Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL): The telephone company's answer to high speed Internet access to the home. See http://www.adsl.com/general_tutorial.html for a comparison of the various xDSL technologies.

Bandwidth: A measure of how much data you can send and receive through a connection. This is measured in Bits Per Second (bps).

Cookies: Small files that your Web browser puts on your hard disk in response to a request from a Web site. Cookies contain information the site wants to know about the user. Cookies are use at on-line stores to keep track of the merchandise you select for purchase. See http://www.cookiecentral.com/ for more information on cookies and how they are used.

Circuit Switched Voice (CSV): Support for CSV on an ISDN line allows for the placement of voice calls on an ISDN line.

Domain Name Service (DNS): This is the facility which allows end-users to access computers by user-friendly names. DNS translates these names into a string of numbers known as an IP address. Each computer attached to the Internet is assigned a unique IP address.

Domain Name: Domain names take the form of gwi.net or netscape.com. You need to register for a name if you wish to have a unique identity for you Internet services such as mail and the web. For instance, you own a company called Acme Enterprises and obtain service through GWI. Without a domain name your email would be addressed as username@gwi.net and your web address would be something like http://www.gwi.net/acme. If you were to register the domain name acme.com your email would be addressed as username@acme.com and your web address would be http://www.acme.com.

Data Over Voice (DOV): DOV is a feature of ISDN which allows for data calls to me placed as if they were voice calls. The reason this is important is that local voice ISDN calls are free, whereas data ISDN calls are charged on a per minute basis.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Real answers to frequently asked questions.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP allows for the transfer of files between two computer systems that are connected to the Internet. It is a preferable email for the transfer of files. It is also the primary facility for publishing files to a web server.

Firewall: Software and or hardware that controls access to a local area network.

Flame: This refers to a derogatory email message. Such messages are considered to be poor net-etiquette.

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML): HTML is the source language used to create web pages.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol HTTP): This is the protocol which enables the communications between a web browser and a web server.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): An ISP is a company that acts as a point of access to the Internet.

Local Area Network (LAN): A LAN can be thought of as your own private little Internet. It is the physical means by which you inter-connect your computers, printers and other devices.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): MIME is a standard format for the attachment of binary files to an email message. Attachments are usually word processing files or spreadsheets. FTP should be used for any files which are 500K in size.

Packet: A block of transmitted data. Several packets make up a typical transmission.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP): PGP enables users to send and receive encrypted email. This affords such users a high level of privacy for all communications.

Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3): POP3 is the protocol that delivers mail to you upon your request.

Point of Presence (PoP): A PoP is an ISP's point of entry into their network. This is typically the location where the ISP's modems live.

Point to Point Protocol (PPP): PPP is the most common facility for accessing the Internet via a dial up connection.

Shopping Carts: This is the Internet equivalent of a shopping bag. When customers purchase items on the Internet they put them in a shopping cart and when they are finished shopping the items can be totaled and the order is processed.

Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP): SMTP is the facility which allows you to send email to the intended recipients.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): A URL can be thought of as a street address on the web. It is the location of a particular resource on the web, or, more specifically, the location of a particular web site such as http://www.gwi.net.

Virtual Web Server (VWS): A VWS allows you to use your domain on an ISP's web server. Your URL will give the impression that you have your own dedicated web server.

Virus: A program designed to destroy or alter on a computer. Viruses can be transmitted via diskettes or the Internet. Anti-virus software is designed to detect and destroy such viruses before they can do any harm.

Wide Area Network (WAN): This is a network which spans a large geographic area. The Internet is the ultimate example of a WAN.

World Wide Web (www): The framework devised to allow for the sharing of documents over a network. The deployment of WWW Servers, aka web servers, is singularly responsible for the explosive growth of the Internet.