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802.11 is the IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard for wireless local area networks.
Access is Microsoft's desktop database solution.
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The Blackberry is a portable device manufactured by Research in Motion (RIM). It is widely known for its ability to send/receive e-mail messages though recent iterations have also included a telephone.
The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brains of the computer where instructions are executed. There are two primary manufacturers of CPUs for PCs - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel.
A category of software that allows you to manage documents created or saved on your network. Typical features include naming, associating the documents to particular clients and matters, version control and check-in/check-out capability.
DSL or Digital Subscriber Line is a high speed network connection, typically to the Internet. It operates over your telephone lines.
Excel is Microsoft's spreadsheet application.
See: Microsoft Excel at Office for Lawyers
A firewall is a device or application that blocks unauthorized access. Typically it is placed between a private network and the Internet, though they can also be used within a private network to create security segments.
1,024 Kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes. A byte is roughly equivalent to a single character.
A clever collaboration tool that lets distributed parties work together on projects and documents.
The computer's "file cabinet" it is long term storage. Typical hard drive sizes these days are at least 40GB in size.
An Internet application that allows two, or more, people to have a typed "conversation" in real time. Popular IM applications (called "clients") are Microsoft Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Each of the major IM clients has its own network.
An established law firm time and billing application.
A distribution of Linux that is specifically designed for computer security work.
An open source operating system. There are many different "distributions" or "branches" of Linux.
Metadata is data about data. Your document is data. The "created date" is information about the document and that is metadata.
A network is a collection of devices that are connected so that they can communicate and share resources.
A software toolset that looks at scanned images and attempts to recognize text within those images.
ProLaw is a case management application currently owned by West (yes, the Westlaw people).
QOS is a networking tool used to prioritize network traffic. One common application is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) - a network switch is programmed to look at each packet that passes through and give priority to VOIP traffic in order to reduce latency and delay and ensure a higher quality of service for that application. It is based upon the principle that some services (like VOIP) are more sensitive to delay than others (like e-mail).
If the computer is a worker, RAM is his desk. Programs and data that are being operated on are opened in memory (RAM) to be processed. It is volatile storage, which means that when the computer is turned off the contents of RAM are lost. The more RAM you have the better. We generally recommend you start with 1GB of RAM today.
RoadRunner is a cable modem technology which brings high speed Internet connections primarily to residential users.
A server is any device on the network with resources you want to share. It might share files, a printer, an Internet connection, e-mail mailboxes, databases or other things.
A T-1 is a high speed network connection which typically consists of 24 channels which provide a total of 1.544 Megabits of network throughput. Traditionally used to carry voice traffic it can also carry data traffic.
A Treo is a portable device manufactured by Palm Computing. In addition to being a mobile phone it is also a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) which means it keeps your calendar, contacts, e-mail etc. Treo's come in two flavors: Palm OS and Windows Mobile.
A high-speed replacement for the old Serial connector. Now adays everything from the iPod to speakers to mice and more can connect to your computer via USB connectors. Most new Dell workstations only come with USB-connected keyboards and mice, in fact.
A Virus is a computer program whose primary purpose is to replicate itself. Typically a virus infects other files and travels within those files. A virus typically carries a "payload" of some kind which may be malicious, destructive or maybe just annoying.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. What makes it unique is that ANYBODY can add to or edit the documents. With more than 2 million articles (in English, and many more in other languages) it is one of, if not the, largest collection of public knowledge. The site's greatest strength, that anybody can edit it, is also it's greatest weakness. Because information can be added by anybody it's hard to know how accurate it is. Also it is subject to vandalism or edits by users with agendas.
An Internet website that allows ordinary individuals to upload their own movies so that others can view them.
A ZIP file is a compressed file which contains other files.