Package — An icon that represents an embedded or linked object. When you choose the package, the application used to create the object either plays the object (for example, a sound file) or opens and displays the object. See also embedded object; linked object.

Packet — (1) Logical grouping of information in the form of bits and bytes. Servers and clients communicate with each other by sending and receiving packets. Other names used for packet are frame, datagram, and segment. (2) A transmission unit of fixed maximum size that consists of binary information representing both data and a header containing an ID number, source and destination addresses, and error-control data

Packet Burst Protocol — SET parameter that allows for the transmission of multiple NCP read and write request packets.

Packet header — The part of a packet that contains an identification number, source and destination addresses, and—sometimes—error-control data. See also packet.

Packet Receive Buffers — An area in the server’s memory to hold data packets until the file server is ready to process them.

Packet Switching — A switching technique for digital data transmission. Packet switching is very much like message switching. The principle difference is that the length of the units of data (called packets) is limited in a packet-switched network.

PADs — Acronym for packet assemblers/disassemblers, a connection used in X.25 networks. X.25 PAD boards can be used in place of modems when provided with a compatible COM driver. See also X.25.

Page fault — An interrupt that results when software requests a memory location that is being saved for auxiliary storage.

Page frame — A physical address in the upper memory area where a page of expanded memory can be mapped. The page frame itself can be a maximum of four 16K pages.

Paged Memory — See Expanded Memory.

Paging — A memory management technique in which memory is divided into noncontiguous pages, and each table entry corresponds to a page in memory. This technique speeds up the performance of dynamic RAM.

Paging file — A special file on a PC hard disk. With virtual memory under Windows NT, some of the program code and other information is kept in RAM while other information is temporarily swapped into virtual memory. When that information is required again, Windows NT pulls it back into RAM and, if necessary, swaps other information to virtual memory. Also called a swap file.

Palette management — A mechanism to choose which colors to display when the display device supports a limited number of colors for simultaneous display. For example, a VGA monitor can display 16 colors out of an overall palette of 256, so a DIB bitmap with more than 16 colors would have to be palettized.

PANOSE — A font matching system based on a numeric classification of fonts according to visual characteristics

PAP — Acronym for Password Authentication Protocol, a type of authentication which uses cleartext passwords and is the least sophisticated authentication protocol.

Parent — A data set that has subordinate data sets. This term is used with SBACKUP.

Parent Directory — Any directory that has at least one subdirectory.

Parent Object — A container object that holds other objects.

Parent Partition — The partition that is immediately toward the root of another partition.

Parity — (1) The 8th bit in the ASCII code used to represent an additional 128 characters or for an error detection information. It can be either odd or even. (2) Redundant information that is associated with a block of information. In Windows NT Server, stripe sets with parity means that there is one additional parity stripe per row. Therefore, you must use at least three, rather than two, disks to allow for this extra parity information. Parity stripes contain the XOR (the Boolean operation called exclusive OR) of the data in that stripe. Windows NT Server, when regenerating a failed disk, uses the parity information in those stripes in conjunction with the data on the good disks to recreate the data on the failed disk. See also fault tolerance; stripe sets; stripe sets with parity.

Parity Bit — A technique in which an extra bit is added to bits of a character in order to detect transmission errors.

Parse — To analyze or separate (for example, input) into more easily processed components

Partial Name — See Relative Distinguish Name.

Partial synchronization — The automatic, timed delivery to all domain BDCs (backup domain controllers) of only those directory database changes that have occurred since the last synchronization. See also BDC; synchronize.

Partition — (1) A partition is a portion of a physical disk that functions as though it were a physically separate unit. Therefore, it can contain an independent file system volume. Partitions can be used to keep multiple operating systems and file systems on the same hard disk.. See also extended partition; system partition. (2) Divisions of NDS across the network. A partition is a distinct unit containing information about a portion of the Directory tree.

PARTMGR — A NetWare 4 menu utility used at workstations to manage partition.

