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64-bit & 128-bit Encryption
Encryption is a means of encoding data with a secret key or password, making it secure for transmission. Encryption levels commonly associated with wireless networks are 64-bit and 128-bit. Both numbers refer to encryption strength, with 128-bit being the strongest commercially available.
802.11a
An extension of the IEEE 802.11 standard, 802.11a is specification that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps connection speed at 5 GHz. The higher operating frequency means a shorter transmission range (about 60 feet). The 802.11a standard is not interoperable with 802.11b equipment.
802.11b
802.11b is an extension of the IEEE 802.11 standard that allows wireless functionality comparable to an Ethernet connection (or up to a 11-Mbps* transfer rate).
802.11g
An extension of the standard 802.11b, and currently acts as the basis for most wireless LANs. While 802.11g can transfer up to five times more data than its predecessor (54 Mbps compared to 11 Mbps*). Both operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, which means that, for example, an 802.11b network card will still work with an 802.11g access point (at a range of 11 Mbps* or lower).
Access Points
Wireless access points (APs or WAPs) provide wireless access/connectivity to a wired network, and help create wireless local area networks (WLANs). Access points act as a central transmitter and receiver of WLAN radio signals.
Network Adapter, NIC, LAN Card
A network adapter allows a computer to connect to a network. Modern network adapter hardware exists in several forms. Wired adapters can be either internal cards that you install or an external device you plug into one of your computer’s USB jacks. Wireless adapters attach to a device and communicate with the network’s router via radio signal. Many devices come with a wired or wireless adapter already installed.
Addresses
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. See IP Addresses.
ADSL
Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of 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.
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). Bandwidth represents the capacity of the connection. The greater the capacity, the more likely that greater performance will follow, though overall performance also depends on other factors, such as latency.
Bluetooth®
Bluetooth® * is a specification for the use of low-power radio communications to wirelessly link phones, computers and other network devices over short distances.
Bps/bps
Network performance has traditionally been measured in units of bits per second (bps). Not too many years ago, dialup network connections routinely performed at 9600 bps. As networks have greatly improved in performance, rates are now specified in Kbps (thousands of bps) or Mbps (millions of bps). Bps (with uppercase 'B') represents bytes per second. Use of Bps, KBps, or MBps is avoided in networking as computer architectures implement a byte with differing numbers of bits; some use four bits, most use eight bits, and a few use neither.
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 serve a similar function as switches, though they support one network boundary, whereas switches usually offer four or more hardware ports. Switches are sometimes called "multi-port bridges" for this reason.
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 home networking, "broadband" usually refers to high-speed Internet access using this transmission technique. To qualify as a broadband Internet service, the technology should as a general guideline support network bandwidth of at least 256 Kbps* in one direction.
Cable Modem
A broadband modem is a type of digital modem used with high-speed DSL or cable Internet service. Cable modems connect a home computer (or network of home computers) to residential cable TV service, while DSL modems connect to residential public telephone service. Most broadband modems supply a 10 Mbps* Ethernet connection for the home LAN, although broadband Internet services rarely if ever perform at those speeds.
Cat-5 Cable
Short for Category-5, Cat-5 cables allow the transfer of data at high speeds and are commonly used to hook computers up to a local area network (LAN). Made up of four twisted copper wires, a Cat-5 cable can support frequencies up to 100 MHz and data speeds up to 100 Mbps*.
Crossover Cable
A crossover cable directly connects two network devices of the same type to each other over Ethernet. Ethernet crossover cables are commonly used when temporarily networking two devices in situations where a network router, switch or hub is not present.
Dial-up
Dial-up networking technology provides PCs and other network devices access to a LAN or WAN via standard telephone lines. Many home users are moving away from traditional dial-up access, and towards Cable or DSL services which are faster and provide greater bandwidth.
Dongle
In computer networking, a dongle is a short network cable that joins a PCMCIA adapter to a network cable. Dongles typically attach to either a RJ-45 connector for Ethernet networking or an RJ-11 connector for dial-up networking. Dongles tend to run no longer than about six inches.
