Glossary terms provided by TechTerms.com.
| Word | Description |
| I/O | Stands for "Input/Output" and is pronounced simply "eye-oh." Computers are based on the fundamental idea that every input results in an output. For example, if you are running a word processor program and type a sentence on your keyboard, the text will appear on the screen. The keyboard is an input device and the screen is an output device. You might also print the text using a printer, which is another output device. The computer's CPU handles all the I/O operations, sending the data it receives to the correct path. The path may be to the video card, to the hard drive, or to the RAM, just to name a few. |
| I/O Address | Each I/O device connected to your computer is mapped to a unique I/O (Input/Output) address. These addresses are assigned to every I/O port on your computer, including USB, Firewire, Ethernet, VGA, and DVI ports, as well as any other ports your computer might have. Having a unique address assigned to each port allows your computer to easily recognize and locate devices attached to your computer. Whether it is a keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, or any other device, the computer can locate it by its I/O address. Because I/O addresses are controlled by the computer's motherboard, they do not use up any system memory, or RAM. |
| IA-32 (Intel Architecture-32 bit) | Intel’s 32-bit instruction architecture that runs on the company’s 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro/II/III/4, and future consumer chips. |
| IA-64 (Intel Architecture-64 bit) | Intel’s 64-bit instruction architecture that features EPIC and runs on the Itanium processor. It’s a fully 64-bit architecture built new from the ground up. |
| IANA | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. |
| ICANN | Stands for "Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers." The ICANN is an non-profit corporation that is responsible for allocating IP addresses and managing the domain name system. Every computer connected to the Internet, from servers to home PCs, has an IP address. However, it would be unrealistic for the ICANN to directly assign each computer an individual IP address. Instead, the ICANN allocates blocks of IP addresses to companies, educational institutions, and Internet service providers. These organizations then allocate IP addresses to computers that use their Internet connections. While the ICANN is a US-based organization, it is also a global Internet community. According to ICANN's website, the organization is "dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes" (icann.org). |
| ICF | Internet Connection Firewall. Abbreviation used by Microsoft to refer to the firewall built into Windows XP. |
| ICMP | Internet Control Message Protocol. An extension to the Internet Protocol (IP), supporting additional control, error and information messages. The ping command uses ICMP. |
| ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) | A TCP/IP messaging protocol that runs specifically over IP (as opposed to UDP). This protocol is used to announce network errors, timeouts, and congestion. PING is based on ICMP. |
| ICMP Flood | A type of Denial of Service attack that sends large amounts of (or just over-sized) ICMP packets to a machine in order to attempt to crash the TCP/IP stack on the machine and cause it to stop responding to TCP/IP requests. |
| Icon | Ever since the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, icons have been the way we view files on computers. An icon on your computer screen represents an object or a program on your hard drive. For example, the folders you see on your desktop or in open windows are icons. The files that you see in those folders are also icons. The trash can on the Macintosh and the recycle bin on Windows are both icons as well. Icons are a visual representation of something on your computer. For example, a blue "e" on your screen most likely repersents the Internet Explorer program. An icon that looks like a sheet of paper is probably a text document. By clicking and dragging icons, you can move the actual files they represent to various locations on your computer's hard drive. By double-clicking an application icon, you can open the program. Icons are one of the fundamental features of the graphical user interface (GUI). They make computing much more user-friendly than having to enter text commands to accomplish anything. Some Unix nerds would beg to differ, but I'm talking about normal people here. |
| ID | 1. Abbreviation for IDentifier. Normally something (typically a number or string) that will uniquely identify an object within a specific context. cf UID, GUID. 2. Abbreviation for IDentification. |
| IDE | 1. Integrated Development Environment. As a minimum, the integration of a source code editor, compiler and debugger for software development. An IDE will often offer more than this, such as on-line help, syntax highlighting and other features. 2. Integrated Drive Electronics. Common and cheap form of disk interface. Superseded by EIDE. Now commonly known as Parallel ATA (PATA). cf SCSI, SATA. |
| Identity | Identity is whom someone or what something is, for example, the name by which something is known. |
