15 Glossary of Terms
15 Glossary of Terms
AES:
Advanced Encryption Standard
The successor of the now insecure DES. AES provides strong and modern encryption, with
long keys up to 256 Bit (DES used 56 Bit).
APIPA:
Automatic Private IP Addressing
A scheme to self-assign an Address to a network device. The device selects an address of the
LINKLOCAL range 169.254.1.0 to 169.254.254.255 by random. If this address is unused, it
assigns it to itself. Otherwise the next address is tested. It became widespread with Windows
98. The netmask is 255.255.0.0, these addresses are not routed on the Internet.
ART:
Automatic Receive Transmit control
Special control for RS 485 modes. In RS 485 the line driver for transmitting must be disabled
(tri-stated) when the device does not send data. In a 2-wire configuration this is known as
data direction change, with 4-wire it is called line contention.
CSV:
Comma Separated Values
A format to store tabular data in compact text form. Each line describes a new data set.
Data fields are separated by a special character. Though the name CSV suggests a comma
(’,’), in reality the delimiting character often is a semicolon or a <TAB> control character.
DHCP:
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
A service used to retrieve an IP-configuration and optionally much more information from a
database server.
FTP:
File Transfer Protocol
A common protocol to access a file server.
HTTP:
HyperText Transfer Protocol
The protocol used by web browsers to access a web server.
Internet:
The net connecting networks
A set of protocols to exchange data between different networks. These information’s are
carried via a global network of fibers and satellite links.
IP:
Internet Protocol
The basic definitions for data packages. These Internet frames are stored and transported
embedded in data frames of the local network.
IP Address:
Internet Address
The Internet address is noted as a group of 4 decimal numbers (IPv4). Each station on the
Internet has a unique address. Some ranges are reserved for private networks, not connected
to the Internet.
LINKLOCAL:
Address range for private networks
This range 169.254.0.0-169.254.255.255 (Netmask of 255.255.0.0) is reserved for private net-
works, i.e. not connected to the Internet. Designed for small number of stations, using some
automatic configuration scheme. Used with APIPA.
NAT:
Network Address Translation
A technique to have a private LAN share one (few) public IP Address(es). With NAT the
transport information in IP-frames is replaced by the public data of the NAT-Router.
September 2016
NetCom Plus User Manual
129
