netter | = N = | network meltdown

network address n.

(also `net address') As used by hackers, means an address on `the' network (see the network; this used to include bang path addresses but now almost always implies an Internet address). Net addresses are often used in email text as a more concise substitute for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to know each other quite well by network names without ever learning each others' `legal' monikers. Indeed, display of a network address (e.g. on business cards) used to function as an important hacker identification signal, like lodge pins among Masons or tie-dyed T-shirts among Grateful Dead fans. In the day of pervasive Internet this is less true, but you can still be fairly sure that anyone with a network address handwritten on his or her convention badge is a hacker.

netter | = N = | network meltdown