| IDS | Intrusion Detection System. A system for detecting (unauthorised) intrusions into a network or individual computer. An Intrusion Detection System will typically either: monitor log files to detect intrusions on a single computer. This is known as a Host based IDS (HIDS). or, will employ a packet sniffer to monitor network traffic to attempt to detect intrusions on a network. This is known as a Network based IDS (NIDS). |
| IE | 1. Microsoft Internet Explorer. cf IE4, IE5, IE6, MSIE. |
| IE4 | Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 4. Superseded by IE5. |
| IE5 | Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 5. Superseded by IE6. |
| IE6 | Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 6. |
| IE7 | Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 7. IE 7 was released for general use in November 2006, although beta versions had been in circulation long before that. IE 7 is the successor to IE 6. |
| IE8 | Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), version 8. IE 8 was released for general use in May 2008 and is the successor to IE 7. |
| IEEE | Stands for the "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers." This is a non-profit organization that develops, defines, and reviews electronics and computer science standards. Though it is a U.S. based organization, standards developed by the IEEE often become International standards. Some examples of commonly-used products standardized by the organization are the IEEE 1284 interface (a.k.a. Parallel Port), which many printers use, and the IEEE 1394 interface (a.k.a. Firewire), which is a super-fast connection for digital video cameras, hard drives, and other peripherals. The IEEE describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society -- promoting the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our members." Perhaps they could standardize a more simplified definition of their organization... |
| IGMP | Internet Group Management Protocol. |
| IIS | Microsoft Internet Information Server (or Services). This is the standard web server available under Windows (from NT4 onwards). |
| IIS (Internet Information Server) | The name for Microsoft’s webserver. It works with server versions of Microsoft’s operating systems, and was first developed for Windows NT Server. Starting with Windows 2000 Server, IIS ships on the CD. With Windows NT 4 Server you had to install additional software to get IIS installed. |
| IM | 1. Instant Messaging. See Instant Messaging. 2. Instant Message. |
| IMAP | Internet Message Access Protocol. A protocol for accessing electronic e-mail (or bulletin boards). IMAP allows e-mails to be read by a client but still be stored on a central server. IMAP is suited to environments where people need to be able to access their e-mail from more than one workstation. |
| Import | The process of pulling data into a program. Normally it refers to taking a plain text file and pulling it into a database format so that you can work with it using a database program. For example, you call a company you need some data from and ask it to send you some data to add to your database. The company sends the data as a text file, and you import it into your database. Now you can run queries on the data in your database program. However, you could import any data format your database program supports. There are hundreds out there. |
| Impression | It is said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, in the wonderful world of the World Wide Web, publishers have thousands of chances each day. An impression is counted each time a Web page is shown to a visitor. Advertisers measure the reach of their ads by tracking ad impressions, or the number of times their ads are shown. The revenue that publishers generate based on 1,000 impressions is called CPM. Impressions are counted each time a page is visited by a user, so a single user can rack up numerous impressions for one website. However, publishers and advertisers are also interested in unique impressions, which count only the number of unique visits to a website. For example, if Greg views 3 pages on a website, while Mary views 4 and Kathy views 10, their visits would total 17 impressions, but only 3 unique impressions. Unique impressions are usually counted by sending a cookie to visitors' browsers that expire in 24 hours. This way, if Greg visits the site on Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening, it would could as two unique impressions. |
| IMS | 1. Internet Mail Service. The service in Microsoft Exchange server 5.x that is responsible for communicating with internet email systems and other SMTP capable systems to effect the transport of email messages (both to and from the Exchange server). In earlier versions of Exchange this was known as IMC. From Exchange 2000 this has been replaced by the SMTP Connector. 2. Information Management System. |
| InActive Collection / Seed | collections or seeds that are not scheduled for crawling. When a collection and/or seed is marked inactive, the URL's crawled from that seed will not be deleted, and are still searchable and viewable. |
