All visitors are logged and counted. Click on this icon to view the visitor-statistics. The grand encyclopedia of computer terminology This encyclopedia is compiled by produkties.uithuizen.net This explains the most common computerterms which you can encounter. This list was compiled from several sources. It does not explain HTML commands in detail because for this purpose another encyclopedia is available.The most recent update of this document can be found at: http://www.uithuizen.net/encyclopedia/terms.php Choose a list of terms you want to see .A-.Z   0-9   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L    M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z Type a term you want to search for: and You want more information? Well click on these links: Random House Personal Computer Dictionary p      P   PWSTEAL.PPORT 135 items available in this category P Positive Flag. The processor-status flag that indicates a positive result. P2P Networking Known spyware or adware. P2P.TANKED Known spyware or adware. packet internet gopher A program used to test for the presence of destinations in a packet-switched network. It does so by sending an Internet control message protocol (ICMP) echo request, and waiting for the replying "ping". packet switching The method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine is broken up into chunks (packets), each chunk has the address of where it came from and where it is going and an error-checking sequence. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines, and be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time. PAgent Known spyware or adware. Pages2Start Known spyware or adware. Pakistani Brain First virus found ever in 1986 on IBM PC systems that managed to spread itself globally. PAL Phase Alternation Line. PAL PC Spy Known spyware or adware. palette 1) A collection colors used by a program. Usually it is easy to customize these colors. 2) A palette is a list of the colors that are available to a particular picture. Different picture file formats have a different maximum number of colors. If your picture contains more colors than are available in a specific picture format, the extra colors are replaced with colors in the color palette. The colors in the resulting image may look distorted. This is known as a "paletted effect." palmtop A small hand-held computer working on PalmOS. See also Pocket PC. PALYH.A Known spyware or adware. PANDEM.B Known spyware or adware. PANDEM.C Known spyware or adware. PANOIL.C Known spyware or adware. PANOL Known spyware or adware. PaP Plug and Play. The standard for connecting, installing and configuring devices and add-ins. Also PnP PAP Password Authentication protocol is an authentication system built into PPP that should only be enabled upon instructions from your Internet service provider. It requires a username and password. parallel A form of datatransmission in which data is transmitted in groups of related bytes. ParallelGraphics Known spyware or adware. parameter See switch, option. PARC Palo Alto Research Center. parity Tells the computer if the sum of a series of databits is odd or even; therefore a socalled paritybit is added to the end of the dataseries. Usually this is used to certify copy-actions. PARLAY Known spyware or adware. partition Part of the harddisk that contains the operating system or some other data. password A code used to gain access to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations. paste Is copying information to the insert point in the current application from another source. PATOO Known spyware or adware. PBX/PABX Private Branch eXchange or Private Automated Branch eXchange. A switching network for voice or data. PC 1) Personal computer. A single-user computer with a base price of less than about $2000. 2) Program Counter. The register in a CPU that points to the next instruction to be executed; also called an instruction pointer or instruction counter. PCB Printed Circuit Board. A thin, nonconductive board that holds the components of a circuit. The manufacturer laminates the board with conductive material and uses the etching process to remove unwanted material, leaving only the conductive wires (traces) that become the circuit; the integrated circuits and other components are then firmly attached to the board and the pins soldered to the traces. PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect; a very fast bus! PCL Printer Control Language. PCM Pulse Code Modulation. It refers to a specific encoding format for sound samples. This format is currently used for .WAV files. See also .WAV. PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.A standardized small format connectors for connecting devices to notebooks. PCParent Known spyware or adware. PCR Pen Character Recognition. PCSpy Known spyware or adware. PDF Package Definition File. PE Phase Encoding. PE_BAGLE.P Known spyware or adware. PE_MAGISTR.DAM Known spyware or adware. PEEPER Known spyware or adware. peer to peer Direct data connection between two remote computers. pels short for: picture elements; see pixel. PENIS Known spyware or adware. PeopleonPage Known spyware or adware. PeopleOnPage/AproposMedia Known spyware or adware. PeoplePC Known spyware or adware. PerfectNav Known spyware or adware. peripheral Same as device. PERL Practical Extraction and Reporting Language. PerMedia Known spyware or adware. Personal Antispy keylogger Known spyware or adware. PESTDOOR.31 Known spyware or adware. PGP Pretty Good Privacy. System for encrypting electronic messages, available free on the Internet. phishing Pronounced like fishing, phishing is a term used to describe a malicious individual or group of individuals scamming users by sending e-mails or creating web pages that are designed to collect an individual´s bank or credit information. PhoenixNet Known spyware or adware. phreak Term used to describe an individual who