To the uninitiated, technical language or “tech lingo” may seem confusing and unnecessary. However, tech lingo is useful in expressing common technical concepts quickly and efficiently. Such language functions as a shorthand for describing accurately unique devices, concepts, or technology without any ambiguity. Those working in IT are inclined to use it out of habit and usually don’t think twice about it.

Getting familiar with common IT acronyms and abbreviations is helpful because it helps you not just to understand what is being communicated but can also to better communicate your requirements to the IT person. Fortunately, common IT acronyms are not very difficult to understand.

In this blog post, we introduce you to common IT acronyms and abbreviations with their meaning for ready reference.

An Access Control List (ACL) is a security control designed to protect the digital assets of an organization. ACLs contain rules that allow or deny access to digital assets such as filesystems or networks.

Used in a filesystem, when a user tries to access a resource, the ACL checks the rules and determines if the user is allowed to access the system or not and what actions, such as read, write, edit, or delete, the user is allowed to perform. Similarly, a network ACL checks the rules and determines which traffic can access the network and what activities are allowed.

The ACL allows network administrators to control traffic and ensure better network performance. In addition, ACLs give granular control over access, making it easy to give different users different access levels and privileges. For example, a user or group can be given read and write access, while another can be given only read access. This kind of granular control enhances the security level of the overall technology infrastructure.

If you have ever been involved in network infrastructure installation or upgrade, it is simply impossible to not have heard of Cat5e and Cat6 cables. The “Cat” is short for Category and refers to different levels of performance, signal bandwidth, attenuation, etc. associated with the cable's design. Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6a, and Cat7 are some of the commonly used network cables.

The Category cables standard was introduced in the 1980s by the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and is maintained by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The Cat standard helps align manufacturers and purchasers, facilitating interchangeability and improvement, and associating product performance with specific physical layer applications.

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol that allows the automatic assigning of IP addresses and other parameters to connected network devices on Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

DHCP eliminates the need for configuring network devices manually one at a time. The DHCP technology consists of two components, a centrally installed DHCP server and client instances of the protocol on each network device.

A device that connects to the network requests an IP address and other parameters from the DHCP server using the DHCP protocol and the server automatically assigns an IP address and other network configuration parameters. The automation of IP address management simplifies network management and saves network administrators valuable time.

Domain Name System (DNS) is an industry-standard suite of protocols that provide a naming system used to identify devices, services, and other resources accessible through the Internet or other IP networks. It is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system that associates domain names with other forms of information.

Every device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which is used by other devices use to find it. Web browsers access Internet resources through these IP addresses. For example, Google’s Public DNS IP address (IPv4) is 8.8.8.8 and their IPv6 address is 2001:4860:4860::8888.

But for you and me, these IP addresses are difficult to remember. Therefore, we access the Internet resources using domain names such as google.com. And it is the DNS that translates the domain names to IP addresses so that the browser can load the correct Internet resource. The DNS, therefore, functions as a human-friendly phonebook of the Internet.

The DNS directory, stored in special servers called DNS servers, is distributed worldwide. The DNS servers are interconnected and communicate frequently to synchronize directory information and create redundancy.

To learn more about DNS covering the frequently asked questions about the basics of DNS: Understanding DNS

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is a standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. It serves as an intermediary between the email server and the email client by storing email messages on a mail server. It enables the recipient to view and manipulate the emails as though they were stored locally even though they don't actually download or store the email on their local device.

If you have ever added an email account to your iPhone or Android device, you must have seen the “Other (IMAP)” option. Most modern e-mail clients and servers, including Gmail and Outlook, support IMAP. In fact, IMAP and POP3 (we talk about this later in this blog) are the two most common protocols for email retrieval.

IMAP is used because they offer many benefits, the most important ones are:

• Since your email is not tied to a particular device, you can access it from multiple devices.

• You can have multiple email client applications that sync with the email server to accurately and consistently capture your actions across multiple devices.

• You can organize your emails on the server by creating folders and subfolders.

• You can share your mailbox with multiple users.

Media Access Control (MAC) provides an addressing mechanism enabling each node on a network to communicate with other nodes on the same or different networks. It provides the address for the transmission of data packets to and from the Network Interface Controller (NIC), which we will talk about later in this blog post.

MAC address and IP address are similar in that they both uniquely identify devices connected to a network. The main difference between MAC and IP addresses is that while an IP address uniquely identifies a connection of a device with a network, a MAC address identifies the physical device. The MAC address is provided by the manufacturer of the NIC.

