Host

Any machine can be a host. The machine you log into is your 'login host', the machine you read news from is a 'news host', etc.

HTML

Acronym for HyperText Markup Language, the underlying formatting for World-Wide-Web documents. A Primer explaining the format is available for beginners.

HTTP

Acronym for HyperText Transport Protocol the system for requesting HTML documents from the World-Wide-Web.

Information Superhighway

Deprecated. A term often used by newbies and Al Gore to describe the Internet.

See also: cyber.

Home

A directory or WWW page that is 'owned' by a user is often referred to as their 'home directory' or 'home page'.

HQX

A popular program for the Macintosh used to convert binary files into the 7-bit BinHex format so they can be sent as text.

See also: uuencode.

Hub

In networks (primarily ethernet) arranged with a 'star' topology (as opposed to a 'ring'), the central connecting device is usually known as the 'hub'. (temagami)

HURD

A FSF project to build a multi-server operating system based on the MACH kernel.

Hypertext

A system of "live" documents where a text file contains references to other documents that can be followed, thus linking documents to other related materials. The best known example is HTML.

IBGP

Interior Border Gateway Protocol A pair of routers within a single Autonomous System administrative domain which exchange routes using BGP.

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the not-for-profit organization that is responsible for domain name registration, based in Marina Del Rey, California.

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol, the standard error and control message protocol for Internet systems. Defined in RFC 792. The most well known use of ICMP messages is the Echo Request - Echo Reply sequence used by ping.

Icon

A graphical image representing a (usually easily recognized) function or control, usually reacts to being selected by performing some useful or entertaining action. A primary feature of most GUIs.

IEEE

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.

IEEE 802.3

The IEEE standard defining the ethernet communications standard.

IETF

The Internet Engineering Task Force, The IETF is the protocol engineering and development arm of the Internet, the IETF home page provides specific information in excruciating detail.

IKE

Internet Key Exchange.

IMHO

Shorthand for In My Humble Opinion.

See also: ROTFL, and TMK.

Internet

A loose confederation of networks around the world, the networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the U.S. Government ARPAnet project, and is specifically designed to have no central governing authority or 'root', node.

Internic

The Internic provides the primary directory and registration services for the American part of the Internet.

Intranet

A private network using standard internet protocols but with limited or no connectivity to the public internet. An intranet is often connected to the public networks via a firewall.

IP

Internet Protocol, the standard communications scheme used for internet connected hosts, as specified in RFC 791.

IPSEC

Internet Protocol SECurity, a set of protocols for encryption of IP traffic. There are two IPSEC modes, 'payload' encryption where only the packet data portion is encrypted, and 'tunnel' where the original packet headers are encrypted and encapsulated in another packet. Defined in RFC 2401.

IRC

Acronym for Internet Relay Chat, a world-wide distributed live chat system.

ISAKMP

Pronounced /eye-suh-kemp/, Internet Security Association Key Management Protocol, a authentication system for the secure exchange of encryption keys. Defined in RFC 2408.

See also: IKE, IPSEC VPN.

ISDN

Acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network, a high-speed digital phone system that supersedes POTS.

See also: PRI and the ISDN Glossary. (lorenzen)

ISP

Acronym for Internet Service Provider, these are the companies that provide access to end users of the Internet, as opposed to NSPs. There are several lists of regional ISPs, including NetUSA.

ITU

Acronym for United National International Telecommunications Union.

Kermit

A terminal program and file transfer protocol, kermit can be used to download files from a remote system to your home computer. Kermit is distinguished by it's ability to transfer files over telnet and other connections that would corrupt a binary transfer. It is officially available from the Columbia University Kermit software collection.

Kernel

The Kernel is the set of functions that make up the operating system, used to provide an application interface between programs and the underlying virtual and physical devices.

Key

A password, pass phrase, or other sequence used to access encrypted information, the key 'unlocks' controlled data or systems.

Key Escrow

Giving copies of your key to a third party, allowing them to decrypt messages. Key Escrow is proposed as a solution to allow businesses to review documents encrypted by their employees, and governments to intercept communications and files encrypted by their citizens, such as the 'Clipper' proposal by the United States.

kilobyte

A Kilobyte consists of 1,024 bytes.

See also: megabyte.

ksh

The Korn Shell is a standard Unix shell, this command-line/batch interface was written by David Korn of Bell labs, and is available as public-domain source in pdksh. (bdillon)

LAN

Acronym for Local Area Network, a LAN is a network contained within a single physical site (one or more buildings), as opposed to a WAN.

