networking terms
577 glossary entries tagged networking, listed alphabetically.
- "5 GHz Wi-Fi is always better"
- "MAC addresses are unique and permanent"
- "more bandwidth means a faster connection"
- "NAT is a firewall"
- @ (the at sign in email)
- 802.1QIEEE 802.1Q (VLAN tagging)
- 802.1XIEEE 802.1X (port-based network access control)
- 802.3IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet)
- AAAAAAAA record (IPv6 address record)
- ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas)
- accounting
- ACL
- active-active vs. active-passive
- ADCapplication delivery controller
- Adiel Akplogan
- administrative distance
- ADSL
- air gap
- Al Gore
- alarm storm
- Alessandro Volta
- Alexander Graham Bell
- ALOHAnet
- ALPNApplication-Layer Protocol Negotiation
- amateur radio
- analog vs digital
- André-Marie Ampère
- anycast
- AppleTalkAppleTalk (Apple networking protocol suite)
- ARP
- ARP poisoning
- ARPANET
- AS (autonomous system)autonomous system
- AS3Application Services 3 Extension
- ASIC
- ASNautonomous system number
- asymmetric routing
- ATMAsynchronous Transfer Mode
- baby giant
- backhoe fade
- BADoSBehavioral Denial of Service
- BEBBackbone Edge Bridge
- BFDBidirectional Forwarding Detection
- BGPBorder Gateway Protocol
- BGP hijack
- Bill Cheswick
- BINDBerkeley Internet Name Domain
- Bob Kahn
- Bob Metcalfe
- bogon
- botnet
- bridge
- broadcast
- broadcast storm
- BSSIDBasic Service Set Identifier
- bufferbloat
- BUMbroadcast, unknown unicast, and multicast
- bus topology
- C10K problem
- C3DClient Certificate Constrained Delegation
- CAACertification Authority Authorization record
- Cable categories (Cat 5e-8)Twisted-pair cable categories per ANSI/TIA-568
- Cable landing station
- cache poisoning
- callsign
- CAN (campus area network)
- capacity
- captive portal
- CAPWAP (controller-based wireless)
- Carrier
- Carterfone
- CDCiber (Centro de Defesa Cibernética)
- channel width
- CHAPChallenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol
- Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
- check layer 1
- checksum
- CIDRClassless Inter-Domain Routing
- circuit switching
- Cisco certifications (CCNA / CCNP / CCIE)The Cisco certification ladder
- Cisco LiveCisco Live - the vendor mega-event that began as Networkers
- Citizens Band (CB)
- Claude Shannon
- CLICommand-Line Interface
- client-server
- cloud VPN
- CNAMECanonical Name record
- Co-channel interference (and airtime)
- collision domain
- Computer Inquiry
- congestion control
- control plane
- COS
- Craig Newmark
- Crossover cableCrossover cable (MDI/MDI-X)
- CSMA/CACarrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
- CSMA/CDCarrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection
- CWNP / CWNACertified Wireless Network Professional program (CWNA flagship)
- DADDuplicate Address Detection
- Dan Kaminsky
- Daniel Karrenberg
- Danny Cohen
- dark fiber
- DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
- Data center tiersUptime Institute data center tiers (I-IV)
- Data centre operator
- Data PBX
- data store
- David Clark
- David Farber
- DDoSDistributed Denial of Service
- DECnetDECnet (Digital Equipment Corporation network protocols)
- dedicated interconnect
- default route
- default-free zone
- DFDual-Fan (F5 hardware variant)
- DHCP
- DHCP snooping
- DICTDictionary Server Protocol
- Distributor
- DKIMDomainKeys Identified Mail
- DMZ
- DNSDomain Name System
- DNS filtering
- DNS over HTTPSDNS over HTTPS (DoH)
- DNSKEYDNS Public Key (record)