Pass-through authentication — When the user account must be authenticated, but the computer being used for the logon is not a domain controller in the domain where the user account is defined, nor is it is not the computer where the user account is defined, the computer passes the logon information through to a domain controller (directly or indirectly) where the user account is defined. See also domain controller; user account.

Password — A security measure used to restrict logons to user accounts and access to computer systems and resources. A password is a unique string of characters that must be provided before a logon or an access is authorized. Passwords are often used in tandem with account names to log on to most computer systems. For Windows NT, a password for a user account can be up to 14 characters, and is case-sensitive. There are four user-defined parameters to be entered in the Account Policy dialog box in User Manager or User Manager for Domains: maximum password age, minimum password age, minimum password length, password uniqueness. With Services for Macintosh, each Macintosh user has a user password that he or she must type when accessing the Windows NT Server. You can also assign each Macintosh-accessible volume a volume password if you want, which all users must type to access the volume. See also account policy.

Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) — A security protocol that uses a two-way handshake for the peer to establish its identity

Password caching — Automatically storing a password in a password list (PWL) file so that whenever the user logs on again, the logon password unlocks the PWL file and the resource passwords it contains

Password uniqueness — The number of new passwords that must be used by a user account before an old password can be reused. See also account policy; password.

Paste — A function that copies the contents of the Clipboard and inserts it at the current cursor position.

Patch Cable — A type of cable used in a Token Ring network to connect MSAUs to each other (using the RI and RO ports).

Patch map — The part of a channel-map entry that translates instrument sounds, volume settings, and (optionally) key values for a channel.

Path — A sequence of directory (or folder) names that specifies the location of a directory, file, or folder within the directory tree. Each directory name and filename within the path (except the first) must be preceded by a backslash (\). For example, to specify the path of a file named Readme.Wri located in the Windows directory on drive C, you would type c:\windows\readme.wri. In MS-DOS, the route the operating system follows to locate files on a disk or disks. On a network, the route between any two nodes.

PAUDIT — A NetWare 3.1x command used to view the system accounting records.

PAUSE — A login script command to create a pause in the execution of the login script.

PB BUFFERS — NET.CFG parameter to control the use of Packet Burst Protocol for file input/output.

PC — Any personal computer (such as an IBM PC or compatible) using the MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows NT Workstation, or Windows NT Server operating systems.

PC Card — A trademark of PCMCIA. A removable device that is designed to be plugged into a PC Card slot and used as a memory-related peripheral

PCCOMPATIBLE — A login script command. If you have changed the long machine name of your IBM PC compatible computer to a different name (such as COMPAQ) to access the correct DOS version, you must use the PCCOMPATIBLE or COMPATIBLE command to inform the login program that your computer is an IBM PC compatible.

PCI — Peripheral Component Interconnect. A high-performance, 32-bit or 64-bit bus designed to be used with devices that have high bandwidth requirements, such as display subsystems

PCMCIA — Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. A non-profit association that developed a bus standard allowing small (credit card) size boards in a notebook (laptop) or low-power desktop computer. Its data path is only 16 bits, and the speed is limited to 33 MHz. Standardizes credit card-sized interface cards used in portables and other small computers

PC-NET — The IBM PC LAN program, an MS-DOS-based networking systems software product developed by Microsoft and IBM, which has been shipping since 1985.

PCONSOLE — This is the main NetWare utility for print management. It can be used to setup print servers, create queues, control network printing, and view information about network printing.

Peer — A networked computer that both shares resources with other computers and accesses the shared resources of other computers. A nondedicated server. In more detail, any of the devices on a layered communications network that operate on the same protocol level.

Peer-to-Peer Network — Network that shares computer resources without the help of a central server. Any two computers in the peer-to-peer network can communicate and share resources directly.

pel — Also known as a pixel, which is short for picture element, the smallest graphic unit that can be displayed on the screen.

