| ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line | This technology allows for faster data exchange rates through your regular copper phone line. Speeds of 1.5 to 9 Mbps downstream rate and 16 to 640 Kbps upstream rate. |
| ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode | Transfering data in relatively small packets of a fixed size. Allows for quicker speeds of data transfer. Transfer occurs over a fixed route when the data transfer begins. |
| Backbone | Used to connect smaller networks together. Generally carries high amounts of data to/from other networks. |
| Bandwidth | The term used to identify a measurement of capacity. Analog capacity is measured in hertz while digital capacity is measured by bits per second (bps). This measurement gives you a indication of the speed capabilities of your network or broadband connection. |
| BPS - Bits per second | A unit of measurement. A bit is either on or off, indicated by a 1 or zero respectively. |
| Broadband | Sharing a communications path among many data transmissions over a single wire. Cable TV, cable and DSL internet connections are examples of broadband. |
| CO - Central Office | The location of the local telephone company which houses the equipment capable of routing connections. (connections can mean calls or ISP accesses) |
| CODEC Coder/Decoder | Conversion process from voice analog to encoded samples. DSL does not use CODEX but rather separates out the frequencies in the POTS splitter at the CO and passes the DSL signal to a DSLAM. |
| Downstream rate | The rate (amount) of bits, measured in megabytes or kilobytes, that a computer receives information. |
| DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) | A device at the ISP which takes multiple ADSL lines and merges them into a single ATM line. |
| DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) | Broadband internet access method with a continuous connection to the internet through regular phone (copper wire) line. Broadband providers may offer a choice of speeds ranging from 32 kbps (kilobits per second) to more than 50 mbps (megabits per second). |
| DSL Lite | This is basically a slower ADSL that splits the line at the telephone company, rather than at the user end. It costs the user less, but reduces the maximum data rate. Typically the end user is required to plug DSL low-pass filters into every telephone outlet that serves the ordinary phones, faxes and answering machines. |
| Ethernet | The most widely used network technology. Frame based technology for local area networks. |
| HDSL (High-data-rate Digital Subscriber Line) | Used for business level DSL access by providing T1 transmission over the existing twisted pair (phone line). Does NOT allow for line sharing with analog phone systems. Requires 2 cable pairs up to 12,000 feet. (HDSL-2 requires only one cable pair and spans 18,000 feet). Symmetric, meaning both directions are transferring data at the same speed. |
| IDSL (ISDN DSL) | Slightly faster than basic BRI ISDN. It can achieve 144kbps instead of the normal 128kbps by using the 16kbps D channel for data rather than call setup. This setup has the longest distance available at 26,000 feet. Can be used with existing ISDN but not shared with analog phone systems. Symmetric, meaning both directions are transferring data at the same speed. |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider. A provider of internet access. This can be broadband or dial-up. |
| Kbps (Kilobits per second) | One thousand bits per second. This is a relatively slow rating of transmission speed when compared to Mbps or Gbps. 56kbps would be equal to 56,000 bits per second. |
| Local Loop | A twisted pair of wires that run from the phone company to the users phone. This 'pair' of wires constitutes the loop. |
| Mbps (Megabits per second) | This is a much faster rating of transmission speed than kpbs. A megabit is equal to 1 million bits of data. This should not be confused with megabytes per second. A megabyte is actually equal to 8 megabits as there are 8 bits to a byte. |
| Ping | A tool used within computer networks using TCP/IP to determine whether or not a machine on the network is reachable. You can 'ping' a machine on a TCP/IP network to determine whether or not that machine can be reached by another. |
| POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) | This is a common term known all around the world and is used to define the everyday analog telephone. |
| Protocol | An agreed upon and standard method of communication between computers. HTTP is a protocol generally used on the internet. TCP/IP is a protocol used within networked computer environments. Those are just 2 examples. There are many different types of protocols. |
| RADSL (Rate-Adaptive ADSL) | A version of ADSL that adjusts speeds based on line or signal quality. Most of the ADSL broadband providers are actually using this technology. |
| SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) | A variation of HDSL offering speeds from 144kbps to 3 mbps. Does not share lines with analog phones and is symmetric, meaning both directions are transfering data at the same speed. |
TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol | The defacto standard in internet communications protocol. |
| Upstream rate | The rate (speed) that data can be uploaded from your computer. |
| URL - Uniform Resource Locator | The address of an internet based site. examples: split-volzhskij.ru |
| VADSL (Very-high-speed ASDL) | Some providers will use this acronym which means the same thing as VDSL. |
| VDSL (Very-high-data Digital Subscriber Line) | Final drop from a fiber optic junction point to a customer. This allows apartment or other building structures the ability to obtain broadband technology service using the existing copper wires (regular phone lines). Can be shared with the normal phone line. |
| VPN - Virtual Private Network | A more secure method of connecting 2 or more locations using the internet as its means of transport. Generally used by businesses when connecting 2 or more locations and are in need of more secure network traffic. |
| VSAT - Very small aperture terminal | Used in satellite communications of voice, data and video signals (but NOT broadcast TV). VSAT consists of two parts. A transceiver placed outdoors in direct line of site to the satellite and a device placed indoors which provides the interface from the transceiver to your PC. |
| WAN (Wide Area Network) | A variety of computer networks connected together and covering a very large geographic area. This is primarily used by large corporations connecting multiple branch offices to a main office. |
