Network Terminology Detailed
If networking terms puzzle you, this should hopefully explain some of the main ones.
ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, is a popular and prevalent internet connection for home users in the UK.
IPTransit – an internet connection provided by a transit provider.
Atom – similar to RSS but is newer and offers a greater range of facilities. A new technology that is becoming more popular. The technology is based on RSS.
Bandwidth refers to information being transfered through an internet connection. Bandwidth is generally measured in megabits per second.
Blog – similar to an online journal where a person or company may publish its thoughts or opinions, but can also publish facts. Often updated at least once a week and commonly roughly daily and is arranged chronologically in order.
Broadband is a connection with more speed than a modem. It’s a very generic term for an internet connection.
Co-location – where an individual or company host their own server / computer hardware with an ISP.
DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a protocol used to ascertain an IP address dynamically from another server on a local network.
DNS – domain name system is used to translate domain names into IP address, with a DNS server providing the translation service.
Domain Name – a unique name that is used to identify an internet site. Domain names have three sections to them- in the middle a dot, separating the name, and at the end a tld or domain ending such as .com.
Ethernet – a standard networking method via a LAN, with varying speeds.
Firewall – can be either hardware or software based to prevent access to another network for security reasons.
FTP – file transfer protocol a common method transferring files around the internet rapidly and easily.
Host – a computer on a network that has services available to other computers on the network, it can host just one or many different types.
HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol allows hypertext files to be transfered to and from and across the internet. HTTP is best known for loading websites.
IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by email clients in communicating with email servers. IMAP allows for email to be accessed and manipulated on a remote server. So messages can be deleted, have their status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc.
IPv4 or Internet Protocol version 4 is the most commonly used internet protocol. IPv4 allows for a maximum of four billing ip addresses. Because of this it’s being replaced by IPv6. IPv6 is slowly replacing IPv4 as it allows for the use of more IP addresses.
IPv6 Is the next generation of IPv4 with over a sextillion addresses (theoretically 2128) deployment of IPv6 is slow currently but will get great when more and more devices support it.
LAN Local area network, which is normally defined as being inside the same building or floor of a building.
A network is quite simply when two computers are connected.
Where can you find these services? IP transit provider would be able to cater for most of the services above.
