The Billed Telephone Number (BTN) is the main telephone number on your account. Typically it is the number displayed on your phone bill.

Find Me Follow Me^SM rings all the numbers in your Ring Lists simultaneously or one at a time. To create a Ring Lists, when Find Me Follow Me^SM is activated, a call will connect to the first phone that's picked up. If all the lines in your Ring Lists are in use, the caller will hear a busy signal. To prevent this, you can activate Call Waiting on at least one line in your Ring Lists.

High-speed Internet service that comes through your cable system.

A cable modem is a modem that provides high-speed Internet access to your home directly through your existing cable television line.

Customer Service Record (CSR) is a document that is required for all telephone numbers. This record shows all services associated with that particular line, including billing activity and service orders.

Device Portability is the ability to use your ThinkBright phone adapter anywhere there is a high-speed Internet connection. When visiting family, going on vacation or traveling for business, as long as you have your ThinkBright phone adapter and a high-speed Internet connection, you can make and receive calls as if you were home.

Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, is a type of internet service that comes through your phone line.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is used to automatically configure a host during boot up on a TCP/IP network and also to change settings while the host is attached.
This means that you can store all the available IP addresses in a central database along with information such as the subnet mask, gateways, DNS servers etc.
The basics behind DHCP is the clients are configured to use DHCP instead of being given a static IP address. When the client boots up, it sends out a BOOTP request for an IP address. A DHCP server then offers an IP address that has not been assigned from its database, which is then leased to the client for a pre-defined time period.

A firewall is a system designed to block unwanted network traffic going in and/or out of your home or office network.

Firm Order Confirmation (FOC) is the finalized date for your number to be transferred. The local carrier that is releasing the number issues this date.

International Calls are calls that terminate outside of the United States. Dialing 011 followed by the country code and phone number will place these calls.

A business that provides subscriber-based access to the Internet. Subscribers can be individuals or businesses. This is the company that supplies your high-speed Internet connection.

Interstate calls are calls that terminate out of the state that you are calling from; also known as state to state long distance.

Kilobits per second represents the amount of data (binary "1s" and "0s") that can be transferred in one second. The higher the number of kbps, the more data can be transferred at once.

Latency, also known as delayed or elapsed time, is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of information to cross a network connection, from sender to receiver.

The Letter Of Authorization authorizes think bright to become your local, local toll, and long distance provider. It also allows think bright to legally obtain your number without the threat of slamming.

In the telecommunications industry, line sharing is when a higher-frequency DSL signal rides alongside a regular low-frequency phone call on an existing phone line, thus "sharing" the same wire.

Local Access Transport Area is a geographic area defined by your local telephone company in which your local telephone provider can carry calls.

A Local Exchange Carrier is a telephone company that provides service to a local calling area. LECs also originate and terminate long distance calls for long distance carriers.

Also know as Local Number Portability or Line Number Portability, LNP is the ability to change telecommunications service providers while maintaining one's own phone number.

Local Service Request (LSR) is the request that is submitted to the local provider to transfer a phone number.

Short for Modulator/Demodulator. Equipment that converts digital signals to analog signals and vice-versa. Modems are used to send data signals (digital) over the telephone network, which is usually analog. A modem modulates binary signals into tones that can be carried over the telephone network. At the other end, the demodulator part of the modem converts the tones to binary code.

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a system for three-digit area codes that direct telephone calls to particular regions on a public switched telephone network (PSTN), where they are further routed by the local network. It is applied to the United States and its territories; Canada; Bermuda; and many Caribbean nations.

North American phone numbers are in this format:
NPA-NXX-XXXX
NPA is the area code and NXX is the exchange. The last four digits are known as the extension or actual phone number assigned to a given subscriber. For example, in the number (123) 456-7890: "123" is the NPA, "456" is the NXX, and "7890" is the extension.

In computer networking, network address translation (NAT, also known as network masquerading or IP-masquerading) is a technique in which the source and/or destination addresses of IP packets are rewritten as they pass through a router or firewall. It is most commonly used to enable multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single public IP address.

POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) is basic telephone service that supplies standard single-line telephones, telephone lines, and access to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

PPPOA or PPPoA, Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) over ATM, is a network protocol for encapsulating PPP frames in ATM AAL5. It is used mainly with cable modem and DSL services.

PPPoE, point-to-point protocol over Ethernet, is a network protocol for encapsulating PPP frames in Ethernet frames. It is used mainly with cable modem and DSL services.

This is an opening on a device where you connect a cable (like the holes on the back of this device). An Ethernet port looks like a wide phone jack.

A power cycle is when you reboot your home network systems.

This can also be called a Public Service Access Point or a Public Service Answering Point. A PSAP is a locally operated, publicly funded facility where 911 emergency telephone calls are received and then routed to the proper emergency services, such as police, the fire department or EMS.

Short for Public Switched Telephone Network, PSTN refers to the international telephone system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data.

Purchase Order Number (PON) is issued for any service order placed on your phone number. The PON is similar to a receipt and acts as a tracking number for an order.

Random Dialing rings every number in your Ring Lists in random order until your caller connects to you. If all the lines are in use, the caller will hear a busy signal. To prevent this, you can activate Call Waiting on at least one line in your Ring Lists.

Rebooting is the process of re-starting a particular device. In the case of the ThinkBright phone adapter and most routers and modems, rebooting consists of pulling the power plug out of the back of the device for 10-30 seconds and putting it back in. The device will then take a few minutes to reload its software.

A router is a computer networking device that allows you to connect more than one piece of equipment to your DSL or Cable modem to share one Internet connection.

With Sequential Dialing, your Virtual Number will ring each number you specify in the exact order of your Ring List. If a number on the Ring List is in use, the next number on the list will be dialed immediately.

Short for Session Initiation Protocol, SIP is a signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, events notification and instant messaging. The protocol initiates call setup, routing, and authentication to endpoints within an IP domain.

A telecommunications term, Slamming is the changing of a customer's telephone service, either local or long distance without their knowledge or approval.

Signed by President Clinton in February 1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 provided major changes in laws affecting cable TV, telecommunications, and the Internet. The law's main purpose was to stimulate competition in telecommunication services. The law specifies:

How local telephone carriers can compete.

How and under what circumstances local exchange carriers can provide long-distance services.

The deregulation of cable TV rates.

Toll free service, also known as 800/888/877 numbers, is a service where the person receiving the call pays for the call, rather than the person making the call.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a reliable technology that enables routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of the traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines.

Winback is a term used by the carrier when porting out a number from where it currently resides.