Network Terms "A"

.ADM file - Template files that Internet Explorer and its Profile Manager use to create system policy files that control the IE options that are available to network users.
Accepted domains - Accepted domains identify the domains for which the organization is solely responsible and the SMTP domains from which the server will accept messages. There are three types of accepted domains in Exchange 2007:
 
Authoritative: is the domain over which the Exchange server has sole responsibility. In a typical environment, the organization will have an e-mail domain of "company.com" which is hosted by the company's e-mail server. If
another e-mail system or domain exists in the environment, internal and external relays are employed.

An internal relay is an e-mail domain that is hosted by another Active Directory Forest within the Exchange organization. This system uses different e-mail addresses, but all incoming mail goes through the Exchange organization.
· 
An external relay accepts e-mail for an external organization and then delivers it to an external entity such as the Internet via the Edge Transport server.
Access Control List (ACL) - A list that contains information on allowed and denied access to folders and files.
Access token - A grouping of information used to control a user's access to network resources. After the logon process, to access token is used to control access to all secured objects. An access token includes the user's SID (security ID), ID of users' group memberships, and rights assigned to the user. The access token is generated during the logon process and is not updated while the user is logged on.
Account lockout - A mechanism to lock out accounts after multiple failed logon attempts. This reduces the chance of an
unauthorized person gaining access to the network.
Account Operator - A specific user who has been designated an Account Operator can create, delete, and modify user accounts, global and local groups, and set account policies.
Account policy - Determines the characteristics of passwords for user accounts. The policy sets requirements for password age, length, and uniqueness.
ACL (Access Control List) - A list that contains -information on allowed and denied access to folders and files.
Active Desktop - A feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer that lets you display content from Web pages on the computer desktop, using Dynamic HTML, Webcasting, and active channels.
Active Directory - The new Windows 2000 directory - service. It stores information about all the network resources such as user accounts, computers, printers, servers, and so on. Active Directory makes it easy for administrators to manage the network resources, and makes it easy for users to locate and use the resources.
Active Directory Sites and Services Snap-In - A Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that lets you create and work with the configuration partition of an Active Directory database.
Active Server Pages (ASP) - Microsoft's answer to the - slower and more limited performance of CGI scripts written in Perl. They combine HTML pages, scripts, programming objects, and ActiveX components to create dynamic Web pages.
ActiveX - A set of programming tools based on the Component Object Model (COM), which provides the low-level services that allow programming objects to communicate with each other. ActiveX is used for Internet applications that need to be optimized for speed and size.
AD (Advertised Distance) - The Advertised Distance (AD) is the cost to the destination network as reported by the neighbor router. The AD is also called the reported distance (RD).
Ad hoc - A wireless networking - architecture topology that does the following:

• Works in peer-to-peer mode without a WAP (the wireless NICs in each host communicate directly with one another)

• Uses a physical mesh topology

• Cheap and easy to set up but cannot handle more than four hosts

• special modifications to reach wired networksRequires

Adapter card - The physical interface between the computer and the network cable. An adapter card communicates with the computer's hardware, firmware, and software to allow the computer to communicate with the local area network. Also called a network adapter card, network card, or NIC.
Adapter teaming - Adapter teaming is the use of two or more adapter cards in a system to eliminate a network adapter as a single point of failure. In adapter teaming:

• Up to four adapter teams can be supported with two to four adapters in each team.

• adapter is connected to the same network segment via a network switch or hub.Each

Address family - An address family is a group of network protocols whose network addresses share a common format.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) - A protocol that maps an IP address to the Media Access Control (MAC) address of a computer on a network.
Adjacency - An adjacency is the connection that is established when neighboring routers transfer packets.
ADMD (Administration Management Domain) - An ADMD is a public operating agency that controls an X.400 management domain. These domains are the backbone for transferring electronic messages. ADMDs handle messages sent between PRMDs.
Administration Management Domain (ADMD) - An ADMD is a public operating agency that controls an X.400 management domain. These domains are the backbone for transferring electronic messages. ADMDs handle messages sent between PRMDs.
Administrative distance - The administrative distance is a metric used to show how trustworthy a router deems information from a specific protocol. Administrative distances are as follows:

• 0=Connected interface

• 0=Static route out of an interface

• 1=Static route to a next-hop address

• 5=EIGRP summary route

• 20=External BGP

• 90=Internal EIGRP

• 100=IGRP

• 110=OSPF

• 115=IS-IS

• 120=RIPv1 and RIPv2

• 140= EGP

• 160= ODR

• 170=External EIGRP

• 200=Internal EIGRP

• 255=Unknown

• Protocols with lower administrative distances are considered more trustworthy. 

