2GLOSSARY
IEEE 802.5 The standard for the token ring access method and Physical
layer specifications developed by a subcommittee of the
Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802
committee.
Input/Output (I/O)
The method, medium, or device (such as a keyboard,
monitor, floppy disk, hard disk, network adapter, or printer)
used to transfer data to a PC or from the PC back to a device,
a network, and so on.
ISA Industry Standard Architecture.
LAN Local area network. A communications network within a
limited physical area (up to about 6 miles or 10 kilometers)
that provides high-speed (over 1 Mbps) data transmission.
The basic components of a LAN are the boards that plug into
each PC to connect it to the network, cabling, server
hardware, and software for network control.
Lobe All network components in a specific lobe area that
physically connect to a specific MAU or wiring hub.
Lobe cable The section of cable that attaches a ring station or network
device to a MAU or wiring hub.
MAU Multistation access unit.
NDIS Network Driver Interface Specification. A software
specification used in many operating systems, such as
Microsoft’s LAN Manager, to create drivers for network
adapters. NDIS drivers support multiple protocols and
multiple adapters and can be unloaded from memory to
conserve conventional DOS RAM space.