use when they send signals back and forth. Protocols exist at several levels in a telecommunication connection. There are hardware telephone protocols. There are protocols between the end points in communicating programs within the same computer or at different locations. Both end points must recognize and observe the protocol. Protocols are often described in an industry or international standard.

Proxy Server - In an enterprise that uses the Internet, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet so that the enterprise can ensure security, administrative control, and caching service. A proxy server is associated with or part of a gateway server that separates the enterprise network from the outside network and a firewall server that protects the enterprise network from outside intrusion.

PSTN - The PSTN (public switched telephone network) refers to the world's collection of interconnected voice-oriented public telephone networks, both commercial and government-owned. It's also referred to as the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). It's the aggregation of circuit-switching telephone networks that has evolved from the days of Alexander Graham Bell ("Doctor Watson, come here!"). Today, it is almost entirely digital in technology except for the final link from the central (local) telephone office to the user.

Public Key - A public key is a value provided by some designated authority as a key that, combined with a private key derived from the public key, can be used to effectively encrypt and decrypt messages and digital signatures.

Public Key Infrastructure - A PKI (public key infrastructure) enables users of a basically unsecure public network such as the Internet to securely and privately exchange data and money through the use of a public and a private cryptographic key pair that is obtained and shared through a trusted authority. The public key infrastructure provides for digital certificates that can identify individuals or organizations and directory services that can store and, when necessary, revoke them. Although the components of a PKI are generally understood, a number of different vendor approaches and services are emerging. Meanwhile, an Internet standard for PKI is being worked on.

Quality of Service (QoS) - On the Internet and in other networks, QoS (Quality of Service) is the idea that transmission rates, error rates, and other characteristics can be measured, improved, and, to some extent, guaranteed in advance. QoS is of particular concern for the continuous transmission of high-bandwidth video and multimedia information. Transmitting this kind of content dependably is difficult in public networks using ordinary "best effort" protocols.

RAM - RAM (random access memory) is the place in a computer where the operating system, application programs, and data in current use are kept so that they can be quickly reached by the computer's processor. RAM is much faster to read from and write to than the other kinds of storage in a computer, the hard disk, floppy disk, and CD-ROM. However, the data in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. When you turn the computer off, RAM loses its data. When you turn your computer on again, your operating system and other files are once again loaded into RAM, usually from your hard disk.

Remote Access Server (RAS) - Remote access is the ability to get access to a computer or a network from a remote distance. In corporations, people at branch offices, telecommuters, and people who are travelling may need access to the corporation's network. Home users get access to the Internet through remote access to an Internet service provider (ISP). Dial-up connection through desktop, notebook, or handheld computer modems over regular telephone lines is a common method of remote access. Remote access is also possible using a dedicated line between a computer or a remote local area network and the "central" or main corporate local area network. A dedicated line is more expensive and less flexible but offers faster data rates. ISDN is a common method of remote access from branch offices since it combines dial-up with faster data rates. Wireless, cable modem, and DSL technologies offer other possibilities for remote access.


Network Documentation ProjectRecord - In computer data processing, a record is a collection of data items arranged for processing by a program. Multiple records are contained in a file or data set. The organization of data in the record is usually prescribed by the programming language that defines the record's organization and/or by the application that processes it. Typically, records can be of fixed-length or be of variable length with the length information contained within the record.

Registry - In the Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT operating systems, the Registry is a single place for keeping such information as what hardware is attached, what system options have been selected, how computer memory is set up, and what application programs are to be present when the operating system is started. The Registry is somewhat similar to and a replacement for the simpler INI (initialization) and configuration files used in earlier Windows systems. INI files are still supported, however, for compatibility with the 16-bit applications written for earlier systems.

Relational Database - A relational database is a collection of data items organized as a set of formally-described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables. The relational database was invented by E. F. Codd at IBM in 1970.

Repeater - In telecommunication networks, a repeater is a device that receives a signal on an electromagnetic or optical transmission medium, amplifies the signal, and then retransmits it along the next leg of the medium. Repeaters overcome the attenuation caused by free-space electromagnetic-field divergence or cable loss. A series of repeaters make possible the extension of a signal over a distance. Repeaters are used to interconnect segments in a local area network (LAN). They're also used to amplify and extend wide area network transmission on wire and wireless media.

Replication - Replication (pronounced rehp-lih-KA-shun) is the process of making a replica (a copy) of something. A replication (noun) is a copy. The term is used in fields as varied as microbiology (cell replication), knitwear (replication of knitting patterns), and information distribution (CD-ROM replication).

Repository - In information technology, a repository (pronounced ree-PAHZ-ih-tor-i) is a central place in which an aggregation of data is kept and maintained in an organized way, usually in computer storage. The term is from the Latin repositorium, a vessel or chamber in which things can be placed, and it can mean a place where things are collected. Depending on how the term is used, a repository may be directly accessible to users or may be a place from which specific databases, files, or documents are obtained for further relocation or distribution in a network. A repository may be just the aggregation of data itself into some accessible place of storage or it may also imply some ability to selectively extract data. Related terms are data warehouse and data mining.

RFC - An RFC (Request for Comments) is an Internet formal document or standard that is the result of committee drafting and subsequent review by interested parties. Some RFCs are informational in nature. Of those that are intended to become Internet standards, the final version of the RFC becomes the standard and no further comments or changes are permitted. Change can occur, however, through subsequent RFCs that supercede or elaborate on all or parts of previous RFCs.

RIP - RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a widely-used protocol for managing routing information within a self-contained network such as a corporate local area network (LAN) or an interconnected group of such LANs. RIP is classified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as one of several internal gateway protocols (IGPs).

RISC - A RISC (reduced instruction set computer) is a microprocessor that is designed to perform a smaller number of types of computer instructions so that it can operate at a higher speed (perform more MIPS, or millions of instructions per second). Since each instruction type that a computer must perform requires additional transistors and circuitry, a larger list or set of computer instructions tends to make the microprocessor more complicated and slower in operation.

Robust - Robust is also sometimes used to mean a product or system of products designed with a full complement of capabilities. Thus, in the context of the business world, early UNIX systems were not considered as robust as IBM's mainframe operating systems, such as MVS, which were designed for continuous operation with a very low failure rate and features such as automatic backup of file systems.


Network Documentation ProjectRouter - On the Internet, a router is a device or, in some cases, software in a computer, that determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward its destination. The router is connected to at least two networks and decides which way to send each information packet based on its current understanding of the state of the networks it is connected to. A router is located at any juncture of networks or gateway, including each Internet point-of-presence. A router is often included as part of a network switch.

Routine - In computer programming, routine and subroutine are general and nearly synonymous terms for any sequence of code that is intended to be called and used repeatedly during the execution of a program. This makes the program shorter and easier to write (and also to read when necessary). The main sequence of logic in a program can branch off to a common routine when necessary. When finished, the routine branches back to the next sequential instruction following the instruction that branched to it. A routine may also be useful in more than one program and save other programmers from having to write code than can be shared.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located in another computer in a network without having to understand network details. (A procedure call is also sometimes known as a function call or a subroutine call.) RPC uses the client/server model. The requesting program is a client and the service-providing program is the server. Like a regular or local procedure call, an RPC is a synchronous operation requiring the requesting program to be suspended until the results of the remote procedure are returned. However, the use of lightweight processes or threads that share the same address space allows multiple RPCs to be performed concurrently.

RSA - RSA is an Internet encryption and authentication system that uses an algorithm developed in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. The RSA algorithm is the most commonly used encryption and authentication algorithm and is included as part of the Web browsers from Netscape and Microsoft. It's also part of Lotus Notes, Intuit's Quicken, and many other products. The encryption system is owned by RSA Data Security, now a subsidiary of Security Dynamics. The company licenses the algorithm technologies and also sells development kits. The technologies are part of existing or proposed Web, Internet, and computing standards.

Runt - In networks, a runt is a packet that is too small. For example, the Ethernet protocol requires that each packet be at least 64 bytes long. In Ethernet, which operates on the idea that two parties can attempt to get use of the line at the same time and sometimes do, runts are usually the fragments of packet collisions. Runts can also be the result of bad wiring or electrical interference. Runts are recorded by programs that use the Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) standard information base for network adminstration. RMON calls them "undersize packets".

Runtime - Runtime is when a program is running (or being "executed"). That is, when you start a program running in a computer, it is runtime for that program. In some programming languages, certain reusable programs or "routines" are built and packaged as a "runtime library." These routines can be linked to and used by any program when it is running.

Scalability - It is the ability of a computer application or product (hardware or software) to continue to function well as it (or its context) is changed in size or volume in order to meet a user need. Typically, the rescaling is to a larger size or volume. The rescaling can be of the product itself (for example, a line of computer systems of different sizes in terms of storage, RAM, and so forth) or in the scalable object's movement to a new context (for example, a new operating system).

Schema - In computer programming, a schema (pronounced SKEE-mah) is the organization or structure for a database. The activity of data modelling leads to a schema. (The plural form is schemata. The term is from a Greek word for "form" or "figure." Another word from the same source is "schematic.") The term is used in discussing both relational databases and object-oriented databases. The term sometimes seems to refer to a visualization of a structure and sometimes to a formal text-oriented description.

Script - In computer programming, a script is a program or sequence of instructions that is interpreted or carried out by another program rather than by the computer processor (as a compiled program is).

SCSI - SCSI (pronounced SKUH-zee and sometimes colloquially known as "scuzzy"), the Small Computer System Interface, is a set of evolving ANSI standard electronic interfaces that allow personal computers to communicate


Network Documentation Projectwith peripheral hardware such as disk drives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, printers, and scanners faster and more flexibly than previous interfaces. Developed at Apple Computer and still used in the Macintosh, the present set of SCSIs are parallel interfaces. SCSI ports are built into most personal computers today and supported by all major operating systems.

SDK - An SDK (software developer's kit) is a set of programs used by a computer programmer to write application programs. Typically, an SDK includes a visual screen builder, an editor, a compiler, a linker, and sometimes other facilities. The term is used by Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and a number of other companies.

Search Engine - A program that creates a huge index (sometimes called a "catalog") from the pages that have been read

Secret Key - In cryptography, a private or secret key is an encryption/decryption key known only to the party or parties that exchange secret messages. In traditional secret key cryptography, a key would be shared by the communicators so that each could encrypt and decrypt messages. The risk in this system is that if either party loses the key or it is stolen, the system is broken. A more recent alternative is to use a combination of public and private keys. In this system, a public key is used together with a private key. See public key infrastructure (PKI) for more information.

Semantics - Semantics (pronounced seh-MANT-iks, from Greek semantikos or significant and sema or sign) is the branch of semiotics, the philosophy or study of signs, that deals with meaning. The other two branches of semiotics are syntactics (the arrangement of signs) and pragmatics (the relationship between the speaker and the signs). In discussing natural and computer languages, the distinction is sometimes made between syntax (for example, the word order in a sentence or the exact computer command notation) and semantics (what the words really say or what functions are requested in the command).

Semaphores - In programming, especially in UNIX systems, semaphores are a technique for coordinating or synchronizing activities in which multiple processes compete for the same operating system resources. A semaphore is a value in a designated place in operating system (or kernel) storage that each process can check and then change. Depending on the value that is found, the process can use the resource or will find that it is already in use and must wait for some period before trying again. Semaphones can be binary (0 or 1) or can have additional values. Typically, a process using semaphores checks the value and then, if it using the resource, changes the value to reflect this so that subsequent semaphore users will know to wait.

Server - In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same or other computers.

SNMP - SNMP is the protocol governing network management and the monitoring of network devices and their functions. It is not necessarily limited to TCP/IP networks

Simplex - In telecommunication, duplex communication means that both ends of the communication can send and receive signals at the same time. Full-duplex communication is the same thing. Half-duplex is also bidirectional communication but signals can only flow in one direction at a time. Simplex communication means that communication can only flow in one direction and never flow back the other way.

