Can anyone steer me to a book or other source of definitions for and explanations of the terms used in this technology?
What is a Subnet Mask? Net Mask? WAN IP Address? LAN IP Address? VPI? VCI? and so on.
If just one hardware manufacturer could get it through their heads that most of their customers aren't Wi-Fi nerds, and have only a minimal understanding of these terms, then present their system setup facilities to us such that we could understand them, I'm sure this manufacturer could take the market away from all those who persist in keeping all such information encoded and deeply concealed in NERD LANGUAGE.
The setup instructions for my LinkSys components all mention IP address in several different regions of the setup process, but leaves me guessing as to which particular IP address they are referring to. I have precious little insight as to what specific IP address the setup program is referring to...LAN IP, WAN IP, ISP IP, or what ever.
Subnet mask is a way to divide up your local area network. Lan IP is the number your computers use to communicate with each other and the router. WAN IP is the number for your router to communicate outside the local area network, IOW the internet.
Networking isn't exactly a "For Dummies" subject. It's kind of complicated because it has to be. But as others have suggested, you can get a lot of info from Google, Wikipedia, Ask.com, etc.
Book? This is the internet, where search engines, Blogs, wiki's and FAQ's rule the road. Books are obsolete.
I'm tempted to supply humorous definitions, but I suspect you're serious and won't like that.
There are numerous online glossaries that explain these terms. Some are very terse. Others supply more details. I suspect that defining some of these terms will do little for your unless they are explained in context with the others. Therefore, instead of a glossary, I suggest a tutorial on basic TCP/IP networking and wireless.
I suggest reading:
Wireless Networking basics (12 pages): |
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Wired routers (16 pages): |
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Our Wi-Fi FAQ (might be a bit advanced but has lots of links): |
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Wikipedia Wi-Fi guide (with even more links and terms): |
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Ask and ye shall receive. Direct from the manufacturer:
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click the "Learning Center" button on the top bar. It's really quite good. Flash player required.
Oh, it's quite simple. The WAN IP address is on the internet side of the router. It's usually a routeable IP address assigned by the ISP.
The LAN IP address is on the LAN (local area network) side of the router. That's your own wireless network. It's usually
192.168.1.xxx. Additional IP addresses in this form are assigned by the DHCP server in your router to wired and wireless clients on your LAN as they connect.
Hint: Do NOT use the setup program. Point your web browser to
192.168.1.1 which is probably the LAN IP address for your router. Go through the menus and learn the terms. There's help button with some rather terse but useful details. The basic connectivity stuff is all on the first page (usually labelled general).
If you have any specific setup questions, I suggest you supply the model number and hardware version of your Linksys router.
I've always wanted to write a book on how to setup a wireless network without reading the documentation. I don't think my target audience would read the book, but it would look impressive on their bookshelf.
Maybe some more useful books, like: "How to Talk to Tech Support Without Getting Irate". "Tech Support Script Compendium". "Zen and the Art of Network Maintenance". "Masochism, Self-abuse, and Wireless Security". "Coax Connector Identification with 3000 Illustrations". "How to Invent, Develop, and Sell Your Acronyms". "Wireless Network Setup in 340 Easy Steps". "Etiquette for Hot Spots and Coffee Shops". "Incantations, Oaths, and Curses for Network Troubleshooting". "How to Uninstall Almost Anything". "Wireless Ethics, Connection Sharing, and Theft of Service". "Router De-Bricking guide". "The Complete Book of Defective Wireless Hardware". "What to do while the Microwave Oven is Trashing Your Download". "1000 Sources of Wireless Interference". "Wireless Gaming and the Need for Speed". "Wireless Antenna Construction from Everyday Junk". "EME for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts".
I rather doubt it. They're selling these things as fast as they make 'em. Why bother dummying it up? In fact, by dummying it up it may actually make things WORSE for the customers. Once they get beyond the most basic of setups a dummied-up system might present considerable problems.
