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
ESDA Main index
|