Pentium — The fifth generation of the Intel family of microprocessors upon which PC-compatible computers are based. The Pentium includes advanced microprocessor features like parallel pipeline, out-of-order execution, large on-chip caches, built-in support for multiprocessing, and extremely fast floating point math performance.

Peripheral — An input/output device attached to a computer. Peripherals can be printers, hard disk drives, monitors, and so on.

Peripheral Connection Interface (PCI) — A high speed 32/64-bit bus interface developed by Intel and widely accepted as the successor to the 16-bit ISA interface. PCI devices support I/O throughput about 40 times faster than the ISA bus.

Peripheral device — A device connected to a computer to perform a certain task, for example, printing.

Permanent Memory — Memory used for data structures that remain throughout the duration of server operation.

Permission scoping — Preventing permissions granted to a trusted component from being misused, either intentionally or inadvertently, by a less trusted component

Permission signing — Allowing a signed cabinet file to specify securely not only the identity of the signer but also the set of permissions being requested for the signed classes

Permissions — Security constructs used to regulate access to resources by username or group affiliation. Permissions can be assigned by administrators to allow any level of access, such as read only, read/write, delete, by controlling the ability of user’s to initiate object services. Security is implemented by checking the user’s security identifier against each object’s access control list. Windows NT Server settings you set on a shared resource that determine which users can use the resource and how they can use it. See also access permission. Services for Macintosh automatically translates between permissions and Macintosh access privileges, so that permissions set on a directory (volume) are enforced for Macintosh users, and access privileges set by Macintosh users are enforced for PC users connected to the computer running Windows NT Server.

Personal Computer (PC) — A microcomputer used by one person at a time (i.e. not a multi-user computer). PCs are generally clients or peers in a networked environment. High-speed PCs are called workstations. Low to midrange PCs are generally called desktops. Portable PC’s are called laptops or notebooks. Networks of PCs are called LANs. The term PC is often used to refer to computers compatible with the IBM PC as opposed to a Macintosh or UNIX workstation.

Personal groups — In the Start menu on the programs list, a program group you have created that contains program items. Personal groups are stored with your logon information and each time you log on, your personal groups appear. See also groups.

Personal Information Exchange (PFX) — A set of public key-based security technologies that is part of the Microsoft Internet security framework

Phase — A characteristic of a periodic analog signal. It is a measure of relative position in time within a single period of a signal. Two signals with the same frequencies can have different phases. Phase is expressed in degrees (0 to 360).

Physical Layer — An OSI layer consisting of the physical medium as well as the hardware across which it sends and receives data. It places information onto and removes information from the physical channel. The cables, connectors, and connection ports of a network. The passive physical components required to create a network. It is the layer of the OSI model that establishes protocols for voltage, data transmission timing, and rules for "handshaking."

Physical Medium Attachment (PMA) — The portion of the MAU that contains the functional circuitry.

Physical Signaling (PLS) — The portion of the physical layer contained within the DTE that provides the logical and functional coupling between MAU and data link layers.

Physical Unit (PU) — A network-addressable unit that provides the services needed to use and manage a particular device, such as a communications link device. A PU is implemented with a combination of hardware, software, and microcode.

PIF — Acronym for program information file, which contains information about a non-Windows application, such as how much memory it needs. A PIF provides information to Windows NT about how best to run MS-DOS applications. When you start an MS-DOS application, Windows NT looks for a PIF to use with the application. PIFs contain such items as the name of the file, a start-up directory, and multitasking options.

PING — A Troubleshooting tool used to check if a host is on-line (alive) or not. PING.NLM continuously sends ICMP echo packets to the host for verification.

Ping — Packet Internet Groper. A command used to verify connections to one or more remote hosts. The ping utility uses the ICMP echo request and echo reply packets to determine whether a particular IP system on a network is functional. The ping utility is useful for diagnosing IP network or router failures. See also ICMP; router.

