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Acronyms:  

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A B C D E F G H I JK L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ  

 

100BASE-FX

A variant of IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network. Borrows the physical characteristics of FDDI's multimode fiber PMD, but uses Ethernet framing & CSMA/CD. One of three flavours of "100BASE-T" proposed by the Fast Ethernet Alliance. Came from the 100BASE-X proposal.

100BASE-T Generic name for the 100Mbps variants of IEEE 802.3, especially the twisted-pair based ones. The three variants are called 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-FX, and 100BASE-T4. A medium-independent interface and an adapter is define (to be used like the AUI and MAU of 10Mbps 802.3). When a device is said to support 100BASE-T, usually 100BASE-TX is meant. 
100BASE-T4 A variant of IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network. One of the flavours of "100BASE-T". Uses 8B6T encoding and 25MHZ clocking, and in addition to the two pairs traditionally used in the manner of 10BASE-T, also has two pair used in bi-directional half-duplex fashion. Among other things, this means that this particular kind of Ethernet cannot be made full duplex without the use of more pair. Came from the 4T+ proposal. 
100BASE-TX A variant of IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network. Borrows the physical characteristics of FDDI's TP-PMD, TP-PMD, but uses Ethernet framing & CSMA/CD. One of three flavours of "100BASE-T" proposed by the Fast Ethernet Alliance. Came from the 100BASE-X proposal. 
100BASE-X The old name for 100BASE-FX and 100BASE-TX.
100Mbps Copper UNI ATM Forum UNI specification for 100Mbps over some sort of copper cable. I believe it is just 100MbpsUNI making use of FDDI's TP-PMD rather than the older fibre PMD. 
100Mbps UNI ATM Forum 100Mbps multimode fibre private UNI. Same as Fore's TAXI. Borrows optical characteristics & basic encoding of FDDI. 
100VG-AnyLAN Originally a proposal to IEEE 802.3 for a 100Mbps Ethernet-like network, later relegated to IEEE 802.12. Formerly known as 100BASE-VG. Uses Demand Priority media access method and Quartet Signalling. I've also seen reference to its ability to use Category 4 UTP, Category 5 UTP, and STP, but I don't know how many pairs. 
100VGF AnyLAN Forum,  A group of vendors trying to accelerate 100VG-AnyLAN acceptance & interoperability. 
10BASE2 IEEE 802.3 10BASE2: IEEE's standardised version of Digital Equipment Corporation's ThinWire Ethernet, which runs over a thinner coaxial cable than the original 10BASE5. Another old nickname for it was "Cheaper-Net". The coaxial cable is specific to 10BASE2, but two variants of off-the-shelf RG cable are sometimes used. The cable looks very similar to the cable used for IBM 3270-style terminals or that used for home cable TV, but has different electrical characteristics. The "2" in the name refers to the 200 meter (or more precisely, 185 meter) limit on thet cable length. Like 10BASE5, computers are attached along the length of the cable. 
10BASE5 IEEE 802.3 10BASE5: "Ethernet" or "ThickWire Ethernet", IEEE's standardised version of the original 10Mbps Ethernet which runs over a rather thick Ethernet-specific type of coaxial cable. The "5" in the name refers to the 500 meter maximum cable length. Computers are attached along the length of the cable. See "Error! Bookmark not defined.". 
10BASE-F Three variants of IEEE 802.3 which runs over multimode fibre. See 10BASE-FB, 10BASE-FP, and 10BASE-FL and "Error! Bookmark not defined.". 
10BASE-FB IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FB: "Synchronous Ethernet" which is a special-purpose multimode fibre link for linking repeaters that allows the repeaters to communicate more efficiently, thus enlarging the count of repeaters that can be placed in series above the traditional 4. Described in IEEE 802.3 Section 17. 
10BASE-FL IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FL: multimode fibre Ethernet used to attach a pair of devices (each being either a host or a repeater) as a "Link Segment"--a lot like 10BASE-T except that it uses fibre. It makes FOIRL obsolete. 10BASE-FL transceivers can interoperate with FOIRL transceivers. It is described in IEEE 802.3 Section 18. 
10BASE-FP IEEE 802.3 10BASE-FP: passive star fibre Ethernet. Attaches a number of Ethernet devices together with a passive star hub (i.e., the hub is not electronic--it just splits the light travelling through each incoming fibre to go out all the outgoing fibers). It is described in IEEE 802.3 Section 16. 
10BASE-T   A variant of IEEE 802.3 which allows stations to be attached via twisted-pair cable. 
4T+  Old name for 100BASE-T4. 
802, 802.x see IEEE 802, IEEE 802.x.

