User's Manual Part 2

User’s Guide Glossary
G
gateway: A gateway is a network point that acts
as an entrance to another network. On the
Internet, a node or stopping point can be either
a gateway node or a host (end-point) node.
Both the computers of Internet users and the
computers that serve pages to users are host
nodes. The computers that control traffic within
your company's network or at your local
Internet service provider (ISP) are gateway
nodes.
hotspot operator: An entity that operates a facility
consisting of a Wi-Fi public access network
and participates in the authentication.
I
IP: The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or
protocol by which data is sent from one
computer to another on the Internet. Each
computer (known as a host) on the Internet
has at least one IP address that uniquely
identifies it from all other computers on the
Internet. When you send or receive data (for
example, an e-mail note or a Web page), the
message gets divided into little chunks called
packets. Each of these packets contains both
the sender's Internet address and the
receiver's address. Any packet is sent first to a
gateway computer that understands a small
part of the Internet. The gateway computer
reads the destination address and forwards
the packet to an adjacent gateway that in turn
reads the destination address and so forth
across the Internet until one gateway
recognizes the packet as belonging to a
computer within its immediate neighborhood or
domain. That gateway then forwards the
packet directly to the computer whose address
is specified.
H
hotspot: A hotspot is wireless public access
system that allows subscribers to be
connected to a wireless network in order to
access the Internet or other devices, such as
printers. Hot-spots are created by WLAN
access points, installed in public venues.
Common locations for public access are
hotels, airport lounges, railway stations or
coffee shops.
HTTP: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
is the set of rules for exchanging files (text,
graphic images, sound, video, and other
multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.
Relative to the TCP/IP suite of protocols
(which are the basis for information exchange
on the Internet), HTTP is an application
protocol.
HTTPS: HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol
over Secure Socket Layer, or HTTP over SSL)
is a Web protocol developed by Netscape and
built into its browser that encrypts and
decrypts user page requests as well as the
pages that are returned by the Web server.
HTTPS is really just the use of Netscape's
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a sublayer
under its regular HTTP application layering.
ICMP: ICMP (Internet Control Message
Protocol) is a message control and error-
reporting protocol between a host server and a
gateway to the Internet. ICMP uses Internet
Protocol (IP) datagrams, but the messages are
processed by the IP software and are not
directly apparent to the application user.
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. The IEEE describes itself as the
world's largest professional society. The IEEE
fosters the development of standards that
often become national and international
standards, such as 802.11.
IPsec: IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) is a
developing standard for security at the network
or packet processing layer of network
communication. Earlier security approaches
have inserted security at the application layer
of the communications model. IPsec will be
especially useful for implementing virtual
private networks and for remote user access
through dial-up connection to private networks.
A big advantage of IPsec is that security
arrangements can be handled without
requiring changes to individual user
computers. Cisco has been a leader in
proposing IPsec as a standard (or combination
of standards and technologies) and has
included support for it in its network routers.
IPsec provides two choices of security service:
Authentication Header (AH), which essentially
allows authentication of the sender of data,
and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP),
which supports both authentication of the
sender and encryption of data as well. The
specific information associated with each of
these services is inserted into the packet in a
header that follows the IP packet header.
Separate key protocols can be selected, such
as the ISAKMP/Oakley protocol.
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