Pipe — 1) A portion of memory used to pass data from one process to another, symbolized in MS-DOS by the | character. For example dir | sort sends the output of the directory listing to the sort command. 2) In a sample statement for a Windows initialization file or in an MS-DOS command, the symbol used to show that only one of the possible values can be used in the statement.

Pitch — Denotes the horizontal size of a fixed-width font in characters per inch.

Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) — A system providing for the voluntary rating of World Wide Web site content by either the publisher of the page or a third-party rating group

Plenum — The short space in many buildings between the false ceiling and the floor above, and is used to circulate warm and cold air through the building. Fire codes are very specific on the type of wiring that can be routed through this area.

Plenum cabling — Coaxial cable containing special materials in its insulation and cable jacket certified to be fire-resistant and which produce a minimum amount of smoke in order to minimize poisonous chemical fumes.

Plotter font — A font created by a series of dots connected by lines. Plotter fonts can be scaled to any size and are most often printed on plotters. Some dot-matrix printers also support plotter fonts. See also font; font types.

Plug and Play — A design philosophy and set of specifications that describe hardware and software changes to the PC and its peripherals, making it possible to add new components without having to perform technical procedures

P-node — A NetBIOS implementation that uses point-to-point communications with a name server to resolve names as IP addresses. See also h-node; IP address; NetBIOS.

Point size — The vertical size of a font. A point is about 1/72 inch.

Pointer — The arrow-shaped cursor on the screen that follows the movement of a mouse (or other pointing device) and indicates which area of the screen will be affected when you press the mouse button. The pointer changes shape during certain tasks.

Point-to-Point protocol (PPP) — A Network layer transport that performs over point-to-point network connections such as serial or modem lines. PPP can negotiate any transport protocol used by both systems involved in the link and can automatically assign IP, DNS, and gateway addresses when used with TCP/IP. It consists of a set of industry-standard framing and authentication protocols that is part of Windows NT RAS to ensure interoperability with third-party remote access software. PPP negotiates configuration parameters for multiple layers of the OSI model. See also OSI.

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) — Protocol that enables a computer to securely connect to the Internet or an intranet by tunneling through an Internet or LAN connection. PPTP is a new networking technology that supports multiprotocol virtual private networks (VPNs), enabling remote users to access corporate networks securely across the Internet by dialing into an internet service provider (ISP) or by connecting directly to the Internet. See also VPN.

Poison Reverse — A method of configuring RIP. If it is enabled, all routes which are learned from a particular interface are advertised back to the interface with a metric of 16 (i.e., unreachable).

Polar — A scheme used for encoding digital data in digital signals in which both positive and negative voltages are used, so it is less susceptible to noise corruption. It is not self-clocking.

Policies — General controls that enhance the security of an operating environment. In Windows, policies affect restrictions on password use and rights assignment and determine which events will be recorded in the Security log.

Polled Mode — A printer set up option in which the port driver regularly checks the data port to determine if it is ready to receive data for transmission to the printer.

Polling — A method of media access control on networks in which one device (called a controller, primary, or master) is designated as a channel access administrator. This device queries each of the other devices (called secondaries or slaves) in a predetermined order to see whether they want to transmit. If yes, they may transmit (usually) through the master.

Pop-up menu — See window menu.

Port — A location used to pass data in and out of a computing device. This can refer to 1) an adapter card connecting a server to a network; 2) a serial 232 port; 3) a TCP/IP port; 4) a printer port.

Port Driver — The driver that routes print jobs from the print queue, through the specified port, and to the printer that will perform the job.

Port ID — The method TCP and UDP use to specify which application running on the system is sending or receiving the data. See also TCP; UDP.

Portable Open Systems Interconnect (POSIX) — A set of standards used to ensure cross-platform compatibility of client/server applications. This set of software standards is being developed by the IEEE POSIX Working Group to allow applications to be written to a single target environment in which they can run unchanged on a variety of systems. The POSIX specifications define characteristics for operating systems, DBMS, data interchange, network services, user interface, and programming interfaces. Several vendors plan to make their operating systems POSIX-compliant. Programs that adhere to the POSIX standard can be easily ported from one system to another.

