Radio Frequency Interference. — A common source of noise that can destroy computer signals and data. It includes microwaves, furnaces, transmitters, cordless phones, and perhaps the computer equipment itself (such as putting several computers too close to one another).

RAID — Acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. A method used to standardize and categorize fault-tolerant disk systems. Six levels gauge various mixes of performance, reliability, and cost. Windows NT includes three of the RAID levels: Level 0, Level 1, and Level 5.

RAM — An acronym for random-access memory. RAM can be read from or written to by the computer or other devices. Information stored in RAM is lost when you turn off the computer. See also memory.

Random Access Memory (RAM) — Also called read/write memory, this is where all the data that a computer needs while operating is stored. In more detail, RAM is made up of integrated circuits that store digital bits in massive arrays of logical gates or capacitors. RAM is the primary memory store for modern computers, storing all running software processes and contextual data. RAM is volatile, and its contents are lost of power is shut off.

RARP — Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. An Internet layer that is used by a host (usually a diskless workstation) to determine the host’s software address (IP address) from a hardware address (MAC address).

RAS — See Remote Access Service.

Raster fonts — Fonts stored in files as bitmaps in specific character sizes and rendered as an array of dots for displaying on the screen and printing on paper. Raster fonts cannot be cleanly scaled or rotated. If a print device does not support raster fonts, it will not print them.

RCONSOLE.EXE — A NetWare communication program that is used to access a file server from a workstation for remote management using the direct link method. This utility also controls the transfer of screen and keystroke information to and from the remote file server.

Reachability Information — Routing information that says which networks can be reached through a particular autonomous system.

Read Only (Ro) Attribute — An attribute of the file system that prevents the file from being written to.

Read Right — A property right to read a property value.

Read/Write Replica — A copy of the master replica that allows objects to be created, deleted, or updated. Changes made to a Read/Write replica are transmitted to all other replicas (including master replica) of the partition in order to keep them synchronized.

Read-After-Write Verific — Read-After-Write Verification. It verifies that the data written to the server hard disk matches the original data still in memory. If not, data is redirected to a hot fix area.

Read-Only Replica — A copy of the master replica that allows the users to query the data but doesn’t allow any change to be made.

Real Mode — A PC’s basic mode of operation, and it uses the original design of Intel’s 8086 and 8088 microprocessors. Using real mode, the CPU is limited to direct addressing of 1 MB of memory.

Real mode — The backward-compatible mode of the Intel 80386 family. In real mode, all of the CPU’s protection features are disabled, paging is not supported, and program addresses correspond to physical memory addresses. The address space is limited to 1 MB of physical memory and uses a memory segmentation scheme. Real mode is compatible with 8086, the 8088, the 80186, and the real mode of the 80286

Real-Time Application — A process that must respond to external events at least as fast as those events can occur. Real-time threads must run at very high priorities to ensure their ability to respond in real time.

Record Locking — The means of controlling simultaneous record access in a shared file in a multi-user environment to ensure data integrity.

Recursion — One of the three key concepts in DNS name resolution. A resolver typically passes a recursive resolution request to its local name server, which tells the name server that the resolver expects a complete answer to the query, not just a pointer to another name server. Recursive resolution effectively puts the workload onto the name server and allows the resolver to be small and simple. See also DNS; iteration.

REDIR.VLM — A DOS redirection Layer VLM that makes a NetWare server look like a DOS drive, thus users or applications get network services through DOS.

Redirection Area — The space on the hard disk that is predefined for holding data redirected from a faulty disk block.

Redirector — (1) Networking software that accepts I/O requests for remote files, named pipes, or mailslots and then sends (redirects) them to a network service on another computer.
(2) A software service that redirects user file I/O requests over the network. Novell implements the Workstation and Client services for NetWare as redirectors. Redirectors allow servers to be used as mass storage devices that appear local to the user.

Redirector —Redirectors (also called network clients) are implemented as file system drivers in Windows 95(8)

Reduce — To minimize a window to an icon by using the Minimize button or the Minimize command. A minimized application continues running, and you can click the icon on the toolbar to make it the active application.

Reduced instruction set computing — See RISC.

