Microsoft Internet & Networking Dictionary
Microsoft Internet & Networking Dictionary
17
American Registry for Internet Numbers
n. See ARIN.
America Online
n. An online information service, based in Vienna, Virginia, that provides e-mail, news,
educational and entertainment services, and Internet access. America Online is one of the largest
American ISPs (Internet service providers). In 2000 America Online merged with media giant
Time Warner Inc. to become AOL Time Warner Inc. Intended for mass-market delivery of
branded content and communication services, the merged companies form a communication and
media conglomerate with the Internet’s largest user base and a wide range of entertainment,
publishing, and cable properties. Acronym: AOL.
America Online Instant Messenger
n. See AIM.
analog
adj. Pertaining to or being a device or signal that is continuously varying in strength or quantity,
such as voltage or audio, rather than based on discrete units, such as the binary digits 1 and 0. A
lighting dimmer switch is an analog device because it is not based on absolute settings. Compare
digital (definition 2).
analog-to-digital converter
n. A device that converts a continuously varying (analog) signal, such as sound or voltage, from a
monitoring instrument to binary code for use by a computer. Acronym: ADC. Also called: A-D
converter. See also modem. Compare digital-to-analog converter.
anchor
n. A tag in an HTML document that defines a section of text, an icon, or other element as a link to
another element in the document or to another document or file. See also hyperlink.
annoybot
n. A bot on an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel or a multiuser dungeon (MUD) that interacts
with the user in an obnoxious manner. See also bot, IRC, MUD.
anonymity
n. The ability to send an e-mail message or an article to a newsgroup without one’s identity
becoming known. Ordinarily, the e-mail address of the sender appears automatically in a
message’s header, which is created by the client software. To achieve anonymity, a message
must be sent through an anonymous remaileró which, however, maintains a record of the
sender’s identity to enable replies. See also anonymous remailer.
anonymous
n. On the Internet, the standard login name used to obtain access to a public FTP file archive.
See also anonymous FTP.
anonymous FTP
n. The ability to access a remote computer system on which one does not have an account, via
the Internet’s File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Users have restricted access rights with anonymous
FTP and usually can only copy files to or from a public directory, often named /pub, on the remote
system. Users can also typically use FTP commands, such as listing files and directories. When
using anonymous FTP, the user accesses the remote computer system with an FTP program and
generally uses anonymous or ftp as a logon name. The password is usually the user’s e-mail
address, although a user can often skip giving a password or give a false e-mail address. In other
cases, the password can be the word anonymous. Many FTP sites do not permit anonymous FTP
access in order to maintain security. Those that do permit anonymous FTP sometimes restrict
users to only downloading files for the same reason. See also FTP1 (definition 1), logon, /pub.