| Inbox | An inbox is the main folder that your incoming mail gets stored in. Whether you check your mail through a webmail interface or use a program like Outlook or Mac OS X Mail, each downloaded message gets stored in your inbox. If you check your mail from a POP3 account using an e-mail program, the messages are downloaded to the inbox on your local hard drive. However, if you use an IMAP mail server, your inbox is created on the server and therefore your messages are stored on the server as well. Because most people receive more mail than they can manage in one folder, it is common to create other folders to store your messages. After reading your messages, you may move them to other folders you have created (such as "Family," "Friends," "Business," etc.) or delete them by moving them to the Trash. However you decide to manage you mail, it is a good idea to keep the number of messages in your inbox from growing too large. |
| Incident | An incident as an adverse network event in an information system or network or the threat of the occurrence of such an event. |
| Incident Handling | Incident Handling is an action plan for dealing with intrusions, cyber-theft, denial of service, fire, floods, and other security-related events. It is comprised of a six step process: Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradication, Recovery, and Lessons Learned. |
| Incremental Backup | A method of archiving data. Basically, during an incremental backup all data that has changed since the last full (or previous incremental) backup will be archived; data that has not changed will not be backed up. It is possible to take incremental backups after previous incremental backups, but then if you need to restore something fully you will need all of the incremental data (which may be split over several tapes, for example) and the last full backup. |
| Incremental Backups | Incremental backups only backup the files that have been modified since the last backup. If dump levels are used, incremental backups only backup files changed since last backup of a lower dump level. |
| Index | An index is a list of data, such as group of files or database entries. It is typically saved in a plain text format that can be quickly scanned by a search algorithm. This significantly speeds up searching and sorting operations on data referenced by the index. Indexes often include information about each item in the list, such as metadata or keywords, that allows the data to be searched via the index instead of reading through each file individually. For example, a database program such as Microsoft Access may generate an index of entries in a table. When an SQL query is run on the database, the program can quickly scan the index file to see what entries match the search string. Search engines also use indexes to store a large list of Web pages. These indexes, such as those created by Google and Yahoo!, are necessary for quickly generating search results. If search engines had to scan through millions of pages each time a user submitted a search, it would take roughly forever. Fortunately, by using search indexes, Web searches can be performed in less than a second instead of several hours. The term "index" can also be used as a verb, which not surprisingly means to create an index. It may also refer to adding a new item to an existing index. For example, Mac OS X 10.4 and later indexes the hard disk to create a searchable index for Apple's Spotlight search utility. Google's "Googlebot" crawls the Web on a regular basis, adding new Web pages to the Google index. While most database and hard disk indexes are updated on-the-fly, search engine indexes are only updated every few hours, days, or even weeks. This is why newly published Web pages may not show up in search engine results. While it may be a frustration for Web developers, it is a small price to pay for the convenience of super-fast Web searches. |
| Inetd (xinetd) | Inetd (or Internet Daemon) is an application that controls smaller internet services like telnet, ftp, and POP. |
| Inference Attack | Inference Attacks rely on the user to make logical connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information. |
| Infiniband | A standard created by Intel and other server manufacturers to link servers and network devices externally at high speeds. It should scale as high at 30GB/second, but initially will run at 2.5Gbits/second (0.3 GB/second). |
| Ingress Filtering | Ingress Filtering is filtering inbound traffic. |
| Initialize | Format a disk so it will hold information. Explanation: When you tell your computer to initialize a disk, all information on that disk is erased - the disk is "wiped clean." Then the disk is formatted to hold new information. All kinds of disks - floppy disks, hard disks, zip disks, etc. - must be initialized before they can be used. Sentence: "These floppy disks were initialized at the factory." |
| Inkjet | Inkjet printers are the most common type of consumer printers. The inkjet technology works by spraying very fine drops of ink on a sheet of paper. These droplets are "ionized" which allows them to be directed by magnetic plates in the ink's path. As the paper is fed through the printer, the print head moves back and forth, spraying thousands of these small droplets on the page. While inkjet printers used to lack the quality and speed of laser printers, they have become almost as fast as laser printers and some can even produce higher-quality images. Even low-budget inkjet printers can now print high-resolution photos. The amazing thing is, as the quality of inkjet printers has improved, the prices have continued to drop. However, for most people, refilling the inkjet cartridges a few times will often cost more than the printer. |
