Glossary
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## Glossary

Access Control List

  A detailed list of permissions granted to users or groups with respect to file and network resource access. See “File, Directory, and Share Access Controls”, for details.

Active Directory Service

  A service unique to Microsoft Windows 200x servers that provides a centrally managed directory for management of user identities and computer objects, as well as the permissions each user or computer may be granted to access distributed network resources. ADS uses Kerberos-based authentication and LDAP over Kerberos for directory access.

Common Internet File System

  The new name for SMB. Microsoft renamed the SMB protocol to CIFS during the Internet hype in the nineties. At about the time that the SMB protocol was renamed to CIFS, an additional dialect of the SMB protocol was in development. The need for the deployment of the NetBIOS layer was also removed, thus paving the way for use of the SMB protocol natively over TCP/IP (known as NetBIOS-less SMB or “naked” TCP transport).

Common UNIX Printing System

  A recent implementation of a high capability printing system for UNIX developed by http://www.easysw.com/. The design objective of CUPS was to provide a rich print processing system that has built-in intelligence capable of correctly rendering (processing) a file that is submitted for printing even if it was formatted for an entirely different printer.

Domain Master Browser

  The domain master browser maintains a list of all the servers that have announced their services within a given workgroup or NT domain. See “Configuring Workgroup Browsing” for details.

Domain Name Service

  A protocol by which computer hostnames may be resolved to the matching IP address/es. DNS is implemented by the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon. There exists a recent version of DNS that allows dynamic name registration by network clients or by a DHCP server. This recent protocol is known as dynamic DNS (DDNS).

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

  A protocol that was based on the BOOTP protocol that may be used to dynamically assign an IP address, from a reserved pool of addresses, to a network client or device. Additionally, DHCP may assign all network configuration settings and may be used to register a computer name and its address with a dynamic DNS server.

Extended Meta-file Format

  An intermediate file format used by Microsoft Windows-based servers and clients. EMF files may be rendered into a page description language by a print processor.

Graphical Device Interface

  Device-independent format for printing used by Microsoft Windows. It is quite similar to what PostScript is for UNIX. Printing jobs are first generated in GDI and then converted to a device-specific format. See “GDI on Windows, PostScript on UNIX” for details.

Group IDentifier

  The UNIX system group identifier; on older systems, a 32-bit unsigned integer, and on newer systems an unsigned 64-bit integer. The GID is used in UNIX-like operating systems for all group-level access control.

Internet Print Protocol

  An IETF standard for network printing. CUPS implements IPP.

Key Distribution Center

  The Kerberos authentication protocol makes use of security keys (also called a ticket) by which access to network resources is controlled. The issuing of Kerberos tickets is effected by a KDC.

NetBIOS Extended User Interface

  Very simple network protocol invented by IBM and Microsoft. It is used to do NetBIOS over Ethernet with low overhead. NetBEUI is a nonroutable protocol.

Network Basic Input/Output System

  NetBIOS is a simple application programming interface (API) invented in the 1980s that allows programs to send data to certain network names. NetBIOS is always run over another network protocol such as IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, or Logical Link Control (LLC). NetBIOS run over LLC is best known as NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface a complete misnomer!).

NetBT

  Protocol for transporting NetBIOS frames over TCP/IP. Uses ports 137, 138, and 139. NetBT is a fully routable protocol.

Local Master Browser

  The local master browser maintains a list of all servers that have announced themselves within a given workgroup or NT domain on a particular broadcast-isolated subnet. See “Configuring Workgroup Browsing” for details.

Printer Command Language

  A printer page description language that was developed by Hewlett-Packard and is in common use today.

Portable Document Format

  A highly compressed document format, based on PostScript, used as a document distribution format that is supported by Web browsers as well as many applications. Adobe also distributes an application called “Acrobat,” which is a PDF reader.

Page Description Language

  A language for describing the layout and contents of a printed page. The best-known PDLs are Adobe PostScript and Hewlett-Packard PCL (Printer Control Language), both of which are used to control laser printers.

PostScript Printer Description

  PPDs specify and control options supported by PostScript printers, such as duplexing, stapling, and DPI. See also “PostScript and Ghostscript”. PPD files can be read by printing applications to enable correct PostScript page layout for a particular PostScript printer.

Remote Procedure Call

  RPCs are a means for executing network operations. The RPC protocol is independent of transport protocols. RPC does not try to implement any kind of reliability and the application that uses RPCs must be aware of the type of transport protocol underneath RPC. An RPC is like a programmatic jump subroutine over a network. RPCs used in the UNIX environment are specified in RFC 1050. RPC is a powerful technique for constructing distributed, client-server based applications. It is based on extending the notion of conventional, or local procedure calling, so that the called procedure need not exist in the same address space as the calling procedure. The two processes may be on the same system, or they may be on different systems with a network connecting them. By using RPC, programmers of distributed applications avoid the details of the interface with the network. The transport independence of RPC isolates the application from the physical and logical elements of the data communications mechanism and allows the application to use a variety of transports.

Server Message Block

  SMB was the original name of the protocol `spoken' by Samba. It was invented in the 1980s by IBM and adopted and extended further by Microsoft. Microsoft renamed the protocol to CIFS during the Internet hype in the 1990s.

User IDentifier

  The UNIX system user identifier; on older systems a 32-bit unsigned integer, and on newer systems, an unsigned 64-bit integer. The UID is used in UNIX-like operating systems for all user-level access control.

Universal Naming Convention

  A syntax for specifying the location of network resources (such as file shares). The UNC syntax was developed in the early days of MS DOS 3.x and is used internally by the SMB protocol.

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