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ESDAGLOSSARY OF TERMS
56K Line
 A phone-line connection capable of carrying up to 56,000 bits per second. At this speed, a megabyte of data would take about 3 minutes to transfer.
Access Provider: An organization that lets users gain entrance to a network, typically the Internet. It generally refers to a smaller internet service provider (ISP).
aDSL: see DSL
Analogue: A representation of an object that resembles the original. For example, telephones turn voice vibrations into electrical vibrations of the same shape. Analogue technology refers to electronic transmission accomplished by adding signals of varying frequency or amplitude to carrier waves of a given frequency of alternating electromagnetic current. Broadcast and phone transmission have conventionally used analogue technology. Analogue implies continuous operation in contrast with digital, which is broken up into numbers.
AORTA™: is chello’s own global IP backbone. AORTA is an acronym for Always On, Ready To Access. At its core AORTA™ connects Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Paris, Brussels and London with 2.5 gigabits per second of capacity, while additional links connect to other cities within Europe, Scandinavia, North America and Australia.
ASP Application Service Provider: A company providing IT services for users who do not want to run their own IT activities. ASPs run enterprise software on their own computers; companies access this over a telecommunications network.
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode: ATM is an international high-speed, high-volume, packet-switching transmission protocol standard. ATM uses short, uniform, 53-byte cells to divide data into efficient, manageable packets for ultra fast switching through a high-performance communications network. The 53-byte cells contain 5-byte destination address headers and 48 data bytes. ATM is the first packet-switched technology designed from the ground up to support integrated voice, video and data communication applications. It is well-suited to high-speed WAN (wide area network) transmission speeds from 64 kbps to 622 Mbps. ATM may support gigabit speeds in the future.
Backbone: A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative, though, as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.
Bandwidth: Terminology used to indicate the transmission or processing capacity of a system, or of a specific location in a system (usually a network system). Bandwidth is usually defined in bits per second but also is usually described as either ‘large’ or ‘small’.
Basic cable: A 'basic' cable service agreement in which a subscriber pays a cable TV operator or system a monthly fee. Does not include 'pay' services that might be offered by the cable operator.
Baud: Bits at unit density, or baud is a unit of transmission speed equal to the number of times the state (or condition) of a line changes per second. Equal to the bit per second (bps) rate only if each signal element represents one bit of information. The baud rate usually refers to the number of bits transmitted each second.
Bit: A binary digit (BInary digiT, hence, bit), either a 0 or 1 – the smallest element of a computer program. The bit is physically a transistor or capacitor in a memory cell, a magnetic domain on disk or tape, a reflective spot on optical media or a high or low voltage pulsing through a circuit. Groups of bits make up storage units in the computer, called characters, bytes, or words, which are manipulated as a group. The most common is the byte, made up of eight bits and equivalent to one alphanumeric character. Typically, transmission capacity is measured in bits (kilobits, megabits, gigabits or terabits), while memory and storage capacity is usually measured in bytes (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes or terabytes).
Bluetooth: A short range wireless connection standard. Its aim is to link a wide range of computer, electronics and telecoms devices. The technology uses a low power two-way radio link which is built into a microchip. Bluetooth provides up to 720Kbps data transfer within a range of 10 metres using omni-directional radio waves that can transmit through walls and other non-metal barriers.
Bps, or Bits Per Second: Bits per second is a measurement of how fast data are moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits per second.
Broadband: Anything that puts multiple channels of data over a single link can be called broadband; a single channel of data over a single link is narrowband. Broadband is loosely used to describe signals of high bandwidth. It is specifically used to describe the use of high bandwidth coaxial cable to transmit radio, television or other analogue signals that would typically be sent over the airwaves. Also used as a generic term for high-speed telecommunications circuits and services. Although the actual threshold of broadband is often subjective, according to the context and the technology involved, it implies transmitting at higher speeds than have been common for some time.
Broadband Internet: Broadband internet perpetually sends rich channels of information and entertainment over a single link, which can be a cable, a digital phone line or even a satellite, and is faster than 300 Kbps. This allows the internet user to experience almost instantaneous access to high-resolution graphics and CD-quality sound.
