Monday, August 11, 2003		ITerminology

Webring: A series of Websites linked together in a "ring" that by clicking through all sites in the ring the visitor will eventually come back to the originating site. All sites within the ring share a similar topic or purpose. There are Webrings on topics such as computer games and technology, hobbies such as quilting or stamp collecting, sports, traveling, pop culture, music, cars, etc. Web rings are a way for sites to generate more traffic by encouraging users to visit the other sites within the ring. Sites in the ring typically have an icon or graphic that indicates that it is part of a specific Webring and visitors have the option of choosing the "next" or "previous" site in the ring.

NEXT: Short for near-end crosstalk (the "X" standing for "cross"), the measurement of crosstalk between two twisted-pair wires. Current flowing through wires creates electromagnetic fields that can interfere with signals on adjacent wires. NEXT occurs when a strong signal from one pair of wires is picked up by an adjacent pair. NEXT is the measurement of the portion of the signal that is electromagnetically coupled back into the received signal.

Dirty data: In reference to databases, data that contain errors. Dirty data can contain such mistakes as spelling or punctuation, incorrect data associated with a field, incomplete or outdated data or even data that is duplicated in the database. Also see data integrity.

Backhaul: In wireless network technology, to transmit voice and data traffic from a cell site to a switch, i.e., from a remote site to a central site.