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You got to talk the talk, if you're gonna' walk the walk.
We're talking (excuse the pun) about communication here, and that includes communicating between humans. In order to facilitate talking about networks, we've got to talk the talk, at least enough to know how to ask where the bathroom is in this new language.
The list below is only the tip of the iceberg, and designed only to hold you for about 15 minutes of conversation with a networking professional.
We strongly suggest you read every one of these short definitions, there may be some surprises with respect to words you thought you knew.
Geek Speak words you
need to know:
ATM
Asynchronous Transmission Mode.
The next wave of Internet connections. No modem thingy required.
Uses switchers and fiber optic lines to your service provider --
translated: it's really REALLY fast.
Big pipe:
Or large straw. A fast connection to the Internet. ISDN is a medium
pipe. T1s are bigger, T3s are like MacDonald's straws, and a direct
ATM fiber connection is like..like..nirvana!
Cable Modems
Another new wave in Internet connections. Cable modems use the same
system that brings you cable television to transfer Internet data.
Because cable TV uses coaxial cable, which is a much bigger pipe than
the phone lines, cable modems are very fast (200K to 2MB/sec.
realistically, up to 36MB/sec theoretically) and could hold a few
hundred computers, depending on the configuration of your network.
Dedicated Line:
Any Internet connection that is on all the
time. It's dedicated to staying on, you might say.
Dial-up line:
Any Internet connection that uses a modem to
actually dial-up a service provider to establish a connection on a
regular basis.
Emergency Boot Disk:
Any floppy or Zip type mobile disk that can run a computer all by
it's lonesome. The basic concept here is that to work on a computer
that has crashed and burned, you have to have it start up, or "boot"
off of a disk other then the hard drive inside the computer. Remember
that floppies, and Zips are just small slow hard drives when you get
right down to it. Any LAN has to have emergency boot disks around for
the inevitable crashes.
Ethernet:
An invisible net used to catch unsuspecting teenagers in horror
movies -- kidding! Ethernet is currently the most popular wire used
to connect computers. It's fast and usually comes in a variety called
"10base T", a name for a type of Ethernet.
For a computer to use Ethernet it has to either have a built in adapter, or have one installed. Ethernet cable looks like a slightly oversized phone line. Wires like Ethernet support travel over a limited distance without needing a signal boost -- About 300 ft. for Coax and 1000 ft. for Twisted Pair.
Fiber:
Any food substance that aids in regular..Oh, fiber, as in fiber
optic! Right. Fiber is short for "fiber optic cable." Fiber is cool,
really, really cool. It's one big
pipe! How big? How much data can a fiber optic cable hold? Before
we answer, consider that fiber optic cable is no thicker then a human
hair and made of glass (or plastic). OK, this is how big a pipe fiber
is: a single fiber can transmit 200 million telephone conversations
simultaneously. Fiber is not data prejudiced and can be used for
voice or digital data.
Fiber is currently used to connect the biggest of the Internet's computers, otherwise known as the backbone of the Internet (amazing how aptly named most of this stuff is -- like the backbone in a human, if this thing is severed, nothing moves on the Net). As more and more data is in need of transfer, fiber is being "pulled" as fast as possible. It will be some time, though, before one of these babies makes it all the way to your house.
Firewall:
In a LAN a firewall is a computer that is used as
the first computer a connection to the
Internet passes through. As the name
suggests, a firewall is used to protect the LAN from invasion by evil
doers on the Internet.
Geek:
This word used to be derogatory, like "nerd", but not as much
nowadays. Now being a geek is more cool because society has realized
that its the geeks that are leading us down this technical yellow
brick road. Geeks are now seen as highly intelligent, kind, mellow,
slightly strange and obsessive people with a good chance of having a
bad diet and high paid work when ever they want it. NOTE: Within the
computer culture "geek" is an insult when compared to
"hacker". A hacker is someone who doesn't just use computers,
but figures out more about them. These are the real heroes of the
digital age, but you can just call them geeks.
"Geeking Out" is the act of talking
about, or working on, computers with intensity. Geeks have a tendency
to obsess about technology, to "geek out," that's why they know so
much about computers and the Internet.
Internet:
The network of networks. A data matrix. The mother of all
LANs.
The Internet is the global conglomeration of all the computers, phone lines, satellites, etc. with which we communicate. This includes the Web, which is a very popular graphic part of the Internet.
This is so important to define correctly that here's the technical definition from the free online computing dictionary:
"(Note: capital "I"). The Internet is the largest Internet in the world. It is a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks (e.g ARPAnet, NSFNet, MILNET), mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.a or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols including the Internet Protocol."
The Internet is called "The Net" among people like sysadmins, who have to say it all day.
Intranet:
Any computer network that has similar things to the
Internet, like Web sites
and email routing, but is not available to the public. Corporations
use intranets a great deal. If an Intranet has limited connections
with the public, it's called an Extranet.
