| Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) | The set of rules you must abide by in order to use an ISP's services, or a website's services, amongst other things. This typically includes not abusing the network, not spamming (usenet or email), not representing yourself as someone else and paying your bills on time. |
| Broadband / high speed | Generally referred to as an internet connection faster then 128 kbps. Dial-up at best is 56 kbps, so just over twice as fast as Dial-up and you are entering broadband territory. |
| Cable | Cable technologies use existing cable TV infrastructure (network) that your cable company uses for TV signals, to transmit data to and from the Internet. Since cable TV was designed as a broadcast system, the cable is shared amongst the users in your neighborhood and is considered high speed or broadband Internet access. |
| CGI | Common Gateway Interface. A programming language used within websites to automate tasks or add interactivity to a website. CGI can be any of many languages, such as Perl, PHP, ASP, C++, Python, VB, and many more (This site uses both Perl and PHP as CGI languages) |
| Dial-up | Dial-up modems use the copper line from your home to the Central Office to transmit analog signals. Maximum speed is 56 kbps |
| DHCP | Short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, a protocol for assigning dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network. With dynamic addressing, a device can have a different IP address every time it connects to the network. In some systems, the device's IP address can even change while it is still connected. |
| Dry DSL | A Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) used with no voice service. A separate fee is paid for the copper loop (The phone wires to your house for the DSL), but still less expensive that paying for a phone line. Usually used when a customer either uses no land lines (For example, they use their cellular phones for day-to-day use) or they use VoIP from their ISP for their telephone use. |
| DSL | Short for Digital Subscriber Line, DSL technologies use sophisticated modulation schemes to send data over the copper wire used for your phone connection and is considered high speed or broadband Internet access. |
| Gigabit (Gb) | (1) when used to describe data storage, 1,024 megabits (2) When used to describe data transfer rates, it refers to 10 to the 9th power (1,000,000,000) bits |
| Gigabyte (GB) | 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. Gigabyte is often shortened to GB |
| IP | Short for Internet Protocol |
| IP Assignment | IP assignment is how your computer gets an IP address from your Internet Service Provider, DHCP, Static IP, or PPPoE are generally used. |
| ISDN | Short for Integrated Services Digital Network, an international communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines or normal telephone wires. Each channel is 64 kbps |
| ISP | Short for Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the Internet |
| Kilobit (Kb) | 1,024 bits for technical purposes, transfer rates are measured in kilobits per second, abbreviated as Kbps, and count a kilo as 1,000 bits. |
| Kilobyte (KB) | kilobyte is 1,024 bytes, but it is often used loosely as a synonym for 1,000 bytes. Data transfer rates are measured in kilobytes per second, abbreviated as KBps, and count a kilo as 1,000 bytes. |
| Megabit (Mb) | (1) when used to describe data storage, 1,024 kilobits (2) When used to describe data transfer rates, it refers to one million bits. Transfer rates are often measured in megabits per second, abbreviated as Mbps. |
| Megabyte (MB) | (1) When used to describe data storage, 1,048,576 (2 to the 20th power) bytes Megabyte is frequently abbreviated as MB. (2) When used to describe data transfer rates, as in MBps, it refers to one million bytes. |
| Monthly download limits | This is a limit, generally in Gigabytes to how much information you can receive from the internet. Websites, email, everything you see on your screen is part of your download limit. |
| Network | A group of two or more computer systems linked together. There are many types of computer networks, including: |
Local-area networks (LANs) | The computers are geographically close together (that is, in the same building). |
Wide-area networks (WANs) | The computers are farther apart and are connected by telephone lines or radio waves. |
Campus-area networks (CANs) | The computers are within a limited geographic area, such as a campus or military base. |
Metropolitan-area networks (MANs) | A data network designed for a town or city. |
Home-area networks (HANs) | A network contained within a user's home that connects a person's digital devices. |
| Newsgroup | Also Usenet Newsgroups - one of the oldest forms of mass-communication on the 'net, other than email. There are over 80,000 usenet newsgroups in existence today covering just about every topic you can think of. Many ISPs will provide a Usenet feed with their accounts, but this should be checked if it is an important feature for the customer. There are also commercial usenet newsgroups providers, such as Giganews, which will, for a fee, provide a much higher level of usenet service. |
| Personal Web space | Some Internet Service Providers allow you to host a small website from their servers. Typically this is not allowed to be commercial websites, but a website none the less. |
| Point to Point (P2P) | We use this term for any connection that is from one point to another, such as a T1, DS3, and OC3 etc. These are typically used for business connections and are generally more expensive then residential services. |
| PPPoE | Short for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet, PPPoE relies on two widely accepted standards: PPP and Ethernet. PPPoE is a protocol that allows users to log on and off from their high speed or broadband internet connection. |
| Satellite | An internet connection provided by sattellite in orbit around the Earth. Satellite internet technology has advanced in leaps and bounds over the years. Where you used to need a phone line for "half" of your internet connection, most satellite internet services is now bi-directional (data is sent and received via satellite) |
| Servers allowed | Can you host a server such as website off your connection, a video game server, or a file sharing server (like Morpheus). |
| Spam (email) | Unsolicited commercial email. Unsolicited commercial does not have to be bulk to be considered spam. Spam currently makes up roughly 50% of all email sent in the world. It costs ISPs a staggering amount of money to handle (which affects their costs and therrefore their price to you. It costs end users a staggering amount of time to process/delete. There are many anti-spam programs available that range from client-side and server-side filters, challenge/response, white lists, black lists and so on. Sending spam can cause you to lose your account with your ISP or even be sued by those affected. |
| Spam (Usenet) | Usenet spam is messages posted to a Usenet group that are either commercial in nature, inappropriate to the newsgroup or designed to annoy. Again, Usenet spam does not have to be bulk to be considered spam. Most Usenet newsgroups have a charter, or a set of guidelines, posted regularly to let you know what is appropriate to that newsgroup. For example, unless a newsgroup has "forsale" in it's title, do no post messages asking to buy or sell an item. Also, a newsgroup with ".general" in it's name usually means that forsale and commercial messages are both unwelcome and could cause you to lose your ISP account for posting such messages. Sending spam can cause you to lose your account with your ISP or even be sued by those affected. |
| Static IP | You are assigned one IP address that is yours for as long as you keep your service. |
| Terms of Service (TOS) | Essentially, the same as an Acceptable Use Policy, but with more specific items related to what the ISP will provide for your money, as well as your responsibilities to the ISP as a customer and good 'netizen'. |
| Usenet | See 'Newsgroup' |
| VoIP | Voice over IP - The technology that allows you to send your voice over the internet as a replacement for traditional telephone. One of the fastest growing markets online. |
| WiFi | A wireless, radio-based LAN protocol, typically 802.11a or 802.11b - soon you'll be reading more about 802.16d and 802.16e (higher speeds and greater range) |
| Wireless | It is possible to get Internet access via wireless options, think of a cordless phone or a cell phone. It works the same way and is considered high speed or broadband Internet access. |
