Business telecommunications and IT systems

A BT term. The address of the premises which is to receive and pay the telephone bill. See B End.

An electrical term, referring to Alternating Current. The opposite of Direct Current (DC).

The type of signalling used on an analogue Speech Line which joins two telephone systems.

Can use DTMF, requires a 4-wire Speech Line and copes with any distance.

The type of signalling used on an analogue Speech Line which joins a 2-wire device (such as a POT) to an extension port of a telephone system.

Can use DTMF, requires a 4-wire Speech Line, and copes with any distance.

Used to speed up certain computer processes, such as graphics performance.

Refers to mechanisms and policies that restrict access to computer resources.

An access control list (ACL), for example, specifies what operations different users can perform on specific files and directories.

This is the main distinguishing feature between different LAN technologies.

It regulates each workstation's physical access to the cable (transmission medium), directs traffic around the network and determines the order in which nodes gain access such that each user receives an efficient service.

Access methods include Token Ring, Arcnet and FDDI, and Carrier Sense Multiple Access Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) employed by Ethernet.

A type of BT Private Circuit.

Automatic Call Distribution.

A program in a telephone system which handles telephone calls in a sophisticated manner.

Extensions are called turrets, and those who handle calls are called agents.

ACD is typically used to distribute large volumes of incoming telephone calls uniformly from a queue to agent positions. The calls may be distributed to the agents on a priority basis using a variety of definable criteria.

see PABX and Keyphone System.

Access Control List. See Access Control.

see Anonymous Call Reject.

A complete end to end e-business software solution.

One of the market leaders for small businesses.

Active Content refers to material which is downloaded that makes something happen as opposed to static content, such as text or simple images, which does nothing but get displayed.

Active Content includes such things as JavaScript animations, Active X controls, Java spreadsheets...anything that actually does something.

Active X is Microsoft's answer to the Java technology from Sun Microsystems.

An Active X control is roughly equivalent to a Java applet. Active X is the name Microsoft has given to a set of "strategic" object-oriented program technologies and tools.

The main thing that you create when writing a program to run in the Active X environment is a component, a self-sufficient program that can be run anywhere in your Active X network (currently a network consisting of Windows and Macintosh systems). This component is known as an Active X control.

A method by which a modem compensates for different telephone exchange line attenuation characteristics.

One or a group of Characters that specifies the recipient or originator of transmitted data.

Alternatively, an address may denote the position of a piece of data in a computer memory, or the packet itself whilst in transit through the network. IEEE 802.3 and 802.5 recommend a unique address for each and every device world wide.

An automated email address directory which allows you to address your messages easily.

Generally comes in personal and public versions.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).

A protocol for mapping an Internet Protocol address (IP address) to a physical machine address that is recognised in the local network.

A Token Ring term.

Since Token Ring is a dual ring, when a segment of trunk cable fails, the wrap feature connects the main path to the back up path.

The worse case, which is the longer path, would be brought about by the failure of the shorter trunk cable segment. To compensate for the worse case, the Adjusted Ring Length (ARL) is calculated during network design to ensure the system will always work.

All Digit Number.

Telephone numbers used to incorporate letters, usually taken from the name of the area in which the local telephone exchange was located.

These were later replaced by ADNs when STD dialling was introduced.