Network routing has a lot of variables. There's really not an easy way to simplify it in ways that'll be applicable to all possible users.
I'll agree, marketing dictates manufacturing, so they aren't likely to manufacture these items at a rate that exceeds the existing market. But, methinks the market would expand significantly, and this would prompt a large scale increase in manufacturing...and corporate income, if setting up their products weren't so damned complex.
There is a vast difference between "dummying it up" and making the wording of their setup instructions clear and easily comprehensible to those who aren't expressly and specifically trained in the jargon of the trade.
The excessive use of acronyms with no clarification is the main issue here. For example, how much trouble would it be for the manufacturer to provide installation instructions that read, "Your Internet Service Provider's Internet Protocol (ISP-IP) Number", as compared to simply stating, "IP" and letting the customer scrabble with trying to figure out which IP they are talking about? Gordon
I suspect they're busy enough selling them hand over fist already.
That and if people want what wireless offers they'll find a way to figure it out.
Trouble is the terminology can't really be simplified any further. There are some fundamentally complex issues that don't work described in any other way. Sure, some friendlier text would certainly help.
Yeah well, that falls apart when you get into using PPPoE and other dynamic connection schemes. The docs become a rats nest of convoluted "alternatives".
But you do make a valid point, you'd like to see the setup guides be more effectively written. At the same time, however, you'd be expecting people to actually READ THE DOCUMENTATION. It's been shown, for decades now, that users just won't RTFM. So making it any friendlier would seem a wasted effort.
Meanwhile the "...for Dummies" books seem to be selling like guns at a knife fight.
Works for me. (I was going to mention a more "interesting" compound, but thought "no - maybe not something to suggest to the kids".)
So you won't be needing this NH4OH??
sneeze _near_ it. The book mentions it letting go when a fly landed on it.
Long ago in a land far away, I was wandering up Highway 1 North of Point Arena, and found a nice book store in one of the "quaint" seaside villages. They had some really interesting books that I paid cash for. One was The Anarchists Cookbook, while another was a reprint of a US Army Field Manual for the Special Forces. Interest content.
Nah - you just need a bigger antenna - Arecibo came to mind, but it's run out of poop near 900 MHz due to roughness and the mesh size of the reflector. Still, 61 dBi sounds "interesting". The old book I have says the original 300 foot dish at Greenbank was topping out at 2 GHz, but that's 59 dBi. Feed loss might be a problem though ;-)
Well, I could use some ammonia cleaner for the kitchen floor. NH4OH is used to prepare ammonium tri-iodide or better yet, nitrogen tri-iodide.
Naw. The polluted junk I made required a hammer to set off. The energy content of a landing fly is about 10 ergs. It takes about 1000 ergs to set off even the most sensitive contact explosive. I don't know where someone came up with the fly landing (or was it fly walking) analogy, but it doesn't work. Back in college daze, one of my lunatic friends tried dropping dead flies onto ammonium tri-idodide and found that it just wasn't enough energy to initiate decomposition. As I recall, a BB shot from about 6" was the minimum required to set it off.
Yech. I was all ready to try some of the recipies when I ran into a real chemist. He pointed out the numberous errors and dangerous practices in the book. Since you're still among the living, I presume you didn't try anything from the book.
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A bigger antenna is not going to fix the EME latency problem. The speed-o-light does not change with antenna size.
There was an upgrade in 1997 that really improved the feed. I think (not sure) that the dish has always been accurate to within about 1/10 wavelength to about 3GHz. The various feeds go all the way to 10GHz.
One bored summer in college a buddy from the chemistry dept. made some and I helped him place it. We finally decided on the upward-facing opening of a hallway telephone's bell. We let it dry for a few days and then called that phone. The bang was fairly loud, the cover unsnapped without damage (as we expected) and orange-brown iodine covered much of the phone's electronics for a few days.
