| Byte: - In most computer systems, a byte is a unit of information that is eight bits long. A byte is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or typographic symbol (for example, "g", "5", or "?"). A byte can also hold a string of bits that need to be used in some larger unit for application purposes (for example, the stream of bits that constitute a visual image for a program that displays images). A byte is abbreviated with a "B". (A bit is abbreviated with a small "b".) Computer storage is usually measured in byte multiples. For example, an 820 MB hard drive holds a nominal 820 million bytes - or megabytes - of information. Byte multiples are based on powers of 2 and commonly expressed as a "rounded off" decimal number. |
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 C
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| CISP – Cardholder Information Security Program: - Visa’s cardholder data security standard. CISP compliance is required of all entities that store, process, or transmit Visa cardholder data. |
| Communications: - The transmission of data from one computer to another, or from one device to another. A communications device, therefore, is any machine that assists data transmission. Communications software refers to programs that make it possible to transmit data. |
| Com Port Redirector: - Software that resides on an application server and spoofs virtual COM ports to non IP-based applications, linking those COM ports to destination IP Addresses. Allows existing applications that communicate through COM ports to use a TCP/IP network without any changes to the application. |
D |
| Datapac™: - Datapac is a nationwide public data communications network offered through Bell and the other members of the Stentor alliance. It's similar to the long distance telephone network used for voice calls but is designed specifically for data communications. The service uses a technology known as packet switching, which means that information is transmitted in "packets" of 256 characters, or bytes. |
| DHCP: - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a communications protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network. Using the Internet Protocol, each machine that can connect to the Internet needs a unique IP address. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. |
| DSL: - Digital Subscriber Line is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. A DSL line can carry both data and voice signals and the data part of the line is continuously connected. |
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| Ethernet: - The type of hardware most widely used throughout LANs. It consists of a single cable with hosts attached to it through connectors, taps, or transceivers. Simple Ethernets are quite inexpensive to install, which, together with a net transfer rate of 10 Megabits per second accounts for much of its popularity. A LAN protocol developed by Xerox Corporation in cooperation with DEC and Intel in 1976, the Ethernet specification served as the basis for the IEEE 802.3 standard, which specifies the physical and lower software layers. Precidia's products have an Ethernet interface which conforms to IEEE standards. |
| EMV: - A common global standard for integrated circuit (contact) ‘smart’ cards, developed by Europay International, MasterCard and Visa (now overseen by EMVCo.), and endorsed by Interac in Canada. The idea behind EMV is to facilitate interoperability between new, more sophisticated ‘smart’ cards, and the terminals in the marketplace. It provides a common platform for debit and credit card processing, regardless of brand. In addition, EMV includes enhanced card risk management controls for specific types of purchases such as international, low-value payments, and high-risk merchants, to combat fraud. Frontier Times article on EMV and Datapac in Canada. |
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| Frame Relay: - A fast packet, variable length, digital packet switching technology. A Point-to-Point system that uses a private virtual circuit (PVC) to transmit variable length frames at the OSI Data-Link Layer. |
| Frame Gateway: - A gateway is a network point that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, in terms of routing, the network consists of gateway nodes and host nodes. The computers of network users and the computers that serve content (such as Web pages) are host nodes. The computers that control traffic within your company's network or at your local Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway nodes. In the network for an enterprise, a computer server acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server and a firewall server. Gateways also involve the use of routers and switches. |
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| Handshaking: - Information transmitted between the sending and receiving devices to establish and coordinate data flow between them. Usually exchanged during modem-to-modem types of communication. |
Header: - In information technology, a header is, in general, something that goes in front of something else and is usually repeated as a standard part of the units of something else. A header can consist of multiple fields, each containing its own value. Here are four common uses:
- In a document, a header is some combination of text and image that can be made to appear at the top of each page when displayed or printed.
- In e-mail, the header is the part of a message that describes the originator, the addressee and other recipients, message priority level, and so forth.
- In a computer file, a header may be a field that precedes the main file content and describes the length of the content or other characteristics of the file.
- In a network transmission unit, a header precedes the data or control signals and describes something about the file or transmission unit, such as its length and whether there are other files or transmission units logically or physically associated with this one.
