User's Manual Part 2

User’s Guide Glossary
ISP: An ISP (Internet Service Provider) is a
company that provides individuals and other
companies access to the Internet and other
related services such as Web site building and
virtual hosting. An ISP has the equipment and
the telecommunication line access required to
have a point-of-presence on the Internet for
the geographic area served.
L
LAN: A local area network (LAN) is a group of
computers and associated devices that share
a common communications line and typically
share the resources of a single processor or
server within a small geographic area (for
example, within an office building). Usually,
the server has applications and data storage
that are shared in common by multiple
computer users. A local area network may
serve as few as two or three users (for
example, in a home network) or many as
thousands of users (for example, in an FDDI
network).
M
MAC: Medium Access Control. In a WLAN
network card, the MAC is the radio controller
protocol. It corresponds to the ISO Network
Model's level 2 Data Link layer. The IEEE
802.11 standard specifies the MAC protocol
for medium sharing, packet formatting and
addressing, and error detection.
N
NAT: NAT (Network Address Translation) is the
translation of an Internet Protocol address (IP
address) used within one network to a different
IP address known within another network. One
network is designated the inside network and
the other is the outside. Typically, a company
maps its local inside network addresses to one
or more global outside IP addresses and
unmaps the global IP addresses on incoming
packets back into local IP addresses.
NAT is included as part of a router and is often
part of a corporate firewall.
P
POP3: POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the
most recent version of a standard protocol for
receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server
protocol in which e-mail is received and held
for you by your Internet server. Periodically,
you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your
mail-box on the server and download any mail.
POP3 is built into the Netmanage suite of
Internet products and one of the most popular
e-mail products, Eudora. It's also built into the
Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer
browsers.
PPP: PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) is a protocol
for communication between two computers
using a serial interface, typically a personal
computer connected by phone line to a server.
PPP uses the Internet protocol (IP) (and is
designed to handle others). It is sometimes
considered a member of the TCP/IP suite of
protocols. Relative to the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) reference model, PPP
provides layer 2 (data-link layer) service.
Essentially, it packages your computer's
TCP/IP packets and forwards them to the
server where they can actually be put on the
Internet.
PPP is a full-duplex protocol that can be used
on various physical media, including twisted
pair or fiber optic lines or satellite
transmission. It uses a variation of High Speed
Data Link Control (HDLC) for packet
encapsulation.
PPP is usually preferred over the earlier de
facto standard Serial Line Internet Protocol
(SLIP) because it can handle synchronous as
well as asynchronous communication. PPP
can share a line with other users and it has
error detection that SLIP lacks. Where a
choice is possible, PPP is preferred.
Gemtek Systems Page 147