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ISP
–
An
ISP
(
I
nternet
S
ervice
P
rovider) is a company that provides
individuals and companies access to the Internet and other related
services
such as website building and virtual hosting.
LAN
–
A local area network (
LAN
) is a group of computers and associated
devices that share a common communications line and typically share the
resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area
(for example, within an office building).
Latency
–
The time delay between when the first bit of a packet is received
and the last bit is forwarded.
Link Quality
–
Indicates the Quality of data being received.
MAC Address
–
The MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique
number assigned by the manufacturer to any Ethernet networking device,
such as a network adapter, that allows the network to identify it at the
hardware level.
Mbps
(Megabits per Second) – One million bits per second; a unit of
measurement of the speed of data transmission.
NAT
–
NAT (Network Address Translation) is the translation of an Internet
Protocol address (IP address) used within one network to a different IP
address known within another network. One network is designated the inside
network and the other is the outside.
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Network
–
A system that transmits any combination of voice, video, and/or
data between users.
NIC
(
Network
I
nterface
C
ard) – A board installed in a computer system,
usually a PC, to provide network communication capabilities to and from that
computer system. Also called an adapter.
Packet Filtering
–
Discarding unwanted network traffic based on its
originating address or range of addresses or its type (e-mail, file transfer, etc.).
PCI
(
P
eripheral
C
omponent
I
nterconnect
)
– 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 of 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 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.
PCMCIA
–
The PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association) is an industry group organized in 1989 to promote standards for a
credit card-size memory or I/O device that would fit into a personal computer,
usually a notebook or laptop computer.
