Computer Networking Basics

A group of connected devices that communicate and share information and resources.

Data is divided into packets and transmitted using protocols and addressing information.

Local Area Network; connects devices within a limited geographic area such as a home school or office.

Wide Area Network; connects networks across large geographic areas.

Personal Area Network; connects personal devices over a short distance.

Wireless Local Area Network; a LAN that uses wireless communication.

A network in which centralized servers provide services or resources to client devices.

A network in which devices communicate and share resources directly without a dedicated central server.

A set of rules that determines how devices communicate and exchange data.

Transmission Control Protocol; provides reliable connection-oriented and ordered data delivery.

User Datagram Protocol; provides connectionless communication without guaranteeing delivery or order.

TCP provides reliable ordered delivery while UDP has less overhead and is useful when speed is important.

Internet Protocol; provides addressing and routing so data can travel between networks.

A logical address used to identify a device on an IP network.

A hardware address associated with a network interface and used for local network communication.

An IP address provides logical network addressing while a MAC address identifies a network interface at the data link layer.

A 32-bit IP addressing system written as four decimal numbers separated by periods.

A 128-bit IP addressing system written in hexadecimal and designed to provide a much larger address space.

An IP address that is globally routable on the internet.

An IP address reserved for use within private networks and not directly routable on the public internet.

10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16.

An IP address manually configured or consistently reserved for a device.

An IP address automatically assigned through DHCP.

A value that identifies which portion of an IPv4 address represents the network and which represents the host.

A device usually a router that forwards traffic from a local network to other networks.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; automatically assigns IP addresses and other network settings to devices.

Domain Name System; translates domain names into IP addresses.

Automatic Private IP Addressing; assigns an IPv4 address in the 169.254.0.0/16 range when DHCP is unavailable.

Network Address Translation; translates IP addresses and allows private network devices to share a public IP address.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; used to send email.

Internet Message Access Protocol; allows users to access and manage email stored on a mail server.

Post Office Protocol version 3; retrieves email from a mail server often downloading messages to a device.

Secure Shell; provides encrypted remote access to another computer.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol; used to transfer web content.

The secure version of HTTP that uses encryption through TLS.

File Transfer Protocol; used to transfer files between computers.

A device that connects a network to an internet service provider by converting signals for the connection medium.

A device that connects different networks and forwards data between them.

A device that connects devices within a LAN and forwards frames based on MAC addresses.

A basic networking device that broadcasts incoming data to all connected ports.

A device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network.