Browsers: Browsers are software programs that retrieve, display and print information and HTML documents from the world-wide web. Different browsers support different versions of the HTML standard, sometimes causing illegible information to be displayed.
Bundle: to sell hardware and software as a single product, or to combine several software packages together for sale as a single unit.
Bytes: The fundamental unit that a computer uses in its operation. A byte is typically composed of 8 bits. Typically, transmission capacity is measured in bits (kilobits or megabits), while memory and storage capacity is usually measured in bytes (megabytes or gigabytes).
Cable TV: Reception of TV signals via cable (wires) rather than over the air (i.e., via a TV antenna). Also known as community antenna TV or CATV.
Caching: This phenomenon occurs when access providers or browsers, store web page data in a temporary location on their networks, or in their disk space to speed access and reduce traffic. For example, chello broadband stores commonly accessed web pages closer to the location of the end user. Once a site has been requested it is stored on a caching server, and the next time any chello user requests the same file or web content, it can be found locally instead of having to travel across the internet.
Client: A software program used to contact and obtain data from a server software program on another computer, often across a great distance. Each client program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of server programs, and each server requires a specific kind of client.
Coaxial cable: A high-capacity cable used in communications and video. Coaxial cables provide higher bandwidth than twisted pair wires.
Convergence: A generic term used to describe the coming together of various modes. For example, content and delivery; voice and data transmission; and, fixed and mobile telephony.
Cookie: A persistent piece of information that enables “recognition” of the user/computer requesting information from a specific server. Stored on the user's local hard drive, it is keyed to that server (or even a file pathway or directory location at the server) and is passed back to the server as part of the transaction that takes place when the user's browser again crosses the specific server/path combination.
Cyberspace: A term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer, and currently used to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer networks.
Digital: Digital describes electronic technology that generates, stores and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive – the digits 1 and 0 respectively. Each of these digits is referred to a bit, and a string of 8 bits is typically referred to as a byte. Digital allows the precise storage of information – whether data, voice, music and video – meaning perfect reproduction is possible at high speeds. Prior to digital, electronic transmission was limited to analogue technology.
Digital certificates: A digital document that verify a user's identity and prevents impersonations. Digital certificates are issued by a certificate authority whose identity is known and recognised. This verification process is similar to that provided by a driver's licence, which verifies the connection between the photograph and the personal identification. Cryptographic checks, including a digital signature, ensure that the information within the certificate can be trusted.
DOCSIS Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification: An industry standard that specifies how cable modems communicate over cable TV lines. A DOCSIS modem will work on any DOCSIS compatible cable TV network.
Domain name: The unique name that identifies an internet site, such as ‘chello.com'. A domain name always has two or more parts, separated by periods. The part to the left of the period is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one domain name, but a given domain name points to only one machine. It is possible for a domain name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have an internet email address without having to establish a real internet site. In these cases, some real internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed domain name.
Download: The transfer of a file from a server computer to a client computer. Alternatively, sending a file from one's own computer to any other computer (peer-to-peer transfer, not involving a server). Upload is the transfer of a file in the opposite direction.
DSL Digital Subscriber Lines: Digital subscriber lines refer to a series of technologies that provide broadband capacity over standard telephone lines. Unlike ISDN, which is digital but travels through the switched telephone networks, DSL provides ‘always-on’ connections, and therefore is particularly relevant for provision of internet services. DSL technologies transmit data at much higher frequencies to make use of the unused capacity of copper lines at those frequencies, and therefore normal exchanges cannot handle this traffic. There are a number of varieties of DSL giving rise to the generic term - xDSL. aDSL (asynchronous or asymmetrical DSL) is likely to become the most widespread, and is so-called because it allows a faster connection downstream (from the ISP to the user) than upstream (from the user to the ISP).
DTH Direct to Home: A term to describe the provision of services, usually cable TV or broadband internet, directly to subscribers.
DWDM Dense Wave Division Multiplexing: Dense wave division multiplexing refers to the process of dividing a single beam of light into a number of colour beams as it travels through a fibre-optic cable. Each colour beam on its own has the same transmission capacity as the original, unsplit, beam of light, thus significantly enhancing transmission capacity.
EDI Electronic Data Interchange: Computer-to-computer exchange of structured transactional information between autonomous computers.