| Input | Whenever you enter data into your computer, it is referred to as input. This can be text typed in a word processing document, keywords entered in a search engine's search box, or data entered into a spreadsheet. Input can be something as simple as moving the mouse or clicking the mouse button or it can be as complex as scanning a document or downloading photos from a digital camera. Devices such as the keyboard, mouse, scanner, and even a digital camera are considered input devices. This is because they allow the user to input data into the computer (yes, the word "input" can also be used as a verb). While input generally comes from humans, computers can also receive input from other sources. These include audio and video devices that record movies and sound, media discs that install software, and even the Internet, which is used to download files and receive data such as e-mail or instant messages. The opposite of input is output, which is what the computer produces based on user input. Input and output devices are collectively referred to as I/O devices. |
| Input Device | An input device is any device that provides input to a computer. There are dozens of possible input devices, but the two most common ones are a keyboard and mouse. Every key you press on the keyboard and every movement or click you make with the mouse sends a specific input signal to the computer. These commands allow you to open programs, type messages, drag objects, and perform many other functions on your computer. Since the job of a computer is primarily to process input, computers are pretty useless without input devices. Just imagine how much fun you would have using your computer without a keyboard or mouse. Not very much. Therefore, input devices are a vital part of every computer system. While most computers come with a keyboard and mouse, other input devices may also be used to send information to the computer. Some examples include joysticks, MIDI keyboards, microphones, scanners, digital cameras, webcams, card readers, UPC scanners, and scientific measuring equipment. All these devices send information to the computer and therefore are categorized as input devices. Peripherals that output data from the computer are called output devices. |
| Input Validation Attacks | Input Validations Attacks are where an attacker intentionally sends unusual input in the hopes of confusing an application. |
| Install | Most software programs require that you first install them on your computer before using them. For example, if you buy Microsoft Office, you need to install it on your computer before you can run any of the included programs such as Word or Excel. You can install software from a CD or DVD, an external hard drive, or from a networked computer. You can also install a program or software update from a file downloaded from the Internet. Installing a software program writes the necessary data for running the program on your hard drive. Often the installer program will decompress the data included with the installer immediately before writing the information to your hard drive. Software updates, which are typically downloaded from the Internet, work the same way. When you run the update, the installer file decompresses the data and then updates the correct program or operating system. Installing software is usually a simple process. It involves double-clicking an installer icon and then clicking "I Agree" when the license agreement pops up. You may have to choose what directory on your hard disk you would like to install the software in, but often the installer will even choose that for you. Some software can be installed by simply dragging a folder or application program onto your hard drive. Either way, installing software is a rather simple process and should not be intimidating. If you can cook you dinner in the microwave, you can install your own software. |
| Installer | In order to install new software on your computer, you often need to run an installer program. This program unpacks compressed data included with the installer and writes new information to your hard drive. While some installers do not use compressed data, most use some level of compression since it reduces the size of the files included with the installer. This is especially helpful when downloading programs or software updates from the Internet. An installer can either install a new program on your computer or can update a program currently on your hard drive. It can also update or add files to your operating system. Most installers can be run by simply double-clicking the installer icon and then choosing the folder you want to install the software into. The nice thing about installers is that they do all the work for you, decompressing and writing the data on the hard drive. Once the installer is finished, you can often use the new or updated software right away. If any system files were installed, you will be asked to restart your computer before using the new software. This is because system files can only be loaded during the computer's boot process. |
| Instruction | The simplest direction that you can give to a processor. Programs are made up of these, but usually don’t go down to such nitty-gritty levels unless you are programming in assembly language. An example of what a single instruction would do is increment a piece of data by one, or clear a piece of data out of a register. |
