User Manual

User’s Guide Glossary
Router On the Internet, a router is a device or,
in some cases, software in a computer, that
determines the next network point to which a
packet should be forwarded toward its
destination. The router is connected to at least
two networks and decides which way to send
each information packet based on its current
understanding of the state of the networks it is
connected to.
topology A network topology shows the
computers and the links between them. A
network layer must know the current network
topology to be able to route packets to their
final destination.
U
UDP User Datagram Protocol. A transport
layer protocol in the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
UDP, like TCP, uses IP for delivery; however,
unlike TCP, UDP provides for exchange of
datagrams without acknowledgements or
guaranteed delivery.
S
server A network device that provides services
to client stations. Examples include file servers
and print servers.
service A term used with the router to refer to
a connection to another port on (another)
router, used to access dialup modems, hosts
that do not support TCP/IP and other
asynchronous devices.
URL Uniform Resource Locator. A standard
format for specifying the name, type and
location of documents and resources on an
Internet. The syntax is type://host.domain
:port/path/filename, where type specifies the
type of document or resource (e.g. http is a file
on a WWW server; file is a file on an
anonymous FTP server; Telnet is a connection
to a Telnet-based service). See
WWW.
SNMP A Simple Network Management
Protocol. The Internet standard protocol
developed to manage nodes on an IP network.
See
MIB.
subnet A portion of a network, which may be a
physically independent network segment,
which shares a network address with other
portions of the network and is distinguished by
a subnet number. A subnet is to a network
what a network is to an internet.
W
WAN Wide Area Network. Any physical
network technology that spans large
geographic distances. WANs usually operate a
slower speeds than LANs. See
LAN.
subnet address The subnet portion of an IP
address. In a subnetted network, the host
portion of an IP address is split into a subnet
portion and a host portion using an address or
subnet mask. See subnet mask, IP address
and network address.
Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity and is
another name for IEEE 802.11b. It is a
registered trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi"
is used in place of 802.11b in the same way
that "Ethernet" is used in place of IEEE 802.3.
Products certified as Wi-Fi by Wi-Fi Alliance
are interoperable with each other even if they
are from different manufacturers. A user with a
Wi-Fi product can use any brand of access
point with any other brand of client hardware
that is built to the Wi-Fi standard.
subnet mask A bit mask used to select bits
from an Internet address for subnet
addressing. The mask is 32 bits long and
selects the network portion of the Internet
address and one or more bits of the local
portion. Sometimes called address mask.
WWW World Wide Web. A hypertext-based,
distributed information system based on client
- server architecture. Web browsers (client
applications) request documents from Web
servers. Documents may contain text,
graphics and audiovisual data, as well as links
to other documents and services. Web servers
and documents are identified by URLs
(Uniform Resource Locators). See
URL.
T
TCP Transmission Control Protocol. The
TCP/IP standard transport layer protocol in the
Internet suite of protocols, providing reliable,
connection-oriented, full-duplex streams. It
uses IP for delivery.
Telnet The virtual terminal protocol in the
TCP/IP suite of protocols, which allows users
of one host to log into a remote host and
interact as normal terminal users of that host.
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