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce: Doing business on the web. A new business environment integrating electronic transfer and automated business systems (end-user computing and computer-to-computer capabilities). Sometimes called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Email, or electronic mail: Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.
Encrypt: To scramble the contents of a file or message in such a way as to make it unreadable to everyone except those with a software 'key', which makes it possible to unscramble the encrypted file or message.
Ethernet card: Standard serial ports are not equipped to support the speeds a cable modem delivers. A special interface - an ethernet card - can support these higher speeds.
Extranet: A derivative of intranet, a private network inside a company or organisation, an extranet is a private network which extends outside an organisation to clients and suppliers.
FAQs Frequently Asked Questions: FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs available on the internet on subjects as diverse as pet grooming and cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who grow tired of answering the same questions repeatedly.
FISPs Free Internet Service Providers: An internet service provider where subscribers are only billed for the local call charges, without the normal monthly subscription charge. This business model was pioneered in the UK by Freeserve and has since been copied many times. An FISP normally has a revenue-sharing agreement with the telecom operator which terminates the call and derives the bulk of revenues from advertising and a share in e-commerce revenues.
Forms: The capability in many browser/navigator software packages to accept input in text-entry fields displayed on the user's screen. Customised forms can be developed easily to request information for company data, including time cards, expense reports, personnel records, and other such corporate information.
FTP File Transfer Protocol: An internet utility program to obtain files from another system or to move files between systems. These files may contain information or software programs.
Gateway:

Any mechanism for providing access to another system. For example chello broadband could be called a gateway to the internet.
Gigabits, or gigabytes (Gbps): One billion bits or bytes.
GPRS General Packet Radio Service: An enhancement to the GSM mobile communication system that allows continuous flows of internet data.
GUI Graphical User Interface: The GUI has become the standard way users interact with a computer, incorporating icons and pull-down menus.
GSM Global Standard for Mobile: A digital cellular phone technology widely used throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
GSM-SMS Global Standard for Mobile ‘Short Message Service’: mobile phones that can send and receive text messages up to 160 characters long.
Headend: The cable equivalent of a phone company central office. The headend is the cable TV company’s main signal reception and distribution facility.
HFC network Hybrid Fibre-Coax network: A communications network, typically a cable-TV network, that uses a combination of optical fibres and coaxial cables. The fibre provides the high-speed backbone and the coaxial cables are used to connect end users to the backbone.
Hit: A measure of the number of requests for data from a web page or file. Often used to compare the popularity or traffic of a site. A common mistake is to equate hits with visits or page views. A single visit or page view is usually recorded as several hits, and depending on the browser, the page size, and other factors, the number of hits per page can vary widely.
Home Page: The first HTML page that users generally see on a world wide web site. The home page represents the image that a company or individual chooses to project to users on the internet. Most home pages are structured to also provide links to relevant documents or information at other locations on the Internet.
Host: Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It is common to have one host machine that provides several services, such as the web and Usenet.
HTML

Hypertext Mark-Up Language: A simple coding system used to format documents for viewing by world wide web clients. HTML can be compared with early word-processing software, in which all special characters, like bold or underline, need to be marked or 'tagged' to let the printer know that the character requires special consideration during output. Web pages are written in this standard specification, which is a data type definition (DTD), or subset of SGML (standardised graphics mark-up language).
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol: An internet computer communication coding standard for the exchange of multimedia documents on the web.
HTTP linked object: A clickable object (text, picture, or both) that provides a path between documents, directing the browser to a new URL.
Hyperlink: An electronic path that connects two places in a network, often represented as underlined text, buttons, or pointers on web pages.
Hypertext: Generally, any text on a web page that contains links to other documents - words or phrases in a document that can be chosen by a user and which cause another document to be retrieved or displayed.
Image map:

A clickable picture that directs the browser to different links, depending on which part of the image is clicked.
Intranet:

An in-house internet. Usually a company's internal web site, using browsers and HTML (or other software) on a LAN (local area network), which connects employees using IP technology. An intranet may or may not be connected to the internet.
IP Internet Protocol: The IP in TCP/IP, these are the technical standards that specify how packets on the internet are routed from one machine to another network. It is the layer of the internet.