Administrative share - Windows 2000 provides share names that are used for administration. These names are C$, D$, E$, etc. and Admin$.The $ hides the shared folder from a user who browses the computer. Administrative shares are used to remotely connect to a computer to perform administrative tasks.
Administrative template - A group of registry settings stored in a file (Registry.pol). Adminstrative templates can be distributed using Active Directory-based Group Policy Objects (GPOs).
Administrator - A user who is granted rights to create, delete, or modify user accounts. They also have rights to create user policies, move folders, add and remove hardware from the computer, and access the file system.
Administrators - A built-in group in Windows 2000. Members of the Administrators group have full administrative capabilities (see Administrator).
ADSI Edit - A graphical Windows 2000 support tool that lets you view, edit, and create objects and attributes in the Active Directory database.
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) - The first group to conduct packet-switching network experiments.
Advanced Research Projects - Agency Network (ARPANET)    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States Department of Defense sponsored this project to create a network between government and research institutions. The project became the foundation for what is now known as the Internet.
Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) naming convention - The syntax used for recovering data in a secondary partition. ARC paths specify the hardware adapter and disk controller, the numbers of the hardware adapter, the SCSI bus, the disk, and the partition.

Advertised Distance (AD) - The Advertised Distance (AD) is the cost to the destination network as reported by the neighbor router. The AD is also called the reported distance (RD).
AH (Authentication Header) - Authentication Header (AH) is one of two services comprising IPSec, Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) being the other. AH is used primarily for authenticating the two communication partners of an IPSec link. The AH provides message integrity through authentication, verifying that data are received unaltered from the trusted destination. AH provides no privacy however, and is often combined with ESP to achieve integrity and confidentiality.
Alert - An action, defined by an administrator, that takes place in response to an administrator-specified event. The action can be the execution of a job, or e-mailing/paging a particular operator.
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) - A standards body that provides computing standards. It is a voluntary organization comprised of corporate, government, and other members that coordinates standards-related activities, approves U.S. national standards, and develops positions for the United States in international standards organizations. ANSI helps develop international and U.S. standards relating to, among other things, communications and networking. ANSI is a member of the IEC and the ISO.

American Wire Gauge (AWG) - A U.S. standard set of wire sizes that apply to copper wires, including household electrical wiring and telephone lines. The higher the number, the thinner the wire.
ANDing process  - The internal process used by TCP/IP to determine whether a packet is destined for a host on a local or
  remote network. TCP/IP performs the function of ANDing the host's IP address with its subnet mask. When a packet is sent on the network, the destination IP address is ANDed with the same subnet mask.
Anonymous authentication - An authentication method that does not require the user to enter a username and password to gain access to resources such as Web sites. Some anonymous access methods (like FTP) require an e-mail address as a username, but this is not a secure solution because a fake e-mail address can be used.
ANSI (American National Standards Institute) - A standards body that provides computing standards. It is a voluntary organization comprised of corporate, government, and other members that coordinates standards-related activities, approves U.S. national standards, and develops positions for the United States in international standards organizations. ANSI helps develop international and U.S. standards relating to, among other things, communications and networking. ANSI is a member of the IEC and the ISO.
Answer file - A script file that you use to automate Windows installations by supplying answers to questions that you
  would normally have to answer yourself. You can modify the sample Unattend.txt file or use Setup Manager to create a new answer file.
API (Application Programming Interface) - The API can be provided by any vendor to provide functionality to an application or operating system. Each vendor publishes its API's so that developers can code to that application's APIs.
APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) - APIPA is a Microsoft implementation of automatic IP address assignment without a DHCP server. Using APIPA, hosts assign themselves an IP address on the 169.254.0.0 network (mask of 255.255.0.0).

With APIPA:

• The host is configured to obtain IP information from a DHCP server (this is the default configuration).

• If a  DHCP server can't be contacted, the host uses APIPA to assign itself an IP address.

• The host only configures the IP address and mask. It does not assign itself default gateway and DNS server address For this reason, APIPA can only be the used on a single subnet.

