Understanding Network Terminology & Components

Basic Terminology
Network

Server

Workstation

Cat-5 cable

Hard-wired

Wireless

Ethernet

Router

Wireless Router

Firewall
Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Connection

Packet

Network Interface

Loopback device

LAN

WAN

Protocol

Port

NAT

IP

ICMP

TCP
UDP

HTTP

FTP

DNS

SSH

Domain

DHCP

Gateway

Hub

MAC Address

Megabit

Megabyte
Network Interface Card (NIC)
RJ-45

IP address

TCP/IP

Internet

Intranet
Extranet
World Wide Web (WWW)

Instant messaging (IM)

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Web log
Podcast

Social networking websites

Chat Rooms
Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN)
Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN)

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

(ADSL)
Download
Upload
Dial-up
Broadband
Internet Message Access Protocol
SMTP

Bandwidth

Bit
Byte
Understanding Network Terminology & Components
Basic Terminology
This general term refers to all the components involved in getting computers and other types of hardware to talk to
each other.
Also called "file server" and "network server" this term refers to the "nerve center" of your network.

It typically needs to be
much more high-powered than a regular desktop workstation.

This refers to each person's computer.The server is home to hardware that is networked (allows more than one

Your front and back office staff computers and the

machines in the examination room will be workstations on the network.
This term refers to "category 5" cable used when your network is hard-wired.
This means that all the workstations in the office plug into a network outlet using physical cabling to transport data
to and from the server.
This refers to a type of network that broadcasts an access signal to the workstations.

This allows for transporting laptops and tablet PCs

from room to room while maintaining a network connection continuously.
A wireless network also presents some additional security
requirements.
This is the backbone of your network. It consists of the cabling (called "cat 5" cable) and is typically able to transfer
data at a rate of 100mb/s (read more about bandwidth).
What is not shown here are the hubs and switches that
are used to connect computers and other devices together.

This is your network's "air traffic controller."

It routes all the data on your network to where it is supposed to go. It also assigns unique network
addresses to all the computers (IP addresses).
Routers can also hide the computer and devices that connect to it from the outside world
(using Network Address Translation - NAT).
To people on the Internet, your entire network looks like one computer (one IP
address). This adds another layer of protection to the computers on your network.
A router may contain a VPN server and/or a firewall. Read more about hubs,
switches and routers.

This performs the same function as the router, but for computers and devices not wired to the network. There are
several different wireless protocols (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g). These
protocols differ in bandwidth (11mb/s - 54mb/s) and/or radio frequency (2.5gHz and 5gHz).
Wireless networks (WLAN) are inherently less secure than wired networks (LAN).
It is important to understand how to secure a WLAN. Read more about wireless LAN routers.

This device is called a firewall because it performs the same function as the firewall in your car.
The firewall in your car keeps things in the engine compartment from coming into the passenger compartment.

The firewall in your network stops bad things from the Internet coming into your network.
A firewall is critical for a secure network.
Communications across the Internet are inherently insecure.
A virtual private network is a secure connection between two computers (VPN server and VPN
client) You can think of the connection as a tunnel across the Internet.
Only the two computers on the ends of the tunnel can see what is being transported
in the tunnel. In the illustration you see the VPN arrow go around the firewall.
This is because a firewall can be set up to allow VPN
connections to the VPN server (the router in our case) but block other types of connections.
The VPN is how you can securely connect to your
network from home or while traveling.

In networking, a connection refers to pieces of related information that are transfered through a network.
This generally infers that a connection is built before the data transfer (by following the procedures laid out in a
protocol) and then is deconstructed at the at the end of the data transfer.

A packet is, generally speaking, the most basic unit that is transfered over a network.
When communicating over a network, packets are the envelopes that carry your data (in pieces) from one end
point to the other.

A network interface can refer to any kind of software interface to networking hardware.
For instance, if you have two network cards in your computer, you can control and configure each network
interface associated with them individually.
It may be associated with a physical device, or it may be a representation of a virtual interface.

Is a virtual interface to the local machine.

LAN stands for “local area network”.
It refers to a network or a portion of a network that is not publicly accessible to the greater internet.
A home or office network is an example of a LAN.

WAN stands for “wide area network”.

It means a network that is much more extensive than a LAN.
While WAN is the relevant term to use to describe large, dispersed networks in general, it is usually
meant to mean the internet, as a whole.

A protocol is a set of rules and standards that basically define a language that devices can use to communicate.
There are a great number of protocols in use extensively in networking, and they are often implemented in different
layers.

A port is an address on a single machine that can be tied to a specific piece of software.
It is not a physical interface or location, but it allows your server to be able to
communicate using more than one application.

NAT stands for network address translation.