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) — A collection of hard disk drives, coordinated by a special controller, that appears as one physical disk to a computer but stores its data across all the disks to take advantage of the speed and/or fault tolerance afforded by using more than one disk. RAID disk storage has several levels, including 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring), and 5 (striping with parity). RAID systems are typically used for very large storage volumes or to provide fault-tolerance features such as hot swapping of failed disks or automatically backing up data onto replacement disks.

Redundant Link — A communication link method that establishes redundant links, both direct and asynchronous, to the same file server.

Redundant power supplies — Fault tolerant power source, if one fails the other continues without interruption.

Refresh — To update displayed information with current data.

REGISTER MEMORY — A console command used if the operating system does not recognize installed memory above 16 MB on Microchannel (MCA) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) computers. The file server automatically registers more than 16 MB of memory on Extended Industry Architecture (EISA) computers.

Registration — In Windows NT NetBT name resolution, registration is the process used to register a unique name for each computer (node) on the network. A computer typically registers itself when it starts.

Registration database — The REG.DAT file, which provides the information used by File Manager and Print Manager to support drag-and-drop and other actions, and which is used by OLE applications to find file types and OLE capabilities for embedded objects.

Registry — A database of configuration information required and maintained by Windows and its components. The Registry data is generally set or modified during software installation programs, through the Control Panel applets, or using a Registry editor. The registry supersedes use of separate INI files for all system components and applications that know how to store values in the registry. It is organized in a hierarchical structure, and is comprised of subtrees and their keys, hives, and value entries. See also hive; key; subtree; Windows NT registry.

Registry Checker — A system maintenance program that finds and fixes registry problems and backs up the registry

Registry Editor — An application that is used to view and edit entries in the registry

Registry key — An identifier for a record or group of records in the registry

Registry size limit (RSL) — The total amount of space that can be consumed by registry data (hives) is restricted by the registry size limit, which is a kind of universal maximum for registry space that prevents an application form filling the paged pool with registry data. See also hive; paging file.

Rel Distinguished Name — Also known as Partial Name. An NDS path relative to the current context.

Relational database — 1) A database organized and accessed according to relationships between data items. 2) A data structure perceived by its users as a collection of tables. A relational database consists of tables, rows, and columns. Typical examples are dBase IV from Borland and R:Base 5000 from Microrim. Relational databases differ from non-relational databases in that there are no system dependencies stored within the data. Hierarchical databases are not relational, because they contain pointers to other data.

REMARK — A login script command to insert any comment (explanatory text) into your login scripts. Also can be used are REM, an asterisk (*), or a semicolon (;).

REMOTE — Loadable module loaded at the console to allow remote access to the file server from a remote workstation.

Remote Access Service (RAS) — A service that allows network connection to be established over Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN, the global telecommunications network) lines with modems. The computer initiating the connection is called the RAS client and the answering computer is called the RAS host. This service provides remote networking for telecommuters, mobile workers, and system administrators who monitor and manage servers at multiple branch offices. Users with RAS on a Windows NT computer can dial in to remotely access their networks for services such as file and printer sharing, electronic mail, scheduling, and SQL database access.

Remote administration — Administration of one computer by an administrator located at another computer and connected to the first computer across the network

Remote Booting — It supports the remote booting of workstations. The user boots the workstation from files on the server rather than from a boot disk at the workstation.

Remote Connection — A connection between a LAN and a workstation on either end using a telephone line or a modem. This allows data to be sent and received over a greater distance than using normal cabling.

Remote Console Operator — A remote console operator can issue console commands from a workstation. Basically, any user who has the rights R and F in the SYS:SYSTEM directory can work as a remote console operator.

Remote logon — Occurs when a user is already logged on to a user account and makes a network connection to another computer. See also user account.

Remote network monitoring probe (Rmon) — A device that was designed to help perform network management on a network segment.

Remote procedure call (RPC) — A network interprocess communication mechanism or message-passing facility that allows a distributed program to call services available on various computers in a network. Used during remote administration of computers, RPC provides a procedural view, rather than a transport-centered view, of networked operations. See also remote administration.

Remote Procedure Call service — See RPC service.

Remote Workstation — A terminal that is connected to the network through a remote asynchronous connection.

REMOVE — A NetWare 3.1x command used to delete a user or a group from the trustee list of a file or a directory.

REMOVE DOS — Console command to remove COMMAND.COM from server memory. Server will reboot when EXIT is executed.

Rename Inhibit (Ri) Attr — An attribute of a file system which prevents a user from renaming the directory or file.

