Advanced Streaming Format (or ASF, later renamed Advanced Systems Format) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video wrapper, especially meant for streaming. ASF is part of the Windows Media framework.

The format does not specify how the video or audio should be encoded, but instead just specifies the structure of the video/audio stream. What this means is that ASF files can be encoded with basically any audio/video codec and still be in ASF format. This is similar to the function performed by the QuickTime format or the Ogg format.

The most common filetypes contained within an ASF file are Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV).

ASF files can also contain objects representing metadata, such as the artist, title, album and genre for an audio track, or the director of a video track, much like the ID3 tags of MP3 files.

ASF files containing only WMA audio can be named with the filename extension .wma and files of only audio and video content may have the extension .wmv. Both may use the .asf extension if desired.

ASF is often confused with Microsoft's own implementation of MPEG-4 video format (Windows Media Video), because most of the ASF streams are encoded using this technology.

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An input field is considered to have focus if it is the currently selected field. This can be indicated by the text being highlighted, the cursor flashing in the input field or dotted lines around the field name.

The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP, and previously called Interactive Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol used for accessing email on a remote server from a local client. IMAP and POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for email retrieval. Both are supported by virtually all modern email clients and servers, although in some cases in addition to vendor-specific, typically proprietary, interfaces. For example, while proprietary protocols are typically used between Microsoft's Outlook client and an Exchange server and between IBM's Notes client and a Domino server, all of these products also support IMAP and POP3 allowing interoperability with other servers and clients. The current version of IMAP, IMAP version 4 revision 1 (IMAP4rev1), is defined by RFC 3501.

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Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) is an application layer Internet standard protocol used to retrieve email from a remote server to a local client over a TCP/IP connection. Nearly all individual Internet service provider email accounts are accessed via POP3.

The earlier versions of the POP protocol, POP (informally called POP1) and POP2, have been made thoroughly obsolete by POP3. In contemporary usage, the less precise term POP almost always means POP3 in the context of email protocols.

Like many other older Internet protocols, POP3 originally supported only an unencrypted login mechanism. Although plain text transmission of passwords in POP3 is still common, POP3 currently supports several authentication methods to provide varying levels of protection against illegitimate access to a user's email. One such method (defined in the base specification as an optional command) is APOP, which uses MD5 in an attempt to avoid replay attacks and disclosure of a shared secret; clients implementing APOP include Mozilla, Thunderbird, Eudora, Novell Evolution and the Sharp Zaurus. POP3 can also support IMAP authentication methods via the AUTH extension.

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RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. The abbreviation stands for one of the following standards:

RSS provides short descriptions of web content together with links to the full versions of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. In addition to facilitating syndication, RSS allows a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using a news aggregator.

Samba is a free software implementation of Microsoft's networking system. As of version 3, Samba not only provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients but can also integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a Domain Member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain.

Samba runs on most UNIX and Unix-like systems, such as GNU/Linux, Solaris, and the BSD variants, including Apple's Mac OS X Server; it was added to the OS X workstation edition with version 10.2.

The name Samba comes from inserting two vowels into the name of the standard protocol used by the Microsoft Windows network file system, "SMB" (server message block). Samba was originally called smbserver but the name was changed because of a trademark notice from the company "Syntax" who sold a product named TotalNet advanced Server, and also owned the trademark for SMBserver.

Samba sets up shares for chosen UNIX directories (including all contained subdirectories). These appear to Microsoft Windows users as normal Windows folders accessible via the network. Unix users can either mount the shares directly as part of their file structure or, alternatively, can use a utility, smbclient installed with samba to read the shares with a similar interface to a standard command line ftp program. Each directory can have different access privileges overlayed on top of the normal UNIX file protections. For example: home directories would have read/write access for all known users, allowing each to access their own files. However they would still not have access to the files of others unless that permission would normally exist. Note that /etc/samba/netlogon, typically distributed as a read only share, is the logon directory for user logon scripts.

Samba Configuration is achieved by editing a single file (typically installed as /etc/smb.conf or /etc/samba/smb.conf). Samba can also provide user logon scripts and group policy implementation through poledit.

Samba was originally developed for UNIX by Andrew Tridgell at the Australian National University.

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In Wi-Fi Wireless LAN computer networking, a service set identifier (SSID) is a code attached to all packets on a wireless network to identify each packet as part of that network. The code consists of a maximum of 32 alphanumeric characters. All wireless devices attempting to communicate with each other must share the same SSID. Apart from identifying each packet, SSID also serves to uniquely identify a group of wireless network devices used in a given "Service Set".

There are two major variants of the SSID. Ad-hoc wireless networks that consist of client machines without an access point use the BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier); whereas on an infrastructure network which includes an access point, the ESSID (E for Extended) is used instead. Each of these different types may be referred to in general terms as SSID. A network's SSID is often referred to as the "network name" and is commonly set to the name of the network operator, such as a company name.

An extremely weak form of wireless network security is to turn off the broadcast of the SSID: to the average user there does not appear to be a network in use; it is however still readily available to hackers using the appropriate tools. This should not be the only form of defence to protect a wireless network. Other forms of encryption and authentication should also be used, WEP at the very least but preferably some form of WPA.

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Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is part of the IEEE 802.11 standard (ratified in September 1999), and is a scheme used to secure wireless networks (Wi-Fi). Because a wireless network broadcasts messages using radio, it is particularly susceptible to eavesdropping; WEP was designed to provide comparable confidentiality to a traditional wired network, hence the name. However, several serious weaknesses were identified by cryptanalysts, and WEP was superseded by Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) in 2003, and then by the full IEEE 802.11i standard (also known as WPA2) in 2004. Despite the inherent weaknesses, WEP provides a bare minimal level of security that can deter casual snooping.

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Windows Media Video (WMV) is a generic name for the set of proprietary streaming video technologies developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework.

WMV is not built solely on Microsoft in-house technology. From version 7 (WMV1), Microsoft has used its own non-standard version of MPEG-4. The video stream is often combined with an audio stream of Windows Media Audio.

WMV files are customarily played by Windows Media Player on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh systems. Some third-party players also exist, such as MPlayer for Linux, which play back WMV by using the FFmpeg implementation of the WMV codecs.

Raw WMV video is packed into an AVI or Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) container. The resulting files may be named .avi if it is an AVI-contained file, or .wmv or .asf if it is an ASF file, but .wmv files are to be ASF files with audio/video content only.

WMV is usually found in the AVI file container when encoded with Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 VCM software for Windows. Microsoft's Windows Media Player for the Mac does not support all WMV encoded files since it supports only the ASF file container.

WMV also features digital rights management facilities.

Microsoft has submitted Version 9 codec to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), for approval as an international standard. (As of Jan 2005, the SMPTE is reviewing the submission under the draft-name "VC-1"). This codec is also used to distribute high definition video on standard DVDs in a format Microsoft has branded as WMV HD. This WMV HD content can be played back on computers or compatible DVD players.

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