Site - A Web site is a collection of Web files on a particular subject that includes a beginning file called a home page. For example, most companies, organizations, or individuals that have Web sites have a single address that they give you. This is their home page address. From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. For example, the Web site for IBM has the home page address of http://www.ibm.com. (In this case, the actual file name of the home page file doesn't have to be included because IBM has named this file index.html and told the server that this address really means http://www.ibm.com/index.html.)

SMART - S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is an interface between a computer's start-up program or BIOS and the computer hard drive. It is a feature of the Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) technology that controls access to the hard drive. If S.M.A.R.T is enabled when a computer is set up, the


Network Documentation ProjectBIOS can receive analytical information from the hard drive and determine whether to send the user a warning message about possible future failure of the hard drive.

SMB - The SMB protocol (Server Message Block protocol) provides a method for client applications in a computer to read and write to files on and to request services from server programs in a computer network. SMB can be used over the Internet on top of its TCP/IP protocol or on top of other network protocols such as IPX and NetBEUI. Using the SMB protocol, an application (or the user of an application) can access files at a remote server as well as other resources, including printers, mailslots, and named pipes. Thus, a client application can read, create, and update files on the remote server. It can also communicate with any server program that is set up to receive an SMB client request.

S/MIME - S/MIME (Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a secure method of sending e-mail that uses the RSA encryption system. S/MIME is included in the latest versions of the Web browsers from Microsoft and Netscape and has also been endorsed by other vendors that make messaging products. RSA has proposed S/MIME as a standard to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). An alternative to S/MIME is PGP/MIME, which has also been proposed as a standard.

SMP - SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) is the processing of programs by multiple processors that share a common operating system and memory. In symmetric (or "tightly coupled") multiprocessing, the processors share memory and the I/O bus or data path. A single copy of the operating system is in charge of all the processors. SMP, also known as a "shared everything" system, does not usually exceed 16 processors.

SMTP - SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail. However, since it's limited in its ability to queue messages at the receiving end, it's usually used with one of two other protocols, POP3 or IMAP, that let the user save messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the server. In other words, users typically use a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving messages that have been received for them at their local server. Most mail programs such as Eudora let you specify both an SMTP server and a POP server. On UNIX-based systems, sendmail is the most widely-used SMTP server for e-mail. A commercial package, Sendmail, includes a POP3 server and also comes in a version for Windows NT.

Sniffer - A sniffer is a program that monitors and analyzes network traffic, detecting bottlenecks and problems. Using this information, a network manager can keep traffic flowing efficiently.

Sockets - Sockets is a method for communication between a client program and a server program in a network. A socket is defined as "the endpoint in a connection." Sockets are created and used with a set of programming requests or "function calls" sometimes called the sockets application programming interface (API). The most common sockets API is the Berkeley UNIX C language interface for sockets. Sockets can also be used for communication between processes within the same computer.

SOCKS - Socks (or "SOCKS") is a protocol that a proxy server can use to accept requests from client users in a company's network so that it can forward them across the Internet. Socks uses sockets to represent and keep track of individual connections. The client side of Socks is built into certain Web browsers and the server side can be added to a proxy server.

Software - Software is a general term for the various kinds of programs used to operate computers and related devices. (The term hardware describes the physical aspects of computers and related devices.)

SOHO - In information technology, SOHO is a term for the small office or home office environment and business culture. A number of organizations, businesses, and publications now exist to support people who work or have businesses in this environment. The term "virtual office" is sometimes used as a synonym.

Spam - Spam is unsolicited e-mail on the Internet. From the sender's point-of-view, it's a form of bulk mail, often to a list culled from subscribers to a Usenet discussion group or obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail. In general, it's not considered good


Network Documentation Projectnetiquette to send spam. It's generally equivalent to unsolicited phone marketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet.

SPARC - SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a 32- and 64-bit microprocessor architecture from Sun Microsystems that is based on the Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC). SPARC has become a widely-used architecture for hardware used with UNIX-based operating systems, including Sun's own Solaris systems. Sun has made SPARC an open architecture that is available for licensing to microprocessor manufacturers. In its most recent brand name, UltraSPARC, microprocessors can be built for PC boards (using either PCI or ATX) as well as for SPARC's original workstation market. As evidence of SPARC's "scalability," Sun says that its UltraSPARC III will be designed to allow up to 1,000 processors to work together.

SPID - A SPID (Service Profile Identifier) is a number assigned by a phone company to a terminal on an ISDN B-channel. An increasing number of Internet users upgrading from a modem and a regular analog phone connection to Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) are becoming aware of their SPIDs. A SPID tells equipment at the phone company's central office about the capabilities of each terminal (computer or phone) on your B-channels. A Basic Rate home user may divide service into two B-channels with one used for normal phone service and the other for computer data. Each terminal (including your computer) has a SPID to define its unique characteristics to the central office.

Spool - To spool (which stands for "simultaneous peripheral operations online") a computer document or task list (or "job") is to read it in and store it, usually on a hard disk or larger storage medium so that it can be printed or otherwise processed at a more convenient time (for example, when a printer is finished printing its current document). One can envision spooling as reeling a document or task list onto a spool of thread so that it can be unreeled at a more convenient time.

SQL - SQL (Structured Query Language) Stis a standard interactive and programming language for getting information from and updating a database. Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard language. Queries take the form of a command language that lets you select, insert, update, find out the location of data, and so forth. There is also a programming interface.

SSL - SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a program layer created by Netscape for managing the security of message transmissions in a network. Netscape's idea is that the programming for keeping your messages confidential ought to be contained in a program layer between an application (such as your Web browser or HTTP) and the Internet's TCP/IP layers. The "sockets" part of the term refers to the sockets method of passing data back and forth between a client and a server program in a network or between program layers in the same computer. Netscape's SSL uses the public-and-private key encryption system from RSA, which also includes the use of a digital certificate.

Stack - TCP/IP is frequently referred to as a "stack." This refers to the layers (TCP, IP, and sometimes others) through which all data passes at both client and server ends of a data exchange. A clear picture of layers similar to those of TCP/IP is provided in our description of OSI, the reference model of the layers involved in any network communication.

Stateful - Stateful and stateless are adjectives that describe whether a computer or computer program is designed to note and remember one or more preceding events in a given sequence of interactions with a user, another computer or program, a device, or other outside element. Stateful means the computer or program keeps track of the state of interaction, usually by setting values in a storage field designated for that purpose. Stateless means there is no record of previous interactions and each interaction request has to be handled based entirely on information that comes with it. Stateful and stateless are derived from the usage of state as a set of conditions at a moment in time. (Computers are inherently stateful in operation, so these terms are used in the context of a particular set of interactions, not of how computers work in general.)

Stateless - Stateful and stateless are adjectives that describe whether a computer or computer program is designed to note and remember one or more preceding events in a given sequence of interactions with a user, another computer or program, a device, or other outside element. Stateful means the computer or program keeps track of the state of interaction, usually by setting values in a storage field designated for that purpose. Stateless means there is no record


Network Documentation Projectof previous interactions and each interaction request has to be handled based entirely on information that comes with it. Stateful and stateless are derived from the usage of state as a set of conditions at a moment in time. (Computers are inherently stateful in operation, so these terms are used in the context of a particular set of interactions, not of how computers work in general.)

STP - Shielded twisted pair is a special kind of copper telephone wiring used in some business installations. An outer covering or shield is added to the ordinary twisted pair telephone wires; the shield functions as a ground.

Stub - A stub is a small program routine that substitutes for a longer program, possibly to be loaded later or that is located remotely. For example, a program that uses Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) is compiled with stubs that substitute for the program that provides a requested procedure. The stub accepts the request and then forwards it (through another program) to the remote procedure. When that procedure has completed its service, it returns the results or other status to the stub which passes it back to the program that made the request.

Subnet - A subnet (short for "subnetwork") is an identifiably separate part of an organization's network. Typically, a subnet may represent all the machines at one geographic location, in one building, or on the same local area network (LAN). Having an organization's network divided into subnets allows it to be connected to the Internet with a single shared network address. Without subnets, an organization could get multiple connections to the Internet, one for each of its physically separate subnetworks, but this would require an unnecessary use of the limited number of network numbers the Internet has to assign. It would also require that Internet routing tables on gateways outside the organization would need to know about and have to manage routing that could and should be handled within an organization.

Subnet Mask - A subnet (short for "subnetwork") is an identifiably separate part of an organization's network. Typically, a subnet may represent all the machines at one geographic location, in one building, or on the same local area network (LAN). Having an organization's network divided into subnets allows it to be connected to the Internet with a single shared network address. Without subnets, an organization could get multiple connections to the Internet, one for each of its physically separate subnetworks, but this would require an unnecessary use of the limited number of network numbers the Internet has to assign. It would also require that Internet routing tables on gateways outside the organization would need to know about and have to manage routing that could and should be handled within an organization.

Supercomputer - A supercomputer is a computer that performs at or near the currently highest operational rate for computers. A supercomputer is typically used for scientific and engineering applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of computation (or both). At any given time, there are usually a few well-publicized supercomputers that operate at the very latest and always incredible speeds. The term is also sometimes applied to far slower (but still impressively fast) computers. Most supercomputers are really multiple computers that perform parallel processing. In general, there are two parallel processing approaches: symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and massively parallel processing (MPP).

Switch - In telecommunications, a switch is a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a unit of data to its next destination. A switch may also include the function of the router, a device or program that can determine the route and specifically what adjacent network point the data should be sent to. In general, a switch is a simpler and faster mechanism than a router, which requires knowledge about the network and how to determine the route.

SVC - In a network, an SVC (switched virtual circuit) is a temporary virtual circuit that is established and maintained only for the duration of a data transfer session. A permanent virtual circuit (PVC) is a continuously dedicated virtual circuit. A virtual circuit is one that appears to be a discrete, physical circuit available only to the user but that is actually a shared pool of circuit resources used to support multiple users as they require the connections. Switched

Synchronous - Synchronous data communication requires that each end of an exchange of communication respond in turn without initiating a new communication. A typical activity that might use a synchronous protocol would be a transmission of files from one point to another. As each transmission is received, a response is returned indicating success or the need to resend. Each successive transmission of data requires a response to the previous transmission before a new one can be initiated.



System - A system is a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose. The word sometimes describes the organization or plan itself (and is similar in meaning to method, as in "I have my own little system") and sometimes describes the parts in the system (as in "computer system").

TACACS - TACACS (Terminal Access Controller Access Control System) is an older authentication protocol common to UNIX networks that allows a remote access server to forward a user's logon password to an authentication server to determine whether access can be allowed to a given system. TACACS is an unencrypted protocol and therefore less secure than the later TACACS+ and RADIUS protocols. A later version of TACACS is XTACACS (Extended TACACS). Both are described in RFC 1492.

TAPI - TAPI (Telephony Application Program Interface) is a standard program interface that lets you and your computer "talk" over telephones or video phones to people or phone-connected resources elsewhere in the world. Assuming your computer is equipped with TAPI and your setup includes the right applications and hardware, you may be able:

T1/T3 - The T-carrier system, introduced by the Bell System in the U.S. in the 1960s, was the first successful system that supported digitized voice transmission. The original transmission rate (1.544 Mbps) in the T-1 line is in common use today in Internet service provider (ISP) connections to the Internet. Another level, the T-3 line, providing 44.736 Mbps, is also commonly used by ISPs. Another commonly installed service is a fractional T-1 line, which is the rental of some portion of the 24 channels in a T-1 line, with the other channels going unused.

Task - In computer programming, a task is the basic unit of programming that an operating system controls. Depending on how the operating system defines a task in its design, this unit of programming may be an entire program or each successive invocation of a program. Since one program may make requests of other utility programs, the utility programs may also be considered tasks (or subtasks). All of today's widely-used operating systems support multitasking, which allows multiple tasks to run concurrently, taking turns using the resources of the computer.

