|
N
|
-
|
|
-
|
|
NAK
|
Negative
Acknowledgment. A message returned by authorized
parties to indicate that changes requested to a
domain name record are unacceptable. Also used in
programming code to indicate that a block of data
arrived with error.
|
|
name
service
|
A
network service for name-to-address
mapping.
|
|
name
resolution
|
The
process of mapping a name into its corresponding
address.
|
|
name
server
|
Acomputer
machine employed to perform name-to-address
mapping. This machine is called either a host
server or a client.
|
|
namespace
|
The
general system for classifying computers to make
linking and locating them possible and orderly. A
commonly distributed set of names in which each is
unique.
|
|
NANOG
|
North
American Network Operators Group A membership
organization that provides for the exchange of
tecnical information among public, commercial and
private network service providers.
|
|
NASA
|
National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, an agency
funded by the U.S. government. NASA scientists
engineered the Pathfinder mission that landed on
Mars on July 4, 1997. See http://nasa.gov
|
|
NCRI
|
Networking
and Communications Research and Infrastructure. A
group within the National Science
Foundation.
|
|
NET
|
A
top level domain name denoting an abbreviation for
network administration. In Internet addressing
protocol, .NET indicates a site belonging to a
network, and it is not used for commercial
operations.
|
|
net
|
An
abbreviation for "network," a system of interlinked
computers. When capitalized, Net is used as a slang
term for the Internet.
|
|
netiquette
|
Internet
etiquette. The unofficial standards that govern
behavior on the Internet. The rules of netiquette
are usually learned through experience.
|
|
netizen
|
Anyone
who uses the Internet.
|
|
Netscape
Navigator
|
A
web browser that is widely used because of its
speed and easy interface.
|
|
network
|
A
data communications system which interconnects
computer systems at various different
sites.
|
|
NIC
|
Network
Information Center. A description often applied to
an Internet domain name registry but in a broader
sense, an NIC provides information, assistance and
services to network users.
|
|
NIH
|
National
Institutes of Health, a federally-funded
agency.
|
|
NII
|
National
Information Infrastructure. See
http://www.ncs.gov/~nc-ep/html/nii.htm
|
|
NIST
|
National
Institute of Science and Technology. An agency of
the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology
Administration, NIST's primary mission is to work
with industry to develop and apply technology,
measurements, and standards to improve product
quality, ensure product reliability, modernize
manufacturing processes and facilitate rapid
commercialization. See http://www.nist.gov/
|
|
NOAA
|
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency
of the U.S. Department of Commerce. See
http://www.noaa.gov/
|
|
node
|
An
addressable device attached to a computer network,
located where the tree branches or at the end of a
branch of individual computers running DNS
software.
|
|
NOI
|
Notice
of Inquiry, a U.S. government process wherein
public input into issues of interest is formally
solicited. In July 1997, the U.S. Department of
Commerce announced an NOI for the registration and
administration of Internet domain names.
|
|
NPRM
|
Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking, a U.S. government process
wherein public input into a proposed rule is
formally solicited. On January 30, 1998, the U.S.
Department of Commerce announced an NPRM for the
technical management of Internet domain names and
addresses.
|
|
NS
|
Programming
code for the name server resource record (a file)
for the indicated domain.
|
|
NSF
|
National
Science Foundation. A U.S. government agency whose
purpose is to promote the advancement of science.
NSF funds science researchers, scientific projects,
and infrastructure to improve the quality of
scientific research, including networking and
comunications technology. See
http://www.nsf.gov/
|
|
NSFNet
|
National
Science Foundation Network. NSFNet was expected to
become the core network of the National Research
and Education Network or NREN. Until it ceased
operations on April 30, 1995, it was was the major
backbone of the Internet, a high speed network of
networks which was hierarchical in nature. NSFNet
had a backbone of 19 sites or nodes and 32
mid-level or regional networks that connected more
than 1000 institutions. The NSFnet regional
networks now are connected to the three primary
NAPs by either MCI or Sprint.
|
|
NSI
|
Network
Solutions, Inc. NSI was awarded a five-year
cooperative agreement by the National Science
Foundation to administer the registration services
of the following top level domains: COM, EDU, GOV,
NET and ORG. NSI is the largest registrar in the
world and administers the .COM, .NET and .ORG
registries. NSI is a subsidiary of VeriSign and is
located in Herndon, Virginia. See
http://www.netsol.com/
|
|
NSP
|
Network
Service Provider; an Internet service provider on a
national scale; one that provides service in many
different states.
|
|
NSTC
|
National
Science and Technology Council, a cabinet level
council of eight representatives which provides the
principal means for the President to coordinate
science, space, and technology policies across the
Federal government.
|
|
NTIA
|
National
Telecommunications and Information Administration,
established within the U.S. Department of Commerce
and designated to coordinate U.S. NII initiatives.
