Below you will find a glossary presenting many definitions relating to the Internet and high speed access. You can also refer to our Frequently Asked Questions.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line): Telecommunications network access equipment that allows high data transmission speeds to be achieved on traditional telephone lines. These speeds vary according to the distance to be traveled and are asymmetric, because there is no equivalency between the download speed (from the network to the subscriber) and the upload speed (from the subscriber to the network).

B

Bandwidth: Data transmission capacity of an electronic communications channel. This corresponds to the maximum quantity of data this channel can transmit per second.

Broadband network: Type of local area network (LAN) in which signal transmission can be distributed over several separate channels, each using a different frequency. The broadband network is in contrast to the baseband network, on which the signals are transmitted on a single channel.

D

DSL (DSL technology): Digital access line or high speed transmission on a telephone line. Line installed between a subscriber terminal and a telecommunications network switch, supporting one of the technologies allowing high speed transmission of digital signals, of several megabits per second, on the cables traditionally used for analog telephony.

E

Ethernet (Ethernet network): Local area network (LAN) protocol that makes it possible to offer a standard speed of 10 megabits per second.

Ethernet card: Device allowing connection to the Ethernet network

F

Filter: Device installed between a telephone and the wall jack which filters the noise interference caused by DSL signals.

Firewall: Computer device which allows selective passage of data flows between an internal network and a public network, and neutralizes attempts at access from the public network.

M

Megabytes (MB) or meg: Unit of measure equal to 1,048,576 bytes, or 2 to the 20th power, often rounded to one million bytes, mainly used to express storage capacity. The random access memory (RAM) of a computer is always stated in MB.

Modem: Abbreviation of ''modulator-demodulator''. This is a device that converts a digital signal into an analog signal and vice versa, allowing a computer or a terminal to communicate with another computer or another terminal, particularly by a telephone line.

R

Roaming: Function offering an Internet service provider's subscriber the possibility of connecting in an area other than the one where he is subscribed.

U

USB (USB port): "Universal Serial Bus". Port which manages and synchronizes data interchanges between the computer's central processing unit and several peripherals, or 127 devices.