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| Host: - On the Internet, the term "host" means any computer that has full two-way access to other computers on the Internet. A host has a specific "local or host number" that, together with the network number, forms its unique Internet Protocol address. If you use PPP to get access to your access provider, you have a unique IP address for the duration of any connection you make to the Internet and your computer is a host for that period. In this context, a "host" is a node in a network. |
| In IBM and perhaps other mainframe computer environments, a host is a mainframe computer (which is now usually referred to as a "large server"). In this context, the mainframe has intelligent or "dumb" workstations attached to it that use it as a host provider of services. (This does not mean that the host only has "servers" and the workstations only have "clients." The server/client relationship is a programming model independent of this contextual usage of "host.") |
| In other contexts, the term generally means a device or program that provides services to some smaller or less capable device or program. |
| Host table: - A list of TCP/IP hosts on the network along with their IP addresses. |
| HTTP: - The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. Relative to the TCP/IP suite of protocols (which are the basis for information exchange on the Internet), HTTP is an application protocol. Precidia's products support HTTP. |
| HyperTerminal: - HyperTerminal is a terminal emulation program that comes standard with every PC running Windows 95/98, Windows 2000 or NT. Hyperterminal allows you to configure the Precidia unit through the serial port on the PC. |
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| I/O: - Input/Output. Refers to any operation, program or device whose purpose is to enter data into a computer or to extract data from a computer. One usually uses the term I/O to distinguish noncomputational parts of a program from other parts that are strictly computational. For example, a printer is an I/O device, whereas a CPU is a computational device. |
| ICMP: - Internet Control Message Protocol. One of several protocols for transmitting data between two devices. ICMP is a message control and error-reporting protocol between a host server and a gateway to the Internet. ICMP uses Internet Protocol (IP) datagrams, but the messages are processed by the IP software and are not directly apparent to the application user. Precidia's products support ICMP. |
| Internet: - The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers). It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANet. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster. Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication networks. Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Two recent adaptations of Internet technology, the intranet and the extranet, also make use of the TCP/IP protocol. |
| Internet appliance: - Any non-PC device which is internet-enabled. |
| Internetworking: - Internetworking is a term used by providers of network products and services as a comprehensive term for all the concepts, technologies, and generic devices that allow people and their computers to communicate across different kinds of networks. For example, someone at a computer on a token ring local area network may want to communicate with someone at a computer on an Ethernet local area network in another country using a wide area network interconnection. The common internetwork protocols, routing tables, and related network devices required to achieve this communication constitute internetworking. The standard reference model for internetworking is Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), which could also be used as a model for intranetworking as well. OSI enables any technology to be related to another technology because each can be related to the standard communication model. OSI provides a layered approach to the problem of exchanging data across a network or a network of networks so that the problem can be broken down into easier-to-understand components and so that boundaries between components can be more easily determined. |
| Intranet: - An intranet is a private network that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks and also use leased lines in the wide area network. Typically, an intranet includes connections through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among employees. An intranet can also be used to facilitate working in groups and for teleconferences. An intranet uses TCP/IP, HTTP, and other Internet protocols and in general looks like a private version of the Internet. With tunneling, companies can send private messages through the public network, using the public network with special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another. Typically, larger enterprises allow users within their intranet to access the public Internet through firewall servers that have the ability to screen messages in both directions so that company security is maintained. When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers, partners, suppliers, or others outside the company, that part becomes part of an extranet. |
| IP: - Internet Protocol. IP specifies the format of packets and the addressing scheme. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transport Control protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source. See TCP/IP. |
