The digital revolution has generally made our lives a lot easier. What is less simple is all the terminology that comes with every innovation. If you want to keep up with the times, you have to be aware of the usual computer terms. We make the balance for you.
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Tricky iPad terms explained May 11, 2015 08:05
Common network terms explained December 18, 2020 09:12 
Marketing talk: all wifi terms explained May 06, 2017 08:05 
Tricky iPad terms explained May 11, 2015 08:05 Tip 01: Start up
BIOS stands for Basic Input and Output System. The BIOS is the first software your computer starts up with. It checks if the basic parts of your PC are working properly. This control is formally called the POST. That is the Power-On Self-Test, which checks the memory, the video card and the disks. The BIOS starts the operating system, for that it looks at the hard drive and looks for the boot files. Those startup files are in the Master Boot Record, the first sector of a hard drive that specifies where to find the file on the drive to be loaded. That file is then loaded into memory and given control of the PC.
However, the BIOS is outdated. Today, PCs are shipped with UEFI, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. This also tells how the computer should work, but this is implemented by the various chip manufacturers themselves. UEFI is the piece of software that lies between the firmware of the device and the operating system, for example Windows or macOS, and thus starts the operating system just like the BIOS. However, it does more, so that the UEFI can run applications itself. Applications dedicated to UEFI are located in the ESP, the EFI System Partition, say the C drive of UEFI. Examples of applications in UEFI are, for example, the Windows Boot Manager, the application with which you configure your UEFI, a web browser and Python 2.
UEFI is software that, like the BIOS, starts the operating system Tip 02: File Systems
You can write a lot of ones and zeros on a disk. That's useful, but far from useful. For us humans, a disk is only usable if it has software running on it, specifically: a file system. This system must indicate how the data is stored and how it should be read. For example, you want files to be named so that you can easily find them. And we're also used to folders, another handy feature of the file system. In addition, metadata is also very practical: the time when the file was created, who created it and who can access the file. All these functions are controlled by the file system. Examples of file systems include NTFS, FAT32, HFS, ext4, btrfs (butterfs), and exFAT.
If you have a disk formats, then that means you are preparing the drive to use a file system. The disk is then divided into blocks of a certain size, according to the file system specification. In addition, a new housekeeping book is created, as it were, in which files and folders are kept. If you already used the disk and then format it, the existing housekeeping book will be deleted, so you no longer know what is on the disk. The old files are still there, they are automatically overwritten with new data. By the way, there are two types of disks: SSDs and HDDs, i.e. solid state drives and hard drives. Those solid state drives contain no moving parts and are faster. The old well-known hard drives use a rotating magnetic plate with a head to read data.
Tip 03: Hardware
RAM, which stands for random access memory, is the internal memory of the computer, not to be confused with the hard drive or SSD. The internal memory contains code and data that is currently being executed and used. The processor is regularly writing to and from the disk and internal memory. The CPU, or the central processing unit, is the processor, the chip that performs the calculations. These are calculations such as addition and multiplication, but also logical operations such as AND and OR.
MB stands for megabyte, while MB stands for megabits. One bit is one, one or zero, while a byte stands for bit by eight, meaning eight bits. MBs are generally used for disks, as the PC reads eight bits at once. Megabits, on the other hand, are used for the web, because then you can send one bit at a time. Mega is 10^6, so 1 Mb is equal to 1 million bits. The same goes for gigabytes and gigabits, only giga is 10^9.
overclocking is the process of increasing the clock speed of the processor or graphics card. The clock speed of a processor is the speed at which calculations can be performed. A processor has a kind of built-in clock, an oscillator that pulses. A calculation is performed with each pulse. For example, adding two numbers is done in a clockcycle, or pulse, while multiplying two numbers can take up to three clock cycles, or pulses.
Tip 04: Internet
A server is a computer connected to the internet that anyone from all over the world can connect to to exchange information. There are many types of servers, such as a web server, a file server and a mail server. Many servers perform multiple tasks at once. For example, a web server is a server that offers a website. When you connect to that server, the server sends you a copy of the website. You visit a website via a domain name. That is a user-friendly name to identify a server.
In general, we use domain names to visit websites. Each domain name is registered by a DNS server translated to an IP address. This works as follows: the moment you type computertotaal.nl in the browser and press Enter, the browser contacts the DNS server, for example a server from Ziggo or KPN, and asks for the corresponding IP address. of that domain name. Once the IP address is received, the browser sends a request to the web server at that IP address and asks for the website. An IP-address is an identification number on the web that is easy for machines to read. Your provider only gives you one IP address, with which you can only connect one device, because all IP addresses are unique.
But one IP address?
Your provider gives you an IP address, with which you can only connect one device. To solve that, you need a router. An router is a device that forwards network packets to and from the modem and the home network. Your router gives you the option to connect multiple devices anyway, by assuming that IP address and then assigning local IP addresses to your own devices, which only work in your own network.
