Technical Glosssary

10/100 - (describing a network adapter) capable of operating at 10 or 100 megabits per second.

10base-T - Twisted-pair Ethernet using Category 3 or Category 5 cable and RJ-45 modular connectors, a star topology with hubs, and a maximum data rate of 10 megabits per second.

100base-T - Fast twisted-pair Ethernet using Category 5 cable and RJ-45 modular connectors; like 10base-T but with a maximum data rate of 100 megabits per second. Many network cards and hubs are compatible with both 10base-T and 100base-T transmission.

1000base-T - Very fast twisted-pair baseband Ethernet with a transmission speed of 1000 megabits (1 gigabit) per second, commonly known as Gigabit Ethernet.

802.11a - An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 54Mbps and an operating frequency of 5GHz.

802.11b - An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 11Mbps and an operating frequency of 2.4GHz.

802.11g - An IEEE wireless networking standard that specifies a maximum data transfer rate of 54Mbps, an operating frequency of 2.4GHz, and backward compatibility with 802.11b devices.

Access Point - Device that allows wireless-equipped computers and other devices to communicate with a wired network. Also used to expand the range of a wireless network.

Adapter - This is a device that adds network functionality to your PC.

Alphanumeric Characters - A character set consisting of letters and digits (but not punctuation marks, mathematical symbols, or control codes).

Autoplay - The feature in Windows XP that comes up when a new hard drive is detected. It will ask the user what he/she would like to do with the files on the hard drive. Can be turned off through Administrative Tools.

Bandwidth - The transmission capacity of a given device or network.

Bit - A binary digit. There are only two possible binary digits: 0 and 1.

Boot - To start a device and cause it to start executing instructions.

Bottleneck - The part of a computer system that slows down its performance, such as a slow disk drive, slow modem, or overloaded network.

Broadband - Covering a wide range of frequencies; permitting fast data transfer. In this sense, DSL lines, T1 lines, and all kinds of Internet connections that are appreciably faster than a modem are often described as broadband.

Browser - A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web.

Buffer - A block of memory that temporarily holds data to be worked on later when a device is currently too busy to accept the data.

Byte - The amount of memory space needed to store one character, which is normally 8 bits.

Cable Modem - A modem that provides computer communication over television cables (either coaxial or fiber-optic) rather than telephone lines.

Category 3 cable, Category 5 cable (etc.) - Category 3 cable is for 10base-T and other networks up to 10 Mbps. Category 5 is compatible with 100base-T networking at ten times the speed, and categories 5e and up are compatible with Gigabit Ethernet (1000base-T).

Crossover Cable - A twisted pair patch cable wired in such a way as to route the transmit signals from one piece of equipment to the receive signals of another piece of equipment, and vice versa. Commonly is used to connect two PC's together without a hub or switch.

Disk Management - The Windows utility used to partition and format hard drives. It can be found in Computer Management (right click on My Computer and select Manage).

Disk Utility - The partition and formatting utility used by Mac OS X. This is usually found in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. Can be used to partition and format the NetDISK in Mac OS Extended.

Download - To receive a file transmitted over a network.

DSL - Digital Subscriber Line; an always-on broadband connection over traditional phone lines.

Ethernet - An IEEE standard network protocol that specifies how data is placed on and retrieved from a common transmission medium.

FAT32 - File Allocation Table, 32 bits; a modified form of the FAT file system that was introduced in Windows 98 and some late releases of Windows 95. FAT32 allows each disk to be divided into a larger number of clusters (allocation units); thus, space can be allocated in smaller units and used more efficiently.

FDISK - The DOS partitioning utility that comes with Windows 98SE/ME. This can be used to partition a NetDISK in FAT32.

File Sharing (SMB) - The most common way of sharing files. The SMB protocol is used by almost all operating systems to make local folders and files viewable from multiple computers.

File System - The method each operating system uses to store files on a hard drive. Different operating systems can use a variety of file systems. Some examples are FAT32, NTFS, NFS, Linux Extended, and Mac OS Extended.

Firewall - Security measures that protect the resources of a local network from intruders.

Firmware - 1. In network devices, the programming that runs the device. 2. Programming loaded into read-only memory (ROM) or programmable read-only memory (PROM) that cannot be altered by end-users.

Full Duplex - The ability of a networking device to receive and transmit data simultaneously.

GHz - Gigahertz; a unit of frequency equal to 1000 MHz (megahertz).

Hardware - The physical elements of a computer system; the computer equipment as opposed to the programs or the information store in the machine.

Hardware Firewall - A piece of hardware that monitors network traffic coming inbound and outbound between two networks (the internet and a local area network). Can filter, limit, and block traffic as configured.

Half Duplex - Data transmission that can occur in two directions over a single line, but only one direction at a time.

Hub - A network device that connects multiple ethernet devices with each other, while sharing the 10/100 bandwidth between each port. This causes the bandwidth to fluctuate dramatically between each port.

Hyperthreading - A technology developed by Intel that makes a single processor behave similarly to dual processors but does single multi-core processing instead of processing threads in a linear fashion.

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; the leading professional society for electrical and computer engineers in the United States. It publishes journals, holds conferences, and publishes many standards applicable to computer equipment.

Internet - A cooperative message-forwarding system linking computer networks all over the world.

