3Com OfficeConnect 3C855 User Manual page 73

10BASE-T
100BASE-TX
Auto-negotiation
Bandwidth
Category 3 Cables
Category 5 Cables
Client
DHCP
DNS Server Address
G
LOSSARY
The IEEE specification for 10 Mbps Ethernet over Category 3, 4 or 5 twisted pair
cable.
The IEEE specification for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet over Category 5 twisted-pair
cable.
Some devices in the OfficeConnect range support auto-negotiation.
Auto-negotiation is where two devices sharing a link, automatically configure to
use the best common speed. The order of preference (best first) is: 100BASE-TX
full duplex, 100BASE-TX half duplex, 10BASE-T full duplex, and 10BASE-T half
duplex. Auto-negotiation is defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard for Ethernet and is
an operation that takes place in a few milliseconds.
The information capacity, measured in bits per second, that a channel can
transmit. The bandwidth of Ethernet is 10 Mbps, the bandwidth of Fast Ethernet is
100 Mbps.
One of five grades of Twisted Pair (TP) cabling defined by the EIA/TIA-586
standard. Category 3 is voice grade cable and can only be used in Ethernet
networks (10BASE-T) to transmit data at speeds of up to 10 Mbps.
One of five grades of Twisted Pair (TP) cabling defined by the EIA/TIA-586
standard. Category 5 can be used in Ethernet (10BASE-T) and Fast Ethernet
networks (100BASE-TX) and can transmit data up to speeds of 100 Mbps.
Category 5 cabling is better to use for network cabling than Category 3, because
it supports both Ethernet (10 Mbps) and Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) speeds.
The term used to described the desktop PC that is connected to your network.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This protocol automatically assigns an IP
address for every computer on your network. Windows 95, Windows 98 and
Windows NT 4.0 contain software that assigns IP addresses to workstations on a
network. These assignments are made by the DHCP server software that runs on
Windows NT Server, and Windows 95 and Windows 98 will call the server to
obtain the address. Windows 98 will allocate itself an address if no DHCP server
can be found.
DNS stands for Domain Name System, which allows Internet host computers to
have a domain name (such as 3com.com) and one or more IP addresses (such as
192.34.45.8). A DNS server keeps a database of host computers and their
respective domain names and IP addresses, so that when a domain name is