In the summer of 1997, the NTIA began a public
inquiry (NOI) into the registration and
administration of domain names in order to transfer
Internet administration to the private sector.
See http:/www.ntia.doc.gov/
|
|
O
|
|
|
octet
|
An
octet is 8 bits. This term is used in networking,
rather than byte, because some systems have bytes
that are not 8 bits long.
|
|
ORG
|
A
top level domain denoting an abbreviation for
non-profit institutions and organizations although
anyone may register a .ORG domain name. See
"Whither
.ORG"
for comments on the changes ahead for this
TLD.
|
|
OSTRICHMEAT.COM
|
A
domain name offered for resale by a domain name
brokerage.
|
|
P
|
|
|
PAB
|
Policy
Advisory Body established by the gTLD-MoU.
See
http://www.gtld-mou.org
|
|
packet
|
The
unit of data that is routed across the Internet or
any other computer packet-switched network. The
generic term used to describe unit of data at all
levels of the protocol stack, but it is most
correctly used to describe application data units.
DNS packets are composed of five sections &endash;
Header, Question, Answer, Authority, and
Additional.
|
|
PGP
key
|
Pretty
Good Privacy is a level of protection for
confidential information. A PGP key involves
matching a signature with the sender's public key
that is on file with the business or organization
handling the confidential information.
|
|
pirate
|
A
domain raider, an individual who intentionally
registers the domain name of a well-know company or
person, generally to hold name rights for a large
ransom.
|
|
POC
|
Policy
Oversight Committee established by the gTLD-MoU.
See http://www.gtld-mou.org
|
|
port
address
|
A
16-bit quantity that identifies a specific process
or application (i.e., network computer program)
that is being executed on a host.
|
|
Principal
Register
|
The
official record of federally registered trademarks,
administered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office. A trademark owner is prohibited from using
the mark in a manner that violates the public
policy underlying granting of the mark.
|
|
proprietary
name
|
A
name which is afforded protection under trademark
law, as opposed to a descriptive name, which is not
protectable or ownable.
|
|
protocol
|
A
formal description of message formats and the rules
two computers must follow to exchange those
messages. Protocols can describe low-level details
of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g., the order
in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or
high-level exchanges between allocation programs
(e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a
file across the Internet).
|
|
Q
|
|
|
quiet
title
|
Ownership
in property that passes without notice to other
parties who may have equal entitlement to
it.
|
|
R
|
|
|
®
|
A
symbol indicating that a name, phrase or logo to
which it is affixed is registered as a federal
trademark.
|
|
registrar
|
A
company that provides registration services for
domain names. ICANN has accredited 159 registrars
worldwide for gTLDs.
|
|
registry
|
The
entity that administers a top level domain name on
the Internet. InterNIC was the exclusive registry
for .COM, .ORG and .NET domain names and delegted
that authority to Network Solutions, Inc., through
Amendment
11
to its Cooperative Agreement.
|
|
resolver
|
A
set of routines residing in a system library that
provides the interface that programs can use to
access a domain name
|
|
resolution,
resolve
|
Conversion
of an internet address into the corresponding
physical address. If a server on the local domain
cannot resolve the client request, it attempts to
locate a server that can through the use of
iterative queries to other servers.
|
|
resource
record
|
The
data associated with individual domain names. The
Internet class of resource records is by far the
most popular.
|
|
reverse
chronological order
|
Documents
or historical events arranged with the most recent
listed first. This approach is useful for examining
documents such as RFCs, where the most recent one
issued supercedes all earlier ones.
|
|
reverse
domain-name hijacking
|
Abuse
of the UDRP process by a complainant who asserts a
spurious claim of bad faith to seize a domaiin name
from a legitimate registrant.
|
|
RFC
|
Acronym
for Request For Comment, a collaborative method for
communicating new ideas to the networking
community. RFCs are individually numbered official
Internet documents generally used to provide
information about Internet standards,
specifications, protocols, organizational notices,
and individual points of view. The RFCs relating to
the .COM domains are reprinted or summarized in
Appendix C of this book in reverse chronological
order.Request For Comments (RFC). The document
series began in 1969.
|
|
RIPE
|
Réseaux
IP Européennne. A collaboration between
European networks which use the TCP/IP protocol
suite. RIPE NIC is an IP registry, allocating
Internet Protocol numbers to the European region.
