Networking and Routing Overview

If you are familiar with networks, especially TCP/IP networks, then you can skip this section, though you may want to familiarize yourself with the Router Configuration Templates used when configuring your WarpTwo Router.

This section provides a brief overview of Networking, Routing, IP Addresses, Network and Subnet masks, TCP/IP networks and some other jargon involved (mostly so you can dumbfound your dinner guests) but it may make your life a little less stressful when you come across some word or some 'techie' asks a question and you are trying to figure the language being used never mind what the question means.

Before we start, the term PC is used to mean any personal computer whether of the Apple, Windows, Linux or any other variety. Basically if its got a power cord and a monitor its a PC. You will find words and terms scattered in the text in parentheses followed by 'in Netspeak'. This device is used to denote a technical term loved by techs (and which always has a very precise meaning) but is most often used to maintain the 'high priest' status of the network tech and which most often succeeds in turning the most simple of concepts into something like a lesson in Sanskrit.

Networks

TCP/IP

Protocol

IP Addresses

Global and Local Uniqueness (Proxies and stuff)

Networks

A Network is a collection of PCs (or Hosts in Netspeak). A simple Local Area Network (LAN) is the most obvious network most people use in their daily work life. A home PC is typically stand-alone (not networked) but when you connect to the Internet or your office you become part of a network (or you are networked). Networks such as your office LAN can in turn be connected to other networks into collections of networks. In fact the Internet is just a collection of [Inter]connected [Net]works.

Protocol

A protocol is a defined set of messages sent between PCs to enable them to carry out various tasks (e.g. File Transfer or World wide Web access). Think of protocol like a language and you start why it is so important (forget the details just now). If everyone is talking a different language nothing gets done or nothing works. If everyone talks the same language we stand a chance at least of getting thinks done. So when we join a collection of networks together they must all use the same protocol in this case TCP/IP otherwise nothing could get done.

TCP/IP

TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (that really helped) and is the most widely know and used network type to-day. TCP/IP networks were developed over a number of years under funding from the US Department of Defense and the brain-power of the academic community. TCP/IP is the 'protocol'  used by the Internet and you must use this protocol to enable connection to the Internet.

IP Addresses

Each PC or device (a Host in Netspeak) in a TCP/IP network has an IP address. This IP address identifies the PC (or Host) as being unique within its network. An IP address is always written in 'dotted decimal' format (sounds pretty mathematical but it isn't). An example of an IP address is 205.205.177.1. The 'dotted' part refers to the fact there are 'dots' between each group of numbers, the numbers are decimal (well you knew that already) and each of the number groups must lie in the range 0 to 255. So you now know that the smallest IP address is 0.0.0.0 and the biggest is 255.255.255.255 (both numbers have special significance - don't they all!). This gives about 2 billion or so addresses - sounds a lot but less than the population of China and India and what about another number for work and an alternate when you are traveling and.. and.. and...

Global and Local Uniqueness

So far you can blow away your cat or dog when you start talking about TCP/IP but you need a bit more jargon. Hang-in there. IP addresses can be Locally unique or Globally unique. A globally unique IP address is one which is guaranteed to be the only one in the world. Locally unique means that the address is guaranteed to be unique but only locally (or within your network).

Why is this important? Well there are not enough IP addresses for everyone in the world or even everyone in the world who wants to connect to the Internet. This problem is solved in two ways: using a dynamic IP address or using  Network Address Translation (NAT). A dynamic IP address is allocated to you typically when you connect to the Internet via an ISP. The ISP 'lends' you one of his addresses (which are Static or Fixed) for as long as you are connected and when you disconnect he 'lends' the IP address to someone else. So a single IP address can be shared by a number of people. Network Address Translation (NAT) works on the basis that within your local network (your office, company etc) you can use a locally unique address (e.g. 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255) but as soon as you go outside your local network your Locally Unique IP address must be translated to one (or one of a number of) Globally Unique IP address. There is almost no limit to the number of PCs (each with only a Locally Unique IP Address) that can be mapped to a single Globally Unique IP address. The translation process is called NAT and the ZyTrax Thin Proxy provides this capability (and a lot more...).

Router Configuration Templates

While there are many possible configurations for your WarpTwo router we use 4 basic types as templates for the Router Wizard configuration process (it means we ask you only pertinent questions). If you have a complex configuration select the most appropriate Template to build the basic configuration and then edit it. The Templates are:

Select and capture all the information required by the Check List(s) for the chosen Configuration Template by clicking one of the above links.

Note: To print paper copies of the check lists just go the page then select the 'Print' button (normally on the 'File' menu)

Contents List

Problems, comments, suggestions, corrections (including broken links) or something to add? Please take the time from a busy life to 'mail us' (at top of screen), the webmaster (below) or info-support at zytrax. You will have a warm inner glow for the rest of the day.