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network: A digital telephonic system made up of two 64 kbps channels for voice and data – ‘B’ or bearer channels - and one channel for traffic messaging. This messaging channel – the ‘D’ channel - is used to signal the telephone company to make calls, put them on hold, and activate features such as conference calling and call forwarding. It also receives information about incoming calls, such as the identity of the caller. While an analogue line usually takes up to 10 seconds to dial and make a connection, ISDN typically makes a dial-up connection within 0.5 seconds.
ISP Internet Service Provider: A business that allows companies and individuals to connect to the internet by providing the interface to the internet backbone.
Java: A new, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that allows web pages viewed with Java-enabled web browsers to display ‘applets’, which are small programs that can create sound and graphical animations, among other uses.
JPG or JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group: Defining a common graphics file format for compressing still images.
Kbps kilobits per second: Approximately 1,000 bits per second. An abbreviation for a unit of measure used for gauging the transmission of digital data from one point to another, typically but not necessarily across telephonic networks. Local-area networks (LANs) usually are measured in megabits per second. Typically, transmission capacity is measured in bits, while memory and storage capacity is usually measured in bytes.
Kilobytes: Approximately 1,000 bytes. Typically, transmission capacity is measured in bits, while memory and storage capacity is usually measured in bytes.
LAN Local Area Network: A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. It is made of servers, workstations, a network operating system and a communications system.
Last Mile The connection between the customer and the telephone or cable TV company. Also known as the local loop, the last mile is made up of copper twisted pair or coaxial cable.
Link The path between two documents, which associates an object, such as a button or hypertext, on a web page with another web address. The hyperlink allows a user to point and click on an object and thereby 'move' to the location associated with that object by loading the web page at that address.
LMDS Local Multipoint Distribution Service: A new, high-capacity, two-way, wireless, fixed voice and data communication service. It requires line of sight between the transmitter and receiving antenna which can be up 6 kilometres apart depending on weather conditions. It is designed to provide the last link from a carrier of data services to large buildings or complexes not wired for high-bandwidth communications. In areas without underground conduits it is often less costly to set up LMDS transceivers on rooftops than to dig up the ground to install optical fibre.
Local Loop The lines between a customer and a telephone company’s central office, which in turn is connected to the backbone, either directly or through further network connections. Often called the last mile. Local loops use copper-based telephone wire.
Mailing list: A usually automated system that allows people to send email to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all other subscribers to the mailing list. In this way, people who have many different kinds of email access can participate in discussions together.
Megabytes A million bytes or a thousand kilobytes.
Mbps megabits per second: Approximately one million bits per second.
Modem: A modem (MODulator-DEModulator) is a device that adapts a terminal or a computer to a telephone or other communication link. A modem converts a digital bit stream into an analogue signal (modulation) and converts analogue signals back into digital signals (demodulation). A modem typically uses telephone lines, and the analogue signals are typically sounds. Fax machines have built-in modems. A cable modem is a device placed between a computer and the cable TV connection that enables communication between a computer and the local cable TV network. Because of the enormous broadband capacity of these networks, data can be transferred at much higher speeds than by standard modems.
MMDS Multi-channel Multipoint Distribution Service: A digital wireless transmission service which requires line of sight between transmitter and receiving antenna, which can be up to 24 kilometres apart. Designed primarily as a wireless transmission medium for cable TV.
MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group: A proposed International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard for digital video and audio compression for moving images. MPEG-1 was defined with CD-ROM as the primary application. The MPEG-3 concept is similar to MPEG-2 but includes extensions to cover a wider range of applications [see also MP3]. The primary application targeted during the MPEG-3 definition process was the all-digital transmission of broadcast-quality video.
MP3 An audio compression technology that allows CD-quality sound to be downloaded over the internet. Developed in Germany as part of the MPEG specifications.
Multicasting: Transmitting data to a group of selected users at the same time on a TCP/IP network is called multicasting. It is used for streaming audio and video over the network, but it is also good for downloading a file to multiple users. IP multicast saves network bandwidth, because the files are transmitted as one data stream over the backbone and only split apart to the target stations by the router at the end of the path.
Narrowband: The transmission of a single channel of data over a single communications link. Often used to contrast with broadband.