See http://www.ripe.net
|
|
root
cache
|
The
root servers file, which contains a list of
authoritative root servers. The location and name
of this file are specified in the boot
file.
|
|
root
domain
|
The
root of the tree. Final attempts at resolution
occur here, if lower-level servers do not have the
requested data.
|
|
root
server
|
A
computer that maintains root.cache -- the root
servers file -- which contains a list of
authoritative root servers. The location and name
of this file are specified in the boot file, which
contains zone names, authorizations, and pointers
to zone database files.
|
|
root
server confederation
|
Another
way to articulate the DNS infrastructure. A root
server confederation (RSC) is a network of
computers -- typically 4 to 13 -- which, for
operational convenience, service a root
zone
|
|
router
|
A
device which forwards traffic between networks. The
forwarding decision is based on network layer
information and routing tables, often constructed
by routing protocols.
|
|
RS
|
Registration
Services portion of the InterNIC, operated by
Network Solutions, Inc. See http://rs.internic.net/rs-internic.html
|
|
RWHOIS
|
Referral
Whois protocol, a directory service that extends
the WHOIS protocol for storing and retrieving
information related to hosts, network information
systems, and the individuals associated with those
systems.
|
|
S
|
|
|
SAIC
|
Science
Applications International Corporation, based in
San Diego, California. SAIC acquired Network
Solutions, Inc. in March 1995. See
http://www.saic.com
|
|
servers
and clients
|
Each
zone consists of DNS servers (computers that
maintain hostname and address addresses) and DNS
clients (networking programs, such as ping, rlogin,
or telnet on a DNS server or client).
|
|
service
mark
|
A
word, phrase, slogan, design or symbol used to
identify services and distinguish them from the
services provided by others. Service marks may be
registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, and similar offices worldwide. In the U.S.
and in other countries with legal systems based on
English common law, service mark rights also accrue
through common law usage. See also
trademark.
|
|
SM
|
An
abbreviation for service mark, used to indicate the
owner's rights to use the word, phrase, slogan,
design or symbol in commerce. SM is optional and
may be affixed prior to federal registration. Once
a service mark is registered, the ®
symbol is used.
|
|
SOA
|
Start
of Authority. An acronyn used in programming to
identify the start of a zone of authority for the
specific domain database file.
|
|
socket
|
A
socket is a method for connecting a client with a
server on the Internet. It can also be used for
communication between processes within the same
computer.
|
|
spam
|
A
disparing reference meaning to send out prodigious
amounts of unsolicited and unwanted e-mail.
Spamming is considered poor "netiquette". (See
also netiquette.)
|
|
SRS
|
Shared
Registry System. A system designed by Network
Solutions, Inc. to open the registration of domain
names in .COM, .NET and .ORG to competion as
required by the U.S. Department of Commerce. See
http://www.nsiregistry.com
|
|
subdomain
|
A
domain that branches off another, such as
rivers.mynet.COM.
|
|
suggestive
name
|
A
name utilizing words or word parts that suggest the
goods or services, but do not literally describe
them. Unlike descriptive names, suggestive names
are often protectable but are weaker as trademarks
than coined/fanciful or arbitrary names.
|
|
summary
judgment
|
Summary
judgment is appropriate when there "is no genuine
issue of material fact and ... the moving party is
entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."
Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c);The initial burden of
establishing that there is no genuine issue of
material fact lies with the moving party. Summary
judgment is disfavored in trademark cases because
of the inherently factual nature of most trademark
disputes.
|
|
Supplemental
Register
|
A
registry of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
for names that are not distinctive. The protections
afforded marks in the Principal Registry are not
offered to those in the Supplemental
Registry.
|
|
T
|
|
|
TCP/IP
|
Transmission
Control Protocol over Internet Protocol. This is a
common shorthand which refers to the suite of
transport and application protocols that allow
different networks around the world to communicate
packets to each other.
|
|
TCPA
|
Trademark
Cyberpiracy Prevention Act, signed into law on
November 29, 1999. Also called the Anticybersquatting
Consumer Protection Act
|
|
TLD
|
Acronym
for top level domain, the highest category of
namepace on the Internet. (See top level
domain.)
|
|
TLT
|
Trademark
Law Treaty, adopted in 1994 and ratified by 11
nations. The TLT simplifies and harmonizes
procedural formalities of trademark registries.