Lag

The delay in information coming across the network through telnet or other types of connections, usually caused by a slow or error-prone connection somewhere between the two communicating machines. Technically there are two causes of lag, the second being chew.

Lame

A user who behaves in a stupid or uneducated manner, a description often applied to newbies.

Layer

Network protocols consist of several layers, from the lowest physical (cable, fiber, etc) level to more abstract layers of signaling, data formats, and addressing standards. Under the OSI model there are seven layers.

LCP

Link Control Protocol. The low-level communications protocol used in PPP to negotiate and maintain the (usually serial) communications link.

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, a standard mechanism for accessing X.500 and other directory services.

leased-line

A leased-line is a dedicated (thus "leased") connection linking two or more points without going through any switching equipment.

See also: T1, T3, ISDN and the ISDN Glossary

LPD

Line Printer Daemon. The Unix standard print service daemon listens on TCP> port 515 for print service requests. Windows NT Server 4.0 includes lpd emulation as 'TCP/IP print services'. Defined in RFC 1179.

Lurk

Following a newsgroup or sitting on an IRC channel and reading the messages without saying anything, as if you were 'lurking in the shadows', staying out of sight of the other users.

ls

Unix command used to list files and directories.

LWP

Lan Work Place. A Novell product allowing both IP and IPX on the same MS/DOS machine.

Lynx A popular text-only web browser, distributed by the University of Kansas.

MAE

Metro Area Ethernet, now a generic term for any location where numerous providers "peer" (exchange traffic).

MAC Address

The low-level address assigned to a device on an ethernet, MAC addresses are translated to IP addresses via ARP. Each NIC is assigned a unique address at the factory.

MACH

An open source operating system, using by NeXT and others. See also HURD.

Man

The Unix command for viewing the online manual pages on a Unix system.

Mail

Electronic Mail is a means of exchanging private text messages through the Internet and other networks. The most popular mail readers on Unix are Elm and Pine. It is also possible to read mail across a SLIP connection with a client program connected to a popmail server. The most popular client for home computers is Eudora.

mega

Prefix conventionally meaning "thousand", in computers sometimes a megabyte can refer to either to 1,024 kilobytes or exactly one million bytes. Marketers usually use the 'incorrect' value of one million bytes because it inflates the total by about 5%. (molly)

meta

A prefix meaning to provide added meaning, transcending or going beyond, however meta is nearly as abused a term as cyber. A 'meta' key is a key (shift, control, etc) that is used to change the meaning of other keys when used in combination. From the Greek, meaning 'with'. You can basically think of 'meta' as meaning 'this, but something more'. Transcendental metatation?

MIB

Management Information Base. A set of parameters used to define the information available from an SNMP-capable device.

Microsoft

A major operating system corporation, operated by Bill Gates.

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Extensive documentation is provided by the MMA. (dana)

MIME

An acronym for

MIPS

Acronym for Millions of Instructions Per Second, a measure of the speed of computing devices. Due to the lack of correlation between this measure and real-life performance, some redefine it as Meaningless Indicator of Processor Speed (congournet)

Mkdir

The Unix command to create a new directory.

Modem

Shorthand for MODulator/DEModulator, a modem allows the transmission of digital information over an analog phone line. A modem dictionary is available that defines all the basic terms.

Mosaic(tm)

A graphical browser available for Unix, MS-Windows(tm) and Macintosh(tm), created by the NCSA. Often used as a generic term for any graphical browser.

Morph

Meaning 'to change forms', in computer graphics 'morphing' is an animation transforming a picture from one image to another, as in this example.

MPP

Acronym for massively parallel process(ing|er), a method of solving a equation or other problem by breaking it down into numerous smaller equations that can be solved in parallel. Often used in cryptography. (wick@mac.mei.co.jp)

MS/DOS

Microsoft DOS, an older non-graphical operating system, predecessory to Microsoft Windows.

MUD

Acronym for Multi-User Dungeon, a type of text based adventure game accessed with telnet or a specialized client program. There are many types of MUD including Diku, MOO, and MUSE.

mv

A Unix command, 'mv' can be used to rename a single file, or to move multiple files to a different directory. (shinchey)

MX

Acronym for Mail eXchange. MX is a DNS record used to define the host(s) willing to accept mail for a given machine.

credits : http://www.msg.net/kadow/answers/