10Base-T: the specification for running Ethernet on UTP. This stands for 10 Mbps, baseband signaling (the signaling method used by Ethernet networks), over twisted pair cable.

Apple Servers: used for intranet functions.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM): a type of switching technology in which the switches are small, fixed-length cells containing data.

Backbone: the high-capacity ("fat pipe") connections that run between areas of a building or between buildings or between regions; often constructed with fiber-optic cable.

Bps: bits per second, a measure of the transfer rate of information between two connected computers. 28.8 or 14.4 kbps (the current standards for modem speeds) are considered to be the minimum needed for graphical WWW and Internet access, while NIC's can reach speeds of up to 56kbps and above.

Browser: the software used to connect to a Web server, request that it send the designated Web page of material, and then displaying or otherwise outputting (e.g. in voice or video) the received material including any hypertext links to additional Web pages.

Cable modem: the equipment that allows digital computer signals to run over the coaxial cables used by analog cable TV systems.

Category 5 wiring (Cat-5): a standard that describes wiring installed so as to reduce the potential for electrical interference to a prescribed level.

Classroom terminations: the wiring that runs from a wiring closet, which is attached to the backbone network, out to a classroom and ends in a faceplate into which one or more personal computers can be plugged.

Client/server: refers to the situation in which the requester of an action or service (to process data or provide information) is on one system and the supplier (with calculation programs or databases) is on another. Usually there are many clients to one server, and their respective roles do not change.

Cloud: In telecommunications, a cloud is the unpredictable part of any network through which data passes using a connectionless protocol such as TCP/IP. Possibly the term originated from the clouds used in illustrations to describe the nonspecifiable or uninteresting part of a network. Clouds exist because, in connectionless exchanges, the data can pass through any of many possible paths to arrive successfully at its destination. (In traditional analog telephone exchanges, the path is established when a connection is established and the same path is used for the entire conversation.) The Internet itself (or any connectionless, packet-based network) can be considered a cloud relative to sender and receiver.

CSU/DSU: (Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit) is a hardware device about the size of an external modem that converts digital data frames from the communications technology used on a local area network (LAN) into frames appropriate to a wide-area network (WAN) and vice versa.

Curriculum Integration: the use of technology as a tool for research, discovery, instruction, reporting and other regular teaching and learning activities.

Dial-up connection: temporarily connecting a computer to a network or server, usually using a modem sending data over ordinary phone lines.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): an emerging method of sending large amounts of data over the copper wires already installed to most locations.

Distance Learning: possibility offered by the implementation of the connection of schools to the Internet, in which students can be taught, via tele-conferencing and the passage of information over networks, while in a different geographic location from other students, as well as from their teacher.

DNS: Domain Name Server for sending e-mail, printing, and identifying all devices on the Intranet, thus enabling communications between all those devices in via TCP/IP.

Email: sending text messages over a network from one person to another or from one to many.

Ethernet: the most popular LAN technology in use today

External Web Server: makes web pages for the Union City Web Site available to outsiders on the Internet.

Faceplate: the wall covering that keeps the classroom termination wiring attached to the opening into which personal computers can be plugged for network connection.

Fiber-optic cable: a connecting medium between computers which utilizes beams of light transmitted through glass to achieve extremely high transfer rates

Firewall: this is a proxy server that protects the internal network (intranet). It passes e-mail from the outside to inside and vice versa.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): one of the Internet protocols that allow computers to move files from one machine to another.

Homepage: the first Web page that people see when accessing a Web server, usually welcomes visitors and provides a directory/menu for accessing additional material.

Hub: a piece of hardware which acts as a wiring concentrator and connector for pieces of communications equipment, and can be monitored and managed by network operators

Hypertext: text or other items on a Web page that are linked to other materials located on other Web pages or even on other computers in other locations. Clicking or activating a hypertext connection brings you directly to the referenced material no matter where in the world it is.

Intermediate Distribution Frame: (IDF) An enclosed 7 foot electronics cabinet with power, shelf and fan ventilation containing the equipment (hubs, patch panels, etc) needed to connect the backbone wiring of a local area network and distribute the network to specific locations such as classrooms.

Internet: a connected series of networks around the world that have all agreed to use a standard set of protocols, or agreements, that allow material to be accurately transferred between them.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): a firm that provides access to the major Internet backbone networks.

Intranet: a self-contained network, often restricted to a particular organization, that uses Internet protocols to facilitate internal connections.

ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network): a method of sending digital signals all the way between computers over the telephone network, instead of having to use a modem to turn the computer's digital signals into the analog signals usually required by a residential or office telephone line and then through another modem that feed the computer at the other end; requires special equipment but allows higher speed transmission than regular POTS connections.

kbps: one thousand bits per second (See bps).

kHz: stands for kilohertz, or 1,000 hertz, which means 1,000 cycles per second.