TCP - TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a method (protocol) used along with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data, TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.

TCP/IP - TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in the private networks called intranets and in extranets. When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

Techno-fiend - In information technology, a techno-fiend is someone who is addicted to finding out and knowing how things work in one or more aspects of cyberspace. Techno-fiends frequently know about and consult the places where you can find out. (See "Selected Links" below.) Some techno-fiends also frequent Usenet or other online discussions. Techno-fiends usually suspect that there's some place or someone with information that they should know about but don't.

Telco - In the United States and possibly other countries, "telco" is a short form for telephone company. Sometimes it means a local telephone company, such as a Bell operating company (BOC) or an independent local telephone company. Sometimes it means any telephone company, including one offering long-distance services.

Telphony - Telephony is the technology associated with the electronic transmission of voice, fax, or other information between distant parties using systems historically associated with the telephone, a handheld device containing both a speaker or transmitter and a receiver. With the arrival of computers and the transmittal of digital information over telephone systems and the use of radio to transmit telephone signals, the distinction between telephony and telecommunication has become difficult to make. However, we believe that telephony does connote voice or spoken and heard information predominately and it usually assumes a point-to-point (rather than a


Network Documentation Projectbroadcast) connection. It usually implies a temporarily dedicated connection (although delayed voice messages can obviously be sent as connectionless packets).

Telnet - Telnet is the way you can access someone else's computer, assuming they have given you permission. (Such a computer is frequently called a host computer.) More technically, Telnet is a user command and an underlying TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote computers. The Web or HTTP protocol and the FTP protocol allow you to request specific files from remote computers, but not to actually be logged on as a user of that computer. With Telnet, you log on as a regular user with whatever privileges you may have been granted to the specific applications and data on that computer.

Terabit - In measuring data transmission speed, a terabit is one trillion bits, or 1,000,000,000,000 (that is, 1012) bits. A terabit is used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points or within network devices. For example, several companies are building a network switch that passes incoming packets through the device and out again at a terabits-per-second speed. Terabits per second is usually shortened to Tbps.

Terabyte - A terabyte is a measure of computer storage capacity and is 2 to the 40th power or, in decimal, approximately a thousand billion bytes (that is, a thousand gigabytes).

Terminal - In data communications, a terminal is any device that terminates one end (sender or receiver) of a communicated signal. In practice, it is usually applied only to the extended end points in a network, not central or intermediate devices. In this usage, if you can send signals to it, it's a terminal.

Terminal Server - Generally in information technology, a terminal server is a hardware device or server that provides terminals (PCs, printers, and other devices) with a common connection point to a local or wide area network. The terminals connect to the terminal server from their RS-232 or RS-423 serial ports. The other side of the terminal server connects through network interface cards (NICs) to a local area network (LAN), usually an Ethernet or Token Ring LAN, through modems to the dial-in/out wide area network, or to an X.25 network or a 3270 gateway. (Different makes of terminal server offer different kinds of interconnection. Some can be ordered in different configurations based on customer need.) The use of a terminal server means that each terminal doesn't need its own network interface card or modem. The connection resources inside the terminal server are usually shared dynamically by all attached terminals.

TFTP - TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) is a network application that is simpler than the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) but less capable. It is used where user authentication and directory visibility are not required. TFTP uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) rather than the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TFTP is described formally in RFC 1350.

Thin Client - "Thin client" is a synonym for the Net PC or the network computer (NC), personal computers for businesses that are designed to be centrally-managed, configured with only essential equipment, and devoid of CD-ROM players, diskette drives, and expansion slots (and therefore lower in cost). The term derives from the fact that small computers in networks tend to be clients of local area network and other servers. Since the idea is to limit the capabilities of these computers to only essential applications, they will tend to be purchased and remain "thin" in terms of the client applications they include.

Thin Server - In the computer industry, a thin server is a PC that contains just enough hardware and software to support a particular function that users can share in a network, such as access to files on a storage device, access to CD-ROM drives, printing, or Internet access. According to the first companies who have used the term, a thin server can be quickly added to a network and costs less than providing the same service through a more general-purpose computer server. Usually, a thin server contains an abbreviated version of one or more operating systems, such as Windows 95, Macintosh, or UNIX, and necessary network protocols, such as TCP/IP and NetBEUI. Typically, it also includes HTTP so that it can be configured, administered, and used through a Web browser user interface. The hardware processor sometimes uses RISC processing.

Thread - In computer programming, a thread is placeholder information associated with a single use of a program that can handle multiple concurrent users. From the program's point-of-view, a thread is the information needed to


Network Documentation Projectserve one individual user or a particular service request. If multiple users are using the program or concurrent requests from other programs occur, a thread is created and maintained for each of them. The thread allows a program to know which user is being served as the program alternately gets re-entered on behalf of different users. (One way thread information is kept is by storing it in a special data area and putting the address of that data area in a register. The operating system always saves the contents of the register when the program is interrupted and restores it when it gives the program control again.)

Throughput - In computer technology, throughput is the amount of work that a computer can do in a given time period. Historically, throughput has been a measure of the comparative effectiveness of large commercial computers that run many programs concurrently. An early throughput measure was the number of batch jobs completed in a day. More recent measures assume a more complicated mixture of work or focus on some particular aspect of computer operation. While "cost per MIPS (millions of instructions per second)" provides a basis for comparing the cost of raw computing over time or by manufacturer, throughput theoretically tells you how much useful work the MIPS are producing.

Thunking - Thunking is the transformation between 16-bit and 32-bit instruction formats in an operating system. For example, Windows 95 can run application programs written in both 16-bit and 32-bit instruction sets.

TDM - TDM (time-division multiplexing) is a scheme in which numerous signals are combined for transmission on a single communications line or channel. Each signal is broken up into many segments, each having very short duration.

Token Ring - A token ring network is a type of local area network. In a token ring network, all workstations are connected in a ring or star topology and a token-passing scheme is used to prevent the collision between two workstations who want to send messages at the same time.

Top-level Domain - A top-level domain (TLD) is the portion of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Internet address that identifies the general type of Internet domain, such as "com" for "commercial," "edu" for "educational," and so forth.

Topology - A topology (from Greek topos: place) is a description of any kind of locality in terms of its physical layout. In the context of communication networks, a topology describes pictorially the configuration or arrangement of a (usually conceptual) network, including its nodes and connecting lines. For example, in these pages, whatis describes the topology of bus, ring, and other networks. (Currently, our descriptions are verbal, but pictures are being prepared.)

Transaction - In computer programming, a transaction usually means a sequence of information exchange and related work (such as database updating) that is treated as a unit for the purposes of satisfying a request and for ensuring database integrity. For a transaction to be completed and database changes to made permanent, a transaction has to be completed in its entirety. A typical transaction is a catalog merchandise order phoned in by a customer and entered into a computer by a customer representative. The order transaction involves checking an inventory database, confirming that the item is available, placing the order, and confirming that the order has been placed and the expected time of shipment. If we view this as a single transaction, then all of the steps must be completed before the transaction is successful and the database is actually changed to reflect the new order. If something happens before the transaction is successfully completed, any changes to the database must be kept track of so that they can be undone.

Transaction Server - The Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), called "Viper" while it was being developed, is a program that runs on an Internet or other network server and manages application and database transaction requests on behalf of a client computer user. The Transaction Server screens the user and client computer from having to formulate requests for unfamiliar databases and, if necessary, forwards the requests to database servers. It also manages security, connection to other servers, and transaction integrity.

Transceiver - A transceiver is a combination transmitter/receiver in a single package. The term applies to wireless communications devices such as cellular and cordless telephone sets, handheld two-way radios, and mobile two-way radios. Occasionally the term is used in reference to transmitter/receiver devices in cable or optical fiber systems.



Trasducer - A transducer is an electronic device that converts energy from one form to another. Common examples include microphones, loudspeakers, thermometers, position and pressure sensors, and antennas. Although not generally thought of as transducers, photocells, LEDs (light-emitting diodes), and even common light bulbs are transducers.

Transfer Rate - A data transfer rate (or often just data rate) is the amount of digital data that is moved from one place to another in a given time, usually in a second's time. The data transfer rate can be viewed as the speed of travel of a given amount of data from one place to another. In general, the greater the bandwidth of a given path, the higher the data transfer rate.

Trunk - In telephone systems, a trunk is a line that carries multiple voice or data channels between two telephone exchange switching systems. In digital communications, a trunk is often a T-1 line.

Tunneling - Relative to the Internet, tunneling is using the Internet as part of a private secure network. The "tunnel" is the particular path that a given company message or file might travel through the Internet.

Twisted Pair - Twisted pair is the ordinary copper wire that connects home and many business computers to the telephone company. To reduce crosstalk or electromagnetic induction between pairs of wires, two insulated copper wires are twisted around each other. Each connection on twisted pair requires both wires. Since some telephone sets or desktop locations require multiple connections, twisted pair is sometimes installed in two or more pairs, all within a single cable. For some business locations, twisted pair is enclosed in a shield that functions as a ground. This is known as shielded twisted pair (STP). Ordinary wire to the home is unshielded twisted pair (UTP).

User Datagram Protocol - UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a communications method (protocol) that offers a limited amount of service when messages are exchanged between computers in a network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). UDP is an alternative to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and, together with IP, is sometimes referred to as UDP/IP. Like the Transmission Control Protocol, UDP uses the Internet Protocol to actually get a data unit (called a datagram) from one computer to another. Unlike TCP, however, UDP does not provide the service of dividing a message into packets (datagrams) and reassembling it at the other end. Specifically, UDP doesn't provide sequencing of the packets that the data arrives in. This means that the application program that uses UDP must be able to make sure that the entire message has arrived and is in the right order. Network applications that want to save processing time because they have very small data units to exchange (and therefore very little message reassembling to do) may prefer UDP to TCP. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) uses UDP instead of TCP.

Universal Naming Convention (UNC) - In a network, the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) is a way to identify a shared file in a computer without having to specify (or know) the storage device it is on. In Windows operating systems, Novell Netware, and possibly other operating systems, the UNC can be used instead of the local naming system (such as the DOS naming system in Windows).

Unicast - Unicast is communication between a single sender and a single receiver over a network. The term exists in contradistinction to multicast, communication between a single sender and multiple receivers, and anycast, communication between any sender and the nearest of a group of receivers in a network. An earlier term, point-to-point communication, is similar in meaning to unicast. The new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) supports unicast as well as anycast and multicast.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - A URL is the address of a Web page. Using the protocol of the Web, the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP), a URL (uniform resource locator) is the unique address of a single HTML page or file on the Web. The address includes a domain name (which is actually a unique Internet server address) and a hierarchical description of a file location on the server.

UNIX - UNIX is an operating system that originated at Bell Labs in 1969 as an interactive time-sharing system. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie are considered the inventors of UNIX. The name (pronounced YEW-nihks) was a pun based on an earlier system, Multics. In 1974, UNIX became the first operating system written in the C language. UNIX has evolved as a kind of large freeware product, with many extensions and new ideas provided in a variety of versions of UNIX by different companies, universities, and individuals. Partly because it was not a proprietary


Network Documentation Projectoperating system owned by any one of the leading computer companies and partly because it is written in a standard language and embraced many popular ideas, UNIX became the first open or standard operating system. A composite of the C language and shell (user command) interfaces from different versions of UNIX were standardized under the auspices of the IEEE as the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX). In turn, the POSIX interfaces were specified in the X/Open Programming Guide 4.2 (also known as the "Single UNIX Specification" and "UNIX 95"). The "official" trademarked UNIX is now owned by the The Open Group, an industry standards organization, which certifies and brands UNIX implementations.

