From the course: Help Yourself: Tech Tips Weekly

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Understanding networking terms

Understanding networking terms

- [Instructor] To best resolve some network issues it's important to speak the proper lingo. So here are some common networking terms, their meaning and how to use them. The hardware that connects the computer, laptop or any device to the network is a network interface card, written as the abbreviation NIC and pronounced nick. NICs come in wired and wireless varieties and a computer can have more than one, such as a desktop PC or a laptop with both wired and wireless NICs. Keeping up with the acronym fest here are the networking terms LAN, WLAN and WAN. LAN stands for local area network, traditionally a wired network. WLAN or WLAN stands for wireless local area network, those this term isn't as popular. A WAN is a wide area network. One place you may see these acronyms is on the modem or router. The LAN refers to your home or office network. The WAN is the internet. Network hardware descriptions include the terms router, gateway, modem, hub and switch. These hardware terms refer to…

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