General networking terms

2LD (Second-level Domain)

Part of the naming convention for domain names. For example, in example.com, example is the second-level domain of the .com TLD (Top level domain)

3LD (Third-level Domain)

For example, in www.mydomain.com, www is the third-level domain

API (Application Programming Interface)

A software component that allows applications to share data and functionality

CA (Certification Authority)

A trusted entity that issues, signs, and stores digital certificates

CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)

An Internet Protocol addressing method that improves the efficiency of allocating IP addresses. The general way of representing the CIDR IP address is a.b.c.d/n with n representing the number of bits used for the identification of the network.

CLI (Command-line Interface)

A text-based interface for applications and operating systems that allows a user to enter commands

Collector

SIEMs, Flow Collectors, SNMPTrap Receivers, or other network management systems that analyze data forwarded from networked devices

DNS (Domain Name System)

The system by which computers and other devices on the Internet or Internet Protocol networks are uniquely identified using names matched to their IP addresses

Egress

Traffic that exits a device or network

ERSPAN (Encapsulated Remote Switched Port Analyzer)

A Cisco proprietary feature that brings generic routing encapsulation (GRE) for all captured traffic and allows it to be extended across Layer 3 domains

ESX (Elastic Sky X)

A pre-configured, ready-to-deploy virtual machine (VM) designed to run on VMware ESX or ESXi

Exporter

A networked device such as a router, switch, or server that generates data and sends it to the flow collector device

Fault tolerance

A system’s ability to continue operating without interruptions in the event of a hardware or software failure

FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)

The complete domain name of a specific computer, host, or online presence. For example, Plixer’s website’s FQDN would be www.plixer.com

GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation)

A tunneling protocol developed by Cisco Systems

Hyper-V

A pre-configured, ready-to-deploy virtual machine designed to run on Microsoft Hyper-V, typically packaged in VHD/VHDX format

IP address

A unique numerical label assigned to a networked device

IPFIX (Internet Protocol Flow Information Export)

A protocol that standardizes Internet Protocol flow information from networked devices

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)

A pre-configured virtual machine designed to run on KVM hypervisors, packaged in formats like QCOW2 or OVA for easy deployment in Linux-based virtualization environments

Latency

The latency of a network is the time it takes for a data packet to be transferred from its source to the destination

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

An open, cross platform protocol used to authenticate and store information about users, groups, and applications

MAC (Media Access Control) address

A unique hardware identifier typically assigned by manufacturers to network adapters and devices

NIC (Network Interface Card)

Adapter that provides devices network connections, either wired or wireless

OVF (Open Virtualization Format)

An open-source standard for packaging and distributing virtual machines and software applications

Packet

A block of data transmitted across a network

Redundancy

Duplicated or alternative network devices and connections meant to serve as a failsafe against the primary service becoming unavailable

Router

A device that forwards or routes data packets to devices on a network

Server

A system or device that provides resources, data, services, or applications to other devices over a network

SIP/RTP (Session Initiation Protocol/Real Time Protocol)

SIP is the control protocol, and RTP is the payload protocol used to send and receive Voice over IP (VoIP)

SSH (Secure Shell Protocol)

A network communication protocol that allows network services to be used securely over an unsecured network

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

A protocol for establishing secure connections between networked devices

Suricata

A network threat detection engine used to analyze network traffic and identify potential security threats

Switch

A device that connects devices in a network and allows them to communicate with each other

Syslog

A standard for message logging that allows a wide variety of networked devices to share the same repositories and management systems

TLS handshake (Transport Layer Security)

TLS is a network protocol used to ensure secure and private communications over the internet. A TLS handshake is the process that kicks off a communication session that uses TLS encryption

UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

A communication protocol used by applications to send messages to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network via low-latency, loss-tolerating connections

Virtual appliance

A pre-configured virtual machine image with pre-installed software meant to serve a specific function

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

A technology that allows voice calls using an internet connection