Utility - In computers, a utility is a small program that provides an addition to the capabilities provided by the operating system. In some usages, a utility is a special and nonessential part of the operating system. The print "utility" that comes with the operating system is an example. It's not absolutely required to run programs and, if it didn't come with the operating system, you could perhaps add it. In other usages, a utility is an application program that is very specialized and relatively limited in capability. A good example is a search-and-replace utility. Some operating systems provide a limited capability to do a search-and-replace for given character strings. You can add a much more capable search-and-replace utility that runs as an application program. However, compared to a word processor, a search-and-replace utility has limited capability.

UTP - Unshielded twisted pair is the most common kind of copper telephone wiring. Twisted pair is the ordinary copper wire that connects home and many business computers to the telephone company. To reduce crosstalk or electromagnetic induction between pairs of wires, two insulated copper wires are twisted around each other. Each signal on twisted pair requires both wires. Since some telephone sets or desktop locations require multiple connections, twisted pair is sometimes installed in two or more pairs, all within a single cable. For some business locations, twisted pair is enclosed in a shield that functions as a ground. This is known as shielded twisted pair (STP).

VAX - VAX is an established line of mid-range server computers from the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It followed DEC's PDP-11 in 1978 and also introduced a new operating system, VMS. VAX included a 32-bit processor and virtual memory. Historically, VAX has competed with a number of Hewlett-Packard and IBM computers in the small enterprise and university-scientific marketplace. In earlier times, this size and price range of computer was known as the minicomputer. Today, VAX and its competitors sell "servers" for business networks that use the client-server computing model.

Videoconference - A videoconference is a group or a person-to-person discussion in which participants are at different locations but can see and hear each other as though they were together in one place. Most off-the-Internet videoconferences today involve the use of a room at each geographic location with special videocamera and document presentation facilities. In some newer approaches, the appearance that all participants are in the same room around a table is simulated. In general, traditional videoconferencing requires special telephone interconnections with wide bandwidth.

Virtual Machine (VM) - VM (Virtual Machine), currently embodied in a product called VM/ESA, is a widely-installed operating system for mainframes from IBM that can host other operating systems, including MVS and CMS (Conversational Monitor System), so that each of the operating systems seems to have its own complete system of software and hardware resources (data storage, telecommunications, processor, and so forth). That is, VM gives each of these operating systems its own "virtual machine." VM together with CMS is popular in many large corporations as a system that can let a large number of interactive users communicate or develop and run applications at the same time. VM also provides a good test environment for MVS programs that can be run on an MVS virtual machine.

Virtual Private Networking (VPN) - A virtual private network (VPN) is a private data network that makes use of the public telecommunication infrastructure, maintaining privacy through the use of a tunneling protocol and security procedures. A virtual private network can be contrasted with a system of owned or leased lines that can only be used by one company. The idea of the VPN is to give the company the same capabilities at much lower cost by using the shared public infrastructure rather than a private one. Phone companies have provided secure shared resources for voice messages. A virtual private network makes it possible to have the same secure sharing of public resources for data. Companies today are looking at using a private virtual network for both extranets and wide-area intranets.



Virus - A virus is a piece of programming code inserted into other programming to cause some unexpected and, for the victim, usually undesirable event. Viruses can be transmitted by downloading programming from other sites or be present on a diskette. The source of the file you're downloading or of a diskette you've received is often unaware of the virus. The virus lies dormant until circumstances cause its code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses are playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday, Ludwig!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting.

VLAN - A virtual (or logical) LAN is a local area network with a definition that maps workstations on some other basis than geographic location (for example, by department, type of user, or primary application). The virtual LAN controller can change or add workstations and manage loadbalancing and bandwidth allocation more easily than with a physical picture of the LAN. Network management software keeps track of relating the virtual picture of the local area network with the actual physical picture.

VMS - VMS (Virtual Memory System), is an operating system from the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) that runs in its VAX computers. VMS originated in 1979 as a new operating system for DEC's new VAX computer, the successor to DEC's PDP-11. VMS is a 32-bit system that exploits the concept of virtual memory.

Voice Over IP - VoIP (voice over IP - that is, voice delivered using the Internet Protocol) is a term used in IP telephony for a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP). In general, this means sending voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.

WAN - A WAN (wide area network) is a geographically dispersed telecommunications network and the term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network (LAN). A wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN).

Warez - Warez (pronounced as though spelled "wares" or possibly by some pronounced like the city of "Juarez") is a term used by software "pirates" to describe software that has been stripped of its copy-protection and made available on the Internet for downloading. People who create warez sites sometimes call them "warez sitez" and use "z" in other pluralizations. In our brief investigation of warez sites, we found a number of sites to be permanently "under construction." Several included freeware and sharewar important part of the user interface. Although building Microsoft's own Web browser into the user desktop has been an issue in the U.S. Justice Department's suit, Windows 98 was released as planned with its tightly integrated browser.

Windows 2000 - Windows 2000 is the new version of the Windows operating system that Microsoft plans to release in 1999. Previously called Windows NT 5.0, Windows 2000 will be advertised as "Built on NT Technology." As a name, Windows 2000 is designed to appeal to small business and professional users as well as to the more technical and larger business market for which the NT was designed. For many Windows 95 and Windows 98 users, Windows 2000 may be regarded as the next step.

WINS - WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service), part of the Microsoft Windows NT Server, manages the association of workstation names and locations with Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) without the user or an administrator having to be involved in each configuration change. WINS automatically creates a computer name-IP address mapping entry in a table, ensuring that the name is unique and not a duplicate of someone else's computer name. When a computer is moved to another geographic location, the subnet part of the IP address is likely to change. Using WINS, the new subnet information will be updated automatically in the WINS table. WINS complements the NT Server's Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which negotiates an IP address for any computer (such as your workstation) when it is first defined to the network. If you're a computer user on a network connected to a Windows NT Server, you may find WINS mentioned in some of your network-related programs or system messages.

Winsock - Winsock is a programming interface and the supporting program that handles input/output requests for Internet applications in a Windows operating system. It's called Winsock because it's an adaptation for Windows of


Network Documentation Projectthe Berkeley UNIX sockets interface. Sockets is a particular convention for connecting with and exchanging data between two program processes within the same computer or across a network.

Winsock 2 - Like Winsock, Winsock 2 is a programming interface and the supporting program that handles input/output requests for Internet applications in a Windows operating system. It's called Winsock because it's an adaptation for Windows of the Berkeley UNIX sockets interface. Sockets is a particular convention for connecting with and exchanging data between two progrram processes. Winsock 2 is a 32-bit version of Winsock.

Wintel - Wintel is a computer trade industry term for personal computers based on the Intel microprocessor and one of the Windows operating systems from Microsoft. The term "PC" has often been used for this purpose. That is, the IBM "PC" (with the Intel chip and Windows operating system) became the prevalent personal computer in the business world and has usually been distinguished from personal computers from Apple (with a Motorola microchip and a proprietary operating system) and sometimes from UNIX workstations.

Workstation - A workstation is a computer intended for individual use but faster and more capable than a personal computer. It's intended for business or professional use (rather than home or recreational use). Workstations and applications designed for them are used by small engineering companies, architects, graphic designers, and any organization, department, or individual that requires a faster microprocessor, a large amount of random access memory (RAM), and special features such as high-speed graphics adapters. Historically, the workstation developed technologically about the same time and for the same audience as the UNIX operating system, which is often used as the workstation operating system. Among the most successful makers of this kind of workstation are Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, DEC, and IBM.

World Wide Web (WWW) - A technical definition of the World Wide Web is: all the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Xeon - Xeon (pronounced ZEE-ahn) is a 400 Mhz Pentium microprocessor from Intel for use in "mid-range" enterprise servers and workstations. On a server motherboard from Intel, up to eight (and later even more) Xeon processors will be able to do multiprocessing sharing the same 100 Mhz bus. Xeon is replacing the Pentium Pro as Intel's main enterprise microchip. Xeon is designed for Internet and large transactional database servers as well as for engineering, graphics, and multimedia applications that require moving a lot of data around quickly. Xeon is the high end of the Pentium line (Celeron is the low end).

XML - As the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) describes it, XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is "a reformulation of HTML 4 as an application of the Extensible Markup Language (XML)." For readers unacquainted with either term, HTML is the set of codes (that's the "markup language") that a writer puts into a document to make it displayable on the World Wide Web. HTML 4 is the current version of it. XML is a structured set of rules for how one might define any kind of data to be shared on the Web. It's called an "extensible" markup language because anyone can invent a particular set of markup for a particular purpose and as long as everyone uses it (the writer and an application program at the receiver's end), it can be adapted and used for many purposes - including, as it happens, describing the appearance of a Web page. That being the case, it seemed desirable to reframe HTML in terms of XML. The result is XHTML, a particular application of XML for "expressing" Web pages.

x86 - x86 is a generic name for the series of Intel microprocessor families that began with the 80286 microprocessor. This series has been the provider of computing for personal computers since the 80286 was introduced in 1982. x86 microprocessors include the 386DX/SX/SL family, the 486DX/SX//DX2/SL/DX4 family, and the Pentium family including the latest MMX microprocessor. The x86 line replaced Intel's previous series, the 8086/8088. Adopted by IBM for its first PCs, the 8086/8088 and the continuing x86 series have made Intel the predominant force in microprocessor design and manufacture.

X.400 - X.400 is the messaging (notably e-mail) standard specified by the ITU-TS (International Telecommunications Union - Telecommunication Standard Sector). It's an alternative to the more prevalent e-mail protocol, SMTP. X.400 is common in Europe and Canada. It's actually a set of standards, each in the 400-number range.


Network Documentation ProjectX.500 - X.500 Directory Service is a standard way to develop an electronic directory of people in an organization so that it can be part of a global directory available to anyone in the world with Internet access. Such a directory is sometimes called a global White Pages directory. The idea is to be able to look up people in a user-friendly way by name, department, or organization. Many enterprises and institutions have created an X.500 directory. Because these directories are organized as part of a single global directory, you can search for hundreds of thousands of people from a single place on the World Wide Web.

Year 2000 (Y2K) - The year 2000 (also known as "Y2K") raises problems for anyone who depends on a program in which the year is represented by a two-digit number, such as "97" for 1997. Many programs written 10 or 15 years ago when storage limitations encouraged such information economies are still running in many companies. The problem is that when the two-digit space allocated for "99" rolls over to 2000, the next number will be "00." Frequently, program logic assumes that the year number gets larger, not smaller - so "00" may wreak havoc in a program that hasn't been modified to account for the millenium.

10-Base-T - The most widely installed Ethernet local area networks (LANs) use ordinary telephone twisted-pair wire. When used on Ethernet, this carrier medium is known as 10BASE-T. 10BASE-T supports Ethernet's 10 Mbps transmission speed.

100-Base-T - This designation is an IEEE shorthand identifier. The "100" in the media type designation refers to the transmission speed of 100 Mbps. The "BASE" refers to baseband signalling, which means that only Ethernet signals are carried on the medium. The "T4," "TX," and "FX" refer to the physical medium that carries the signal. (Through repeaters, media segments of different physical types can be used in the same system.)

802.3 - Ethernet is the most widely-installed local area network technology. Now specified in a standard, IEEE 802.3, Ethernet was originally developed by Xerox and then developed further by Xerox, DEC, and Intel. An Ethernet LAN typically uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires. The most commonly installed Ethernet systems are called 10BASE-T and provide transmission speeds up to 10 Mbps. Devices are connected to the cable and compete for access using a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.