Post Office Protocol (POP) — An Internet protocol that manages the routing and delivery of e-mail.

Postmaster — A user who has the read access right to the Message Routing Group which the MHS messaging server is in, the supervisor access right to the NetWare MHS Messaging Server object, and the supervisor access right to the Mailbox Location, Mailbox ID, and E-Mail Address properties.

PostScript fonts — Fonts that are defined in terms of the PostScript page-description language rules from Adobe Systems. When a document displayed in a screen font is sent to a PostScript printer, the printer uses the PostScript version if the font exists. If the font doesn’t exist but a version is installed on the computer, that font is downloaded. If there is no PostScript font installed in either the printer or the computer, the bit-mapped font is translated into PostScript and the printer prints text using the bit-mapped font.

PostScript printer — A printer that uses the PostScript page description language to create text and graphics on the output medium, such as paper or overhead transparency. Examples of PostScript printers include the Apple LaserWriter, the NEC LC-890, and the QMS PS-810. See also font types.

POTS — Acronym for plain-old telephone service. Also an acronym for point of termination station, which refers to where a telephone call terminates.

Power Conditioning — A method of protecting sensitive network hardware components using the protective and conditioning devices to filter out power surges and spikes, and to ensure clean power. It is a feature of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to remove spikes, surges, sags, and noise from the power supply. See also UPS.

PPP — Point-to-Point Protocol. An industry standard, a part of Windows 95(8) Dial-Up Networking, designed to ensure interoperability with remote access software from other vendors. It is used in making point-to-point links, especially with dial-up modem servers. See Point to Point protocol.

PPTP — See Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol.

Predefined key — The key represented by a registry window, the name of which appears in the window's title bar. See also key; registry.

Preemptive multitasking — A method by which the operating system takes control away from or gives control to another running task, depending on the needs of the system. It is a multitasking implementation in which an interrupt routine in the Kernel manages the scheduling of processor time among running threads. The threads themselves do not need to support multitasking in any way because the microprocessor will preempt the thread with an interrupt, save its state, update all thread priorities according to its scheduling algorithm, and pass control to the to the highest priority thread awaiting execution. Because of the preemptive nature, a thread that crashes will not affect the operation of other executing threads.

Preferences — Characteristics of user accounts, such as password, profile location, home directory, and logon script.

PREFERRED SERVER — NET.CFG parameter to set the server that the user will attach to, and it further ensures the user’s connection to the network.

PREFERRED TREE — NET.CFG parameter to set the Directory tree if multiple trees are available. If the preferred tree has a server with a connection, the NetWare DOS Requester attaches to that tree; otherwise, it attaches to any other tree with an available connnection.

Presentation Layer — OSI layer that solves the problem of the differences in data format and representations that are understood by the applications which use the network. It also performs data translations such as compression and decompression, encryption and decryption, etc.

Presentation Layer — That layer of the OSI model that converts and translates (if necessary) information between the Session and Application layers. It is concerned with protocols for network security, file transfers, and format functions.

Primary Domain Controller (PDC) — In a Windows NT Server domain, the computer running Windows NT Server that authenticates domain logons and maintains the master copy of the security, computer, and user accounts databases for the NT domain. The primary domain controller can replicate its databases to one or more backup domain controllers and is usually also the Master Browser for the domain. The PDC tracks changes made to accounts of all computers on a domain. It is the only computer to receive these changes directly. A domain has only one PDC. See also directory database.

Primary group — The group with which a Macintosh user usually shares documents stored on a server. You specify a user’s primary group in the user’s account. When a user creates a folder on the server, the user’s primary group is set as the folder’s associated group (by default).

Print device — Refers to the actual hardware device that produces printed output.