The MAC address is responsible for identifying the device on the local network, on the other hand, the IP address is responsible for global identification. Both the MAC and IP addresses are required for a network packet to reach its destination. Another important point to note is that the MAC address is attached to the device and cannot be changed unlike IP addresses, which are logical addresses and can be changed.

Network Access Control (NAC) is a security solution that provides network visibility and access management through policy enforcement on devices and users of an organization’s networks. A NAC solution can allow, deny network access, or give restricted access to devices based on their compliance with the organization’s policies. This helps prevent insecure nodes from infecting the organization’s networks.

NAC solutions are an important part of IT security as they allow organizations to manage the exponentially growing devices that access their corporate network. In addition to access control, it provides visibility and compliance capabilities that are necessary for securing network infrastructure.

NAC solutions help organizations in the following ways:

• It allows you to enforce policies consistently and at scale.

• It helps you better manage guests or contractors who access your network through guest registration and authentication.

• It enables you to evaluate security-policy compliance by the user, device, operating system, etc.

• It helps mitigate network threats by automatically enforcing security policies that block or isolate non-compliant devices.

A Network-Attached Storage (NAS) is a device that is connected to a network and allows devices connected to that network to store and retrieve data. A NAS device is not simply an external hard drive and does not need to be connected to a computer. Instead, it is connected directly to a network and is accessible to anyone on the network.

Having a NAS device on your network is like having a private cloud. Similar to the cloud, NAS is fast, flexible, and scalable but it is on-site, which gives you greater control over it. NAS offers a convenient way of adding storage space at affordable prices instead of expensive server upgrades. It allows you to offload or backup your files from your computer while maintaining access to those files from anywhere.

A Network Interface Controller (NIC), also known as a network interface card and LAN adapter, is a hardware component that connects a computer to a network. In addition to the circuitry necessary to carry out its function, a NIC usually consists of a connector to receive the ethernet cable or an antenna for wireless communication. 

So when you connect your computer to a network, it is the NIC that enables this connection to happen. The NIC enables the computer to access the transmission media and to process the data flowing through the network.

The open systems interconnection (OSI) model is a conceptual model that enables computer systems to communicate with each other. The OSI model is a universal standard for networking. It standardizes the internal structure and technology for communication functions of computer systems and telecommunication.

The model splits up the communication system into seven abstract layers, sequentially stacked upon each other. Each layer performs a specific function and communicates with the other layers above and below itself.

The seven layers of the OSI model are:

• Layer 1: Physical layer

• Layer 2: Data link layer

• Layer 3: Network layer

• Layer 4: Transport layer

• Layer 5: Session layer

• Layer 6: Presentation layer

• Layer 7: Application layer

The OSI model is very useful for troubleshooting network issues. It helps to break down the problem and isolate the root cause of the issue down to one specific layer. This makes the rectification process a whole lot easier by helping avoid a lot of unnecessary work.

The Post Office Protocol (POP) is a standard protocol that provides end-users the ability to fetch and receive email. POP integrates with a supporting email software client for connecting to the remote email server and downloading email messages to the user’s device. It is a one-way client-server protocol that receives and holds email messages on the email server. Post Office Protocol is currently in its third version and is therefore known as POP 3.

POP is the primary protocol behind email communication and works together with Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to provide end-to-end email communication. While the POP pulls email messages, the SMTP pushes them to the server.

One of the advantages of POP3 is that it is built into standard browsers. This means that users can access their email without having to download an email client. It is suitable for users who need to access their email offline and use a designated device for email retrieval. It is also useful for sending bulk email messages.

However, POP3 does not support email manipulation and synchronization since the email messages are downloaded to the client. In such use cases, the IMAP (discussed earlier) is a more suitable option.

An SSID (service set identifier) is the name of your Wi-Fi network. It is the primary name associated with an 802.11 standard wireless local area network (WLAN). Devices use this SSID/name to identify and join wireless networks. An SSID can be 32 characters long and can consist of letters and numbers.

When you turn on Wi-Fi on your device, it scans the nearby area for networks that broadcast their SSIDs and presents a list of SSIDs.You can connect to the wireless network by selecting the corresponding SSID. In addition to the SSID, your device also determines whether or not the networks have wireless security options enabled. The security status is usually identified by a padlock next to the Wi-Fi symbol. 

Routers usually come with a default SSID for the Wi-Fi unit, The default SSID will have the manufacturer’s or Internet Service Provider’s name such as Linksys, NETGEAR, TP-Link, etc. In addition, the router also comes with a default password that is often printed on the side or back of the router. For security reasons, it is highly recommended to change the default password right away.

Conclusion

If you found this blog post useful, you may also like reading an earlier post where we talked about another 15 common technology-related abbreviations.

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