56k
56k, or
56,000kbits/sec, is the maximum connection speed
obtainable on regular phone lines with a regular,
analog
modem.
691 Error
691 errors is one of the
Windows Dial-up Networking three-digit error codes. It
is accompanied with the message: "Access denied because
username or password is invalid on the domain."
In most cases, this means
that the user has put their username and/or password in
wrong. Check to make sure their caps lock key isn't on,
check to make sure user remembered to add the realm
name, etc.
691 errors will also be
given if the user is over on hours.
Accelerator
Web acceleration is a
technology to get around the physical speed limits of
phone lines.
The user will still
dialup at the same speed, less than 56k. They will have
a web acceleration client installed on their computer.
When they start browsing the internet, the client will
connect to our servers. Web traffic is passed through
our Slipstream
proxy server, to the
website. The pages will be downloaded to our server,
compressed, and then downloaded to the user's web
browser.
Because these pages are
compressed, there is less data to be downloaded, thereby
speeding up load times significantly.
Access Number
An access number
is the number a user dials to connect to the internet.
Adware is any software
application in which advertising banners are displayed
while the program is running. The authors of these
applications include additional code that delivers the
ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or
through a bar that appears on a computer screen.
Ad-aware is a program from Lavasoft that detects and
removes software on a user's computer that is determined
to be spyware. It also detects dialers,
trojan horses, and other
malware.
Analog
Analog is the
most commonly used type of dialup connection. This is
the type of connection formed when a regular modem
connects to our system at 56k
or less. This is opposed to an
ISDN connection.
An attachment is a file (or group of files) that is
included (or "attached") with an e-mail message. You can
attach files through almost any popular e-mail program,
such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express. Usually,
this is accomplished by simply clicking the "attach
file" button and then browsing through your computer
system to find and select the desired file or image. The
best thing to do if you want to save an attachment is to
open it, do a "save as," and put it in a folder on your
computer. Never open any attachment that you receive
from someone you do not know; it may contain a virus.
Banned
A user can be banned for
violation our Terms of Service.
Usually it is for one of the following reasons:
- The user sent
spam
- The user violated our
dedicated usage policy
- The user sent
viruses or other
malware, was warned, and
did not clean their computer
- The user was involved
in an attempted security breach (otherwise known as
'hacking').
In most cases, both the
dialup username and the call-from
number is blocked, to prevent the user from
signup up under a different name. A ban can be
released depending on which policy was violated. However
this is usually accompanied by fees and conditions.
A blog (short for weblog) is a personal journal that
is frequently updated and intended for general public
consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality
of the author or reflect the purpose of the web site
that hosts the blog. Topics sometimes include brief
philosophical musings, commentary on
Internet and other social issues, and links to other
sites the author favors. The essential characteristics
of the blog are its journal form, typically a new entry
each day, and its informal style. The author of a blog
is often referred to as a "blogger".
A bookmark is a saved link to a
web page that has been added to a list of saved
links within your Web browser.
When you are looking at a particular Web site or
home page and want to be able
to quickly get back to it later, you can create a
bookmark for it. You can think of your
browser as a book full of
(millions of) web pages and a
few well-placed bookmarks that you have chosen. The list
that contains your bookmarks is the "bookmark list."
Netscape and some other browsers
use the bookmark idea. Microsoft's
Internet Explorer uses the term "favorite."
A browser is an application program that provides a
way to look at and interact with all the information on
the World Wide Web. The most common
web browsers are Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox,
and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Cache (pronounced CASH) is a place to store something
temporarily. The files you automatically request by
looking at a Web page are stored on your
hard disk in a cache sub
directory under the directory for your
browser (for example,
Internet Explorer). When you
return to a page you've recently looked at, the
browser can get it from the cache
rather than the original server, saving you time and the
network the burden of some
additional traffic.
A CD (short for compact disc)is a small, portable,
round medium made of molded polymer for electronically
recording, storing, and playing back audio, video, text,
and other information in digital form.
Colocation
Colocation is
a hosting service in which we provide a secure location
with Internet access and power for your server. This is
quite different from Shared
Hosting, our other more
commonly used hosting solution
Content Filter
Content filtering
is a dialup service that blocks users from browsing to
inappropriate content.
We provide family-safe
filtered accounts. These are accessible through the
Starnet/Megapop network
using the @safeusa realm.
All @safeusa accounts are
port-blocked from going to
the web (port 80), newsgroups
(port 119), and FTP (port
21).
In order to use these
services, the user must enter
proxy server settings into their browser and
other client software. The proxy server itself provides
the filtering.
