| Term |
Description |
| NAP |
NAP (Network Access Point) is a major public network exchange facility for interconnecting traffic between ISPs.
NAPs (and MAEs) are interconnection points (and often the congestion points) that determine how/where traffic is routed in what is considered the Internet backbone.
The term is often used interchangeably with MAE (Metropolitan Area Exchange), see the MAE term description for more details. |
|
| NAPT |
NAPT (Network Address Port Translation) a.k.a. PAT, port mapping, NAT overloading, port-level NAT, or single-address NAT.
The term refers to an extension to NAT, in which multiple client computers communicate through the same IP, and also have unique port numbers assigned to transmissions in order to distinguish between them.
In other words, NAPT/PAT extends NAT from "one-to-one" into "many-to-one" by associating unique source ports with the data flow.
NAPT is discussed in RFC 2663 |
|
| NAS |
NAS (Network-Attached Storage) is hard disk storage that is set up with its own IP address and attachet to the LAN, rather than being attached to a computer for serving applications to workstations.
NAS consists of hard disk storage (including multi-disk RAID systems), and software for configuring and mapping file locations to the network-attached device. Network-attached storage can be a step toward and included as part of a more sophisticated storage system known as a storage area network (SAN). |
|
| NAT |
NAT (Network Address Translation) is an IETF standard that enables LANs to use one set of private IP addresses for internal traffic an another set of IPs for external traffic. Typically, a NAT device makes all IP address translations where the LAN meets the WAN.
NAT permits a large number of LAN users to share one external IP address, and adds some network security, since private IP address ranges are not routable outside the LAN.
The following 3 blocks of the IP address space have been reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for private Intranets:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (class A, 10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (class B range, 172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (class C range, 192.168/16 prefix)
Resources: NAT-RFC1631, Private IPs - RFC1918 |
|
| NBTSTAT |
NBTSTAT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP Statistics) is a Windows command-line utility, here are some useful flags for it:
-n Lists your NetBIOS names
-s Lists your current NetBIOS sessions
-? Displays help and information on flags |
|
| NCQ |
NCQ (Native Command Queuing) is a hard disk drive technology that allows the individual disk to internally optimize the order in which received read/write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of unnecessary drive head movement, improving performance and reducing drive wear.
The technology is especially effective in worlkoads where multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occuring in server-type applications. NCQ has been typically used in SCSI drives, and is currently making its way into some SATA drives. While NCQ typically improves disk performance in the presense of multiple read/write requests, historically it has also been argued that it may indroduce some latency to access of sequential reads/writes induced by NCQ logic. |
|
| NetBIOS |
NetBIOS (Network Basic Input Output System) - a networking protocol developed in the 1980s. Because a lot of legacy software was written for NetBIOS's API, it has been adapted to work over various other protocols such as IPX/SPX and TCP/IP.
NetBIOS over TokenRing or Ethernet is now referred to as NetBEUI. NetBIOS over TCP/IP is referred to as NetBT (or NBT). With Win 2K and later, NetBT is now the preferred NetBIOS transport. |
|
| NetBT |
| NetBT (a.k.a. NBT) - NetBIOS over TCP/IP |
|
| netmsak |
netmask (also known as subnet mask, or address mask) is a technique used by the IP protocol to determine which network segment packets are destined for.
In essence, the subnet mask is a 32bit bitmask used to tell what portion of an IP address identifies the subnetwork, and what portion identifies the host. One of the most widely used netmasks for home/SOHO applications is 255.255.255.0, used for a Class C subnet, one with up to 255 host computers. |
|
| NETSTAT |
NETSTAT (Network Statistics) is a command-line utility for displaying network statistics. Here are some of its more useful flags:
-? Displays help and information on all flags.
-a Displays all listening ports and active connections.
-n Displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form. |
|
| NIC |
| NIC (Network Interface Card), also called a Network Adapter, is a device that connects your computer to a network. The most common types of NICs are Ethernet and Token Ring. |
|
| NIST |
| National Institute of Standards and Technology |
|
| NMS |
NMS - Network Management System (or Station).
Also: Network Monitoring Station. |
|
| NNTP |
| NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) is a protocol that allows customers to view information on Usenet newsgroups. Many carriers have the option of setting up news feeds that are sent directly to a customer's news server or setting up access to the carrier's news server with a login and password. |
|
| node |
| node is a connection point in a network, either end or redistribution point for data transmissions. In general, a node has the capability to recognize and process, or forward transmissions to other network nodes. |
|
| NTP |
NTP (Network Time Protocol) is an internet standard protocol, built on top of TCP/IP, that assures accurate time synchronization of computer clock times in a network to the millisecond.
Based on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), NTP can synchronize client clocks to the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clocks. It can run as a continuous background client program and periodically send time requests to NTP servers, then using the obtained timestamps to adjust the client's clock.
See also: RFC 1305 |
|
| Term |
Description |
Glossary