A dedicated telephone line for whatever purpose designated by the lessee. Leased lines are capable of higher transmission speeds for data communications than regular telephone lines and are often required for large computers with multiple users connecting simultaneously to the Internet. The listserv distributes all e-mail received to the list address to each subscriber on the list, making it a powerful means of distributing information widely. A text-based WWW browser. Lynx is a useful tool that allows users without full Internet connections to peruse and download resources on the World Wide Web, albeit without all the graphics and sound.
Modems also convert analog signals from telephone lines into digital signals for computer use.
Any computer connected to a network. Typically also refers to a host computer on the Internet. Another piece of software then automatically establishes a connection to a remote host computer, sends and receives accumulated e-mail, then hangs up. This is less interactive than on-line systems, but tends to be cheaper for the user and is sometimes a necessity in areas with particularly bad telephone lines. Interactive Internet functions like WWW and Gopher require an on-line interface.