Acer AIR-104, AIR-204 local area network (LAN), MAC address, ping, PPP, router, TCP/IP, Telnet

B-2 User Guide for AIR-104/AIR-204

A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a

single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs

over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in

this way is called a wide-area network (WAN)

Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies

each node of a network. In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the

OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer

and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the

network media. Consequently, each different type of network media requires a different

MAC layer.

A utility that can be used to send a packet to a remote device (expecting the same

packet to be echoed back if the destination is functioning properly). This is often used to

check if a remote device is reachable or not, and what the round trip delay is. Some

variation of the utility also provide detailed routing information such as which intermediate

routers the packet goes through, so that if the echo packet does not come back, the

break in the path can easily be identified.

PPP (Point-to-Point protocol) is a communications protocol for transmitting information

over standard telephone lines. A PPP account is a dial-up account used to connect to

the Internet. It is a dial-up account that actually communicates with another computer to

gain Internet access.

An intelligent, multi-network interface device that will forward a packet received from one

interface to another. When a packet is received, its destination network address is

checked against the routing table. Then the router determines where to forward the

packet. This next destination should, in theory, be one hop closer to the final destination.

Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the suite of

communications protocols used to connect computers on the Internet. TCP/IP uses

several protocols, the two main ones being TCP and IP.

A terminal emulation program for TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. A Telnet client

program runs on your computer and connects your PC to a Telnet server elsewhere in

the network. You can then enter commands through the Telnet program and they will be

executed as if you were entering them directly on the server console. This enables you to

control the server and communicate with other servers on the network. To start a Telnet

session, you must log in to a server by entering a valid username and password.

Appendix B Glossary