access point - Wireless access points (APs or WAPs) are specially configured nodes on wireless local area networks (WLANs). Access points act as a central transmitter and receiver of WLAN radio signals. Access points used in home or small business networks are generally small, dedicated hardware devices featuring a built-in network adapter, antenna, and radio transmitter. Access points support Wi-Fi wireless communication standards.
network address - : A network address serves as a unique identifier for a computer on a network. When set up correctly, computers can determine the addresses of other computers on the network and use these addresses to send messages to each other.
One of the best known form of network addressing is the Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses consist of four bytes (32 bits) that uniquely identify all computers on the public Internet.
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - ADSL is a form of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Internet service. ADSL provides greater bandwidth for downloads at the expense of upload speeds. ADSL is the most common form of DSL used in home networking.
ADSL is designed to support the typical home user who frequently downloads large amounts of data from Web sites and P2P networks but upload relatively less often. ADSL works by allocating a majority of the available phone line frequencies for communication of downstream traffic.
bandwidth - Bandwidth in computer networking refers to the data rate supported by a network connection or interface. One most commonly expresses bandwidth in terms of bits per second (bps). The term comes from the field of electrical engineering, where bandwidth represents the total distance or range between the highest and lowest signals on the communication channel (band).
bit - A bit is the smallest unit of data transfer on a computer network. Bits represent the two binary values "on" or "off." Bits are often stored on computers as the digital numbers '1' and '0', but in networking, bits can also be "encoded" by electrical signals and pulses of light.
In computer networking, some network protocols send and receive data in the form of bit sequences. These are called bit-oriented protocols. Examples of bit-oriented protocols include PPP.
bridge - A bridge device filters data traffic at a network boundary. Bridges reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments.
Bridges operate at the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Bridges inspect incoming traffic and decide whether to forward or discard it. An Ethernet bridge, for example, inspects each incoming Ethernet frame - including the source and destination MAC addresses, and sometimes the frame size - in making individual forwarding decisions.
broadband - The term broadband refers to any type of transmission technique that carries several data channels over a common wire. DSL service, for example, combines separate voice and data channels over a single telephone line. In DSL, voice fills the low end of the frequency spectrum and data fills the high end.
cable modem - A cable modem connects a home computer (or network of home computers) to residential cable TV service. Like the television "set top" box, cable modems are normally supplied by the cable / Internet service provider and not a piece of equipment individuals need to shop for on their own.
CAT5 - CAT5 is an Ethernet cable standard defined by the Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunications Industry Association (commonly known as EIA/TIA). CAT5 is the 5th generation of twisted pair Ethernet cabling and the most popular of all twisted pair cables in use today.
Cluster - The word "cluster" is used broadly in computer networking to refer to a number of different implementations of shared computing resources. Typically, a cluster integrates the resources of two or more computing devices (that could otherwise function separately) together for some common purpose.
DHCP - DHCP allows a computer to join an IP-based network without having a pre-configured IP address. DHCP is a protocol that assigns unique IP addresses to devices, then releases and renews these addresses as devices leave and re-join the network.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) usually use DHCP to allow customers to join the Internet with minimum effort. Likewise, home network equipment like broadband routers offers DHCP support for added convenience in joining home computers to the LAN.
DNS - Domain name System - The DNS translates Internet domain and host names to IP addresses. DNS automatically converts the names we type in our Web browser address bar to the IP addresses of Web servers hosting those sites.
DNS implements a distributed database to store this name and address information for all public hosts on the Internet. DNS assumes IP addresses do not change (are statically assigned rather than dynamically assigned).
Ethernet - Ethernet is a physical and data link layer technology for local area networks (LANs). Ethernet was invented by engineer Robert Metcalfe.
When first widely deployed in the 1980s, Ethernet supported a maximum theoretical data rate of 10 megabits per second (Mbps). Later, Fast Ethernet standards increased this maximum data rate to 100 Mbps. Today, Gigabit Ethernet technology further extends peak performance up to 1000 Mbps.
Higher level network protocols like Internet Protocol (IP) use Ethernet as their transmission medium. Data travels over Ethernet inside protocol units called frames.
Fast Ethernet - Fast Ethernet supports a maximum data rate of 100 Mbps. It is so named because original Ethernet technology supported only 10 Mbps. Fast Ethernet began to be widely deployed in the mid-1990s as the need for greater LAN performance became critical to universities and businesses.
firewall - A network firewall protects a computer network from unauthorized access. Network firewalls may be hardware devices, software programs, or a combination of the two.
Network firewalls guard an internal computer network (home, school, business intranet) against malicious access from the outside. Network firewalls may also be configured to limit access to the outside from internal users.
FTP - FTP allows one to transfer files between computers on the Internet. Technically, FTP is a simple network protocol based on IP, but many also use the term "FTP" to refer to this type of file sharing service.
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