Print Driver — Converts print jobs to a format that can be interpreted by the type of printer being used.

PRINT HEADER — NET.CFG parameter to set the size of the buffer that holds the information to initialize a printer for each print job.

Print Header (def.) — It contains transport control codes for the modes defined in PRINTDEF that precede the data to the print queue.

Print Job — A file that is waiting to be printed, and it is stored in a print queue directory. This file will be deleted once the print server sends it to the printer.

Print job — In the Macintosh environment, a document or image sent from a client to a printer.

Print Job Configuration — A set of options that determine how a job is printed including the printer to be used, the print queue to process the job through, the print-device mode, the printer form number, and the number of copies.

Print Mode — A sequence of functions that tells the printer how to print a job.

Print processor — A PostScript program that understands the format of a document’s image file and how to print the file to a specific printer or class of printers. See also encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file.

Print Queue Object — A leaf object that represents a print queue. It refers to the Volume object on which the actual print queue is located.

Print Queue Operator — A user who has the right to edit other users’ print jobs, modify the print queue status, change the order of print jobs, and delete print jobs from the queue.

Print Server — The server that handles printing for all users in the network. It receives documents from clients. A network node, usually consisting of fixed-disk storage and a CPU, that controls one or more printers that can be shared by users.

Print Server for Macintosh — A Services for Macintosh service that enables Macintosh clients to send documents to printers attached to a computer running Windows NT; enables PC clients to send documents to printers anywhere on the AppleTalk network; and enables Macintosh users to spool their documents to the computer running Windows NT Server, thus freeing up their clients to do other tasks. Also called MacPrint.

Print Server Object — A leaf object representing a network print server. It refers to the Printer objects it services.

Print Server Operator — A user who is responsible for managing the print server.

Print sharing — The ability for a computer running Windows NT Workstation or Windows NT Server to share a printer on the network. This is done by using the Printers folder or the net share command.

Print spooler — A collection of dynamic link libraries (DLLs) that receive, process, schedule, and distribute documents.

PRINT TAIL — NET.CFG parameter to set the size of the buffer that holds the information to reset the printer after a print job.

PRINT.VLM — Service Protocol Layer VLMs that handles print redirection.

Printable screen fonts — Windows screen fonts that can be translated for output on the printer.

PRINTCON — NetWare menu utility used to define preferred print options and save them as configuration files.

PRINTDEF — NetWare menu utility used to set up a database of printer definitions and to define forms.

Printer — Refers to the software interface between the operating system and the print device. The printer defines where the document will go before it reaches the print device (to a local port, to a file, or to a remote print share), when it will go, and various other aspects of the printing process. In a Microsoft Windows network there is a distinction made between a printer and a print device.

printer driver — A program that converts graphics commands into a specific printer language, such as PostScript or PCL. See also font types.

Printer fonts — Fonts that are built into your printer. These fonts are usually located in the printer's read-only memory (ROM). See also font; font types.

Printer Form — A print option designed to make sure that the print jobs are printed on the right paper.

Printer Mode — A sequence of print functions that determines the appearance of the printed file, for example, the style, boldness, size, and the orientation of the typeface.

Printer Object — A leaf object representing a physical network printer.

Printer permissions — Specify the type of access a user or group has to use the printer. The printer permissions are No Access, Print, Manage Documents, and Full Control.

Printer window — Shows information for one of the printers that you have installed or to which you are connected. For each printer, you can see what documents are waiting to be printed, who owns them, how large they are, and other information.

Printers — Peripheral devices that produce paper copy of computer data. However, in a Microsoft Windows network there is a distinction made between a printer and a print device.

Printing pool — Consists of two or more identical print devices associated with one printer.

Priority — A level of execution importance assigned to a thread. In combination with other factors, the priority level determines how often that thread will get computer time according to a scheduling algorithm.