See http://www.wipo.org/eng/iplex/wo_tlt0_.htm
|
|
TM
|
A
U.S. abbreviation for trademark, used to indicate
the owner's rights to use the word, phrase, slogan,
design or symbol. TM may be affixed prior to
federal registration. Once a mark is registered,
the ® symbol is used. (See also
trademark).
|
|
TMO
|
Acronym
for trademark owner.
|
|
top
level domain
|
Uniquely
identified Internet addresses used worldwide. Some
top level domain addressing is done on a geographic
basis according to country codes determined by ISO
3166. There are six international top level country
codes: .COM (commercial), .EDU (educational), .INT
(international), .MIL (military), .NET (networks)
and .ORG (organizations and
non-profits).
|
|
trademark
|
A
word, phrase, slogan, design or symbol used to
identify the source of goods and distinguish them
from other sources. Trademarks may be registered
with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and
similar offices worldwide. In the U.S. and in other
countries with legal systems based on English
common law, trademark rights also accrue through
common law usage. See also service mark.
|
|
trademark
classes
|
Trademarks
are divided into 42 international classes, each
comprised of similar goods or services. A
registered mark is protected only in the class
which is relevant to the business area of the
product or service. A name may be protected in
multiple trademark classes, assuming registrations
for each class have been granted and they are
relevant to the market area of the product or
service.
|
|
TRIPS
|
Agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights. Adopted in 1995, TRIPS establishes a
multilateral framework of principles, rules, and
disciplines for intellectual property
rights.
|
|
U
|
|
|
uDNS
|
Universal
Domain Naming System, an alternative root server
system that administers top level domains not
already in use.
|
|
UDRP
|
Uniform
Dispute Resolution Policy, established by ICANN for
all its accredited registrars. See:
http:/www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
|
|
URL
|
Uniform
Resource Locator. The letters that correspond to an
IP address and identify the location of a
particular document on a particular host
computer.
|
|
UK
|
The
top level domain suffix and country code denoting
the United Kingdom
|
|
US
|
The
top level domain suffix and country code denoting
the United States of America. Businesses prefer to
use the .COM domain because it is widely recognized
as an international identifier, whereas a .US
domain must be used in connection with a geographic
region.
|
|
USPTO
|
United
States Patent and Trademark Office, the federal
agency that administers registration of trademarks,
patents and service marks. See
http://www.uspto.gov
|
|
V
|
|
|
W
|
|
|
WAIS
|
Wide
Area Information Servers A distributed information
service which offers simple natural language input,
indexed searching for fast retrieval, and a
"relevance feedback" mechanism which allows the
results of initial searches to influence future
searches.
|
|
web
browser
|
Client
server software used to query world wide web sites.
Mosaic was the first popular browser.
|
|
White
Paper
|
A
U,S, Department of Commerce policy statement issued
on June 5, 1998. The White Paper provided the
outline for the transfer of Internet administration
to the private sector.
|
|
WHOIS
|
An
Internet program which allows users to query a
database of registrants published by
ICANN-accredited registrars.
|
|
WIPO
|
World
Intellectual Property Organization. Established in
1967, WIPO is one of the 19 specialized agencies of
the United Naitons. It administers many
international treaties dealing with intellectual
property andis based in and is based in Geneva,
Switzerland. WIPO had one vote on the International
Ad Hoc Committee and was tasked by the Department
of Commerce White Paper to lead public
consultations and development recommendations on
the intersection of domain names and trademarks.
See http://www.wipo.org
|
|
WTO
|
World
Trade Organization; etablished in 1995 as the
successor to GATT (the General Agreement on Trade
and Tariffs). WTO promotes fair competiton and
trade development and administers various
multilateral trade agreements. See
http://www.wto.org
|
|
WWW
|
World
Wide Web, an Internet hypertext-based global
multimedia information network
|
|
WYSIWYE
|
Acronym
for "What You See Isn't What You Expected," the
authors' fanciful term to describe what happens
when a domain name which suggests particular
content at the site is very different from what is
actually there.
|
|
X
|
|
|
X.500
|
The
CCITT (Comite Consultatif International de
Telegraphique et Telephonique) and ISO
(International Standards Organization) standard for
electronic directory services.
|
|
Y
|
|
|
Z
|
|
|
zine
|
An
electronic magazine, usually produced on a small
budget.
|
|
zone
|
A
portion of the domain name space that is served by
a primary name server and one or more secondary
name servers. A zone is a logical group of network
devices and may be an entire domain, a domain with
all of its subdomains, or a portion of a domain for
which a name server has the authority to maintain
data.
|
|
zone
transfer
|
The
process of downloading all the records associated
with part of a domain from a domain
server.
|