Appendix B – District 87 Technology Plan

TECHNOLOGY PLAN

Bloomington Public SchoolsSchool District 87

1997-2002

December 17, 1997

APPROVED

Revised 2/4/98

BLOOMINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLSSCHOOL DISTRICT 87

300 E. MONROE STREETBLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS 61701

Telephone 309/827-6031Fax 309/827-5717

Contact: Rick Laleman, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources



Acknowledgments and Stakeholder Involvement

In the 1996/97 school year, the Citizen’s Advisory Council (CAC) was formed by solicitation through newsletters and personal contacts by Board members, administrators, and staff. The District 87 CAC had two task force groups that were charged with looking at technology in the District. The CAC Administrative Technology Task Force and the Instructional CAC Technology Task Force consisted of community members, School Board members, administrators, students and teachers. These groups reviewed existing technology and made recommendations to the School Board on future implementation of technology into District 87. (Appendices 1, 2, 3, 4)

District 87 is one of four original members in the Bloomington/Normal Educational Alliance (Illinois State University, Heartland Community College, and Unit 5 School District are the other members). The alliance was formed in 1996 through the efforts of Illinois State University and Heartland Community College. The original group consisted of the Chief Executives from each organization. This group has assigned a subcommittee to look at technology in the community. The group meets on an on-going basis. The current goal of the Alliance Technology Task Force is to establish a community technology center. (Appendix 5)

In the summer of 1997, a committee was formed to draft a technology plan. The committee was comprised of teachers, media specialists, principals, central office administration, and Board members. In addition to the technology plan draft, the group made four key recommendations to the Board. First, the District must hire an Instructional Technology Coordinator. Second, the District needed to re-establish the District Technology Task Force. Third, a recommendation that a systems specialist be hired in the summer of 1998 to oversee the installation of infrastructure throughout the District. Fourth, the role of media specialists be reevaluated to determine current duties and assess future needs as they relate to technology. (Appendix 6)

During the 1997/98 school year, the District Technology Task force was re-established. The charge of this group was to develop a vision of the classroom for District 87: 1) Develop a technology plan; 2) Work with the Instructional Technology Coordinator to plan and implement appropriate staff development, support building efforts in technology, and provide support for grant writing. The group consists of business leaders, parents, administrators, and teachers. (Appendix 7) . State Farm Insurance has provided two members for the District Technology Task Force. Their expertise and insight were critical in development of this plan. State Farm has also proposed a cooperative working relation with area schools in order to assist with the development of technology skills in students. (Appendix 8)

Current efforts have included meeting with representatives from the Bloomington Public Library and the Normal Public Library and the GED/Adult Literacy program of DeWitt, Livingston and McLean counties. On-going meetings with Illinois State University, McLean County Unit #5 and Illinois Wesleyan University continue and provide input on the technology plan.

The District Technology Task Force will monitor the implementation of this plan and provide revisions as needed. Specific activities will involve input in selection of an instructional technology coordinator, establishing technical skills for students, reviewing needs for updating equipment standards, and evaluating the effectiveness of in-service training programs. Alliance members will plan the connection of the members through a local web site.

State Farm and other business stakeholders will help establish levels of technical proficiency, training, and internship opportunities for students in technical fields. The District will host meetings with other stakeholders (government, business, senior citizens) to share the plan and its vision. We will seek their input into the value of the plan and future modifications that they see as necessary.

District/Community Profile

Bloomington Public School District 87 is located in the City of Bloomington, Illinois and covers approximately 47% of the City of Bloomington. Bloomington has a population of approximately 58,000


Network Documentation Projectpeople and is associated with the Town of Normal, Illinois that has a population of over 42,000. The two cities form what is commonly referred to as the Twin Cities in McLean County.

Bloomington-Normal/McLean County has a very diverse, stable, and recession-resistant economy. Its strength is in insurance, education, agribusiness, and industry.

Bloomington-Normal/McLean County is located at the crossroads of Midwest commerce. Converging at the community are Interstates 55, 74, and 39. Major cities of Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis are within 300 miles. McLean County is the largest corn and soybean producing county in the world. Agriculture plays a major role in McLean County.

For advanced educational opportunities, McLean County houses Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College, Lincoln College, and Mennonite College of Nursing. (Appendix 9, 1997 Demographic Profile)

The community has a strong technology base in the business and educational community. State Farm is a leader in computerized data processing with all aspects of the business connected through networks. GTE is a service provider of telecommunications in the area with headquarters in Bloomington. GTE established a fiber optic ring that encircles the twin cities. Mitsubishi Motors is a leader in the implementation of advanced technology manufacturing techniques.

Bloomington Public School District 87 has a proud tradition of educational excellence for the one hundred forty years since our founding. The success of its students, the quality of the staff, and the superior programs offered are a source of pride for the community.

The Sarah E. Raymond Early Childhood Education Center, six elementary schools, middle school, and high school educate nearly 5,700 students each year. The average teaching experience is 15.5 years. Over 45% of the teachers have advanced degrees.

Bloomington Public School District 87 has personnel experienced using the Internet. A four member team was awarded Pioneering Partners for Education Technology in 1992. This team currently uses Internet with a limited number of students at the high school level. The high school library personnel have access to Internet via Illinet. Commercial Internet access is available in each schools media center within the District. Each building has a full-time media specialist knowledgeable about telecommunication. As the LEA for the Area Vocational Center (AVC), teachers from the high school and AVC interact with Internet through the current accessibility acquired by AVC. Several member of the faculty have been workshop presenters on the Internet throughout the state and nationally. The District has a 92.8 % attendance rate. District 87 students score at or above the State average for every level of the Illinois Goal Achievement Program. Advanced placement testing and courses are provided in a variety of subjects at the high school level. Teachers participate on task forces to develop and review each learning area to assure continuous high quality programming.

Building Leadership Teams (BLT) consist of parents teacher and community members in each school. Each group collaborates to provide support and formulate recommendations for the school.

With around 1,200 computers in the District, there is one computer for every 5 students. Computer labs are located at every school. (Appendix 10) There is an e-mail service in the district through the District VAX system. This connects each school and district office. This network allows information to flow to all administrators, most clerical staff, and some teachers and counselors. There are local area networks (LAN) between most classrooms in the Area Vocational Center (AVC). There is another LAN at BHS


Network Documentation Projectconnecting all math and science classrooms. Irving Elementary school has a LAN connecting all classrooms in grades 2-5 to a server.

Low income students make up 32.5% of the population. The mobility rate is 18.6% and the enrollment as reported in the 1997 school report card is 5,678. Student demographics include: white =75.5% ;African American = 20.3%;Hispanic = 3.3% (Appendix 11)(Appendix 5)

Executive Summary

Students must become actively engaged in learning activities. Students preparing for the world of tomorrow must be active manipulators of information. The teachers role as the sole source and presenter of knowledge is outdated by the rapid explosion of information and the quick access that exists today. We cannot assume the work will remain the same. The flow of information worldwide makes it possible for any individual to present him or herself to the worldwide community and access its resources directly. Those able to navigate these new seas of information will benefit from an enhanced understanding of the world and an ability to tap into resources. Those unable to navigate may drown in waves of information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or comprised of outright lies. They will be the victims of their ignorance much in the way those who can not read are easily swindled by those who can manipulate them. Students who cannot access and use information will be subject to the electronic snake oil salesman of the present and future.

Students need to make judgements about information and they need experience to do this. Students with access to home technology are tapping into the flow of world wide information. The schools have a role in helping students achieve an equitable access to this information. Bloomington Public School District 87 is committed to providing access for our students and staff to the flow of information available on the worldwide web. We wish to restructure our thinking about information and to allow students to reach information whenever they desire. We wish to restructure our teachers roles to help students access information and to make judgements regarding its quality and viability. We want to help our students manipulate the information and create knowledge. We believe a commitment to technology in the classroom is part of the answer to this need.

We have engaged our community through the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) with over 100 community members. Included in this group were parents, business members, teachers, administrators, staff from adjoining districts, and universities. High school students also took and active role. We had direct involvement by 30 citizens in the development of our strategic plan for instructional and administrative technology. Our strategic plan emphasizes the need for applications of knowledge and development of a comprehensive technology base.

Our vision is:

To create an environment that encourages learners to become actively involved, fosters a lifelong love of learning, and uses technology as a tool for gathering and communicating information.

Our goals are:

To have every student (K-12) become an engaged learner, a seeker of knowledge, skillful in the use of technology as a tool to gather information from a wide variety of sources, construct meaning from the


Network Documentation Projectinformation, use the data to solve problems, generate solutions and communicate the results.

To have every teacher use technology as an instructional tool to guide and assist students in the engaged learning model.

To provide staff development opportunities to promote engaged learning and use of technology.

To provide the equipment/tools to students, teachers and our extended community of learners to make engaged learning a reality in our District.

How will we do this?

We will create a network of classrooms, administrative offices, and media centers throughout our District. We will accomplish this by establishing building level local area networks (LAN) uniting every classroom. We will establish a district wide area network (WAN) . We will build these networks over the three phases of the project. We will provide one networked computer per classroom and office and one lab for each elementary school and five labs at the junior high school and seven labs at the high school and AVC. We will link our network of classrooms to the worldwide web through connection to the Lincnet for the State of Illinois. We will network with our community by providing dial up access to our District WAN.

What will be the results?

We will see networked projects with challenging tasks, with integrated multi-media capabilities.

We envision local file sharing by allowing students and staff access to on-line library resources, intranet access through e-mail, and State network access through the Internet.

We will experience an enhanced teaching/learning process with a wide variety of technologies for students and teachers. Teachers will become facilitators and guides in the learning process and adapt and integrate technology into the regular classroom objectives of appropriate subjects so that students are utilizing technological tools as part of their daily learning.

There will be a shift from assimilation of facts to learning. We will personalize learning to accommodate different styles and intelligences. Our students will be better able to use creative problem solving and critical thinking.

We will promote ongoing professional development that will model correct use of technology, train staff within and beyond the school day, assist staff in the most efficient use of technology in the development of programs for students, and provide incentives for staff to become proficient in the use of technology.

What will it cost?

Existing New Total

Phase 1 $603,600 $815,668 $1,419,268

Phase 2 $603,600 $1,296,156 $1,899,756


Network Documentation ProjectPhase 3 $603,600 $1,229,036 $1,833,436

Total $1,810,800 $3,340,660 $5,152,460


Vision

As students move through our educational system, they need to develop skills for using technology as well as gaining basic knowledge. As they enter kindergarten in the year 2000, some students will come from homes with multi-media computers with high speed connectivity and others will come with no experience with computers and related technology. It is our responsibility to give all students equal access and opportunities to acquire those skills necessary to become productive citizens and adapt to a constantly evolving technological environment.

As students are introduced to curriculum units of study, they will be asked to gather information from a variety of sources (pictures, print sources, video, laser disk, Internet, etc.), use critical thinking skills to organize the information, work in groups on projects, teach others, and then present the findings to an appropriate audience.

These learning activities will begin in kindergarten with significant teacher direction and modeling and become increasingly student-directed and multi-disciplinary as they progress through the grades. As students travel along the learning continuum, they will acquire those skills essential to use technology in their everyday life and workplace. As they leave high school, they should be effective users of information and technology.

A typical kindergarten unit (example: Day & Night from Scholastic Science Place) is introduced by the teacher. As the teacher reads a big book, students discuss background knowledge and collect information about the topic from the pictures and discussion. The students are then involved in a variety of hands-on investigations in small groups as they continue to gather information and construct meaning. During center time, students use the CD-ROM My Science Books on classroom computers to listen to a story related to the topic, record a story of their own, respond to a writing prompt or illustrate a story about what they are learning. The stories or books can then be saved to a portfolio to show progress not only in writing skills but in their understanding of the subject. On another day, students observe while the teacher connects to Scholastic Network from a classroom computer projected to a large screen monitor to visit an on-line museum site related to their topic. If further information is needed, they access the Scientists On-Line section of Scholastic Network and post a message or question to the scientist. After students have a basic understanding of day and night, the teacher may extend the learning by having students investigate nocturnal animals.

