P314 Broadband Sharing Gateway with 4-Port Switch

DNS

Domain Name

that run the DHCP server program. DHCP leases addresses for a period of time which means that addresses are made available to assign to other systems.

Domain Name System. A database of domain names and their IP addresses. DNS is the primary naming system for many distributed networks, including the Internet.

The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific and the part on the right is the most general.

DRAM

DSL

Dynamic RAM that stores information in capacitors that must be refreshed periodically.

Digital Subscriber Line technologies enhances the data capacity of the existing twisted-pair wire that runs between the local telephone company switching offices and most homes and offices. There are actually seven types of DSL service, ranging in speeds from 16 Kbits/sec to 52 Mbits/sec. The services are either symmetrical (traffic flows at the same speed in both directions), or asymmetrical (the downstream capacity is higher than the upstream capacity). DSL connections are point-to-point dedicated circuits, meaning that they are always connected. There is no dial-up. There is also no switching, which means that the line is a direct connection into the carrier’s frame relay, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), or Internet-connect system.

DSLAM

A Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) is a network device, usually at a

 

telephone company central office, that receives signals from multiple customer Digital

 

Subscriber Line connections and puts the signals on a high-speed backbone line using

 

multiplexing techniques. Depending on the product, DSLAM multiplexers connect DSL

 

lines with some combination of asynchronous transfer mode ATM, frame relay, or IP

 

networks.

DTE

Originally, the DTE (data terminal equipment) meant a dumb terminal or printer, but

 

today it is a computer, or a bridge or router that interconnects local area networks.

EMI

ElectroMagnetic Interference. The interference by electromagnetic signals that can

 

cause reduced data integrity and increased error rates on transmission channels.

Ethernet

A very common method of networking computers in a LAN. There are a number of

 

adaptations to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, including adaptations with data rates

 

of 10 Mbits/sec and 100 Mbits/sec over coaxial cable, twisted-pair cable and fiber-optic

 

cable. The latest version of Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, has a data rate of 1 Gbit/sec.

FAQ

(Frequently Asked Questions) -- FAQs are documents that list and answer the most

 

common questions on a particular subject.

FCC

Flash Memory

FTP

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is in charge of allocating the electromagnetic spectrum and thus the bandwidth of various communication systems.

The nonvolatile storage that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed so that data can be stored, booted and rewritten as necessary.

File Transfer Protocol is an Internet file transfer service that operates on the Internet and over TCP/IP networks. FTP is basically a client/server protocol in which a system running the FTP server accepts commands from a system running an FTP client. The service allows users to send commands to the server for uploading and downloading files. FTP is popular on the Internet because it allows for speedy transfer of large files between two systems.

Glossary of Terms

I