Rename Right — An object right to change the object’s name property.

RENDIR — A NetWare command used to rename a directory.

Renew — Client computers are periodically required to renew their NetBIOS name registrations with the WINS server. When a client computer first registers with a WINS server, the WINS server returns a message that indicates when the client will need to renew its registration. See also NetBIOS; WINS.

Repeaters — The most basic LAN connection device, repeaters strengthen the physical transmission signal. A repeater simply takes the electrical signals that reach it and then regenerates them to full strength before passing them on. Repeaters generally extend a single network (rather than link two networks).

Repl to Get Nearest Serv — Reply to Get Nearest Server. SET parameter that determines whether or not the server will respond to a workstation which is trying to locate a server.

Replica Ring — The partition replicas are stored on server volumes. For a given partition, all servers containing the replicas (master, Read-Only, or Read/Write) are called the replica ring. If a change (for example, object creation, deletion, update) is made to any replica in the replica ring, all other replicas in the ring will need to be updated (synchronized).

Replicas — Copies of NDS partitions to provide fault tolerance by eliminating a single point of failure in NDS database. It also provides faster access to the NDS objects across WAN links.

Replication — Technology related to database services. It creates and synchronizes multiple copies of a single database to different locations to give users fast local access.

Replication — See directory replication.

Replicators — One of Windows NT’s built-in local groups for workstations and member servers, used for directory replication functions. See also directory replication.

Request for Comments (RFC) — An official document of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that specifies the details for protocols included in the TCP/IP family. See also IETF; TCP/IP.

RESET ROUTER — Console command to reset an inaccurate or corrupted router table.

Resolution — In Windows NetBT name resolution, resolution is the process used to determine the specific address for a computer name.

Resolver — Under DNS, a client that queries the name server across the network to gain information about the domain name space. See also DNS.

Resource — Any element of a computer system that is able to be used by a running program, for example, memory, the operating system, data structures such as queues and volumes, any output device, etc.

Resource — 1) Any facility of a computing system or operating system required by a job or task, including memory, input/output devices, processing unit, data files, and control or processing programs. 2) A network component such as a file, printer, or serial device that is shared by other components of the network. 3) In Microsoft Windows, the definition of elements such as fonts, templates, accelerators, and error messages are all stored in resource files.

Resource domain — A trusting domain that establishes a one-way trust relationship with the master (account) domain, enabling users with accounts in the master domain to use resources in all the other domains. See also domain; trust relationship.

Resource fork — One of two forks that make up each Macintosh file. The resource fork holds Macintosh operating system resources, such as code, menu, font, and icon definitions. Resource forks have no relevance to PCs, so the resource forks of files on the server are never accessed by PC clients. See also data fork.

Resource reservation protocol (RSVP) — A signaling protocol that is used to establish connections with the QoS requested by an application — RFC — See Request for Comments

Response — In Windows NT RAS, responses are strings expected from the device, which can contain macros.

Restore Icon — A double box at the right end of a title bar that, when clicked, restores an application or document into a sizable window; equivalent to the application control menu’s Restore command.

Return to Zero. — A scheme used for encoding digital data in digital signals in which the signal transitions to zero during each bit time. RZ is less susceptible to noise corruption and is self-clocking.

REVOKE — A NetWare 3.1x command used to revoke trustee rights from a user or group in a file or directory.

RFC — See Requests for Comments. The procedure used by the Internet community to exchange ideas and establish standards and specifications

RI (Ring In) Port — A port used in a Token Ring network to connect multiple MSAUs.

Right — See user right; permissions.

RIGHTS — This NetWare utility can be used by the user to view his effective rights in a file or a directory.

Rights Security — It controls which directories and files a user or group can access and what the user or group is allowed to do with those directories and files.

Ring — A network configuration where a series of attached devices are connected by unidirectional transmission links to form a closed path.

Ring Topology — A physical network topology in which each device is connected in series to form a closed loop. The data pass through each device until they reach the sender.

RIP — Routing Information Protocol. Protocol used by routers to exchange routing information (network and their distances in terms of hops). See Routing Information Protocol

RIP Listening — A process in which a computer listens in on RIP packets and adds information gleaned from those packets to add entries to the route table. Also called silent RIP

RISC — Acronym for reduced instruction set computing. A type of microprocessor design that focuses on rapid and efficient processing of a relatively small set of instructions. RISC architecture limits the number of instructions that are built into the microprocessor, but optimizes each so it can be carried out very rapidly—usually within a single clock cycle.

