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| 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. |
| Blocklist (Also known as a Realtime Blackhole List, or RBL | A service or application used by companies, ISPs and/or individuals to block known senders of spam. Blocks may be instituted on individual email addresses, entire domain names, IP blocks (ranges from 8 to 256 IP addresses, which may block anywhere from dozens to thousands of senders) all the way to entire countries. Some may feel it is unfair for non-spammers to be affected by RBLs when their mail is blocked by nature of their host being listed on an RBL, it is often the only way to get rogue ISPs and/or mailhosts to enforce their own Acceptable Use Policies and Terms of Service with regards to disallowing spammers on their networks. While it is manifestly unfair for a single innocent to have their mail blocked to users of these RBLs, it is even more unfair - and far, far more expensive, for the millions of recipients of spam when these hosts are left unchecked. If you discover that your host is listed on an RBL, you need to contact your ISP and notify them that they have been listed - NOT the RBL operator - It is up to your ISP to remove the spammers from their networks and get themselves delisted. |
| Bonded DSL | The practice of combining two or more DSL lines for greater throughput up and/or down to the customer. |
| 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. |
| Broadband Bonding | The practice of combining two or more broadband lines, either identical broadband technologies or differing (DSL/Cable, Cable/Wireless, etc) to create greater throughput and connection redundancy insurance. |
| Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing is a general term used for delivering "on demand" hosting resources as required. It was designed to meet cyclical, peak, or hard-to-predict demands. It can be offered and charged by the minute or by the hour or even pay- as-you-go. In addition, it is usually divided into 3 parts. These parts consist of CPU or processing power, Ram memory and hard drive storage. These resources can be expanded or retracted as required - thus referring to a cloud as ‘elastic’. There are 3 types of Cloud: A Public Cloud, a Private Cloud and a Hybrid Cloud. |
| 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. |
| FTTH | Short for Fibre To The Home, Fibre-optic cable that comes from your ISP directly to your residence or business. Many, many times faster than cable or DSL. |
| 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. |
| IPTV | IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. (Source: Wikipedia) |
| IPv6 | Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer for packet-switched internetworks. It is designated as the successor of IPv4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, for general use on the Internet. (Source: Wikipedia) The main change brought by IPv6 is a much larger address space that allows greater flexibility in assigning addresses. The extended address length eliminates the need to use network address translation to avoid address exhaustion, and also simplifies aspects of address assignment and renumbering when changing providers. It is common to see examples that attempt to show that the IPv6 address space is extremely large. For example, IPv6 supports 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses, or approximately 5×1028 addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion (6.5×109) people alive today.[1] In a different perspective, this is 252 addresses for every star in the known universe[2] - more than ten billion billion billion times as many addresses as IPv4 supported. |
| 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. |
| "Last Mile" | The final leg in connectivity between an ISP and it's customer - usually provided by a telephone company or cable company in wire line connections. |
| 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. |
| Net Neutrality | Network neutrality (equivalently net neutrality, Internet neutrality or simply NN) is a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams. (Source: Wikipedia See also SaveOurNet.ca) CanadianISP also has an official stance on Network Neutrality |
| 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, which will, for a fee, provide a much higher level of usenet service. CanadianISP has created an Introduction to Usenet |
| Online Backup | Online Backup is a term used when making copies of data offsite, through the internet, which can be used to restore the original data in the event that there was data loss. |
| PBX | Short for Private Branch eXchange, a private telephone network used within an enterprise. Users of the PBX share a certain number of outside lines for making telephone calls external to the PBX. Most medium-sized and larger companies use a PBX because it's much less expensive than connecting an external telephone line to every telephone in the organization. In addition, it's easier to call someone within a PBX because the number you need to dial is typically just 3 or 4 digits. (Definition from Webopedia) |
| 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. |
| Phishing | Phishing is usually an email or a website from a criminal that attempts to look like it comes from a legitimate source, such as your bank, PayPal or eBay, for example. The message will often say something like they are checking security settings, your account has been violated or suspended or similar tactics. You are asked to either reply by email or visit a website to plug in your username, password, bank details or what-not. This is both highly illegal and has cost tens of thousands of people millions of dollars in stolen money, time and identity issues. |
| 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 bulk email. Unsolicited commercial does not have to be bulk to be considered spam. Spam currently makes up roughly 90% 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'. |
| TV over IP (TVoIP) | Use of the Internet, instead of traditional cable or satellite networks to distribute television channels/networks. |
| Usage Based Billing (UBB) | The practice of an ISP billing "by the byte" for Internet use. Most commonly, ISPs without unlimited download caps will set a limit of 50, 100 or 300 gigabytes per month as included in their users' accounts, after which each gigabyte (or megabyte as is often the case in cellular internet) is billed to the user. |
| 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. |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network: a computer network in which some or all of the connections are made by a much larger network, such as the Internet. Many companies will provide a VPN connection so employees may work at home while still having full access to everything on the company's network. |
| 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) |
| WiMAX | Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and are fixed broadband wireless metropolitan access networks, or MANs using a point-to-multipoint architecture. |
| 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. |
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