A

AAL   ATM Adaptation Layer  (ATM term) the layer between ATM cells and the (typically packetized) data that they carry. For example, if you send IP packets over an ATM network, some sort of ATM Adaptation Layer will be used.
ABR Available Bit Rate (ATM term) one of several quality-of-service traffic classes used in ATM. ABR basically means "use whatever is available", i.e. don't offer any special quality of service.
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, modems attached to twisted pair copper wiring that transmit from 1.5 MBPS to 9 MBPS downstream (to the subscriber) and from 16 KBPS to 800 KBPS upstream, depending on line distance.  Remote access method that makes use of a faster channel for local-to-remote communications than remote-to-local.
ANI Automated Number Identification, a system used by the phone co. to identify a caller's phone number. * Codes do not block ANI requests. Calling a local ANI line will report the number of the phone being used.
ANSI

American National Standards Institute,  a definer of standards of all kinds, including FDDI. 
APON

ATM Passive Optical Network,  a passive optical network running ATM.
ASP

Active Server Page,  Microsoft’s mark-up language for Web Servers.

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the charater set used on almost all destops.
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode,  a method for switching little fixed-size packets (cells) around. Like T1 and DS3, digitised voice was a major consideration in its design, but it can be used for data. It can be run at different speeds over different media including T1 and DS3 as well as 51Mbps, 100Mbps, 155Mbps and 622Mbps standards (see SONET & TAXI). The fixed cell size is 53 bytes. Though ATM is really designed for voice and WAN, there are schemes to use it in LANs. ATM is a big buzzword these days but it is still very new, ultra high speed cell based data transmission protocol which may be run over ADSL.
ATM25

ATM Forum defined 25.6Mbit/s cell based user interface based on IBM token ring network. 
ATU-C and ATU-R ADSL Transmission Unit, Central or Remote, the device at the end of an ADSL line that stands between the line and the first item of equipment in the subscriber premises or telephone switch. It may be integrated within an access node. 
AUI  Attachment Unit Interface,  the Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 term for the interface between a MAU and a station. A special kind of cable known as an "AUI Cable" can attach a MAU to a station at a distance (up to 50 meters). 
AVI  Audio Video Interleave, a graphics file format extension

B

BDSL  Same as VDSL.
B-ISDN Broadband Integrated Digital Network, a digital network with ATM switching operating at data rates in excess of 1.544 or 2.048 MBPS. ATM enables transport and switching of voice, data, image, and video over the same infrastructure. 
BNC Bayonet Neill-Concelman, a type of connector, a type of connector used for attaching coax cable to electronic equipment which can be attached or detached quicker than connectors that screw. ThinWire Ethernet (IEEE 802.3 10BASE2) uses BNC connectors. 
BBS Bulletin Board System, a BBS is a computer service where users can chat, post messages, download files, etc. Most BBS's are dial-in. While very popular in the 1980s, the advent of the internet has led to their gradual extinction.

C

CAT 3

Category 3 Unshielded Twisted Pair standardisation of unshielded twisted pair cable for voice use. Some data communications standards such as 10BASE-T can utilise it.

CAT 4 Category 4 unshielded Twisted Pair standardisation of unshielded twisted pair cable. 
CAT 5 Category 5 unshielded Twisted Pair standardisation of unshielded twisted pair cable for data use. TP-PMD requires Category 5 cable rather than Category 3. h
CAT 6       Category 6 Name people and organisations often associate with their various proposals for yet another grade of twisted pair media. At the time of this writing, 9/27/97, there is no official "Category 6". 
CATV Community Access Television, also known as Cable TV.. 
CBR Constant Bit Rate, an (ATM term) one of several quality-of-service traffic classes used in ATM. 
CCITT

