Linksys EG0801SK manual Instant Gigabit Series

Instant Gigabit Series

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 generally 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.

PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) - A method used mostly by DSL providers for connecting personal computers to a broadband modem for Internet access. It is similar to how a dial-up connection works but at higher speeds and quicker access.

RJ-11(Registered Jack-11) - A telephone connector that holds up to six wires. The RJ-11 the common connector used to plug a telephone into a wall.

RJ-45(Registered Jack-45) - A connector similar to a telephone connector that holds up to eight wires, used for connecting Ethernet devices.

Static IP Address - A permanent IP address that is assigned to a node in an IP or a TCP/IP network.

Static Routing - Forwarding data in a network via a fixed path. Static routing cannot adjust to changing line conditions as can dynamic routing.

Storage - The semi-permanent or permanent holding place for digital data.

EtherFast® 10/100/1000 8+1 Workgroup GigaSwitch Starter Kit

STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) - Telephone wire that is wrapped in a metal sheath to eliminate external interference.

Subnet Mask - The method used for splitting IP networks into a series of sub- groups, or subnets. The mask is a binary pattern that is matched up with the IP address to turn part of the host ID address field into a field for subnets.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) - A method (protocol) used along with the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data, TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packet) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network (either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your comput- er is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.

TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) - A version of the TCP/IP FTP protocol that has no directory or password capability.

Throughput - The amount of data moved successfully from one place to another in a given time period.

TX Rate - Transmission Rate.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) - A communications method (protocol) that offers a limited amount of service when messages are exchanged between com- puters in a network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). UDP is an alternative to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and, together with IP, is sometimes referred to as UDP/IP. Like the Transmission Control Protocol, UDP uses the Internet Protocol to actually get a data unit (called a datagram) from one com- puter to another. Unlike TCP, however, UDP does not provide the service of dividing a message into packets (datagrams) and reassembling it at the other end. Specifically, UDP doesn't provide sequencing of the packets that the data arrives in. This means that the application program that uses UDP must be able to make sure that the entire message has arrived and is in the right order.

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