# Networks 50 Networks terms explained simply, ordered from basic to advanced. Start at the top if the topic is new to you. ## Basic - [5G](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/5g/): The fifth generation of mobile networks: faster data, less delay, more devices at once. - [Bandwidth and latency](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bandwidth-and-latency/): How much data fits per second, and how long each trip takes. Two different things. - [Bluetooth](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bluetooth/): Short-range wireless for connecting nearby gadgets: headphones, watches, keyboards. - [Cisco](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cisco/): The company that makes much of the network gear connecting offices to the internet. - [Cloudflare](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloudflare/): A global network that sits in front of websites to make them faster and safer. - [Dark web](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dark-web/): Websites that are reachable only with special software that hides who is talking to whom. - [DNS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dns/): The internet's phone book: it turns names like wikipedia.org into IP addresses. - [Domain name](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/domain-name/): The readable name of a website, like wikipedia.org, that stands in for a numeric address. - [Fiber optic](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/fiber-optic/): Thin strands of glass that carry data as pulses of light, fast and over long distances. - [Firewall](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/firewall/): A gatekeeper that decides which network traffic gets in or out. - [HTTP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/http/): The request-and-response language browsers and websites speak. - [HTTPS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/https/): The padlock in your browser: web traffic nobody in between can read. - [Huawei](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/huawei/): A Chinese company that makes mobile network equipment, phones and its own chips. - [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other. - [Internet of things](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet-of-things/): Everyday objects with sensors and a network connection: thermostats, meters, doorbells. - [IP address](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ip-address/): The number that identifies a device on a network, like a postal address. - [ISP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/isp/): The company you pay to connect your home or phone to the internet. - [Modem](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/modem/): The box that connects your home to your internet provider's network. - [NFC](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/nfc/): Very short-range wireless that works with a tap: contactless cards, phones, transit. - [Ping](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ping/): A tiny "are you there?" message that tests a connection and times the reply. - [Router](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/router/): The box that connects your devices to each other and to the internet. - [Satellite internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/satellite-internet/): Internet access beamed from space to a dish, where cables and cell towers don't reach. - [URL](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/url/): The full address of something on the web: protocol, site and path. - [Video streaming](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/video-streaming/): Watching a video while it arrives in small pieces, instead of downloading it all first. - [Web browser](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-browser/): The app that fetches web pages from the internet and draws them on your screen. - [Wi-Fi](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/wi-fi/): Networking over radio waves: the internet without the cable, within a few rooms. ## Intermediate - [Amazon VPC](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-vpc/): Your own private slice of the AWS network, with walls you draw yourself. - [CDN](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cdn/): Copies of a website kept on servers around the world, close to whoever asks. - [DDoS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ddos/): Knocking a site offline by flooding it with more traffic than it can handle. - [DHCP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dhcp/): The service that gives each device an IP address automatically when it joins a network. - [Edge computing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/edge-computing/): Processing data close to where it is created, instead of in a distant data center. - [Email protocols](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/email-protocols/): The shared rules, SMTP, IMAP and POP3, that carry an email from one inbox to another. - [FTP and SFTP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ftp-and-sftp/): Two ways to move files to and from a server; only one of them keeps them private. - [IPv6](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ipv6/): The newer internet addressing system, with practically unlimited addresses. - [Load balancer](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/load-balancer/): The traffic cop that spreads incoming requests across many servers. - [MAC address](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/mac-address/): The built-in name of a network card, used to deliver data inside a local network. - [Mesh Wi-Fi](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/mesh-wifi/): Several Wi-Fi units spread around a home that work together as one network. - [Packet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/packet/): The small chunk every piece of internet data is cut into before it travels. - [Port](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/port/): The numbered door on a computer that says which program a connection is for. - [Proxy](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/proxy/): A middleman computer that makes requests on someone else's behalf. - [SSH](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ssh/): An encrypted way to log in to another computer and type commands on it. - [TCP and UDP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/tcp-and-udp/): Two ways to send packets: TCP checks everything arrives, UDP just sends and moves on. - [TLS certificate](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/tls-certificate/): The ID card a website shows your browser to prove it is who it claims to be. - [VPN](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/vpn/): An encrypted tunnel that sends all your traffic through another network first. - [Wi-Fi security](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/wifi-security/): How a Wi-Fi password keeps neighbors out and scrambles what travels through the air. ## Advanced - [BGP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bgp/): The protocol networks use to tell each other which addresses they can reach. - [NAT](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/nat/): How a whole home or office shares one public IP address on the internet. - [Subnet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/subnet/): A slice of a network's IP addresses, grouped so its devices can talk directly. - [VLAN](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/vlan/): A way to split one physical network into several separate ones, using software rules. - [WebSocket](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/websocket/): A connection between browser and server that stays open, so both can talk anytime.