Glossary of Terms

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T

T-1 - A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet. Also See: Bandwidth, Bit, Byte, Ethernet, and T-3

T-3 - A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion video. Also See: Bandwidth, Bit, Byte, Ethernet, and T-1

TCP/IP - The system that networks use to communicate with each other on the Internet. It stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, if you care.

Telnet - A program that lets you log in to other computers on the Net.

Terabyte - 1000 gigabytes. See Also: Byte, Kilobyte

Terminal Emulator - See Terminal.

Terminal Program - See Terminal.

Terminal Server - A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet. Also See: LAN, Modem, Host, Node, PPP and SLIP

Terminal - In the olden days, a terminal was a thing that consisted of a screen, a keyboard, and a cable that connected it to a computer. These days not many people (not many people we know) use terminals, because personal computers are so cheap. Why have a brainless screen and keyboard when you can have your own computer on your desk? Of course, there are still many times when you want to connect to a big computer somewhere. If you have a personal computer, you can run a program that makes it pretend to be a brainless screen and keyboard - the program is called a terminal emulator, terminal program, or communications program.

Text file - A file that contains only textual characters, with no special formatting characters, graphical information, sound clips, video, or what-have-you. Most computers other than some IBM mainframes store their text by using a system of codes named ASCII, so this type of file is also known as an ASCII text file

Third Party - Sometimes you buy your computer from one place and your operating software from somewhere else, but you find that you still need other hardware or software pieces to make it all work. The people from whom you buy those other pieces are known as third-party vendors.

Thread- An article posted to a Usenet newsgroup, together with all the follow-up articles, the follow-ups to follow-ups, and so on. Organizing articles into threads makes it easier to choose which articles in a newsgroup you want to read.

Threaded Newsreader - A newsreader that enables you to choose articles by thread.

TIA - The Internet Adaptor, nifty software that makes your regular dial-up account look like a SLIP or PPP account.

Traffic Logs - Traffic logs provide you with statistical information about who visited your site, what pages they accessed, and where they came from right before your site. This refers simply to the raw data, which is stored on the server. Also See: Web Trends, Statistics Package

Transaction Fee - A charge for each credit card transaction, collected by the merchant account provider or ISO. Transaction fees usually fall between $0.30 and $1.50

Turnkey Application - Computer software, which requires little or no modification when inserted into a web site. In e-commerce, many merchant account providers and ISOs offer turnkey applications for processing credit card orders online.