On August 16th, MichaelWeinberg wrote:

I'd like PTP to produce a networking guide for the layman. Nothing fancy or theoretical, just very basic how-tos and definitions that can serve both as an educator for folks looking to have a little more prowess under the hood of their networking gear (say, how to determine a DHCP pool based on the subnet and gateway) and as a quick reference guide for the more experienced (the wire order for T568A and B).

We'll augment the text with nice industrial design style illustrations and package it up as (this might be my favorite part):

THE LITTLE RED (TOWER) NETWORKING BOOK

Again, the idea is not to teach the reader everything there is to know about networking, but instead to provide an accessible and convenient reference in a pretty package.

Please submit your entries below.

Glossary/Definitions:

IP Address: "An IP address is an identifier for a network node such as a PC, server, router, or bridge."[1]

Routing: "Routing keeps track of where in the network these groups may be found. The results of the routing process is kept in a list called a routing table. "[1]

Subnet Mask:

Gateway:

Domain Nameserver (DNS): A server that translates domain names (urls) into IP addresses (e.g. google.com to 64.233.187.99). Often abbreviated to "Nameserver".

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP): A protocol used to assign an IP address automatically. This is the most typical protocol used for public access networks.

DHCP/Client Lease Time: The length of time, in seconds, that a computer may use a DHCP-assigned IP address. Generally, when the lease expires, the computer will be reassigned the address immediately, if it is still active on the network.

How-tos:

[1] taken from "Wireless Networking for the Developing World" by Rob Flickenger http://wndw.org/