Specifications

Glossary
Glossary – 4 ShoreTel, Inc.
Outside Caller See Caller.
PBX Private Branch Exchange; a term used by telephone companies to indicate
equipment that is located on the customer’s premises and that can route telephone
calls.
Permissions Privileges granted to each user with respect to what data, features, menus,
or calling options may be used. Permissions are under the control of the system
administrator.
Physical Extension A common internal extension with an assigned physical port and
telephone.
Prompt For an auto-attendant menu, the result of playing (concatenating) a series of
phrases together.
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network; another name for the public telephone
network.
Remote Caller See Caller.
Ringback Tone The audible signal given to the caller by the telephone company (or
telephone system) to indicate that the remote telephone is ringing.
RJ-11 Registered Jack number 11; one of the series of registered jacks and cabling
developed originally by AT&T to standardize the cabling between the telephone and
the telephone company lines.
Service Provider Interface (SPI) An interface between the operating system and the
telephone hardware.
Status Bar A text and mini-graphics area, usually at the bottom of a software application
window, that is normally used for showing the status of the application or other
pertinent information.
Stutter Tone An intermittent dial tone provided by the telephone system (as opposed to
the usual constant dial tone); sometimes used to indicate to the user that there are
messages in his or her voice mailbox or that a feature (such as call forwarding) is
enabled.
T- 1 A digital transmission link with a capacity of 1.554 Mbps (1,544,000 bits per
second). A T-1 trunk can normally handle 24 voice conversations, each digitized at 64
Kbps. T-1 lines are used for connecting networks across remote distances.
Telc o An abbreviation for telephone company.
Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) A telephony software interface
included in Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and NT; the operating system that lets
applications incorporate telephony control.
Tip and Ring Telephony jargon for the two wires from the telephone system to the
telephone set; also indicates polarity.
Trunk Sometimes used synonymously with line or CO line. Traditionally, a trunk from
the telephone company connects to a PBX only, and not to a telephone, whereas a line
from the telephone company connects to a telephone. For documentation purposes,