Owner's Manual

904
PRIVATE KEY — In cryptography, a private
or secret key is an encryption/decryption
key known only to the party or parties that
exchange secret messages. In traditional
secret key cryptography, a key would be
shared by the communicators so that each
could encrypt and decrypt messages. The
risk in this system is that if either party
loses the key or it is stolen, the system is
broken. A more recent alternative is to use a
combination of public and private keys. In
this system, a public key is used together
with a private key.
PROFILE — A profile is an abstract collec-
tion of configuration data that is utilized as
a template to specify configuration parame-
ters to be applied to a device as a result of a
policy condition being true.
PUBLIC KEY — A public key is a value pro-
vided by some designated authority as a key
that, combined with a private key derived
from the public key, can be used to effec-
tively encrypt and decrypt messages and
digital signatures. The use of combined
public and private keys is known as asym-
metric encryption. A system for using pub-
lic keys is called a public key infrastructure
(PKI).
QOS—Quality of Service. In digital cir-
cuits, it is a measure of specific error condi-
tions as compared with a standard. The
establishment of QoS levels means that
transmission rates, error rates, and other
characteristics can be measured, improved,
and, to some extent, guaranteed in
advance. Often related to Class of Service
(CoS).
RADIUS — RADIUS (Remote Authentica-
tion Dial-In User Service) is a client/server
protocol and software that enables remote
access servers to communicate with a cen-
tral server to authenticate dial-in users and
authorize their access to the requested sys-
tem or service. RADIUS allows a company
to maintain user profiles in a central data-
base that all remote servers can share.
RIP — Routing Information Protocol
SELF-SIGNED CERTIFICATE
A self-signed certificate uses its own certifi-
cate request as a signature rather than the
signature of a CA. A self-signed certificate
will not provide the same functionality as a
CA-signed certificate. A self-signed certifi-
cate will not be automatically recognized
by users' browsers, and a self-signed certifi-
cate does not provide any guarantee con-
cerning the identity of the organization
that is providing the website.
SMTP — Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
SNMP — Simple Network Management
Protocol. Network management protocol
used almost exclusively in TCP/IP net-
works. SNMP provides the means to moni-
tor and control network devices, and to
manage configurations, statistics collec-
tion, performance, and security.
SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL (STP) — The
inactivation of links between networks so
that information packets are channeled
along one route and will not search end-
lessly for a destination.
SSH (SECURE SHELL)—A protocol which
permits secure remote access over a net-
work from one computer to another. SSH
negotiates and establishes an encrypted
connection between an SSH client and an
SSH server.
SSL (SECURE SOCKETS LAYER)—A program
layer created by Netscape for managing the
security of message transmissions in a net-
work. Netscape's idea is that the program-