John Cletheroe's
PC And Internet Hints

PC And Internet Glossary - Including File Extensions - N

Nag Screen

An annoying message which is regularly displayed by a shareware program until you register it. See Register.

Napster

The original peer-to-peer networking system which allowed users to swap MP3 music files via the Internet. Napster is now defunct, but several alternative systems such as KaZaA, Morpheus and WinMX are still available.

NAS

Network Attached Storage, or in other words disk servers.

NAT

Network Address Translation. The means by which multiple computers can access the Internet via a single router. On the ISP side of the router, a single IP address is seen by the ISP. On the computer side of the router, a different IP address is used for each computer.

Native Code

As I understand it, the result of a compiler in the machine code of the relevant processor. Because native code doesn't need to be interpreted or emulated it runs quickly. See also emulator and p-code.

An alternative but equivalent definition is that native code is true machine code, that can be run without need for a runtime module, a virtual machine, or an emulator.

I do not know whether or not native code can make use of operating system functions.

NAV

File extension. Norton Anti-Virus file. I do not know whether NAV files can contain viruses or not; it seems unlikely.

Navigator

Netscape's combined web browser and email program.

NCH

File extension. The FOLDERS.NCH file holds the Outlook Express mail folder files index in Outlook Express V4. Outlook Express V5 uses a different system and does not have a FOLDERS.NCH file. I do not know whether NCH files can contain viruses or not; it seems unlikely.

NCS

Network Configuration Services, an Intel software component.

NCSA

National Centre for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. NCSA created the Mosaic web browser, a forerunner of Netscape Navigator.

NDA

Non-disclosure agreement, for example an agreement that a beta-tester will not reveal any information about the item that they are testing.

NDIS

Network Device Interface Specification. I think NDIS is associated with LAN's (Local Area Networks) but it might also possibly be associated with modem dial-up Internet connections.

ndis2sup.vxd

Sometimes spuriously listed as having failed to load in Bootlog.txt. See Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 127970 for details of the various misleading spurious error messages which can appear in Bootlog.txt.

net

The Internet top-level domain for Internet Service Providers and similar companies.

NET (or .NET)

See .NET.

Net Messaging

A Microsoft product which appears to be very similar to NetMeeting (see that entry).

NetBEUI

NetBIOS Extended User Interface. A network protocol, considered by some as superior to TCP/IP for LAN's. I don't think you can use NetBEUI over a dial-up connection or the Internet.

Netcraft

A domain name search engine, which enables you to find the web sites of companies and other organisations. In addition, Netcraft has an option to report the name and version number of the operating system and web server software used to run each site.

http://www.netcraft.com

Netiquette

The normal rules of behaviour on the Internet, especially with regard to News Groups. The following rules are suggested by Virgin Net for Newsgroup Netiquette:
  1. Don't quote a full message and then just add a line or two to it. Only quote the points that you are replying to and delete the rest.

  2. DON'T WRITE EVERYTHING IN UPPER CASE LIKE THIS, it looks like you are shouting and makes your post's harder to read.

  3. Don't correct other people's spelling, but try and make sure that your own spelling is correct.

  4. Don't post the same message to more than one newsgroup unless you have to, and even then keep the number of groups down to a minimum. This is classed as spamming at worst and cross-posting at best and annoys people BIGTIME.

  5. Keep your signature file down to four lines, any more than that and people don't like it.

  6. If you are replying to a post that has been cross-posted to other newsgroups you should trim the number of groups that your reply will be sent to (in other words you should delete some of the newsgroups that your reply appears in).

  7. If you use anti-spam measures in your post's you should tell people what to do to reply to you by email.

  8. It is a good idea to lurk for a bit before you start posting to a newsgroup, this will give you some idea of what is and is not allowed in that group. Also it is a good idea to read the FAQ if that group has one.

  9. Don't advertise in a newsgroup unless that is the purpose of the group.

  10. Don't post binaries in a newsgroup unless it is allowed in that group. Check first.

  11. When replying to a post put your reply UNDERNEATH the quoted text of the message you are replying to.

  12. Only post in plain text, do not post in html format.

  13. If you are reposting an email that you have received from someone else make sure you get their permission first.

  14. If you are reposting an email that you have received from someone else DO NOT change the wording or correct any mistakes.

  15. Always remember that your posts will be seen by people all over the world, and they will form an opinion of you from the content of your posts. So be nice.

  16. Remember that many of the posts to newsgroups are saved in an archive and your posts can come back to haunt you at a later date (even years later).

  17. If you want to underline a word or a statement you should use UNDERSCORE to signify this. You would do it _Like This_ (you may also use * to put emphasis on a word or statement).

  18. If you have a signature file then you should put two dashes and a space (make sure it is only one space) like this "-- " (without the quotes) on the first line by itself. This is because some software uses this to strip the signature file when replying to a post.

  19. Make sure your subject heading is relevant to the content of your post.

  20. Use smileys to clarify how you meant the last statement, for example a :-) would indicate good humour.

  21. Always remember that you are not only talking to people from the same country as you, so be careful with sarcasm and clarify any statements that refer to something that only people who are in the same country as you will know what you are talking about.

