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L
LAN Local Area Network. Any physical network technology (such as
Ethernet) that operates at high speed (typically 10 Mbit per second or more)
over short distances (up to a few kilometers). See WAN.
LED Light Emitting Diode. A luminous indicator.
M
MAC address. The hardware address of a device connected to a shared
media. For example, the MAC address of a PC on an Ethernet is its Ethernet
address.
Metric A concept used to describe the cost of a route across a network, the
distance to the destination at the remote end of the route, or the capacity of
the route.
N
Name resolution The process of mapping a name into the corresponding
address. See DNS.
NAT Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that enables a local-
area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a
second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the
LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations. NAT is
used for two main tasks – to provide a type of firewall by hiding internal IP
addresses and enable a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since
they're used internally only, there's no possibility of conflict with IP
addresses used by other companies and organizations.
Network A computer network is a data communications system which
interconnects computer systems at various different sites. A network may be
composed of any combination of LANs or WANs.
Network address The network portion of an IP address. For a class A
network, the network address is the first byte of the IP address. For a class B
network, the network address is the first two bytes of the IP address. For a
class C network, the network address is the first three bytes of the IP address.
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