User's Manual

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Ad Hoc mode
Ad Hoc mode is a configuration supported by most wireless clients. It is used to connect a peer to peer net-
work together without the use of an access point. It offers lower performance than infrastructure mode, which
is the mode the router uses. (see also Infrastructure mode.
Auto-negotiation
Some devices in the range support auto-negotiation. Auto-negotiation is where two devices sharing a link,
automatically configure to use the best common speed. The order of preference (best first) is: 100BASE-TX
full duplex, 100BASE-TX half duplex, 10BASE-T full duplex, and 10BASE-T half duplex. Auto-negotiation is
defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard for Ethernet and is an operation that takes place in a few milliseconds.
Bandwidth
The information capacity, measured in bits per second, that a channel can transmit. The bandwidth of Ether-
net is 10 Mbps, the bandwidth of Fast Ethernet is 100 Mbps. The bandwidth for 802.11b wireless is 11Mbps.
Category 5 Cables
One of five grades of Twisted Pair (TP) cabling defined by the EIA/TIA-586 standard. Category 5 can be
used in Ethernet (10BASE-T) and Fast Ethernet networks (100BASE-TX) and can transmit data up to
speeds of 100 Mbps. Category 5 cabling is better to use for network cabling than Category 3, because it
supports both Ethernet (10 Mbps) and Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) speeds.
Channel
Similar to any radio device, the Wireless Cable/DSL router allows you to choose different radio channels in
the wireless spectrum. A channel is a particular frequency within the 2.4GHz spectrum within which the
Router operates.
Client
The term used to described the desktop PC that is connected to your network.
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This protocol automatically assigns an IP address for every computer
on your network. Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 contain software that assigns IP addresses
to workstations on a network. These assignments are made by the DHCP server software that runs on Win-
dows NT Server, and Windows 95 and Windows 98 will call the server to obtain the address. Windows 98
will allocate itself an address if no DHCP server can be found.
DMZ
DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is an area outside the firewall, to let remote users to have access to items on your
network (Web site, FTP download and upload area, etc.).