It is most useful to
offer this type of account to families and businesses.
If a site is on the block
list, the browser will be redirected to a page which
tells the user it is blocked.
A cookie is information that a
web site puts on your hard disk
so that it can remember something about you at a later
time. Typically, a cookie records your preferences when
using a particular site.
Using an office metaphor, a desktop is a computer
display area that represents the kinds of objects one
might find on a real desktop: documents, phone book,
telephone, reference sources, writing (and possibly
drawing) tools, and project folders.
The domain name system (DNS) is the way that domain
names are located and translated into
IP addresses. A domain name is
a meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an
Internet address.
Downloading is the transmission of a file from one
computer system to another computer system. From the
Internet user's point-of-view,
to download a file is to request it from another
computer (or from a web page on
another computer) and to receive it. Transmission in the
other direction (sending it) is uploading.
A domain name is a unique name that identifies an
Internet site (ex.:
lanzing.com).
Dual Analog
See
Multilink
Dual ISDN
Dual
ISDN is a line type that is
equivilent to a BRI. It provides two B channels and one
D channel, giving an aggregate bandwidth of 128000 bps.
Dynamic IP
When a user dials in,
they are assigned an IP Address
from a pool, so that their IP changes every time. Most
internet connections are given dynamic IPs so that those
IP addresses can be "recycled".
This is the opposite of a
static IP.
An email address identifies a location to which
e-mail can be delivered. An e-mail address is a string
in the form jsmith@example.com. It should be read as "jsmith
at example dot com". The part before the @ sign is the
local-part of the address, often the username of the
recipient, and the part after the @ sign is a
domain name which can be
looked up in the Domain Name System (DNS)
to find the mail exchange servers accepting e-mail for
that address.
See Bookmark.
FTP is the simplest way to exchange files between
computers on the Internet. It's
commonly used to transfer web page
files from their creator to the computer that acts as
their server for everyone on the
Internet. It's also commonly used to
download programs and other
files to your computer from other servers.
Flash gives web designers the ability to import
artwork using whatever bitmap or illustration tool they
prefer, and to create animation and special effects, and
add sound and interactivity. The content is then saved
as a file with a ".SWF" file name extension. Web users
can download Flash Player to view Flash content. Flash
is lauded for being one of the
Internet's most accessible plug-in.
A hard disk is part of a unit, often called a "disk
drive," "hard drive," or "hard disk drive," that stores
and provides relatively quick access to large amounts of
data on an electromagnetically charged surface or set of
surfaces.
In a personal computer, a hard disk drive (HDD) is
the mechanism that controls the positioning, reading,
and writing of the hard disk, which furnishes the
largest amount of data storage for the PC. Although the
hard disk drive (often shortened to "hard drive") and
the hard disk are not the same thing, they are packaged
as a unit and so either term is sometimes used to refer
to the whole unit.
Hosting
Hosting is the providing
of a service or set of services for DNS, E-mail, and
webspace on a shared or dedicated server.
For a web user, the home page is the first
web page that is displayed after
starting a web browser like
Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
Hourly Limit
An hourly limit is a
monthly hour limit set on an end-user's account. This
limit is established by the realm
setup. After this limit is met or exceeded, the end-user
will receive a 691 Error
and will not be able to log in until the next calendar
month.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of markup
symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display
on a web page. The markup tells
the browser how to display a
web page's words and images for
the user.
Most webpages you visit
are rendered in HTML. Webpage files ending in .htm
or .html are static HTML pages. Other file
types generate HTML based on information entered by a
user or gathered from a database.
These are called dynamic pages or dynamic HTML, and can
be written in Perl,
ASP,
PHP, and other server-side languages. These files
will end in .pl, .asp, .php,
.cgi, and other things.
HTML uses a system of
tags and text to create a webpage. HTML tags can make a
word bold or italics, change the font size, make lists,
and display images. The most important feature of HTML
is ability to use hyperlinks, allowing a website to link
to other websites.
For more information
about HTML tags and how HTML works, please see:
HTML Help
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the set of
rules for transferring files (text, graphic images,
sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the
World Wide Web. As soon as a web user
opens their web browser, the user
is indirectly making use of HTTP.
Hourly Limit
An hourly limit is a
monthly hour limit set on an end-user's account. This
limit is established by the realm
setup. After this limit is met or exceeded, the end-user
will receive a 691 Error
and will not be able to log in until the next calendar
month.
