The following glossary defines 290 terms related to the IT Industry.  
Please do not reproduce without permission.

MAC

Media Access Control. A network protocol used to control the access to the network by different devices.

MAC Address

Media Access Control address (also hardware or physical address). Every device on the Local Area Network has an unique MAC address. It is used to identify devices and to control access to the network using MAC protocol.

Mailing List

A way of having a group discussion with list subscribers by email.  Emails are sent to all list subscribers.  Popular mailing list programs, like Listserv and Majordomo, allow for automated subscription and un-subscription from a mailing list.  Some hosting plans allow creation of mailing lists.

Mailserver

The Internet host (together with the appropriate software) that is used to send, receive and forward email messages.

Mainframe Computer

A powerful computer used for computing-intensive tasks.

MBps

MegaBytes (MB) per second, 1 MB = 1,048,576 bytes

Mbps

Megabits (Mb) per second, 1Mb = 1,048,576 bits

Megabyte (MB)

1MB = 1024 KiloBytes = 1,048,576 bytes

MHz

MegaHertz = 1.000.000 Hertz

Microsoft Access

Microsoft's low-end relational database included with the MS Office suite.  Here is the official site for Microsoft Access.  Cheaper NT hosting plans sometimes include MS Access database.

Microsoft FoxPro

Microsoft's RAD tool for creating relational databases.  FoxPro is a part of Microsoft's Visual Studio.  Here is the official MS FoxPro site.

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft's high-end SQL database running on Windows systems.  Here is the official Microsoft SQL Server site.

MIME

(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) a method of including binary data and other multimedia content within email messages.

Mirror site

An FTP site that stores the exact content of some other site. Mirroring is done in order to minimize the load on a particular server and also to increase reliability.

Miva Empressa

Miva's XML based server-side scripting language.  Available for multiple platforms.  Here is Miva Empressa home page.

Miva Merchant

Browser-based storefront development and management system for merchants.  Here is Miva Merchant home page.

Modem

MOdulator-DEModulator. A device used to transform digital data sent by a computer to analog format suitable for transmission over a telephone line. It also transforms analog signals back to the digital form. A modem is required for the dial up connection to the Internet.

MP3

An extremely popular lossy audio compression format. Widely used over the Internet.

MPEG

(Motion Picture Experts Group) video compression format for movies or animations.

mSQL (Mini SQL)

Light-weight relational database.  Here is mSQL home page.

Multicast

A message that is sent to a specific group of hosts.

MySQL

Most popular open-source relational database.  Many Unix-based plans allow MySQL databases.  Here is MySQL home page.