  22. Set the line length in your newsgroup software to 65 lines or less and always end each line with a carriage return.

Netscape

See Navigator.

NetMeeting

A Microsoft program which enables two or more users to "chat", i.e. to type messages to each other in real time over the Internet. As far as I know NetMeeting only uses the keyboard and the screen and does not have any facilities for microphone or video camera input or speaker output. Similar to ICQ, I believe.

Despite the name, NetMeeting is not a program for organising and scheduling meetings.

New Desktop

An optional extra to Microsoft's Internet Explorer V4 and V5 browsers, which changes various relatively minor details in the way Windows 95 works that it appear very similar to Windows 98.

Active Desktop appears to be either the same as New Desktop, or perhaps an additional set of changes or options. Information on what New Desktop and Active Desktop actually offer is extremely difficult to obtain. If anyone can explain what the difference is between New Desktop and Active Desktop, and what if anything Active Desktop actually offers, I would be most grateful.

New Desktop makes a PC run significantly slower than normal. Active Desktop has an even greater effect on speed - so much so that most users will prefer to disable it.

Opinion: In my opinion the main advantages of New Desktop are the Quick Launch Bar (see that entry) and the ability to modify the Start Button menu by dragging shortcuts and folders from one place to another within it.

Newline Key

See Return Key.

News, News Groups, UseNet News Groups

Internet discussion groups, of which there are tens of thousands covering every subject imaginable (and most definitely not just PC and Internet related subjects). The name "news" is extremely misleading. As far as I can tell, UseNet is just another name for news groups. A news server is a computer which accepts and distributes news postings. News groups are also often called discussion groups, which is a much more accurate description of their purpose.

Forums are similar to news groups/discussion groups, but tend to be implemented by means of web pages.

News Aggregator

A client RSS program (see RSS). Also called simply an aggregator, or a feed reader.

Newspaper Columns

A facility provided in some word processing programs, which allows text to be laid out in vertical columns. In newspaper columns text automatically flows from the bottom of one column to the top of the next column - something which (deliberately) does not happen with tables.

Next Generation Secure Computing Base

See TCPA.

Nibble

Four bits, half a byte. One nibble can contain one hex digit.

NIC

Network Interface Card (for connecting a PC to a local area network).

nl

The Internet top-level domain for the Netherlands.

NN

Netscape Navigator.

NNTP

Network News Transfer Protocol. The means by which news (Usenet; discussion group) postings are automatically distributed between servers on the Internet.

Non-dithering colours

Colours which won't cause dithering, except on the most ancient of PC's. In web pages all three of the RGB components of non-dithering colours are multiples of 33 (hex), i.e. 00, 33, 66, 99, CC or FF (all in hex). This allows 216 possible colours. Other values will be displayed without dithering on PC's with a large number of colours but will be dithered on computers with only 256 colours.

Non-Proportional Font

A font in which each character has the same width. This is useful for aligning columns by using multiple spaces - a technique which should generally be avoided except in email messages. It is best to use a non-proportional font for viewing and composing email messages. The most commonly used non-proportional font in Windows is Courier New. The terms "fixed font", "fixed pitch font" and "monospaced font" mean exactly the same as non-proportional font.

Non-Volatile RAM

Also commonly NVRAM. RAM which retains its contents without power. In PC's, NVRAM is commonly used to hold the fundamental hardware configuration settings. Also called CMOS.

Northern Light

A well known search engine.

http://www.northernlight.com

Notepad

A simple text editor provided with Windows. Notepad can be used to edit CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, DOS batch files and HTML files. It cannot be used for true word processing since text cannot be given format attributes and the program lacks features such as paragraph indenting and spell checking.

There are numerous shareware alternatives to Notepad, such as EditPad, which offer several significant improvements such as allowing several files to be open at the same time, remembering between sessions that the program's window has been maximised and remembering between sessions that line-wrap has been enabled.

Notification Area

The name given in Windows XP to what in previous versions of Windows was called the System Tray. See System Tray

NSIS

  1. Next Steps in Signalling. An obscure network protocol.

  2. Nullsoft Scriptable Install System. An open source/freeware program which creates installation routine programs. Detected as containing adware/spyware by Microsoft AntiSpyware and PestPatrol, but these are probably false positives, possibly due to confusion with "Next Steps In Signalling".

NT

See Windows NT.

NT3

  1. Windows NT Version 3.

  2. File extension. BAHN Network file (BAHN is a tram and train network simulation program).

NTFS

New Technology Filing System. The default hard disk file system with Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. See also FAT.

NUD

File extension. Norton Uninstall Deluxe file. I do not know whether NUD files can contain viruses or not; it seems unlikely.

NVRAM

Non-volatile RAM (see that entry).

NWREDIR

In Windows, the file system driver for network drives mapped by the Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks.

Nybble

Alternative spelling of nibble.
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Most recently modified 30-Oct-08