| IPSec: - IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) is a developing standard for security at the network or packet processing layer of network communication. Earlier security approaches have inserted security at the application layer of the communications model. IPSec will be especially useful for implementing virtual private networks and for remote user access through dial-up connection to private networks. A big advantage of IPSec is that security arrangements can be handled without requiring changes to individual user computers. Cisco has been a leader in proposing IPSec as a standard (or combination of standards and technologies) and has included support for it in its network routers. |
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| LAN: - Local-area network. A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN). There are many different types of LANs, Ethernets being the most common for PCs. |
| Layer/layering: - In computer programming, layering is the organization of programming into separate steps that are performed sequentially, defined by specific interfaces for passing the result of each step to the next program or layer until the overall function, such as the sending or receiving of some amount of information, is completed. |
| Communication programs are often layered. The reference model for communication programs, Open System Interconnection (OSI) is a layered set of protocols in which two programs, one at either end of a communications exchange, use an identical set of layers. OSI consists of seven layers, each reflecting a different function that has to be performed in order for program-to-program communication to take place between computers. |
| TCP/IP is an example of a two-layer (TCP and IP) set of programs that provide transport and network address functions for Internet communication. TCP/IP and other layered program sets are sometimes called protocol stacks. Precidia's products support the OSI standard and TCP/IP. |
| Line Speed: - Expressed in bps, the maximum rate at which data can reliably be transmitted over a line using given hardware. |
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| Multiplexor: - A communications device that multiplexes (combines) several signals for transmission over a single medium. A demultiplexor completes the process by separating multiplexed signals from a transmission line. Frequently a multiplexor and demultiplexor are combined into a single device capable of processing both outgoing and incoming signals. |
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| Network: - In information technology, a network is a series of points or nodes interconnected by communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain subnetworks. |
| The most common topologies or general configurations of networks include the bus, star, and ring topologies. Networks can also be characterized in terms of spatial distance as local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), and wide area networks (WANs). |
| A given network can also be characterized by the type of data transmission technology in use on it (for example, a TCP/IP or SNA network); by whether it carries voice, data, or both kinds of signals; by who can use the network (public or private); by the usual nature of its connections (dial-up or switched, dedicated or nonswitched, or virtual connections); and by the types of physical links (for example, optical fiber, coaxial cable, and copper wire). Large telephone networks and networks using their infrastructure (such as the Internet) have sharing and exchange arrangements with other companies so that larger networks are created. |
| Network management: - Refers to the broad subject of managing computer networks. A wide variety of hardware and software products assist in managing networks. Network management areas include security, performance and reliability. Precidia's products assist in network management. |
| Node: - In a network, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or an end point for data transmissions. In general, a node has programmed or engineered capability to recognize and process or forward transmissions to other nodes. |
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| PABP: - Payment Application Best Practices: - Developed by Visa U.S.A. as part of its Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP), the PABP applies to software vendors who develop payment applications that store, process, or transmit cardholder data as part of authorization or settlement. Secure payment applications, when implemented in a PCI DSS-compliant environment, will minimize the potential for security breaches leading to compromises of full magnetic stripe data, card validation codes and values, PINs and PIN blocks, and the damaging fraud resulting from these breaches. |
| Packet: - A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, GIF file, URL request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end). "Packet" and "datagram" are similar in meaning. A protocol similar to TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses the term datagram. |
| Payment Engine: - A software application designed to manage the processing of a transaction from card swipe to authorization. Precidia's TransNet™ payment engine can be integrated with ECRs, Hospitality POS systems, PCs, and e-commerce websites. |
| Payment Router: - Precidia's POSLynx220™ payment router securely routes transactions to multiple hosts, with SSL encryption, field tested firewalling and a range of other features. |
PCI DSS– Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: - A set of comprehensive requirements for enhancing payment account data security developed by the founding payment brands of the PCI Security Standards Council, including American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International, to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures on a global basis.