Idle Timeout
An idle-timeout occurs
when an end-user's connection is idle. If a user's
connection is totally inactive for a 10 to 15 minutes of
inactivity, we disconnect the end user.
If a user is downloading
a file, it will count as activity, and will not
disconnect the user.
IMAP
IMAP (Internet
Message Access Protocol) is a mail
protocol. Unlike the more
popular POP3 protocol, IMAP
leaves the messages on the server instead of downloading
them to your local machine. Changes made to messages
(such as moving them to a new folder) occur on the
server side rather than on the user's hard drive.
Like other mail
protocols, IMAP requires a mail
client. SMTP is
still required for sending outgoing mail.
Instant messaging
(sometimes called IM or IMing) is the ability to easily
see whether a chosen friend or co-worker is connected to
the
Internet and, if they are, to exchange messages with
them in real time. Instant messaging differs from
ordinary e-mail in that the exchange of information is
almost instantaneous.
The most popular instant
messengers are:
- AOL Instant Messenger
(AIM)
- MSN/Windows Messenger
(Comes installed with Windows XP)
- Yahoo Instant
Messenger
- ICQ
In addition to the
official clients released for these messengers, there
are other clients that have been written that will allow
messages to be sent over these systems. Most allow you
to combine multiple IM services into one client. Some
examples of these programs include:
The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a
worldwide system of computer networks
- a network of networks in which users at any one
computer can, if they have permission, get information
from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to
users at other computers). It was conceived by the
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S.
government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANET.
The original aim was to create a network that would
allow users of a research computer at one university to
be able to "talk to" research computers at other
universities. A side benefit of ARPANET design was that,
because messages could be routed or rerouted in more
than one direction, the network could continue to
function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event
of a military attack or other disaster. Today, the
Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining
facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people
worldwide.
An IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each
sender or receiver of information that is sent in
packets across the Internet.
When you request a web page or
send e-mail, the Internet
Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the
message (actually, in each of the packets if more than
one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is
obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform
Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address
you're sending a note to. At the other end, the
recipient can see the IP address of the Web page
requester or the e-mail sender and can respond by
sending another message using the IP address it
received.
ISDN
ISDN stands for
Integrated Services Digital Network.
With ISDN, voice and data
are carried by bearer channels (B channels) occupying a
bandwidth of 64 kbps. Some switches limit B channels to
a capacity of 56 kb/s. A data channel (D channel)
handles signaling at 16 kb/s or 64 kb/s, depending on
the service type. Note that, in ISDN terminology, "k"
means 1000 (103), not 1024 (210)
as in many computer applications; therefore, a 64 kbps
channel carries data at a rate of 64000 bps.
There are two basic types
of ISDN service: Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and Primary
Rate Interface (PRI). BRI consists of two 64 kb/s B
channels and one 16 kb/s D channel for a total of 144
kb/s. This basic service is intended to meet the needs
of most individual users, and is what we refer to when
we speak about Dual ISDN.
To access BRI service, it
is necessary to subscribe to an ISDN phone line.
Customer must be within 18000 feet (about 31/2
miles) of the telephone company central office for BRI
service; beyond that, expensive repeater devices are
required, or ISDN service may not be available at all.
Customers will also need special equipment to
communicate with the phone company switch and with other
ISDN devices. These devices include ISDN Terminal
Adapters (sometimes called "ISDN Modems") and ISDN
Routers.
Java is a programming language expressly designed for
use in the distributed environment of the
Internet. It was designed to
have the "look and feel" of the C++ language, but it is
simpler to use than C++ and enforces an object-oriented
programming model. Java can be used to create complete
applications that may run on a single computer or be
distributed among servers and clients in a
network. It can also be used to
build a small application module or applet for use as
part of a web page. Applets make
it possible for a web page user to interact with the
page.
Javascript should not be confused with Java.
Javascript is an interpreted programming or script
language from Netscape. In general, script languages are
easier and faster to code in than the more structured
and compiled languages such as C and C++. Script
languages generally take longer to process than compiled
languages, but are very useful for shorter programs.
JavaScript is used in Web site development to do such
things as:
- Automatically change a formatted date on a
web page
- Cause a linked-to page to appear in a popup window
- Cause text or a graphic image to change during a
mouse rollover
Javascript uses some of the same ideas found in Java.
Javascript code can be embedded in
web pages and interpreted by the web
browser. Both Microsoft and
Netscape browsers support
Javascript, but sometimes in slightly different ways.
