Networking Extended

Firewall

Usually is not describing the software which denies or allows access to ports on your computer, is often interchangeably used with Gateway/Router.

ISP

(Internet Service Provider) Is the company which provides internet to your location/router. There are usually more than one of these, most business have at least 2 per location.

Failover

Describes a methodology to reduce downtime by using more than one system in tandem or orchestration.

“That is the failover ISP uplink”

Network Drop

Describes an ethernet port on the wall or running along the wall that links back to an MDF/IDF.

Network Packet

A network packet is a small chunk of data wrapped with addressing and control information so it can be sent across a network and reassembled at its destination. This is the foundational block for all networking.

ICMP

(Internet Control Message Protocol) t is a network protocol used by devices to send status, error, and diagnostic messages, like whether a host is reachable through “Ping 192.168.1.1”

IPv4

IPv4 is the older and most common IP addressing system that uses 32-bit addresses, usually written like 192.168.1.1. This is the standard “IP address”.

IPv6

IPv6 is the newer IP addressing system that uses 128-bit addresses, written like 2001:db8::1, giving the internet vastly more possible addresses.

IPv6 is generally hated, it does not work very well. Many/most network admins turn it off entirely to avoid headaches.

TLS

(Transport Layer Security) TLS encrypts network communication so third parties cannot easily read or modify the data in transit.

TLS 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 standards are in use, with TLS 1.2 and 1.3 being the ones you should see as 1.1 is easily hacked.

FQDN

An FQDN is a full domain name like computer.domain.com that identifies a specific host, often mixed with “hostname”

DHCP Lease

A DHCP lease is the temporary assignment of an IP address to a device. The DHCP server provides this lease.

VLAN

A VLAN is a logical network split inside a switch/router, used to separate traffic without separate physical switches.

One VLAN may have the network address space of 192.168.1.1/24 (-192.168.1.254) another may have 10.0.0.1/24 (-10.0.0.254).

There are rules on the Firewall/Router along with the Netmask allow traffic to go between these VLANs.

Prairie Farms has hundreds of VLANs, Fort Wayne has no less than 8. One for the WiFi, one for the LAN, one for the plant LAN, one for the Plant WiFi, one for Plant machines, one for security cameras and more.

QoS

QoS, or Quality of Service, prioritizes certain traffic dynamically. It uses detection mechanisms available to a router/gateway/firewall to determine latency sensitive traffic and prioritize it above other less sensitive traffic.

TTL

TTL, or Time To Live, limits how many router hops a packet can take before being discarded.