Local Area Network (LAN): a LAN is a high speed communications system designed to link computers and other data processing devices together within a small geographic area such as a workgroup, department, or a single floor of a multi-story building

Main Distribution Frame:(MDF) An enclosed 7 foot electronics cabinet with power, shelf and fan ventilation containing the equipment (main router,hubs, patch panels, etc) needed to connect the backbone wiring of a local area network to the high bandwidth lines of a Wide area network.

Modem: a piece of computer hardware designed to allow for the transfer of information between computers and other data processing equipment via a series of tones over ordinary phone lines

Mosaic: the first graphical Web browser with a "point-and-click" user interface.

Multi-media: a form of communication , generally produced with and presented on a computer, which incorporates written text, a graphical interface, animation, and audio and full motion video components.

Netscape: the first commercially available graphical Web browser; the company that produces the Netscape browser and other software.

Network: The equipment, transmission systems, and software that allows material to be sent between computers.

Network Interface Card (NIC): the circuit board put into a computer that handles communication between the computer and the network.

Node: any individual station (such as a PC or printer) connected to a network, which is always differentiated from other nodes on the same network by a unique node number

On-line: connected to a network.

Outside connection: connection from a building to a transmission system such as the telephone company's local loop.

Packet: a standard-size series of signals that are sent over a network; also called a data packet. The Internet is designed to handle material that has been divided into a series of packets, each of which is separately moved from origin to destination across the intervening networks.

Patch Panel: a board in the wiring closet that is used to connect the backbone wiring with the classroom termination wiring in an organized and maintainable manner.

PC: personal computer, a piece of hardware consisting of input (e.g. keyboard, mouse), output (i.e. monitor, printer), and storage (e.g. RAM or disk drive media) devices, as a well as a central processing unit. These will be the primary means through which children connect to the Internet once schools in Massachusetts become "wired".

Port: a female plug on a patch panel. It accepts the same size plug as an RJ45 jack. A kind of jumper cable called a patch cord is used in ports to cross connect computers wired to a patch panel.

Professional Development: Training provided to educators on both the technical knowledge needed to make the equipment run as well as how to use the network as a integral tool in the learning process.

Protocol: an agreed-upon method of doing something; in particular a way of transmitting data between computers and networks.

Router: a device or, in some cases, software in a computer, that determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward its final destination. The router is connected to at least two networks and decides which way to send each information packet based on its current understanding of the state of the networks it is connected to. A router is located at any juncture of networks or gateway, including each Internet point-of-presence. A router is often included as part of a network switch.

RJ45 wall plug: jack located in wall designed to allow a connection between an individual piece of hardware and a network. The jack itself consists of color-coded slots, into which wires are "punched down" to make an electrical connection. The plug itself looks like a standard phone jack, but has eight pins instead of four.

Server: a computer used to manage file storage and traffic in a network

SMDS: (Switched Multimegabit Data Service) is a public, packet-switched service aimed at enterprises that need to exchange large amounts of data with other enterprises over the wide-area network on a nonconstant or "bursty" basis. SMDS provides an architecture for this kind of data exchange and a set of services. In general, SMDS extends the performance and efficiencies of a company's local area network (LANs) over a wide area on a switched, as-needed basis.

TCP/IP: stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol, and refers to the Internet suite of protocols, or set of rules that govern interactions with a network and determine how information is distributed. Originally developed for the US. Department of Defense http://oac3.hsc.uth.tmc.edu/staff/snewton/tcp-tutorial/

Technical Training: giving people the skills to make the equipment, software, and systems work.

Telnet: term for accessing information via the Internet on a computer other than your own, whether that computer be

Universal Resource Locator (URL): the electronic address of an on-line resource accessible through the World Wide Web.

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP): UTP cable is similar to telephone cable, but has somewhat more stringent specifications regarding its susceptibility to outside electro-magnetic interference than common telephone wire. UTP is much more common the STP (shielded twisted pair) wire.

WAN: see Wide Area Network:

Web: see World Wide Web.

Web browser: see browser.

Wide Area Network (WAN): links between two or more computers that allow people and machines to exchange information. A WAN is usually a collection of one or more LAN's, and will often span large geographical distances. The Internet is one example of such a wide-area network.

Wiring Closet: the room that contains the patch panel and other equipment needed to connect various parts of the network.

Wiring Plan: a diagram showing where the network equipment and wires will go as well as displaying any special instructions for installing it all.

Workstation: originally referred to a high-powered PC, usually scientific or engineering-oriented; now coming to mean any individual full-capability PC.

World Wide Web (WWW or the Web): a method, or protocol, of displaying information that can be accessed over the Internet; Web pages are "interactive billboards" that can contain text, pictures, graphics, voice, video, and animation; Web pages contain hypertext links to other material.