User guide

Glossary
EN/LZT1083982 R4 85 (87)
2000-12-07
POTS
Short for Plain Old Telephone Service, which refers to the standard telephone service that
most homes use. In contrast, telephone services based on high-speed, digital
communications lines, such as ISDN, are not POTS. The main differences between POTS
and non-POTS services are speed and bandwidth. The POTS network is also called the
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
PPP
Short for Point-to-Point Protocol, a method of connecting a computer to the Internet.
PPP is stable and provides error checking features.
Protocol
A agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. From a user's point of
view, the only interesting aspect about protocols is that your computer or device must
support the right ones if you want to communicate with other computers. The protocol
can be implemented either in hardware or in software.
PSTN
Short for Public Switched Telephone Network which refers to the international telephone
system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data. This is in contrast to newer
telephone networks based on digital technologies, such as ISDN. Telephone service
carried by the PSTN is often called Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).
Remote
Remote refers to files, devices and other resources that are not connected directly to your
workstation. Resources at your workstation are considered local.
Router
A device that connects any number of LANs. Routers use headers and a forwarding table
to determine where packets go, and they use ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)
to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts.
Very little filtering of data is done through routers and they do not care about the type of
data they handle.
SDSL
Short for Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a new technology that allows more data to
be sent over existing copper telephone lines (POTS). SDSL is called symmetric because
it supports the same data rates for upstream and downstream traffic. A similar technology
that supports different data rates for upstream and downstream data is called Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL).
SNMP
Short for Simple Network Management Protocol, a set of protocols for managing
complex networks.