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TN200302D
- Internet Glossary
Vaughan Wesson, February 2003.
Glossary
This technical note lists many of the acronyms and terms used in Internet related discussions.
| ARP | Address Resolution Protocol - Provides a method for translating Internet addresses to hardware (e.g. Ethernet) addresses |
| Datagram | A message that is sent when no connection has been established between two communicating hosts. Each message is treated as an independent unit. |
| DHCP | Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - Allows a host to obtain configuration information (such as IP address and DNS server address) automatically |
| DNS | Domain Name System - A distributed database system used to map between domain names such as www.seis.com.au and Internet addresses such as 210.9.72.37 |
| Ethernet Address | An address that is associated with the Ethernet hardware |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol - A client/server protocol that can be used to transfer files between different hosts. It also allows for renaming and deleting files and directories. |
| Host | A specific device connected to the Internet. Typically a computer, but may also be a device such as a Kelunji |
| HTTP | HyperText Transfer Protocol - An application level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Most commonly used for the traffic between a Web server and a Web browser |
| ICMP | Internet Control Message Protocol - Provides error reporting services. This is commonly used by the "ping" function |
| IP | Internet Protocol - The base protocol used for all Internet related communications. It provides an unreliable, connectionless method of delivering data from one host to another. All data are packaged in a unit called a packet. Each packet is independent of any other packet of data. Each packet includes a header indicating the source and destination addresses. The other Internet protocols are built on top of this protocol. |
| IP Address | A value that the Internet protocol uses to address a particular host. This is a 32 bit number and is usually displayed in the format X.X.X.X where X is eight bits and can have any value from 0 to 255. For example 172.16.2.26 is a valid Internet address. |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider - An organisation and its associated equipment that provides a connection point to the Internet. On one side it has a connection to the Internet "backbone". On the other it provides means for users to connect e.g. via modem. |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - These extensions to basic Internet mail allow for non-US-ASCII textural messages, non-textural messages, multipart message bodies and non-US-ASCII information in message headers. |
| NTP | Network Time Protocol - Used to synchronise host clocks across the Internet |
| PING | Packet Internet Groper - A program used to test reachability of destinations by sending them an ICMP echo request |
| POP3 | Post Office Protocol - Designed to manage checking, retrieving and deleting electronic mail from a mail server |
| Port Number | The address of an individual application on a particular host. Port numbers below 1024 are reserved for predefined applications, for example FTP servers (always) listen on port 21. |
| PPP | Point to Point Protocol - Encapsulates IP packets and transmits and receives them across a serial RS232 connection. It also manages negotiation of configuration information using other protocols such as Link Control Protocol (LCP), Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) and Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP). |
| Protocol | A set of rules to be used between two communicating devices |
| RARP | Reverse Address Resolution Protocol - Provides a method for translating hardware (e.g. Ethernet) addresses to Internet addresses |
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - Designed to deliver electronic mail reliably |
| TCP | Transmission Control Protocol - A connection based, reliable, streaming data transport. It includes positive acknowledgement, error checking and data sequencing. |
| Telnet | Remote terminal protocol - Provides remote login services so that an interactive user on a client system can connect with a server on a remote system |
| The Internet | Where The Internet is written with a capital T, it refers to the international collection of networks all using the Internet Protocol |
| UDP | User Datagram Protocol - A nonguaranteed datagram-based service. The feature that it provides over and above raw IP is that its header contains a source and destination Port Number. |
| WWW | World Wide Web - A name for the series of servers around the world that support the HTTP protocol, the files of information they contain, and the clients who request this information |
References
There are many good references on TCP/IP and related issues. I have drawn on the following for this note.
- TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 - The Protocols, W.Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994
- The TCP/IP Companion, Martin Arick, Wiley-QED, 1993
- Internetworking with TCP/IP, Volume 1, Douglas Comer, Prentice Hall, 1991
- RTIP 4.0 Reference Manual, ebsnet, 2002