By 4th grade, students are introduced to new curriculum units with a problem to be solved. An example would be A Plant That Would Not Grow from Scholastic Science Place. Students are divided into groups to gather information from either a CD-ROM or laser disc. In order to solve the problem, students must watch interviews, read articles, interpret graphs, and watch experiments done with a variety of tools. When they have gathered their information and decided on the solution, each group presents both the evidence and their conclusion to the class. A lab of 5 computers in each classroom with Internet connectivity would allow students to further investigate and gather information from online sources. An Internet field trip is planned by the teacher for the whole class or for individual groups of students. Students present their findings in the form of a slide show with The New Kid Pix or with a HyperStudio presentation. As each group of students reports their findings, their presentations are projected on the monitor in the classroom. The classroom would consist of several large work tables to accommodate group or class meetings but would also have various stations that could be used for gathering data (ex.. multimedia encyclopedias), Internet connection, writing/producing area, video/laser disc viewing area, etc., depending on the needs of the projects. Students may be involved in several ongoing, open-ended projects at the same time depending on grade level, curriculum and student interests. Collaborative work skills would be put to use to promote the strengths of students within the group.

By the time students enter high school, they should be equipped with a set of skills and tools to help them locate information from a variety of sources, evaluate the validity of the source, choose the best sources of information for the task, work collaboratively, analyze and synthesize data to construct meaning, solve problems and communicate their ideas. Writing skills, appropriate for the situation, will be imperative as students communicate with friends, co-workers, and experts from around the world. Students will be required to pull from all the disciplines as they work to gather and analyze data, communicate with and question experts in the field, investigate, experiment and synthesize data, construct meaning from the results and communicate their findings to a wide audience. Students will have access to computers in classrooms, labs and media centers with complete connectivity to our information rich world. Classrooms will be equipped with computers, projection devices and related technology to enable students to produce projects and engage in activities that will help prepare them to be responsible and productive citizens in our ever changing world.

Closing the Gap Action Plans

Connecting to the Illinois Learning Standards & School Improvement Initiatives

The District's Essential Learner Outcomes (ELOs) were developed in alignment with the Illinois State Goals for Learning. These goals provided direction but did not specify the role of technology in learning. The District developed technology ELOs as part of the District's mathematics curriculum. These objectives plus new roles for technology need to be linked to all curricular areas through the process of curricular revision.

The District uses a five-year cycle for review of District curriculum. The work of revision is completed by task forces in each curricular area. The task forces are formed each year from teaching staff, administrators, board members, community members, and parents. (Appendix 7)

The address the tasks to be accomplished in connecting our Essential Learner Outcomes to the role of technology. This will take place over three phases and will be an ongoing part of the revision cycle.

Each building’s School Improvement Plan is developed annually. These plans utilize the ELOs and student performance data to develop instructional strategies for improvement. Technology has played a significant role in the development and implementation of these plans. Specific building plans for use of software supporting integration of subjects and improvement of skills are included.

In addition, Title 1 schools receiving school wide grants rely heavily on technology to assist with learning. Student access to the planned network will allow teachers to incorporate more problem solving activities into the curriculum.

Gifted activities, such as construction of hyper card programs, have been in place for many years. The area of the network will enhance the ability of these students to gather increased information for creation of such projects.

The tracking of student Individualized Education Plans (IEP) requires a large volume of paper. The district intervention process ,which addresses student needs, involves additional paper storage and retrieval. These processes will be linked in an electronic data base designed to track student information and make it more readily available to staff. Staff access to the District WAN will make this possible.

The libraries of the District are not currently managed electronically. Students and staff need to be able to more easily locate library information. A link to the local public libraries is also needed and technology can provide this link.

CLOSING the GAP ACTION PLAN


School District: Bloomington Public Schools District 87 Gap: Currently, District and State learning standards are linked without regard for the role of technology in meeting these standards.

Goal(s): The technology plan links District and State learning standards.

Strategies for Closing the Gap (Objectives)

Activities Phase 1

Individuals Involved & Who is Responsible

ExpectedResults/Indicators of Success

(Assessment Strategies)

Stakeholders

1. District essential learner outcomes for language arts and fine arts will be revised to reflect the State academic standards adopted 7/97 by ISBE. These outcomes will include the application of technology in these curricular areas.

2. Plans will be made at each grade level or in each department for multi-disciplinary learning appropriate for the learners, especially including language arts and fine arts.

Academic task forces, grade level groups, building faculties will meet to revise and accept these outcomes.

District grade levels (Pre K -5) will meet to share and plan for multi-disciplinary learning activities. Schedules will be developed to accommodate multi-disciplinary learning activities.

Task force members, grade level teachers, departmental groups, administrators.

Teachers in grade level and departmental groups, media specialists, building administrators

Revised outcomes, including technology, in language arts and fine arts are approved by the BOE.

Each teacher will maintain a list of multi-disciplinary activities.

Students, staff, parents, community administrators.

Students, teachers, administrators, parents.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap Currently,

District and State learning standards are linked without regard for the role of technology in meeting these standards.



Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders


1. District essential learner outcomes for PE/Health and mathematics will be revised to reflect the State academic standards, adopted 7/97 by ISBE. These outcomes will include the application of technology in these curricular areas.

2. Plans will be made at each grade level or in each department for multi-disciplinary learning appropriate for the learners, especially including language arts, fine arts, PE/health and mathematics.

Academic task forces, grade level teacher groups, building faculties will meet to revise and accept these outcomes

District grade levels (Pre-K - 5) will meet to share and plan for multi-disciplinary, learning activities.Schedules will be developed to accommodate multi-disciplinary learning activities.


Teachers in grade level and departmental groups, media specialists, building administrators.

Revised outcomes, including technology, in PE/Health and mathematics are approved by the BOE.


Students, staff, parents, community administrators.

Students, teachers, administrators, parents, community.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Currently,

District and State learning standards are linked without regard for the role of technology in meeting these standards.



Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders


1. District essential learner outcomes for social studies and science will be revised to reflect the Illinois State Academic Standards adopted 7/97 by ISBE. These outcomes will include the application of technology in these curricular areas.

2. Plans will be made at each grade level or in each department for multi-disciplinary learning appropriate for the learners across all curricular areas.

3. Assessment in the District will include an electronic portfolio for each student.

Academic task forces, grade level groups, building faculties will meet to revise and accept these outcomes.

District grade levels (Pre K - 5) will meet to share and plan for multi-disciplinary learning activities.Schedules will be developed to accommodate multi-disciplinary learning activities.

Students and teachers will select representative multi-disciplinary projects and include them in each students portfolio.


Teachers in grade level and departmental groups, media specialists, building administrators.

Students, teachers.

Revised outcomes, including technology in social studies and science are approved by the BOE.


Presence of an electronic portfolio for each student in the District.

Students, staff, parents, community, administrators.

Students, teachers, administrators, parents, community.

Students, parents, teachers, administrators, community.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Not an

intentional emphasis on technology.

Goal(s): The technology plan is linked to State and Federal programs.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Federal grants (i.e. Title VI, Title I, JTPA, Regional Tech Prep) and State grants (i.e. State Library Grant, Live & Learn, Educate and Automate, Alliance Library System (electronic access to commercial reference sources), Gifted Reading Improvement, WECEP, Tech Prep) Monies spent will reflect an emphasis on the use of technology as a tool to engage learners improve learning, access information and develop IEPs.

1. Grant funds will be used to respond to student needs identified through SIPs and curriculum planning by emphasizing technology as a means of instruction.2. Develop electronic IEPs for special education students and electronic tracking of intervention.3. Investigate vendors for automation.

District Technology Coordinator, grant coordinator, District level administrators.

1.Upgrade hardware and software, increase use of technology by students, increase use of technology for instruction, increase the number of engaged learning projects integrating technology.2. Institute the use of electronic IEPs for special education teachers.3.Identify a number of vendors for automating libraries.

Students, teachers/staff, community employers.







Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Federal grants (i.e. Title VI, Title I, JTPA, Regional Tech Prep) and State grants (i.e. State Library Grant, Live & Learn, Educate and Automate, Alliance Library System

1.Grant funds will be used to respond to student needs identified through SIPs and curriculum


1. Ongoing upgraded replacement of hardware and software. Increased use of technology by students. Use of technology for instruction becomes part of the

Students, teachers/staff, community, employers.





Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. Federal grants (i.e. Title VI, Title I, JTPA, Regional Tech Prep) and State grants (i.e. State Library Grant, Live & Learn, Educate and Automate, Alliance Library System (electronic access to commercial reference sources), Gifted Reading Improvement, WECEP, Tech Prep). Spent monies will reflect an emphasis on the use of technology as a tool to engage learners improve learning, access information and develop IEPs.

1. Grant funds will be used to respond to student needs identified through SIPs and curriculum planning by emphasizing technology as a means of instruction.

2. Update electronic portfolios for special education students.

3. Complete installation of circulation and inventory automated


1. Ongoing upgraded/ replacement of hardware and software. Increased/stabilized use of technology by students. Use of technology for instruction is consistent with SIP. Use of technology in unit projects is consistent with bench marks set in SIP.

2. Use of electronic IEPs consistent with the bench mark set in the SIP.

3. Students use the electronic card catalog with general class instruction.

Students, teachers/staff, community, employers.



card catalog; teach the use of the electronic card catalog.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Technology is

not necessarily considered as a means of addressing identified student learning needs through the School Improvement Plan (SIP).

Goal(s): Technology must become a part of the school improvement process.


Activities Phase 1-3




Stakeholders

1. The role of technology will be identified in the school improvement process in the implementation phase of improvement in identified areas for improvement.

The School improvement Plan will be developed by teachers and principals using student achievement data and other relevant data in May 1998 for the 1998/99 school year.

Administrators will develop a school Improvement process to be completed each May for the following school year.

Principals and teachers will write the School Improvement Plan based on student achievement data.

Building principals, teachers, central office administrators.

Each school improvement goal will have a technology strand for implementation. A rationale will be included if technology does not support the implementation of a school improvement goal.

April - The evaluation of the SIP will include the effectiveness of technology in learning.

Students, parents, teachers, administrators, community.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: No media

centers have electronic automation of volumes and resources.

Goal(s): Establish automated media centers connected to the District wide area network.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Establish LAN at BHS. Purchase file server for BHS.

BHS Media SpecialistInstructional Technology Coordinator

Equipment installed and software operated.

Students, media specialists, teachers.



Install workstation at BHS and network to file server.

Purchase network license and software.

Purchase peripheralscanning inventory device.

Catalog new acquisitions on LAN.

5 work stations networked to file server.

BHS Media SpecialistInstructional Technology Coordinator

Instructional Technology CoordinatorMedia Specialists

New volumes are entered on the system

System is operational for studentsStudents, teachers

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: No media

centers have electronic automation of volumes and resources.



Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Retro-conversion BHS media Center.

2. Establish LAN at BJHS

3. Install work stations at BJHS and network file server

Scan and enter 50% of BHS volumes.

Purchase file server for BJHS.

Purchase licenses and software devices.

Purchase peripheral scanning and inventory devices.

Catalog new acquisitions on LAN.Connect to WAN.

5 work stations networked to file server

Media Specialist BHS

Media Specialist BHSInstructional Technology Coordinator

Instructional Technology CoordinatorMedia Specialists BHS

Most utilized volumes will be accessed electronically

Equipment installed at BJHS.

New acquisitions entered into system.

System in operation

Students, teachers, media specialists.

Parents

Bloomington Public Schools District 87 Gap:No media centers have electronic

automation of volumes and resources.



Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. Retro-conversion BHS media center.

2. Retro-conversion BJHS media center.

3. Establish LAN at 2 elementary schools.

4. Install work stations at 2 elementary schools and network to file server.

Scan an enter remaining 50% BHS volumes.

Scan and enter 50% BJHS volumes.

Purchase file server 2 elementary schools.Purchase license software inventory devicesPurchase peripheral scanning and inventory devices.Catalog new acquisition on LAN.Connect to WAN

5 work stations each networked to file server

Media specialists BHS

Media Specialist BJHS

Media Specialists elementary

Instructional Technology Coordinator

All volumes will be accessed electronically.

