Simply Charmed

These terms are words I use on a daily basis. In an attempt to streamline the articles I am including this glossary. It’s recommended that if you are first time visitor that you read these terms before continuing to any article. If you have any questions about any of the terms, please let me know. ¹

Troubleshooting Terms

Browser - A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network.

NID - In telecommunications, the term network interface device (NID) is a device that serves as the demarcation point between the carrier’s local loop and the customer’s network. The terms network interface unit (NIU) and smartjack are interchangeable with network interface device.

Power Cycling - The act of turning a piece of equipment, usually a computer, off and then on again. Power cycling can also be used to reset network activity inside a modem or router. It is usually recommended that you leave the device off for about 15 seconds before turning it back on.

Sync - Refers to the DSL signal that your ISP provides you with.

IP Information

IP Address - An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification (logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations, such as 192.168.100.1 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6). The role of the IP address has been characterized as follows: “A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there.”

Subnet Mask - In computer networks based on the Internet Protocol Suite, a subnetwork, or subnet, is a portion of the network’s computers and network devices that have a common, designated IP address routing prefix

Default Gateway - A Default Gateway (Def.GW) is the node on the computer network that is chosen when the IP address does not belong to any other entities in the Routing Table. In homes, the gateway is usually the ISP-provided device that connects the user to the Internet, such as a DSL or cable modem.

DNS Servers - The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates humanly meaningful domain names to the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide

Router IP - Private network is typically a network that uses private IP address space, following the agreed standard of RFC 1918. Computers may be allocated addresses from this address space when it is necessary for them to communicate with other computing devices on an internal (not public Internet) network.
Examples: 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x

169.254.x.x - Link-local address An example of this use of link-local addressing is the automatic configuration of IP addresses which is used in both IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 addresses in the range from 169.254.0.0 to 169.254.255.255 are assigned when no other IP addressing assignment is available, e.g. no connectivity to a DHCP server.

Connection Types

Dynamic IP Address - When a computer’s IP address is assigned automatically, it is known as a Dynamic IP address.

Static IP Address - When a computer is configured to use the same IP address each time it powers up, this is known as a Static IP address.

DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a protocol used by networked devices (clients) to obtain the parameters necessary for operation in an Internet Protocol network. This protocol reduces system administration workload, allowing devices to be added to the network with little or no manual configuration.

MAC Filtering - In computer networking, MAC Filtering (or EUI filtering, or layer 2 address filtering) refers to a security access control methodology whereby the 48-bit address assigned to each network card is used to determine access to the network.

PPPOE - Stands for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet. This refers to a broadband connection that requires a user name and password to connect to the Internet.

PC Related

MAC Address - In computer networking, a Media Access Control address (MAC address) or Ethernet Hardware Address (EHA), hardware address, adapter address or physical address is a quasi-unique identifier assigned to most network adapters or network interface cards (NICs) by the manufacturer for identification. If assigned by the manufacturer, a MAC address usually encodes the manufacturer’s registered identification number.

NIC - A Network card, Network Adapter, LAN Adapter or NIC (network interface card) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It is both an OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer) device, as it provides physical access to a networking medium and provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly.

1. Special thanks to Wikipedia, and their awesome definitions. [↩]