- DNSSECDomain Name System Security Extensions
- DoHDNS over HTTPS
- Donald Davies
- DoTDNS over TLS
- Douglas Comer
- DPDDead Peer Detection (IKE/IPsec liveness)
- DTLSDatagram Transport Layer Security
- dual stack
- duplex
- duplex mismatch
- DVMRPDistance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
- E1E1 (2.048 Mb/s, 32 timeslots)
- EAP-TLS
- east-west / north-south traffic
- ECMP
- ECSEDNS Client Subnet
- EDNSExtension Mechanisms for DNS
- Edward Weston
- EGPExterior Gateway Protocol (the class, and the historical protocol)
- egress filtering
- EHFEngineering Hotfix
- EIA/TIAElectronic Industries Alliance / Telecommunications Industry Association
- EIGRPEnhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
- elephant flow
- Elizabeth Feinler
- Embedded system
- endianness (On Holy Wars)
- ENE
- EOLend of life
- ESPEncapsulating Security Payload
- Ethernet
- EUIExtended Unique Identifier
- EXOSExtreme Operating System (ExtremeXOS)
- Expect
- F5 DevCentralF5 DevCentral community
- FA (Fabric Attach)Fabric Attach
- fail open vs. fail closed
- failover
- fault tolerance
- federation
- firewall
- Firmware
- Firmware vs software
- five-tuple
- flag day
- flapping
- forklift upgrade
- forward proxy
- FPGA
- FQDNFully Qualified Domain Name
- fragmentation
- Frame RelayFrame Relay (packet-switched WAN)
- FTPFile Transfer Protocol
- FTPSFTP over TLS
- full table
- Furukawa (Lightera)Furukawa Electric LatAm - Brazil's structured-cabling standard-bearer (cabling brand now Lightera)
- Fyodor (Gordon Lyon) and Nmap
- Gambiarra
- gateway
- GENEVE
- Georg Ohm
- Glenn Ricart
- god box
- goodput
- GOPHERGopher protocol
- GOSIP
- GRE
- GRE tunnel
- GREASE
- GSLB
- hairpin NAT
- handshake
- Hans Christian Ørsted
- hardware implant
- HDLCHigh-Level Data Link Control
- Heinrich Hertz
- HFhigh frequency
- HFC
- host-to-host
- host-to-multihost
- hosts file
- Hot / cold aisleHot-aisle / cold-aisle data-center layout and containment
- hot / warm / cold standby
- Howard Frank
- HTTP QUERY method
- HTTP/2
- HTTP/3
- hub
- hub-and-spoke
- hybrid topology
- IANAInternet Assigned Numbers Authority
- ICANNInternet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
- ICAPInternet Content Adaptation Protocol
- ICCC demonstration
- ICMPInternet Control Message Protocol
- IDCMA
- IEEEInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- IETFInternet Engineering Task Force
- IGMPInternet Group Management Protocol
- IGPInterior Gateway Protocol
- IKEInternet Key Exchange
- IKEv2
- IMAPInternet Message Access Protocol
- IMAPSIMAP over TLS
- IMP
- incast
- Infovia Brasília
- Inmetro
- inter-frame gap
- intermittent fault
- Interop
- IOS (Cisco)Internetwork Operating System
- IPInternet Protocol
- IPAM
- IPsec
- IPX/SPXInternetwork Packet Exchange / Sequenced Packet Exchange
- Ira Fuchs
- IS-ISIntermediate System to Intermediate System
- ISM bandindustrial, scientific and medical band
- it's always DNS
- J.C.R. Licklider
- Jaap Akkerhuis
- James Clerk Maxwell
- James Prescott Joule
- James Watt
- Jean-Charles Peltier
- Jim McKie
- jitter
- John Logie Baird
- Jon Postel
- jumbo frames
- Jun Murai
- JWICS
- Kalpana
- Kanchana Kanchanasut
- Karen Banks
- KDC
- Kees Neggers
- Kerberos
- keytab
- KRACK
- L2TP
- L3Layer 3 (the network layer)
- L4Layer 4 (the transport layer)
- L4 vs. L7 load balancing
- L7Layer 7 (the application layer of the OSI model)
- LACP
- LAN
- LANELAN Emulation (over ATM)
- Larry Roberts
- latency
- LBload balancer
- LDAPLightweight Directory Access Protocol
- LDAPSLDAP over TLS
- LDNSlocal DNS resolver