Most utilized volumes will be accessed electronically

Equipment installed and software operational.New volumes are entered in system.

Systems are operational.

Students, teachers, media specialist

Professional Development

Crucial to the development of students as seekers of knowledge is the development of staff. Current initiatives to train all teachers in District sponsored courses in Dimensions of Learning, Best Practices, and the Disengaged Learner will be expanded to specifically use technology with these strategies.

One to two day workshops in curriculum specific training integrating technology in mathematics (Math Keys) and science (Scholastic Science Place) will be expanded as staff will have classroom access to this software through the network.

The District staff survey indicated that communication links were essential, but that staff were not able to become active participants in the use of the network because of the lack of access. (Appendix 12)

In 1995 a Train the Trainers model was implemented to train staff in the use of basic Windows and Mac use, Internet access, e-mail, CD-ROM, HyperCard, and other applications. Twenty trainers were identified and trained over the spring and summer. The trainers then provided site-based training to an additional 360 staff during the 1995/96 school year.



Bloomington Public Schools District 87 Gap:There is not a basic District

common core of technology for teachers and administrators.

Goal(s): Establish a basic District core of technology common to all.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Determine a basic core of technology for teacher and administrators.

District technology coordinator and technology task force will meet to determine district basic core of technology appropriate for teachers and administration

Instructional technology coordinator, technology task force members.

District common core of technology for teachers and administration will be created.

Faculty, administration

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: A coordinated

training program does not exist. Staff development for technology is not linked to a District core of technology and not necessarily linked to the School Improvement Plan.

Goal(s): Develop site based delivery options based on District basic core of technology and each school’s School Improvement Plan.


Activities Phase 2


ExpectedResults/Indicators of Success (Assessment Strategies)

Stakeholders

1. Identification of staff development needs based on school improvement plan.

Teachers and principals will develop a plan to meet staff development needs. Teachers and principals will evaluate technology staff development yearly as a part of the School Improvement process. Teachers and principal will select staff development

Teachers, media specialists, principals, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, Instructional Technology Coordinator.

Teachers and administrators will engage in planned staff development.Teachers and administrators will evaluate the effectiveness of the staff development.

Students, teachers, parents, administrators.



Activities Phase 2


ExpectedResults/Indicators of Success (Assessment Strategies)

Stakeholders

opportunities from the following: District sponsored technology staff development, outside technology staff development, and teachers training teachers

Technology innovations will be developed to support curricular and instructional adoptions.

District Instructional Technology Coordinator and the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction will coordinator and lead teacher task forces to develop plans for technology innovations that support the Districts curriculum. Building principals and teachers will develop technology innovation to meet the learning needs of students identified through the School Improvement process.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: A coordinated

training program does not exist. Staff development for technology is not linked to a District core of technology and not necessarily linked to the School Improvement Plan.Goal(s): Develop site based delivery options based on District basic core of technology and each

school’s School Improvement Plan.


Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. All teachers and administrators will receive staff development two times a year.

Staff development needs will be determined each May for the following year.

Staff development experiences will be

Instructional Technology Coordinator, technology task force members, media specialists.

Every teacher and administrator will participate in 2 technology staff development experiences yearly.

Students, teachers, parents, community, administrators.



developed by August of each year.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Staff survey

indicates teachers network use of computers at school with little or no Internet access form the classroom. Teachers indicated a willingness to utilize technology with computers and for administrative

Goal(s): Teachers will use technology to support engaged learning and administrative activities.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Teachers will use technology to support Best Practices.

2. Teachers trained on work stations

3. Teachers receive training.

110 teachers complete District sponsored course in Best Practices and Dimensions of Learning.

150 teachers complete training in Windows/Mac network

90 teachers complete training in use of Internet in the classroom

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction

Teacher implement Best Practices and modify instruction utilizing Dimensions model.

Teachers utilize work station and software packages for E-mail and word processing, and grade book

Teachers utilize Internet activities with students in labs and classrooms

Teachers, students.

Teachers, students

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Staff survey

indicates teachers network use of computers at school with little or no Internet access form the classroom. Teachers indicated a willingness to utilize technology with computers and for administrative Goal(s): Teachers will use technology to support engaged learning and administrative activities.



Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders











Teachers, students.

Teachers, students

Bloomington Public Schools District 87 Gap:Staff survey indicates teachers

network use of computers at school with little or no Internet access form the classroom. Teachers indicated a willingness to utilize technology with computers and for administrative work stations (Appendix 12)Goal(s):Teachers will use technology to support engaged learning and administrative activities.


Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders











Teachers, students.

Teachers, students

Technology Deployment and Sustainability

Students will be able to operate computers and to use and trouble shoot software applications. This includes but is not limited to:

basic computer skills to enable students to operate computers - turning on the computer, rebooting, keyboarding skills, use of peripherals such as a mouse, a scanner, a digital camera, a printer, etc.

possess skills and have opportunities to use productivity software - word processing, desktop publishing, presentation software, multimedia software, telecommunications, video and audio editing, web page creation, etc.

possess skills and have opportunities to use productivity tools to enable students to analyze and manage data - spreadsheets, databases, etc.

possess skills and have opportunities to use reference and research tools to enable students to develop and encourage critical thinking skills - electronic card catalogs, Internet, CD ROMS, multimedia applications, etc.

The current LANs located at BHS, AVC, and Irving, operate on Novell software. Our upgrades will include additional network software (Windows NT) for each LAN and operation of the WAN.

To met these goals, inventories of hardware and software will be reviewed at least once per year by the Instructional Technology Coordinator and the Technology Task Force. A network of computers will be created and maintained to provide access to the Internet and to allow sharing of hardware and software from each classroom that will be equipped with both a teacher and student work stations with an audio-visual projection device. Peripheral devices will be provided in each building. These will include scanners, digital camera, and video equipment.

The district inventory of equipment (Appendix 14) indicates 1173 computers for 5700 students and 450 staff. Of these, 1062 are available for student use and 111 are in administration offices. Of the current total, 725 are aging inventory and 448 are sufficient for network use with some upgrade.



Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Some work

stations are high performance with limited connectivity. Most others are outdated and cannot be connected to networks.

Goal(s): Distribute state-of-the-art technology tools to all classrooms and learning labs in adequate ratios for continuous learning.


Activities Phase 1,2,3




Stakeholders

1. Determine state-of-the-art work station.

2. Install equipment.

Review recommendation of Hub.

Determine platform standards. Review annually.

Determine classroom configuration.

Develop bid specs.

Purchase and Install.

Redeploy network work stations to reach desired number per lab/classroom.

Instructional Technology CoordinatorTechnology Task Force

Director of Computer Services





Classroom labs will have state-of-the-art work stations.

Network computers will be redeployed to obtain minimum ratios for equipment of 30 per lab/6 per classroom.

Students, teachers.

Students, teachers

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Technology

tools located in various labs and classrooms are not in adequate ratios for continuous learning - little connectivity.





Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Purchase hardware and software to furnish 9 labs and upgrade existing equipment.

2. Upgrade 125 computers.

Work stations for 9 labs with 28-30 each.

Projection devices for classrooms.

Director of Computer Services.


9 labs on the building LAN and with Internet access.

Equipment in place and operating.

Teachers, students.





Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Purchase hardware and software to furnish 242 networked computers.

2. Purchase hardware and software to furnish each classroom with at least one state-of-the-art work station on the network.



Projection devices for 70 classrooms.

Provide 1 state-of-the-art work station for each classroom.

Provide up to 5 additional network computers per classroom for student use through purchase/replace-ment.





242 networked computers on the building LAN and with Internet access.


Teachers, students.


91





Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. Purchase hardware and software to furnish 280 networked computers.

2. Purchase hardware and software to furnish each classroom with at least one state-of-the-art work station on the network.



Projection devices for 50 classrooms.

Provide 1 state-of-the-art work station for each classroom.

Provide up to 5 additional network computers per classroom for student use through purchase/replace-ment.





280 networked computers on the building LAN and with Internet access.


Teachers, students.

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Some building

networks are in place. Only one LAN has Internet access. Internet is available in all media centers except at Raymond.



Activities Phase 1



Stakeholders

92



1. Connect one lab in each building for access to WAN and Internet.

2. Establish LAN at each school.Establish District WAN.

3. Establish District Internet connection at BHS.

4. Establish direct BJHS connection to BHS Internet access.

Install cable for 30 work stations in each lab in each building

Purchase and install necessary servers, routers, connections to connect new and existing labs.

Purchase/rent Internet access via TI lines or greater.

Purchase application software.

Purchase licenses for Internet browser, Internet mail services,dial up services.

Install TI or greater lines from BJHS to BHS Internet access.

Director of buildings and GroundsInstructional Technology Coordinator

Director of Computer ServicesInstructional Technology Coordinator


Director of Buildings and Grounds

All building have LAN/Internet access

District Internet connection established. One LAN per building is established.

District WAN established with allschools connected.All district Buildings can access connection to Internet

Teachers, students

Teachers, students, administrators

Teachers, administratorsTeachers, students, administrators

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Some building

networks are in place. Only one LAN has Internet access. Internet is available in all media centers except at Raymond.



Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Wire 980 drops for access to WAN and Internet.

Install cable for 6 work stations per classroom; 28-30 work stations per lab.

Purchase and install necessary servers, routers, connections to connect new and existing LAN.

Fee for TI lines.

Director of Buildings and GroundsInstructional Technology Coordinator


980 drops have LAN/Internet access.

Teachers, students

93

CLOSING the GAP ACTION PLANBloomington Public Schools District 87

Gap: Some building networks are in place. Only one LAN has Internet access. Internet is available in all media centers except at Raymond.



Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. Upgrade service to POP.

2. 650 drops added for access to WAN and Internet.

Upgrade connection line to POP.Upgrade router.

Install cable for 6 work stations per classroom; 30 work stations per lab.

Purchase and install necessary servers, routers, connections to connect new and existing LAN.

Upgrade TI lines.

Director of Buildings and GroundsInstructional Technology Coordinator


650 drops have LAN/Internet access.

All elementary and BHS LAN established.

District WAN established with all connected.

Teachers, students

94

District 87 Internet Solution

District 87 Internet Solution

GTE

ISU T-1

ESC T-1

Irving 112KB

Sheridan 112Kb

Bent 112KB

Raymond 112KB

Stevenson 112KB

Oakland 112KB

Washington 112KB

BJHS T-1

BHS T-1

96



Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Technical

support supplied by Computer Services, many teachers, and administrators throughout the District in addition to their primary work responsibilities. Help is available only when staff is available and

Goal(s): The Instructional Technology Coordinator will coordinate support and will make sure that technical support is available when needed. In addition, a Network Administrator will be hired to set up and maintain the LANs and the WAN.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Hire Technology Coordinator.

2. time Instructional specialist.

3.Develop levels of technology support.

4. Purchase repair services

Post position.In-service.Offer contract.

Assess cost of hiring/purchasing services.

Library clerks.

Expand in-house repair services through technician, AVC, student helpers.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources

Director of Computer ServicesDistrict Technician

District Technician

AVC electronicsDistrict Technician

Instructional Technology coordinator employed.

Support services acquired.

Support services more readily available

Support services more readily available

Teachers, students, administrators.

Computer Services department, teachers, students, administrators

Teachers, students






Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Develop levels of technical support.

2. Acquire technical support services.

3. Hire full time Instructional specialist.

Train library clerks to do routine trouble-shooting.


Hire/purchase/repair additional service as Network expands in accordance with assessment by Director of Computer Services.




95% of equipment is operated at all times.

Students, teachers, media specialists





Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

98



1. Develop levels of technical support.

2. Acquire technical support services.

3. Hire Instructional specialist

Train library clerks to do routine trouble-shooting.


