Gigaset SX553 WLAN dsl First Steps page 182

Glossary
MAC address
Media Access Control
The MAC address is used for the globally unique identification of a Network adapters. It
comprises six parts (hexadecimal numbers), e.g. 00-90-96-34-00-1A. The MAC address
is assigned by the network adapter manufacturer and cannot be changed.
Mbps
Million bits per second
Specification of the transfer speed in a network.
MER
MAC Encapsulated Routing
MRU
Maximum Receive Unit
The MRU defines the maximum user data volume within a data packet.
MTU
Maximum Transmission Unit
The MTU defines the maximum length of a data packet that can be carried over the net-
work at any one time.
NAT
Network Address Translation
NAT is a method for converting IP addresses (mostly Private IP addresses) within a net-
work into one or several Public IP addresses on the Internet. With NAT several network
components in a LAN can share the router's public IP address to connect to the Internet.
The network components of the local network are hidden behind the router's IP address
registered on the Internet. Because of this security function, NAT is frequently used as
part of the Firewall of a network. If you want to make services on a PC in the local net-
work available on the Internet despite NAT, you can configure the Gigaset SX553 WLAN
dsl as a Virtual server.
Network
A network is a group of devices connected in wired or wireless mode so that they can
share resources such as data and peripherals. A general distinction is made between
local networks (LANs) and wide-area networks (WANs).
Network adapter
The network adapter is the hardware device that creates the connection between a net-
work component and a local network. The connection can be wired or wireless. An Eth-
ernet network card is an example of a wired network adapter. The Gigaset PC Card 108
and the Gigaset USB Adapter 108 are examples of wireless network adapters.
A network adapter has a unique address, the MAC address.
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