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Nebula Glossary

Please also see the Nebula Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and the Computing and Communications FAQ lists for more information.

Software
Hardware
Networks
Concepts

Other Glossaries:

Software

Applications
The individual programs that run on a computer. Examples: Office XP, PC Pine, Internet Explorer
Operating system (aka: O/S)
The software that makes a computer run. Examples: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Unix, Linux
PC Pine
The version of Pine used by Nebula clients; runs locally on PC so it's faster; more mouse capabilities. Also see Nebula's PCPine page.

Hardware

Cluster
A group of computers that work together to provide services. Example: Homer is a cluster of computers that provide email, file and print services.
CPU
The computer box itself; comes from "Central Processing Unit", the original name for the processor chip inside the computer box.
Deskmail server
The server where email inboxes and mail folders are stored.
Hard drive
A magnetic disk which holds information. Usually measured in gigabytes. Several large disks can be combined to work together, and yield an effective hard drive measured in terabytes.
Motherboard
The main circuitboard inside a computer. It works with the operating system to control all the resources of the computer. Any function that is provided on the motherboard, versus on a separate, add-on circuitboard, is called "on-board".
Port
An interface that allows you to plug in an external device. Serial ports are male (have pins), while parallel ports are female (have holes). Newer Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports transfer data much faster, and can connect more devices, than serial and parallel ports.
Print Server
Small device connected to printer, that allows networked printing
Ram
The memory in a CPU; short for Random Access Memory. Measured in megabytes; comes on little chips that plug into the motherboard. Current Nebula specification is for 1gb of memory
Screen Resolution
Refers to the sharpness and clarity of an image. The more dots, or pixels, available to create the image, the sharper it will be. So a resolution of 1024x768 will produce sharper images (e.g. smaller icons and more information) than one of 640x480.

Network

DHCP
Acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It allows a computer to receive an IP address out of an available pool, so the computer can connect to the network. It's the opposite of a Fixed IP Address, where a computer is assigned a specific IP address.
IP Address
Short for Internet Protocol address. A number that uniquely identifies a computer to a network for the purpose of sharing information and resources. Format is 4 sets of numbers, separated by periods. For example: 127.0.0.1
Network connectivity
Able to see and use network resources, such as the I:\groups drive and networked printers.

Concepts

Clipboard
An unseen, temporary storage space used when you copy or cut information (such as text, graphics or files).
Defragmentation
Reorganizing the files on a hard drive so that all the parts of a file are next to each other, so it can be read faster. This also puts all the free space together.
Desktop
The screen background on which windows, icons, and dialog boxes appear, e.g. what you see when your programs are all closed or minimized. If you save or copy shortcuts, files or folders to your Desktop, they are saved on your local hard drive and are not backed up. See Saving Your Shortcuts.
File space | disk space | drive space
The amount of space available for file storage on a hard drive.
Nebula Gold vs. Nebula Bronze
There are two types of configurations available for Nebula PC's. One is centrally administered by Nebula support staff and engineers and called Nebula Gold. The other is set up with certain standard configurations, including network drive mappings, and is then left for the user to manage; it is called Nebula Bronze.
Quick Launch Toolbar
The Quick Launch toolbar provides a way to launch programs with a single click. The area to the right of the Start button contains these program shortcuts. To place a program here, simply drag the shortcut icon from the Desktop and drop it here. Or find the program in Start - Programs and drag it from there (in this case, you need to hold down the Ctrl key to drag a copy, else you'll lose it from the Start - Programs menu). You can even drag a directory folder itself, or an executable (.exe) program from Windows Explorer.
Shortcut
A pointer that you can use to quickly access any object, such as a folder, application or file. It's represented by an icon, and is a link to the object, which remains in its original location. To change the picture which represents the shortcut, right-click on it, click on Properties, and then Change Icon.
Task bar
The gray bar running across the bottom of the Windows screen; contains (from left): the Start button, the Quick Launch tray, the icons of any programs that are running in the background, the icons of programs that start automatically such as virus checking, and the time.
Trojan
A trojan is a program that neither replicates or copies itself, but does damage or compromises the security of the computer; it's used to break into the host computer. It is a program in which instructions are contained inside another file.
Uniform Resource Location, or URL
The naming methodology for web addresses or locations on the Web.
UWNetID
A personal network identification that allows access to computing services at the University of Washington. Your UWNetID is the same as the part of your email name that precedes the @ sign. To get a UWNetID, go to the Get Your UWNet ID page.
Virus
A virus is some kind of software that lives in a host computer, and uses a variety of strategies to try to reproduce itself to other computers. However, it has no way to spread without outside help; frequently viruses are contained in email attachments, and are spread when the user opens the attachment. A virus does not exploit a vulnerability in an operating system or application, it takes advantage of a user.
Worm
A worm is code that spreads itself from one networked computer to another using some vulnerability in an operating system or application. When your computer has a worm, it is called compromised. Once compromised, your computer is actively trying to infect other computers.