Monday, July 2, 2001		Bits & Bytes

RIS: Short for Remote Installation Service, a feature of Microsoft's Windows 2000 Server. RIS allows a network administrator to install the Windows 2000 operating system to any number of client computers simultaneously from a central location. The administrator places images, or versions, of built systems onto a central server and then downloads those images to a computer with an empty hard disk.

Stateful inspection: Also referred to as dynamic packet filtering. Stateful inspection is a firewall architecture that works at the network layer. Unlike static packet filtering, which examines a packet-based on the information in its header, stateful inspection examines not just the header information but also the contents of the packet up through the application layer in order to determine more about the packet than just information about its source and destination.

ANI: Short for automatic number identification, a service that provides the telephone number of an incoming call. ANI is used for a variety of functions — by receiving the incoming telephone number, telephone companies can direct a call to the proper long distance carrier's equipment.