Consultative Committee for International Telegraph and Telephone,  an international telecommunications standards organisation, now subsumed by the ITU. 
CDDI Copper Data Distribution Interface, Commonly used term for TP-PMD, but actually a trade name of Crescendo. 
CGI Common Gateway Interface, a protocol that allows for communication between a program and forms on the Web. Another type of script language usually run under UNIX, CGIs are frequently written in C, Perl, or shell scripts, and are used for a variety of form-processing applications.
CISC Complex Instruction Set Computer,  a type of CPU that employs powerful, often elaborate, machine instructions often take several clock cycles to complete.
CMIP Common Management Information Protocol, an OSI protocol for management of network equipment. Not widely implemented. See SNMP. 
CMOT CMIP over TCP/IP, a protocol consisting of CMIP running under TCP/IP. An alternative to SNMP. 
CLEP Competitive Local Exchange Provider, a Canadian term for parallel Telco exchange providers.
COM  Common Object Model, or a Domain on the Internet like EDU, GOV, ORG, and CA as in (WWW.FWMT.COM).
CPE  Customer Premises Equipment, that portion of the ADSL system residing within the customer's premises.
CRC  Cyclic Redundancy Check, an error checking technique: a way in which a frame or packet can be created in such a way that the receiver can determine whether an error is likely to have occurred in the transmission. An error will halt execution.
CSA Canadian Standards Association, an independent agency for certification of products sold in Canada. 
CSA Carrier Serving Area, area served by a LEC, RBOC or Telco, often using Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) technology. 
CSMA/CD

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection, the method by which nodes on an Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 LAN gain access to the network, i.e. one of several techniques that have been built into different LAN technologies to allow multiple nodes to share the same wires/electronics to send their data. 
CSU/DSU Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit,
CUSeeMe Said as it sounds, Video Conferencing Software, usually FREEWARE

D

DAS Dual Attachment Station, a type of FDDI node that attaches to both rings of a counter-rotating ring to provide some fallback capability. The other type is SAS (Single Attachment Station). Typically, more vital FDDI nodes are DAS, e.g. routers, servers, links between hubs, and individual client stations are SAS. 
DECNet The Trade name of Digital Equipment's Corporation networking products. It is a kind of network built out of Digital Equipment Corporations own networking protocols (with some standard protocols also used). 
DES 

Digital Encryption Standard or Standards, cause there’s now more that one. A way of securing data from noisy people.
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, a part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols for assigning IP numbers dynamically rather than fixed.
DOS      Disk Operating System, the software which provides an interface to hardware devices such as hard drives, memory, etc.
DoS Denial of Service, a reference to any program, script, etc., which slows or halts some aspect of a system's function. Flooding and/or nuking are examples of DoS attacks.
DNS Domain Name Server or Service an Internet phonebook you put in a name like “WWW.FWMT.COM” it translates it to 204.244.97.35 the IP address of our site. The system that translates human-readable addresses to IP addresses, and vice-versa.
DSLAM

Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer, specifically a device which takes a number of ADSL subscriber lines and concentrates these to a single ATM line

DS0 Digital Signal 0, 64 KBPS digital representation of voice. 
DS1 Digital Signal 1,  twenty-four voice channels packed into a 193 bit frame and transmitted at 1.544 MBPS. The unframed version, or payload, is 192 bits at a rate of 1.536 MBPS
DS2 Digital Signal 2, four T1 frames packed into a higher level frame transmitted at 6.312 MBPS. 
DSL Digital Subscriber Line, modems on either end of a single twisted pair wire that delivers ISDN Basic Rate Access. 
DXI Data Exchange Interface. ATM Forum

E

E1 European basic multiplex rate which packs thirty voice channels into a 256 bit frame and transmitted at 2.048 MBPS.
EDI Electronic Data Interchange,
EISA Extended ISA, an other bus architecture that didn’t take, prior to PCI.
ELAN

Emulated LAN, essentially a fairly simple kind of VLAN defined in the ATM Forum's LANE specification. Unlike many VLAN schemes, the ELAN scheme is agreed upon by multiple vendors, i.e., the members of the ATM Forum.

