glossary
This glossary contains common terms for wired and wireless networking.
802.11a
A wireless networking standard that transmits wireless
data at speeds up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps)
and uses the5 gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency band.
802.11b
A wireless networking standard that transmits wireless
data at speeds up to 11 Mbps and uses the 2.4 GHz
radio frequency band.
802.11g
A wireless networking standard that transmits wireless
data at speeds up to 54 Mbps and uses the 2.4 GHz
radio frequency band.
access point
See “wireless access point.”
ad hoc network
A wireless network in which computers or devices
connect to each other directly, as in System Link play.
Contrast with “infrastructure network.”
adapter
See “network adapter.”
ASCII
An acronym for “American Standard Code for
Information Interchange,” the most common format for
text fi les. The ASCII characters include letters, numbers,
and special characters. The Microsoft
®
Xbox
®
Wireless
Adapter supports Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
keys that contain fi ve (64-bit) or 13 (128-bit) ASCII
characters. Contrast with “hexadecimal.”
bandwidth
The rate at which data can be transmitted through a
network connection.
base station
See “router.”
bridge
A networking device that exchanges data from one
segment of a network to another. The Xbox wireless
adapter can be called a bridge because it exchanges
data between an Ethernet segment and a wireless
segment.
broadband
connection
A high-speed Internet connection, typically 256 kilobits
per second (Kbps) or faster. Broadband services are
usually provided over digital cable lines or digital
telephone lines (DSL).
