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B-2 User Guide for AIR-104/AIR-204
local area network (LAN)
A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a
single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs
over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in
this way is called a wide-area network (WAN)
MAC address
Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies
each node of a network. In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the
OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer
and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the
network media. Consequently, each different type of network media requires a different
MAC layer.
ping
A utility that can be used to send a packet to a remote device (expecting the same
packet to be echoed back if the destination is functioning properly). This is often used to
check if a remote device is reachable or not, and what the round trip delay is. Some
variation of the utility also provide detailed routing information such as which intermediate
routers the packet goes through, so that if the echo packet does not come back, the
break in the path can easily be identified.
PPP
PPP (Point-to-Point protocol) is a communications protocol for transmitting information
over standard telephone lines. A PPP account is a dial-up account used to connect to
the Internet. It is a dial-up account that actually communicates with another computer to
gain Internet access.
router
An intelligent, multi-network interface device that will forward a packet received from one
interface to another. When a packet is received, its destination network address is
checked against the routing table. Then the router determines where to forward the
packet. This next destination should, in theory, be one hop closer to the final destination.
TCP/IP
Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the suite of
communications protocols used to connect computers on the Internet. TCP/IP uses
several protocols, the two main ones being TCP and IP.
Telnet
A terminal emulation program for TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. A Telnet client
program runs on your computer and connects your PC to a Telnet server elsewhere in
the network. You can then enter commands through the Telnet program and they will be
executed as if you were entering them directly on the server console. This enables you to
control the server and communicate with other servers on the network. To start a Telnet
session, you must log in to a server by entering a valid username and password.
Appendix B Glossary