Computer and Internet Related Acronyms
A
AARP AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol
ABC Atanasoff-Berry Computer
AIN Advanced Intelligent Network
AISEP Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project
ANSI American National Standards Institute.
ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency.
ARPAnet Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (replaced by NFSNet)
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode (a method of transmitting bytes across communications links)
B
BBS Bulletin Board System (service accessible via modem or other connection through which users may exchange messages)
BIOS Basic Input Output System (a set of instructions that tell the computer how to act)
BPS Bits per Second (a measure of the speed of data transmission)
BTW By The Way (By the way is often used in email, chat, etc.)
C
CA Certification Authority (used in Internet and Network Security; a third party which issues and revokes certificates)
CAD Computer Aided Design
CAT Computer Aided Translation; Computer Assisted Translation
CD Compact Disk
CICS Customer Information Control System
CIS Customer Information Services
CIX Commercial Information Exchange
COPS Computer Oracle and Password System
CPU Central Processing Unit
CRM Customer Relationship Management
CRU Customer Replaceable Unit
CS Customer Service
CSCW Computer Supported Co-operative Work
CSG Computer Systems Group
CSI Complex Service Interface
CSM Cluster Storage Management (Disk Storage)
CSV Comma Separated Values
D
DAD Document Analysis and Design (used in Document Imaging)
DBS Database Software
DC Direct Current
DCAM Digital CAMera
DCE Data Communications Equipment (or Distributed Computing Environment)
DCL Digital Command Language
DDL Data Definition Language
DDR Double Data Rate
DNS Domain Name Service
DNSBL Domain Name Service Black-hole List (a list of domain names used by known spammers)
DRM Digital Rights Management
DSU Disk Storage Unit
DTP DeskTop Publishing
E
EBT Electronic Banking Transfers (Commerce)
EC Electronic Commerce (Computer Industry)
ECMA European Computer Manufacturers Association
ECML Electronic Commerce Modeling Language
EDA Electronic Document Access
EDI Electronic Data Interchange
EIA Electronic Industries Association
EIDE Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (Disk Drives)
EITO European Information Technology Observatory
ELC Entry Level Computer (or Entry Level Server)
EMA Electronic Messaging Association
EMS Electronic Messaging Service
EULA End User License Agreement (Microsoft Licensing)
F
FA Feature Audit (or Failure Analysis)
FACE Framed Access Command Environment
FAST Feature Audit Tools and Systems
FAT File Allocation Table
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
FTP File Transport Protocol
FUD Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (in competiting marketing)
FW FirmWare
FXO Foreign eXchange Office
G
GB Gigabyte (a measure of storage space in Hard Drives; 1 GB =1,000 MB (Megabytes)
GDS Global Distribution System
GHR Global Human Resources
GIF Graphics Interchange Format
GIS Global Information Solutions
GPS General Purpose Systems
GUI Graphical User Interface
2G Second Generation
3G Third Generation
H
HDA Head Disk Assembly
HDD Hard Disk Drive
HMI Human Machine Interface
HSM Hierarchical Storage Management (used in Data Storage)
HTML HyperText Markup Language (is used to format information and make it accessible to the World Wide Web)
HTML+ (new and higher standard which supersedes html)
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol (it forms the basis of the World Wide Web technology)
HWA Host Wire Adapter
I
IAB Internet Architecture Board
IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
ICDL International Computer Driving License
IDE Integrated Drive Electronics (an interface used by hard drives and CD-ROM drives to connect to the computer)
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IN Intelligent Network
IP Internet Protocol (the standard protocol used by systems communicating across the Internet)
IP Address Internet Protocol Address (a digital code that locates a computer connected to the Internet)
IRC Internet Relay Chat (software which enables to hold real-time keyboard conversations online)
ISB Internet Service Bus
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISOC Internet Society
ISP Internet Service Provider (a company that provides a connection to the Internet)
ITU International Telecommunication Union
J
JCL Job Control Language
JSP Java Server Pages
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group (a compression technique for images on the Internet)
L
LAN Local Area Network (a local server that a computer is usually connected to)
LBB Local Backup Browser
LCP Link Control Protocol (Networking)
LINQ Language INtegrated Query (used in Microsoft, Microsoft Windows Software Development)
LMB Local Master Browser
LMO Large Memory Option
LUN Logical Unit Number
M
MAC Macintosh (a personal computer manufactured by Apple Computer)
MAN Metropolitan Area Network.
MB Megabyte (=1 million bytes; a measure of the quantity of data)
MBONE Multicast BackbONE
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (method a computer uses to send e-mail from one computer to another)
MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group (a video file compression system)
MUD Multi User Domain
N
NAP Network Access Protection
NC Network Computer
NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications (US)
NFR Not For Resale
NFS Network File System
NOC Network Operations Center
NS Next Step
NSF National Science Foundation
NT New Technology
O
OBI Open Buying on the Internet
ONE Open Networking Environment
OS Operating System (primary program running on a computer; starts automatically when the computer is switched on)
OSP Online Service Provider (a company which provides not only internet but also email and other services)
P
PC Personal Computer
PDF Portable Document Format (a document format read by Adobe System's Acrobat viewer; excellent for displaying large documents in a print-ready state)
PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail (method a computer uses to send e-mail from one computer to another)
PPP Point-to-Point Protocol (allows a computer to use the TCP/IP Internet protocols with a standard telephone line and a very high speed modem)
PTT Postal, Telegraph and Telephone
R
RAM Random Access Memory (working space in a computer; by increasing the amount of RAM, the speed of a computer increases)
RIM Research In Motion (research related to cellular phones and computers)
ROM Read Only Memory (it cannot be altered; is read only)
RTF Rich Text Format
S
SCSI Small Computer Systems Interface
SIG Special Interest Group
SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol (allows a computer to use the Internet protocols with a standard telephone line and a high-speed modem; replaced by PPP)
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (method a computer uses to send e-mail from one computer to another)
SQL Structured Query Language (ANSI language created for retrieving information from a database)
STT Secure Transaction Technology (software that protects financial dealings and prevents fraud over the Internet)
T
TB TeraByte (1TB=1000 GB (GigaBytes)
TCE Targeted Customer Environment
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (a set of protocols that control how data is transferred between computers on the Internet)
TEC Translational English Corpus
TS Technical Support
U
UNIX UNiplexed Information and Computing Service (in Computer Operating Systems)
UPI Unique Primary Index (used in marketing)
URL Universal Resource Locator (a path to World Wide Web file; it has a name and an extension)
UWB Ultra Wide Band (Wireless Networks)
V
VB Visual Basic (Microsoft programming language)
VBA Visual Basic for Applications (Microsoft)
VCR Video Cassette Recorder (in Motion Picture Engineering)
VR Virtual Reality
VRML Virtual Reality Mark-up Language
W
W3 World Wide Web
WAIS Wide Area Information Search (software that is used to index large text files in servers)
WAN Wide Area Network (a computer network that can be dispersed across a university campus or any other area)
WSDL Web Services Description Language
WWW World Wide Web (a hypermedia retrieval system for information)
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get (it means 'whatever you see on your computer screen you will get printed out on paper; pronounced: 'wizziwig').