RJ-11 — Registered Jack 11. A modular 4-wire jack and/or connector typically used with copper cable having two twisted pairs, usually unshielded twisted pair category 3 or category 5. Used for telephony, 10Base-T and 100Base-Tx Ethernet LANs, and Token Ring LANs.

RJ-45 — Registered Jack 45. An eight-wire modular connector used to join a telephone line to a wall plate or some other device. It is similar to an RJ-11 telephone connector but with twice the number of conductors. This type is becoming the de facto standard connector for UTP Ethernet networks.

RO (Ring Out) Port — A port used in a Token Ring network to connect multiple MSAUs.

Roaming User Profiles — Are enabled when an administrator enters a user profile path into the user account. The first time the user logs off, the local user profile is copied to that location. Thereafter, the server copy of the user profile is downloaded each time the user logs on (if it is more current than the local copy) and is updated each time the user logs off. See also user profile.

Robot — A fast, automated program, such as a search engine, indexing program, or cataloging software, that requests Web pages much faster than humans can

Root directory — A specific area set aside to store boot files and directories, the top-level directory on a computer, a partition, or Macintosh-accessible volume. See also directory tree.

Root Object — One special container object which is a mandatory object and automatically created during installation of NetWare. Root object does not contain any information or property.

Route table — A table that is used to determine where a computer routes packets

Router — A device that connects two networks that may or may not be similar. It operates at the Network layer of the OSI model and deals with the logical network addresses. In most networked environments, a router helps LANs and WANs achieve interoperability and connectivity and can link LANs that have different network topologies (such as Ethernet and Token Ring). Routers match packet headers to a LAN segment and choose the best path for the packet, optimizing network performance. In the Macintosh environment, routers are necessary for computers on different physical networks to communicate with each other. Routers maintain a map of the physical networks on a Macintosh internet (network) and forward data received from one physical network to other physical networks. Computers running Windows NT Server with Services for Macintosh can act as routers, and you can also use third-party routing hardware on a network with Services for Macintosh. See also LAN; packet; router; WAN.

Router Configuration — Settings and parameters to configure a NetWare 4 server as a router. These are selected through the internetwork utilities.

Routine — A program, or a sequence of instructions called by a program, that has some general or frequent use.

Routing — The process of directing packets from a source node to a destination node. Routing also includes the determination of the path between the source and destination. Routing is a process of forwarding packets to other routers until the packet is eventually delivered to a router connected to the specified destination. See also packet; router.

Routing Bridge — A bridge with some router capabilities. It can perform some minimal intelligent path selection, but because it doesn’t have access to layer 3 (Network layer) information, it cannot really route in the same way routers can.

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) — A protocol that determines the best path for routing traffic over a network. It enables a router to exchange routing information with a neighboring router. See also routing.

Routing Table — A simple look-up table that contains the addresses of gateways to be used for delivering data to a particular network. It is also known as a forwarding table. It controls the routing decisions made by computers running TCP/IP. Routing tables are built automatically by Windows NT based on the IP configuration of your computer. See also routing; dynamic routing table; static routing; TCP/IP.

RPC — See remote procedure call.

RPC Locator service — The Remote Procedure Call Locator service allows distributed applications to use the RPC Name service. The RPC Locator service manages the RPC Name service database.

RPC service — The Remote Procedure Call service is the RPC subsystem for Microsoft Windows NT. The RPC subsystem includes the endpoint mapper and other miscellaneous RPC services. See also RPC.

RPL — Loadable module used at the console for the remote booting of diskless workstations. RPL has to be bound with NIC.

RPRINTER — A NetWare 3.1x command used at the workstation to connect (or disconnect) a remote printer to a print server.

RS232 — Industry standard for serial communication connections adopted by the EIA. This standard defines the specific lines and signal characteristics used by serial communications controllers to standardized the transmission of serial data between devices.

RS232.NLM — This loadable module is an asynchronous communication driver that initiates the file server's communication port and transfers screen and keystroke information to and from REMOTE.NLM.

RSA.VLM — A VLM that provides NDS re-authentication using an encryption system developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman.

RSPX.NLM — This loadable module is a communication driver that provides SPX support for REMOTE.NLM.