ISDN
Call your local phone company and they'll send you tons of info on
ISDN lines. They are one of the smallest of the big pipes and stand
for Integrated System Digital Network. One ISDN channel runs at
64K/sec (28.8 modems run at about 2K/sec). Two channels are the basic
configuration for one phone line, good for about 5 computers. You can
hook up multiple ISDN lines to achieve T1 speeds. ISDN uses a special
modem and the phone lines to talk to your service provider.
LAN:
Local Area Network. Two or more computers that are physically hooked
up to each other and in close proximity.
Modem:
Stands for "modulator/demodulator." Converts computer speak, (0s and
1s) into phone line speak (audio signals) that can be sent and
received over a phone line. When sending email, your modem modulates
the computer data into audio data. When you get email, your modem
demodulates audio data from the phone lines into computer speak.
Packets:
Like notes are to words, packets are to computer files. All data on
the Internet, and in LANs
and WANs, is transmitted in small packets. Packets
are the smallest forms of traveling data and they get where they're
going using protocols for directions.
Protocols:
Languages that govern the way data knows where it's going, how to get
there, what to do in a traffic jam and where it came from. IP, or
Internet Protocol, is the protocol that is used
by most of the computers on the Net.
Router:
A VCR sized electrical device that acts as a traffic cop for data on
any Network. Literally, routers rout "packets" of data, everything
from email to graphics files, between computers. Remember, to a
computer, it's all just zeros and ones. But hey, to a traffic cop,
we're all just cars!
Server:
Ever been a waiter or a waitress? Ever been served a meal? If so you
know what a server does. Severs act as a central storage and
distributor of data on a network. Servers can be used to share files,
move data to printers, back up data, bring
Internet connections to the network, etc.
Service Provider:
A company (private, your local telephone company, nonprofit..) that
provides customers with access to the
Internet. Individuals use service providers
to dial-up to and get on the Net. They
can be small, or as big as America On-Line, which is a sort of
service provider with a lot of content.
Sysadmin:
Systems Administrator. Your friend. Your bud. The person you most
want to bring cookies to at Christmas. A systems administrator is the
person, or people, who keep a computer network functioning and
upgraded. They are like Scotty on the old Star Trek. If Kirk needed
more speed, his ship was broken, or had some hair-brained project for
the ship, Scotty was the man he needed most. Sysadmins have been
known to fix computers just by getting near them. Treat your
sysadmins right and you'll live long and prosper.
T1s (56K and up)
The next most common connection to the Net, after ISDN lines, are
T1s, also using phone lines through a service provider or phone
companies and even fancier modems. T1s come in all sizes, from
fractional T1s that can hold a dozen or so computers surfing at once,
to full T1s that can hold hundreds at 1.5MB/sec (28.8 modems transfer
about 2K/sec. vs. T1s that translate to 1,500K/sec). There are even
T2s and T3s (44MB/sec.) that are used for universities and research
facilities. T1s use a dedicated connection from your service provider
to a modem hooked up to your server. Dedicated connections mean that
they are "on" the Internet 24 hours a day, no dialing-up necessary.
If you want your LAN to have all the computers on the Internet at the
same time and without dialing up, you'll probably end up using a T-1.
Twisted Pair:
Crazy twins..kidding. Twisted Pair is the phrase used to describe
phone lines, and some high quality Ethernet
wires. Twisted pair means that the wires are twisted to help reduce
interference between them.
TCP/IP:
Transmission Control Protocol over
Internet Protocol. A very common language
that networks use. Most often associated with the software that helps
individuals dial up their Internet accounts. You'll hear this a lot
-- just think of it as a language that you don't speak.
WAN:
Wide Area Network. LANs hooked up to each other
over a -- you guessed it -- wide area.
Web:
The Web is not the Internet, repeat, not the
Internet. The Web is a part of the Internet. For any geek this is a
huge difference in the art of concept appreciation. The Web is
technically a "hypertext information retrieval system" that uses the
Internet as it's medium of transfer. Nowadays it is getting to be
more then that. For us laypeople, just think of the Web as the
"clickable with pictures" part of the Internet.
Wireless
Wireless refers to any system that connects computers together
without using physical wires. This includes everything from laptops
that talk to printers using signals sent out just like a TV remote
control, to small satellite dishes that have full Internet
connections for whole schools using microwave signals. As more and
more satellites are launched wireless communications is becoming more
and more a reality, and cheaper. While connections to the Internet
are still mostly done using wires, it is possible, and even
practical, to connect buildings within a district using wireless
technology. Currently wireless technology is used mostly for schools
in remote locations.
(For a wonderful free, searchable, complete listing of computer definitions, head to the "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing" at: http://wagner.princeton.edu/foldoc/contents.html)
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URL: edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596r/module8/intro.html
Last updated: February 13, 1998