| Integer | An integer is a whole number (not a fraction) that can be positive, negative, or zero. Therefore, the numbers 10, 0, -25, and 5,148 are all integers. Unlike floating point numbers, integers cannot have decimal places. Integers are a commonly used data type in computer programming. For example, whenever a number is being incremented, such as within a "for loop" or "while loop," an integer is used. Integers are also used to determine an item's location within an array. When two integers are added, subtracted, or multiplied, the result is also an integer. However, when one integer is divided into another, the result may be an integer or a fraction. For example, 6 divided by 3 equals 2, which is an integer, but 6 divided by 4 equals 1.5, which contains a fraction. Decimal numbers may either be rounded or truncated to produce an integer result. |
| Integrity | Integrity is the need to ensure that information has not been changed accidentally or deliberately, and that it is accurate and complete. |
| Intel Corporation (Intel) | Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC; SEHK: 4335; Euronext: INCO) is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue.[3] The company is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. |
| Interface | An interface is a port on a hardware device that allows it to connect to another device. Common hardware interfaces found on computers include USB, Firewire, and Ethernet connections. Other electronic devices may use different interfaces, such as HDMI connections on a TV or MIDI ports on a digital piano. The term "interface" may also refer to a user interface. |
| Interlaced | A common way to compress video is to interlace it. Each frame of an interlaced video signal shows every other horizontal line of the image. As the frames are projected on the screen, the video signal alternates between showing even and odd lines. When this is done fast enough, i.e. around 60 frames per second, the video image looks smooth to the human eye. Interlacing has been used for decades in analog television broadcasts that are based on the NTSC (U.S.) and PAL (Europe) formats. Because only half the image is sent with each frame, interlaced video uses roughly half the bandwidth than it would sending the entire picture. The downside of interlaced video is that fast motion may appear slightly blurred. For this reason, the DVD and HDTV standards also support progressive scan signals, which draw each line of the image consecutively. |
| Internet | Worldwide system of linked networks, providing data communications services including file transfer, electronic mail, World Wide Web (www) and newsgroups. |
| internet (Lower case i) | Any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet - as in inter-national or inter-state. |
| Internet (Upper case I) | The vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's. The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet and is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world. |
| Internet Archive | A non-profit digital library seeking to provide universal access to all knowledge. Archive-It is a project of the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). |
| Internet backbone | This superfast network spanning the world from one major metropolitan area to another is provided by a handful of national Internet service providers (ISPs). These organizations (including Net 99 and Alternet) use connections running at approximately 45 mbps (T3 lines) linked up at specified interconnection points called national access points (which are located in major metropolitan areas). Local ISPs connect to this backbone through routers so that data can be carried though the backbone to its destination. |
| Internet Service Provider (ISP) | A company that provides Internet access to people or corporations. Early ISPs generally had pools of modems awaiting dial-up connections, but many ISPs nowadays only deal in high-end business communications. Smaller ISPs buy bandwidth from larger ISPs. |
| Internet Standard | A specification, approved by the IESG and published as an RFC, that is stable and well-understood, is technically competent, has multiple, independent, and interoperable implementations with substantial operational experience, enjoys significant public support, and is recognizably useful in some or all parts of the Internet. |
| InterNIC | Stands for "Internet Network Information Center." The InterNIC is an organization created by the National Science Foundation to provide Internet information and domain name registration services. While the InterNIC was started as a joint effort between Network Solutions and AT&T, it is now run by the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). While the InterNIC still monitors domain names and provides WHOIS data, the domain name registration process has been relinquished to commercial domain registrars. Public information regarding domain names, registrars, and other Internet-related data can be accessed at the InterNIC website. |
| Interrupt | An Interrupt is a signal that informs the OS that something has occurred. |
| Intranet | Private network using internet type tools, but available only within an organisation. |
