Glossary of Metropolitan Broadband Terms: F-J

Hot Spot - A Hot Spot is a location where wireless access points make high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access available on a free or fee basis. Hot Spots are mostly found in public spaces, such as hotels, airports, convention centers, libraries, coffee shops, pubs and restaurants. A Hot Spot is the name given for a public area that provides Wi Fi Internet access.

From the www.whatis.com website: "For users of portable computers equipped for wireless, a hot spot (or hotspot) is a wireless local area network node that provides Internet connection and virtual private network (VPN) access from a given location. For example, a business traveler with a laptop equipped for Wi Fi can look up a local hot spot, contact it, and get connected through its network to reach the Internet and their own company remotely with a secure connection. Increasingly, public places, such as airports, hotels, and coffee shops are providing free wireless access for customers."

Hot Spots use Wi Fi radios similar to those used in residences, with a transmission range of approximately 300 ft. In fact, for many small business Hot Spots, the technology is identical to that used at home.

IP - IP is an acronym for Internet Protocol, which is the protocol within Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that is used to send data between computers over the Internet. More specifically, this protocol governs the routing of data messages, which are transmitted in smaller components called packets. Devices that use IP are speaking a common language, using the Internet as their communication network.

ISP - An ISP is an Internet Service Provider, a company that provides Internet access to individual or corporate customers over dial-up, DSL, cable, satellite, and, increasingly, wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi. Traditional consumer ISPs include: Earthlink, AOL and MSN.