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| Term / Abbreviation | Long Name | Definition | AOL Definition | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 23B+D | A configuration of a T1 circuit where control information is sent "out of band" in a separate control "D" channel, leaving the 23 remaining channels to be full 64Kb/sec channels | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Access Point | The way we're counting, an Access Point is that an ISP is offering service through a phone number - if an ISP offers 5 phone numbers in the same city, that is 5 access points. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ADSL | Asymmetrical DSL | One of the variations of DSL - high speed for download, slower for uploads - generally suitable for the home user and priced cheaper than SDSL | ||||||||||||||||||||
| alias | An email alias is another name for the same email account. maryjoe@acme.net may be the primary email account, and jimbob@acme.net is the alias. Both addresses put email into the same email box, and either person will see the other's email. An alias is not nearly as important as having your own mailbox. Be sure you ask whether the account includes email aliases for each person or a separate mailbox with its own password. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| analog | An analog signal is generally communicating information by varying voltages up and down over a predefined range, exactly reproducing the original signal. The challenge with analog signals are that the longer the wire, the fainter the signal, and the more likely static and noise will interfere with the signal. Once the noise is in the wire, if the volume is turned up to repeat the signal, the noise is amplified as well | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Apache | Free Open Source Web Server for many platforms - primarily Unix and Linux, but Windows versions are beginning to become available. Highly reliable, scalable, easy to configure, secure and inexpensive to maintain. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ASL? | Age Sex Location check | AOL chat room banter - roughly translated it means "Hi, I want to have sex - are you over 16, within driving distance, and have the correct equipment?" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| asp | Active Server Pages | Microsoft's own scripting language for dyanmic web server pages. ASP requires using a Microsoft web hosting server, like IIS | ||||||||||||||||||||
| AUP | Acceptable Use Policy | The statement of what an ISP considers to be an appropiate pattern of behavior for the customer of an ISP, and more importantly, the list of things that are an inappropriate way to behave and what sanctions the ISP will impose for inappropriate behavior. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| bandwidth | The main thing you buy from your ISP. If you use the analogy of a water system, the bandwidth is the limit on how much water comes out of the pipe when you open the faucet. You connection can be slow either because your bandwidth pipe isn't big enough at some place in the system, or because there are two many people sharing the same "pipe". | |||||||||||||||||||||
| bandwidth shaping | Rationing. A tool used by an ISP and its networking partners to limit the consumption of bandwidth. When your ISP promised you "unlimited" access, were they including unlimited bandwidth or only unlimited connection time? Bandwidth is MUCH more expensive than connection time.
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| BGP4 | Border Gateway Protocol 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| binary newsgroup | One of the Usenet newsgroups that is specifically for the purpose of distributing computer programs, pictures, sounds and other digital files worldwide | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Borg | See AOL Time/Warner, Alternately see Microsoft | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Broadband | Highspeed internet access | |||||||||||||||||||||
| byte | The amount of storage genereally used to store one character of information in languages based on the latin character sets - contrast with Unicode | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cable modem | A form of broadband access working over your cable TV's wiring system. Note that with Cable, you are sharing the high speed connection with everyone in your neighborhood who has high speed access. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| camping | Maintaining a continuous dialup connection even though no productive activity is occuring. Camping is done by people who think they are entitled to remain connected to the internet 24x7 because they have an "unlimited" account. Almost all ISPs will take action to cancel an account for camping, even if they say they won't. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| CD | Carrier Detect | Indicates whether your (generally older) modem "hears" a modem on the other end of the phone line. | Cross-Dresser, as in chat room "CDs in Seattle" | |||||||||||||||||||
| CGI | Common Gateway Interface | The method that a web site uses to pass data to and from special programming to do things like send email, display hit counters, submit signup information. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| CLEC | Competitive Local Exchange Carrier | The new local phone company - in the past few years, you've started to have a choice for your local phone company. CLECs have been more active in servicing business customers, since that's where the money is. Many ISPs use CLECs, many CLECs own an ISP. At one point, CLECs were using ISPs to get the ILEC in town to pay them for every minute an ILEC customer was online using the CLEC's ISP... A source of protracted litigation and political battles. This concept was called "Reciprocal Compensation". See "Law of Unintended Consequences". | ||||||||||||||||||||