- leaf-spine
- Lee de Forest
- LEO constellation
- Léon Foucault
- Leonard Kleinrock
- line rate
- link-local address
- LLDP
- Load balancer
- load balancing
- longest prefix match
- looking glass
- loopback interface
- LoRa
- Luigi Galvani
- MAC addressMedia Access Control address
- MAC flapping
- MAN
- MANRS (Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security)
- Marisa Bellisario
- martian packet
- Media converterMedia converter (copper to fiber and between fiber types)
- meet-me room
- mesh topology
- metadata
- Metcalfe's law
- Michael Faraday
- microburst
- Microcode
- microsegmentation
- Microtunnel
- Mike Jensen
- Mirai
- Morse code / CW
- MPLS
- MQTTMessage Queuing Telemetry Transport
- MQTTSMQTT over TLS
- MSRDPMicrosoft Remote Desktop Protocol
- MSSMaximum Segment Size
- MSS clamping
- MTUMaximum Transmission Unit
- multicast
- multihost-to-host
- Multilink PPPMultilink PPP (MP / ML-PPP)
- Multimode fiberMultimode optical fiber (OM1-OM5)
- MXMail Exchange record
- NANOGNorth American Network Operators' Group - the operators' town hall since 1994
- NATNetwork Address Translation
- NAT-T
- NCP
- NetFlow
- network topology
- Nii Narku Quaynor
- Nikola Tesla
- NIPRNet
- NSECNext Secure (record)
- NSEC3Next Secure version 3 (record)
- NTPNetwork Time Protocol
- NVGRE
- observer effect
- OGNL (Object-Graph Navigation Language)
- onion routing
- OpenVPN
- OpenWrt
- OPTOption (pseudo-record)
- OSINET
- OSPF
- out-of-band management
- overlay network
- oversubscription
- PACProxy Auto-Config
- packet
- packet filter
- packet loss
- packet switching
- PAN
- PAPPassword Authentication Protocol
- PATPort Address Translation
- Path MTU DiscoveryPath MTU Discovery (PMTUD)
- Paul Baran
- Paul Vixie
- payload
- pcap or it didn't happen
- peer-to-peer
- Peter Eckersley
- Piet Beertema
- PIMProtocol Independent Multicast
- pizza box
- PKIPublic Key Infrastructure
- Plenum-rated cablePlenum and riser cable ratings (CMP/CMR)
- PMTUD
- PoE
- PoE injectorPower over Ethernet injector (midspan)
- Policy sprawl (and the exception register)
- POP3Post Office Protocol version 3
- port
- port mirroring (SPAN)
- port security
- Postel's law
- POTS
- PPPPoint-to-Point Protocol
- PPTP
- PRIpriority value (syslog)
- Private Service Edge
- Project MAC
- promiscuous mode
- proxy
- PTP (Precision Time Protocol)
- PTRPointer record (reverse DNS)
- Public Service Edge
- PVAPacket Velocity ASIC
- QATQuickAssist Technology
- QoSQuality of Service
- quorum
- Rack (19-inch) and rack unit19-inch equipment rack and the rack unit (U)
- Radia Perlman
- radio propagation
- radio spectrum
- Randy Bush
- rate limiting
- Ray Tomlinson
- RDAPRegistration Data Access Protocol
- repeater
- replication
- Reseller
- reverse proxy
- RFCRequest for Comments
- RFC 1149 (IP over Avian Carriers)
- RFC 1918 addresses
- RFC 2544
- ring topology
- RIPRouting Information Protocol
- RJ45RJ45 (8P8C modular connector)
- RNP (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa)
- Robert Taylor
- root causeroot cause analysis (RCA)
- rough consensus and running code
- Route leak
- router
- RPKIResource Public Key Infrastructure
- RPZResponse Policy Zone
- RTMPReal-Time Messaging Protocol
- RTSPReal-Time Streaming Protocol
- runbook
- safe method
- SAMLSecurity Assertion Markup Language
- Samuel Morse
- SAP (Novell)Service Advertising Protocol (Novell NetWare)
- Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)
- SASESecure Access Service Edge
- SCIM
- SCPSecure Copy Protocol
- SD-WAN
