Monday, April 8, 2002		Bits & Bytes

BDC: Short for Backup Domain Controller. BDCs maintain a read-only backup of the PDCs master directory. Although BDCs cannot be changed, they can be upgraded to PDCs and regularly synchronised with PDCs.

PDC: Short for Primary Domain Controller, a server in a Windows NT network that maintains a read-write directory of user accounts and security information. The PDC authenticates usernames and passwords when members log into the network. Members only have to log into one domain to access all resources in the network. In a trusted relationship, one domain may gain access to other domains. In this case, members who log into the first domain will have access to the resources in the other domains.

NTP: Short for Network Time Protocol, an Internet standard protocol (built on top of TCP/IP) that assures accurate synchronisation to the millisecond of computer clock times in a network of computers.