Appendix – Siemens Server User Manual
Page 46
Appendix
40
IP address
The IP address is a 32-bit number, which identifies each network user in the Internet or Intranet
unambiguously. It consists of a network part (Net ID) and a user part (Host ID).
LAN – Local Area Network
Local network within a limited area using a fast transmission medium as e.g. Ethernet.
Router
Routers connect two different networks. Contrary to bridges, they do not decide on the basis of the
Ethernet address but as a function of the IP address, which data packages have to be forwarded.
Switch
Switches allow – just like hubs – to connect several users in a star-type network. A switch “learns”
the Ethernet address of the network user connected to a port and only forwards those data packages
which are addressed to this network user. In addition to switches for 100BaseT (100 Mbits/s), there
are so-called auto sensing switches, which detect automatically if the terminal equipment connected
works with 10 or 100 Mbits/s.
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol
TCP is based on IP and does not only ensure the connection between the users during data
transmission but also the correctness of the data and the right sequence of the data packages.