| Intrusion Detection | A security management system for computers and networks. An IDS gathers and analyzes information from various areas within a computer or a network to identify possible security breaches, which include both intrusions (attacks from outside the organization) and misuse (attacks from within the organization). |
| Inverter | A device that changes direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC). For example, that part of a UPS that converts the battery DC output to AC. |
| IP | Internet Protocol. IP specifies the format of packets (called datagrams) containing data and a destination address. IP is often combined with TCP. See also IPv4, IPv6. |
| IP Address | Also known as an "IP number" or simply an "IP," this is a code made up of numbers separated by three dots that identifies a particular computer on the Internet. Every computer, whether it be a Web server or the computer you're using right now, requires an IP address to connect to the Internet. IP addresses consist of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by three dots. For example "66.72.98.236" or "216.239.115.148". Your Internet Service Provider (ISP), will assign you either a static IP address (which is always the same) or a dynamic IP address, (which changes everytime you log on). ISPs typically assign dial-up users a dynamic IP address each time they sign on because it reduces the number of IP addresses they must register. However, if you connect to the Internet through a network or broadband connection, it is more likely that you have a static IP address. ISPs and organizations usually apply to the InterNIC for a range of IP addresses so that all their clients have similar addresses. There are three classes of IP address sets that can be registered: Class C, which consists of 255 IP addresses, class B, which contains 65,000 IP addresses, and class A, which includes hundreds of thousands of IP addresses. Because there are so many computers now connected to the Internet, the InterNIC is actually running out of IP addresses. Therefore, Class A and Class B address blocks are very hard, if not impossible, to get. Most large companies have to register multiple Class C addresses instead. To resolve this problem, the Internet Engineering Task Force, which created the original IP address standard, is working on a new protocol called "IP Next Generation" or "IPng." |
| IP Flood | A denial of service attack that sends a host more echo request ("ping") packets than the protocol implementation can handle. |
| IP Forwarding | IP forwarding is an Operating System option that allows a host to act as a router. A system that has more than 1 network interface card must have IP forwarding turned on in order for the system to be able to act as a router. |
| IP Number | (Internet Protocol Number) Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2 Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Many machines (especially servers) also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember. See also: Domain Name, Server, TCP/IP |
| IP packet | An IP packet is a chunk of data transferred over the Internet using standard Internet protocol (IP). Each packet begins with a header containing addressing and system control information. Unlike uniform ATM "cells," IP packets vary in length depending on the data being transmitted. See also: IP, IP address, ATM |
| IP Spoofing | The technique of supplying a false IP address. |
| IPSec | Internet Protocol Security (also abbreviated to IP Security). Encrypts TCP/IP traffic to secure communications within an intranet and provide the highest levels of security for VPN traffic across the Internet. |
| IPSEC (IP Secure) | The IETF standard for “secure IP” transport. Typically IPSEC is used in branch-VPN tunnels between routed LAN segments, but it’s destined to become the method for securing IP traffic over IPv6. |
| IPv4 | Internet Protocol version 4. Current IP standard, uses 32 bit (4 byte) addresses. cf IPv6. |
| IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) | An outdated version of the IP protocol that is still in use on the Internet. It uses a 32-bit addressing scheme, represented by four 8-bit (0-255) numbers separated by periods, such as 123.3.12.255. The addressing scheme allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion numbers (256*256*256*256). This gets to be a problem as more and more devices are connected to the Internet. ISPs have taken to using Network Address Translation to get around the problem for now, but IPv6 is the ultimate solution. IPv4 may be with us for a long time, even though it is technically outdated. |
| IPv6 | Internet Protocol version 6. Uses a 128bit (16 byte) address space, compared with the 32 bit (4 byte) address space used by IPv4. IPv6 provides a much larger address space than is available for IPv4 and is intended to overcome the limitation of IPv4 where IP addresses are a finite and exhaustible resource. The use of NAT devices has alleviated the need for an extended IP address range, and this in part has been one of the reasons responsible for the slow take up of IPv6. IPv6 is backwards compatible with IPv4. |
| IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) | The current version of the IP protocol that features a 128-bit addressing scheme, as opposed to the 32-bit addressing scheme of IPv4, supporting a much higher number of addresses. It also features other improvements over IPv4, such as support for multicast and anycast addressing. |
