Postmaster's Glossary
These definitions are for use as general reference for
computer users at UC Davis
| A-C | D-F | G-J | K-M | N-S | T-Z |
- Accounts Database
- The UC Davis account management system; A UCD Computer user uses the Computing Accounts Services menu to change the status and functionality of their individual computer account; Formal name " UC Davis AMS".
- Authentication
- In networks, the procedure by which a computer verifies user identification; The most common form involves the comparison of a loginID and password to a stored file of approved ones. Any differences between the two will prohibit the user from accessing the information.
- Automated Class Mailing List
- See Class Mailing List
- Blocked Sites
- Internet Service Providers (ISP) who have been contacted about spam originating at or being relayed through their site by the UC Davis System Administrators and have not taken steps to prevent or correct the situation; All mail routed through or originating from these sites is denied receipt by the UC Davis servers and returned to the originator as undeliverable. ISPs can be removed from the blocked site list providing measures are taken to prevent future spam.
- Bulk E-mail
- An email message addressed to more than 250 recipients.
- Class Mailing List
- CML; An automated class mailing list is a mail alias which is updated nightly with enrollment information from Banner. Once the list is created, all students registered (banner code 'RE') or on the waiting list (ban ner code 'WL') for a class are automatically added. If a student drops the class, then their address is autom atically removed from the mailing list within two days.
- Client
- In a local-area network (LAN), a computer that retrieves information from or uses resources provided by the server; Capable of running applications and is a complete computer system in its own right; A program or task that calls upon a service provided by another program.
- Computer Account
- See E-mail Account.
- DNS Server
- Domain Name Service Server; translates the hostname into an Internet Protocol (IP) address to direct information from the client computer to other computers on the Internet; It also translates IP addresses into domain names.
- Electronic Mailing List
- EML; An email address that distributes mail to all members of a specified group; Electronic mailing lists allow groups of people to communicate with or reply to a whole group of people without having to type each person's individual email address each time.
- E-mail Account
- Synonymous with computer account; See computer account definition.
- Eudora
- Qualcomm's POP client software program used for sending and receiving electronic mail.
- Faculty
- A member of the faculty of the University is an academic appointee in a School, College, Division, Department, or Program of instruction and research who has independent responsibility for conducting approved regular University courses for campus credit. As an exception, students in a UC degree program who teach independently within their discipline are not considered faculty. (Source: UCOP Academic Personnel Manual, section 110.14 (http://www.ucop.edu/acadadv/acadpers/apm/apm-110.pdf)
- Full Headers
- All routing information related to a single message, usually displayed at the beginning of each message; Default behavior for most email software programs is to suppress the majority of the header information from view.
- Hard quota
- Your hard quota is the highest amount of disk space allotted for your computer account.
- Home Disk Quota
- A limit on the disk space for a home directory that a computer user is allowed to use.
- Hostname
- The name of a computer used on the internet; Computers at UC Davis follow a naming convention of hostname.ucdavis.edu, where the word "hostname" would be replaced with the unique name for a computer.
- Internet
- The name generally given to the worldwide network of networks that uses TCP/IP protocols.
- IP address
- The address of a computer on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network; An IP address is four groups of up to three digits each separated by periods like "169.237.104.154"; Each address is unique to a computer on the network.
- IRC
- Internet Relay Chat; IRC is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network.
- IRMP
- Remote Access Management Program; ServiceID required for permitting UC Davis Academic Federation and Academic Senate faculty access to a high speed modem bank.
- ISP
- Internet Service Provider.
- IET
- Information and Educational Technology; IET is a division of UC Davis and is responsible for computing, network, and telecommunication services.
- IT Express
- The central help desk for Information and Educational Technology; provides consulting over the phone and through e-mail. Call (530) 754-HELP (4357).
- Kerberos
- Kerberos is a system that was originally developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to perform distributed authentication in an open network environment.
- KBPS
- A unit of measurement for the speed of data transmission; 1Kbps is 1,024bps.
- Listproc
- Listprocessor: A software package that automates the administration of electronic mail distribution lists. As of June 2010, the campus replaced it with Sympa: see more at http://lists.ucdavis.edu
- LoginID
- This is your unique identifier used to indicate who you are on the campus computer system; There are several synonyms for this including usercode, login, etc.
- MailID
- A unique name that identifies you and allows the email system to determine where you wish to recieve your email. Your mailID usually consists of first initial, middle initial, and last name.
- Mail Server
- A computer that holds electronic mail (E-mail) messages for clients on a network.
- MIME
- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions; a specification for the transfer of non-text files with regular Internet E-mail.
- Newsgroup
- On the Internet, a virtual area reserved for the discussion of a certain topic.
- Pine
- Program for Internet News and Email; a Unix program used to compose, read, and manage e-mail messages; also used for reading and posting messages to newgroups.
- POP Client
- Post Office Protocol Client; A software program that can retrieve email messages from a server using the POP protocol.
- POP Server
- A computer running the Post Office Protocol which enables that computer to receive and hold incoming messages until a computer running a POP client sends the server a verifiable identity and password and requests the new messages.
- RAMP
- Remote Access Management Program; a pool of modems accessible by UC Davis affiliates that is maintained by IT.
- Server
- A system that receives requests for a network service from a system running a client program; the system may be dedicated only to providing a network service or services; the program running on a system that offers a network service.
- ServiceID
- A permit of sorts that allows a computer user to do certain things or access certain servers/services with the computer account that has the serviceID.
- SMTP Server
- A machine that hosts the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; transmits outgoing electronic mail across the Internet.
- Soft Quota
- Your soft quota is an amount of space that, once your account reaches it, triggers a courtesy warning message indicating that the computer account is using a high amount of disk space and should be reduced in size soon by moving, compressing, or deleting files within that account.
- Spam
- As a noun, unsolicited bulk email distributed via the Internet or through newsgroup postings. As a verb, to send multiple copies of the same message or types of messages either to one recipients or multiple recipients.
- Staff
- Employees who provide administrative, professional, technical, clerical, or service support for the teaching and research functions of the University. (Source: Staff Personnel Policies gopher://gopher.ucop.edu:70/00/UC Systemwide Information Services/Universitywide Policies and Procedures/asp/staff/spp110)
- Student
- An individual for whom the University maintains student records and who: (a) is enrolled in or registered with an academic program of the University; (b) has completed the immediately preceding term and is eligible for reenrollment, including the recess periods between academic terms; or (c) is on an approved educational leave or other approved leave status, or is on filing-fee status. (Source: Section 14.50 of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA POLICIES APPLYING TO CAMPUS ACTIVITIES, ORGANIZATIONS, AND STUDENTS at UCOP).
- Sympa
- A software package that automates the administration of electronic mail distribution lists, used by UC Davis for campus email lists. See http://lists.ucdavis.edu
- TCP/IP
- Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; A collection of network protocols used to pass information over the Internet.
- Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
- Any message advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services which is transmitted to any person without that person's prior express invitation or permission.
- Usenet
- A giant bulletin board on the Internet consisting of user news, E-mail, and forums that discuss thousands of topics; Usenet newsgroups can be accessed through the Internet or other online service.
- Vacation Utility
- A program that automatically sends a previously-authored response message to new incoming messages informing the sender of the message that the recipient is unavailable to respond; Vacation utility is commonly used when an account holder is on vacation, sabbatacle, or other extended leave.