User Manual

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Hop - The link between two network nodes.
IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) - The IEEE
describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society, promoting
the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the
benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our
members."
The IEEE fosters the development of standards that often become national and
international standards. The organization publishes a number of journals, has
many local chapters, and several large societies in special areas, such as the IEEE
Computer Society.
Infrastructure - An infrastructure network is a wireless network or other small
network in which the wireless network devices are made a part of the network
through the Access Point which connects them to the rest of the network.
IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (Internet
Protocol) today, an IP address is a 32-binary digit number that identifies each
sender or receiver of information that is sent in packet across the Internet. When
you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP
includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more
than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up
the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail
address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP
address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by send-
ing another message using the IP address it received.
IPX (Internetwork Packet EXchange) - A NetWare communications protocol
used to route messages from one node to another. IPX packets include network
addresses and can be routed from one network to another.
IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest) - A hardware interrupt on a PC. There are 16 IRQ lines
used to signal the CPU that a peripheral event has started or terminated. In most
cases, two devices cannot use the same line.
ISM band - The FCC and their counterparts outside of the U.S. have set aside
bandwidth for unlicensed use in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical)
band. Spectrum in the vicinity of 2.4 GHz, in particular, is being made available
worldwide. This presents a truly revolutionary opportunity to place convenient
high-speed wireless capabilities in the hands of users around the globe.
Network PC Card
DSSS (Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum) - DSSS generates a redundant bit pat-
tern for each bit to be transmitted. This bit pattern is called a chip (or chipping
code). The longer the chip, the greater the probability that the original data can
be recovered. Even if one or more bits in the chip are damaged during transmis-
sion, statistical techniques embedded in the radio can recover the original data
without -the need for retransmission. To an unintended receiver, DSSS appears as
low power wideband noise and is rejected (ignored) by most narrowband
receivers.
Encryption - A security method that applies a specific algorithm to data in order
to alter the data's appearance and prevent other devices from reading the infor-
mation.
ESS - More than one BSS in a network.
Ethernet - IEEE standard network protocol that specifies how data is placed on
and retrieved from a common transmission medium. Has a transfer rate of 10
Mbps. Forms the underlying transport vehicle used by several upper-level proto-
cols, including TCP/IP and XNS.
FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) - FHSS continuously changes the
center frequency of a conventional carrier several times per second according to
a pseudo-random set of channels, while chirp spread spectrum changes the car-
rier frequency. Because a fixed frequency is not used, illegal monitoring of spread
spectrum signals is extremely difficult, if not downright impossible depending on
the particular method.
Firmware - Programming that is inserted into programmable read-only memory
(programmable read-only memory), thus becoming a permanent part of a com-
puting device.
Fragmentation - Breaking a packet into smaller units when transmitting over a
network medium that cannot support the original size of the packet.
Gateway - A device that interconnects networks with different, incompatible
communications protocols.
Hardware - Hardware is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications,
and other information technology devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish
the "box" and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the
program you put in it to make it do things. The program came to be known as the
software.
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Instant Wireless
Series