Enstep Technology Solutions likes to keep their customers informed and up-to-date on networking lingo, software and hardware issues, troubleshooting tips, and what’s happening in the computer and technology world.
This post is a continuation of a blog we posted on September 24, 2014, which was titled “Enstep Explains Common Network Terminology”.
This will give you an enhanced understanding of how your business’ computer system works, which in turn will aid you in making better decisions for your company’s future technology plans.
Here’s a basic overview of the terms you’ll see when you review the network status of your computer, smartphone, tablet, or printer:
DNS – Domain Name System – how computers convert human-readable domain names and hostnames to numerical IP addresses.
Ethernet – standard wired network technology. If your computer is connected to a network via a cable, it’s probably an Ethernet cable.
localhost – hostname “localhost” always corresponds to the device you’re using. This uses the loopback network interface — a network interface implemented in software — to connect directly to your own PC.
MAC Address – each network interface has a media access control address, or it’s better known as MAC address or physical address. Unique identifier designed to identify different computers on a network.
Port – if an app wants to receive or send traffic, it must use a numbered port between 1 to 65535. This allows you to have multiple apps on a computer using the network and each app knows which traffic is for it. Standard HTTP uses port 80.
Protocol – TCP, UDP, ICMP – different ways of communicating over the Internet. UDP and TCP are the most common.
Packet – unit of data sent between devices. The packet is the basic unit of data that computers on a network exchange.
Firewall – piece of software or hardware that blocks certain types of traffic.
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol – standard protocol modern web browsers and the web itself uses.
URL – Uniform Resource Locator – also known as a web address, which is displayed in your web browser’s address bar. For example, Enstep’s URL is http://enstep.com.
For more information on networking or if you are having any technology problems at your small business, please contact Enstep today. We make it work better.
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