| IPX | Internetwork Packet Exchange. Novell Network networking protocol. |
| IRQ (Interrupt Request) | Stands for "Interrupt Request." PCs use interrupt requests to manage various hardware operations. Devices such as sound cards, modems, and keyboards can all send interrupt requests to the processor. For example, when the modem needs to run a process, it sends an interrupt request to the CPU saying, "Hey, hold up, let me do my thing!" The CPU then interrupts its current job to let the modem run its process. It is important to assign different IRQ addresses to different hardware devices is because the interrupt request signals run along single IRQ lines to a controller. This interrupt controller assigns priorities to incoming IRQs and sends them to the CPU. It's kind of like taking a number at the local deli, except the hardware usually only has to wait a couple of nanoseconds instead of like twenty minutes). Since the interrupt controller can control only one device per IRQ line, if you assign the same IRQ address to multiple devices, you are likely to get an IRQ conflict. This can cause a range of errors from not allowing network connections to crashing your computer. So make sure you assign unique IRQs to new hardware you install and avoid the frustration and keyboard throwing that conflicts can cause. |
| ISA | Stands for "Industry Standard Architecture." ISA is a type of bus used in PCs for adding expansion cards. For example, an ISA slot may be used to add a video card, a network card, or an extra serial port. The original 8-bit version of PCI uses a 62 pin connection and supports clock speeds of 8 and 33 MHz. 16-bit PCI uses 98 pins and supports the same clock speeds. The original 8-bit version of ISA was introduced in 1981 but the technology did not become widely used until 1984, when the 16-bit version was released. Two competing technologies -- MCA and VLB -- were also used by some manufacturers, but ISA remained the most common expansion bus for most of the 1980s and 1990s. However, by the end of the twentieth century, ISA ports were beginning to be replaced by faster PCI and AGP slots. Today, most computers only support PCI and AGP expansion cards. |
| iSCSI | Stands for "Internet Small Computer Systems Interface." iSCSI is an extension of the standard SCSI storage interface that allows SCSI commands to be sent over an IP based network. It enables computers to access hard drives over a network the same way they would access a drive that is directly connected to the computer. iSCSI is a popular protocol used by storage area networks, which allow multiple computers to share multiple hard drives. For example, data centers can be spread out over multiple locations using iSCSI and a standard Internet connection. While the data access time may be slower over the Internet than compared to a direct SCSI connection, iSCSI can serve as a helpful means for creating off-site backups and sharing large amounts of data across multiple locations. |
| ISO image | An ISO image is an archive file (also known as a disc image) of an optical disc in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This format is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .iso. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain a UDF file system since UDF is backward-compatible with ISO 9660. |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider. A company that provides access to the internet for others, typically via dial-up, ASDL or broadband. ISPs typically (but not always) also provide other services such as e-mail, newsgroup access and web-space. |
| Issue-Specific Policy | An Issue-Specific Policy is intended to address specific needs within an organization, such as a password policy. |
| IT | (Information Technology) A very general term referring to the entire field of Information Technology - anything from computer hardware to programming to network management. Most medium and large size companies have IT Departments. |
| IVR | Stands for "Interactive Voice Response." IVR is a telephony technology that can read a combination of touch tone and voice input. It gives users the ability to access a database of information via phone. A typical IVR system has several menus of prerecorded options that the caller can choose from. While many choices are as basic as choosing a number, some options may require the caller to speak detailed information such as his name or account number. This input is read by the IVR system and is used to access the appropriate information in the database. For example, a bank may have an IVR system that allows members to call in and check their balance or recent transactions. Credit card companies and stock brokerage firms also use IVR systems to allow users to access information from their account. The technology can also be used used for other purposes such as phone surveys, checking movie times, and call center forwarding. Because the caller can vocally respond to prerecorded messages, using an IVR system is almost like talking to another human being. That is, as long as it understands you. |
| IYO | Chat abbreviation: In Your Opinion. Normally qualified with a question or a statement. |
| IYSWIM | Chat abbreviation for: If You See What I Mean. |
