Computing Acronyms, An Acronym Finder
Master CIW Website Design Manager
There must be thousands upon thousands of acronyms associated with computers and computing so the list I provide here is very unlikely to be too comprehensive. But I shall keep adding to it as I come across more and newer acronyms. I often use this, myself, when I need a quick reminder of an acronym.
| A | ADO | ActiveX Data Objects |
| AFP | Appletalk Filing Protocol | |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute | |
| ARP | Address Resolution Protocol | |
| ARPA | Advanced Research Projects Agency | |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange | |
| ASP | Active Server Pages | |
| ATM | Asynchronous Transfer Mode | |
| ATP | Appletalk Transaction Protocol | |
| AVI | Audio Video Interleaved | |
| B | BASIC | Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| BGP | Border Gateway Protocol | |
| BIND | Berkeley Internet Name Daemon | |
| BIOS | Basic Input/Output System | |
| BLOB | Binary Large Object (MySQL) | |
| BNC | British Naval Connector | |
| BOF | Beginning of File | |
| BOOTP | Bootstrap Protocol | |
| BPI | Bits per Inch | |
| C | CA | Certificate Authority |
| CBT | Computer Based Training | |
| CEPT | European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administration | |
| CERN | Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire | |
| CERT | Computer Emergency Response Team | |
| CGI | Common Gateway Interface | |
| CIAC | Computer Incident Advisory Capability | |
| CICS | Customer Information Control System | |
| CIDR | Classless Interdomain Routing | |
| CISC | Complex Instruction Set Computer | |
| CPAN | Comprehensive PERL Archive Network | |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit | |
| CRC | Cyclic Redundancy Check | |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management | |
| CSMA/CD | Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection | |
| CSNET | Computer Science Network | |
| CSRC | Computer Security Resource Clearinghouse | |
| CSS | Cascading Style Sheet | |
| CSU/DSU | Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit | |
| D | DARPA | Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency |
| DBD | Database Driver Module (Perl) | |
| DBI | Database Interface Module (Perl) | |
| DBM | Database Management Library (Perl) | |
| DBMS | Database Management System | |
| DDP | Delivery Datagram Protocol | |
| DES | Data Encryption Standard | |
| DHCP | Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol | |
| DHTML | Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language | |
| DLC | Data Link Control | |
| DMZ | Demilitarised Zone | |
| DNS | Domain Name System | |
| DOM | Document Object Model | |
| DSN | Data Source Name | |
| DTD | Document Type Declaration | |
| E | EBCDIC | Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code |
| EDI | Electronic Data Interchange | |
| EGP | Exterior Gateway Protocol | |
| EOF | End of File | |
| EPROM | Eraseable Programmable Read-Only Memory | |
| EPS | Encapsulated Post Script | |
| ERD | Emergency Repair Disk | |
| F | FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions |
| FDDI | Fibre Distributed Data Interface | |
| FDM | Frequency Division Multiplexing | |
| FIFO | First-In First-Out | |
| FOO | File Open for Output | |
| FQDN | Fully Qualified Domain Name | |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol | |
| G | GDI | Graphical Device Interface |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format | |
| GPRS | General Packet Radio Service | |
| GRE | Generic Routing Encapsulation | |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface | |
| GUID | Globally Unique Identifier | |
| H | HMI | Human Machine Interface |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language | |
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol | |
| HTTPS | HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure | |
| I | IAB | Internet Architecture Board |
| IANA | Internet Assigned Numbers Authority | |
| ICANN | International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers | |
| ICMP | Internet Control Message Protocol | |
| IDRP | Interdomain Routing Protocol | |
| IDS | Intrusion Detection System | |
| IEEE | Institute of Electical and Electronic Engineers | |
| IESG | Internet Engineering Steering Group | |
| IETF | Internet Engineering Task Force | |
| IGMP | Internet Group Management Protocol | |
| IGRP | Interior Gateway Routing Protocol | |
| IIS | Internet Information Services | |
| IITF | Information Infrastructure Task Force | |
| IMAP | Internet Message Access Protocol | |
| IP | Internet Protocol | |
| IPN | Instant Payment Notification (PayPal) | |
| IPX | Internetwork Packet Exchange | |
| IRQ | Interrupt Request | |
| ISA | Industry Standard Architecture | |
| ISAKMP | Internet Security Association Key Management Protocol | |
| ISAPI | Internet Server Application Program Interface | |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network | |
| ISO | International Organisation for Standardisation | |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider | |
| ITSEC | European Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria | |
| J | JANET | Joint Academic Network |
| JDBC | Java Database Connectivity | |
| JIT | Just in Time (Compiler) | |
