NETGEAR ProSafe FVS124G Reference Manual page 230

Reference Manual for the ProSafe VPN Firewall 25 with 4 Gigabit LAN and Dual WAN Ports
based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name
into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to
198.105.232.4. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to
translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.
Domain Name
A descriptive name for an address or group of addresses on the Internet. Domain names are of the form of a
registered entity name plus one of a number of predefined top level suffixes such as .com, .edu, .uk, etc. For
example, in the address mail.NETGEAR.com, mail is a server name and NETGEAR.com is the domain.
DSL
Short for digital subscriber line, but is commonly used in reference to the asymmetric version of this
technology (ADSL) that allows data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines at data rates of from 1.5
to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data
(known as the upstream rate).
ADSL requires a special ADSL modem. ADSL is growing in popularity as more areas around the world
gain access.
DSLAM
DSL Access Multiplexor. The piece of equipment at the telephone company central office that provides the
ADSL signal.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHCP. An Ethernet protocol specifying how a centralized DHCP server can assign network configuration
information to multiple DHCP clients. The assigned information includes IP addresses, DNS addresses, and
gateway (router) addresses.
E
EAP
Extensible Authentication Protocol is a general protocol for authentication that supports multiple
authentication methods. EAP, an extension to PPP, supports such authentication methods as token cards,
Kerberos, one-time passwords, certificates, public key authentication and smart cards. In wireless
communications using EAP, a user requests connection to a WLAN through an AP, which then requests the
identity of the user and transmits that identity to an authentication server such as RADIUS. The server asks
the AP for proof of identity, which the AP gets from the user and then sends back to the server to complete
the authentication. EAP is defined by RFC 2284.
ESSID
The Extended Service Set Identification (ESSID) is a thirty-two character (maximum) alphanumeric key
identifying the wireless local area network.
-4 Glossary
202-10085-01, March 2005