| CO | Central Office | The building in your town where the other end of that piece of copper wire in your house is connected to the local phone company. (see LEC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Co-location | also collocation. A service in which a company can have their servers housed inside the computer room at the LEC or a facility directly connected to the internet. Collocation avoids having to have a high speed connection out to the company's physical location. Especially important for high quality web hosting. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| digital | A digital signal is a sequence of voltages being varied at a specific frequency. A digital signal offers many advantages over an analog signal including: signal can be sent through multiple repeaters endlessly with no loss in signal quality, static or noise is automatically detected and fixed, the signal can be compressed to consume less bandwidth, the signal can easily be encrypted so it cannot be understood, multiple converstations can easily share the same communications line, and idle time on the connection does not consume bandwidth | |||||||||||||||||||||
| DNS | Domain Name Service | The Internet service that translates server names (www.microsoft.com) to IP addresses (207.46.197.100). Since the IP networks only understand IP addresses only, the speed of your ISP's DNS server is at least as important as your bandwidth for WWW surfing | ||||||||||||||||||||
| domain | The domain is the name for an organization on the internet. The domain is usually made up of two parts - the name and the type - toast.net, ibm.com, redcross.org, mit.edu, etc... In country hierarchies, the domain can have more parts - each country sets its own rules. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| DOV | Data Over Voice | A method used by an ISDN Terminal Adapter which signals to the phone company switch that it is preparing to make a voice call. After the call is set up, the call is used to transmit data. This technique is used to avoid per minute charges for ISDN connections, as voice calls within the local calling area do not usually incur a per minute charge. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DSL | Digital Subscriber Line | High Speed, low cost digital internet access over the copper lines already owned by your ILEC. Uses high frequency signals, filters, and clever adaptive technology to carry the internet signal on the same wire as your current voice line. Unlike Cable Broadband, you are not sharing bandwidth from your house to the DSLAM, which means your connection should not slow down as other people in your neighborhood sign up for service, and your neighbors cannot snoop on what you're doing on your computer. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DSLAM | DSL Access Multiplexer | The device in the CO that combines the traffic from multiple DSL connections to the upstream bigger circuit carrying traffic to and from in the Internet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Electronic Mail | Email allows you to send a message to anyone in the world in almost real time, if you know the other persons email address. Email addresses can be spotted by the @ in the name - maryjoe@someplace.net | 100s of messages a day for pornographic web sites | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Eudora | One of the better email programs - available in light, sponsored, and paid versions. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| example | Example of using the online glossary | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Fractional T1 | A T1 installation in which the full circuit is installed, but only some of the 24 channels are used. Since it has access to less bandwidth to send and received, a fractional T1 has a lower monthly cost than a full T1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Frame Relay | Frame Relay is a high speed technology, typically used to built a WAN for large organizations. Frame relay networks can be either over public or private networks. Frame relay can support TCP/IP connections, but is primarily aimed at SNA (IBM) mainframe network environments or multiplexing Voice and data over from a branch office over a single circuit using statistical multiplexing rather than TDM (Time Division multiplexing). If devices only send bursty data from time to time, TDM is a very inefficient use of a circuit / channel | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FrontPage | Software developed by Microsoft that performs useful functions on a web site, including easy navigation, themes, mouseover buttons, automated maintenance of site maps and indexes. If you use FrontPage (not FrontPage express), you will need web space that has the "FrontPage Extensions" installed. FrontPage extensions are rarely available on shared web space due to difficulty with security and the potential for users to accidentally overwrite another customer's work. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol | An Internet service to easily transfer files around the internet. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The best search engine on the Internet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| home page | Space on a web server made available to an ISP customer to make information available on the WWW. In a more strict sense, the home page is the first page a visitor sees on a web site, normally named something like index.html | |||||||||||||||||||||
| IDSL | DSL over ISDN - for folks who live too far away from the central office, IDSL may still be an alternative for high speed access. Limited to 144 Kbps | |||||||||||||||||||||
| IIS | Internet Information Server | Micrsoft web server software that runs under Windows. IIS servers have been the target of much activity to attempt to spread virus and trojans. There have been a series of security issues with IIS servers that have made the vulnerable to attach. Compare with Apache | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ILEC | Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier | The phone company that's been your local phone company since Alexander Graham Bell cried out for Dr. Watson - Probabaly still has "Bell" somewhere in the name. Contrast with CLEC. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| IMAP | Internet Mail Access Protocol | A newer version of the Email protocol to read your email. Unlike POP3, IMAP does not require you to first download the entire email message to your PC before you decide whether you want to delete it. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| inactivity timer | The amount of time that the ISP will continue to hold the connection open if you are not using the connection. If this is too short, you can get disconnected in the middle of writing an email. If this is too long and your account plan has time limits, you can waste a lot of your allocated hours because you forgot to log off the Internet | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Internet | The system of standards, software and hardware that permit all computers to be interconnected regardless of their type or location | AOL is the Internet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | Internet Protocol Address | Each time you dial into the internet, you are given your IP address - for as long as you are connected, this is the way the internet knows to send data to you. If you are using Windows, you can find out your current IP address by running (Start / Run) the program winipcfg. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| IRC | Internet Relay Chat | Service created in the late 1980s to allow people all around the world to talk on a "channel" (carryover from the the GO CB concept at Compuserve). Not limited to 23 people. Get a copy of mIRC if you want to experiement with IRC. Just remember its a dangerous world out there. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network | Early method of connecting computers to the internet using existing copper wiring - offered by your local phone company. ISDN normally carries a per-minute (or per channel per minute charge). ISDN can be used with 1 or 2 64kbps channels. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | Internet Service Provider | A company that sells internet services to the public | ||||||||||||||||||||
| IXC | Inter Exchange Carrier | An IXC is a company that provides connections and routes calls between LATAs (Local Access and Transport Area). | ||||||||||||||||||||
| kb | Kilobit | 1000's of bits (in some situations, it is groups of 1024 bits for the nit picky :)) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| LEC | Local Exchange Carrier | A company in your town who offers you "dial tone" service. The main types of LECs are ILECs and CLECs | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mb | Megabit | Millions of bits - note the lower case "b" indicating bits, not bytes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| modem | The device that allows two computers to talk to each other over an ordinary phone line. Modems use an analog signal, where DSL and ISDN use a digital signal. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| modem pool | A group of modems connected to a single phone number that connect you to your ISP. As each phone line fills up, the next modem is used. When the entire modem pool is filled, the next call gets a busy signal, or a recorded message that all circuits are in use. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MSN | MicroSoft Network | Microsot's own internet service - Windows Operating System includes software to automatically set up an MSN Account. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| mySQL | Open Source SQL database widely used on web servers due to its low cost, high performance, stability and integration with all major scripting languages | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Newbie | Someone new to the Intenet | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NewsGroups | Another name for Usenet | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NNTP | Network News Transfer Protocol | TCP/IP standard to connect to a server that is providing Usenet Newsgroup services | ||||||||||||||||||||
| outsourced | Hiring other party to perform a service instead of trying to provide the service using the company's own employees. For all but the largest ISPs, it makes sense to outsource Newsgroups, because they are difficult and expensive to maintain, and are more efficient when run centrally. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| packet | Each message in TCP/IP is broken into smaller pieces of data called packets. Each packet has an address and is sent independently to the server on the other end of the internet, where they are assembled back into messages. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Portable Document Format | A PDF file is a document that was written in a format that is compatible with most computers and easily printable on most printers. PDF documents are viewed with Adobe Acrobat reader. One advantage of using PDF to the author is that the PDF document contains only the final document, not the formatting instructions - making it much harder for someone to take your work, change a few words and pass the document off as their work. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| peer | An equal, a neighbor. The Internet is primarily a network of computers that are peers to each other, rather than a centralilzed system where some severs are more important than others. This was because the Internet was designed to solve an important problem - to survive a nuclear war where centralized command and control is at its weakest. So long as computers survivied and remained connected, the surviving portion of the network would continue to operate. That's the theory. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| peering | Peering is the set of agreements among the companies that provide the main connections on the internet for routing traffic among themselves. Since no one company or government is "in charge" or "owns" the Internet, the ability of any one computer on the internet to talk to any other computer is dependent on the peering arrangements in place. This arrangements determine the path that the information will take between those two computers. These paths change continually based on the performance of the networks and the routing decisions that each carrier announces using the BGP4 protocol. Note that on the internet traffic in each direction rarely travels the same path, and a single message may not all go over the same set of connections. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| php | A scripting language used by web site programmers to produce dynamic content - pages that change based on what the visitor wants to do. Compare with asp | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ping time | Ping is a utility to measure how long it takes for a "packet" of information to travel from one computer on the internet to another - very important if you play competitive games over the internet. | Forever, Infinity | ||||||||||||||||||||
