Domain Name, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Reference Manual for the NETGEAR ProSafe Dual Band Wireless Access Point WAG302

DNS

Short for Domain Name System (or Service), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses.

Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

Domain Name

A descriptive name for an address or group of addresses on the Internet. Domain names are of the form of a registered entity name plus one of a number of predefined top level suffixes such as .com, .edu, .uk, etc. For example, in the address mail.NETGEAR.com, mail is a server name and NETGEAR.com is the domain.

DSL

Short for digital subscriber line, but is commonly used in reference to the asymmetric version of this technology (ADSL) that allows data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines at data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate).

ADSL requires a special ADSL modem. ADSL is growing in popularity as more areas around the world gain access.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DHCP. An Ethernet protocol specifying how a centralized DHCP server can assign network configuration information to multiple DHCP clients. The assigned information includes IP addresses, DNS addresses, and gateway (router) addresses.

EAP

Extensible Authentication Protocol is a general protocol for authentication that supports multiple authentication methods.

EAP, an extension to PPP, supports such authentication methods as token cards, Kerberos, one-time passwords, certificates, public key authentication and smart cards. In wireless communications using EAP, a user requests connection to a WLAN through an AP, which then requests the identity of the user and transmits that identity to an authentication server such as RADIUS. The server asks the AP for proof of identity, which the AP gets from the user and then sends back to the server to complete the authentication. EAP is defined by RFC 2284.

ESSID

The Extended Service Set Identification (ESSID) is a thirty-two character (maximum) alphanumeric key identifying the wireless local area network.

Gateway

A local device, usually a router, that connects hosts on a local network to other networks.

Glossary

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