LAN – Local Area Network
A Local Area Network is a computer network that is limited to a small geographic area. In most cases Local Area Networks are constructed of customer owned equipment and do not use network Internet Service Providers. Normally LAN networks are high speed Ethernet networks.
The network may be within a single room or several buildings. A campus Area network is an example of a LAN that links several buildings.
WAN – Wide Area Network
A Wide Area Network is a computer network that spans a large geographic area. Wide Area Networks normally use links from Internet Service Providers to create connections between the connected LAN networks.
Wide Area Networks may use different communication protocols to Local Area Networks. Historically Wide Area Networks were slower than Local Area Networks, but newer technology and the decreasing costs of these networks is making many bandwidth issues disappear.
IP – Internet Protocol
Is a connectionless network communication protocol. It is part of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite.
IP Address
Is the network address assigned to computers and devices using TCP/IP. Each address is a 32 bit number and uses what is commonly referred to as dotted decimal. An IP address is needed so that computers and devices can communicate across different networks.
DNS – Domain Name Service
A Domain Name Service is used to associate an IP address with a more readable host or domain name.
For example: www.microsoft.com is a domain name that relates to a particular service or server.
com. is a type of Internet domain and means commercial.
microsoft. is the domain name.
www. is the service or web server located at the microsoft.com Internet site.
DHCP – Dynamic Host Control Protocol
Dynamic Host Control Protocol is a network protocol used to automatically provide IP addresses and other basic network settings to a computer or device.
Default Gateway
The Default Gateway is used to tell computers and devices where to send traffic that is not part of the subnet they are on. It is a dotted decimal number and usually points to a router or firewall device that knows the address of the connected networks.
example: 192.168.1.1
NAS – Networked Attached Storage
This is a portabel storage devie that cannot connect directly into your network. It enables the sharing of data between multiple devices.
NAT – Network Address Translation
Ping – Packet Inter-Network Groper
Subnet
Subnets are smaller divisions of the network address classes originally defined within the TCP/IP network addressing scheme. They are used to make IP routing more efficient.
Subnet Mask
A subnet mask is a 32-bit dotted decimal number used to determine the host address for a computer or device on a subnet.
example: 255.255.255.0 is a default C class subnet mask.
September 5th, 2008
[...] you connect all these devices and share your internet connection? You achieve this by creating a LAN. A LAN can be created quickly and easily, allowing sharing of resources and services. One example [...]