Download
A download involves the receipt of a file copied from a remote network location. Often, a person downloads files to their personal computer from a remote server computer. In Microsoft email networks, for example, people download their email from an Exchange server to their Outlook client.
DSL
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that allows the transmission of information over your traditional telephone line.
Ethernet
Higher-level network protocols like Internet Protocol (IP) use Ethernet as their transmission medium. Data travels over Ethernet inside protocol units called frames. The run length of individual Ethernet cables is limited to roughly 100 meters, but Ethernet can be bridged to easily network entire schools or office buildings.
Encryption
Encryption is a means of encoding data with a secret key or password, making it secure for transmission. Encryption levels commonly associated with wireless networks are 64-bit and 128-bit. Both numbers refer to encryption strength, with 128-bit being the strongest commercially available.
Fiber Optic Cable
A fiber optic cable is a network cable that contains strands of glass fibers inside an insulated casing. These cables are designed for long distance and very high bandwidth (gigabit speed) network communications. Fiber optic cables carry communication signals using pulses of light. While expensive, these cables are increasingly being used instead of traditional copper cables, because fiber offers more capacity and is less susceptible to electrical interference. So-called Fiber to the Home (FTTH) installations are becoming more common as a way to bring ultra high speed Internet service (100 Mbps and higher*) to residences.
Firewall
A network firewall helps protect 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 or business intranet, for example) against malicious access from the outside. Network firewalls may also be configured to limit access to the outside from internal users.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
FTP allows the transfer of files between two computers on the Internet. FTP is a simple network protocol based on Internet Protocol and also a term used when referring to the process of copying files when using FTP technology. To transfer files with FTP, you use a program often called the "client." The FTP client program initiates a connection to a remote computer running FTP "server" software. After the connection is established, the client can choose to send and/or receive copies of files, singly or in groups. To connect to an FTP server, a client requires a username and password as set by the administrator of the server. Many public FTP archives follow a special convention that accepts a username of "anonymous."
Gateway
A network gateway is an internetworking system, a system that joins two networks together. A network gateway can be implemented completely in software, completely in hardware, or as a combination of the two. Depending on their implementation, network gateways can operate at any level of the OSI model from application protocols to low-level signaling.
GHz
Short for gigahertz, GHz is a unit of frequency equal to one billion cycles per second. The speed of computer processors, or clock speed, is often measured in gigahertz. As an example, a Dell C800 Latitude notebook that has a 2.0 GHz processor can execute 2.0 billion cycles per second.
Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet is an extension to the family of Ethernet computer networking and communication standards. The Gigabit Ethernet standard supports a theoretical maximum data rate of 1000 Mbps*.
Hard Drive
The hard drive is the primary storage unit of the computer. It is where the operating system, applications, files and data are kept.
HomeGroup (Windows 7 Feature)
Allows 2 or more networked PCs running Windows 7 to share music, pictures, video, and document libraries that are stored on one central PC.
Hotspot
A hotspot is any location where Wi-Fi network access (usually Internet access) is made publicly available. You can often find hotspots in airports, hotels, coffee shops and other places where business people tend to congregate. Hotspots are considered a valuable productivity tool for business travelers and other frequent users of network services.
Hub
In computer networking, a hub is a small, simple, inexpensive device that joins multiple computers together. Many network hubs available today support the Ethernet standard. Other types including USB hubs also exist, but Ethernet is the type traditionally used in home networking.
Internet
The term Internet today refers to the global network of public computers running Internet Protocol. The Internet supports the public WWW and many special-purpose client/server software systems. Internet technology also supports many private corporate intranets and private home LANs.
Intranet
Intranet is the generic term for a collection of private computer networks within an organization. An intranet uses network technologies as a tool to facilitate communication between people or workgroups to improve the data-sharing capability and overall knowledgebase of an organization's employees.
IP Address
An IP address is the logical address of a network adapter. The IP address uniquely identifies computers on a network. An IP address can be private, for use on a LAN, or public, for use on the Internet or other WAN. IP addresses can be determined statically (assigned to a computer by a system administrator) or dynamically (assigned by another device on the network on demand).
