EtherFast
®
10/100 LANCards
Mbps (MegaBits Per Second) - One million bits per second; unit of measure-
ment for data transmission.
Motherboard - A motherboard is the physical arrangement in a computer that
contains the computer's basic circuitry and components.
Network - A system that transmits any combination of voice, video and/or data
between users.
NIC (Network Interface Card) - A board installed in a computer system, usual-
ly a PC, to provide network communication capabilities to and from that com-
puter system. Also called an adapter.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) - A peripheral bus commonly used in
PCs, Macintoshes and workstations. It was designed primarily by Intel and first
appeared on PCs in late 1993. PCI provides a high-speed data path between the
CPU and peripheral devices (video, disk, network, etc.). There are typically
three or four PCI slots on the motherboard. In a Pentium PC, there is general-
ly a mix of PCI and ISA slots or PCI and EISA slots. Early on, the PCI bus was
known as a "local bus."
PCI provides "plug and play" capability, automatically configuring the PCI
cards at startup. When PCI is used with the ISA bus, the only thing that is gen-
erally required is to indicate in the CMOS memory which IRQs are already in
use by ISA cards. PCI takes care of the rest.
PCI allows IRQs to be shared, which helps to solve the problem of limited IRQs
available on a PC. For example, if there were only one IRQ left over after ISA
devices were given their required IRQs, all PCI devices could share it. In a PCI-
only machine, there cannot be insufficient IRQs, as all can be shared.
Port - A pathway into and out of the computer or a network device such as a
switch or router. For example, the serial and parallel ports on a personal com-
puter are external sockets for plugging in communications lines, modems and
printers.
RJ-45 (Registered Jack-45) - A connector similar to a telephone connector that
holds up to eight wires, used for connecting Ethernet devices.
Hub - The device that serves as the central location for attaching wires from
workstations. Can be passive, where there is no amplification of the signals; or
active, where the hubs are used like repeaters to provide an extension of the
cable that connects to a workstation.
IEEE - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEE
describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society -- promot-
ing 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.
IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (Internet
Protocol) 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 pack-
ets 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 request-
ed or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recip-
ient 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.
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.
Except for PCI devices, two devices cannot use the same line.
ISP - An ISP (Internet service provider) is a company that provides individuals
and companies access to the Internet and other related services such as Web site
building and virtual hosting.
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).
MAC Address - The MAC (Media Access Control) address is your computer's
unique hardware number.
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Linksys Instant EtherFast
®
Series
71