Netiquette Short for 'net etiquette', or the traditional way of doing things on the internet. For example, sending an email message in all caps is considered rude, as it is the textual equivalent of shouting.
Network Any time a computer is connected to two or more other computers, so that they can share resources, a network is created. Connecting two or more networks creates an internet. A network also refers to a broadcast entity that provides programming and sells commercial time in programs aired nationally via affiliated or licensed local stations.
Newbie: A newcomer to the internet, particularly someone who, through ignorance or indifference, violates the traditional rules of internet etiquette, or netiquette.
Newsgroups: A message board or discussion group on the internet. They originate on many different systems known collectively as Usenet. Newsgroups are publicly accessible mailing lists, which anyone can read or post a message to, although some are moderated, some are private, and some are read-only. Continuing discussions on a particular subject within a newsgroup are called threads. Newsgroups are organized into topical hierarchies, which include alt (alternative), biz (business), comp (computing), misc (miscellaneous), rec (recreational) and others.
NIC Network Interface card - see Ethernet card
NIC Network Information Centre: Generally, any office that handles information for a network, providing administrative support, user support, and information services for a network.
Node In communications, a node is a network junction or connection point.
Operating system: A computer-system-specific set of programs that inter-operate with the computer system to control resources and to process those resources. Examples of operating systems are DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 98, Windows NT and UNIX.
Optical Fibre: A thin glass wire designed for light transmission, capable of transmitting trillions of bits per second. Optical fibre has a number of advantages over electricity traveling through metal wires, including lower error rates, longer distances traveled without repeaters, greater security and dramatically less weight.
OSP Online Service Provider: Although most OSPs are also ISPs (i.e. they also provide access to the internet), they typically existed before access to the internet became widespread, offering access to databases and other forums.
Packet switching: The method used to move data around on the internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine is broken into chunks; each chunk has the address from where it came, and where it is going. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines and be sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along the way. This way, many people can use the same lines concurrently.
Page: An HTML document that may contain text, images, and other online elements, such as Java applets and multimedia files. It may be static or dynamically generated.
PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant: A portable organiser increasingly with internet access and e-mail functions.
Photonics: The science of building machine circuits using light instead of electricity.
POP Points of Presence: A term used by internet service providers to indicate the number or geographical locations of their access to the internet.
POP3 Post Office Protocol: Most commonly used method of storing email on a server for later collection
Portals: The classic definition of a portal is a gate or entrance, usually an impressive one, to a palace. In the internet web portals are starting points for accessing the wider internet. Portals can either be open – accessible by everyone, or closed – accessible by subscribers only.
Protocol: A common language between computers over a network, such as HTTP, used by the web, or FTP, a quick software method of sending or receiving files over the Internet.
RAM Random Access Memory: A specific type of memory in which each element can be individually addressed and accessed with the same speed as any other element. RAM is the predominate type of memory in the main memory of a computer. A faster, more recent form of RAM is dynamic RAM (or DRAM).
Router: A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between two or more networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy: The standard of the most powerful form of digital transmission technology. SDH is one of the new technologies at the heart of the broadband era, capable of delivering very high capacity links direct to the customer. In the USA the standard is referred to SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork).
Server Any computer that allows other computers to connect to it. Most commonly, servers are dedicated machines. Most machines using UNIX are servers. Technically, peer-to-peer network nodes are also examples of servers (such as Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups and Windows 98 or Apple's System 7 File Sharing).
Session A series of consecutive visits made by a visitor to a series of web sites.
SOHO Small Office / Home Office.
Sitemaster A designation for the person with overall responsibility for a web site. This definition often is applied to the webmaster, an individual whose primary responsibility is for the technical aspects of a web site. But the sitemaster must also deal with content, corporate image, legal issues and communication methodologies.
Spam or Spamming: On the internet, the term "spam" refers to a single article posted repeatedly to a large number of Usenet newsgroups; or unsolicited, often irrelevant e-mail sent to a large number of e-mail addresses. While the definition of spam used to be strictly quantity-based, it has evolved to include any unsolicited commercial e-mail or news posting.