ISP
Short for Internet Service Provider, an ISP is a company that provides individuals and companies access to the Internet to surf the World Wide Web and send and receive e-mail.
LAN
A local area network (LAN) supplies networking capability to a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school, or a home. A LAN is useful for sharing resources like files, printers, games or other applications. A LAN in turn often connects to other LANs, and to the Internet or other WAN.
MAC (Media Access Control)
MAC technology provides unique identification and access control for computers on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. In wireless networking, MAC is the radio control protocol on the wireless network adapter. MAC works at the lower sublayer of the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model.
Management Information Bases (MIB)
A Management Information Base is a database of objects that can be monitored by a network management system.
Megabits per second (Mbps)
Megabits per second are a measure of bandwidth (the total information flow over a given time) on a telecommunications medium.
Modems
Traditional modems used in dial-up networking convert data between the analog form used on telephone lines and the digital form used on computers. Standard dial-up network modems transmit data at a maximum rate of 56,000 bits per second (56 Kbps). However, inherent limitations of the public telephone network limit modem speeds to 33.6 Kbps* or lower in practice.
Network Management System
The hardware and software that helps system administrators manage the security, performance and reliability of a network of computers.
NIC (PC Network Card)
Network Interface Card allows the computer to communicate with a network of other computers and the Internet. Each computer on a home network — whether wired or wireless — must have a network interface card.
Network Switch
A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one local area network (LAN). Technically, network switches operate at layer two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model.
Optical Drive (PC Network Card)
Optical drives, or media drives, let you read and/or write optical data discs, such as CDs or DVDs. CDs can hold up to 700MB of data, and DVDs can hold up to 4.70GB of data.
OSI Model
The Open Systems Interconnection Basic Reference Model (or OSI Model for short) was developed as part of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) initiative. It is a layered, abstract description for communications and computer network protocol design. A layer is a collection of related functions that provides services to the layer above it and receives service from the layer below it. For example, a layer that provides error-free communications across a network provides the path needed by applications above it, while it calls the next lower layer to send and receive packets that make up the contents of the path. The seven layers in the model are, from top to bottom, Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical.
P2P (or “Peer-to-Peer”)
The term P2P refers to "peer-to-peer" networking. A peer-to-peer network allows computer hardware and software to function without the need for special server devices. P2P is an alternative to client-server network design. P2P technology helps the P2P client applications upload and download files over the P2P network services.
Packet
A packet is one unit of binary data capable of being routed through a computer network. To improve communication performance and reliability, each message sent between two network devices is often subdivided into packets by the underlying hardware and software.
PAN
Personal Area Network is a short-range wireless connection among personal devices such as PCs, cell phones, and PDAs. A common PAN standard is Bluetooth® *, which is a wireless, short-range radio technology aimed at voice and data networking with 3Mbps* maximum transfer rate.
PCI Network Adapter
A PCI Network Adapter card is a piece of hardware that is plugged into a computer's motherboard allowing your system to connect either to a wired or wireless network.
Ping
Ping is the name of a standard network utility packaged with popular network operating systems. The utility can be used to determine if a remote device (such as web or game server) can be reached on the network and, if so, roughly how fast the current connection is.
Play To (Windows 7 Feature)
Enables you to be able to play music stored on one PC on other PCs with Windows 7 or Digital Living Network Alliance media standard devices, also compatible with Windows 7, throughout your home network.
Port
A port number represents an endpoint or "channel" for network communications. Port numbers allow different applications on the same computer to utilize network resources without interfering with each other.
Portal
A portal is a kind of Web site. The term originated with large, well-known Internet search engine sites that expanded their features to include email, news, stock quotes, and an array of other functionality. Some corporations took a similar approach in implementing their intranet sites, which then became known as enterprise information or corporate portals.
Protocol
A network protocol defines a "language" of rules and conventions for communication between network devices. A protocol includes formatting rules that specify how data is packaged into messages. It also may include conventions like message acknowledgement or data compression to support reliable and/or high-performance network communication.
Repeaters
Network repeaters regenerate incoming electrical, wireless or optical signals. With physical media like Ethernet or Wi-Fi, data transmissions can only span a limited distance before the quality of the signal degrades. Repeaters attempt to preserve signal integrity and extend the distance over which data can safely travel.