Apple MacOS - The proprietary Macintosh operating system used by Apple computers.
Applet - A small application built into another application or an operating system. The programs in the Windows Control Panel are applets. Also called programs in Microsoft documentation.
AppleTalk - The set of network protocols -native to Apple computers.
Application - A software program that - performs a specific function for the user or another program. For example, word processors, database programs, spreadsheets, and graphics packages are applications.
Application files - Files necessary for an application to run, such as .EXE, .DLL, and other files.
Application Layer (OSI model) - Layer 7 of the OSI reference model. This layer provides services to application processes (such as electronic mail, file transfer, and terminal emulation) that are outside of the OSI model. The application layer identifies and establishes the availability of intended communication partners (and the resources required to connect with them), synchronizes cooperating applications, and establishes agreement on procedures for error recovery and control of data integrity. Corresponds roughly with the transaction services layer in the SNA model. See also data link layer, network layer, physical layer, presentation layer, session layer, and transport layer.
Application log - An Event Viewer file containing application events such as file errors. Application developers determine the events that their applications write to the application log.
Application Programming Interface (API) - The API can be provided by any - vendor to provide functionality to an application or operating system. Each vendor publishes its API's so that developers can code to that application's APIs.
Application Server - Application servers run certain software applications that can be accessed by users.
ARC (Advanced RISC Computing) naming convention - The syntax used for recovering data in a secondary partition. ARC paths specify the hardware adapter and disk controller, the numbers of the hardware adapter, the SCSI bus, the disk, and the partition.
Archive Bit - An archive bit is a  file - attribute that indicates whether a file was backed up since it was modified.
ARIN - A Windows Socket specification using Visual Basic.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) - A protocol that maps an IP address to the Media Access Control (MAC) address of a computer on a network.
ARP cache - A portion of memory that is - used to store a hardware address and IP address. The ARP cache is always checked for an IP address/hardware address mapping before an ARP request broadcast is initiated.
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) - The first group to conduct packet-switching network experiments.
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States Department of Defense sponsored this project to create a network between government and research institutions. The project became the foundation for what is now known as the Internet.
AS (Autonomous System) - An Autonomous System (AS) is a set of routers under a common administration and with common routing policies. Each Autonomous System (AS) in BGP appears to other autonomous systems to have a single coherent interior routing plan.
AS path - The AS path (type code 2) is a well-known mandatory BGP attribute that lists the different autonomous systems to reach a network.
ASBR (Autonomous System Boundary Router) - An Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR) is a router that has an interface to an external autonomous system (e.g. RIP or EIGRP). ASBRs can import and export non-OSPF network information to and from the OSPF network.

ASP (Active Server Pages) - Microsoft's answer to the slower and more limited performance of CGI scripts written in Perl. They combine HTML pages, scripts, programming objects, and ActiveX components to create dynamic Web pages.
Attenuation - The loss of signal strength - over distance.
Attribute version number - A counter that identifies how many times the value for an Active Directory attribute has changed. During replication, attribute values with higher version numbers override values of the same attribute with lower version numbers.
Audit log - A file containing information about events you have chosen to monitor, such as logging on and logging off, accessing files and objects, and system shutdowns. You may want to save auditing logs to help you track trends. Tracking trends helps you plan for growth and detect unauthorized use of resources. For more accurate trend information, it is better to view logs that are kept over a few months.
Authentication - The process of supplying a valid user name and password in order to access resources on a network or computer.
Authentication Header (AH) - Authentication Header (AH) is one of two services comprising IPSec, Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) being the other. AH is used primarily for authenticating the two communication partners of an IPSec link. The AH provides message integrity through authentication, verifying that data are received unaltered from the trusted destination. AH provides no privacy however, and is often combined with ESP to achieve integrity and confidentiality.
Authoritative domain -A domain is considered authoritative if your organization hosts mailboxes for recipients within the domain.
Authoritative restore - A restoration method which uses the Backup utility to return Active Directory database to the state it was  before the backup, then uses NTDSUTIL to mark an object as the most current. Most current objects will not be overwritten with the data from the server's replication partners during Windows 2000 replication. Use the authoritative restore when an object is deleted after the last backup. Restore the database with the last backup file, then update all the data modified after the last backup, except the one you marked with NTDSUTIL.
Authoritative Server - An authoritative server is a DNS server that has a full, complete copy of all the records for particular domain.
Autodiscover service - The Autodiscover service in Exchange 2007 is designed to make it easier for users to set up their
profiles in Outlook or for their Exchange Active Sync devices. The Autodiscover service automatically adds the following information to a user's profile:

• The server on which the user's mailbox resides

• The user's display name

• Separate connection settings for internal and external connectivity

• The URLs for Exchange features associated with the user Outlook Anywhere server settings

Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) - APIPA is a Microsoft - implementation of automatic IP address assignment without a DHCP server.
Using APIPA, hosts assign themselves an IP address on the 169.254.0.0 network
  (mask of 255.255.0.0).

With APIPA:

• The host is configured to obtain IP information from a DHCP server (this is the default configuration).

• If a DHCP server can't be contacted, the host uses APIPA to assign itself an IP address.

• The host only configures the IP address and mask. It does not assign itself the default gateway and DNS server addresses. For this reason, APIPA can only be used on a single subnet.

Autonomous System (AS) - An Autonomous System (AS) is a set of routers under a common administration and with common routing policies. Each Autonomous System (AS) in BGP appears to other autonomous systems to have a single coherent interior routing plan.
Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR) - An Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR) is a router that has an interface to an external autonomous system (e.g. RIP or EIGRP). ASBRs can import and export non-OSPF network information to and from the OSPF network.
Autosummarization - Autosummarization transpires when a router that uses a classful routing protocol sends and update about a subnet of a classful network across an interface belonging to a different classful network and assumes that the remote router will use the default subnet mask for that class of IP address. The following protocols use autosummarization:

• RIP

• EIGRP

• BGP

AWG (American Wire Gauge) - A U.S. standard set of wire sizes that apply to copper wires, including household electrical wiring and telephone lines. The higher the number, the thinner the wire.