Glossary terms provided by TechTerms.com.
| Word | Description |
| N/A | 1. Abbreviation for "Not Applicable". 2. Abbreviation for "Not Appropriate". |
| Nagware | This is shareware that has screens that pop up and require you to press a button or wait an amount of time. These nag screens go away after you pay for the software and enter a registration code. |
| Nameserver | Alternative name for a DNS Server. |
| Nano | a text editor originally designed to be a clone of Pico |
| Nanotechnology | The purposeful manipulation of matter at the atomic level to achieve a defined goal. Atomic constructs can be measured in nanometers. Someday nanotechnology may be used to send a group of tiny machines into your bloodstream and free up clogged arteries, or a bunch of tiny nano-war machines could be built and unintentionally change the entire earth into a gray blob of nano-devices. |
| NAPT | Network Address and Port Translation. See also NAT. |
| Narrow SCSI | The original form of SCSI, using 50 pins and transmitting data at 5MBps. See also Wide SCSI. Drives and adapters that support Narrow SCSI usually have an “N” in the part number. |
| NAS | Network Attached Storage. Typically a data server on a network that provides file storage accessed via the network. cf DAS and SAN. |
| NAT | 1. Network Address Translation - translates multiple IP addresses on a private LAN to one public address used on the Internet. This allows (for example) and office to operate within a private IP address range and all appear to share a single IP address to the outside world. 2. Network Address Translator - when applied to a device that sits between two network domains and maps addresses from one network domain to another. |
| NAT/Firewall | A NAT device that acts as a firewall, filtering network packets entering or leaving a network. |
| Native File | When you save a file using a certain program, the file is often saved in a proprietary format only that program can recognize. For example, if you save a Microsoft Word document, it is saved as a Word document (i.e. mydocument.doc). This is a native Word file -- that is, the file format is native to the Microsoft Word application and may not be recognized by other programs. When you use the "Save As..." command to save a file, you may be given the option to save the file in a different format. For example, you might be able to save a Word document as a plain text (.txt) file or a rich text (.rtf) file. These formats are not native to Microsoft Word, but can still be opened by the Microsoft Word program. Similarly, Adobe Photoshop saves files as Photoshop documents (.psd files), but can also save them in .jpg and .gif formats, among others. It is usually best to save a file in a program's native file format because you can be sure it will store all the data you have created with the program. While other formats may be more compatible with other programs, they might not save all the information in the file. For example, if you save a Word document as a plain text file, all the text formatting you had added will be removed. Saving a Photoshop document in JPEG format will reduce the image quality and flatten all the image's layers. So if you're planning on editing a file after you've saved it, saving it as a native file is the best choice. If you want to save the most compatible version of the file, saving a copy of the file in a more generic format is a good idea. |
| Natural Disaster | Any "act of God" (e.g., fire, flood, earthquake, lightning, or wind) that disables a system component. |
| NDR | Non Delivery Report. See Non Delivery Notification for details. |
| NESTING | A term used in Boolean searching to indicate the sequence in which operations are to be performed. Enclosing words in parentheses identifies a group or "nest." Groups can be within other groups. The operations will be performed from the innermost nest to the outmost, and then from left to right. |
| NetBEUI | NetBIOS Enhanced User Interface. Network protocol for Windows NT networks. Originally developed by IBM to provide a mechanism for passing NetBIOS packets over Token Ring and Ethernet. Later extended to include support for DECnet, IPX/SPX and TCP/IP. |
| NetBIOS | Network Basic Input Output System. Network protocol for LAN Manager and Windows NT networks. |
| netiquette | Short for network etiquette; refers to using basic good manners in your electronic communications. It's advisable to never write anything you would feel uncomfortable repeating in person. |
| Netmask | A netmask is used to define a range of IP addresses. It is similar to a subnet mask, but is used to define classes of IPs rather than a range of IPs that may be used within a network. For example, IP addresses of class B have a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. This means the IPs must all have the same first two sections, but may have different numbers for the second two sections. Because a limited number of IP addresses are available, most IP ranges are assigned as Class C, which has a netmask 255.255.255.0. This defines a range of IPs that have identical numbers in the first three sections, but may contain any number between 0 and 255 in the final section. Therefore, a Class C netmask defines a range of 256 different addresses. |
| Network | Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an internet. See also: internet (Lower case i) |
| network adapter | A device that connects your computer to a network; also called an adapter card or network interface card. |
