ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subcriber Line: A technology for transmitting digital information at high speeds on existing copper phone lines.
ANT – ADSL Network Termination: The ADSL “modem”.
Cable Modem – A device that enables you to hook up your PC to a local cable TV line and receive data at about 1.5 Mbps.
CAT3 – Category 3: A communication cable specification denoting mainly the number of twists per foot per pair. More twists mean less signal degradation. CAT5 is better, and currently the standard for computer network cabling.
CLEC – Competitive Local Exchange Carrier: A company that competes with the already established local telephone business by providing its own network and switching.
CPE – Customer Premise Equipment: The parts of the connection to the telephone network on the customer side of the demarcation point. Basically, the inside wiring and telephone sets.
CO – Central Office: An office in a locality to which subscriber home and business lines are connected on what is called a local loop.
Demarcation Point – or “Demarc”: The boundary at which responsibility for maintenance and repairs of a telephone service move from the telco to the customer (and vice-versa). Usually at the box on the side of the house, or, at a business, a wire termination device called an RJ21X.
DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol: a protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of IP addresses in a network.
DSLAM – Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer: a network device, usually at a telephone company central office, that receives signals from multiple customer Digital Subscriber Line connections and puts the signals on a high-speed backbone line using multiplexing techniques.
GWAN – Global Wide Area Network: The Internet, or the Internet Service Provider to which your ISP is connected.
ISDN – Integrated Services Digital Network: The integration of both analog or voice data together with digital data over the same network.
ISP – Internet Service Provider.
NIC – Network Interface Card. Your computer’s interface to the network.
NID – Network Interface Device: Fancy name for the box on the side of your house where the phone lines are hooked up to your house wiring.
RBOC – Regional Bell Operating Company: Like BellSouth, PacBell, etc.
RGBY – Red/Green/Black/Yellow: The four colors used in standard household telephone wire.
VoD – Video On Demand: Technology wherein video is supplied on a client/server basis.