F

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
FDDI Fibre Data Distribution Interface, a LAN data-link protocol. Designed to run on multi-mode fibre. "Raw" rate of data transmission is 100 megabits/second. Developed by the American National Standards Institute. 
FDDI-2 Same speed, same fibre, same basic protocol as FDDI. FDDI-2 adds a layer which allows you to allocate fixed bandwidth to applications of your choice, making it more like broadband. FDDI-2 is still rather new. 
FDSE  Full Duplex Switched Ethernet, a variant of Switched Ethernet which does not use CSMA/CD, but uses slightly-modified network interface cards to send & receive packets simultaneously. Presumably based on 10BASE-T for most clients, and cannot be based on ThinWire or ThickWire Ethernet. 
FEXT Far End Cross Talk,  the interference occurring between two signals at the end of the lines remote from the telephone switch. 
FOIRL Fibre Optic Inter-Repeater Link, a standard for running IEEE 802.3 over fibber, linking two devices (each either a host or a repeater) as a "Link Segment". It has been replaced by 10BASE-FL.
FTP File Transfer Protocol, a protocol in the "TCP/IP" family for copying files from one computer to another. 
FTTCab Fibre To The Cabinet, network architecture where an optical fibre connects the telephone switch to a street-side cabinet where the signal is converted to feed the subscriber over a twisted copper pair. 
FTTH Fibre To The Home, a network where an optical fibre runs from telephone switch to the subscriber's premises or home. 
FTTK or FTTC Fibre To the Kerb (Copper), a network where an optical fibre runs from telephone switch to a kerbside distribution point close to the subscriber where it is converted to a copper pair.
FDSEC Full Duplex Switched Ethernet Consortium a group of vendors that are working out the details of FDSE. Cabletron is a member. 

G

GIF

Graphic Interchange Format, a file format for saving graphics.
GOSIP Government Open Systems Interconnect Profile, a subset of OSI standards specific to US Government procurements, designed to maximise interoperability in areas where plain OSI standards are ambiguous or allow options. Theoretically, required of all US Government networking procurements since mid-1990. 
GSM Global System for Mobil-communications, one of the two digital wireless standards for cellular.

H

HDLC  High-level Data Link Control, a low-level protocol used on synchronous WAN lines. 
HDSL High-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line, remote access line above basic ISDN speed.   Modems on either end of one or more twisted pair wires that deliver T1 or E1 speeds. At present T1 requires two lines and E1 requires three. See SDSL for one line HDSL. 
HFC  Hybrid Fibre Coax, a system (usually CATV) where fibre is run to a distribution point close to the subscriber and then the signal is converted to run to the subscriber's premises over coaxial cable. 
HiPPI High Performance Parallel Interface,
HSSI High Speed Serial Interface, a physical layer interface for serial communications between a DTE (e.g. a router) and a DCE (e.g. a DSU/CSU) that supports up to 52Mbps. Serves the same purpose as RS-232, but at a higher range of communication speeds. Used mostly for DS3 WAN links. 
HTML  HyperText Mark-up Language A programming language.
HTTP  HyperText Transfer Protocol,  the protocol that governs the transfer of WEB pages to  WEB browsers. 
HTTP-NG HTTP-Next Generation

I

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol, a TCP/IP protocol used for sending error and control functions such as, Ping sents out ICMP echo requests. (Documented in RFC792)
ICP 

Internet Control Packet, variant of IP protocols used in WAN's

IDC Internet Database Connector
IEEE Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers
IEEE 802 The set of IEEE standards for the definition of LAN protocols. A story goes that a long time ago, IEEE and ANSI decided that IEEE would get the slow protocols and ANSI would get the fast ones, thus IEEE defined the 802 protocols and ANSI defined FDDI. Presumably IEEE saw limited application for FDDI at the time. Also, the IEEE standards-making committees associated with these standards. 
IEEE 802.1  The IEEE 802 standard for Network Management and Network Bridging of IEEE 802 networks.  An algorithm, the original version of which was invented by DEC, used to prevent bridging loops by creating a spanning tree.
IEEE 802.11  Proposed IEEE 802 group for wireless Ethernet. 
IEEE 802.12  Group within IEEE 802 working on 100VG-AnyLAN. 
IEEE 802.2  An IEEE standard for the portion of LAN data-link protocols that is the same for all flavours of IEEE LAN protocols, e.g. 802.3 and 802.5. Sometimes not used. 
IEEE 802.3  An IEEE standard for LANs--their "improved" version of Ethernet. See Ethernet. 
IEEE 802.3u  The portion of IEEE 802.3 which defines the 100Mbps version, i.e. Fast Ethernet or 100BASE-T. 
IEEE 802.4 An IEEE standard for LANs: Token Bus networks. Basically, standardises MAP, a protocol that operates a Token Bus protocol on broadband. 
IEEE 802.5 An IEEE standard for Token-Ring-based LANs. There are two types: 4Mbps and 16Mbps. See also "Token Ring". 
IEEE 802.6 An IEEE standard for Metropolitan Area Networks. Also known as DQDB. 
IEEE 802.7  An IEEE 802 technical advisory group on Broadband. 
IEEE 802.8  An IEEE 802 technical advisory group on FDDI & fibber optics. 
IEEE 802.9  An IEEE 802 group on integrated data & voice networks.    
IIS  Internet Information Server,  Microsoft's now at ver. 4.    
IJG Independent JPEG Group
IMAP