A link is a selectable connection from one word,
picture, or information object to another. In a
multimedia environment such as the World
Wide Web, such objects can include sound and motion
video sequences. The most common form of link is the
highlighted word or picture that can be selected by the
user (with a mouse or in some other fashion), resulting
in the immediate delivery and view of another file or
page.
Mail Client
A
mail client is
the program you use to download email. Examples of
popular mail clients include Outlook,
Outlook Express, Mozilla
Thunderbird, Netscape Mail,
Incredimail, and Eudora.
Mail clients are designed
to use the standard mail protocols,
including POP3,
SMTP, and
IMAP.
Webmail is not usually considered a mail client,
because it is not installed on a user's computer and it
interfaces directly with the mail server without the
user having to go through mail protocols.
Malware (for "malicious software") is any program or
file that is harmful to a computer user. Thus, malware
includes computer viruses,
worms,
trojan horses, and also spyware,
programming that gathers information about a computer
user without permission.
MOH
top of page
Modem-On-Hold
MultiLink
Multilink PPP technology
(aka "Dual Analog") bonds
two 56k analog connections
together for a 112k connection. It requires two phone
lines and two modems. The user connects both modems to
the same access number
which doubles their total connection speed.
These cost twice as much
as a single account. Not all numbers are multilink
capable, so be sure to check the access list.
A network is a series of points or nodes
interconnected by communication paths. Networks can
interconnect with other networks and contain sub
networks.
Two computers connected over the
Internet would be a basic example of a network.
A newsgroup is a discussion about a particular
subject consisting of notes written to a central
Internet site and redistributed
through Usenet, a worldwide network of news discussion
groups. Newsgroups are organized into subject
hierarchies, with the first few letters of the newsgroup
name indicating the major subject category and
sub-categories represented by a subtopic name. Many
subjects have multiple levels of subtopics. Some major
subject categories are: news, rec (recreation), soc
(society), sci (science), comp (computers), and so forth
(there are many more). Users can post to existing
newsgroups, respond to previous posts, and create new
newsgroups.
Plug-in applications are programs that can easily be
installed and used as part of your web
browser. A plug-in application is
recognized automatically by the
browser and its function is integrated into the main
HTML file that is being presented.
POP3
POP3 (Post
Office Protocol version 3) This is the standard
protocol for incoming
email. POP3 authenticates the email username and
password, and then downloads mail to the user's computer
using a mail client.
When setting the mail
client for "Incoming mail server", this generally refers
to the POP3 server.
Registrar
The registrar is involved
in the Domain Name
registration process. This is a company that registers
the domain, and then makes basic
whois information available about the domain.
A search engine is a coordinated set of programs that
includes:
-
A spider (also called a
"crawler" or a "bot") that goes to every page or
representative pages on every web site that wants to
be searchable and reads it, using hypertext
links on each page to discover and
read a site's other pages
-
A program that creates
a huge index (sometimes called a "catalog") from the
pages that have been read
-
A program that receives
your search request, compares it to the entries in the
index, and returns results to you
Some popular search engines include google.com,
yahoo.com, altavista.com, and lycos.com.
SMTP
SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol ) This is the standard
protocol for sending email.
Your mail client will be
configured with an "Outgoing" or "SMTP" sever. The mail
client then give an outgoing message to our SMTP server,
and send it along to the recipient server.
Spam
The definition of spam is an issue of opinion. The
United States government has essentially defined spam as
email that fails to comply with the
CanSpam Act. A number of states and other Countries
have enacted their own laws and individual ISP's have
also enacted their own laws based on all the above and
what flows through their networks.
We
define spam as the sending of Unsolicited Commercial
Email (UCE) or Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE), which is
email sent to recipients as an advertisement or
otherwise, without first obtaining prior confirmed
consent to receive these communications from the sender.
This can include, but is not limited to, the following:
-
Email Messages
-
Newsgroup postings
-
Windows system messages
-
Pop-up messages (aka "adware" or "spyware" messages)
-
Instant messages (using AOL, MSN, Yahoo or other
instant messenger programs)
-
Online chat room advertisements
-
Guestbook or Website Forum postings
Unsolicited Bulk Email ("UBE")
You didn't subscribe to it. It's not wanted and you
don't want it. Most scams (banks, stocks, health,
viruses, coupons, etc.), fall into this category. The
CanSpam Act may apply.
Unsolicited Commercial Email ("UCE")
Commercial and non-commercial email, apparently destined
to multiple recipients. Most unsolicited commercial
email ("UCE") falls into this definition.
CanSpam Act compliance is irrelevant.
Some scams (banks, stocks, health, viruses, coupons,
etc.), may fall into this category as well.