It is a way to translate requests that are incoming into a routing server to the relevant devices or servers that it
knows about in the LAN.
This is usually implemented in physical LANs as a way to route requests through one IP address to the
necessary backend servers.

The IP protocol is one of the fundamental protocols that allow the internet to work.
IP addresses are unique on each network and they allow machines to address each other across a network.
It is implemented on the internet layer in the IP/TCP model.

ICMP stands for internet control message protocol.

It is used to send messages between devices to indicate the availability or error conditions.
These packets are used in a variety of network diagnostic tools, such as ping and traceroute.

TCP stands for transmission control protocol.

It is implemented in the transport layer of the IP/TCP model and is used to establish reliable
connections. TCP is one of the protocols that encapsulates data into packets.
It then transfers these to the remote end of the connection using the methods
available on the lower layers.
UDP stands for user datagram protocol. It is a popular companion protocol to TCP and is also implemented in the
transport layer.
HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. It is a protocol defined in the application layer that forms the basis for
communication on the web. HTTP defines a number of functions that tell the remote system what you are
requesting.

FTP stands for file transfer protocol. It is also in the application layer and provides a way of transferring complete
files from one host to another.
DNS stands for domain name system. It is an application layer protocol used to provide a human-friendly naming
mechanism for internet resources. It is what ties a domain name to an IP address and allows you to access sites by
name in your browser. It is an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. For example
www.google.com translates to 66.102.7.99.

SSH stands for secure shell. It is an encrypted protocol implemented in the application layer that can be used to
communicate with a remote server in a secure way. Many additional technologies are built around this protocol
because of its end-to-end encryption and ubiquity.

A group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit.

(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ) - A TCP/IP protocol that dynamically assigns an IP address to a computer.
Dynamic addressing simplifies network administration because the software keeps track of IP addresses rather than
requiring a network administrator to do so.

A device on a network that serves as an entrance to another network and routes traffic
A common connection point for computers and devices in a network that takes an incoming signal and repeats it on
all other ports
(Media Access Control) - A unique identifier attached to most forms of networking equipment. It is burned into the
device and cannot be changed
A measure of data transmission speed - 1 million bits per second or approximately 125,000 characters per second

A unit of measure for memory or hard disk storage capacity. 1,000 kilobytes = 1 MB
A hardware device inside a computer or other network device that enables communication with a network.
Standard connectors used for unshielded twisted-pair cable. Most commonly used with Cat5 network cabling.
A 32-bit address assigned to hosts using the TCP/IP protocol. Each computer/device on the public internet has a
unique IP address. An example of an IP address is 192.168.1.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A suite of protocols used as the basis of the nation's internetwork
(Internet). It can also be used on internal networks.
It is a computer network system that connects the computers of the world. It is normally connecting through WAN
and LAN.

It is a close room computer network system, as it covers a small area and only authorized people can access it.
It is also a sort of Internet the access to which is granted only to a few.
It is the service that is used on Internet to view and search contents (in the form of web-pages).
It is an online facility that facilitates us to chat or talk. Such service is provided by Skype, Google Talk, Windows Live
Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc.
It is a Protocol, which is used especially for voice transfer over IP network. Likewise, it facilitates users to make
phone-calls by using internet.
It is a technique, which is used for the dissemination of information, articles, etc.
Users normally subscribe to the RSS channel in order to receive news. After subscription, users do not need
to visit the respective website rather they receive emails regarding the same.

It is a sort of online inventory (normally on a specialized topics) that consists of a series of entries. These entries are
arranged in opposite chronological order. The person who maintains the weblog regularly update it with a new
information.
It is a sort of online inventory (normally on a specialized topics) that consists of a series of entries. These entries are
arranged in opposite chronological order. The person who maintains the weblog regularly update it with a new
information.

It refers to the websites that facilitate users with a common platform where they can share their message (in text,
audio, or even video form), images, videos, etc. For example, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.

It is a dedicated area on the Internet that facilitates users to communicate.

It is a technical expression for public telephone system.

It is a set of communication standards that transmits voice, video, data, and other network services simultaneously.

It is a sort of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that facilitates faster data transmission.
It is a process that saves data from Internet onto a personal computer.
It is a process that transfers the saved data from a personal computer to Internet server.
It is a technique in which a phone line is used in order to connect to the Internet.
It is a wide bandwidth data transmission that transports multiple signals and traffic types swiftly.
It is a mail protocol used for accessing email on a remote web server from a local client.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the standard protocol for sending emails across the Internet.
the rated throughput capacity of a given network media or protocol.
The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.
A unit of information having just two possible values, as either of the binary digits 0 or 1.
A series of consecutive binary digits that are operated upon as a unit. There are 8 bits in a byte.