The PCI DSS is a multifaceted security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. This comprehensive standard is intended to help organizations proactively protect customer account data. |
| Plug-and-play: - The ability of a computer system to automatically configure expansion boards and other devices. The Plug and Play (PnP) specification has made PCs more plug-and-play. Precidia offers a plug-and-play solution with its product line. |
| POS: - Point-of-Sale. This term is used to describe everything from electronic cash registers to complete and integrated systems that include both hardware and software applications. |
| Port: - An attachment point for network connections. If an application wants to offer a certain service, it attaches itself to a port and waits for clients. |
| PPP: - Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is a protocol for communication between two computers using a serial interface, typically a personal computer connected by phone line to a server. PPP uses the Internet protocol (IP) and provides layer 2 (data-link layer) service. Essentially, it packages your computer's TCP/IP packets and forwards them to the server where they can actually be put on the Internet. |
| Protocol: - An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. The protocol determines the type of error checking to be used, the data compression method, if any, and how the sending and receiving devices will indicate that they have sent/received messages. There are a variety of standard protocols, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. Your computer or device must support the right protocols if you want to communicate with other computers. Precidia's products support TCP, IP, ARP, ICMP and UDP. |
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| Remote access: - The ability to log onto a network from a distant location. Generally, this implies a computer, a modem, and some remote access software to connect to the network. Whereas remote control refers to taking control of another computer, remote access means that the remote computer actually becomes a full-fledged host on the network. The remote access software dials in directly to the network server. The only difference between a remote host and workstations connected directly to the network is slower data transfer speeds. |
| Reverse Telnet: - Reverse Telnet (sometimes called direct Telnet) is the initiation of a Telnet session from a computer system to one of its remote users. Usually, a Telnet session is initiated by a user who wishes to access and share resources on a remote computer system. The user must have permission and is prompted to provide a user name and password. Reverse Telnet is when the host computer initiates a Telnet session instead of accepting one. Reverse Telnet is typically used by a system administrator to configure or to troubleshoot a remote computer. |
ROHS and WEEE: - The European Union has adopted Directive 2002/95/EC on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. This new directive, also referred to as RoHS, requires that manufacturers reduce the usage of six hazardous substances to minimum acceptable levels by July 2006. These substances are:
- Lead (Pb)
- Hexavalent chromium (Cr +6)
- Mercury (Hg)
- Polybrominated biphenyl (PBB)
- Cadmium (Cd)
- Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)
Directive 2002/96/EC or WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which came into effect in August 2005, encourages and sets specific criteria for the collection, handling and recycling of electric and electronic waste
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| Router: - A device that connects any number of LANs. Routers use headers and a forwarding table to determine where packets go, and they use ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts. |
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| Serial port: - A port or interface that can be used for serial communication, in which only 1 bit is transmitted at a time. Most serial ports on PCs conform to the RS232 or RS422 standards. A serial port is a general purpose interface that can be used for almost any kind of device. |
| Server: - In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same or other computers. |
| The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may contain a number of server and client programs). |
| In the client/server programming model, a server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. A given application in a computer may function as a client with requests for services from other programs and a server of requests from other programs. |
| Specific to the Web, a Web server is the computer program (housed in a computer) that serves requested HTML pages or files. A Web client is the requesting program associated with the user. The Web browser in your computer is a client that requests HTML files from Web servers. |
| SNMP: - Simple Network Management Protocol. A set of protocols for managing complex networks. SNMP is the protocol governing network management and the monitoring of network devices and their functions. Precidia's products support SNMP v.2. |
| SMTP: - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail. |
| SSL: - Secure Socket Layer is a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet. The "sockets" part of the term refers to the sockets method of passing data back and forth between a client and a server program in a network or between program layers in the same computer. SSL uses the public-and-private key encryption system from RSA, which also includes the use of a digital certificate. |
| Switch: - In telecommunications, a switch is a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a unit of data to its next destination. A switch may also include the function of the router, a device or program that can determine the route and specifically what adjacent network point the data should be sent to. In general, a switch is a simpler and faster mechanism than a router, which requires knowledge about the network and how to determine the route. |
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10Base-T: - The most widely installed Ethernet local area networks (LANs) use ordinary telephone twisted-pair wire. When used on Ethernet, this carrier medium is known as 10BASE-T. 10BASE-T supports Ethernet's 10 Mbps transmission speed. In addition to 10BASE-T, 10 megabit Ethernet can be implemented with these media types:
- 10BASE-2 (Thinwire coaxial cable with a maximum segment length of 185 meters)
- 10BASE-5 (Thickwire coaxial cable with a maximum segment length of 500 meters)
- 10BASE-F (Fiber optic cable)
