Lightning SA MultiCom, User Manual

Page: 149 / 172

Glossary User’s Manual 149
Bandwidth
Describes how much data you can reach per second. An analogy could be the
width of a pipe and how much water can come through per second. There are
many factors that affect this speed so if you are unsure what speed you should be
able to reach the Internet you should check with your Internet Service Provider.
Bridge
A device that connects to networks at a low level of connectivity. They will not
modify, analyze or route packets that move over them. Many xDSL, Cable or
wireless modems will be configured to act as a bridge allowing the Internet
Service Provider to directly assign addresses to the customers computers.
Broadcast
When the same message or data packet is sent to a group of machines. This
information may have many purposes such as simply announcing that a new
device is on the network, saying that a device is still connected to the network, to
providing a way for the backup power supply to send a message to everyone that
it will be turning itself off due to a power outage.
The number of machines that a broadcast reaches depends on the type of the
broadcast — network broadcast (where subnet and host parts of an IP address are
set to 255 as in 128.190.255.255), subnet broadcast (where only the host part of
the IP address is set to 255 as in 128.190.1.255, or a cable broadcast where all
hosts on the local physical network are targeted to receive a message with the IP
address of 255.255.255.255.
Burst
An optional filtering identifier that works in tandem with the “limit” parameter.
Burst specifies the maximum burst of data packets allowed in the traffic flow
before the associated limit parameter takes affect. The value is X where X equals
the number of packets to match the associated rule before the limiting takes
effect. By default this number is 5.
It is an extra identifier to help account for irregular network traffic (network
overloads or faulty equipment) that might otherwise get blocked by the limit
command.
Cable
The enclosure that holds your network wiring which has connectors such as RJ45
on both sides. The use of the cable can change depending on the layout of the
wires at the end points. For example a straight through cable has the same wires