Station

Any device containing IEEE 802.11 wireless medium access conformity.

Subnet Mask

A subnet mask is a set of four numbers configured like an IP address. It is used to create IP address numbers used only within a particular network.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

The standard transport level protocol that provides the full duplex, stream service on which many application protocols depend. TCP allows a process or one machine to send a stream of data to a process on another. Software implementing TCP usually resides in the operating system and uses the IP to transmit information across the network.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

A system of LANs, connected together. A network that connects computers located in separate areas, (i.e., different buildings, cities, countries). The Internet is a wide area network.

WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance)

An industry group that certifies cross-vender interoperability and compatibility of IEEE 802.11b wireless networking products and to promote that standard for enterprise, small business, and home environments.

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is an improved security system for 802.11. It is part of the 802.11i draft security standard. WPA encompasses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) along with MIC (Message Integrity Check) and other fixes to WEP such as Weak IV (Initialization Vector) filtering and Random IV generation. TKIP uses 802.1x to deploy and change temporary keys as opposed to static WEP keys once used in the past. It is a significant improvement over WEP. WPA is part of a complete security solution. WPA also requires authentication servers in enterprise security solutions.

WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)

This is a group of computers and other devices connected wirelessly in a small area. A wireless network is referred to as LAN or WLAN.

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