Internet Mail Access Protocol, TCP/IP-based protocol similar to POP, but with additional function designed to handle storage of mail on the server rather than the client. There are two versions in common use: IMAP2 and IMAP4. 
ISA   Integrated System Architecture, 16 bit slot for PC's
IP Internet Protocol, The basic protocol of TCP/IP and the Internet. 
IP  An address, A unique number fixed or assigned, that marks a location on the network, LAN/WAN or Internet 
IRC     Internet Relay Chat, a popular service that allows users to talk with one another in individual rooms called channels.
IPX 

Internetwork Pack Exchange, a Novell's protocol used by Netware IPX/SPX. Utilises parts of XNS. A router with "IPX routing" purports to interconnect LANs so that Novell Netware clients & servers can talk through the router. 
ISAPI Internet Services Application Programing Interface (Microsoft)
ISDN  Integrated Services Digital Network, a recent development in telephone/data communications that offers the subscriber digitised voice service and/or 64Kbps data service. 
ISDL  Uses ISDN transmission technology to deliver data at 128kbps into an IDSL "modem bank" connected to a router. 
ISP  Internet Service Provider, an organisation offering and providing Internet services to the public and having its own computer servers to provide the services offered. 

JK

JPEG     Joint Photographic Expert Group, an other graphics file format for video. 
Kbps Kilobits per second,  A measure of transmission speed, a thousand bits per second.

L

LAN  Local Area Network  a group of two or more computers connected together. 
LANE  ATM Forum's method of using an ATM switch or switches to emulate an Ethernet or Token Ring LAN. The resulting "Emulated LAN" is called an ELAN, which can be thought of as a kind of fairly simple VLAN. 
LCF-PMD  low-cost Fibre, PMD. FDDI in a less expensive than PMD. I don't believe it is common nor is it finished as a standard. 
LEC 

Local Exchange Carrier, one of the new U.S. telephone access and service providers that have grown up with the recent U.S. deregulation of telecommunications. LAN Switching, a          term for bridging or cut-through switching, usually referring to a device with more than two ports. 
LISP List Processing Language

M

MAU  Media Adapter Unit, an IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet device which attaches a station to the cable. Popularly called a "transceiver". Can be attached by cable to the station or built into the station. 
MAC  Media Access Control, a layer within the OSI Data Link Layer. every NIC has a MAC Address.
MAP   Translates a virtual address to a fixed address.
MPEG  Motion Picture Experts Group, the group that has defined the standards for compressed video transmission. Yet another video file format.
MIB Management Information Base, the set of parameters an SNMP management station can query or set in an SNMP agent (e.g. router). Standard, minimal MIBs have been defined (MIB I, MIB II), and vendors often have custom entries. In theory, any SNMP manager can talk to any SNMP agent with a properly defined MIB. 
MII   Media Independent Interface, an Interface much like the 10Mbps Ethernet "AUI" Interface only for 100Mbps Ethernet (100BASE-T, etc). 
MIME  Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions, a protocol for sending enclosures in e-mail. 
MPOA Multi-protocol Over ATM, ATM Forum's method of using an ATM switch or switches to take the place of routing. The protocol/method is currently in development. As its name implies, it is intended to handle more than just TCP/IP, but TCP/IP support is what is being developed to begin with. 
MUP  Multiple UNC Provider

N

NAP  Network Access Provider, another name for the provider of networked telephone and associated services, usually in the U.S. 
NCSA  National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NDIS  Network Driver Interface Specification, a network driver unique to a NIC.