IP Address - Internet Protocol Address; the numeric address of a machine, in the format used on the Internet. An example of a IP Address is 192.168.0.1.

ISP - Internet Service Provider; a company that provides access to the Internet.

Kilobyte (K) - A unit of computer memory capacity equal to 1024 characters.

LAN - Local Area Network; the computers and networking products that make up the network in your home or office.

LDSERV - This is the background process that actually connects the computer to the NetDISK. It is also referred to as LanScsiHelper Service.

LED - Light-Emitting Diode; a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes
through it.

LPX - Lean Packet Exchange protocol - This is the new ethernet protocol designed by Ximeta that is used to communicate with the NetDISK. It provides both security and speed for NetDISK users.

MAC Address - The hardware address of any ethernet device. This address is unique, and is usually set at factory settings.

MAC Filtering - A feature popular on many routers that enables higher security. Allows only specified ethernet devices to communicate through the router. Uses the standard MAC address of each ethernet device (also known as the hardware address).

Mac OS Extended - The most common file system that Mac OS X uses. Can only be used by other Macs (non-Windows compatible).

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) - Is the third major release of Apple Computer's operating system Mac OS X.

Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) - Is the fourth major release of Apple computer's operating system Mac OS X. Apple released Panther on October 24th, 2003. Apple says that Panther has at least 150 new features

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) - Is the fifth major release of Apple computer's operating system Mac OS X. Due to be released later this year.

Mbps - Megabits per second; one million bits per second; a unit of measurement for data transmission.

Megabyte (MB) - An amount of computer memory equal to 1,024 kilobytes.

MHz - Megahertz; a measure of the clock speed of a computer or the frequency of a radio signal.

Multi-Write (Multiwrite) - The capability to have more than one computer write to the NetDISK at the same time. Currently only limited to Windows 2000/XP/2003 computers.

NDAdmin - The NetDISK software for Mac OS X. Can be found in the Applications folder after installing the software. It is used to add, remove, enable, and disable NetDISK.

NDAS - Stands for Network Direct Attached Storage. This is a technology invented by Ximeta to allow a direct connection from your computer to NetdISK on the network without a server, or IP address.

NDAS Enclosure - The enclosure that is used in the NetDISK Portable, but is being sold separately as an empty enclosure. This is only available through reseller/distributor chains.

NetDISK Administrator Tool - The NetDISK software for Windows that is used to control access to the NetDISK. It is used to add, remove, enable, and disable NetDISK. Resides in the System Tray in Windows.

Network - A series of computers or devices connected for the purpose of data sharing, storage, and/or transmission between users.

NIC - Network Interface Card - Also known as a network interface card.

NTFS - Windows NT Native File System; the file system used by Windows NT and its successors.

Power Cycle - To switch off electric power to a device, then switch it on again.

Power Supply - The part of a computer or other electronic equipment that supplies power to the other parts.

RAM - Random-Access Memory; a memory device whereby any location in memory can be found as quickly as any other location.

Read - To transfer information from an external medium (ie. hard drive) into a computer.

Router - A network device that uses NAT (network address translation). This is the process of converting the IP address from a private address to a public address in real time. This allows multiple users to share a single public IP address. It also prevents access to these users from the outside without special configurations.

RPM - Rotations Per Minute, referring to a hard drive's spinning speed.

Software - Programs that tell a computer what to do.

Software Firewall - A piece of software that resides on a computer that monitors network traffic coming in and out of the computer, while either limiting or blocking traffic from certain specified sources.

SOHO - Abbreviation for "Small Office, Home Office."

Switch - A network device that connects multiple ethernet devices with each other, while using a technology that provides full 10/100 bandwidth for each port. It efficiently switches between each port quickly to deliver network packets at the full 10/100 speed.

System Tray - A part of the Windows Desktop that resides on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Also where the system clock resides. The NetDISK Administrator Tool runs from here.

T1 Line - A special type of telephone line for digital communication only, with a maximum data rate of 1.544 million bits per second.

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol; a standard format for transmitting data in packets from one computer to another. It is used on the Internet and various other networks.

Throughput - The amount of data moved successfully from one node to another in a given time period.

Ticket - A record of a problem that is being diagnosed or repaired. Originally a slip of paper, a ticket is now usually a record maintained on line, and "open a ticket" means "make a request for technical assistance."

Upload - To transmit a file over a network.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator; the address of a file located on the Internet.

USB - Universal Serial Bus; a standard way of connecting peripherals to computers, designed to replace serial, parallel, SCSI, and other kinds of ports. USB 1.0 provides a data rate of 12 million bits oer second (Mbps), USB 2.0 ("Hi-Speed USB") achieves 480 Mbps and is fully compatible with the previous version.

WAN - Wide Area Network; the Internet.

WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy; a method of encrypting data transmitted on a wireless network for greater security.

Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity; a popular version of the IEEE 802.11b standard for 2.4GHz wireless networking.

Windows SP2 - Windows Service Pack 2, released in August, this new service pack adds new security features to Windows XP, including its own software firewall.

Wireless Access Point - The hub of a wireless network; the central transmitter and receiver, with antennas, attached to a wired network.

WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network; a group of computers and associated devices that communicate with each other wirelessly.

Write - To record digital information onto an external medium (ie. hard drive).