Instant WirelessTM Series

Hop - The link between two network nodes.

IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) - The IEEE describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society, promoting the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our members."

The IEEE fosters the development of standards that often become national and international standards. The organization publishes a number of journals, has many local chapters, and several large societies in special areas, such as the IEEE Computer Society.

Infrastructure - An infrastructure network is a wireless network or other small network in which the wireless network devices are made a part of the network through the Access Point which connects them to the rest of the network.

Internet Protocol (IP)- The method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. It is a standard set of rules, procedures, or conventions relating to the format and timing of data transmission between two computers that they must accept and use to be able to understand each other.

IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-binary digit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packet across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received.

IPX (Internetwork Packet EXchange) - A NetWare communications protocol used to route messages from one node to another. IPX packets include network addresses and can be routed from one network to another.

IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest) - A hardware interrupt on a PC. There are 16 IRQ lines used to signal the CPU that a peripheral event has started or terminated. In most cases, two devices cannot use the same line.

ISM band - The FCC and their counterparts outside of the U.S. have set aside bandwidth for unlicensed use in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band. Spectrum in the vicinity of 2.4 GHz, in particular, is being made available worldwide. This presents a truly revolutionary opportunity to place convenient high-speed wireless capabilities in the hands of users around the globe.

Wireless PC Card

LAN - A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (for example, within an office building).

Mbps (MegaBits Per Second) - One million bits per second; unit of measure- ment for data transmission.

NetBEUI (NetBIOS Extended User Interface) - The transport layer for NetBIOS. NetBIOS and NetBEUI were originally part of a single protocol suite that was later separated. NetBIOS sessions can be transported over NetBEUI, TCP/IP and SPX/IPX protocols.

NetBIOS - The native networking protocol in DOS and Windows networks. Although originally combined with its transport layer protocol (NetBEUI), NetBIOS today provides a programming interface for applications at the session layer (layer 5). NetBIOS can ride over NetBEUI, its native transport, which is not routable, or over TCP/IP and IPX/SPX, which are routable protocols.

NetBIOS computers are identified by a unique 15-character name, and Windows machines (NetBIOS machines) periodically broadcast their names over the net- work so that Network Neighborhood can catalog them. For TCP/IP networks, NetBIOS names are turned into IP addresses via manual configuration in an LMHOSTS file or a WINS server.

There are two NetBIOS modes. The Datagram mode is the fastest mode, but does not guarantee delivery. It uses a self-contained packet with send and receive name, usually limited to 512 bytes. If the recipient device is not listening for mes- sages, the datagram is lost. The Session mode establishes a connection until bro- ken. It guarantees delivery of messages up to 64KB long.

Network - A system that transmits any combination of voice, video and/or data between users.

Node - A network junction or connection point, typically a computer or work sta- tion.

Notebook (PC) - A notebook computer is a battery-powered personal computer generally smaller than a briefcase that can easily be transported and convenient- ly used in temporary spaces such as on airplanes, in libraries, temporary offices, and at meetings. A notebook computer, sometimes called a laptop computer, typ- ically weighs less than five pounds and is three inches or less in thickness.