TechnicalTerms
Circuit -Don't get too confused by the word. It simply means a connection (copper wire, cable, fiber optic or wireless) going in both directions or around in circles, between two or more devises such as two routers, or two computers, or even between two different telephone companies switching equipment.
Land-Line circuits - simply means a circuit using copper wire, fiber, coaxial cable vs using a wireless circuit.
Wireless circuits - use radio frequencies (RF) or licensed Microwave frequencies to create the connections between two or more Networks. Examples of RF that Goldstate.net uses is the 2.4 Gigahertz frequency range. For greater distances and super high bandwidth, Goldstate licenses their own 11 and 23 Gigahertz FCC licensed frequencies.
Dedicated circuit - Again, a connection between two or more hardware devices such as routers. But the dedicated part means that the circuit was provisioned to only carry your company's transmissions. The best example of this would be a WAN or Wide Area Network. A WAN is usually comprised of one or more dedicated circuits. So, if your company had three offices in different cities, A, B, and C, we would create dedicated circuits between A and B, and between A and C. Each of the two circuits would terminate at a single router at location A. You would have two dedicated circuits, or you would have a WAN if you allowed both of the circuits to share the transmission of data.
Network -A group of computers linked together, usually by Cat5 (category 5) wire cabling, or by wireless radio devises attached to each computer that eliminate having to string wire everywhere in the building. When the group of computers is in the same, or adjacent buildings the network is often referred to as a LAN. When the computers are linked together but are separated by a distance, often in different cities, or different parts of town, the network is often referred to as a WAN.
LAN - Local Area Network - Often used synonymously as Network. Sometimes a network of computers in one office, connected to a network of computers in one or more close-by offices. Usually, with a LAN, there is no special circuit from the phone company or from a wireless connection, connecting two offices or two floors of offices. The interconnections between offices is usually with cat5 cable connected to a hub, switch or router.
WAN - Wide Area Network - Usually a network of computers in one office, connected to a network of computers in one or more distant offices, via a dedicated circuit between the offices. The key word here is distant. That simply means that the two offices are connected either by buying or leasing a Telephone line from the local phone companies, or using a wireless series of Antennas and devices (radios) connected to those antennas, dedicated to the function of connecting the two networks. WANs are usually designed to only carry the same company's data (dedicated). Otherwise the Network is referred to as a VPN and thus uses other circuits and networks, such as the Internet, to assist with the transmission of the data (See VPN).
Local Loop - A very common term used by a phone company to mean the part of a dedicated circuit from your office to the Phone Company's Central Office (C.O.). A Pacific Bell C.O., for example, is where all of the telephone switching equipment is maintained that takes your phone calls and data calls and then "routes" or "switches" the call to the appropriate next C.O. in the same or other city. The "other city" could be in Sacramento, Ohio, Germany or China. At the "other city's" C.O. another Local Loop is created between that C.O. and your company's other office. The two Local Loops are then tied together by a circuit between the two C.O.s.
Server - A computer, and/or software in the computer, on a network. The server accepts requests for information from other computers on the network, and then provides that information, usually from its internal hard drives. All Web sites and web pages that you access over the Internet are held on a "Web Server" somewhere in the world. E-mail that someone sent you is usually waiting on a "Mail Server" at an Internet Provider's offices and is waiting for you to ask for delivery of that mail. When you ask, it sends. Sometimes it sends the mail directly to your computer and sometimes it sends it to an intermediate "mail server" in your office where it then gets distributed to you.
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