Glossary

Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line, a new technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines (POTS). ADSL supports data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). ADSL requires a special ADSL modem. ADSL is growing in popularity as more areas around the world gain access.

Almost everything in the world can be described or represented in one of two forms: analog or digital. The principal feature of analog representations is that they are continuous. In contrast digital representations consist of values measured at discrete intervals.

Digital watches are called digital because they go from one value to the next without displaying all intermediate values. Consequently they can display only a finite number of times of the day. In contrast watches with hands are analog because the hands move continuously around the clock face. As the minute hand goes around it not only touches the numbers 1 through 12 but also the infinite number of points in between.

Early attempts at building computers used analog techniques but accuracy and reliability were not good enough. Today almost all computers are digital.

One of the world’s most popular Web server programs, Apache was built by a group of open-source programmers and is often used because of its outstanding performance, strong security features and the fact that it is free.

The software components that your custom application relies on for its functionality. Examples include web servers, application servers and database servers.

Abbreviated as ASP, a specification for a dynamically created Web page with a .ASP extension that utilizes ActiveX scripting -- usually VB Script or Jscript code. When a browser requests an ASP, the Web server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser. So ASPs are similar to CGI scripts, but they enable Visual Basic programmers to work with familiar tools.

Providing differing bandwidth in different directions. 56k modems are asymmetrical: 56k for downloading but only 28.8k or 33.6k for uploading.

The process of identifying an individual usually based on a username and password.

The amount of data that can be transmitted at a given moment to a server. The higher your bandwidth, the larger amount of traffic your site can handle at one time.

Short for Common Gateway Interface, a small script that processes data taken from the user (such as from a form application).