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ATM
- (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is a dedicated-connection
switching technology that organizes digital data into 53-byte
cell units and transmits them over a physical medium using
digital signal technology. Individually, a cell is processed
asynchronously relative to other related cells and is queued
before being multiplexed over the transmission path.
Bluetooth(tm) - is a computing and telecommunications industry
specification that describes how mobile phones, computers,
and personal digital assistants (PDAs) can easily interconnect
with each other and with home and business phones and computers
using a short-range wireless connection. Using this technology,
users of cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants
such as the PalmPilot will be able to buy a three-in-one
phone that can double as a portable phone at home or in
the office, get quickly synchronized with information in
a desktop or notebook computer, initiate the sending or
receiving of a fax, initiate a print-out, and, in general,
have all mobile and fixed computer devices be totally coordinated.
DSL - (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology
for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and small
businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. xDSL refers
to different variations of DSL, such as ADSL, HDSL, and
RADSL. Assuming your home or small business is close enough
to a telephone company central office that offers DSL service,
you may be able to receive data at rates up to 6.1 megabits
(millions of bits) per second (of a theoretical 8.448 megabits
per second), enabling continuous transmission of motion
video, audio, and even 3-D effects. DSL line can carry both
data and voice signals and the data part of the line is
continuously connected.
Frame Relay - Frame relay is a telecommunication service
designed for cost-efficient data transmission for intermittent
traffic between local area networks (LANs) and between end-points
in a wide area network (WAN). Frame relay puts data in a
variable-size unit called a frame and leaves any necessary
error correction (retransmission of data) up to the end-points,
which speeds up overall data transmission. For most services,
the network provides a permanent virtual circuit (PVC),
which means that the customer sees a continuous, dedicated
connection without having to pay for a full-time leased
line, while the service provider figures out the route each
frame travels to its destination and can charge based on
usage.
ISDN BRI and PRI - ISDN - (Integrated Services
Digital Network) is a set of CCITT/ITU standards for digital
transmission over ordinary telephone copper wire as well
as over other media. Home and business users who install
an ISDN adapter (in place of a telephone modem) receive
Web pages at up to 128 Kbps compared with the maximum 56
Kbps rate of a modem connection. ISDN is generally available
from your phone company in most urban areas in the United
States and Europe. There are two levels of service: the
Basic Rate Interface (BRI), intended for the home and small
enterprise, and the Primary Rate Interface (PRI), for larger
users.
LAN - (Local Area Network) is a group of
computers and associated devices that share a common communications
line or wireless link and typically share the resources
of a single processor or server within a small geographic
area (for example, within an office building). Usually,
the server has applications and data storage that are shared
in common by multiple computer users. A local area network
may serve as few as two or three users (for example, in
a home network) or as many as thousands of users (for example,
in an FDDI network).
SAN - (Storage Area Network) is a high-speed
special-purpose network (or sub network) that interconnects
different kinds of data storage devices with associated
data servers on behalf of a larger network of users. Typically,
a storage area network is part of the overall network of
computing resources for an enterprise. A storage area network
is usually clustered in close proximity to other computing
resources such as IBM S/390 mainframes but may also extend
to remote locations for backup and archival storage, using
wide area network carrier technologies such as asynchronous
transfer mode or Synchronous Optical Networks.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) - A virtual
private network (VPN) is a network that uses a public telecommunication
infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote
offices or individual users with secure access to their
organization's network. A virtual private network can be
contrasted with an expensive system of owned or leased lines
that can only be used by one organization. The goal of a
VPN is to provide the organization with the same capabilities,
but at a much lower cost. A VPN works by using the shared
public infrastructure while maintaining privacy through
security procedures and tunneling protocols such as the
Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). In effect, the protocols,
by encrypting data at the sending end and decrypting it
at the receiving end, send the data through a "tunnel"
that cannot be "entered" by data that is not properly
encrypted. An additional level of security involves encrypting
not only the data, but also the originating and receiving
network addresses.
VoIP - (voice over IP - that is, voice
delivered using the Internet Protocol) is a term used in
IP telephony for a set of facilities for managing the delivery
of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP). In
general, this means sending voice information in digital
form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional
circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone
network (PSTN). A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony
is that it avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone
service.
WAN - (A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically
dispersed telecommunications network. The term distinguishes
a broader telecommunication structure from a local area
network (LAN). A wide area network may be privately owned
or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of
public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network
in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN).
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