Instant Wireless® Series
on startup. These instructions search for the operating system, load it, and pass control to it.
Bottleneck – A traffic slowdown that results when too many network nodes try to access a single node, often a server node, at once.
Bridge - A device that interconnects different networks together.
Broadband - A
Browser - A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web or PC. The word “browser” seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online.
Buffer - A buffer is a shared or assigned memory area used by hardware devices or program processes that operate at different speeds or with different sets of priorities. The buffer allows each device or process to operate without being held up by the other. In order for a buffer to be effective, the size of the buffer and the algorithms for moving data into and out of the buffer need to be considered by the buffer designer. Like a cache, a buffer is a “midpoint hold- ing place” but exists not so much to accelerate the speed of an activity as to support the coordination of separate activities.
Cable Modem - A device that connects a computer to the cable television net- work, which in turn connects to the Internet. Once connected, cable modem users have a continuous connection to the Internet. Cable modems feature asymmetric transfer rates: around 36 Mbps downstream (from the Internet to the computer), and from 200 Kbps to 2 Mbps upstream (from the computer to the Internet).
CAT 5 - ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify “categories” (the singular is commonly referred to as “CAT”) of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions, and connectors) in terms of the data rates that they can sustain. CAT 5 cable has a maximum throughput of 100 Mbps and is usually utilized for 100BaseTX networks.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) - The computing part of the computer. Also called the “processor,” it is made up of the control unit and ALU.
CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection) - The LAN access method used in Ethernet. When a device wants to gain access to the net- work, it checks to see if the network is quiet (senses the carrier). If it is not, it waits a random amount of time before retrying. If the network is quiet and two devices access the line at exactly the same time, their signals collide. When the collision is detected, they both back off and each waits a random amount of time before retrying.
CTS (Clear To Send) - An
Database - A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its con- tents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated.
Data Packet - One frame in a
Default Gateway - The routing device used to forward all traffic that is not addressed to a station within the local subnet.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) - A protocol that lets network administrators centrally manage and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network. Using the Internet’s set of protocol (TCP/IP), each machine that can connect to the Internet needs a unique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a con- nection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and dis- tribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IP address when a computer is plugged into a different place in the network.
DHCP uses the concept of a “lease” or amount of time that a given IP address will be valid for a computer. The lease time can vary depending on how long a user is likely to require the Internet connection at a particular location. It’s espe- cially useful in education and other environments where users change fre- quently. Using very short leases, DHCP can dynamically reconfigure networks in which there are more computers than there are available IP addresses.
DHCP supports static addresses for computers containing Web servers that need a permanent IP address.
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