Streaming

Delivery of packets of data at a constant rate, mainly for speech, music and video transmission. The term implies a one-way transmission to the user, in which the client and user software co-operate for uninterrupted motion. The client side stores a few seconds of video or audio, to compensate for momentary delays in packet delivery. Video-conferencing, on the other hand, requires real-time, two-way transmission.
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol: This is the suite of protocols that define the internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.
Terabit:

One trillion bits.
Terabyte: One trillion bytes.
Terminal A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Typically, terminal software is used in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (that is, 'emulates') a physical terminal and allows the user to type in commands to a computer that is somewhere else.
Terminal Server A special-purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus, the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node.
Thread: An ongoing conversation on a particular subject in a newsgroup. The initial message and its responses are usually linked by the user's software, so that the thread can be followed more easily.
Twisted pair wire: A thin diameter wire commonly used for telephone and network cabling. In a process patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1881, the wires are twisted around each other to minimize interference from other twisted pairs in the cable. Twisted pairs have less bandwidth than coaxial cable or optical fibre.
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System: The European implementation of the 3rd generation mobile phone system, and the successor to GSM. Planned to provide global roaming, streaming video and personalised features.
UNIX An operating system developed by AT&T that is used widely by universities. UNIX uses TCP/IP as its standard communications protocol, making UNIX a natural access operating system for the internet.
Upload The transfer of a file from a client computer to a server computer. Alternatively, receiving a file from another computer where neither is a server [see also download].
URL Uniform/Universal Resource Locator: The URL provides information on the protocol, the system and the file name, so that the user's system can find a particular document on the internet. An example of a URL is http://www.chello.com/. which indicates that hyper text transfer protocol is the protocol and that the information is located on a system named www.chello.com which is chello’s web server. This example does not need a particular file name, since the web server is set up to point to the company's home page if no file name is used.
Usenet: A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all Usenet machines are on the internet, maybe half. Usenet is completely decentralised, with over 10,000 discussion areas, which are called newsgroups.
VANs Value-Added Networks: Privately owned and maintained computer networks, in which network bandwidth is leased for use between geographically disparate sites or between autonomous organisations. VANs provide service beyond transmission, such as automatic error detection and correction, protocol conversion, and message forwarding.
VRML Virtual Reality Modelling Language: A three-dimensional interactive web standard. After downloading from the internet, an image can be viewed, rotated and manipulated.
Walled Garden: A term used to describe a number of interactive services bundled together by ISPs to consumers with digital set-top boxes.
WAN Wide-Area Network: Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.
WAP Wireless Access Protocol: A forum of a group of telecom equipment manufacturers to develop an international standard for using wireless devices to receive real-time information from the internet.
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access: A proposed third generation wireless telephony standard.
WDM Wavelength Division Multiplexing: A technology which uses lasers to split the light carried by optic fibre cables into 40 separate colour spectra, each capable of carrying as much data as that previously carried by a single white light signal. There is the potential for trillions of bits per second (Tbps) to travel over a single fibre using this technology.
Web hosting Occurs when a telecoms operator offers space on its own web server facilities for rent to small ISPs (and possibly corporate customers).
Web housing Occurs when a telecoms operator rents physical space to an ISP for the location of the ISP's own web servers.
Web page An HTML document on the web, usually one of many that together make up a web site.
Web server A system capable of continuous access to the internet (or an internal network) through retrieving and displaying documents via http. Files can be audio clips, video, graphics or text.
Web site The virtual location for an organisation’s presence on the world wide web, usually made up of several web pages and a single home page designated by a unique URL.
Webmaster: Generally-accepted term for the person responsible for a web site.
Wireless Transmission: This includes LMDS, MMDS and satellite technologies. Wireless technologies do not require any physical connections to be made, reducing the cost of implementation.
World Wide Web: The mechanism developed by Tim Berners-Lee for CERN physicists to be able to share documents via the internet. The web allows computer users to access information across systems around the world using URLs to identify files and systems and hypertext links to move between files on the same or different systems.
WWW Generally accepted shorthand for the world wide web. Also called the web, or W3, it is the part of the linknet that is generally used for e-commerce and other online activities.


A number of different sources have been used to develop this glossary including
Techweb.com, whatis.com, and the Financial Times IT surveys

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