Appendix E: Glossary
802.11b - The 802.11b standard specifies a wireless networking at 11 Mbps using direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) technology and operating in the unlicensed radio spectrum at 2.4GHz, and WEP encryption for security. 802.11b networks are also referred to as Wi-Fi networks.
802.11g - specification for wireless networking at 54 Mbps using direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) technology, using OFDM modulation and operating in the unlicensed radio spectrum at 2.4GHz, and backward compatibility with IEEE 802.11b devices, and WEP encryption for security.
Access Point (AP) - A wireless LAN transceiver or "base station" that can connect a wired LAN to one or many wireless devices. Access points can also bridge to each other.
DNS (Domain Name System) – An Internet Service that translates the names of websites into IP addresses.
Domain Name - A descriptive name for an address or group of addresses on the Internet.
DoS (Denial of Service) - A hacker attack designed to prevent your computer or network from operating or communicating.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) - A technology that allows data to be sent or received over existing traditional phone lines.
ISP (Internet Service Provider) - A company that provides access to the Internet.
MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) - The size in bytes of the largest packet that can be transmitted.
SSID - A Service Set Identification is a thirty-two character (maximum) alphanumeric key identifying a wireless local area network. For the wireless devices in a network to communicate with each other, all devices must be configured with the same SSID. This is typically the configuration parameter for a wireless PC card. It corresponds to the ESSID in the wireless Access Point and to the wireless network name.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) - A data privacy mechanism based on a 64-bit or 128-bit or 152-bit shared key algorithm, as described in the IEEE 802.11 standard.
Wi-Fi - A trade name for the 802.11b wireless networking standard, given by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA, see http://www.wi-fi.net), an industry standards group promoting interoperability among 802.11b devices.
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) - A group of computers and associated devices communicate with each other wirelessly, which network serving users are limited in a local area.
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) - WPA is a security technology for wireless networks that improves on the authentication and encryption features of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). In fact, WPA was developed by the networking industry in response to the shortcomings of WEP. One of the key technologies behind WPA is the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). TKIP addresses the encryption weaknesses of WEP. Another key component of WPA is built-in authentication that WEP does not offer. With this feature, WPA provides roughly comparable security to VPN tunneling with WEP, with the benefit of easier administration and use. This is similar to 802.1x support and requires a RADIUS server in order to implement. The Wi-Fi Alliance will call this, WPA-Enterprise. One variation of WPA is called WPA Pre Shared Key or WPA-PSK for short - this