Private Communication Technology (PCT) — A protocol used to create a secure Internet or intranet channel

Private volume — A Macintosh-accessible volume that is accessible by only one Macintosh user. For a volume to be a private volume, the permissions on its root directory must give the volume’s owner all three permissions (Make Changes, See Files, and See Folders), while giving the primary group and everyone categories no permissions at all. When a private volume’s owner uses the Chooser to view the volumes available on the server, the private volume is listed; however, no other users can see the private volume when viewing the volumes available on the server. See also Macintosh-accessible volume.

Privilege level — One of three settings (User, Administrator, or Guest) assigned to each user account. The privilege level a user account has determines the actions that the user can perform on the network. See also Administrator privilege; Guest privilege; User privilege; user account.

Process — When a program runs, a Windows NT process is created. A process is an object type which consists of an executable program, a set of virtual memory addresses, and one or more threads. A process encapsulates the protected memory and environment for its threads.

Processor — A circuit designed to automatically perform lists of logical and arithmetic operations. See Microprocessor.

PROFILE — A login script command used in a Container script to override a user’s assigned (or command-line specified) Profile script.

Profile — A set of configuration settings and objects that apply to a particular item (e.g. user profile, hardware profile, etc.).

Profile Login Script — A login script supported by NetWare 4 which is a property of a profile object. A profile object is generally used for the users in different containers who have common needs.

Profile Object — A leaf object whose sole purpose is to contain the Profile login script. It is shared by a group of users.

Program — A list of processor instructions designed to perform a certain function. A running program is called a process. A package of one or more programs and attendant data designed to meet a certain application is called software.

Program file — A file that starts an application or program. A program file has an .exe, .pif, .com, or .bat filename extension.

Program group — On the start menu, a collection of applications. Grouping your applications makes them easier to find when you want to start them. See also group; common group; personal group.

Program icon — Located at the left of the window title bar, the program icon represents the program being run. Clicking the program icon opens the window menu.

Program item — An application, accessory, or document represented as an icon in the Start menu or on the desktop.

Programming Interface — Interprocess communications mechanisms that provide certain high-level services to running processes. Programming interfaces may provide network communication, graphical presentation, or any other type of software service.

Promiscuous mode — A state of a network card in which it passes on to the networking software all the frames that it detects on the network, regardless of the frames' destination address. See also frame; network card.

Prompt — A character or a message displayed on the screen asking for a typed response from the user.

Properties — (1) The characteristics of an object. Manipulating an object’s properties allows you to modify the way an object will look or behave.   (2) Categories of information that each object has. They are represented as fields in the NDS database (e.g. a user object has properties such as login name, phone number, and group membership). Each property has a value or values (multi-valued property) associated with it. An example of a multi-valued property would be a user’s phone number since it can hold multiple phone numbers for the same user.

Property — In Windows NT Network Monitor, a property refers to a field within a protocol header. A protocol’s properties, collectively, indicate the purpose of the protocol.

Property rights — NDS rights to compare values of the property with another value, read the value, change the value, etc.

Proprietary Standard — Protocol standards in the networking world that are developed and controlled by a single vendor, e.g., SNA (IBM) and NetWare (Novell).

Protected Mode — A PC’s normal mode of operation for 80286 and above microprocessors. When running more than one application at a time (multitasking), the memory used by the application is protected from being overwritten by another application.

Protected mode — An operating mode for the Intel 80286 and higher processors that supports multitasking, data security, and virtual memory. It has more advanced features than real mode.

PROTOCOL — A console command used to view the protocols such as IPX or TCPIP registered with the server and is used to register other protocols.

Protocol — (1) An established communication method that the parties involved understand (this broad meaning would include even Morse Code as a protocol of sorts). Protocols provide a context in which to interpret communicated information. Computer protocols are rules used by communication devices and software services to format data in a way that all participants understand. See Transport Protocol.
(2) A set of rules and conventions by which two computers pass messages across a network. These rules govern the content, format, timing, sequencing, and error control of messages exchanged among network devices. Networking software usually implements multiple levels of protocols layered one on top of another (a protocol stack). Also could be defined as a specific set of instructions used to control how and when to format and send data via communication channels.