| Network Connectivity | Connecting and communicating between two or more computers, typically over a network. |
| Network Mapping | To compile an electronic inventory of the systems and the services on your network. |
| Network Protocol | Standards that allow computers to communicate. Protocols also define ways of handling lost or damaged data packets. The main types of network protocol are: HTTP FTP TCP/IP IPX DECnet AppleTalk NetBIOS/NetBEUI |
| Network Taps | Network taps are hardware devices that hook directly onto the network cable and send a copy of the traffic that passes through it to one or more other networked devices. |
| Network Topology | The different way computers (and network enabled peripherals) are arranged on or connected to a network. The most common network topologies are: Star. All computers are connected to a central hub. Ring. Each computer is connected to two others, such that starting at any one computer you can trace the connection through each computer back on the ring back to the first. Bus. All computers are connected to a central cable, normally termed bus or backbone. Tree. Group of start networks each connected to a linear bus. These topologies can be mixed. |
| Network-Based IDS | A network-based IDS system monitors the traffic on its network segment as a data source. This is generally accomplished by placing the network interface card in promiscuous mode to capture all network traffic that crosses its network segment. Network traffic on other segments, and traffic on other means of communication (like phone lines) can't be monitored. Network-based IDS involves looking at the packets on the network as they pass by some sensor. The sensor can only see the packets that happen to be carried on the network segment it's attached to. Packets are considered to be of interest if they match a signature.Network-based intrusion detection passively monitors network activity for indications of attacks. Network monitoring offers several advantages over traditional host-based intrusion detection systems. Because many intrusions occur over networks at some point, and because networks are increasingly becoming the targets of attack, these techniques are an excellent method of detecting many attacks which may be missed by host-based intrusion detection mechanisms. |
| Newb | Newbie. See noob for details. |
| NFR | Not For Resale. Product that may not be resold, transferred, assigned to a third party or installed at a customer site. |
| NIB | New In Box. Abbreviation sometimes used on auction sites. |
| Nibble | Half a byte or 4 bits. |
| NIC | 1. Network Interface Card. Provides the physical connection between the computer and network. On many modern PCs the NIC is integrated onto the motherboard instead of being a separate card. |
| NIDS | Network based Intrusion Detection System. A system for detecting unauthorised access to a (computer) network. A NIDS will typically use a packet sniffer to monitor network traffic to attempt to detect intrusions on a network. cf Intrusion Detection System (IDS). |
| NLB | Network Load Balancing. A clustering technology from Microsoft allowing network traffic to be evenly distributed across a number of servers. It also helps to provide high availability by detecting host failures and rerouting traffic to one of the available servers. |
| NNTP | Network News Transport Protocol. Protocol used to post and receive UseNet messages. |
| NOC | 1. Network Operations Centre. A site which is responsible for the day to day monitoring and management of a large scale network (i.e. a WAN or part of the Internet possibly also a LAN). 2. No Overall Control. Abbreviation often used when displaying election results to indicate that no party (or individual) has an overall majority. |
| Node | Any single computer connected to a network. See also: Network |
| Non Delivery Notification | An email sent by an email system to indicate that an email has not been delivered. Often referred to as an NDN or NDR. Some email systems are configured not to generate NDNs. |
| Non-Breaking Space (NBSP) | An HTML command that is used to display a single text space without a visible character in that space. The format in HTML for this is and it can be used to position text or to fool a browser into behaving like text is in a space when there is no text visible. |
| Non-Printable Character | A character that doesn't have a corresponding character letter to its corresponding ASCII code. Examples would be the Linefeed, which is ASCII character code 10 decimal, the Carriage Return, which is 13 decimal, or the bell sound, which is decimal 7. On a PC, you can often add non-printable characters by holding down the Alt key, and typing in the decimal value (i.e., Alt-007 gets you a bell). There are other character encoding schemes, but ASCII is the most prevalent. |
| Non-Repudiation | Non-repudiation is the ability for a system to prove that a specific user and only that specific user sent a message and that it hasn't been modified. |
| Nonpersistent disk mode | All disk writes issued by software running inside a virtual machine with a nonpersistent disk appear to be written to disk, but are in fact discarded after the session is powered down. As a result, a virtual disk or raw disk in nonpersistent mode is not modified by VMware. |