I don't know how much energy was imparted to the outside of the bell by the clapper, but it was enough to set the charge off. No bb's needed here. As I recall there were two solvents that could be used one was water and the other was some ring-solvent (acetone I think). My buddy used the ring solvent since it would evaporate much faster.
Have you noticed how all of the "good" products are being taken off the market by those namby-pamby safety authorities? I used the last of my "Sunny-Brite Water Stain Remover" that I used to buy at OSH, and you just can't buy it any more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it was 7% hydrofluoric acid, and some luser sued the company out of existence after she ignored the warning labels, mis-used it, and it ate a hole in her hand. And I can't find the "5 Minute Wax & Acrylic Remover" either. The label is damaged, so I can't see all the ingredients, but I can make out something about 'omonium hydroxide, Sodium-' something or other. It does say to use in a well ventilated space, and avoid inhaling the fumes...
You're going to make me install 'units-1.80.tar.gz'. Lessee, ergs is 1e-7 joules, is...
We weren't allowed to play without supervision, and the staff had no sense of humor. We caught hell just playing with the simple sulphur compounds, never mind sodium or somethin'. Jeez, how's a person suppose to learn???
Well, a lot of the stuff in that book was either dangerous, or down right insane, but some of the concepts made wheels turn
In my young and foolish days I was doing a lot of things, but nothing exploded nearby, and in any case I usually had witnesses that swore I was in a different state at the time.
You just talk real slow
I was under the impression that the dish was made of chain-link fence material, and the cut-off was due to the dish becoming transparent at higher frequencies. Certainly they get enough rainfall that the reflector _has_ to have drain holes. Still, I see them talking about 10 GHz, and they also quote a "Surface accuracy of 2.2 mm rms" which is extraordinary for an object that big _AND_ being outside where the sun is going to play merry h3ll with differential heating effects, never mind the wind. Well, it is running out of poop - just at 17 dB higher than I thought. And I suppose they won't accept my Visa card either.
Yep. Ever since the 1930's, I can no longer buy radioactive tonic, tapeworm diet pills, Cocaine elixir, Trichlorethane spot remover, etc. At the present rate, we should have nothing left to buy in about 300 years.
One of my hobbies used to be to collect reports and cases from product liability litigation. The stupid warning labels on most products are just one symptom of the problem. It's become all too easy to claim that the manufacturer is somehow responsible for a clueless consumers misuse of a product. Fear of litigation has prevented many good ideas from being marketed. I have a few personal examples that I don't wanna mention.
Search Google for MIE (minimum ignition energy) for various explosive mixtures. Lot of good stuff listed.
I blew up the section of the lab bench when NaOH concoction I was cooking in my locker under the bench exploded. Fortunately, nobody was around when it exploded. The official explanation was a bunsen burner leak, which was true after my bomb cracked the gas pipe.
Yep. My introduction to explosives was via a neighbor, who ran a TNT plant during WWII. He gave me all his industrial organic chemistry books when I was in High Skool. Later, I picked up "Chemistry of Powders and Explosives" and "DuPont Blasting Handbook". Perfect timing for the 1960's revolution.
I couldn't afford to pay for any witnesses.
It recently tried to use Skype over a Hughesnet.com satellite connection. It wasn't too horrible as long as both parties remembered to say "over" after each transmission. Full duplex was not possible.
Nope. See:
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The surface is made of almost 40,000 perforated aluminum panels, each measuring about 3 feet by 6 feet, supported by a network of steel cables strung across the underlying karst sinkhole. It is a spherical (not parabolic) reflector.
They're more than just drain holes. They let through enough sunlight to make sure the plants under the dish don't die. They're all that holds the ground in place. If they died and the whole mess might collapse into the sink hole.
Dunno. I think the aluminum panels are a fairly good heat conductor and would distribute the heat and thus prevent any local hot spots. It may not be perfect, but I suspect is adequate. No clue on the wind effects, but I guess as long as the wind doesn't get under the dish, it's not going to generate much lift from the face of the dish.
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