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| This designation is an IEEE shorthand identifier. The "10" in the media type designation refers to the transmission speed of 10 Mbps. The "BASE" refers to baseband signalling, which means that only Ethernet signals are carried on the medium. The "T" represents twisted-pair; the "F" represents fiber optic cable; and the "2" and "5" refer to the coaxial cable segment length (the 185 meter length has been rounded up to "2" for 200). |
| TCP/IP: - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The suite of communications protocols that is the de facto standard used to connect hosts on the internet. |
| Telnet: - Telnet is the way you can access someone else's computer, assuming they have given you permission. (Such a computer is frequently called a host computer.) More technically, Telnet is a user command and an underlying TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote computers. The Web or HTTP protocol and the FTP protocol allow you to request specific files from remote computers, but not to actually be logged on as a user of that computer. With Telnet, you log on as a regular user with whatever privileges you may have been granted to the specific applications and data on that computer. |
| TFTP: - TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) is a network application that is simpler than the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) but less capable. It is used where user authentication and directory visibility are not required. TFTP uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) rather than the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TFTP is described formally in RFC 1350. Precidia's products support TFTP. |
| Thin server: - In the computer industry, a thin server is a PC that contains just enough hardware and software to support a particular function that users can share in a network, such as access to files on a storage device, access to CD-ROM drives, printing, or Internet access. According to the first companies who have used the term, a thin server can be quickly added to a network and costs less than providing the same service through a more general-purpose computer server. Usually, a thin server contains an abbreviated version of one or more operating systems, such as Windows 95, Macintosh, or UNIX, and necessary network protocols, such as TCP/IP and NetBEUI. Typically, it also includes HTTP so that it can be configured, administered, and used through a Web browser user interface. The hardware processor sometimes uses RISC processing. Some thin servers are designed and marketed for use on local area networks in businesses. A newer development is a thin server intended for home use. Data General makes a thin server for the home or small office that performs the single function of providing access to the Internet. Other desktop and notebook computers and possibly other electronic appliances can be hooked up as clients and share the thin server's connection or connections to the Internet. |
| Tunneling: - In computer networks, the act of encapsulating one communications protocol within another. |
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| UDP: - UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a communications method (protocol) that offers a limited amount of service when messages are exchanged between computers in a network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). UDP is an alternative to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and, together with IP, is sometimes referred to as UDP/IP. Like the Transmission Control Protocol, UDP uses the Internet Protocol to actually get a data unit (called a datagram) from one computer to another. Unlike TCP, however, UDP does not provide the service of dividing a message into packets (datagrams) and reassembling it at the other end. Specifically, UDP doesn't provide sequencing of the packets that the data arrives in. This means that the application program that uses UDP must be able to make sure that the entire message has arrived and is in the right order. Network applications that want to save processing time because they have very small data units to exchange (and therefore very little message reassembling to do) may prefer UDP to TCP. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) uses UDP instead of TCP. UDP provides two services not provided by the IP layer. It provides port numbers to help distinguish different user requests and, optionally, a checksum capability to verify that the data arrived intact. |
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| VPN: - A virtual private network (VPN) is a private data network that makes use of the public telecommunication infrastructure, maintaining privacy through the use of a tunneling protocol and security procedures. A virtual private network can be contrasted with a system of owned or leased lines that can only be used by one company. The idea of the VPN is to give the company the same capabilities at much lower cost by using the shared public infrastructure rather than a private one. Phone companies have provided secure shared resources for voice messages. A virtual private network makes it possible to have the same secure sharing of public resources for data. Companies today are looking at using a private virtual network for both extranets and wide-area intranets. |
| Using a virtual private network involves encrypting data before sending it through the public network and decrypting it at the receiving end. An additional level of security involves encrypting not only the data but also the originating and receiving network addresses. Microsoft, 3Com, and several other companies have developed the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and Microsoft has extended Windows NT to support it. VPN software is typically installed as part of a company's firewall server. |
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| WAN: - Wide Area Network. A geographically dispersed telecommunications network, the term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network (LAN). A wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN). |
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| X.25 protocol: - The X.25 protocol, adopted as a standard by the Consultative Committee for International Telegraph and Telephone (CCITT), is a commonly-used network protocol. The X.25 protocol allows computers on different public networks (such as CompuServe, Tymnet, or a TCP/IP network) to communicate through an intermediary computer at the network layer level. X.25's protocols correspond closely to the data-link and physical-layer protocols defined in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model. |
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