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group | |
| JSP | JavaServer Page | |
| JVM | Java Virtual Machine | |
| K | KIF | Knowledge Interchange Format |
| KIS | Knowbot Information Service | |
| L | LAN | Local Area Network |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display | |
| LDAP | Lightweight Directory Access Protocol | |
| LLC | Logical Link Control | |
| LPD | Line Printer Daemon | |
| LPR | Line Printer | |
| LSA | Local Security Authority | |
| M | MAC | Media Access Control |
| MAN | Municipal Area Network | |
| MAU | Multistation Access Unit | |
| MD5 | Message Digest 5 | |
| MDA | Mail Delivery Agent | |
| MIDI | Musical Instrument Digital Interface | |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions | |
| MLM | Mailing List Manager | |
| MMC | Microsoft Management Console | |
| MP3 | MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 | |
| MPEG | Moving Pictures Expert Group | |
| MTA | Mail Transfer Agent | |
| MUA | Mail User Agent | |
| N | NAP | Network Access Point |
| NAT | Network Address Translation | |
| NBNS | NetBIOS Name Server | |
| NCP | Network Core Protocol | |
| NCSA | National Center for Supercomputing Applications | |
| NCSC | National Computer Security Center | |
| NDIS | Network Driver Interface Specification | |
| NetBEUI | Network Basic Input/Output System Extended User Interface | |
| NetBIOS | Network Basic Input/Output System | |
| NFS | Network File System | |
| NIC | Network Interface Card | |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology | |
| NMS | Network Management System | |
| NNTP | Network News Transfer Protocol | |
| NOS | Network Operating System | |
| NSAPI | Netscape Server Application Programming Interface | |
| NSF | National Science Foundation | |
| NWLink | Netware Link | |
| O | ODBC | Open Database Connectivity |
| ODBMS | Object Database Management System | |
| OQL | Object Query Language | |
| OSF | Open Software Foundation | |
| OSI/RM | Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model | |
| OSPF | Open Shortest Path First | |
| OTP | One-Time Password | |
| P | Portable Document Format | |
| PGP | Pretty Good Privacy | |
| PHP | Personal Home Page | |
| PHP | Pre Hypertext Processor | |
| ping | Packet Internet Groper | |
| PMI | Project Management Institute | |
| POP | Point of Presence | |
| POP | Post Office Protocol | |
| PPP | Point to Point Protocol | |
| PPTP | Point to Point Tunneling Protocol | |
| PROM | Programmable Read-Only Memory | |
| Q | QTVR | Quicktime Virtual Reality |
| R | RADIUS | Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service |
| RAM | Random Access Memory | |
| RARP | Reverse Address Resolution Protocol | |
| RDBMS | Relational Database Management System | |
| RFCs | Requests for Comments | |
| RIP | Routing Information Protocol | |
| RISC | Reduced Instruction Set Computer | |
| ROM | Read-Only Memory | |
| RPM | Red Hat Package Manager | |
| RSS | Rich Site Summary | |
| RSS | Really Simple Syndication | |
| RTF | Rich Text Format | |
| S | S/MIME | Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| SAM | Security Accounts Manager | |
| SAPI | Server Application Programming Interface | |
| SET | Secure Electronic Transactions | |
| SGML | Standard Generalised Markup Language | |
| SID | Security Identifier | |
| SLIP | Serial Line Internet Protocol | |
| SMB | Server Message Block Protocol | |
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol | |
| SNA | Systems Network Architecture | |
| SNMP | Simple Network Management Protocol | |
| SONET | Synchronous Optical Network | |
| SOP | Standard Operating Procedure | |
| SOW | Statement of Work | |
| SPX | Sequenced Packet Exchange | |
| SQL | Structured Query Language | |
| SSJS | Server Side JavaScript | |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer | |
| STP | Shielded Twisted Pair | |
| SWAT | Samba Web Administration Tool | |
| T | TACACS | Terminal Access Controller Access Control System |
| TCP | Transmission Control Protocol | |
| TCP/IP | Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol | |
| TCSEC | Trusted Computer Systems Evaluation Criteria | |
| TDM | Time Division Multiplexing | |
| TFT | Thin Film Transistor (LCD technology) | |
| TFTP | Trivial File Transfer Protocol | |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format | |
| TLD | Top Level Domain | |
| tracert | Trace Route | |
| TTL | Time to Live | |
| U | UDP | User Datagram Protocol |
| UDRP | Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy | |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator | |
| UTP | Unshielded Twisted Pair | |
| V | vBNS | very high-speed Backbone Network Service |
| Veronica | Very Easy Rodent Oriented Netwide Index to Computer Archives | |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network | |
| vrml | Virtual Reality Modelling Language | |
| W | W3 | World Wide Web |
| WAI | Web Accessibilty Initiative | |
| WAN | Wide Area Network | |
| WINS | Windows Internet Naming Service | |
| WIPO | World Intellectual Property Organization | |
| WWW | World Wide Web | |
| X | XINETD | Extended Internet Services Daemon |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language | |
| Y | Y2K | Year 2000 |
| YAHOO | Yet Another Hierarchically Officious Oracle | |
| Z | ZD | Ziff-Davis |