User's Guide

Table Of Contents
212
adapter. Board installed in a computer system to provide net-
work communication capability to and from that computer sys-
tem.
address mask. See subnet mask.
ADSL. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Modems attached
to twisted pair copper wiring that transmit 1.5-9 Mbps down-
stream (to the subscriber) and 16 -640 kbps upstream,
depending on line distance.
AH. The Authentication Header provides data origin authentica-
tion, connectionless integrity, and anti-replay protection ser-
vices. It protects all data in a datagram from tampering,
including the fields in the header that do not change in transit.
Does not provide confidentiality.
ANSI. American National Standards Institute.
ASCII. American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(pronounced ASK-ee). Code in which numbers from 0 to 255
represent individual characters, such as letters, numbers, and
punctuation marks; used in text representation and communi-
cation protocols.
asynchronous communication. Network system that allows
data to be sent at irregular intervals by preceding each octet
with a start bit and following it with a stop bit. Compare syn-
chronous communication.
AUI. Attachment Unit Interface. Connector by which a thick
(802.3) Ethernet transceiver cable is attached to a networked
device.