User manual

Appendix F: Glossary
214 Cobalt RaQ 4 User Manual
Media access control (MAC) address
A standardized data-link-layer address that is required for every port or
device that connects to a LAN. Other devices in the network use these
addresses to locate specific ports in the network, and to create and update
routing tables and data structures. MAC addresses are six bytes long and are
controlled by the IEEE. Also known as a hardware address, a MAC-layer
address and a physical address.
When your computer is connected to the Internet, a correspondence table
relates your IP address to your computer's physical (MAC) address on the
network.
Name server
A program that constitutes the server half of the DNS client-server
mechanism. A name server contains information about a segment of the
DNS database and makes it available to a client called a resolver. A resolver
is often just a library routine that creates queries and sends them across a
network to a name server.
NAT
See Network Address Translation (NAT).
Netmask
See subnet mask.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
A mechanism for reducing the need for globally unique IP addresses. NAT
allows an organization with addresses that are not globally unique to connect
to the Internet by translating those addresses into globally routable address
space. Also known as Network Address Translator and IP Masquerading.
Network Time Protocol (NTP)
A protocol that synchronizes the time of a local computer client or server to
radio clocks and atomic clocks located on the Internet. This protocol is
capable of synchronizing distributed clocks within milliseconds over long
time periods. Some configurations include cryptographic authentication to
prevent accidental or malicious protocol attacks.
NTP
See Network Time Protocol (NTP).