| POP | Point of Presence | The phone number your modem dials in order to connect to the Internet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| PoP Count | PoP (Point of Presence) Count is the number of different internet access numbers that the ISP offers. PoP counts have become inflated by ISPs and don't mean very much. The most important thing for most people is how many different access numbers are a local call at your home (ignoring duplicates) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| POP3 | Post Office Protocol 3 | Not to be confused with POP (above). POP3 is the internet protocol used pick up email from your mailbox at the ISP. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| posting | Generally used to describe the ability to send a message into a newsgroup for distribution to the entire world. Some News Servers do not permit posting, and you can only read the information already present in the newsgroup. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reciprocal Compensation | The concept that when a town is served be more than one LEC, the LECs need to charge each other for handling the other LECs phone calls. At one point, CLECs were using ISPs to get the ILEC in town to pay them for every minute an ILEC customer was online using the CLEC's ISP... A source of protracted litigation and political battles. See "Law of Unintended Consequences". | |||||||||||||||||||||
| retention | How many days information is kept available - most commonly used to describe how long Usenet newsgroups remain available, sometimes used to describe how long unread email is kept online | |||||||||||||||||||||
| roaming | The ability to dial into your ISP from an area away from home - perhaps on business out of town or while on vacation. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SDSL | Symmetrical DSL | DSL that is the same speed in both directions - generally used by businesses, and priced significantly more expensive that ADSL. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sega Dreamcast | A game console from the company Sega, which permits playing multi-player games over the internet. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| server | A computer connected to a communications network (i.e. the Internet) which offers a service to computers (called clients) which wish to connect - hence client/server architecture. | "ISP" - "Who is your server? I've got Earthlink!" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| session limit | An absolute maximum amount of time that you can remain online at one time, after which you will be forcefully disconnected from the ISP to free up the line. This is used primarily to detect and discourage "camping" on a dialup line and using it as a dedicated connection. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Shotgun | Dual Bonded Analog Modem | Shotgun is the brand name of a modem made by Diamond Multimedia that achieved 112 Kb speeds by using two phone lines at the same time. Shotgun (more generally called dual bonded analog) technology was useful in areas not served by digital phone equipment | ||||||||||||||||||||
| SLA | Service Level Agreement | A document which states the performance characteristics that a communications service will achieve - % of time the service is available, bits per second of data that can be transmitted, response time to a problem call and similar characteristics. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol | The internet protocol used to send email. Because of abuse by spammers, many ISPs allow you to send your email using SMTP only through their computers and while you are connected to their network. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| spam | Not the meat product from Hormel - spam is the uninvited email that arrives in your email box because you used your email address in public, and "spammers" consider that to be an invitation to send you get rich quick schemes, web sites information for pornographic images, potions to increase the proportion of body parts, and other useless electrons | |||||||||||||||||||||
| startup fee | also called setup fee | A one-time fee to create an account with an ISP. Generally this fee is not refundable - it covers the costs of setting up the billing system, creating an email account, web space, and the like. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| T1 | Also referred to as DS1 | A standard digital circuit in North America - a T1 circuit can carry 24 channels - each channel is 64 kb/sec, for a total 1.53 Million bits/sec. Each channel can handle a voice call or data. Groups of channels can be combined to create a single faster digital connection Note that for computer people 1Mb is 1024 x 1024 bits - telephone and bandwidth people Define Mb as one million bits) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| T3 | A very high capacity digital circuit. A T3 is roughly 28 times more than a T1 - it contains 44 Mb/sec of capacity, in 673 channels | |||||||||||||||||||||
| TCP/IP | transmission control protocol/Internet protocol | The "low level" standard that makes the Internet possible - the set of rules for how different computers made by different companies can all talk to each other reliably. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TOS | Terms of Service | Another name for an AUP (acceptable Use policy). AOL is the primary user of this term, although other ISPs have also adopted the term. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| traceroute | A tool used to determine the specific path taken between two specific computers on the Internet. Traceroute is useful for trying to identify performance problems on the Internet. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| TV | Television | That thing watched before you found the internet. | transvestite, as in chat room names like "Seattle TVs" | |||||||||||||||||||
| unicode | A method of encoding language symbols with one symbol (generally a word) as one 16 bit value. Unicode was primarily created to simplify computer manipulation of pictograph based languages, primarily used in Asian countries | |||||||||||||||||||||
| unlimited | without limits | In the world of ISPs, "unlimited" does not mean you can be connected to the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is called a "dedicated" account, and generally costs about $100 per month.