illegally breaks into the telephone system to make free calls or to tap another phone. PICT PICT: Macintosh Picture. See .pic pictogram A graphical symbol that can be selected with the mouse as method to open or start an application. PIM Personal Information Manager. PIN Personal Identification Number. ping See packet internet gopher. piping The relay of input or output from a program or command to another program or command via the symbol |. pixel A pixel is a fundamental unit of measurement in a raster-based picture or on a monitor. Both raster pictures and monitors are defined by rows of dots that can be individually assigned a color. These dots are called pixels. It is the smallest part of a monitor (a dot) that can light-up in order to form text or graphics. pixel rate see videobandwidth. platter harddisk in a fixed disk drive. plotter A device with a mechanical arm that draws information on paper. plug-in A program that can become active in a browser and which can activate an application that you don´t have on your own computer. PluginAccess Known spyware or adware. PLUX Known spyware or adware. PnP Plug and Play. See PaP Pocket PC A small hand-held computer working on Windows CE. See also palmtop. point size A measurement of type sizes. Each point measures 0.0138 inch. POLDO.B Known spyware or adware. POP 1) point of presence; a location of an Internet server. 2) Post Office Protocol. A mail retrieval-and delivery system used by some newsreaders and mailreaders. There are two flavors: V2 and V3 for respectively two and three attempts. POP2 Refer to POP POP3 Refer to POP PopLoad Known spyware or adware. PopMonster Known spyware or adware. PopMonster SearchNav.com/PopNav foistware Known spyware or adware. POPS Known spyware or adware. PopUp Network Known spyware or adware. PopUpDefence Known spyware or adware. Popupper Known spyware or adware. Porn Dialer 5-2-46-112 Known spyware or adware. Porn Popups Known spyware or adware. PORNSPA.F Known spyware or adware. port 1) a computer connection for the relay of data from and to devices. Three types are available: COM, LPT and USB. 2) On the Internet port often refers to a number that is part of an URL, appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name. Every service on an Internet server listens on a particular port number on that server. Most services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard ports, in which case the port number must be specified in an URL when accessing the server. 3) Port also refers to translating a piece of software to bring it from one type of computer system to another, e.g. to translate a Windows program so that is will run on a Macintosh. portrait A page orientation in which the horizontal axis is the shorter axis. Opposite of landscape. POST Power-On Self-Test. A brief examination of the system´s functionality performed each time the system is turned on. posting A single message entered into a network communications system (example sending an E-mail to a newsgroup). POTD Known spyware or adware. Power-linking-profits.com toolbar Known spyware or adware. PowerSearch Known spyware or adware. PowerStrip Known spyware or adware. PPal Known spyware or adware. PPP Point-to-Point protocol. It´s like SLIP and CSLIP, but with better error correction. Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections and thus be really and truly on the Internet. These dial-up links used to be less expensive and slower than Ethernet or token ring connections. A PPP link is only established by working through a number of phases. The first, LCP, opens the connection and tests the link. Then either PAP or CHAP will follow only if they are required by the server (optional). Finally, IPCP is responsible for configuring the IPaddresses and options such as header compression. Praize Known spyware or adware. Precision Time Known spyware or adware. PrecisionPop Known spyware or adware. PrizeSurfer Known spyware or adware. PRN DOS-symbol for the printer. ProBot Activity Monitor Known spyware or adware. PROGENT Known spyware or adware. PROLIN Known spyware or adware. PROM Programmable Read-Only Memory; a memory chip whose contents are read-only once it is programmed. Promise Known spyware or adware. prompt By displaying the prompt, the computer indicates that it is ready to accept commands or information. PromulGate Known spyware or adware. protocol Conventions for data-communication between pc´s. PROVA Known spyware or adware. ProvenTactics Known spyware or adware. provider See ISP. proxy server A program on a secured computer that allows one-way communication with Internet users on the other side of a firewall. PRW Known spyware or adware. PSW.Bispy.A Known spyware or adware. public domain software Software for which there is no copyright. It may be used and copied freely. See also freeware, shareware, nagware Pugi Known spyware or adware. Pugi/Masterbar Known spyware or adware. Pugi/Qidion Known spyware or adware. Pugi/SearchExplorer Known spyware or adware. pull-down menu The menu that appears right below the menuname, whenever you select this name in the menubar. This is also called drop-down menu. PUN Known spyware or adware. PurityScan Known spyware or adware. PUROL Known spyware or adware. push See CDF. Push toolbar Known spyware or adware. PWORD Penta-WORD. Six bytes. Used to hold an 80386 protected-mode "far" address, consisting of a segment selector and a 32-bit offset, or a Turbo Pascal "real" variable. See also DWORD, QWORD. PWS-CY Known spyware or adware. PWSTEAL Known spyware or adware. PWSTEAL.ABCHLP Known spyware or adware. PWSTEAL.PPORT Known spyware or adware. This encyclopedia is for informational purposes only. All (registered) trademarks mentioned are property of their respective owners. No infringement of third party rights intended. The author cannot garantuee that the information presented is complete or that it contains no errors.