| Noob | 1. An abbreviation for newbie. Noob indicates a novice, or someone new or inexperienced. Also rendered Newb. 2. Someone behaving or giving the impression to others that they are a novice (even though they might think otherwise). Often used as an insult or derogatory remark intended to imply that the person is stupid, idiotic or has little or no skill. Also rendered as newb or n00b. 3. Work done by a newbie. A derogative term indicating a poor level of work - especially where a higher level of work would normally be expected. Thus a noob installation is one poorly performed which suffers from problems. |
| Northbridge | The northbridge is a chip inside a computer that connects the central processing unit (CPU) to other primary components in the system. These components include RAM (a.k.a. system memory), the frontside bus (FSB), PCI Express cards, and the AGP card. The northbridge also connects to the southbridge, which controls the remaining components of the computer. While the CPU is the main processor inside the computer, the northbridge is the primary controller. It acts like a traffic cop directing data to and from the CPU. Therefore, the performance of the northbridge chip affects the overall performance of the computer. On Intel systems, the northbridge is also called the Memory Controller Hub (MCH), since it controls the data flow to and from the system memory. |
| NOS | 1. Network Operating System. An operating system that provides control over the network, enabling users to copy and share files and share some peripherals such as printers. 2. Not Otherwise Specified. 3. New Old Stock. Describes stock (typically equipment) that is old (and no longer produced) but which has not been used so is in new (unused) condition. |
| NSP | etwork Service Provider. A company which provides access to a network (such as, but not limited to, the internet). In the internet age, NSPs who provide access to the internet are more commonly known as ISPs. |
| NSPI | Name Service Provider Interface. Facilitates communication between the Active Directory (AD) and Exchange Directory Service (XDS). |
| NT | 1. New Technology. Specifically refers to Microsoft's Windows NT 3.5 and NT 4 Windows operating systems. Later versions of Windows are built on NT, which is why references to NT remain in later versions of Windows. |
| NT4 | Microsoft Windows NT 4 (workstation or server). |
| NTFS | NT File System. File system developed by Microsoft for Windows NT and supported by later Windows operating systems. Supports long file names, journaling, security access restrictions (see DAC), lazy-write (allowing disk writes to be cached). |
| NTFS (NT File System | This alternative file allocation system available first with the Windows NT operating system, and then with Windows 2000. It allows for larger disk drives with smaller cluster sizes, as well as a performance increase and more robust security. NTFS is now the standard file system for Windows XP. |
| NTLDR | NT Loader. NTLDR is the boot loader for Windows NT, and for later versions of Windows. This is the first application run when Windows is booted and is responsible for starting the loading of Windows. |
| NTLM | NT Lan Manager. A Microsoft proprietary network user authentication protocol. |
| NTP | Network Time Protocol. A protocol for ensuring accurate synchronization of time (i.e. the clock) between computers across a network (such as the internet). |
| NTSC | National Television System Committee. NTSC is the name of the analogue TV standard used in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Japan. An NTSC picture is made of 525 scan lines of which 486 are visible. Each horizontal line provides 720 pixels. Thus the viewable area of an NTSC picture is 720 by 486. Whilst NTSC has a conventional non-widescreen aspect ratio of 4:3, each pixel is not square but are slightly narrower than they are tall. An NTSC picture is interlaced, images are transmitted at 59.94Hz, giving approximately 30 complete frames per second. cf SDTV, HDTV, PAL. |
| Null | When a variable has no value, it considered to be null. Having a null value is different than having a value of 0, since 0 is an actual value. However, when used in a boolean test, both null and zero result in a FALSE value. Programmers often use boolean tests to determine whether a variable has been given a value or not. |
| Null Character | A null character is a character with all its bits set to zero. Therefore, it has a numeric value of zero and can be used to represent the end of a string of characters, such as a word or phrase. This helps programmers determine the length of strings. In practical applications, such as database and spreadsheet programs, null characters are used as fillers for spaces. |
| Null Session | Known as Anonymous Logon, it is a way of letting an anonymous user retrieve information such as user names and shares over the network or connect without authentication. It is used by applications such as explorer.exe to enumerate shares on remote servers. |
| Num Lock | Num Lock is a toggle key that toggles the input of the numeric keypad. When Num Lock is on, the keypad can be used to enter numeric values. When Num Lock is off, they keys provide different input. For example, 4 is left arrow, 6 is right arrow, 8 is up arrow, and 2 is down arrow. Since most keyboards now include arrow keys, the Num Lock is rarely used. However, some keyboards still support the Num Lock feature. Therefore, if you cannot enter numbers with the numeric keypad, you may be able to fix the problem by simply pressing the Num Lock key. |
| Nvidia | vidia (NASDAQ: NVDA pronounced /ɛnˈvɪ.di.ə/) is a multinational corporation which specializes in the development of graphics processing units and chipset technologies for workstations, personal computers, and mobile devices. |