RJ-45
RJ45 is a standard type of connector for network cables. RJ45 connectors are most commonly seen with Ethernet cables and networks.
Roaming
Some access points allow users to move through a facility, or "roam," while maintaining an unbroken connection to the LAN.
Routers
Routers are physical devices that join multiple wired or wireless networks together. Technically, a wired or wireless router is a Layer 3 gateway, meaning that the wired/wireless router connects networks (as gateways do), and that the router operates at the network layer of the OSI model.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
The network management protocol that defines the transfer of LAN operational data between Management Information Bases (MIBs).
SSID
Service Set Identifier is a 32-character unique identifier. The SSID differentiates one wireless network from another. All access points and all devices attempting to connect to a specific wireless LAN must use the same SSID. A device will not be permitted to join the network unless it can provide the unique SSID.
Subnet
A subnet is a logical grouping of connected network devices. Nodes on a subnet tend to be located in close physical proximity to each other on a LAN.
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) are two distinct network protocols, technically speaking. TCP and IP are so commonly used together, however, that TCP/IP has become standard terminology to refer to either or both of the protocols.
Telephony
The term telephony refers to the technology behind voice communications (typically, telephone networks). Telephony ordinarily involves analog electrical signaling over copper wire, but more recently has been associated with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). See VoIP.
Trojan
Named after the Trojan horse of ancient Greek history, a Trojan is a network software application designed to remain hidden on an installed computer. Trojans generally serve malicious purposes.
URL
A URL is a specially formatted text string that defines a location on the Internet. URL strings contain three parts or substrings:- Network protocol
- Host name or address
- File location
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USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a high-performance standard that was designed to allow peripherals to be connected using a single standardized interface socket. USB improves plug-and-play capabilities by allowing devices to be connected to or disconnected from a computer without rebooting. USB can connect also peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads, joysticks, scanners, digital cameras and printers. Most new computers and peripheral devices support USB. USB hubs for file and printer sharing are also common.
Virus
In computer technology, viruses are malicious software programs, a form of malware. By definition, viruses exist on local disk drives and spread from one computer to another through sharing of "infected" files. Common methods for spreading viruses include floppy disks, FTP file transfers and copying files between shared network drives.
VoIP (Voice over IP)
VoIP is a technology that allows voice or video calls to be made over computer networks such as the Internet. VoIP converts analog voice signals into digital data packets and supports real-time, two-way transmission of conversations using Internet Protocol (IP)*
VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) uses a public telecommunications infrastructure, like the Internet, to provide a group of users with secure access to a network. Virtual Private Networks provide better security and are more effective than SSID, MAC and WEP for large wireless networks.
WAN
A Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a large geographic area, such as a state, province or country. WANs often connect multiple smaller networks, such as local area networks (LANs) or metro area networks (MANs).
WEP Encryption
Wired Equivalent Privacy is a security protocol for wireless LANs defined by the 802.11b standard. WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting data over radio waves so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one end point to another.
Wireless Base Station
A base station is an 802.11b wireless access point with a built-in Internet router. With a connection to a cable or DSL modem, the base station can give both wired and wireless computers simultaneous access to the Internet.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is the industry name for wireless LAN (WLAN) communication technology related to the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless networking standards. To some, the term Wi-Fi is synonymous with 802.11b, as 802.11b was the first standard in that family to enjoy widespread popularity. Today, however, Wi-Fi refers to any of the established standards: 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g and Draft 802.11n.
Worms
Computer worms are malicious software applications designed to spread via computer networks. Computer worms are one form of malware, along with viruses and Trojans. A person typically installs worms by accidentally opening an email attachment or message that contains executable scripts.
Workgroups
In computer networking, a workgroup is a collection of computers on a local area network (LAN) that share common resources and responsibilities. Workgroups provide easy sharing of files, printers and other network resources. Being a peer-to-peer (P2P) network design, each workgroup computer may both share and access resources if configured to do so.
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) provide wireless network communication over short distances using radio signals instead of traditional network cabling.
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