Hire/purchase/repair additional service as Network expands in accordance with assessment by Director of Computer Services.



95% of equipment is operated at all times.

Students, teachers, media specialists

Bloomington Public Schools District 87Gap: Buildings in

District are somewhat electrically able to utilize technology such as multiple work stations in classrooms, networks, or telecommunications.

Goal(s): Improve all District buildings structurally, electronically, or mechanically in order to provide adequate student and teacher access for work stations, networks, and telecommunications.


Activities Phase 1




Stakeholders

1. Upgraded electrically. Complete infrastructure plan of labs for all schools and of BHS and all ESC and Raymond (Appendix 13).

Director of Buildings and Grounds, contractors

Electrical and wiring completed District maintenance, teachers, administrators


District are somewhat electrically able to utilize technology such as multiple work stations in classrooms,

99


networks, or telecommunications.



Activities Phase 2




Stakeholders

1. Upgrade for electrical. Complete infrastructure plan for BHS, BJHS, Irving, Sheridan.

Director of Building and Grounds, contractors.

Electrical wiring completed District maintenance, teachers, administrators


District are somewhat electrically able to utilize technology such as multiple work stations in classrooms, networks, or telecommunications.



Activities Phase 3




Stakeholders

1. Upgrade for electrical Complete infrastructure plan for BHS, Stevenson, Washington, Bent, Oakland.

Director of Building and Grounds, contractors.

Electrical wiring completed District maintenance, teachers, administrators

100

Assessment/Evaluation

Technology task force members teachers, parents, business community, administrators will monitor the implementation and effect of the plan. They will use the results expected for each phase.

The implementation will be evaluated each September as the task force reconvenes and reassesses programs. Teachers and administrators will establish a dialog and use classroom observation to identify the means of implementation. Stakeholders will convene annually to review the plan and offer support. The technology task force will survey staff each spring in relation to the level of implementation, success of professional development, and utility of the technology.

The summary of this evaluation will be presented to the Board in October of each year. Student and staff products resulting from the training will be presented to the Board at regular Board meetings.

Technology Plan Evaluation Model

ResultsProject Goals Measurement Baseline

Expected Phase IIIIntegrate all curriculum List of integrated activities 1997-98 Each teacher completes in springStudent engaged learning Number of technology projects 1997-98

Increase 50%School Improvement Plans Survey use student technology use 1997-98 Increase 20%

Staff survey use of technology for instruction 1997-98Increase 20%Survey integration of technology 1997-98Increase 20%Each plan has technology strand 1997-98 All buildings

IEP Develop electronic IEP 1997-98 All electronic recordsIntervention Plans Develop electronic Intervention form 1997-98 All electronic recordsAutomated learning centers Number Learning Centers completed 1997-98 All secondary

Student use of learning center 1997-98Increase 20%

District access to Internet Number network computers 1997-98Increase by 350

Academic ImpactTesting IGAP Writing (grades 3,6,8,10) 3 yr avg.

Increase 10% IGAP Science (grades 4,7,11) 3 yr avg.Increase 10%IGAP Soc Studies (grades 4,7,11) 3 yr avg. Increase 10%

Student Grades Percent letter grade A,B,C 3 yr avg.Increase 10%

Social ImpactDrop outs Percent IL Report Cd Oct 1997

Reduced 10%Discipline Suspensions 3 yr avg.

Reduced 10%

Community Links Business Equip. Donations 1996-97Increased 10%Business Internship placements 1997-98Increase 10%

Staff ImpactStaff Rating Inservice Staff Survey 1994

Increase 50%District Sponsored courses Tech Course Completed Summer 1998 All staff Administrator Observations Administrator Survey of technology use Spring 1998 20% increase of technology

use by staff

District Policies and Procedures

District Policies are reviewed and updated on a three to five year cycle and in accordance with District needs. The District review process, completed in 1995, is specified in Policy 2.240. (Appendix 15) In addition, Bloomington District 87 is a member of the Illinois Association of School Board Policy PRESS (Policy Reference Education Subscription Service). This service recommends policies to districts on a regular basis. These recommendations are incorporated in many District policies. (Appendix 16) The District has also sent representatives to a workshop on acceptable use. (Appendix 17) The district will be drafting an Acceptable Use Policy for technology in accordance with ISBE and legal advice. (Appendix 15) Currently, the Board has before it, a proposal policy on technology identifying acceptable use of technology. This policy is in the process of being commented on by Board and union members and will be proposed in final form in February 1998. (Appendix 18)

Communication and Marketing Plan

District 87 currently employs part time Communication Relations Coordinator. Information is distributed to the press, parents, and community members through various print modes. School sites regularly publish newsletters. District 87 has established a web site and individual schools have also created web sites with information available to all community members.

As a participating member in Community Alliance, District 87 communicates regularly with educational leaders and business leaders. We meet monthly as the Technology Educational Alliance of Illinois with Illinois State University, Heartland Community College, and McLean County School District Unit #5. We are part of the original group of organizations to form a community. The Telecommunity Communications Task Force will meet monthly and include government, business, service providers, and educational leaders who are building a blue print to connect all organizations in the Bloomington-Normal area. District 87 will regularly update this group on the progress of this plan and future directions in technology.


School District: Bloomington Public Schools District 87 Gap: Limited knowledge of technology use in District 87 schools.

Goal(s): Community would be aware of student access to computer, networks and other technologies.


Activities Phase I,II,III


ExpectedResults/Indicators of Success (Assessment

Strategies)

Stakeholders

1. Publication of Excel. Community Relations Coordinator and District building administrators with information from faculty, staff and District technology Coordinator and Computer Services administrator.

Communication about technology planning, initiatives and ongoing progress.

Residents and neighbors of District 87.

2. Publication of Excellence in Action. Building principals, Community Relations Coordinator.

Communication about technology planning, progress, district/building changes, staff development, and other matters related to technology.

District and building administration, faculty, and staff.

3. Publication of Aegis, BHS newspaper. Students, faculty, newspaper editor, and building administrators.

Communication about technology changes, opportunities, etc. at BHS and in the District.

Students, parents, administration, faculty and staff.

Strategies for Closing the Gap (Objectives) Activities Phase I,II,III

Individuals Involved & Who is Responsible ExpectedResults/Indicators of Success (Assessment

Strategies)

Stakeholders

4. Publication of technology newsletter Computer Services and Technology Coordinator.

Inform staff of District initiatives in the use of technology. Recognize staff for innovative uses of technology. Increased productivity form staff from knowing special techniques. Reduced technology problems due to informing staff of policies, procedures and guidelines. Improved staff/support relations by addressing concerns.

Copies are distributed to administrators, principals, and support staff. In addition, copies are available for teachers and community members. It may also be viewed on the Districts Internet home page.

6. Distribution of District 87 General information pamphlet.

Community Relations Coordinator. Communication to general public, prospective residents, and teachers about the District technology plan and ongoing technology efforts in the District.

General public, prospective residents and teachers.

7. District informational brochure. Technology Coordinator, Community Relations Coordinator, building principals, and District administrators.

Inform and Celebrate technological use within the District. This would be separate from the above pamphlet.

Charter copy to all District 87 employees. Stakeholders are prospective/new parents, students and teachers.

8. Publication of State School Report Cards Building principals and Technology Coordinator - contact local newspaper and media.

Communication with parents and the community concerning areas for planned improvement for the school and District that will include technology related to the Districts technology plan.

Students, faculty/staff, and greater Bloomington/Normal community.

9. News releases to the print, radio, and television media.

Community Relations Coordinator and Administration.

Communication with the community and region concerning plans, initiative, programs, etc. related to District technology.

Community members and the region at large.

10. District 87 and school web sites. District program analyst, media specialist, technology coordinator.

Communication with parents and community about District. Included in District web site is the District Technology Plan. School web sites provide information about activities and

Parents, students, community members. interested parties

schedules. throughout the world.

11. Membership in community technology consortium.

Assist Superintendent, technology coordinator. District is linked to community telecommunications effort. District participates in education alliance planning.

Parents, students, staff, community members, businesses.

Phase = 18 months

Time Line

Phase 1 January 1998 - June 1999Phase 2 July 1999 - December 2000Phase 3 January 2001 - June 2002

(In the original draft, each phase was one year)

Budget/Financial Plan

District 87 will annually commit funds to each phase of the project. In addition, we expect to access federal funds through e-rate discounts and State and Federal grants, such as Title I, JTPA, Regional Tech Prep funds, State Library Grant, and Gifted.

Our local business partners will provide continued access to surplus equipment in the form of donations. They will also provide additional technical training sites for students and staff.

Budget Summary

Proposed

Phase 1 $1,419,268

Phase 2 $1,899,756

Phase 3 $1,833,436

Total $5,152,460

Bloomington Public Schools – Network Documentation

Appendix C – District 87 Technology Standards

PC Based Computer StandardsItem Minimum Specification Preferred SpecificationProcessor Intel Pentium-133MHz Intel Pentium-II 300MHz or GreaterRAM 32MB 64MBHDD 1GB 6GBVideo Adapter 1MB Video RAM / NT Compatible 8MB Video RAM / NT CompatibleMonitor 14” SVGA (800x600 Min Res.) 17” or Larger SVGA (1024x768 Min Res.)Pointing Device Required (Must be NT Compatible) Microsoft IntelliMouseKeyboard Required RequiredCD-ROM Drive Not Required 32x or Greater ATAPI CompliantDVD-ROM Drive Not Required Creative Labs/Toshiba/SonySound Card Not Required SoundBlaster 64 or GreaterOperating System Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Windows NT Workstation 4.0 – Windows 2000General Must Be on Windows NT 4.0 HCL* Must Be on Windows NT 4.0/2000 HCL*Installed Software District 87 Software Package** District 87 Software Package**

*Microsoft’s Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) may be viewed at the following URL:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatible/default.asp

Select “Windows NT” as the operating system then, “System Desktop” as the Product Category, finally select the manufacturer of your machine. Follow the directions on the screen. If your machine is not “Brand Name,” please lookup each item located within your computer.

**The District software package contains the following software: Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, Microsoft Outlook 2000, Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater. Note that these are minimum requirements and other software packages may be added, but are not supported by the technology department.

Windows NT Servers and other operating systems will not be supported or allowed to connect to the network.

Network Printers

Type Minimum PreferredSingle-user Laser (Black) HP LaserJet 4 or Greater 4000N or GreaterSingle-user Laser (Color) HP Color LaserJet or Greater* HP Color LaserJet 4500NMulti-user Laser (Black) HP LaserJet 4 or Greater* HP LaserJet 4000NMulti-user Laser (Color) HP Color LaserJet or Greater* HP Color LaserJet 4500NSingle-user DeskJet (Black) Not Supported Not SupportedSingle-user DeskJet (Color) Not Supported Not SupportedMulti-user DeskJet (Black) Not Supported Not SupportedMulti-user DeskJet (Color) Not Supported Not Supported

*Unit requires an HP JetDirect adapter to connect it to the network. These devices are available for almost any HP Printer.

Revised 4/10/23 District 87 Confidential of 108

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatible/default.asp

Bloomington Public Schools – Network Documentation

Appendix D – Technology Department StaffBelow is a list of all that live their lives ensuring technical excellence to District 87.

James Peterson - Director of Technology

Russell Conger - Supervisor of Administrative Technology

Lisa Baermann - Information Specialist

Carol Jones - Information Specialist

Tom Olsen - Technology Specialist

Brian Adams, MCSE+I - Network Administrator

For more information on the technology department and related items, see http://www.district87.org/technology

Revised 4/10/23 District 87 Confidential of 108

http://www.district87.org/technology

mailto:[email protected]






2000migration/network documentation.doc.doc

Technology

print sharing lab printers

file sharing home directories

file sharing group folders

email server

level overview

network documentation

network infrastructure

logical network map