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| Usenet | An online public message exchange on about 15,000 topics for the exchange of ideas and other "stuff". See our Usenet Guide for details. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| v.90 | Modem specification for "56k" modems - actually limited to 53K downloading from the internet and 33.6K uploading into the Internet | |||||||||||||||||||||
| v.92 | 2001 imrovements to v.90 - important features are shorter times to connect, higher upload speeds, improved compression, putting ISP call "on hold" to answer phone one a single line | |||||||||||||||||||||
| v92 | A new, improved version of the standard for modem communications over analog POTS circuits. Implements call on hold, better compression, higher upload speeds and shortened time to connect to the ISP... widespread adoption started in 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Virtual ISP | A Virtual ISP is an ISP that does not run their own services. A virtual ISP buys ISP accounts and support services from a wholesaler and markets them to customers. At its extreme, a virtual ISP consists only of a mail drop, a web page and an email account | |||||||||||||||||||||
| virus | A virus is a piece of computer code that has the ability to be copied from one computer to another, not necessarily with the knowledge of the owner of the computer. A virus can do anything from display a harmless annoying message to deleting every file on your computer. You do back up your important files, regularly, right? | |||||||||||||||||||||
| VoIP | Voice over IP | The technology that lets you talk over the internet all over the world, bypassing the long distance phone companies. Net2phone is an example of an appplication that uses VoIP. Some services allow you to dial out to people who do not own a computer for a small per-minute charge. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| VPN | Virtual Private Nework | VPN software allows an internet user to safely connect to a remote network, typically the internal network of their employer, using the public Internet. This is done by establishing a secure connection that encrypts the data being sent and received. Some ISPs will demand to receive their business rate if they detect that you are using VPN software (especially broadband providers) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| VR | Virtual Reality | Virtual reality is hardware and software, generally a head mounted display system and sensors on parts of the body to detect the position and movement of the person. This permits a very lifelike simulation of an enviornment that only exists in someone's imagination. | The Flirt's Nook | |||||||||||||||||||
| VRML | Virtual Reality Markup Language | A standard way of describing to communicate to a VR application the objects and movement occuring in a VR "world". | ||||||||||||||||||||
| WAN | Wide Area Network | A single network composed of mutliple physical locations, interconnected by high speed data connections... A WAN is a collection of LANs in different places | ||||||||||||||||||||
| web space | Disk space set aside on a computer run by your ISP. Also called your Home Page. This disk space is connected to the World Wide Web, and anyone in the world with WWW access can see your information. Most ISPs restrict usage of web space on a personal account to non-commercial use. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| webmail | Software run by your ISP that lets you read, review and send email using only your web browser. An advantage of web mail is that you can access your email even if you aren't connected to your ISP's computers (let's say if you are out of town at a hotel or in a cybercafe) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wireless DSL | Also called Wireless Broadband - a very high speed way to connect to the internet completely bypassing your phone company. Wireless Broadband relies on the ISP putting up a tower, and then any building within the line of sight (perhaps up to 10 miles) can get high speed connections. Higher front-end costs then DSL, but ideal for many customers. | |||||||||||||||||||||