Repeatedly Rejected Mail
This generally applies to solicited bulk email. Once a
user moves on and his or her email is rejected, it is
reasonable to expect that bulk emailers review their
logs and manage their lists. It doesn't take long for
the average company, with moderate employee turnover, to
start rejecting more email for former employees than
they accept for current employees. While each reject
consumes a trivial amount of cycles and bandwidth, over
time this can become a voracious consumer of resources.
For a
more details regarding our spam policies click
here.
Spyware is programming that is put in someone's
computer to gather information about the user and relay
it to advertisers or other interested parties
without the user's knowledge. Spyware can get
in a computer as a software virus
or as the result of installing a new program. Spyware is
often installed as a drive-by download, or as the result
of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window.
Software designed to serve advertising, known as
adware, can usually be thought of
as spyware as well because it almost invariably includes
components for tracking and reporting user information.
Static IP
A static IP is an
IP Address that stays the
same every time the user logs in. The opposite is a
dynamic IP, which changes
every time a user logs in.
We can provide static IP
addresses for an additional cost per account and a setup
fee.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) is the basic communication language of the
Internet.
TOS
TOS (Terms of Service) An
agreement for use of service. Any end-user found in
violation of our TOS risk getting
banned.
A Trojan Horse is a program in which malicious or
harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless
programming or data in such a way that it can get
control and do its chosen form of damage, such as
ruining the file allocation table on your
hard disk. A Trojan Horse may
be widely redistributed as part of a computer
virus.
Uploading is the transmission of a file from one
computer system to another, usually larger computer
system. From a network user's
point-of-view, to upload a file is to send it to another
computer that is set up to receive it. Transmission in
the other direction (receiving it) is
downloading.
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique
address for a file that is accessible on the
Internet. A common way to get to
a web site is to enter the URL of its
home page file in your web
browser's address line. However,
any file within that web site can also be specified with
a URL. Such a file might be any web
page other than the home page,
an image file, or a program. The URL contains the name
of the protocol to be used to access the file resource,
a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the
Internet, and a pathname (ex.
http://www.lanzing.net/glossary).
A virus is a program or programming code that
replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to
another program, computer boot sector or document.
Viruses can be transmitted as
attachments to an e-mail note or in a
downloaded file, or be present
on a diskette or CD. The immediate
source of the e-mail note,
downloaded file, or diskette you've received is
usually unaware that it contains a virus. Some viruses
wreak their effect as soon as their code is executed;
other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause
their code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses
are benign or p layful in intent and effect and some can
be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your
hard disk to require
reformatting. A virus that replicates itself by
resending itself as an e-mail
attachment or as part of a
network message is known as a worm.
Webhosting
Webhosting refers
specifically to hosting web
pages.
A Web page is a single
HTML file that contains text and images, is part of a
Web site, and has an individual file name assigned to
it. When viewed by a Web browser, this file could
actually be several screen dimensions long (appearing as
more than "a page").
Who Is
Every
domain name has whois
information associated with it. This information is
maintained by the registrar.
This information
includes:
- Contact information
(name, address, email, phone, & fax) for the domain's
- Administrative
contact
- Billing contact
- Technical contact
- Creation date
- Expiration date
- Updated date
- Domain status
- Registrar
-
Nameservers
You can run a whois on
any domain. Usually, you can go to your own registrar
and they will have a link to their whois utility. If you
are running a Unix or Linux operating system, you can
run the whois command from a terminal
window.
Whois records retrieved
from sources that are not the direct registrar of the
domain may be out of date. If you are looking for the
most accurate information, it is a good idea to run a
whois at the registrar of the domain. If you don't know
who this is, you can run a whois somewhere else, get the
registrar, then go to the registrar's website and run
the whois there. Note that many times the
Referral
URL listed in a
whois is not the registrar's actual website, and you may
have to run a Google search for it.
Wizard
The Wizard is a
user-friendly setup program and "dialer" for end-users.
The dialer is what the end-user will install on their
computer. It automatically configures email on the
system, changes browser settings, and creates an icon on
the desktop for easy dialup. It allows a user to get
online with a minimal amount of manual configuration or
computer knowledge.
The World Wide Web is all the resources and users on
the Internet that are using the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
A worm is a self-replicating virus
that does not alter files but resides in active memory
and duplicates itself. Worms use parts of an operating
system that are automatic and usually invisible to the
user. It is common for worms to be noticed only when
their uncontrolled replication consumes system
resources, slowing or halting other tasks.
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