N
\n
In C and related languages, the symbol, within a character string, that indicates starting a new line. Thus, "hello\world" is a string which prints out as:
hello
world


n/m, n/t
Abbreviation for "no message" or "No text."

nagware
Shareware that always opens with a message begging for renumeration.

.name
A suffix indicating that a web or email domain address belongs to an individual person.

nameserver
A computer whose job is to translate names into IP addresses for other computers.

namespace
The set of names available for naming things such as files, variables in a program, or computers in a network.

NAND gate
A logic gate whose output is 0 if both of the inputs are 1, and is 1.

nano-
Metric prefix meaning divided by 1,000,000,000.

nanosecond
A unit of time equal to 1/1,000,000,000 second.

NAP (Network Access Point)
A location where an Internet service provider or other network connects to a backbone to access the Internet.

Napster
A company founded in 1999 to provide person-to-person sharing of MP3 music files.

National Center for Supercomptuting Applications (NCSA)
Entity created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1986 as one of five centers for supercomputing research in the United Sates. The NCSA is bases at the University of Illinois

national characters
The characters on a computer are those whose appearance varies from country to country.

National Cybersecurity Defense Team Authorization Act
Law which allowed the U.S. President's Advisor for Cyberspace Security to set up a National Cyber Security Defense Team to identify Internet infrastructures vulnerable to terrorist attacks and to recommend ways of eliminating such vulnerabilities.

National Director for Cyber Security
Person responsible for implementing recommendations to improve national cybersecurity in the United States.

National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) or National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Organization formed to capitalize on enhanced collection of systems, digital processing technology, and the future growth of commercial imagery.

National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC)
A U.S. agency that investigates threats to critical infrastructures and provides warnings regarding likely attacks to banks, emergency services, utilities, government operations, telecommunications, and water systems.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Primary organization responsible for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), therefore driving the encryption standard that most large entities strive to implement.

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
Agency responsible for consolidating into one program all Department of Defense air vehicle and satellite overflight projects for intelligence.

National Security Agency (NSA)
U.S. organization that coordinates and directs specialized activities to protect information systems and to produce foreign intelligence.

National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace
A report published in 2003 by the U.S. government to encourage companies in the private sector to improve computer security.

native
Designed for a specific hardware or software environment.

native file format
The file format proprietary to an application program.

native method
A computer program compiled in the machine language of the specific computer on which it is being run.

natural language processing
The use of computers tp process information expressed in human languages.

natural logarithm
Logarithm of the base e.

natural media
Actual artists' materials

navigation
Finding one's way around a complex system of menus, help files, or the World Wide Web.

Navigator
Web browser developed by Netscape.

NCC or Ripe NCC
The Reseaux IP Europeens Network Coordiantion Centre, or one of five regional Internet registries assigning and administering IP addresses. Click here for information.

negative
A photographically reversed image.

nerd
A person who is intensely interested in computers to the exclusion of other human activities (and even basic life skills).

nest
To put a structure inside another structure of the same kind.

.net
Suffix indicating that an email address or website is located at a network with a particular name.

net police
Online users who take it upon themselves to flame (insult and denigrate) those failing to deploy online etiquette.

NetBEUI (NetBios Extended User Interface)
A data transmission protocol developed by IBM and Microsft and widely used in local area networking. It is usually the preferred protocolfor networking Windows systems but does not support routing.

NetBIOS (Network Basic Input-Output System)
An operating system designed by IBM to allow software to access a network.

netcafe
An Internet cafe.

netcam
A camera attached to a computer, used to send images over a network.

netcat
A simple but powerful tool that can connect two hosts on the Internet so that data can be sent. It can be used to hide an attacker's control connection to a compromised computer behind an apparently legitimate connection.

.Net Framework
An application program interface (API) for Microsoft Windows, introduced in 2001 as a downloadable add-on to Windows 2000 and XP.

netiquette
The conventional practices that make the Internet usable.

netizen
A person who is part of the Internet community in cyberspace.

Netmasks
A bit field used in version 4 of the Internet Protocol to calculate the network part from a given IP Address by using a binary AND operation.

NetProwler Agent
A component monitoring network traffic to detect identify, and respond to crack attacks.

Netscape Navigator
A popular web browser for several types of computers, produced by Netscape Communications Corporation.

NetWare Operating System
One of the earliest products to emphasize file and print serving capabilities.

Net,the
A colloquial name for the Internet.

network
A set of computers connected together.

Network Address Translation (NAT)
Allows an Internet Protocol (IP) network to translate public IP addresses into private ones.

Network Attached Storage Server (NAS)
Permits files to be stored and retrieved on a network.

Network Operating System (NOS)
Implements protocol stacks and device drivers for networking hardware.

Network Solutions, INC
The organization that, until 1998, had sole responsibility for maintaining the registry of top-level domain names (.net, .com, .org) under a contract with the United States Government.

neural network
A computer program tha models the way nerve cells (neurons) are connected together in the human brain.

new
The command in C++, C#, and Java that calls the Constructor for a class to create a new object of that class.

newbie
Newcomer.

new media
The means of communications that are displacing newspapers and television at the beginning of the 21st century.

newsfeed
A link on a web page that is automatically updated with current information.

newsgroup
A public forum or discussion area on a computer network.

newspaper columns
A word processor mode that specifies a newspaper-like format with text flowing from one column into the next.

newsreader
A piece of software that enables the user to read Usenet usegroups.

NFS (Network File System)
An extension to UNIX that enables computers on a network to share disk drives.

NIB (describing items for sale)
"new, in box."

nibble
A group of four bits, or one half of a byte.

NIC (Network Interface Card)
The circuit board inside a computer that connects to a local-area network.

nicad
A type of rechargeable batteries used in laptops.

NIMDA Worm
A worm that appeared on September 18, 2001, and cost $500 million in damages to the computer networks of businesses worldwide.

NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride)
A type of rechargeable battery electrically similar to nickel-cadmium (nicad), but having greater capacity.

NMAP
Short for Network Mapper, an open source utility for exploring networks or doing a security audit.

node
1. An individual computer, or other type of machine on a network.
2. A connection point is a data structure such as a linked list or a tree.

non-breaking hyphen
A hyphen that does not indicate a place where a word can be broken apart.

non-breaking space.
A space that does not denote a place where words can be split apart at the end of a line.

nondocument mode
A type of word processing that produces plaintext files with no special codes for hyphenation, page breaks, fonts, or the like.

noninterlaced
A type of monitor that scans the entire screen in one pass, minimizing flicker.

non-volatile
Not erased when turned off.

NOR gate
A logic gate whose output is 0 when either or both of the two inputs is 1, thus:
Inputs: Outputs:
0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0