- SDLCSynchronous Data Link Control (IBM)
- SDN
- Segal's law
- service mesh
- Services company
- Session persistence (stickiness)
- SFP transceiver
- SFTPSSH File Transfer Protocol
- Shared address space (100.64.0.0/10)
- Shielded twisted pairShielded twisted pair (F/UTP, S/FTP and related constructions)
- SID (I-SID)Service Identifier
- sidecar
- single point of failure
- Single-mode fiberSingle-mode optical fiber (OS1/OS2)
- SIPSession Initiation Protocol
- SIPRNet
- SISCOMIS (Sistema de Comunicações Militares por Satélite)
- SLAAC
- SLIPSerial Line Internet Protocol
- Slow start and connection draining
- SMBServer Message Block
- SMTPSimple Mail Transfer Protocol
- smurf attack
- SNASystems Network Architecture (IBM)
- SNATsource network address translation
- sneakernet
- SNIServer Name Indication
- SNMP
- SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol)
- SOAStart of Authority record
- socket
- Spanning Tree Protocol
- SPBMShortest Path Bridging MAC mode
- spectrum
- SPFSender Policy Framework
- split horizon
- split tunnelling
- split-brain
- SQL Slammer
- SRVService record
- SSHSecure Shell
- SSIDService Set Identifier
- SSL VPN
- SSL/TLS inspection
- Standards body
- star topology
- stateful firewall
- stateful inspection
- static route
- Statistical multiplexer
- Stephen Wolff
- Steve Crocker
- Steven Bellovin
- storm control
- STPSpanning Tree Protocol
- Strata
- Submarine cable
- subnet
- supernet
- switch
- SYN flood
- syslog
- T1T1 / DS1 (1.544 Mb/s, 24 channels)
- T568A / T568BT568A and T568B termination pinouts (ANSI/TIA-568)
- TAC
- TACACS+
- Tarek Kamel
- Tcl
- TCPTransmission Control Protocol
- TCP three-way handshake
- TCP/IPTransmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
- TELNETTeletype Network
- Teus Hagen
- TFTPTrivial File Transfer Protocol
- the 500-mile email
- the ether / aether
- the evil bit
- the fallacies of distributed computing
- the first email
- the Kaminsky DNS flaw
- the Net routes around damage
- the Two Generals problem
- throughput
- Tim Berners-Lee
- TLDtop-level domain
- TLSTransport Layer Security
- Token Ring
- top talkers
- Tor relay
- TPSTransactions Per Second
- traffic generation
- Training organisation
- Transceiver (pluggable optics)Pluggable transceiver form factors (GBIC to SFP, QSFP, OSFP)
- transit gateway
- tree topology
- trunk
- trunk port
- Trusted network
- TSIGTransaction Signature
- TTLTime To Live
- two is one, one is none
- TXTText record
- UDPUser Datagram Protocol
- underlay / overlay
- unicast
- UTCCoordinated Universal Time
- UTPUnshielded Twisted Pair
- Van Jacobson
- Vendor
- VHF / UHFvery high frequency / ultra high frequency
- Vint Cerf
- VIPvirtual IP
- VLAN
- VLSMVariable-Length Subnet Masking
- VPNVirtual Private Network
- VRF
- VRRP / HSRPVirtual Router Redundancy Protocol (and the first-hop redundancy family: HSRP, GLBP)
- VXLAN
- WAFWeb Application Firewall
- WAN
- War driving
- WCCPWeb Cache Communication Protocol
- Werner Zorn
- WHOIS
- Wi-FiWi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN)
- Wi-Fi generations (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
- William Crookes
- wire speed
- WireGuard
- Wiring closetWiring closet / telecom room (MDF and IDF)
- WLAN
- WPAWi-Fi Protected Access
- WPA3
- WPADWeb Proxy Auto-Discovery
- WSWebSocket
- WSSWebSocket Secure (WebSocket over TLS)
- X.21ITU-T X.21 (circuit-switched serial interface)
- X.25ITU-T X.25 (packet-switched WAN)
- X.509
- XNSXerox Network Systems
- Yvonne Marie Andrés
- Z-Tunnel
- zero trustZero Trust Architecture (ZTA)