Protocol (definition) — The rules or conventions for communication.

Protocol driver — A network device driver that implements a protocol, communicating between Windows NT Server and one or more network adapter card drivers. With Services for Macintosh, the AppleTalk Protocol stack is implemented as an NDIS-protocol driver, and is bound to one or more network adapter card drivers.

Protocol parser — A dynamic-link library (DLL) that identifies the protocols used to send a frame onto the network. See also frame; dynamic-link library.

Protocol properties — Refers to the elements of information that define a protocol’s purpose. Because the purpose of protocols vary, properties differ from one protocol to another.

Protocol rollover — Sending ASF files over a default protocol and then trying to send them via an alternative server or protocol if the original attempt fails

Protocol stack — The implementation of a specific protocol family in a computer or other node on the network. See also Protocol.

Provider interface — An API for the provision of centralized administrative support of the client workstation over the network. Providers of network services will use this Microsoft Windows API, which will be fully open to the development community.

Proxy — A computer that listens to name query broadcasts and responds for those names not on the local subnet. The proxy communicates with the name server to resolve names and then caches them for a time period. See also caching; DNS; subnet.

Proxy server — A server that acts as a go-between, converting information from Web servers into HTML to be delivered to a client computer. It also provides a way to deliver network services to computers on a secure subnet without those computers needing to have direct access to the World Wide Web

PSC — A NetWare command used to view the status of the print servers and network printers. It allows the user to issue commands to the print server from the command line, rather than from PCONSOLE.

PSERVER.EXE — This executable program converts a workstation to a dedicated print server. In this case, a workstation cannot be used as a workstation anymore. It will only work as a print server. This is supported with NetWare 3.1x and not with NetWare4.

PSERVER.NLM — Loadable module used to activate the print server. In NetWare 4, it also allows you to monitor and manage printers and print queues from a server console.

PSERVER.VAP — This is a print server program for NetWare 2.x.

PSN — Packet Switch Node. The modern term used for nodes in the ARPNET and MILNET, formerly called Interface Message Processors (IMPs).

PSTN — Acronym for public switched telephone network.

PTS — Primary Time Server. A time provider (time source) on a large network where multiple time servers are used. PTS participates in the polling process (to calculate a common time), and it adjusts its clock based on the polled time. PTS provides time to Secondary Time Server.

Pt-to-Pt Connection — Point-to-Point Connection. A direct link between two devices in a network, for example, printers connected to a personal computer, the link between two microwave antennas, and telephone leased lines.

PUBLIC Directory — The SYS:PUBLIC directory in Novell NetWare that is created during installation. It contains utilities and programs that all network users can use.

Public Files — Files and utilities that can be accessed by any NetWare user. These are located in the SYS:PUBLIC directory for DOS users and in SYS:PUBLIC/OS2 for OS/2 users.

Pull model — A broadcast model in which information is downloaded as it is requested

Pull partner — A WINS server that pulls in replicas from its push partner by requesting it and then accepting the pushed replicas. See also WINS.

PUPGRADE — Loadable module used to upgrade NetWare 3 print servers and printers to NetWare 4 Directory Service objects; it also upgrades PRINTCON and PRINTDEF.

PURGE — A NetWare command used to permanently delete the previously erased files. After using this command, deleted files cannot be recovered.

Purge (P) Attribute — An attribute of the file system which makes NetWare purge the file or directory deleted, so it can’t be recovered.

Push model — A broadcast model in which a server sends information to a large number of clients on its own schedule, without waiting for requests. The clients scan the incoming information, save the parts they have been instructed to save, and discard the rest

Push partner — A WINS server that sends replicas to its pull partner upon receiving a request from it. See also WINS.