| A | B |
|---|
| baud | One analog cycle on a telephone line. In the early days of telephone data transmission, the baud rate was often analogous to bits per second. Due to advanced modulation of baud cycles as well as data compression, this is no longer true. |
| bits per second (bps) | Measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move ~56,000 bits per second |
| default gateway | In a TCP/IP network, the nearest router to a particular host. This router’s IP address is part of the necessary TCP/IP configuration for communicating with multiple networks using IP. |
| Dial-Up Networking (DUN) | Software used by Windows to govern the connection between the modern and the ISP. |
| digital subscriber line (DSL) | High-speed Internet connection technology that uses a regular telephone line for connectivity. DSL comes in several varieties, including asynchronous (ADSL) and synchronous (SDSL), and many speeds. Typical home-user DSL connections are ADSL with a download speed of 7Mbps and an upload speed of 512Kbps. |
| file transfer protocol (FTP) | Protocol used when you transfer a file form one computer to another across the Internet. FTP uses port numbers 20 and 21. |
| handshaking | Procedure performed by moderns, terminals, and computers to verify that communication has been correctly established. |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) | Extremely fast protocol used for network file transfers in the WWW environment. |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) | Secure form of HTTP used commonly for Internet business transactions or any time when a secure connection is required |
| integrated services digital network (ISDN) | Standard form the CCITT (Comite Consultatif Internationale de Telegraphie et Telephonie) that defines a digital method for communications to replace the current analog telephone system. ISDN is superior to POTS telephone lines because it supports up to 128 Kbps transfer rate for sending information from computer to computer. It also allows data and voice to share a common phone live. DSL reduced demand for ISDN substantially. |
| Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) | Allowing a single network connection to be shared among several machines. ICS was first introduced with Windows 98. |
| Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4) | The computer that handles incoming (to you) e-mail |
| Internet service provider (ISP) | Company that provides access to the Internet, usually for money. |
| latency | Amount of delay before a device may respond to a request; most commonly used in reference to RAM. |
| modem | Device that converts a digital bit-stream into an analog signal (modulation) and converts incoming analog signals back into digital signals (demodulation). Analog communications channel is typically a telephone line, and analog signals are typically sounds. |
| Network Address Translation (NAT) | Effectively hides all of your computers and makes them appear invisible to other computers on the Internet. All anyone on the Internet sees is your public IP address. |
| Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) | Protocol run by news servers that enable newsgroups. |
| Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) | Enables a computer to connect to the Internet through a dial-in connection and enjoy most of the benefits of a direct connection. |
| Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) | Advanced version of a protocol used for dial-up Internet called PPP that handles all of this right out of the box. |
| Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) | Refers to the way e-mail software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell account, you almost always get a POP account with it. It is this POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail. Also called point of presence. |
| proxy server | Device that fetches Internet resources for a client without exposing that client directly to the Internet. Usually accept requests for HTTP, FTP, POP3, and SMTP resources. Often caches, or stores, a copy of the requested resource for later use. Common security feature in the corporate world. |
| Remote Assistance | Feature of Windows that enables users to give anyone control of his or her desktop over the Internet. |
| Remote Desktop | Windows tool used to enable a local system to graphically access the desktop of a remote system. |
| Secure Shell (SSH) | Terminal emulation program similar to Telnet, except that the entire connection is encrypted. |
| Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) | Main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet |
| Telnet | Terminal emulation program for TCP/IP networks that allows one machine to control another as if the user were sitting in front of it. |
| terminal emulation | Software that enables a PC to communicate with another computer or network as if the PC were a specific type of hardware terminal |
| tiers | Levels of Internet providers, ranging from the Tier 1 backbones to Tier 3 regional networks. |
| tunneling | The moving of files or any type of TCP/IP network traffic through its secure connection |
| universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) | Device that turns serial data into parallel data. The cornerstone of serial ports and modems. |
| V standards | Standards established by CCITT for modem manufacturers to follow (voluntarily) to ensure compatible speeds, compression, and error correction. |
| Voice over IP (VoIP) | Collection of protocols that make voice calls over a data network possible. |
| Virtual Private Network (VPN) | Encrypted connection over the Internet between a computer or remote network and a private network. |
| Web browser | Program designed to retrieve, interpret, and display Web pages. |
| World Wide Web | System of Internet servers that support documents formatted in HTML and related protocols. Can be accessed by using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, Telnet, and other tools. |
